EPILOGUE
Charles and Merlain crouched in the brush where they could watch the clearing. Their mother and father emerged from the trees, following the path. In a moment their mother had placed with almost reverent care the large blue bowl of chopped meat before Horace.
Dragon Horace, having been advised by Merlain's quick thought, nuzzled up again to their mother and rubbed some smell on her. Ignoring his actions, Heln fed him a tidbit with her fingers.
Charles wrinkled his nose at Merlain. Dragon Horace doesn't like that! He's just eating to please you and Mom. He'd rather eat what he catches.
Yes, Charles. But isn't he polite! Is it any wonder that Mama loves him? She didn't used to admit he existed.
Fine! But privately he was thinking that she was making him a sissy. Horace could catch anything he
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wanted now, thanks to the opal he kept. What the dragon would prefer to eat was not the cooked meat his mother brought, but raw flesh that quivered or old flesh that stank.
You understand that business they did the other day? That orc business?
Why certainly, dummy brother. The Confederation is now governed by the Alliance. The Alliance is ruled only by orcs. Kildee and Kildom have the say over human-dominated kingdoms. Those, dear brother, are Rud, Aratex, Klingland, Kance, and Hermandy.
Six kingdoms. The five you named and Ophal. And people say there will be seven to fulfill the Prophecy.
Six kingdoms united with our daddy's help. But according to the Prophecy, there are a total of seven. Throod and Rotternik, of course, make eight.
The prophecy's crazy! I, Charles the First, proclaim that Grandpa Knight is right!
I, Merlain the Only, proclaim that it is you and not Grandpa who is crazy!
Merlain the Only, explain if you will about Horace.
Figurehead. Absolute monarch. All six kingdoms in the Alliance acknowledge him as overking, and he keeps the opal for us. Only, of course, he decides things even less than Kildee and Kildom do. He just is. Should the opal be needed by the Alliance, you or I will tell him and he will help us as we ask.
Merlain chewed on a stem of bluish-green grass. Her smile showed that she was increasingly content with the way the world was going.
Charles' smile showed that he had established mind contact with Glow. Merlain and Horace could communicate farther between themselves than with others; Charles and Glow were similar. There were wonderful mental pictures being formed for playing in.
It was a great, fine time in Rud, Kelvinia, the Confederation, and the newly formed Alliance.
Copyright © 1990 by Piers Anthony and Robert E. Margroff
Cover art by Darrell K. Sweet
ISBN: 0-812-51177-8