dropped and slithered. And every one of them bore the marks of being poisonous.
"By the seven stars and the three sisters!" Claria's fingers flashed through all of the warding signs she knew. "I've had enough. No treasure is worth this. I'm going back to get my inheritance. I'm cutting my losses, and that will be that last I see of you two and your friends here," she muttered.
"Why do you wish to part company before we have met, woman? I think I must take that personally. That sort of attitude will irritate the Lord Chelydrus," a cracking voice from somewhere in the midst of the snakes boomed under the rotunda, the chamber's acoustics magnifying the tones and scattering the sound all over the building. Something in that voice made Cheyne's skin crawl even worse than the snakes did. Yob snapped his feet together at the heels and bowed deeply.
"Yob reports to Rotapan with quarterly tribute," he shouted. "Six dozen warriors slain from Glom's tribe. Fourteen from Puffer's. Five drams, eight hundred kohli, and two heads, taken in combat from Riolla's spies. Three lost. But their bones were recovered," he finished, after a pause to count everything up on his fingers and toes.
Silence answered him. Cheyne shifted his weight to the boot Claria wasn't standing on. She seemed completely disinclined to move; the several inches around Cheyne's feet looked to be the only place the snakes shied away from.
"Og, you say? Og is back? Well, of course he is- you would be moaning in pain from Krota's greeting otherwise. Oh, do bring him over here. Send the heads to the masons. Tell them to place them facing west, so that Riolla's other spies may easily notice them. That was a good piece of work, Yob, though somewhat late in coming. You must tell me, after the feast and the great sacrifice, how you managed it. The Schreefa thinks she does not need Rotapan anymore. From her