A spiral of dragons followed us up, our shadows blotting out the mountain on the far side of the crater from the sun. The whole ground seemed to tremble beneath us with the combined might of the thrum of our wings. Roars and snorts and snarls echoed off the walls, as the dragons tried to carry their vulnerable cargo to safety.
I threw up a shield in front of the pirates who had breached the safety of our home. I wasn’t going to be able to protect all of us when we left the volcano, but for now I would do what I could.
I saw Bladimir with Gladaline nestled in front of him, her long, matted locks blowing crazily around both of them. His dragon was a huge, blue beast, but none were as large as Lance. None as fierce or magnificent as Lance.
Stop that, I snapped at Emerald.
Well, you have to admit, he is the most handsome of them all.
Yes, I said, not sure if I was talking about Lance or Turos, he is that.
We continued circling up past the line of the mountains. The ships were still there, exactly where they had been. A minute or so after we appeared, I heard the first of the low booms. We spiralled ever higher, till the air became thin, and breathing was difficult. More booms echoed the first and I could see puffs of light and smoke coming from the ships nearest to the island.
A dragon’s roar tore at the sky behind us, and I turned to see it falling; its neck bent at an impossible angle, flesh and blood spewing from the rent. People screamed and I saw a few jump, arms extended as they sought refuge. Two were snatched from the air, but a third plummeted, joining the rest of the riders as they smashed into the valley floor. I averted my eyes at the last instant, unable to watch.
Turos rested his hand on my shoulder, his fingers squeezing harder than he probably realised.
It was impossible to think that just a few hours ago, we had lain in a mess of tangled body limbs as our hands and lips explored each other. Now, an entire nation fled for their lives. And not all of us were going to make it.
I reached up and clutched his fingers, squeezing back. I would do what I could to save his people. I would. But already guilt was starting to trail its fingernails down my spine. I couldn’t save us all. That much was evident. And the life of everyone I failed was going to weigh heavily on my mind.
Lance changed direction and headed out over the ships, arrowing towards the horizon. The flotilla of dragons followed, their wings rustling the thin air behind us.
I placed a disc of shield below us, broadening it as far as I could. The rat-a-tat-tat of the ship’s weapons rattled below us. Most of it bounced off my shield, but some made it around. Dragons snorted as metal pounded into the softness of their underbellies.
The larger missiles I was able to stop, flexing my shield and firing them back. Most plummeted into the ocean below, large sprays of water the only sign of their passing. But some tore through the planking of a ship’s deck, wood splintering and tearing in its wake.
Our arrows were useless from this height. And although I knew I would be able to strike the ships with lightning, that would mean dropping my shield. The peppering in my mind told me my shield was being harassed by a continual barrage of smaller pellets. I couldn’t drop that shield, even for a few seconds.
‘Tell Lance to get the group to come in closer,’ I yelled over my shoulder to Turos.
‘They daren’t fly any lower. If they come any closer the buffeting from their wings will disturb everyone’s wind stream.’
‘I can’t shield us all spread out like this.’
He didn’t waste any more energy yelling at me, but a few moments later Lance slowed, and the dragons from the edges tucked in beneath us. I tugged at my shield, thinning it a little till all of us were covered.
Sweat trickled down my brow at the effort of holding the shield, and still I couldn’t see an end to those ships. I needed to get to a clear patch of sea so I could open a way back home. And even then, I didn’t know if I could do it. The closest I had gotten before, was feeling the thickness of the walls between this world and my own. I hadn’t been able to draw it back. I didn’t even know if I had enough power to do it.
A dragon screamed behind us, and then another roared in anger. Human screams reached my ears, panicked shouts, crying. I looked over my shoulder. A dragon was struggling to hold its height with one wing bent at an odd angle. The thin leather stretched over the bones was torn. As I watched, the tear extended, ripping through the tissue till the wing was useless.
