Dragon's Ring: Chapter Nineteen

    With his charge as safe as possible, and with what safeguards he could contrive on the house to hide her, Fionn was able to slip out. There was considerable work to be done, preparing things. Firstly that abomination of a straight road had to be prepared to be set at rights. That involved some magic, some brute force and some careful balancing. Then he was overdue some time with his gold, not to mention spreading his long ears for rumors and information in the Conclave.

    One piece of news did surprise him. He need no longer worry about the idea of Jakarin ambushing him. It appeared that a lack of gold at molt was not going to be a problem for that dragon any more. The conclave was full of the story. A fight, to the death between Jakarin and Zuamar. A grim and desperate struggle . . . if a one sided fight. Jakarin had had little more than a large mouth to defend herself with, and that had proved inadequate against the speed, strength and the experienced cunning of the older dragon.

    Fear stirred in the conclave. Yes, smaller, younger dragons fought. Some died, although it was rare. But the great old ones had not battled, not for centuries anyway. Everyone knew Jakarin had lost her hoard. Everyone assumed she had tried theft on Zuamar. Mostly, they believed that she’d deserved what she got.

    But Zuamar had sought her out afterwards. And her friend Myrcupa swore that she’d been nowhere near the older dragon’s territory.

    Of course, he would say that.

    But there was a lot of talk of the old times. Times when dragon fought dragon. When dragon was sent to fight dragon.

    Zuamar himself had not come in. But he was reported to have been seen flying over the ocean. Flying a slow, questing search pattern.

    Other dragons had been seen with him from time to time. And he was not confining himself to the sky over his demesnes.

    It was a time of changes, and changes made for great uneasiness.