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He tucked it under his ars next to hi deman ready to chop his head off

A pair of black-taloned claws opened above the deman, took him up by the shoulders, and the Copper felt a wave of wind flow across his

The Copper turned his head so he could watch the flier with his good eye It was a strange sort of creature, a half dragon with twin tails, hardly any neck at all capped by a tall, arching head with a hooked snout, and feathered wings It rose and turned, screeching, and another al in the opposite direction The other reached out a claw and grabbed the kicking legs of the deman, and with only the briefest of jerks the deman parted messily

Another flier ca around his chest Yet another approached, and the Copper wondered what it would feel like to be torn in twain and for how long he could watch his back half being carried off, but the second bird-creature flew under, eyeing hi around in the deman’s boat

The feathered avian carried him up, across some of the tall towers of rock, and to a splinter of stone that e It dropped him and turned its leathery-skinned head almost completely around to watch him, a fierce cast in its eyes thanks to streaks of yellow and blue eyelid decorating the round black orbs

It didn’t have a tooth-filled ue inside He saw it as it opened his mouth to cluck at him What he took to be twin tails were in fact only feathers, like the heavy-ended blades he’d seen in the deer

"Tlock--the fire was you?" it asked in good Drakine The Copper noticed that it had a silver ring set into the fore-edge of a wing bone near the shoulder

The Copper could only pant, the wound in his chest burning

He shut his eyes, and opened thereat bird-creature had left as silently as it had dropped on the demen Thernadad, Ma to a crack in the rock

Real greenstuff grew on these pillars of stone Enough light h the cracks to support true plants rather than the mosses and lichens and slimes of the Lower World

The bats nibbled and lapped at his wound, but as they seeood than harm, he left them to it The pain faded to an ache Awful, but tolerable Scales, stuck together with blood, closed over the wound

Suddenly they scattered The fliers returned, bearing the woven basket

One of the bird-creatures--griffaran, he re its two limbs and beak

Another placed the basket on the shelf beside hi thief! Death to all egg thieves!" others called, drifting on air currents

Another landed and turned its head so it looked at hiulped With so athered around would they each take some piece of hiriffaran, its beak battle-scarred, one eye socket dry and eht foot, landed It wore a pair of golden rings, one in each arh and knotted

"Gak! Any other prisoners?" it asked in Drakine

"No, none They’ve run again"

"Curse the thieves," one of the watching creatures called Others squawked in agreeold bands looked into the empty basket "We will see justice done, drake Prepare yourself"

It reached out with a spread-taloned claw…

BOOK TWO

Drake

"FOOLS AND THRALLS TALK OF GOOD AND EVIL THEIR MASTERS THINK IN TERMS OF TIME AND PLACE"

--Tighlia

Chapter 11