The dragon pivoted to the side and fell from the sky, a roar of pain and anger, married with the cries of the riders, fading into the distance.
A second later the dragon smacked into my shield, its descent slowed as the flexible force field stretched down. I hardened the shield before it could fling them back into the air again. The extra weight added another layer of sweat to my forehead.
A large metal ball whizzed down past Lance’s head. He snorted and started to the side.
‘They’re firing over us,’ I screamed back at Lance.
‘Can you block it?’
I shook my head. The weight of the dragon and its riders now resting on the shield was taking nearly everything I had.
Another dragon roared and a few moments later I felt the shield flex again. I gasped and grabbed at the edges of the shield trying to hold it in place. The weight of the dragons’ bodies was pulling it down, turning it more into a sling than a shield. My carefully constructed edges were gone and it wouldn’t be long now before the edges of the pack started to feel the brunt of the attack.
A dragon off to the side below us shuddered. It shook its head and continued flying but droplets of blood sprayed out from its side.
‘Can’t you attack them?’ Turos yelled.
‘Which ship?’ We were being fired at by so many of them. And although every hundred metres we flew meant ships behind could no longer reach us, it is also meant we were now in range of the ships ahead of us. I would have to blow every single ship within a half mile radius out of the water. And I didn’t know if I had the fire power for it.
Human shrieks were now added to that of the dragons and when I looked down, blood splattered the shield.
Turos let out a curse. I turned to see him clutching at his left arm. Blood dribbled out from beneath his fingers. ‘I’m okay,’ he shouted. ‘Just a scratch.’
I stared at him for another second.
‘Get down,’ he said, flapping his wounded arm at me.
I ducked, crouching over Scruffy and making myself as small as possible. How are you going? Emerald was right behind us.
I’ll be better when we get back home.
Home? I had thought she wanted to stay here.
No use crying over spilt milk.
I snorted. She’d got that saying from Grams and suddenly I missed my scatty, brilliant Grandmother with an urgency that hurt. I could almost feel her there with me, feel her reaching out towards me to wrap me in her arms.
I sat straight up in the air and Turos batted me back down.
‘I’ve got it,’ I shrieked.
‘You’ve been hit?’
I shook my head, hugging my arms around myself. I could still feel Grams as if she were right there with me. All I had to do was hold onto that feeling for a little while longer.
‘There.’ Turos pointed an arm past me.
I squinted my eyes and peered at the horizon. A pure stretch of ocean had appeared. No ships stained its brilliant blue. I just had to hold it together for a little while longer.
I didn’t even hear the next dragon that fell from the sky. Its body slammed into the shield and I felt a crack start in the fabric of my mind. I swayed in my harness and Turos steadied me with a hand.
‘Can you hold them while you open the gate?’
‘I have to.’
I looked down. Other dragons had picked up the stranded riders that were still conscious, but a few bodies lay sprawled beside those of the dragons. I didn’t want to be the person who committed them to their deaths.
The strip of blue was getting wider and I heard a few cheers from behind. We had to get far enough beyond the ships that they wouldn’t be able to access any gateway I opened before I closed it again. I couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t open up right down to the level of the ocean.
‘Izzy.’ Turos tapped my left shoulder and pointed past me in that direction.
A huge storm was brewing on the horizon. Sheets of lightning danced through the green-black clouds. The water beneath had changed from smooth silk to dancing whitecaps.
The storm swirled in place for a few moments before leaping forward like a frisky racehorse, running to intercept us where we would leave the flotilla behind.
It wasn’t possible that it was natural. Not possible at all.
I resisted the urge to smash myself in the head. We had known from the beginning that there must be a magic maker. Known by the way they had shown up when a way had been opened by magic. Deduced and then forgotten.
Lance altered his course away from the dark storm. I didn’t think it was going to make any difference though. Our new route was going to take us longer, which would give the storm time to catch us.
‘Izzy.’ Turos leant forward and yelled in my ear. ‘How are you holding up?’
