Teri McLaren
killed him by now, except that he enjoys torturing him with captivity and he's more than a little afraid of selkies, even though ores have been known to eat them…"
"Ores eat anything, even other ores. Why is Rotapan afraid?" said Claria.
"Well… some time ago, Drufalden-"
"Drufalden? You mentioned her before," said Cheyne.
"She's queen of the cold country, has a fortress of ice up on the biggest mountain in the range, along the Borderlands," answered Claria. "The last of the Three Sisters, they call her. A long time ago, when everything was locked in ice, her ancestors' kingdom covered most of Almaaz. They've never gotten over the Thaw."
"As I was saying, Drufalden had another of my stones. The caravan route passes through her lands, so Riolla had to pay her off, also. But the ice queen got a little careless with her water sapphire. Lost it as she was bathing in a stream that feeds Into the selkies' river. The stone washed right down into a fish's mouth, quick as you please, and in a day or two, it was on Wiggulf s table, decorating his lunch. Of course, he knew what it was-that harpy had been using the stone to freeze the waters upstream from him for years. Little by little, she was advancing toward his kingdom, pushing his clans together and starving them out, trying to take control of his waterways, forcing his fishing farther and farther toward Rotapan and the Silver Sea."
"And his poison," added Cheyne.
"Yes. And drying up the sea at the same time, just to irritate Rotapan. So Wiggulf, or rather his family, has held the stone for awhile-as both a balance against his life with the ores and as a threat to Drufalden."
"How so, Og?"
"The best I can figure, the waterstone works with sound that can make solids of liquids and liquids of solids. No doubt Riolla taught each of her minions just enough to make them dangerous with the stones, and their lack of natural ability makes things even more