You can do this, Turos’s voice was like smooth silk inside my head.
I concentrated on that fissure, sending blow-after-blow pounding into the rock. It widened, snaking further up the cliff, but the slab of rock stayed frustratingly intact.
The goblins’ arrows started peppering upwards. They bounced off Lance’s and Emerald’s hard scales, but their wings were more vulnerable. I knew what could happen if too many arrows ripped into the wing membranes. But before I could worry too much, the arrows from below began deflecting before they made it to us. I turned to see Grams and Lionel hard at work. Their wands whipping side-to-side as they knocked the arrows from the air. Both had big grins on their faces and I was pretty sure Grams was cackling.
Aethan and the rest of the Border Guard returned fire, arrows whipping towards the goblins. There were so many of them that nearly every arrow found a mark, and yet there was no lessening in the attack from below. There were just too many of them for us to make a difference.
Emerald turned and we headed back to the pass. I ignored the goblins, I ignored their arrows, they weren’t my problem. I concentrated on the crack, spacing each blow a few feet apart as I worked my way up the cliff. Loose rocks sprinkled down from further up the mountain, but the cliff stayed maddeningly intact.
Ahhh, Izzy. No pressure or anything, but there seems to be a giant heading our way.
I took my eyes off the mountain long enough to look down the pass toward the Gonian Crater. Not one, but two giants waded through the goblins, tossing them aside as if they were annoying insects. Whizbang. At the pace they were moving, we had maybe five minutes before they arrived.
Screaming in frustration, like I wanted to, was going to get me nowhere. I turned my attention back to the crack. It was traversing more quickly now, snaking up the cliff, but staying within the mountain. I needed it to exit, to break.
I didn’t look at the giants. I didn’t need to. I could feel where they were through my connection with Turos. They were closing, far too fast. My next pass would be my last before we had to deal with them as well.
You can do it. The warmth of Turos’s faith flowed into me.
I stiffened my spine, took a huge breath and let my mind flow into the fissure. I braced within it, and then I shoved, expanding outwards, spreading the crack. I felt it give, a creaking, tearing sound rasping from the rock. My blood pounded in my ears as I took another breath and strained again. The crack ran upwards, racing away from me. I chased it, pushing as I went, my breath coming in short, sharp pants as sweat poured off me.
They’re nearly here.
White lights danced in front of my eyes and I swayed in my seat. I felt Aethan’s hands around my waist and heard Turos growl in my head.
‘No pressure, Izzy,’ Aethan said, ‘but we just ran out of arrows.’
I ignored it all. Time was draining away from us. If I didn’t do this before the giants got there, the army would have the whole might of Santanas’s force bearing down upon us.
I flowed into it one more time, pressure building in my head as I strained against the rock. It was going to be me, or the mountain. We weren’t both coming out of this in one piece.
Just when I thought it was going to be me, there was a noise like a thousand whips cracking. It reverberated out through the pass as a shudder ran through the mountain.
I pulled back into my own body, dizzy from the lack of oxygen. Cracks ran out like the roots of a tree. They sped up the mountain, wrapping around the bulge like a lover’s arms.
There was a cry of triumph from behind me and I could feel Turos cheering in my head.
A slab broke away from the surface and slid to the floor of the gorge. It speared through a dozen goblins and into the ground below.
For a few, frustrating moments, I thought that that, was it. And then the whole side of the mountain came crashing down. Rock tore and splintered as it bounced into the pass, rebounding off the far wall and tumbling thunderously to the ground below.
‘Woo hoo.’ I heard Aethan’s voice join with that of his men.
‘Take that,’ Grams shrieked.
I watched the chaos over my shoulder as Emerald winged her way down the pass. A cloud of dust swirled high in the air, masking the giants from view. When it settled, I could see chunks of rock blocking the pass way up past the giants heads.
I let out a sigh of relief and turned to the front as I sagged back against Aethan.
That ought to hold them for a while. Turos’s voice was smug in my head.
I nodded wearily, too tired to respond.
Aethan’s arms tightened, pulling me back against him further. ‘Don’t read anything into this,’ he said into my ear. ‘I just don’t want you falling off.’
