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.A bad beginning, Dweller; no matter, it will end well—All Dithra’s body went tense with rage as Hasai sang in the predictive mode, future definite, and the song was true and did not choke itself.She flung herself at him again, but sidewise this time, fang-sheaths retracted and every topaz fang showing, the great curve of her tail whipping around to pinion Hasai’s tail harmless.They closed, and tangled.Hasai whipped his neck back out of the way of her fangs closing in it: but at the same time Segnbora saw the fire build abruptly behind Dithra’s eyes, knew that a blast of Dragonfire was coming, and lifted Skádhwë.NO, Hasai cried into her mind, do not! Use it now and it will be useless for the most important part— He lunged with his head like a striking snake, his jaws open, and clamped them down hard around Dithra’s, so that she struggled, impotent to flame at him.From behind, what was left free of her tail came flailing around, the terrible spear-long spine ready to strike.Hasai’s tail writhed itself free and twined with hers, straining against it.The two fell together, rolling over and over on the stones.Dithra changed her tactic, now not trying to get free, but pulling Hasai closer to her, to savage him with her hind talons.Dragons had few internal organs any more, but if ripped open from keel to vent, a Dracon body would die soon enough, simply from the damage to the tissue-network that carried its energy through it.And Dragons had vulnerable points: the spine, the master-junction behind the head where Dragonfire was spawned, the brain.Disrupt those, and death would be certain, though not swift—Dragons were too tough to die quickly.They were still rolling, and Hasai was just holding Dithra away from him: she was mostly kicking air, and her song was reduced to a choked hissing thunder of rage and fear.Scraps of star-emerald and black sapphire and diamond lay about the stones—lost scales, torn bits of hide: some of those kicks were beginning to reach their target.Hasai planted his hind legs hard in Dithra’s gut and pushed her away, all the time holding on, holding like grim death to her jaws, still clamped in his own.Now, sdaha, he said in Segnbora’s mind, very shortly now—Segnbora still had no idea what he wanted from her, and was rather shocked as well by the tone of his mind, all merriment and anticipation.He had no answer for her, though, and no time to answer.They rolled again, almost to her feet, and Segnbora backed up hurriedly to avoid one of Dithra’s wing-barbs coming down on top of her: it split a boulder, flailed away again.Now, Hasai thought again; and then he lost his grip on Dithra’s jaws.They opened, and Dragonfire burst out with awful force, real as’rien such as Hasai had used on the ice elemental; the air exploded out of its path, thunder followed it.The stream of it went over Hasai’s shoulder, moving as they still rolled, and Dragons scattered so as not to be caught in the traveling stream of it.Then Hasai caught Dithra’s head again, with a coil of his tail, and began pulling it slowly back and back, away from him.He was on the bottom of the tangle at the moment, his talons well dug into the stones, Dithra abruptly upside-down on top of him.Segnbora’s breath went out of her in a rush as she saw the awful dead-white scorch where Dithra’s Dragonfire had caught him under the breast and at the wing-root, and Hasai’s ehhath was pained now, but the cheer was still there, and his looped tail threw another loop around Dithra’s neck and pulled her head down and down as if on a rope.Fire came raging out of her again and again, in that terrible destroying stream, but it hit nothing but air, or the stones, both of which burned away to nothing.Then Hasai snaked his head around behind Dithra’s.A final flare of terror in the eyes, a final wild struggle, all her body writhing now, Dragonfire spewing out with desperate violence: but to no effect.Hasai’s jaws clamped down with great accuracy, just behind the spine of her face-shield, and bit her in the brain.Her body started to go limp: her thrashing began to slow.Sdaha! Hasai said.Segnbora came forward slowly, looking at the twitching body, but mostly at the eyes, dimming now, the fire going out from behind them: and that, at least, she found quite familiar.She put Skádhwë away.Now she understood Hasai’s fear, earlier.It was not himself he had been afraid for.Segnbora remembered how it had been, that first time.The outrage, the violation of having a crowd of Dragons poured into one’s head.She had gotten used to it.But could she get used to this—the whole species sharing soul-space with her? Could she bear it and not go mad? More—could she survive it?She looked up at Hasai as she stood by Dithra’s huge head.He looked down at her, and said nothing, just waited, while the light in Dithra’s eyes pulsed feebly, dimmer with every pulse.Well, rahiw’sheh, he said finally.He did not say the rest of it: let us see how far your Advocacy goes.She nodded and reached down to touch Dithra, stroking the head-shield.“DragonChief,” she said, “you have no one to go mdahaih to.No one but me.”Those eyes dwelt on her, fading.Rage was still in them, and now grief as well, and the wounded pride they had seen earlier.Dithra tried to open her mouth, but there was no song left in her, and thought as well was fading fast.You can be right, Segnbora said to her, stroking her still.You can win.And kill all Dragonkind doing it.Or lose.Au, Dweller, for the Immanence’s sake if not theirs! —A long pause.The last twitches of the limbs became still.Dithra’s eyes grew dark.And the last thought came, faint.For theirs, then—The crack in her mind opened, was shouldered wide.Segnbora knew it of old, knew the pain that would follow, and braced herself.It was useless.Compared to pains she had felt earlier, this new one was like the pain the Goddess felt in giving birth to the worlds, though reversed: inexpressible masses of something living that came thrusting inward, not out.The pain was as much to be resisted or prepared for as one might resist an avalanche or a landslide with one’s bare hands.Minds and minds and minds came crowding into Segnbora’s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]