At the risk of slipping from her precarious resting spot, Reecah grasped the top of Lurker’s wing and peered at the spectacle. A swarm of dragons—the term she thought best summed up what she witnessed—winged their way across the valley toward the south rim.
“What’s going on?”
Lurker relaxed the pressure on his wing and Reecah almost pitched over the edge. His wing went rigid again, preventing her from falling. “Stay back. Something’s happening.”
Reecah shot him a frustrated look. “I can see that.”
“Shh!” Swoop appeared to be concentrating on something Reecah couldn’t hear. The dragon’s face went from bewilderment to awe and finally twisted with concern. “They’re attacking the king’s men! We need to get Reecah out of here before they return!”
Reecah looked from one dragon to the other. There was no way she was scaling back down the cliff.
Dragon Home
Swoop peered over the edge, looking down at Reecah clinging spread eagle to the cliff below. “Hurry up, Reecah.”
Raver perched beside the brown dragon, also staring at her. “Hurry up! Hurry up!”
Reecah barely heard her raven over the tumult taking place across the valley.
Every now and then she sensed in her mind Swoop or Lurker flinching—how this was possible, she had no idea. It was as if she was attuned to their fear.
Lurker hovered below her position, ostensibly to catch her if she slipped. The selfless act wasn’t lost on her but she wasn’t keen on it. She feared she would take him to his death were that to happen.
Looking up, the last bit of energy left her. She was a couple of arm lengths away from the safety of the ledge but she may as well have been on the far side of the valley. There were no imperfections in the rock anywhere around her—the uncompromising granite sloping slightly outward from where she clung for her life offered her no further handholds.
Seeing the treetops far below, there was no way she would be able to scale back down without falling. She was stuck. If the dragons weren’t with her, she would’ve screamed her frustration. Instead, she said as calmly as her trepidation allowed, “It’s no use. I’m done. I can’t go any higher.”
Lurker sounded alarmed. “You need to go back down, then.”
She forced a fake smile, shaking her head. “I can’t see where to put my feet.”
“What can I do?”
Biting back her anger for getting herself into such a predicament in the first place, she sighed. “I don’t know. Nothing.” She grimaced, the futility in her situation came through in her voice like a whine. “I can’t go up, and I can’t go…hey!”
Lurker’s snout butted into her backside, lifting her feet off their tenuous footholds. “Swoop, grab her!”
Swoop dropped to her scaly chest, one foreleg dangling over the precipice.
Reecah’s equilibrium pitched forward and then backward on the edge of Lurker’s face. With his assistance, the weight had been taken from her arms, but she had nowhere to go. Swoop’s foreleg was too short. Maintaining her grip on the wall wasn’t easy with Lurker shifting below her, his body undulating with each beat of his wings.
A gust of wind blew him to the side. “Now Swoop, I’m losing her!”
With the bulk of her weight on Lurker’s snout and him blowing around, Reecah’s fingers pulled free of the cliff face. She flailed her arms out wide, feeling him fall away.
She screamed.
A brown leather wing whapped her in the side. “Grab on!”
She clasped Swoop’s bony wingtip with one hand and attempted to latch on with her second but lacked the strength to pull her weight up. Her aching fingers slipped from Swoop’s wing.
“Hang on!” Swoop’s frantic voice thundered in her head.
A throaty growl sounded beneath her. Lurker rammed her against the rock face, the painful manoeuvre providing her enough height to latch onto Swoop’s wing with both hands. Before she knew what had happened, she sprawled on the ledge above—a noisy raven cawing in her ear.
“Hang on! Hang on!”
Reecah sat up and caught her breath, staring at Raver. The raven was gifted with imitating others’ voices, but as far as she knew, the only time he talked was after someone else had spoken first. No one had spoken that last phrase out loud.
Lurker flapped up to the alcove and landed on the lip. He stretched his neck and nuzzled Reecah’s cheek with the side of his rough face. “I thought we were going to lose you.”
Reecah wrapped an arm around his head and hugged him close. “I thought so too, but thanks to you and Swoop, I made it.”
