There was a weird smell as we walked, and at first I thought it might’ve been someone’s lunch.


    taste.


    trespassing, and illegal.  Completely understandable, really.


    was smart???—??smarter than me, maybe.  Ushra was that legendary alchemist, Gronte was that artificer turned fugitive.  And yet, I couldn’t swallow that answer.


    lunged and wrapped a claw around its neck, and there was silence.


    I come in peace, dragons.”


    say anything.


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    There were still skinks twisting about.  Smelly tentacle-snails crawled, and that might have been a lesser spider scuttling about.  Anurognaths leapt from cliff faces, some eagle cawed very far away, and maybe the shadow of a dragon unawares drifted by.


    know you have potions.”


    heal him.”


    Hinte.  Scion of G?ren, heir of Ushra.  I am not yours.  You cannot order me.”


    Why?  Do they think they can heal without Hinte’s help?”


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    The tenth long ring came in the quiet.  A chime, yet it seemed a knell.


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    I sat on a cliff and watched skylands float by.  Lying on my back, frills full and eyes gazing sighingly at the sky, I couldn’t have missed the thudding footsteps drawing toward me.


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    I stood on a cliff and watched suns drift by.  Orbited by a harsh silence, I didn’t miss the scraping footsteps drawing toward me.


    * * *