"Mighty Chelydrus, you alone survive, your face perfect and your form without blemish. Nothing can touch your glory. I wilt rebuild your temple, my lord. Only see me safe home, and 1 will raise it again. I will hold the staff again. I am Rotapan, Rex Serpens to the ten tribes!" he shouted aloud, and moved down the mountainside as though he still were.
Behind him, the slave the guards had taken, his face beaten raw and one of his eyes already swollen shut, slipped out of the corridor and waved his hand in a sharp downward motion. The wolf pup came bounding out of his hiding place in the rocks and leapt playfully into his arms. The Neffian knelt painfully and let the wolf sniff his wounds, but hushed him when he began to whimper, then led him into a dark crevice under an overhang at the edge of Drufaiden's courtyard.
"Rafek! Where have you been? What happened to you?" the voices seemed to come from all around the Neffian as he moved from the secret entrance of the colony to the main cavern.
"There's no time to explain. The guards have melted! Yes! Even as they beat me-I was out hunting with the wolves and couldn't get back to the doorway before the guards sensed me-but the guards just turned to water before my eyes. 1 thought I was dead and dreaming. Now 1 see that the whole place is going-something has changed out there."
A hundred old Nefftans, all past work, but still bearing the silver collar with Drufaiden's mark, looked at Rafek like he was mad.
"You can't mean that, man, look at you-it's probably from the beating. But where are Jepli and Carsh?" said one of the older men, whose name was Salmak.
"The Wyrvil king killed them both. Only QTarin survives." The wolf pup licked his hand at the sound of his name.
"The… Wyrvil king? You saw the Wyrvil king up on this mountain? Rotapan, who traded us all into