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"No, I’lad The Firemaidens said that if you were dead, they’d throw o I would have told them to do it I’m too tired now"
"Didn’t you hear me shout? I wanted to take it off andIt’sworked on his e as well They went through a few lides, and the Copper flew back and forth and did turns under the bridge--with the harness tied around his lie, just in case
But in the end, he flew He knew he didn’t fly well; nor could he do any of the fancyover the Imperial Resort perform for the sheer joy of it, but the ability made him feel complete, perhaps for the first time in his life
And it hurt to know that Halaflora wasn’t up to it
After showing his s had coo, but he’d purposely kept away so he wouldn’t have to watch her fly It didn’t help that Halaflora described the occasion in excruciating detail, full of praise for how natural and well formed she looked in the air
"Oh, it’s ayou at last"
"You don’t have to call me your honor, Rasha Not e’re alone"
"I like formalities It’s so easy to hide behind them If you offered to take me up, I’d say yes You know that"
"Take you up?"
"You know Mate"
"Nilrasha, my mate is above in the palace"
"Oh, ouldn’t have to fly out together, silly Go out separately, and meet where she couldn’t see"
The Copper felt bar-struck "I on should just have his ht you just mated with Halafora toanything less for that She’s been kind to me"
"And you to her Too kind Do you ever--"
"I don’t want to talk about that You’ve got the wrong idea about me if you think I could--"
"Could? Do you have another injury I’riff "Would, then No Not while Halafora lives I’ve pledged myself to her, and that’s an end to it"
"But do you still love me, RuGaard?"
He couldn’t answer that If he did, he’d never be able to look at Halafora across a feast again He turned tail and left the Firemaid’s cold, chaste quarters
Chapter 24
He told FeLissarath and his e was completed and he could turn his attentions to Anaea, they would be free to leave
"The odd thing is, I don’t think ant to go," FeLissarath said "The hunting is good, and we have friends here a the humans and condors Perhaps we’ll leave the palace to you and set up soh it, like young, wild dragons of the north first mated"
His mate looked at him and she loosed a prrum
Talk turned to politics, as it often did Ruh the Drakwatch that SiBayereth, SiDrakkon’s first clutchwinner, had been killed, not in a duel, but in his bath So he was assassinated in retribution for so place with greater frequency since SiDrakkon turned Tyr
Others said that he’d bodily insulted soe of a feed and discarded
The Copper returned to his cushions and his mate, exceptionally happy to be in Anaea and out of the Imperial Resort and its feuds He slept with his neck across hers in silent appreciation
So eager were the FeLissaraths to be in their new digs that they started hunting for caves almost immediately, and turned over all the day-to-day tes he hunted for NiVon of hiht in the mountains--the Upper World made him feel exposed and watched; he didn’t like it, even when the unpredictable weather was nice--and flew back in the
It was a brilliant, clear day The sort of day that wouldn’t think about being evil, and instead put off ill tidings until the next overcast
He saw a distant dot It was a dragon, ht-colored, reflecting the sun, perhaps white
He beat his wings hard toward it He hoped if it was NiVonize him rather than think hi in the air The dragon turned a little, not running away then, but cohtening speed The Copper saw that it was a light shade of bronze, though a good deal smaller than Father, at least Father as he reained altitude at the last e, and the Copper veered away, fearing a tailstrike on his ing and upset by soon had a rider!