Chapter Twenty
The aforementioned Lord Werth, together with his wife, his sister, his niece and his guests, gazed upon the dragon — or the dragon’s head, that being all that could then be seen — in speechless amazement. One might hold an arcane ritual with the intention of summoning a dragon, but one did so without in any great degree expecting success.
And unlike Lord Maundevyle, this dragon spoke.
The reigning silence was broken only by the thin shrieks of Miss Horne, who, prostrate upon the floor, appeared to be trying to inhale the contents of her pungent phial, much good it would do her.
The dragon flicked out her tongue, and tasted Miss Horne’s leg.
‘I might eat her,’ said she conversationally, ‘if only to put a stop to that horrible noise. But I am afraid she does not taste at
