Teri McLaren
bring the rock across it, opening her throat with a frantic swipe of the glass. She yelped once before dropping. Instantly, the big male sprang over her body with a magnificent leap, but Rotapan ducked and caught him in the belly with the same edge that had killed his mate.
Rotapan looked around for the Neffian, but there was no sign of him. He cautiously kicked at the dead wolves, all the while straining to see into the deep mist where more of them might be waiting. But all he heard was a hungry pup's distant whimper.
Let him go, thought Rotapan. He'll starve on his own, and I can be on my way.
As he turned to go, Rotapan noticed some sort of metal band around the female wolfs neck. "Like that Neffian's collar… the slaves will come for me now," he muttered. "But let them do their worst. Mighty Chelydrus has protected me. And you I did not need, worthless Saelin!" He searched his pocket making certain Riolla's Ninnite coin still rested there, and walked on.
He worked another hour scaling the steep path, slick with snow and black ice, and finally came upon a more level road that led into the castle's keep. Before him, white with five or six inches of fresh snow, stood Drufalden's crystal gates. If the slaves were going to ambush him, this would be the most likely place. Saelin had said there was some kind of secret entrance just outside the gate, which the slaves used when they slipped out to hunt.
The thieves' colony supposedly lay just beyond this point, with Drufalden's castle further up the mountain and within the old volcano's protective shell. If Rotapan could manage to get past these gates, he could slip in and deliver his order, asking for a legion of his own to take back to his temple. After all, he had the coin. How would Drufalden know until he was gone that Riolla's orders were any different?
Rotapan slowed his pace and kept to the shadows of