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Natasatch and her hatchlings joined thes swapped stories and the ain, AuRon relayed the details Natasatch hadso she could learn
"See, the wolves are worth a few sheep and goats More than," AuRon said
"I never disagreed, my love Remember, the words were Ouistrela’s She hates fish and shell-crawlers and blubber and begrudges every mouthful of redtheon-da Isle of Ice froht, she quarreled at any opportunity, and AuRon had long ago learned that so about his leathery skin put her off
"I’ll see what this is about," AuRon said
"We’ll help you fight the invaders, fazer!" Ausurath yapped and Istach rattled her griff in agree I want," AuRon said
"Stalk in caution, AuRon," Natasatch said She used his narew serious Otherwise it was "ood deal of nostril-twitching when he waxed poon learns early to do nothing but," AuRon said, nuzzling the closed griff at the back of her cheek and tapping his hatchlings each on the snout with a sii They shared a brief, affectionate prrum
He launched himself into the air and first found Zan the tradesdwarf Zan wandered the coasts in an open oarship with a blighter crew In return for exclusive rights to take beaver and ery central valley, he did odd jobs and carried a few ons on the island traded loose scale for a few coins or bars of working iron, but that was their business
Zan denied any knowledge of strangers and warned AuRon not to burn his boat and oarblighters byho’d passed the warning, and fro’s er’s trail
The she-as only too happy to leave off digging for chipuide hiood hunt
He found theon-rider caves First he tracked by scent, then the echo of stone beingtreasure, not revenge, then There’d been one or two unfortunate encounters with erous seas to avenge brothers or fathers Better still, there was no sh to deal ithout their snarling hounds hanging off your throat and loins
Good Treasure-hunters would have -traps in the outer passages, strings of scraplike wind chion’s back ht strike them
But AuRon wasn’t in a hurry; he was h the caves as wary as though the Dragonbladeand scraping, he stepped forward into the old baths The water no longer ran, though a few pools of brackish water were refreshed at every rain and bore a thick fil moss and lichen
They’d left footprints A small party, fewer than ten
At the other end of the baths he discovered a sort of wood contraption full of springs and wires with an ugly barbed javelin set in it, triggered by an old shutter set on a peg Interesting If he stepped on the shutter, it would flatten a peg, which would release a line, which he guessed would fire the awful thing
The hatchlings would have to see this It looked clever enough to be produced by the dwarves of the Chartered Co hall, which could perhaps be mistaken for a throne room, for it had elaborate stonework and there was a raised area at one end where musicians had once played
To enter, he first had to unhook another pair of chains designed to loose soh it had been dipped in poison He tucked thes would have their fill ofa scale’s breadth at a ti use of shadow
Two candles and a lantern lit the scene
The strangers were prying open rusted doors at the old lifting chutes that carried food up froalleys A rather filthy dwarf looked like he’d just crawled down the old toilet-dump
He made a quick count: three hu hi They ell arrayed for battle or for cli weapons One of the elves was an attractive fe black vines of hair that matched the feathers of a raven perched on her shoulder in shine
"There’s soe A vault door" A voice echoed up froet a grip"
They’d found the old lift-platfor hadn’t crawled down and devoured it the way all the knives and skewers had disappeared Of course, it was big, so it would have had to be broken into bite-sized pieces Not worth the effort