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"What about Hieba?" He’d watched her grow into a woman, saw her look at Naf with the saed "With Naf, I hope The Red Queen is no kinder to her own sex than to men"

"Where is he now?" AuRon wondered if he should offer thee in the north Not on his island, of course--s carried fleas--but he could settle them on one of the ent hue parties like the treasure hunters fro themselves eaten

"On the Hypatian border somewhere I haven’t seen hi circus, so"

So poked at his tail AuRon re toward so him to the tree line A dropped stick lay next to his tail

Insolent little pup Well, it would be a story for his family over the dinner-meal

He returned--well, his head returned, anyway--to the co hi between Hypatia and the Ghioz You can feel it building all along the border"

AuRon didn’t give a loose tooth for humans and their battles

"The Queen of the Ghioz wanted to know about dragons to use them in this war?"

"I expect She probably took the idea fro places loith his riders, and the tales are told everywhere"

AuRon’s indifference began to melt These people seeood to his sister Hazeleye had been treated cruelly, but she herself had been responsible for cruelty in the past, and the world had a way of putting itself back in balance just as a hot, dry summer was often followed by an extra-cold, extra-inter

As for a war between Ghioz and Hypatia, the e their armies did to each other, the less likely either would be to ons on the Isle of Ice Let theood riddance to thehts, as they so often did, softened the h bone These huons and let Wistala coo as she would Indeed, they seeons could do withthe hominids Did this Ghioz Queen allow the same freedom?

"I suppose you will tellher in this war"

"I know they have at least three dragons One is a feh look to say whether it was your sister"

"With riders and so on?"

"No The dragons flew as dragons should Still, I wonder what hold the Red Queen has over thee of dragons in order to tame them," AuRon said

The arrival of dinner prevented further discourse The innkeeper had both hot and cold etable matter, mostly ht out a platter of sausages especially selected for AuRon, some hot and some cold He talked about the s as the perfect coh the afternoon, and cheeses their favored partner in the evening

AuRon tasted a few and asked hied AuRon to sas to be specially cooked so the dragon es in proper order If all huht be happier

"Oh, yes, e I prepared for your sister," he said, as he filled ood friend she was--if she’d not been with us the night the barbarians attacked, I don’t knoould have become of us Slaves or worse Luckily ere too son-rider Wars, which I hear you put a stop to Traffic’s good on the road again, with people fleeing the troubles to the south Only those with coin to spendthe best bits of roast and stew to the others and devouring the bony leftovers Giving your sto to keep it busy, as Mother used to say

Soer humans held their nostrils pinched shut as they ate--AuRon knew that dragon odor was reckoned unpleasant to those not used to it, though Varl clais The tall robed female corrected them before he could compose a joke The roo it, and he never was good at the hihtful, the ive any indication of when she hed "She said she would probably be gone for a year orhas befallen her"

"She’s a onelle Perhaps she found a mate," Hazeleye said "The lead male the Ghioz had, he seemed a fine specimen"

"I’d like to visit this cave of hers," AuRon said

"She left her books at Mossbell, where they’d be looked after," Lada said

"She reads?" AuRon asked Strange how they’d both picked up the habit

"Wistala holds the title of librarian," the innkeeper said "There’s another story there, getting that title"

"Title?"