Kallista pointed south. “That way, but—”
Before she could finish, Angus shouted, “Let’s get them!”
Simoni gunned Devastation’s throttle, sending their dragon darting into the fog bank.
“What are you doing?” Trenton yelled after them. “You won’t be able to see a thing.” But it was too late. They were gone.
Kallista clenched her jaw. Even she wasn’t that crazy.
“Gots to go after ’em, yeah, yeah?” Plucky asked.
Clyde scratched the back of his neck, his dark eyes wide as he stared at the nearby dense gray wall.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Trenton said.
That was exactly what Kallista was thinking. She circled above the river, hoping Simoni and Angus would return. It was strange to be the cautious one; in the past, she’d always been the first to take chances. But this battle was nothing like the others they’d had with dragons. What happened to Simoni’s carefully planned strategy?
After nearly a minute passed with no sign of their friends, Kallista blew out an exasperated breath. “We have to go after them.”
Trenton looked at her and nodded. “Into the fog.”
Cold, wet air blasted Trenton’s face. He’d slowed Ladon’s wings, but with the thick fog surrounding them, it was impossible to tell how fast they were moving.
Kallista kept wiping the moisture from her goggles, but Trenton knew there was nothing to see. Even the dragon’s powerful headlights merely reflected off the fog. Less than fifty feet to their right, Clyde and Plucky were visible only as a faint silhouette marked by the twin glow of their dragon’s eyes.
“Let’s go a little higher,” Trenton called, pulling back on the flight stick. The last thing they needed was to run into a hill.
“Sticking with you.” Clyde’s voice floated ghostlike through the mist as the shadow that was his dragon rose with them.
Kallista cupped her hands to her mouth. “Simoni! Angus!”
There was no answer. She glanced at the compass and steered more to the left.
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” Trenton said. “Angus’s stupid risks put all of us in danger. I can’t believe Simoni flew right in.”
“You agreed to bring them,” Kallista said.
Trenton had no response to that. Instead, he flexed his gloved hands, trying to keep his fingers warm.
A few minutes later, Kallista scooted forward in her seat. “I see something.”
Trenton leaned to the right to look around her. The fog appeared to be thinning, letting a few rays of sunlight push through. He thought he could make out shapes ahead. He eased the flight stick back, his right hand hovering above the fire button.
Then, as though a curtain had been whipped away, the fog disappeared, revealing what lay behind it.
“Oh,” Kallista whispered.
Trenton’s hand dropped from the fire button as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. It was a city, though the word was completely inadequate. Calling this a city was like calling the mountain that housed Discovery a hill.
Thousands of glittering metal buildings of all shapes and sizes covered rolling hills. Interspersed among them were hundreds of towers that had to be at least four or five hundred feet tall. Each tower was covered with ornate copper, brass, and silver scrollwork that reflected the morning sunlight, and rows of arched, metal shutters circled level after level.
Machines and factories puffed steam into the air. Canals, elevated pipes, roads, and cables ran in so many directions it was like looking down on a maze.
“Look at that,” Clyde said, pointing toward the ocean.
Trenton’s jaw loosened at the sight of an enormous bridge spanning the blue-green bay. Twenty or more massive metal pillars rose hundreds of feet out of the water. Silver lines thicker than his leg supported three different levels.
Thick chains and gears lifted nets full of fish from boats that floated beneath the bridge, and mechanical arms moved the fish into rows of linked metal cars that waited on tracks that ran along the top-most level of the bridge. Trenton thought they might be called trains. Smaller vehicles trundled freely across the lower levels of the bridge.
Turning to the left, he saw what looked like enormous insects scuttling through rows of tall green plants.
“Are those spiders?” He shuddered. They had to be ten feet tall.
“I think they’re machines,” Kallista said. “People are sitting in them.”
She was right. Hundreds of the round machines climbed about the fields on jointed metal legs. Some of the machines were outfitted with digging tools, while others had cutting blades. Men and women perched in raised seats controlled the machines.
Now that he realized there were people in the city, he noticed them everywhere: walking the streets, driving vehicles, operating machines. As he and Kallista glided by one of the towers, several men and women stopped their work to look up at them, shading their eyes with their hands.
The people appeared to be pushing a huge pile of what looked like slaughtered animals—cows, maybe, or sheep—down a street paved with large brass plates. But as he looked closer, he realized the huge plates were a conveyor belt, sliding everything forward with loud clanks and thumps.
Something flew toward them from the left, and Trenton spun around, sure it was the black-and-red dragon again, but it was only Simoni and Angus.
“Isn’t this amazing?” Simoni asked, a wide smile splitting her face.
Trenton’s mouth worked as he tried to find words. There was no way to explain this. What was this place? How was it even here? Where did all these people come from, and how had they survived?
He glanced at the fog they’d flown through. “Where did the dragons go?” Was there something about the fog that kept them away from the city?
“Some of those machines down there must be weapons,” Angus said.
Yes, that made more sense than the fog. Obviously, the people were able to defend themselves. What kind of weapons did they have that were so powerful?
“We’ve got to find out about their technology,” he said. “How they’ve managed to fight off the dragons.”
