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"Fred?"

"A friend of mine in the world that I came here from. I don't suppose that I will ever see him again. The dragons back home were very different from those here, and he would have found it hard to believe that they could be friendly."

"I'm afraid that there was little chance of our being offered a ride. Dragons are proud beasts, and it's very rare for a human ever to get to ride on one."

"Without benefit of a lift from Steadfast, all the excitement is going to be over by the time we get back to the fort, isn't it? I'd like to have witnessed his raid on the enemy, but he must be able to fly many times faster than we can travel on horseback."

"That's true enough."

"I had originally assumed that the result of a dragon's attack would be a foregone conclusion: the destruction of whatever was attacked. But going by what Steadfast told me about what happened to his mate, it sounds as though there's a real risk that they might be able to shoot him down."

1. "There's a risk of that, yes, if their archers are sufficiently disciplined not to turn and run. He will have to come in low if he's to use his ability to breathe flame effectively."
2. "There should be little risk. The Helsingdonians have developed what they call 'bombs', which dragons can drop from a height beyond the range of arrows. I'm sure that the Colonel will turn a blind eye to Steadfast taking some.

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