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be here on the mainland or the islands already.”
    “What does Richard have to do with any of it?” Jenka asked.
    Clover drew in a deep breath and looked at Zahrellion, who had a betterunderstanding about Richard’s state of mind, or lack thereof. “I’m not sure, but King Chad has been an avid supporter of these so-called trade negotiations.” Clover braved Jenka’s eyes again and found whatever spell had held her before had been broken by the dour magic of her own huge dragon tear. “He is dangerous, Jenka. There is no telling what sort of information he could give them.”
    “There are ways to question him that he could not resist, love.” Zahrellion nodded. “He knows far too much to leave loose. She is right.”
    “And what if he bears children? Won’t they have a claim to your throne?” Clover asked.
    “Well, then, what would the two of you have me do?” Jenka asked, the glow of his eyes flashing a deeper shade of emerald for a beat or two, the edges of his lips curling into the slightest of smiles.
    Clover decided he had been listening all along.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    T he second Silva dashed Rikky with a refreshing blast of her dragon magic, he came to. She stood guard over him, Prince Jericho, and Captain Willian, while the emerald-green dragon, Jade, picked the trolls apart.
    “Where is Linux?” Rikky asked the prince, who was still clinging to him.
    Jericho shook his head and sobbed. “Where is Pascal?”
    “Brawn has Pascal over there.” Captain Will pointed with his sword. One of the trolls fighting Jade spun around toward them, and just before Silva blasted it with molten pewter spew, the captain stepped forward and jabbed his blade through its lower abdomen. After he pulled his steel free of it, the creature took a step back, but fell forward toward them. It’s huge, smelly gourd smacked the ground just a foot away from Rikky and Jericho. Its wild eyes were rolled up into its head, but straightened for a heartbeat, which was just long enough for them to focus on the prince and blink. Then the light of life faded from them.
    Brawn yelled out in frustration from not so far away and below them.
    Captain Willian charged over the corpse toward the next of the trolls thatcame near. In a matter of moments, the creatures that hadn’t yet been dispatched were fleeing. Jade’s roar was loud and seemed to bring comfort to the prince. Rikky was only slightly perturbed that the king’s dragon had been following and watching over them.
    Rikky saw Jericho’s eyes and that Pascal, with Brawn’s help, was half-limping, half-crawling back up the grade toward them. Linux was alive, his hissing orb of light all the proof Rikky needed, but he was nowhere in sight. Pascal was once again so rattled that his skin was as pale as a sheet. His huge eyes looked past Rikky, though, and Brawn raised an arm to point at something up on the mountain behind and above them all.
    Rikky turned and felt, more than saw, the presence of something sinuous and stealthy. Whatever it was, when Silva brought her head around and started drawing air, it faded into the shadows.
    “Come on!” The captain was urging them down to the cavern entrance.
    Jade had just cleared the shelter and appeared to be chasing the last few of the trolls. Rikky and the prince were the only two mounted, though Brawn’s horse was still there. It most certainly would have bolted back the way they had come, had Silva not been blocking its course. The animals were terrified and edgy, to say the least, and all of them, including Rikky, were upset by the fresh coppery stenchof the gore through which they were forced to trot.
    No sooner were they huddled inside the cave than a blue druid’s fire flared to life in the pit.
    It had a pit because, over the last few years, foresters and new rangers had been training in the lake valley in the summer months. Rikky was starting to think that a manned outpost might be in order. Had they not had two dragons to protect