“We need to get her out of here before they return. I can hear snatches of my father’s conversation. It’s not going well. If they return to find her here, we won’t be able to protect her.” Swoop’s attention lay across the valley.
Lurker pulled out of Reecah’s embrace, but he didn’t respond to Swoop—he considered the deep recess at the rear of the alcove.
Reecah peered into the shadows, startled by a pair of amethyst eyes staring back at her. “Is that the dragon from the campsite?”
Lurker nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“Not sure.” Lurker waddled to the purple dragon. Considering each other, they were obviously conversing without including Reecah.
Swoop’s head perked up and whipped around. Scrambling to Lurker’s side, her sudden movement caused Raver to fly to a small ledge near the roof of the alcove.
As one, the dragons turned their attention on Reecah, but it was Lurker’s voice she heard.
“Our silent friend says we must hurry if we wish to get you out of Dragon Home.”
Swoop’s voice jumped in. “What about the elders? I’m sure not all the adults are fighting.”
There was a long pause as Lurker and Swoop listened to the purple dragon, nodding several times.
Lurker’s voice informed Reecah, “She claims to know a secret way through Dragon Home only big enough for dragonlings.”
“What’s her name?”
Lurker turned to the purple dragon who shook her head. “She was never given a name. Shortly after discovering her brother’s body, her mother was killed in the clearing with my mother. She doesn’t know who her father is.”
Sadness filled Reecah. It was as if fate had brought her together with the purple dragon. Hearing of the dragon’s heart-wrenching story, Reecah understood her silence.
Walking up to the purple dragon, she declared, “Then we shall call her, Silence.”
“Silence! Silence!”
Lurker and Swoop regarded the raven with a frown but Silence nodded her head, a faint smile curling the corners of her mouth.
Lurker’s eyes widened. “I’ve never seen her react to anything before. Reecah, I believe you have made her happy for the first time in her life.”
Afraid of what her actions might provoke, Reecah patted Silence’s snout between her nostrils and eyes. Silence didn’t pull away, so Reecah stroked the ridges below her eyes.
“Would you look at that,” Swoop said in wonder. “She’s never let anyone get close to her before.”
“She did once. A few nights ago, actually. She kept Reecah warm.”
Reecah raised a cuff to her eyes to wipe away tears of happiness. She wrapped her arms around Silence’s head, ignoring the rows of dagger-like teeth lining her muzzle. Pulling Silence in tight, she whispered, “We’re your family, now. Don’t you ever forget that.”
Poppa’s words came to her. “We’ll always be here for you.” She placed a palm against Silence’s chest. “No matter what happens, as long as you feel us here, we’ll always be together.”
Wetness dampened the side of Reecah’s head. She pulled away. A dragon tear had fallen into her loose hair. She didn’t bother to wipe it away.
Swoop stepped to the edge of the lowest tier of Dragon Home and stared out. She returned just as quickly. “I hate to spoil the moment, but we need to go—now!”
/> Without a word, Silence led them into a rounded passageway large enough to accommodate an adult dragon—the lightless tunnel curving northward into the mountain.
It wasn’t long before Reecah had to keep a hand on Lurker’s shoulder to navigate the dark without hitting the unforgiving walls. Occasionally, Raver’s wings rustled behind them; the old raven maintaining its own pace.
Reecah sensed tunnels branching off by the difference in the sound of their footsteps and a change in air temperature. They never encountered another dragon until Lurker’s words startled her—their sudden inclusion in her thoughts exacerbated by the darkness.
“We’re approaching the lower level common area. Silence has gone ahead. She says there were several older dragons and a bunch of dragonlings there earlier.”
Lurker stopped walking as a faint light seeped into the tunnel ahead. A soft snort from behind told Reecah that Swoop was still with them.
Though the passageway was cool, sweat dampened Reecah’s underclothes. Shivering in silence, she wished she could listen in on the colony’s dragonspeak to learn what was going on.
A shadow filled the far end of the corridor, but didn’t come any closer.
