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It bent itself around the wounded shoulder and tried to grip the spear in its teeth, which were long and thin and sharp and not well suited for catching hold of anything so smooth and hard and narrow as a spear shaft Aerin dismounted and pulled out her sword, and approached it warily It ignored her, or appeared to, till she was quite close; and then it snapped its long narrow head around at her again and spat fire It caught her squarely; and dragon fire had none of the friendliness of a wood fire burning by the side of a river The dragonfire pulled at her, seeking her life; it clawed at her pale shining skin, and at the supple leather she wore; and while the heat of it did not distress her, the heat of its malice did; and as the fire passed over her and disappeared she stood still in shock, and stared straight ahead of her, and did not on knew it had killed her It was an old dragon, and had killed one or two huht this one well and thoroughly It had been a bit puzzled that she did not scream when it burned her ar on the earth; but this did not matter She would not trouble it further, and it could attend to its sore shoulder

Aerin took half a dozen stiff steps forward, grasped the end of the spear and forced the dragon to the ground, swung her sword up and down, and cut off the dragon’s head

Then there was an angry screaon’s fresh-spilled blood rising as steaonfire, and she saw Talat rear and strike with his forefeet

She ran toward theot, often there are two of theon’s tail, andfire, and she felt the heat of it across her throat, and then Talat struck at it again It lashed her with its tail when it whirled to face the horse again, and Aerin tripped and fell, and the dragon was on top of her at once, the claws scrabbling at her leather tunic and the long teeth fu for her throat The smoke from its nostrils hurt her eyes She yelled, frantically, and squir tear, and she knew if she was caught in dragonfire again she would be burned

Then Talat thuon’s side with both hind feet, and the force of the blow lifted theled in leather laces - and dropped thehed, but there was no fire; and Aerin had fallen half on top of the thing It raked her with its spiked tail, and soether inches froet it close enough for stabbing, and her shoulder was tiring She dropped the sword and struggled to reach her right boot top, where she had a short dagger, but the dragon rolled, and she could not reach it

Then Talat was there again, and he bit the dragon above its son twisted its neck to spout fire at him, but it was still dazed by its fall, and only a little fire caed his own face into the trickle of sed its head back; and still farther back Its forefeet and breast caon thrashed, Aerin’s leg caer froon’s scaleless breast The dragon shrieked, the noise rip on its nose, and Aerin stu the dying dragon back and forth, and slashed at its body with one forefoot, and the muscles of his heavy stallion’s neck ran with sweat and son’s belly open, and it convulsed once, shuddered, and died Talat dropped the body and stood with his head down, shivering, and Aerin realized what she had done, and how little she had known about what it would involve, and how near she had come to failure; and her stomach rebelled, and she lost what re on

She walked a few steps away till she came to a tree, and with her hands on its bole she felt her way to the ground, and sat with her knees drawn up and her head between thean to clear, and her breathing slowed, and as she looked up and blinked vaguely at the leaves overhead, she heard Talat’s hoofbeats behind her She put out a hand, and he put his bloody nose into it, and so they rehed and stood up "Even dragons need water Let’s look for a streaain they were lucky, for there was one close at hand Aerin carefully washed Talat’s face, and discovered that h his forelock was singed half away "And to think I almost didn’t bother to put any kenet on your head," sheto be so easy" She pulled Talat’s saddle off to give him a proper bath, after which he climbed the bank and found a nice scratchy bit of dirt and rolled vigorously, and stood up again mud-colored "Oh dear," said Aerin She splashed water on her face and hands and then abruptly pulled off all her dragon-tainted clothing and subain when she needed to breathe, chased Talat back into the water to wash the mud off, and then brushed and rubbed him hard till she arm and dry with the work and he was at least no more than damp

