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"I’er here," AuRon admitted "My business is e My name is NooShoahk, of the line of NooMoahk"

"You’re a civilized dragon You speak well"

"I read and speak the four hoons who can fight, and flew far to join"

"Join? Join? We’ve had ons"

"A wisehasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it can’t happen"

"I leave wisdom to the Wyrmmaster I’m but a servant of his Supree, but I’ll call no man my master"

"He has a ith your kind Wait here" Theto one of the men at the ropes, and moved off into the cavern until he disappeared into the shadows left by tallow dips set into the walls The otherAuRon out of their eye-corners and drooping lids AuRon son, wearing a harness that rehters put on mules, approached It had scales ofbellows, no display of aroodly-size horns

"You I not know," it said, golden eyes blinking at him in confusion "You fly with men other side mountains?" Its speech was harder to interpret than the hairy man’s Parl

"The on said, pointing with its snout toward the Red Mountains

AuRon on-scale arood hunting there?"

"Very good"

"Fighting stock or breeding stock?"

"Neither I’ve only just arrived"

The dragon looked hi stock, no scales Not breeding stock, no scales--old stock"

"Your wit is as quick as your tongue"

"Is like joke?"

AuRon didn’t knohat to make of that, so he just snorted "Is like joke" It couldn’t hurt to agree An odd sort of exchange with another esture of accoan to swear Their charge was flapping its wings furiously, forcing the hingstock We see each other a’et their dragon under control, and then begin the "lean right, lean left, tip forward, tip back" routine again It struck hi lessons to dragons, creatures who took to the sky like seals to water

"So you’ve come to join us?" a flat voice said The sound reminded AuRon of the slow ru towers

AuRon shifted his neck at the words, instinctively covering his vitals

The newcomer was a man, one of those diamond-shaped ray hair still flecked with black, close cropped, but no beard His face was strangely ih he showed a full set of white teeth with his s short- sleeved tunic, cut deep and revealing black-flecked hair on his chest and powerful aruards Pants, stitched at the outer sea breeches with leather pads sewn in, disappeared into soft leather knee-boots AuRon recognized dragon scale at the tips of his boots, and on the leather at his wrists

Beside the older man was a youth, hardly out of his teens AuRon did not know his face, but startled when he took in the man’s array of ars sweeping up todragon’s on-scales The spear was gone The Dragonblade’s arhter body The spiked face-plate was up It revealed a cruel, scarred face, as if so had taken a handful of flesh from the cheek and cut it aith a knife Fissured pink tissue covered his cheek, but not thickly enough so that AuRon couldn’t make out the bone beneath One eye--the center of a scar--was gone; in its place a red ruby glittered

"It’s just a gray," the young onblade’s armor sneered "No use to us"

The older on, you’ve heard of us and co of you You should be more surprised if I hadn’t Do I speak to the Wizard of the Isle of Ice?"