‘Oh just fantastic.’ I couldn’t help the frustration from bubbling in my voice. I had just worked out how to open the portal and now we had the storm to contend with.
‘No, I mean with holding the shield.’
‘Not great,’ I gritted out through clenched teeth.
As if to prove my point another dragon fell from the sky, its body joining the others a few seconds later. Pain lanced through my head as I fought to hold the shield in place.
‘You need to let them go.’
‘I can’t.’ I shook my head.
‘Can’t or won’t?’ He shook me as if trying to get me to see reason.
‘Won’t,’ I screamed.
‘You are our commander. We need you.’
I had carried them this far. I could take them the full way.
‘You are our only hope. If you fail, trying to save a few of us, we all die.’
The storm seemed to grow as it closed in on us. The water beneath it boiled, water spouts swirling up into the sky.
Damn him to the Great Dark Sky and back.
‘You need to let go of them and save your strength.’
I glanced down at the dragons. One of them shook his head as if trying to clear it. We were so close to the edge of the ships. It wouldn’t be long before I didn’t need the shield at all.
Wind whipped at us; a gale force that grabbed my braid and streamed it out behind me. Lightning sheets danced across the edge of my vision. Lance altered his flight a little more and suddenly the storm was behind us, racing after us.
A few more beats of the dragon’s wings and we would be free of the pirates and at the mercy of the storm.
Dragons at the back of the pack began to roar and our speed as a group increased. Lightning arced overhead and I threw out a hand, my own lightning racing to meet it. The two electrical currents met in a blinding blaze of sparks as energy exploded outwards in a wave.
Air punched me in the gut and threw me back into Turos. His arms wrapped around me for a second before he pushed me upright. I pulled my feet up beneath myself and flipped around so that I was facing him. I looked past the dragons to where I could see the sky, a pot of boiling ink ready to stain us black.
‘Let them go,’ Turos yelled.
Another blaze of lightning streaked towards us. I threw up both hands, extending the shield up behind us to meet it. Electricity seared the edges of my mind as it roared across the surface of my shield.
‘Izzy.’ Turos’s voice was gentle as he placed a hand on each side of my face and turned my gaze to meet his. Tears glimmered in his eyes. ‘You have to let them go.’
Damn him. He was right. I couldn’t hold the shield, and protect us from the storm and open a gateway. I had to let them go.
‘No,’ I choked out. ‘I can’t.’
‘You have to.’ He leant forwards, resting his forehead against mine. ‘You have to,’ he whispered again.
I held onto him, blinking tears from my eyes as I found the strength to do what I had to. He kissed me. A gentle, sweet kiss full, not of passion, but of understanding and support.
I let the shield slither from my mind. Tears, tracked down my face and sobs racked me as I felt them falling, fading away. But there was no time to mourn them, no time to feel the full depth of my failure. Now was the time to fight.
I pulled back from Turos and looked toward the storm. Wind rocked me in my seat and dragons and Millenium cried out in fear. I stared into the storm, mesmerised by the dancing darkness that was coming to claim our lives. And within that storm, darker even than the circling clouds, a figure appeared.
It soared towards us, and it was only as it got closer that I realised it wasn’t flying. A dragon, larger and blacker than Lance, bore the man on its back. Swirling yellow eyes glared maleficently and, as the dragon threw back its head and roared, lightning shot from the man’s hands.
‘Santanas,’ I gasped. ‘Dark Sky, its Santanas.’
Lance turned to stare behind him as I threw back a lightning bolt. I wasn’t quite fast enough and it met his at the edge of the dragon pack, the flying sparks causing shrieks of pain.
My mind flew through the possibilities of him being here until it settled on the one obvious answer. This wasn’t the Santanas from my realm. This was the Santanas in this alternate reality.
‘Granddaughter.’ His voice thundered over the noise of the storm. ‘I am surprised to see you here. I left you in charge of Europe.’
