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"Honored friend," the Tyr said to NeStirrath "Let’s say ere at Three Tunnels again, with the blighters hip-deep all around and battle horns blowing Which of the three would you ith us? Good of the E in, even when he went unconscious He’s no duelist; he fights as though his neck were on the line"

"Does that help, SiDrakkon?" the Tyr asked

"Why do you even dragto have your way anyway?" SiDrakkon said

"The decision is yours"

"I’ll have Nivohtened, and his pink eyes shone The Copper felt his joy and gave a little prrum for him

"As I said, the choice is yours," Tyr said "I’ood one"

He turned to the bruised drakes "Don’t worry, you others; there’ll be for you glory enough in your turn It’s always the ones that you’d never expect who becoends"

Chapter 13

The Copper reer in NeStirrath’s part of the Drakwatch caves than most Krthonius joined an Upper World sissa who patrolled the plateau on the rocky slopes covering the Lavadoriffaran, as part of a new aquatic sissa protecting their nests from raiders

Drakes came and went They usually had only one or two others, and never more than six Each tiless Drakwatch leaders walked up and down in front of the drakes, and each time a drake left Once, after a bloody battle with a company of elvish mercenaries that resulted in the destruction of a sissa before help froriffaran could arrive, they took every drake out of the training caves--except for the Copper

He practiced leadership of his drakes under NeStirrath’s tutelage He learned to praise in public and repriroup efforts with group plea-sures: After particularly successful brawling raids on the ore bins of the Firemaidens, he’d let his drakes have a "sun day" on the water ring Of course, the same went for punishments When his drakes woke to find their own ore supply e note re them that a drakka na pool, he gave the Drakwatch thralls a rest day and set his drakes to work cleaning out the thrall pens, washing and airing bedding His bats got their fill of bedbugs

After the drake who’d fallen asleep on watch fished out the turd with his lips, of course

The bats thrived, and grew to know Imperial Rock better than the Copper did, for they flew around the upper levels, hunting insects, or flitted out into the Lavadoed quickly, in the rew old, almost blind and deaf, but his appetite, and that of his brother’s, never flagged

The trio of young bats--the Copper called the Ear, Spike Hair, and Wide Nose for their er than Thernadad and his brother put together The Copper suspected they sneaked dragonblood when they could

NeStirrath had hiy to the drakes as a sort of assistant, saving the old dragon’s saa wear on the longer hikes and expeditions

The CopperNeStirrath with questions about the Lavados

"It was in the civil wars, of course Dragon faon family, a terrible business It was an aerial duel A Skotl-clan dragon naons would be satisfied with just crippling a wing, but he wanted me to fall to my death The Tyr himself pulled ether In the end we reconciled only when the blighters rose"

"How did the Tyr coe you should ask that Rethothanna is creating so, only you sing it about someone else--and she’s on me like a leech Seems a waste If you’re so wretched you don’t have any deeds to sing of, better to die trying for a few lines of your own than reciting sorowl