“Silence says there are four adults in the common area and several dragonlings.”
Swoop stepped back and forth. “Now what?”
“Silence will distract the adults. If Reecah keeps hidden beside me, I’ll stick to the back wall. We’ll be out the far side before they know we’re there.” Lurker started forward. “Stay close.”
The outside light shone brightly at the end of the tunnel, leaving Reecah half blind. An expansive cavern opened up, its southern face exposed to the sky. The area was dominated by a pool of water at its centre—fed by a waterfall cascading down the rear wall of the cavern. The overflow from the pool plunged to the forest below.
Two white dragons, a black dragon and a grey dragon sitting beside the pool craned their horned heads, watching Silence saunter to the edge of the drop before she turned to face them.
Reecah whispered in Lurker’s ear. “Am I right in guessing that the white dragons are older females, the black one an older male and…what?”
“Shh!” Lurker warned. “Yes. The grey dragon is a male in the process of turning black. Now be quiet. Just because they’re old, doesn’t mean they’re deaf. They probably have eyes in the back of their head too.”
Despite her nervousness, Reecah smiled. She knew all about old people. Grammy always knew what she was up to, especially when she thought she was being her sneakiest.
She peeked beneath Lurker’s chin. Between the four adult dragons, five dragonlings splashed about in the water—two blues, an orange, a yellow and a brown—flicking water with their wings and spouting at each other.
“Ready?”
Reecah patted Lurker’s shoulder. They started into the common area, clinging to the back wall as it curved away from the pool.
Two of the dragonlings were instantly aware of Lurker and Swoop’s presence. They stopped splashing—their heads following Lurker as he walked across the back wall.
“We’re being watched,” came Swoop’s voice.
“Just keep moving.”
The rhythmic splash of the waterfall grew in volume, its splattering runnels sprinkling Reecah’s skin. A movement on the far side of the cascade drew her attention. A red dragonling stepped away from the far side of the waterfall.
Lurker’s focus was on the adult dragons.
Reecah patted his shoulder and said in the quietest, yet firmest voice she could muster, “Um, Lurker.”
Lurker didn’t respond. Whether because of the waterfall’s noise or his attention on the adults, Reecah didn’t know. She nearly slipped on the wet floor as she pulled down on his neck and spoke into his ear slits. “Lurker! Dragon. Straight ahead!”
The dragonling in the waterfall watched their approach with more interest than Reecah liked—its ruby eyes spotting her sneaking along beside Lurker.
Swoop recognized the danger and rushed past to distract the red dragonling. The remainder of the dragonlings in the water stopped splashing, their eyes following Swoop.
Finally noticing the dilemma in front of them, Lurker said, “Oh, great. A red dragon.”
Reecah made a note to ask him about that later, but for now, she tried to make herself as small as possible.
The red dragon’s eyes locked on her. It opened its mouth wide, emitting a high-pitched screech.
“Time to run!” Lurker picked up his pace, splashing through the base of the falls.
“Run! Run!” Raver flapped high overhead.
Unable to hang on, Reecah ran beside Lurker surprised at how fast he moved. She stumbled in the stream, her feet slipping out from underneath her. Grabbing onto Lurker’s passing wing, she righted herself.
Alerted by the red dragonling, the adult beasts emitted a community roar that shook the cavern.
Swoop pushed the red dragon against the wall but it forced itself past her and lunged at Reecah.
Clutching Lurker’s wingtip, Reecah swung her feet into the air, her backside eluding the red dragon’s snapping mouth by a hair’s breadth. Her momentum carried her onto the far shore. Hitting the ground running, she fled toward the darkness of the far exit tunnel cut into the back corner.
Silence ran toward them—the four adult dragons uncoiling to give chase. Cutting Reecah off, Silence pointed her snout into a thin crevice Reecah hadn’t seen, her amethyst eyes pleading for Reecah to hurry. “In there, quick.”
Reecah frowned at the dark cleft but Raver never slowed his flight into the gap.
