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Story is in a medievalish setting and starts with a woman who has been falsely accused of being a witch being taken by 2 men to be sacrificed to a dragon.

She ends up befriending the (male) dragon, who is able to transform into various forms, including human, and can speak only the language of whatever form he is in. e.g. can speak English in human form, but can't in dragon form.

He needs to return to his dragon form every day at sunrise or he dies.

Contact with iron or steel causes him pain and prevents him from transforming. Near the end of the book, he's been put in handcuffs by one of the two men from the start and the woman has to get the assistance of the other one (village blacksmith?) to remove them before sunrise, which they manage to do just in time.

I think I read it maybe 10 years ago.

I also remember it was a very short book, probably only about 100 pages.

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Could it be "Dragon's Bait"?

Cover image

Fifteen-year-old Alys is not a witch. But that doesn't matter--the villagers think she is and have staked her out on a hillside as a sacrifice to the local dragon. It's late, it's cold, and it's raining, and Alys can think of only one thing--revenge. But first she's got to escape, and even if she does, how can one girl possibly take on an entire town alone? Then the dragon arrives--a dragon that could quite possibly be the perfect ally. . . .

It was published April 1st, 2003, which matches the timeframe.

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  • Yes. That is definitely it.
    – Compro01
    Commented Aug 1, 2014 at 17:29
  • One correction on the publishing date: it was originally published in 1992 (ISBN 0152007261)
    – KurtPreston
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 3:16

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