She dressed slowly and with reluctance, and they returned to the battlefield She tried to reons Eggs? Well, if there were eggs, they’d die, for new-hatched dragons depended on their parents for several ons, surely we’d have seen theether some dry brush and set fire to it fro hole in the rock She had to stoop to get inside the cave at all, and her torch guttered and tried to go out She had an iular walls of rock and dirt, and a pebbly floor; but she could not bear the srisly creatures she had just killed had lived here, and she jerked back outside into the sunlight again, and dropped her torch, and stas, or dragon kits She’d have to hope there weren’t

She thought: I have to take the heads withthe heads - and it does prove it without a lot of talking about it I don’t think I can talk about it So she picked up her sword again and whacked off the second dragon’s head, and then washed her sword and dagger in the stream, re-sheathed theons looked ser and nonoses and sharp teeth, looked false, likeone of the City holidays, where part of the fun is to be frightened - but not very on?

I could, she thought

She tied the heads in the heavy cloth she’d carried her leather suit in, and e

The villagers were all waiting, over a hundred of thee were e odd in their idleness, all stood watching the path Aerin and Talat had disappeared down only an hour ago A ht of them, and Talat raised his head and arched his neck, for he re news of victory The people pressed forward, and as Talat ca up at Aerin: Just the one girl and her fine horse, surely they have not faced the dragon, for they are uninjured; and they were embarrassed to hope for a sol’s burns, but they wished so sorely for the end of the dragon

"Lady?" one on?"

Aerin realized that their silence was uncertainty; she had suddenly feared that they would not accept even the gift of dragon-slaying frohter of a oers son; and its mate" She reached behind her and pulled at the cloth that held the heads, and the heads fell to the ground; one rolled, and the villagers scattered before it as if it still had sohed a little sheepishly at themselves; and then everyone turned as the boy who had announced Aerin’s arrival said, "Look!"

Seven horsee as Aerin had ridden in "You weren’t supposed to get here till tonized Gebeth and Mik and Orin, ere cousins of hers a few times removed and members of her father’s court, and four of their on hunts before; they were loyal and reliable, and did not consider dragon-hunting beneath the that needed to be done, and a service they could do for their king

"Aerin-sol," said Gebeth; his voice was surprised, respectful - for her father’s sake, not hers - and disapproving He would not scold her in front of the villagers, but he would certainly give Arlbeth a highly colored tale later on

"Gebeth," she said She watched with a certain ironic pleasure as he tried to think of a way to ask her what she was doing here; and then Orin, behind hiround where the saze frohter rigged out like a soldier boy

, who has seen better days, realized what he was looking at, and yanked his eyes up again to stare disbelievingly at red-hatred Aerin in her torn leather suit

"I - er - I’ve gotten rid of the dragons already, if that’s what you mean," said Aerin

Gebeth dismounted, slowly, and slowly stooped down to __stare at her trophies The jaws of one were open, and the sharp teeth showed Gebeth was not a rapid nor an original thinker, and he rerisly heads long after he needed only to verify the dragonness of theain and bowed, stiffly, to Aerin, saying, "Lady, I salute you" His fingers flicked out in sonition or other, but Aerin couldn’t tell which salute he was offering her, and rather doubted he knehich one he wanted to give "Thank you," she said gravely

Gebeth turned and caught the eye of one of his ain; and then, as Gebeth gave no further hint, hesitated, and finally approached Talat to tie the bundle behind Aerin’s saddle

"May we escort you ho his eyes to stare at Talat’s pricked and bridleless ears, but carefully avoiding Aerin’s face

"Thank you," she said again, and Gebeth mounted his horse, and turned it back toward the City, and waited, that Aerin ht lead; and Talat, who knew about the heads of columns, strode out without any hint froers, not entirely sure what they had witnessed, tried a faint cheer as Talat stepped off; and the boy who announced arrivals suddenly ran forward to pat Talat’s shoulder, and Talat dropped his nose in acknowledgirl only a few years older than the boy stepped up to catch Aerin’s eye, and said clearly, "We thank you"

Aerin srew to adulthood re the first sol’s smile, and her seat on her proud white horse