Page 1 (1/2)

BOOK ONE

Adapt

GRANT A FAVOR TO ONE GENERATION OF HOMINIDS, AND YOU’LL FIND

THEIR SONS TWICE AS DEMANDING--AND THRICE AS FORGETFUL

--AuRel the Bronze

Chapter 1

AuRon son of AuRel, the scaleless dragon who lived upon the Isle of Ice, watched his sons blink in the brassy sun of the dazzling northern spring

In the winter, AuRon had learned, the island saw constant snow, co in waves froy and rainy, save for a brief, enchanted dry spell after etting started but always lingering thanks to the warh in apology, spring had brought wildflowers to the thin patches of soil clinging between granite spurs where the wind died Their yellow and blue and white heads looked up, as bright as sun, sea, and sky Incredibly, insects already danced and buzzed between the bloo low, out of the wind, where the sky heated black earth and turned melt intothe ar his neck hearts twitch In a few months they would breathe their first fire and become drakes Ausurath, a little heavier than his brother, had big back haunches on his red-scaled body and was a fine ju on his brother Auht nostril that showed dark against his golden scale, a reminder of a bloody braith his brother

On their first trip into the Upper World he taught them about wind and shadow and the course of the sun The second time his littered as green as their s AuRon and Natasatch had four hatchlings; one, sadly, never emitted so much as a flutter of a heartbeat and becaan to tap

The excite between thefroether ed to keep throats and limbs intact

Once they could be ht depend on an extra set of ears and nostrils, they settled into alround the two males wrestled and bit and yeeked little battle roars at each other, stealing each other’s fish and reat-grandsire, scattering their sisters to corners of the cave, then collapsing into sleep with tiny teeth locked on each other’s liathered for abrothers in the air; then it was ti business

Aboveground, in the overwhel space of the Upper World, AuRon was relieved to see that they shrank against each other, tail to tail and staring from heads frozen in fear

The awe soon faded The e, lost their fear of the open sky and distant horizions But for AuRon the trouble had only begun Their sire had to do a good deal of wrangling to keep the, water, and spoor But their attention was difficult to hold with big snowfoot hares bounding away at their approach, all bouncing hindquarters and flapping ears

Gently grabbing one scra set of shoulder blades with his teeth-covered lips, then prodding the other back in line with his stiff, regrown tail, AuRon envied his ht to their mother’s belly and listened attentively When they acted, they cooperated His sons dragon-dashed after every bee and showed all the sense of a field mouse

On the third trip, AuRon decided it was time for them to learn a real lesson

This time he went up first to check Zan the tradesdwarf’s work before loosing the hatchlings on the world The Chartered Coht be mistaken for a hairy stu He had chuckled when AuRon described what he wanted to fashion, and he’d done a typically thorough dwarf’s job in exchange for a bag full of dragonscales sloughed off Natasatch over the winter

"Rafer be hunting beasts with mother and sisters," Ausurath complained

"Watch your brother’s approach See, he’s keeping doind from the camp" AuRon had to stifle a prrum as he watched

Aumoahk tested the air around the "camp" His slit nostril seemed to wink at AuRon as he breathed

AuRon watched his son sniff and listen before exposing hi up to the caleaht by the tradesdith the same enthusiasm that he sed the few coins of AuRon’s bare hoard, but he was cannier than his more enthusiastic brother

Au in their circle around the stones of a nonexistent ca over "shoulders" of burnedfishnet Aumoahk becaed the nearest