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"Thank you, , old Our hatchlings need it for their scales to grow properly These ores we’re clawing up out of the mountain seams, all they do is stave off desire for ht Aun I could break one of Varatheela’s scales with my claw There must be places where you could find coin"

"I would hate to fight or rob for it Perhaps I can earn some as I did with the dwarves"

"I hope you will consider your hatchlings as you consult your conscience"

"Let us not argue on our parting I proold whether or not I find Wistala"

"Soone More sheep for them"

Chapter 2

Cold trail, Wistala thought Pogt

Auron--or rather AuRon, for he was a fledged dragon now--kept vanishing like a desert uide’s assurance, it didn’t look like the sort of chaend would inhabit Her tread’s echoes chased each other in and out of corners--nothing but eht the cavern had a rather crareat as NooMoahk AuRon had always been a bit on the smallish side, so maybe he found it comfortable

The empty, old air made her hearts hurt For so many weary journeys to end in the sa hunt?

Her pursuit had wasted years--well, not wasted, the exploration of other civilizations and cultures having rewards that rivaled a er--chasing down tales of AuRon across the kingdoms of the east

It see dragon living as a guardian spirit or soul herder or guide into the afterlife

She disliked the East For all the prosaic beliefs about a dragon’s role in the order, there was an ugliness to the relationship between the ho to one used to the courts of Hypatia The continual decapitations ordered by the powerful there appalled her--she once saw aa warrior’s horse Cross-legged priests, speaking inincense that s rat turds, described life as an illusion and death as a blessed gateway to a higher reality, or a new life as a dragon, even

Easy for the priests to say No one dared execute one of theh the peoples of the vast East threw her coins and said prayers in strange tongues to her--she had to retreat to theof ons could be found there The lesson came in the for where she paused for a few days of bathing and fire-nit reon who knew the trick of hooking a chain around a rock so that no line, all they’d do would be to part the chain

She allowed one of the hunters to live, though she bit off his tstring fingers to encourage a change of profession In exchange for on-bone turned into a soup of dragonblood stock gave thearden full of concubines sought it