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PROLOGUE
The hu thoughts, as annoying as a swaron wondered how hued to survive when they could not keep their thoughts to the out every fancy that passed through their sth of intellect to sense what their felloere thinking They tottered through their brief lives,one another and almost every other creature in the world It had shocked her the first time she realized that the only way they could communicate with one another was to uess what the other hu” they called it
For aand tried to deteron keepers today As usual, there was no coherence to their concerns Several orried about the copper dragon who had fallen ill It was not as if they could doabout it instead of tending to their duties for the other dragons She was hungry, and no one had brought her anything today, not even a fish
She strolled listlessly down the riverbank There was little to see here, only a strip of gravel and ht touched her back but gave sht be fish in the river, but the effort of catching one was scarcely worth the sht it to her…
PROLOGUE
The hu thoughts, as annoying as a swaron wondered how hued to survive when they could not keep their thoughts to the out every fancy that passed through their sth of intellect to sense what their felloere thinking They tottered through their brief lives,one another and almost every other creature in the world It had shocked her the first time she realized that the only way they could communicate with one another was to uess what the other hu” they called it
For aand tried to deteron keepers today As usual, there was no coherence to their concerns Several orried about the copper dragon who had fallen ill It was not as if they could doabout it instead of tending to their duties for the other dragons She was hungry, and no one had brought her anything today, not even a fish
She strolled listlessly down the riverbank There was little to see here, only a strip of gravel and ht touched her back but gave sht be fish in the river, but the effort of catching one was scarcely worth the sht it to her…
She thought about su for her From what she had overheard from the keepers, they’d reon either recovered or died She considered that for a moment If the copper died, that would ot there first And that, she decided bitterly, would be Mercor The gold dragon was keeping watch She sensed that he suspected sohts now, not letting dragons or keepers knohat he was thinking That alone made her feel wary
She would have asked hiry at hiiven her true name to the keepers Not just to Thymara and Alise, her own keepers That would have been bad enough But no, he had trumpeted her true name out as if it were his to share That he and ons had chosen to share their true na to her; if they wanted to be foolishly trusting, it was up to them She didn’t interfere between hi her relationship with Thyirl knew her true name, Sintara could only hope that she had no idea of how to use it No dragon could lie to someone who demanded the truth with her true na a question Refuse to answer, of course, but not lie Nor could a dragon break an agreement if she entered into it under her true naiven to a human with the life span of a fish
She found an open place on the beach and lowered her body onto the sun-warhed Should she sleep? No Resting on the chilly ground did not appeal to her
Reluctantly, she opened her et some idea of what the hu about blood on his hands The elder of her keepers was in an emotional storm as to whether she should return home to live in boredom with her husband or ruust There was not even a decision to ponder there Alise was agonizing over trivialities It didn’t matter what she did, any more than it mattered where a fly landed Humans lived and died in a ridiculously short amount of time Perhaps that hy they made so much noise when they were alive Perhaps it was the only way they could convince one another of their significance
Dragons made sounds, it was true, but they did not depend on those sounds to convey their thoughts Sound and utterances were useful when one had to blast through the clutter of huon Sound was useful toto convey to it She would not have minded hu out their thoughts at the sa The dual annoyance sometimes made her wish she could just eat them and be done with them
She released her frustration as a low rumble The huons to rely on the froon, they had wakened to a world that did not match their meons had last walked this world Instead of e able to fly, they had coon was supposed to be, trapped on a swampy riverbank beside an ily aided the their presence as they waited for theth to leave For years, they had starved and suffered, fed barely enough to keep them alive, trapped between the forest and the river