Page 242 of Dragon Strike (Age of Fire 4)

“When?” Wistala asked.

Dsossa shook her head. “Does it matter? What can be done? The Ironriders swept through the Iwensi like a storm, over a dozen passes and down the Iron Road. The Ghioz had barges laden with grain for their horses—trade that was supposed to be coming to Hypatia.”

“Fount Brass has mustered a herd of mounted thugs and war-carts. There are even four dozen Knights of the Directory with trained warhorses and remounts—not that they would stand a chance against the thousands of bowmen of the Ironriders. Shryesta sent spearmen and horsemen. Had they only made it to the city in time!”

“With such a force, perhaps something could be attempted.”

“The Directory have surrendered.”

“We haven’t.”

“We’re Hypatian.”

“So we obey the Directory. If they have surrendered, we have as well.”

These Hypatians and their legal niceties!

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

He flapped hard in the direction of the face on the mountainside as angry lightning began 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 the mouth. The scaffolding blocked 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 scaffolding made a satisfying crashing sound as it fell.

He marked fleeing forms of humans in various states of nightdress.

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

“What is this insult?” a commanding voice called.

AuRon saw the Red Queen standing in a stairway. She wore a mask that looked as though it was made of carefully pressed paper.

“You owe me a ransom of gold,” AuRon said. “I am here to collect.”

“You did a poor job of delivering my message. We keep our bargains. We will give 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 may then find a better use for.”

“I do not desire your gold,” AuRon said. “You may satisfy my demand by paying me in flesh.”

“Naf and his men have failed, you know. All your clever planning simply 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 arguments of the servants.

“Is this some exotic appetite of dragons? We have heard rumors of such compulsions.”

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