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The Copper could picture it He knew those rew short and thick, filling the hillsides with their tangled black roots and boughs, giving way to the rich volcanic soil of the plains that produced running rows of strawberries and grapes separating the rows of kern stalks The fierce, brilliant sunshine that seemed to coht at night until the clouds collected and distributed the dew The whole Aerial Host could glide in unseen by the Anaeans, quiet in their rich clay houses parsing out their horoscopes from the day’s observations

Those had been happy years, with Halaflora in the sunshine He was more than half convinced it was the sun that set her on the th to believe herself to be carrying a belly full of eggs

Didn’t dragons deserve their share of the sun?

He brought hi about where he’d eaten his mid-meal

"Could you follow them when they were done?"

Gnash licked up soristle that hadn’t been cleaned yet by the household thralls "No They flew too high, too fast I am but a poor bat in my master’s service The air is so thin, indeed, in Anaea I could hardly breathe Everything, everything left ues," the Copper said "Can you at least say in what direction they came from, and where they flew to?"

"To the north"

The Copper considered He knew Anaea well, having served as first assistant to the Upholder there and then as Upholder himself North? Hypatia was to the north, but there were no reports of Hypatia eiant birds Only the Ghioz used such mounts, since so to the Anklenes The Ghioz would be more to the east of Anaea, perhaps northeast And he knew little of the prevailing winds off the plateau in that direction

"Well done Rest soet Wail and the both of youwas so difficult for you there"

"The Tyr is just, the Tyr is kind, thinking of his poor servants Oh, and he is so generous, so generous"

"Yes, I haven’t forgotten about the anie upon it, and carefully bit through it with his ive this to the chief steward of the Imperial Herd"

The bat-creature, which the Anklenes had started calling a "gargoyle," took it and tucked it tight in an ear He hardly noticed the flap as it left

Ghioz

He could put a stop to their flights easily enough He could send part of the Aerial Host there Under a skillful captain, they hts and discover the base of the feathered giants One swift, massive strike

But all this was shadow theater, such as the thralls used to entertain young drakes and drakka of the Ies, their movements a provocation to draw him into just that sort of action If he committed the Aerial Host to far-off Anaea, suppose she struck elsewhere They could scrape out an existence for a ti ays to cleanse it of the blight, starting with boiling and roasting--or, in a pinch, he could send a few hills to the surface to take the sun for a season, if the hills would trust each other not to pillage each other’s properties

That was the ridiculous part of being Tyr All the little drakes and drakka thought if he gave an order, it would be obeyed Some orders were obeyed, some weren’t, it all depended on how carefully he watched and how advantageous his people considered his decisions They found a hundred ways to interpret his words

Dragons were altogether too selfish, when they weren’t out and out dishonest, to put the Lavadoe, they’d have to figure out a way to change the world to better suit their needs

"My Tyr," NoSohoth said, breaking in on his thoughts "The griffaran havevisitor to the Lavadome He would speak to you"

The Copper lie to the throne rooht and he couldn’t trust his left saa

He looked out on the asseons He’d had Nilrasha invite a few key leaders of the various hills, the principal members of the Imperial Line, and the leaders of the Fireuard straightened and fluffed their feathers as he stepped out onto the throne-shelf