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The bats had gotten hio somewhere private Back to my cave"

The bats opened hiht left He couldn’t even remember how many had been with him when he juht Of course, rodents werethose herds of cattle below?" Thernadad said as he sat on Ma fro up froreed "Water, too"

"Faaaa!" Ma a few quick tonguefuls of blood "Dragon reek so bad in here,land," another bat said

"Sharply now," a deep voice froe echoed "Krthonius, what can you say for yourself?"

Whoever Krthonius was, he didn’t have anything to say right away, so the deep voice bellowed, "Aubalagrave?"

"Strange smell in the cave, your honor"

"That’s more like it," the deep voice said "Just because you’re ho-sore dragon who’s lost because he returns to his cave already half-asleep"

"There haven’t been assassins in the Lavado voice said

"Thrall revolts Leadership battles Cave claions die in all of thee smell?"

"U voice said

"Get up to the ceiling and hide yourselves," the Copper told the bats With a mixture of burps and flaps, they took off for the deep shadows above

The Copper clie He saw a vast, ruby-red twelve-horned dragon The Red had beenbut a stus should be Three young drakes, one a dazzling white, the other two blacks, narrowed golden eyes at hih-and-tumble, lads Here’s our intruder Give hion-dashed forward The attack came so suddenly the Copper’s brain froze, and he could do nothing but hug the floor of the passage before they were on hier than he

The white reached hily wound on one side of his face, exposing teeth and gum line He head-butted the Copper in the snout, then threw hi his head The others wedged their noses under his side and flipped hi his belly They scrabbled at his skin with sheathed sii claws

The Copper ser, heavier drakes squatted atop hion’s jaws

"That’s the style," NeStirrath roared "We’ll teach this scat to poke his nose into our home cave And the Imperial shelf Bite a toe off, Krthonius That’ll be a iven that cave," the Copper squealed He felt a hard squeeze on his left saa

"Vent-drippings!" The old dragon snorted

"NoSohoth told me!"

"Your honor, look at the hamcart," the white drake said He lisped thanks to his words leaking out of the lipless side of his mouth

"I don’t have to look; I can smell it Oh! Let him up, you fools Let him up!"

"He’s in the Imperial Family," one of the blacks said The other spit out the Copper’s severed toe

"Cry settled! Cry settled!" the deep voice of NeStirrath shouted