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Above all, he must keep the roc-riders busy elsewhere

He flapped hard in the direction of the face on the an to flash

AuRon noticed a strange glow from the top of the face, at the crown of the head At first he thought it was some reflection of a fire in a chimney, but no fire he’d ever seen burned white

He suspected he knew the source of the star-like light

AuRon decided that the easiest way to enter would be through theblocked the way like wooden bars

He picked up speed, folded his wings so they angled back as if he were diving into water after tuna He went through the wood as though it were riverbank reeds

The scaffoldingsound as it fell

He htdress

A pair of guards charged in, spears at the ready AuRon roared at theed out with the same enthusiasm as they had entered with

"What is this insult?" a co in a stairway She wore a h it was old," AuRon said "I a ive you a quantity of silver, and we may part in peace"

"Give me what I have earned, or die"

"That is an easy choice Kill me It will save us a chest full of coin, that we old," AuRon said "Youme in flesh"

"Naf and hissimply put him and those men of his in our hands with less trouble than it would have taken to hunt him out of those mountains"

AuRon bristled

"What did you want in the citadel, I wonder?" the Red Queen said, walking out into the center of the nexus of stairs

"If you give up Hieba and her child, I will forget your betrayal," AuRon said, listening to cries and arguons? We have heard ruo in peace"

"So you can return the raised to lead her people under the title of governor She prowriters inspired for generations to coo to waste"

"Then pay me the ransom promised or die"

AuRon loosed his flame and the Red Queen vanished in a brief screaht darted froration It danced before his eyes like a lost firefly Then it whirled up the stairs

AuRon followed it, up and around turns, through the palace Servants stared, not at the ju up behind Even as he panted from the chase, AuRon suspected that, like soht could not be seen by huh the double doors at the back of the e of the h on the iant sculpture and looked down into the city Perhaps he iined it, or it was solided over the citadel

He raced to the teht faded

Upon alighting, he listened, but only the raceful elvish sculpture built on stout dwarvish foundations, went doide, curving stair, and then squeezed through a crude blighter passage

And so he came to the cha, or so it seerown up around this place The rocks felt old, as if even they were tired and worn down by the ages

A tree stood at the center, though it was an odd sort of tree, like two sets of roots joined at the trunk One set of roots gripped the ceiling, the other the ground

In places the roots bulged like diseased skin Some of the perturbations were s

One of the swollen nodesbreaths AuRon bent his head close Its skin was stretched tight, reh

A face looked back at him

The face of the Red Queen

He recoiled in shock