Lurker nudged her after the raven, following closely behind Swoop—the space barely wide enough for the dragonlings.
Silence backed into the crevice behind them, stopping to bar the red dragonling from giving chase.
Running down the narrow passage, Reecah slowed and called over her shoulder, “Thank you, Silence. Remember, we’re with you always!”
The angered roars of the adult dragons reverberated through the escape tunnel; their raucous displeasure accompanied by the gnashing of teeth.
Silence had engaged the red dragonling.
Dragon Fall
Flames scoured the ridgeline as far as Jonas Junior could see.
Following Jaxon’s lead, Jonas’s group and the high king’s men had pursued Reecah’s flight to a narrow cleft along the brink of the drop-off and lost track of her.
One of Jonas’ men entered the cleft to inspect what lay below. Encumbered by his heavy equipment he got caught up on something. In an effort to free himself, he slipped. An eerie cry escaped his mouth as he fell to his death.
Undeterred, Jaxon was adamant Reecah had descended the drop-off at this point. The surly commander ordered his men to hammer spikes into the rock and secure ropes to lower their heavier equipment to the valley floor.
They were joined by a larger group of reinforcements who had lugged disassembled ballistae and their accompanying missiles. It took a while to construct a proper harness to house the precious ballistae. Before they had a chance to secure the parts and lower them, a thunderous din echoed off the heights. A wave of dragons flew toward them from across the valley, sending them scurrying back to a line of tumbled mountain debris to make a stand.
The faces of Jonas’ dragon hunters paled at the sheer number of flying leviathans, but the king’s men never faltered. Shield walls formed an outer perimeter with practiced precision, protecting a line of archers with longbows and heavy shafted arrows.
More shield walls went up around a black-bearded hulk of a man—the commander of the royal forces. Twelve robed figures, bearing staffs adorned with twinkling baubles and fiery-gemmed trinkets, intoned a litany of spells.
“Cover the ballistae!” the commander roared.
Jonas and his men retreated to the centre of the structured formation, his dragon hunt firebreakers adding their defensive bulk to the crews hastily assembling four daunting machines capable of
hurling tree trunk-sized missiles.
The first line of dragons dropped on their position, hitting them hard; a solid wave of fire scorching anything not sheltered beneath heavy iron or protected by rock. Several unlucky victims engulfed in dragon fire rose screaming from behind the defensive lines and dropped to the ground, writhing in agony.
The wizards filled the air with ice spells and cast balls of lightning at a wall of dragons so thick they couldn’t miss.
Longbows thrummed into the pack—the power behind the heavy arrows enough to penetrate all but the toughest of dragon scales.
Hundreds of king’s men hit the dragon wave hard—their combined efforts bringing down a solitary dragon that had taken an arrow in its azure eye.
The injured dragon hit the mountainside hard near the outer line, churning up earth and plant life as it ground to a halt. Still alive, it struggled to right itself. Several men emerged from behind the closest shield wall, cut it to shreds with heavy axes, and scrambled back to safety.
Junior cowered beside the mutilated bulk of Grog who had insisted on accompanying Jonas and his fellow dragon hunters. One look at the massive man confirmed that he should still be lying in a bed recovering from the burns he’d received in the spring, but Grog wasn’t an ordinary man. He was tougher than a boiled owl and had the tenacity of an angry hornet when provoked.
Grog was one of the few men Junior admired. The bear of a man had always struck him as a mild-mannered, bashful gentleman when not in Jonas’ employ.
Just being beside the disfigured firebreaker provided Junior an odd sense of calm in the face of an all-out dragon attack.
The ferocity of the assault fell away as the last dragon soared overhead. Junior risked leaning out from beneath the line of shields to observe the dragon formation turn in two arcs, one south and the other north. They were preparing to hit them from opposite directions.
“Get yourself down here, laddie, else you’ll be frying. I ain’t to be the one to tell your old man you got yourself burned like old Grog.” Grog wrapped his free hand around Junior’s forearm and yanked him down like he was a little child.
Reecah's Flight Page 20
