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completely gone that Arthur blinked and shook himself, like a man coming out of a trance.
    Then he pulled the sword out of its jeweled scabbard. I recognized the word Excalibur incised on its fine steel blade. It was the sword I had taken from Grendel’s cave, the night Beowulf and I killed the monster’s mother. Anya had held it all these years,protected it from Aten’s knowledge, held it for the moment when Arthur needed it.
    Arthur swished the blade through the night air, his grin bright enough to rival the full moon.
    Then we heard the roar of the dragon.
    8
    It was a dinosaur, of course, a giant raptor fetched by Aten from its own time and translated across millions of years to kill Arthur.
    It came crashing out of the woods, roaringlike a steam locomotive, stepping nimbly on its two hind legs. Three times my own height, it had teeth lining its massive jaw that were the size of butcher’s knives, sharp and serrated. The claws on its hind feet were the length of my forearm, curved like scimitars. Its forelegs were smaller, almost weak looking compared to the hind, but they, too, bore slashing claws.
    I pulled my sword out asthe monster’s beady little eyes focused on us. Arthur turned and ran.
    But only as far as our impromptu camp. The horses were bucking and neighing with terror. He slashed their tethers with one stroke of Excalibur, and they bolted away, galloping toward safety. Arthur picked up his shield and came back to stand at my side.
    “We’ll have a better chance if we can approach it from two sides,” hesaid. His voice was calm and flat, as if he were discussing tactics over a map in the safety of his castle.
    “We should do what the horses did,” I said.
    “Run?”
    “As fast as we can,” I replied fervently.
    “No, Orion. If we don’t kill this dragon it will ravage the countryside. It will kill the villagers and their livestock. We must protect them.”
    Two puny men armed only with swords against atwenty-ton killing machine.
    But I nodded and edged off toward the water. Arthur sidled in the other direction, his eyes on the “dragon,” his new sword held high in his right hand.
    The dinosaur looked from him to me, swiveling its ponderous head slowly. It stepped toward me, hesitant, its tiny brain perhaps puzzled by the maneuvers of intelligent prey.
    I dared not go so far out into the waterthat I could not move swiftly. I yelled at the dinosaur and waved my sword in the air, trying to hold its attention while Arthur moved stealthily behind it. It leaned down in my direction, as if to see me more clearly. I felt its breath, hot enough to make me almost think it could actually breathe fire.
    I waited until those monstrous teeth were gaping just above me, then thrust my sword intothe beast, into the base of its jaw, with all the power I could muster from both my arms.
    The dinosaur howled and reared, lifting me completely off my feet. My sword was lodged in its jaw and I clung to the hilt with both hands, my legs dangling uselessly in midair.
    Arthur dashed in and slashed at the beast’s belly. Even in the pale moonlight I could see his blade redden.
    The dinosaur bellowedand shook its head so viciously that I was dislodged and flung to the ground, my sword still wedged in its jaw. Stunned, I saw through a red haze of pain the dinosaur turn on Arthur, raking his shield with the powerful claws of one hind foot. Arthur tumbled onto his back and the beast bent over him, jaws gaping wide.
    But Arthur still clutched Excalibur and slashed at the dinosaur’s snout as hescrambled backward, trying to rise to his feet. The dinosaur yowled and tried to pin Arthur to the ground with one foot, but Arthur scrabbled out of the way once, twice …
    I pulled myself to my feet and, avoiding the beast’s heavy swinging tail, leaped upon its back. Like a monkey clambering up a tree I scaled along the dinosaur’s spine, climbing toward its massive bony skull.
    It must have feltme on its back, for it stopped