Page 179 of Dragon Champion (Age of Fire 1)

“Naf, to attack the Ghioz is death!” Hieba shouted, running to him.

AuRon stretched his neck so it hung over the abyss, and saw the interesting sight of Hischhein thrashing like a fish on a line—enmeshed in his own mountain cloak—with his back against the cliff wall. Naf’s muscles bulged as he held the man’s feet at his chest. Naf ignored Hieba’s attempts to aid Hischhein.

“The queen will sell us out, am I right? She plots with this ambassador to join the war. She’ll sell us as slaves and open the falls to the blighters!”

“No! No! Help, men of the Guard, seize him!”

Naf released his grip, and Hischhein screamed as he dropped, but Naf grabbed his feet again.

“The next drop will be farther, and every man will swear you had a seizure and fell. Tell the truth, and my guides will see you over the mountain to the borders of Hypat. You have my oath. Do you witness it, Evfan?”

“I do hear your oath.”

“No, you are wrong. The queen is true to her duty. What put such thoughts into your head? Put me before this witness who slanders the queen and let me defend her.”

“My forearms ache to let you go.”

Hischhein ceased his struggle. “Then drop me and be damned as a murderer by the gods you hold dear, Naf. I’ll die with a clear conscience, and you’ll die with my murder on your soul.”

Naf took a deep breath and pulled the Ghioz up. Hischhein’s face was red and flushed as Naf let him breathe.

“Sir, forgive his madness,” Hieba pleaded, on her knees before Hischhein. She kissed his feet in desperation, and AuRon felt his sii claws slide within their sheaths.

Naf kneeled and bowed his head. “You have my apologies, Counselor, but I had to be sure. The Silver Guard will stand true to the queen, now that we know the queen is true to us. But I’d heard that she’s become intimate with this ambassador, and has had him brought to her bedchamber in secret.”

Hischhein’s eyes widened. “I am deep in court secrets, and I have not heard this.”

“No one knows more secrets than a washerwoman. The same one who does the queen’s sheets attends to my bedclothes. She gets all the gossip from the chambermaids. I pay her well.”

“You’ve more layers than an onion, Commander. I shouldn’t want you as an enemy.”

AuRon curled himself on the ledge like a great hunting cat of southern jungles. “Naf, I wait to hear how I fit into this.”

“That was my job, dragon,” Hischhein said. “I want you to know I speak for the queen on this matter. She will offer you mountain, forest, and plainland on our southern borders to live as you will, with the soldiers of Dairuss seeing that you are not disturbed, if you will help us in our need.”

“The promises of man rarely outlast a generation, Counselor,” AuRon said.

“Our queen rules not just by word, but by law, as well. She obeys the laws laid down by previous rulers and their Council. Were we to break this, all would be weakened. Besides, a dragon on our southern borders will discourage invasion from the barbarians farther south.”

“Would that you were dwarves! They get to the point with half the words.”

“Very well. May I call you AuRon?”

“Yes,” AuRon said.

“Hazeleye has told us something of your past. Our enemy is the one that ordered your family hunted out of the mountains, that the eggs and young of your parents might be taken. I do not know what sort of filial loyalty dragons have, but beyond that, he has done likewise to other dragons on the other side of the Inland Ocean, or so Hazeleye tells us. We know very little of this Isle of Ice, save that it is a foggy place surrounded by treacherous rocks, and no strangers get outside the port.”

“They know this not only from me, but from others, as well,” Hazeleye said. “None have been beyond the port at the glacier bay.”

“You need a dragon to fly over it, and spy out his land?”

Hischhein looked uncomfortable. “Much more than that. We’d like you to join the other dragons under the wizard. Serve in this flying army of his. And when you get the opportunity, kill him.”

Chapter 21

AuRon’s blood coursed hot with anger. He saw the people, speaking to him as through red gauze.

“So I am to be an assassin?” AuRon asked. “I’ve learned to hate that word. An assassin is a sneak. Am I to worm my way into the cave of his enemy to kill him as he sleeps?”

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