mation you might like to hear. For a price, of course," said the elf.
"How much?"
"I think half of what you let the digger find under the Clock will do."
Riolla looked at him levelly. But he knew he had guessed the truth.
"Surprised that I knew you planned to take it alt for yourself?" he continued. "I could have told the Raptor back in Sumifa, but then 1 would have had to do your job, too. And this way, we both get what we want. You can have Sumifa, but I want Sarraza and what lies below it."
"What do you know about the Clock?" growled Riolla. Og perked up his own ears, but pretended to drowse from fatigue.
"Enough. But you don't."
"What do you mean? she hissed.
"Well,-there is the matter of how it works."
"What do you mean? Stop toying with me, Naruq."
"The digger has what he needs now to find and open the Clock. It's in that book his father has carried with him all over Almaaz. You did not know you were being followed? Yes, I thought that might bring a pique to your complexion. But the digger and his book are not a problem, even if he gets the Treefather to read it for him."
"Why not?"
"We now have something he wants."
Naruq stood and parted the foliage behind him to reveal Claria, her golden eyes molten with anger, her hands and feet tied, and a gag in her mouth.
Already agitated by Claria's perfume, Womba could contain herself no longer. When she saw the girl, she roared and leapt from her hiding place, ripping the small tree that Og was tied to from the ground by its