Thanks to Heeby’s powers of flight, he had kept that promise. But Thymara hadn’t been back since that first visit. Curiosity and wariness battled in her whenever she thought of returning to the city.

“Please. I have to show you something there!”

Rapskal’s words dragged her back to the present. “I can’t. I have to get meat for Sintara.”

“Please!” Rapskal cocked his head. His loose dark hair fell half across his eyes, and he stared at her appealingly.

“Rapskal, I can’t. She’s hungry.” Why were the words so hard to say?

“Well . . . she should be flying and hunting. Maybe she’d try harder if you let her be hungry for a day or—”

“Rapskal! Would you let Heeby just be hungry?”

He kicked, half angrily, half shamed, at the thick layer of forest detritus. “No,” he admitted. “No, I couldn’t. Not my Heeby. But she’s sweet. Not like Sintara.”

That stung. “Sintara’s not so bad!” She was, really. But that was between her and her dragon. “I can’t go with you, Rapskal. I have to go hunting now.”

Rapskal flung up his hands, surrendering. “Oh, very well.” He favored her with a smile. “Tomorrow, then. Maybe it will be less rainy. We could go early and spend the whole day in the city.”

“Rapskal, I can’t!” She longed to soar through the morning sky on a dragon’s back. Longed to feel what it was to fly, study just how the dragon did it. “I can’t be gone a whole day. I need to hunt for Sintara, every day. Until she’s fed, I can’t do anything else. Can’t patch the roof of our hut, can’t mend my trousers, can’t do anything. She nags me in her thoughts; I feel her hunger. Don’t you remember what that was like?”

She studied his face as he knit his finely scaled brows. “I do,” he admitted at last. “Yes. Well.” He sighed abruptly. “I’ll help you hunt today,” he offered.

“And I would thank you for that, and it would help today.” She well knew that Tats had stalked off without her. There’d be no catching up with him. “But it won’t do a thing about Sintara being hungry tomorrow.”

He bit his upper lip and wriggled thoughtfully as if he were a child. “I see. Very well. I’ll help you hunt today to feed your lazy dragon. And tomorrow, I’ll think of something so that she can be fed without you spending the whole day on it. Then would you come with me to Kelsingra?”

“I would. With my most hearty thanks!”

“Oh, you will be more than thankful at what I wish to show you! And now, let’s hunt!”

“Get up!”

Selden came awake shaking and disoriented. Usually they let him sleep at this time of day, didn’t they? What time of day was it? The light from a lantern blinded him. He sat up slowly, his arm across his eyes to shelter them. “What do you want of me?” he asked. He knew they wouldn’t answer him. He spoke the words to remind himself that he was a man, not a dumb animal.