The green lightning connected with the dragon, causing him to bunch up and seize midair--but at the same time, a brilliant white beam of light lanced from his jaws, catching Numair full in the face.

They both plunged to the ground. The dragon crashed into some debris that had been piled up against the building, but Numair landed almost automatically on all fours. Immediately he shot to his feet, rubbing his eyes, partly blinded. Fuzzy dark spots swam in his vision. The dragon was still writhing behind him, but he ignored that for the moment, because his breath was already coming harder and harder in his lungs.

He fumbled with his bag, extracting the little square pillbox, and a white pill from that. As he raised it to his lips, a loud smashing sound in front of him made him look up.

The other figure, the dark-furred creature with the small orange eyes, had just broken through a fence or something between this building and the next. He was now standing in the livid pool of light that fell from the street behind him, bits of shattered wood tumbling to the ground around him, his little eyes fixed on Numair.

Numair could also hear the dragon rising to his feet with some difficulty, muttering as he did. Silently, Numair put the pill in his mouth and crushed it between his teeth.