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PROLOGUE

Changes

Tintaglia awoke feeling chilled and old She had ood kill and eaten heavily, but had not rested well The festering wound under her left wing made it hard to find a comfortable position If she stretched out, the hot swollen place pulled, and if she curled up, she felt the jabbing of the buried arrow The pain spread out in her wing nohen she opened it, as if so out runners inside her, prickling her with thorns as it grew The weather had become colder as she fleard the Rain Wilds There were no deserts, no warion of the world Heat seemed to well up fro it nearly as warm as the southern lands were at this time of year But now she had left the dry lands and war had claimed its due The cold stiffened the flesh around her wound,a torment

IceFyre had not coon to accoons preferred to be solitary rather than social To eat well, each needed a large hunting territory It had only been when she had left his side and he had not followed that the hu him, all that time She could not recall that he had ever requested her to stay; neither had he asked her to leave

He had all he needed fro one another, they had rew to fullisland, and there lay the eggs that he had already fertilized But once he had inated her, there was no reason for his hatched into serpents that would slither into the sea and renew the endless cycle of dragon-egg-serpent-cocoon-dragon, the e would continue Eventually, there would be other dragons for him to encounter, when he chose to seek their co as she had Having hatched so alone and isolated, had she learned undragonlike behaviour from humans?

PROLOGUE

Changes

Tintaglia awoke feeling chilled and old She had ood kill and eaten heavily, but had not rested well The festering wound under her left wing made it hard to find a comfortable position If she stretched out, the hot swollen place pulled, and if she curled up, she felt the jabbing of the buried arrow The pain spread out in her wing nohen she opened it, as if so out runners inside her, prickling her with thorns as it grew The weather had become colder as she fleard the Rain Wilds There were no deserts, no warion of the world Heat seemed to well up fro it nearly as warm as the southern lands were at this time of year But now she had left the dry lands and war had claimed its due The cold stiffened the flesh around her wound,a torment

IceFyre had not coon to accoons preferred to be solitary rather than social To eat well, each needed a large hunting territory It had only been when she had left his side and he had not followed that the hu him, all that time She could not recall that he had ever requested her to stay; neither had he asked her to leave

He had all he needed fro one another, they had rew to fullisland, and there lay the eggs that he had already fertilized But once he had inated her, there was no reason for his hatched into serpents that would slither into the sea and renew the endless cycle of dragon-egg-serpent-cocoon-dragon, the e would continue Eventually, there would be other dragons for him to encounter, when he chose to seek their co as she had Having hatched so alone and isolated, had she learned undragonlike behaviour from humans?

She uncoiled slowly and then even s to the overcast day She stretched, alreadythe warmth of the sands, and tried not to wonder if the journey back to Trehaug were beyond her strength Had she waited too long, hoping she would heal on her own?

It hurt to crane her neck to inspect the wound It smelled foul and when she er that such a thing had befallen her, and then used the strength of that anger to tighten the muscles there The movement forced more liquid from the wound It hurt and stank terribly, but when she had finished, her skin felt less tight She could fly Not without pain, and not swiftly, but she could fly Tonight she would take ht fro to be difficult

She wanted to fly directly to Trehaug in the hope of locating Malta and Reyn quickly and having one of her Elderling servants remove the arrowhead from her flesh A direct route would have been best, but the thick forests of the region on to land in such a thickly treed area was difficult at the best of ti down through the canopy So she had followed first the coast and then the Rain Wild River Theas river ed on the shores to root and roll and as the forest creatures sought water If she were fortunate, as she had been last night, she could co on a marshy riverfront strip

If she were unfortunate, she could always land in the river shallows and crawl out onto whatever bank the river offered That, she feared,And while she did not doubt that she could survive such an unpleasantly cold and wet landing, she dreaded the thought of atteht from such a place As she had to do now

Wings half-extended, she walked down to the water’s edge and drank, wrinkling her nostrils at the bitter taste of the water Once she had sated her thirst, she opened her wings and sprang into the sky

With a wild flapping of her wings, she crashed back to earth again It was not a long fall, but it jarred her, breaking her pain into sharp-edged fragments that stabbed every interior space of her body The shock jabbed the air fros and crushed a hoarse squawk of pain fros still half-open Her tender side struck the earth Stunned, she sprawled, waiting for the agony to pass It did not, but gradually it faded to a bearable level

Tintaglia lowered her head to her chest, gathered her legs under her and slowly folded her wings She badly wanted to rest But if she did she would awaken hungrier and stiffer than she was now and with the daylight fading No She had to fly and now The longer she waited, the more her physical abilities would wane She needed to fly while she still could