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. In this alternate reality, Santanas hadn’t been trapped. He had gone on to rule the world.
‘Hello Grandfather,’ I yelled. ‘Just out for a morning flight.’ We were well beyond the ships now. It was time to open the gateway. But there was no way I could risk this Santanas following us through to our world.
‘So I can see.’ His lips curled up. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you had found the missing dragons?’
Dark Sky, was it possible there was a tribe of dark faery/Ubanty offspring and a pack of dragons on an island in our world? My head spun as I tried to work through the implications of his words.
‘I was going to surprise you.’
The storm had backed off during our conversation. ‘But why would you let them attack you.’ He flew a little closer. ‘They follow your word as much as mine.’ His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. ‘Isadora, where is your scar?’
I threw up a shield at the precise moment he unleashed a wall of fire at me. It washed across my invisible barricade, gone as quickly as it appeared.
I heard the twang of bow strings and arrows raced towards Santanas.
He flicked his hand and let out a crazy laugh as the arrows flew wide. ‘You are not as strong as she.’
‘Maybe not.’ I tossed a fireball of my own at him. ‘But I’m strong enough.’
He batted the fireball out of the sky like a child batting away a tennis ball, and I used that second of distraction to concentrate on Grams again. An intense longing immediately started up in my gut.
More arrows followed my fireball as the warriors on Lance released volley after volley. When my feeling of longing was as strong as I could make it, I threw a hand out behind me. I peeled back the layers between this world and my own as my longing sought my grandmother.
Turos let out a shout and I risked a glance over my shoulder to see a crack appearing in the sky behind us.
‘Go,’ I screamed. Go, I urged Emerald.
She took off towards that rent in the world, the rest of the dragons fleeing after her. The storm exploded, fingers of black cloud roaring after the dragons, as lightning danced across the gap.
‘Close your eyes,’ I shouted to my companions. Then I pulled the lightning towards us, swirling it into a spinni
ng vortex and using it as an electrical shield.
Light roared, burning through the darkness provided by my eyelids. I gathered it up, until I could feel the energy leaking though my pores. It sent little shocks over the surface of my skin and Lance grunted in discomfort as it flowed from me to him.
I could feel my hair standing away from my body as I plucked a piece from the nimbus surrounding me and threw it towards Santanas. His dragon let out a roar and I opened my eyes to see it charging towards us as Santanas seized my electrical ball and sent it back.
Lance screamed his challenge and reared back his head, getting ready to strike. Dark Sky. The last thing we needed was to get caught up in two male dragons fighting for dominance.
The strange dragon rolled to the side, squealing as the tip of its wing brushed through the edge of my electrical shield.
I plucked off two more pieces of lightning and threw them at Santanas. He laughed as he deflected them. I knew I wasn’t going to hurt him. Not that easily. But while he was engaging me, the others were getting away.
Black clouds closed around us from either side as wind ripped at our clothes. Lance snorted as the cloud brushed him, and blood droplets flew from his nose as he shook his head.
‘The clouds,’ Turos yelled. ‘They’re eating his flesh.’
I threw another electrical ball at Santanas as Lance turned and fled from the storm.
‘I’m disappointed,’ Santanas called. ‘Is that the best you’ve got?’
Half of the dragons were already through the gateway.
‘You can’t get away that easily.’ Santanas’ voice floated to us on the edge of the storm.
As fast as Lance was flying, the black clouds were keeping pace. They swirled and danced, occasional tendrils reaching out to brush Lance’s side. With each touch, his snort was louder, more fearful. He rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder.
‘Easy boy,’ Turos said, pressing his hand to the big dragon’s flank. ‘Easy.’ He looked into my eyes and whispered, ‘I hope you’ve got something up your sleeve.’
I nodded, tension giving the movement a mechanical feel. I hoped I did too. But the truth was I was nearing exhaustion.
Faery Revenge Page 19
