Elvenborn

'Let's take a walk,' Shana suggested—a good excuse to get away from the others. She didn't want to raise hopes that might be crushed; Lorryn could be trusted to consider all possible out­comes and not just the most desired. Together they could dis­cuss possibilities—grim as well as hopeful.

Which is just another reason why I'm glad he's with me. She'd fallen into the habit of considering him as a partner so quickly it was almost as magical as any spell. How not? She knew she could depend on him to do something when she asked him to, but even more importantly, she knew she could depend on him to do something he saw needed doing even if she didn't ask.

After a quick walk up to one of the concealed exits on the top of the hill covering their cave-complex, the two of them were out under the stars. It wasn't likely that they'd be overheard, but Shana related what Keman had told her mind-to-mind anyway. Just because something wasn't likely that was no reason to as­sume it wouldn't happen.

And the Old Whiners are just as like to set someone to spy on us as not, she thought resentfully. The fat would be in the fire if they even thought that I was going to open negotiations with an Elvenlord!

:Ancestors!: Lorryn exclaimed, .-This is fantastic news! I would never, ever have anticipated this!:

While Shana went to get Lorryn, Keman had been waiting patiently; now she sat down on a rock and concentrated on the focus-stone in her hand, contacting him once again.

:I have Lorryn,: she told him, opening her thoughts slightly so that Lorryn could sense what Keman was telling her. :Can you go through all that again for both of us?:

Keman was only too willing to; Shana sensed both Lorryn's growing excitement and that of Dora behind Keman's carefully controlled thoughts. But Lorryn sobered immediately after the first burst of incredulous enthusiasm, and didn't interrupt any­more while Keman concluded his report to Shana. It was diffi­cult enough for them to maintain contact at such extreme distance, and Shana appreciated that he kept his own thoughts quiet while she and her foster-brother finished their business.

But Keman had an idea of his own for their situation, that he voiced before they broke off contact.:Shana, why don't you ask Mother and Kalamadea to find iron for you ? Oh, I know it in­terferes too much even with our magic for them to bring it to the surface, but surely they can find it, and once it's been found, you can work out how to mine it. Surely the Iron People know how!:

.7 can ask,: she replied.

:Good! The more claws we have sharpened, the better,: was his final reply.

'That's not a bad thought,' Shana said aloud, as a mental si­lence filled the place where Keman's word- thoughts had been. She headed back down into the caverns, with Lorryn following beside her. 'But I thought the dragons didn't much like being around iron—'

'They don't,' Lorryn agreed, 'But Father Dragon and your foster-mother Alara are likely to agree to do just about anything within reason that you ask them to, don't you think?'

'Hmm. Somehow I can't believe that it's going to be that easy,' Shana told him, skeptically. 'Still, there's no harm in asking.'

'And no time like the present,' Lorryn agreed. She was not at all displeased when he took her hand and squeezed it encourag­ingly, then didn't bother to let it go as they descended once again into the Citadel corridors.

And when they found the two dragons who (next to Keman) had most closely aligned themselves with the Wizards, she put the question to them.

They had made themselves real lairs here, which was no great difficulty for a dragon, a creature who could shape rock and earth to its will. The two of them were in Alara's lair, re­clining in their natural forms in smooth hollows filled with the soft sand that dragons preferred to rest in. Father Dragon— Kalamadea by actual name—was not at his full size in here, for dragons never really stopped growing as long as they lived, and Father Dragon was very, very old and his size was immense. He would hardly have fit in one of Alara's hollows if he hadn't shifted part of his bulk into the Out first.

Even so, both of them were huge, dwarfing the two half-bloods next to them. Alara's scarlet-scaled torso could have served as a hut if it were hollow.

'I thought what you needed were gemstones and precious metals to trade with,' Alara responded to Shana's question, her bobbing head indicating her confusion. 'That's what we've all been looking for. That's what you asked us to find.'

Shana grimaced. 'I know; that was my mistake. I thought so, too—actually, I didn't really think, not even when Shadow told us how nervy the Iron People were getting without any new source of metal for their forges. Two mistakes, then. I suppose, if I had thought about it at all, I just assumed that now that the Iron People were settling, they'd find their own iron. So, can you find it?'

'More or less,' Kalamadea rumbled, lifting his head from his foreclaws. 'Remember, after all, that we use magic to find things, and since the Rotten Metal interferes with magic, its very presence is going to interfere with locating it. We'll actu­ally have to do some roundabout reckoning on where the inter­ ference is strongest to find veins of ore.'

'I knew it couldn't be all that easy,' Shana muttered to her­self, but at least Father Dragon seemed to think that there was a way to work around the problem, and that was more than she had expected.

'We also won't be able to bring it to the surface the way we can the silver and gold,' Alara sighed regretfully. 'So once we find it, you'll still have to dig for it, and it'll be ore rather than the nice, pure nuggets of other things we can bring up.'

'Oh, Ancestors—' Lorryn said in mock dismay. 'Think of it—one more reason for able-bodied folks to have to leave the Citadel, which means fewer servants to attend to the whims of the Old Whiners! They might actually have to learn to clean up after themselves once in a while!'

Shana had noticed that Lorryn had, if anything, less patience with Caellach Gwain than she did, although you would never have known it by the way he acted with the old wizard and his cronies. She smiled. 'I wouldn't mind taking my turn on the end of a shovel,' she volunteered. 'Especially if it meant that you would take over dealing with them instead of me.'

He groaned and shook his head. 'Oh, Shana—all right. I sup­pose that among the three of us, Parth Agon, Denelor and I can handle them. I've noticed a distinct improvement in Parth's atti­tude ever since he's seen just what an idiot Caellach is being.'

'And Denelor always was a dear,' Shana said, speaking fondly of her former teacher and the 'master' to her 'apprentice.'

Kalamadea snorted. 'I would not have used that description,' he said. 'But he certainly is far more willing to adapt, accom­modate, and change than any of the other older wizards. Well, I would say that we have something of a plan, then. Alara and one or two of the others should be the ones to go looking for Rotten Metal; when they find some that is not too far beneath the surface, you and a few hardy souls, Shana, can see about digging some up. Meanwhile Lorryn will advise Parth Agon, with the help of Denelor—and me.'

Shana almost laughed aloud at that last. If Caellach was afraid of anything, it was of the dragons, and Kalamadea was the most imposing of his kind. Caellach had tried—and nearly succeeded—in undoing all of the reforms of the younger wiz­ards once, when Shana had been away from the Citadel. As it happened, she had been