Gathon felt the fight go out of him as the dragon's tail wound tighter around him. He felt his breastplate creak and buckle under the strain.

The beast leered down at him through green eyes. He could smell the chemical stench from its maw, see flecks of flesh stuck between its needle teeth, big as pine branches. And the breath left him. He could no longer inhale fully as his own breastplate choked him.

Magda would have laughed, had she been able to. She stood before the ebony throne like a statue, channeling her whole self into the beast, waiting to be in there with it, looking through its eyes when it killed him.

A tunnel of grey motes clouded the edges of Gathon's vision. He would black out soon. And still the beast did no bite down. Magda must be doing this. She wanted it slow.

Then from the depths of Gathon's flagging mind came a voice from his youth. A reedy, dry voice. His old lore master... what was his name again? So many years...

"When fighting a dragon, there is no weak point in the hide," wheezed the voice. "Nor in the face. The only weak points are down the throat - and good luck reaching there - or the horns, but only if you can break one."

Gathon's eyes flitted to the great lizard's left horn. It was broken, no doubt in some previous battle with one of its own kind. And Gathon remembered: a broken horn meant an exposed nerve. The dragon could doubtless handle the pain by now. But could Magda?

Summoning the last of his strength, Gathon made a sign of power, and then formed a frozen shard of ice out of the air, and stabbed it down with all his might into the hollow point of the broken horn.

The beast went limp instantly consciousness wrenched from it, and a shriek of pain went up from the woman by the throne. Magda collapsed, clutching her head.

Gathon hit the ground hard, rolled and struggled from his breastplate, picking up his sword as he rolled. He strode across the basalt of the throne room to where Magda lay, then thought better of it.

He lifted Magda's staff, and with a smirk he vanished, leaving her to the maddened beast as it came to its senses.