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The ground grew rockier as the path cut steeply toward the fjall The children quieted Many turned back although a few dogged his heels, too curious to stop No adult followed hih down the path he saw a dozen orup after hiether, leaving boulders and skirts of moss and a patchy carpet of lichen He looked in vain for the youngest of the WiseMothers, clione

He crossed over the ri plain that was the fjall Snow dusted the open reaches, where the wind battered at all things In the sheltered lee of boulders and along the uneven rise and fall of the earth, old snow had hardened It was so cold that his footfalls resounded as his weight cut through the remains of last winter’s snowfall

In the distance, where the land dipped into a hollow, the WiseMothers congregated Onethem: she had reached her destination as most recently OldMother, the one who spawned hi once where the snow concealed loose rock debris along a slight incline The wind’s howl e of the circle the wind ceased altogether The clouds cast a gray pallor over the day Every object seemed muted and lessened Even the WiseMothers looked, for an instant, like nothing ular oval around a sandy basin, whose smooth surface was untouched by snow or stick or even a wrinkled scrap of torn lichen The hummock that marked the center had altered Once, its curve had borne a pearlescent gleam Now it sat with a kind of menace he could not describe Corruption had infested it, turning it as black as charcoal, as though it had rotted fro he could touch or smell or hear or see It seemed stupid to make his way across the sands in order to stand on a place that looked as likely to hold his weight as the deck of a ship eaten away by fire The smell of sulfur made his eyes water and his skin itch The stench actually seean to think he could see the stink rising in waves That s it as quickly as he coughed and gagged and, at last, caln, not even a tracery under the glitter of sand

He stood for a long ti to decide what to do, and after a while he heard the whisper of the wind aer while he realized that the wind re at hi as a traveler recedes as he sails away from shore

"Your Brother You Owe Him A Debt Is It Repaid"

A life for a life He knehat they spoke of

"Go To Him Now Repay This Debt Now"

Now

A sound cracked, as explosive as a heated rock splitting asunder Not ed, thickened, hardened until he could scarcely draw in breath Wave upon wave of heated air rippled out of the hollow

Their voices were as faint as the hiss of a feather falling

"Our Task Is Ended You Are Now Alone Our Children Our Children Born Of Mute Rock Huon’s Blood You Must Make Your Own Way Without Us"

A te The surface of the hollow shifted In branching lines no wider than his claws, the sands poured away as though, underneath, tunnels were caving in The black hummock snapped fiercely, so loud that the sound echoed off the far h a vast cha path, multiplied over and over as if he heard not one sound but a hundred cracks each one of which sent hie and pain, the dragons plunge Before they reach the shelter of earth their hearts burst fro Their blood rains down on the hu blood burns flesh into stone, on’s blood, and mute stone

A crack shivered across the surface of the hu the slick black curve shattered into pieces The hollow sagged and collapsed inward as a dark shape uncoiled out of the spilling sands

Stronghand scrambled back from the bri reared up It raised its golden head on a golden neck and with an effort unfurledas a warhorse, bigger, if raceful Its eyes were like coals, black and fatho todifferent than the stone and the sand and the tufts of lichen It shook its wings, which spanned as now a sinkhole Flecks of an acidic spray spattered hiulped down a cry of pain