not have been depending on which family rumor one believed. Rohan gave her a long look and she subsided with an obedient nod.
Rohan and Chaynal climbed the narrow shelf that passed for a trail along the canyon wall. The acrid odor of dragon mating was in the air. Caves lined the cliffs, many of them walled up by females who had already laid their eggs within. Eight caves on the opposite side of the canyon were sealed, and Rohan wondered how many dragons curled within shells there, baking in ovenlike heat to maturity. Dragons, with broad and graceful wings for flight, long throats for calling to each other on the wind—and deadly talons that ripped flesh to shreds. Rohan had to think of the dragons as killers today, not as the soaring, beautiful creatures that had enchanted him from childhood.
He had been certain that the grandsire would still be here. Zehava had crippled the dragon and slowed him up in attending to his females. Two caves were still open on the opposite wall, and the shifting of pebbles within told him there were she-dragons inside, waiting impatiently for their lord. An unmated female, too heavy with eggs to fly, died quickly; crumbled skeletons of those who had attempted flight littered the gully below. Rohan had ridden out here often, collecting talons, teeth, and the odd wing- or thigh-bone for study. He knew how the skeletons fit together and how the muscles lay along them, and how the whole became an animal of rare beauty—at least to him. But now he was going to kill a dragon, finish the work his father had begun before he started work of his own.
He climbed faster. It was not recommended to scramble up a cliffside with a naked sword in one’s hand, but he didn’t dare sheathe it in case the dragon surprised him. Even the instant or two it would take to draw his sword might mean his life or Chay’s. Risky enough to send rocks clattering down the walls as they climbed, but he hoped the dragon would think it only the sound of the stone ovens settling into place for the summer.
At last they reached the cavern he’d spotted from below. After catching his breath, he told Chay to find a good place to hide.
“Rohan, will you forgive me if I tell you you’re out of your mind? This is all very good sport, but I’d feel much better if I knew what we were doing.”
“Take a look at this cave. It’s walled up, the eggs laid and the she-dragon gone. Now, if you were the sire and you’d been through hell to mate this year, and you saw two puny creatures about to attack the fruits of your labors—”
Chay snorted with laughter. “You are out of your mind. All right, what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing much, unless I’m killed. If I am—ran like hell. And tell Mother to forgive me.”
“If she knew about this, she’d kill you herself and save the dragon the trouble.” Chay shook his head, then went to the far end of the ledge where a sizable pile of rocks provided adequate cover.
Rohan wiped sweat from his forehead and turned to study the opposite wall where empty caves gaped tauntingly. From which would the dragon emerge? Or was he in a cave on this side? Instinct said not. Rohan refused to contemplate the insanity of this undertaking and slid behind an outcropping of rock to wait. The ledge was about a man-height wide and about twice that long—plenty of room for him to maneuver, but difficult for a dragon. Rohan hoped so, anyway.
The shadows were shortening toward noon when the dragon limped out of a cave opposite Rohan’s perch. Replete after a morning of wholehearted attention to one of his ladies, he yawned widely and stretched first one hind leg, then the other. Rohan heard Chay’s muffled laughter nearby. It really was rather funny to see this randy old grandsire of a beast grown sleepy with his sexual exertions. But Rohan lost all impulse toward mirth when he noted the many rents in the dragon’s hide that still oozed blood. As the great wings unfolded to prepare for flight, Rohan also saw how stiffly the dragon moved. There was a large splotch of congealed blood on the underside of one wing, and a smaller patch on a flank. Rohan gathered himself and stepped out into the sunlight, calling a derisive challenge to the dragon that