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Meat. She’d been following his thoughts sleepily, and the idea of fruit didn’t please her. Find meat. She let the sharpness of her hunger touch him. He was appalled. He’d just fed her!

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“Maybe I’ll find some meat.” Then, trying to accept the desperation of their situation, he forced himself to say, “I’ll try.”

He walked back to the boat and looked at the selection of animal-killing tools that remained to him. The hatchet still lay in the bloody bilgewater. His gorge rose as he picked it out and set it on the seat to dry. Jess’s blood, diluted with slimy water, was on his hands now. He knelt and thrust his hand down through the matted debris and into the river water to sluice it off. To his surprise, it did not sting as he had expected it to. Was he becoming accustomed to it? A glance around at the river showed him that not only was it far less acid than it had been, but that the level was much lower. The high water mark on the tree trunks was well over his head now.

He worked his way over to the cage of tree trunks that edged the river, stepping from log to log. Sometimes they bobbed deeper than he expected, and one spun under his foot, nearly dumping him into the river. But at last he stood at the edge of the forest, looking up at the trees. He knew he’d seen Jess descend one of those trunks, but they all suddenly looked much smoother than they had before. When was the last time he’d climbed a tree? He couldn’t have been more than ten years old, and it had been a friendly apple tree, its branches laden with sweet fruit. The memory of those apples made him swallow hard against his hunger. Well, no help for it. Up he must go.

The horn’s long low call startled him. He spun to face it as Relpda lifted her head and trumpeted out a response to it. The sound seemed to come from all around him. He stared around wildly, even looking up into the trees. Relpda was gazing upstream and as he watched her, she lifted her chin again and trumpeted.

By hops and tiptoeing runs, he ventured to the very edge of the packed debris and peered upriver. The light on the water dazzled him and for a time he could see nothing. Then, as if salvation were appearing in response to his most heartfelt dream, he made out the outline of a small boat and a man at the oars. And it was coming toward them. He lifted both his arms and waved them over his head. “Hey! Over here, over here!” he shouted, and in response, the man in the boat lifted a hand and waved at him.

Slowly, so slowly, the boat and its occupant grew larger. Sedric’s eyes ran with tears, and not all of them were from the effort of keeping his light-dazzled gaze on the water. Carson recognized him before he knew the hunter. “SEDRIC!” he cried, sending his deep-chested shout of joy across the water to him. Then the hunter redoubled his efforts with the oars. It still seemed an eternity before Sedric could kneel and catch the line that Carson tossed to him. He drew the boat in close to the logs and then didn’t know what else to do. He was grinning foolishly, trembling with relief.

“Thank Sa you’re alive! And the dragon, too? That’s a double miracle, then. And she’s up and out of the water! How did you do it? Look at you! The river worked you over, didn’t it? Here, let me take that and I’ll make her fast. What do you need first? Water? Food? I thought I’d find you half dead if I found you at all!”

He stood shaking as Carson did all the talking for both of them. In moments the boat was secured to the edge of the debris island, and without his asking, Carson was offering him a waterskin. He drank greedily, paused to mutter, “Sa be praised and thank you,” before drinking again. Carson watched him, his grin white in his beard. He looked weary and yet so triumphant that he shone.

As Sedric returned the waterskin to him, the hunter pushed a flat ship’s biscuit into his hands. Sedric suddenly felt giddy with the smell of food. Perhaps he swayed on his feet, for Carson caught his elbow. “Sit down. Sit down and eat slow. You’re going to be all right now. You’ve had a bad time, but everything’s come right now. For you, too!” he assured Relpda as the dragon trumpeted her protest that Sedric was eating and she wasn’t. Sedric was grateful but suddenly so hungry he could scarcely focus on Carson’s words or Relpda’s complaints. He broke off a piece of the hard bread and chewed it slowly. His jaw hurt, and he couldn’t chew on the bruised side. Swallowing food made the pain worth it. He broke off another bite and ate it slowly.

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Carson left him and went over to speak with the dragon. When he came back, he was shaking his head in admiration. “That’s a nice bit of work there; it will probably fall apart if she moves around at all, but having a place to haul out is better than any of the other dragons have had.” pqdm.com