Page 64 of Dragon Rule (Age of Fire 5)

“Why were you seeking us?” the Copper asked.

“After our fight in Swayport I asked some questions of some sea-elves I know—don’t tell me to reveal their location, I’ll keep the secrets of one who’s been kind to me or I’ll bleed out.”

“Sea-elves? I thought Wrimere killed them all,” LaDibar said.

“Never mind the sea-elves,” the Copper said.

“I’ve been among few enough of my kind,” Shadowcatch said. “Thought I’d join you. Seems like a good bunch of fighting dragons. I’m used to living with my own kind. Having females about, too.”

“You thought you’d find us hospitable after you tried to kill our Tyr?” HeBellereth asked.

“That was just war, and I was hired to fight. Nothing personal, my Tyr.”

“Of course,” the Copper said.

“I say we bleed him out and let the Aerial Host drink to your health, my Tyr. He’s an assassin if I ever smelled one.”

Shadowcatch’s scale bristled but he said nothing.

“You’d like to join us, Shadowcatch? What are your qualifications?”

“I can fight,” he said. “I’ve lived in the Upper World on my own since the Wizard got himself roasted by that NooSho—I mean AuRon. The Gray.”

“Ah, yes, the Gray. Many paths lead back to him,” the Copper said. Any friend of the Gray might be an enemy to him. Though now he had the advantage of his brother; three of his four hatchlings were serving the Lavadome in one manner or another.

“You like good food, I see,” the Copper said.

“The folks who hired me fed me well even if they couldn’t always pay.”

“An easy life?” the Copper asked.

“You’d be surprised what having a dragon hanging around keeps away. Yeah, I call it an easy life.”

“One thing about you impressed me. The other dragons they’d hired. They flew away as soon as they saw the strength arrayed against them.”

Shadowcatch ground his teeth, creating a low clatter like woodpeckers all working the same tree. “Trash, those. Halfwit vagabonds from the Wizard’s Isle.”

“AuRon’s Isle, you mean.”

“Some call it that.”

“When we attacked, they flew away, but you stayed. Outnumbered forty to one or more, if you count the hominids, you stayed.”

“Yes,” Shadowcatch said.

“Why?”

“They paid me. I gave my word to them. I’d keep it.”

“Your word’s that important to you, that you’d die for it?” LaDibar asked, as if he was having trouble with the concept.

“Certainty nothing. I have a way of surviving.”

There was more to this black dragon than met the eye. He might be a little fat, and stupid-looking as the thickest Skotl, but there were depths to him, the Copper decided.

“Ever since then I’ve been thinking I need a bodyguard,” the Copper said. “Someone a little more intimidating than griffaran. Hominids don’t fear anything with feathers as they ought.”

“But—my Tyr,” NoSohoth protested. “He’s an outsider. He tried to kill you.”

---