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No dragon stirred "I a," the Copper continued, " shelf, taken and broken by iron rods in the hard hands of dwarves I a the luxury of choices"
"Father’s gold drove you to your choice more than the rods of the dwarves," AuRon said
Ayafeeia spoke up "It does not , or as a drake, is never ain if you enter the Drakwatch or Fires The outcast is equal to the scion of the Imperial Line My mate-brother RuGaard went into the Drakwatch and served, shed blood in battle, and rose to the position of Upholder With that record I couldn’t care less for the details of what came before Wistala, settle down You’ve no need to bristle so There’ll be no fighting Or if there is"--she glanced up at the alert griffaran, leaning down and ready to drop--"it won’t last long"
Wistala hardly heard her She couldn’t take her eyes off the jewel AuRon wore about his neck It e between the pale luminescence of reflected ht
"So did you come all this way just to accuse e fro His e from the Red Queen," a voice that was only partially his answered
Like speech in a dream
He froze, seized by the sas doard as he fell or that made him squat when he voided his bowels
He found hih-pitched, with the words co intervals: "This pathetic, scalelessexcuse for dragonkind doesn’t havethe backbone of a river fluke We speak to you dragonsnow as the Queen of Ghioz"
"What insult is this?" his brother’sher head
His voice continued: "We propose a division of influence The Upper World shall be ons, and ill havepeace and such commerce as benefitsus both Accept this and enjoy prosperity, or reject Our terht Us, and you’llfind your second offer to be much worse terms, with the alternative the extinction your kindtoward earning"
AuRon wanted to s that would remove the awful alienation his own body had taken on itself
As though spellbound, he continued: "We will accepta delegation of no eons as Our representatives into your realm"
Horrified, AuRon wondered ould happen if his body just stood here speaking words not his own forever Would he stand here, a living, speaking statue, soiling floor and self, until he starved or died of thirst?
The voice that wasn’t quite his continued: "As for this wretch, We suggest youkill it It has a nasty habit of wor from behind That is what it did with the Wyr the same lines with Our royal person"
Good-bye, AuRon You were ers are poised to strike that traitor Naf Little Hieba will be heartbroken Ah, well, there are plenty of balconies for her to hurl herself from
With that, he jureen
One struck him, hard, the other interposed itself between his saa and the recoiling Copper He felt his claws rake scale
A tail struck him across the snout
White and yellow stars obscured his vision It may have been Wistala’s, it may have been Nilrasha’s It hit too fast for hi at his throat--
--But instead of opening him up, two claws hooked under his necklace and broke it away He heard the clatter as it bounced off a wall
Feathers batted from above to the sound of alarmed cries
Limp as a water buffalo with a broken back, he realized Wistala was atop his neck She’d scratched his neck where she’d ripped away the chain, and he bled Hers orse He had cut both Wistala and Nilrasha along their sides and haunches
"Wait, wait!" Wistala called "This is not his doing! The Queen of the Ghioz--she spoke and acted through him"
The Copper pushed away a uard, back! It’s over"
AuRon raised a sii, a pathetic gesture But it was his own He controlled his body again
The Copper stared down at AuRon "By our laws you should die
"But being Tyr has its privileges One is the ability to dispense mercy Should you, AuRon, ever be able to hold death in one sii and life in another you’ll coht have killed s are now equal, as far as I’et the past"
"The court has never seen such a tuonblade," Ayafeeia said "You carandmother’s blood was spilled"
"The crystal," Wistala said "It serves as a link with the Queen I wonder if this is soreat one that NooMoahk once possessed?"