The six of them circled above the city, trying to take it all in.
“You there, in the air!” a voice boomed so loudly that Trenton jumped. “Welcome to our city.” The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, echoing off the buildings as if a hundred giants were shouting together. Welcome-ome-ome to our city-ity-ity.
Trenton cupped his hands to his mouth. “Who are you?” Compared to the giant’s voice, his sounded puny. Could they even hear him?
“Please fly toward the flashing light,” the voice boomed again.
Glancing down, Trenton spotted a brass horn mounted on the corner of one of the buildings. Down the street there was another just like it. A voice-amplification system, he thought. His hands itched to take it apart and get a better look at how it worked.
At the top of a silver tower, a light flashed so brightly it was easy to see even in full sunlight.
Clyde looked toward his friends. “Should we?”
Trenton remembered all too well what had happened the last time they’d found a new city. He could tell Kallista did as well. Her eyes scanned the ground below them. “It’s too easy,” she said at last. “A huge city with machines to fight off dragons has been here all along? And we’ve never heard of it?”
“Kind of hard to hear about anything when you’re enclosed in a mountain,” Trenton said. But he knew what she meant. This place was a like a huge plate of candy waiting for someone to come along and reach for it. He studied the buildings and streets. There wasn’t a scorch mark to be seen. And it wasn’t like something as big as a dragon could hide in the shadows of an alleyway. Either the dragons left this city alone or there was something he was missing.
&nb
sp; “I want to see their weapons,” Angus said with a grin.
Trenton did too. After all, they’d come looking for a way to keep the dragons away, and clearly these people had accomplished it. No matter the risk, they had to find out how they were doing it.
“Let’s see what they want,” Kallista said.
Only Plucky seemed uncomfortable with the decision. She looked left and right, one hand twisting the key on the side of her leg braces. “Feel like a clucker sitting down to dinner with the fox, yeah, yeah. Gingerly now.”
Trenton nodded. “Be careful, and everyone keep a lookout.”
Kallista circled Ladon toward the tower. Simoni and Clyde followed.
As they approached the tower, a circular stone plaza with a beautiful fountain in the center came into view. Standing near the fountain was a group of about twenty men and women. Each of them was dressed in identical off-white pants and shirts, although a few people had red or green sashes tied across their chests.
One of the men with a green sash waved a flag in their direction. Another held a small box up to his mouth and the voice-amplification system boomed again. “Welcome, welcome! We haven’t had any visitors in ages. And those machines of yours are amazing!”
Trenton searched for any sign of trickery or danger, but the people below appeared genuinely excited to meet them.
“Don’t like it, yeah, yeah,” Plucky muttered. “Looks like a wily tongue-pad if I ever seen one.”
The man with the talking box put it to his mouth again. “You are safe here. We won’t harm you. Land by the fountain.”
For a moment, looking at the stone circle, Trenton remembered how the Order of the Beast in Seattle had taken him, Kallista, and Leo to be sacrificed to the dragons. Only these people looked nothing like the Order of the Beast, and they certainly didn’t look like Cochrane and his band of Whipjacks.
Still, something about what he’d seen flying over the city stuck in the back of his mind. Something didn’t add up.
“Careful,” he whispered.
Kallista nodded. “Move to the edge of the circle!” she shouted down.
The figures below consulted with each other, then they all moved away, leaving the talking box on a wooden stand.
Trenton bit the inside of his cheek before nodding. “Guess we better go down.”
Before he could touch the flight stick, though, Simoni and Angus dove toward the fountain. “Always have to be the hero, don’t you?” Trenton muttered as he and Kallista followed.
Clyde and Plucky slipped in behind them.
As soon as Simoni and Angus landed, the people cheered and started forward. Something silver flashed at the corner of Trenton’s vision, but when he turned for a closer look, there was nothing there.
Trenton glided to a spot a few feet to the left of Devastation. Kallista worked Ladon’s legs to run as they hit the ground. No sooner had its talons touched the stones than Plucky gave a shriek behind them.
“Bolt, you gudgeons! It’s a ruddy trap.”
Trenton spun around to see another group of men and women running out of the alleys surrounding the plaza. Each person carried lengths of steel chains looped around their shoulders. At the same time, the people along the edge of the circle rushed forward, pulling long hooks out of their shirts.
A ball of fire shot past his head, and people scattered, some of them dropping their chains.
“Take that, you rusty bleaters!” Plucky howled.
Kallista rammed the throttle forward, and the engine howled in protest. Ladon’s metal talons slipped on the smooth stone, and it was all they could do to keep the dragon from falling. Trenton pulled back on the flight stick, trying to get airborne. A couple of men with chains came up on his left, and Trenton swung Ladon’s tail in an arc, sending them flying through the air.
They were coming up fast on one of the buildings surrounding the plaza. No wonder the people had urged them to land there. As soon as Ladon’s feet left the ground, Kallista banked hard right. Metal screeched against metal as their wingtip scraped the side of a building. Then they were in the air.
“Help!” Simoni shouted.