I closed my eyes and relaxed against him, preparing to sever the link in my mind. It was bad enough knowing that Turos’s jealousy would be tearing him apart, I really didn’t need to be experiencing it. A millisecond before I ended it, angered surprise raked through me. I felt Lance twist his head as the talons of a giant eagle reached for his eyes.
I snapped my eyes open and sat upright. A second Vulpine appeared above Lance. The rider leapt from the enormous eagle’s back, landing like a cat behind the last Millenium warrior. Emerald roared in outrage, and Lance rolled in response to her mental cry, but it was too late. A knife slashed through the air and red sprayed from the Millenium’s throat. He slumped to the side and the Vulpine leapt from Lance, back onto the neck of his eagle.
‘Watch out,’ Grams shrieked.
I looked up to see another eagle streaking towards us. I loosened the straps holding me in and bounced to my feet, opening myself even further to Emerald so that her every movement felt like my own.
I had only tried this once before, and then only when just she and I were bonded. This time, there were four of us. Awareness of Lance and Turos smacked into me, and suddenly, I could feel every movement of every muscle fibre. It was as if their nerves extended from their minds into mine, as if their movements were extensions of my own.
I felt Turos doing the same thing, felt him testing the boundaries of our combined awareness. I felt him nod his head in satisfaction as his lips pulled back in a satisfied smile. We were four, but we were one.
A wave of dizziness, at the vastness of my new body, swept over me and I crouched and grasped the harness for balance. It was gone in a second, leaving me only with my strange new awareness.
‘What are you doing?’ Aethan’s voice was alarmed.
‘Trust me.’ I emptied my mind, pushing away my worries and my fears.
The first Vulpine landed behind Lionel. He twisted in his seat, flicking his wand but the man jumped over the spell and landed behind the last Guard.
I recognised him. Bernard. A tall, jolly fae with a wife and three children. He spun and flicked a dagger. The Vulpine dodged, but not enough to stop it catching him in the side of his thigh. It sliced through material and skin as it passed but did no real damage.
I reached down and grabbed one of the leather straps. Emerald didn’t even need my command to know what to do. She started to roll to one side, and then quickly flicked the other way. The Vulpine flew off the far side from where his eagle had expected. The eagle tucked its wings in tight by its sides as it dived after him.
I didn’t get to see if the eagle made it or not because three more eagles launched their attacks. One harried Emerald’s head, darting in to peck at her eyes with its sharp beak. She blasted it with fire and it shrieked and fell away while the rider on its back slapped at the burning feathers.
Two more of the warriors landed, both of them behind Bernard. I leapt through the air, landing behind the furthest. He spun to face me but his movements were like a slug’s. I slashed twice at him in the time it took him to lift his weapon. His eyes held mute surprise as he looked down at the blood gushing from his sliced throat. I kicked him to the side and his lifeless body tumbled from Emerald’s back. An eagle’s shriek of rage echoed up from below.
Bernard stood with his legs spread wide and one of the leather straps looped around his left wrist and clenched in his fist. He parried a dagger blow easily, flicking his sword first one way and then back the other. But the Vulpine had the advantage of balance and the use of both hands. I kicked my foot into the back of his knees and as he collapsed forward, Bernard’s blade whipped through his wrist, severing his hand. He screamed and clutched the stump to his chest before throwing himself off Emerald’s back.
We broke from the pass out onto the plain beyond, and like a flock of seagulls fighting over a scrap of bread, the Vulpine dived. The air was suddenly thick with white feathers.
If they had been able to attack us like this in the pass, where we were forced to fly single file, we would have been in a huge amount of trouble, but here, on the plain, Lance and Emerald could use each other’s strengths.
They flew at each other, their fiery breaths scouring the sky of the attacking birds. And then they flew upwards into a loop, snatching birds out of the air with their front feet, and using their massive teeth to permanently disable them.
I knew where we were, but I also knew where we were all going to be. As we levelled out again, I leapt into the air, coming down on Emerald’s broad back behind Bernard. Then I ran down Emerald’s back, swiping at the incoming eagles with my swords. I dived off the side, high into the air, turning a somersault as I whipped a blade through a Vulpine’s neck before landing in a squat on Lance’s back.
I knelt as Turos leapt over me, his blades flashing in the afternoon sun, and came back up to my feet as a half dozen Vulpines jumped to Lance’s back. I didn’t need to look to know a similar number of the enemy had just landed on Emerald. