Robert had dealt with fire-breathers before—some of the common house-dragons could give you a painful singe when cornered, along with a mildly venomous nip. But diving for cover as a white-hot flame sizzled between his hair and his hat… this was terror, this was bowel and bladder and legs all turning to water together, this was abandoning all concern for any other person in the world. This was the moment when Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax, eighteen years old, realized that he really was going to die.