Trenton looked back to see several chains wrapped around Devastation’s legs and tail. A couple of men were climbing up the ladder as several others flung hooks at Simoni and Angus.
“Get me a clean shot!” he yelled.
Kallista pulled Ladon’s head to the right, and Trenton smashed the fire button, hoping Kallista’s aim was true. A second blast of fire came from above.
“Dance on embers, won’t ya!” Plucky yelled, cackling with delight.
With flames raining down, the people fled the stone circle. Immediately, Simoni and Angus charged forward, blasting fire of their own as they circled the fountain, picking up speed. A moment later, they were in the air.
“What is wrong with you?” Trenton screamed at the people below.
“I don’t think they’re our problem,” Kallista said, her voice low.
Trenton looked up from the plaza, and his anger turned to terror.
Throughout the city, the arched shutters on the tower walls were sliding open, revealing doorways. From every door, dragons emerged—each one flying directly toward Trenton and his friends.
Fly!” Clyde screamed, red spots appearing on his cheeks as he darted Rounder first east, then cut sharply west. “We have to get away.”
Plucky wasn’t any more decisive, her head swiveling left and right as she pounded the fire button, sending fireballs randomly through the air.
The problem was, they had no path to escape. Dragons were coming from every direction.
Trenton’s stomach twisted. Why hadn’t he seen this sooner? This had been the dragon’s plan all along. The two dragons had lured them into the city. The humans had gathered them in one place, and now Trenton and his friends were trapped.
All over the city, more and more tower doors were opening. What had been twenty or thirty dragons had grown to at least fifty, maybe more.
Simoni’s long red hair snapped in the air behind her as she circled above the plaza, bobbing and weaving. “We’re surrounded,” she yelled, her voice carrying an edge of hysteria.
Fireballs and acid clouds filled the air as the creatures closed in. The sound of their screeches and roars was deafening. Trenton quickly realized his estimate of fifty dragons was low. There had to be at least a hundred, maybe two.
Angus was the only one who didn’t seem terrified. Baring his teeth in a hungry snarl, he raised a fist. “This will be a day these monsters will never forget. There won’t be enough room to paint their flaming skulls.” He pointed toward the nearest dragon less than two hundred yards away and closing fast. “Attack!”
“Are you crazy?” Trenton yelled. “They’ll slaughter us.”
Kallista looked back at Trenton, her lips tight and gray. “Surrender or die?”
Trenton gripped the flight controller in his sweat-slick palm. Dragons were not simply dumb brutes. This was a sophisticated trap, set up in advance, which meant the dragons knew Trenton and his friends were coming. More, it meant that the humans and dragons were working together. How was that even possible?
If the dragons knew they were coming, they must also know what they’d done.
Except there was no way to survive a fight against two hundred dragons. If he pushed the stick forward, Kallista would land, but after all the dragons they’d killed, surrender wasn’t an option. If he took them up, he knew she would fight to the end with him. His friends’ lives were literally in his hands.
He searched the city. There had to be another way. His eye caught on the white tower to the west. Set high on a hill, it was at least twice as tall as any of the other towers. It was impossible to see what lay beyond it.
But maybe . . .
He put his hands to his mouth. “Form up!” he yelle
d.
As though he had been waiting for someone to tell him what to do, Clyde flew to Trenton and Kallista’s left. Surprisingly, Simoni and Angus formed on the right without a word of complaint.
“Stick close, and lay down a steady stream of fire,” Trenton called.
Angus and Simoni nodded.
“Like a gruntling on a sack of corn,” Plucky yelled.
Trenton assumed that meant yes.
“Which way?” Kallista said.
Trenton pointed toward the white tower. “Go!”
Kallista gunned the thrust regulator, and they shot forward. She glanced over her shoulder just as a small silver dragon flew past, fast. Silvers couldn’t breathe flame, but they could shoot spikes from their twin tails.
“I got it!” Angus shouted.
Flying close to Ladon’s right wingtip, Simoni curled Devastation’s neck around and back. With perfect timing, Angus blasted a single ball of flame straight into the silver’s snout. The dragon screeched and veered away, but there was no time to celebrate. Two more dragons were coming in on the left, while another three closed on the right.
“Back off, you rusty buzzards!” Plucky screamed. Unlike Angus’s precision shot, Plucky blasted a random cloud of fireballs that sometimes hit a target and sometimes missed by a hundred feet. A green dragon dodged an attack only to fly straight into one of Plucky’s errant shots.
Trenton and Kallista alternated their attacks between left and right, focusing on whichever dragon was nearest. But even with the three of them firing constantly, it wasn’t enough. Dragons closed in on them from every direction. Trying to avoid them all was like trying to avoid specific raindrops in a downpour.
Trenton spun around in time to see three small gold dragons approaching from the right. He swatted at them with Ladon’s tail—hitting one with a bone-crushing thud—but the other two dodged nimbly and released a series of quick fireballs. Ladon shuddered under him.
“Look out!” Simoni yelled as a huge blue blasted them with a cloud of steam.
Trenton ducked his head, trying to protect his face from the hot vapor that scalded every inch of exposed skin.
Embers of Destruction Page 4
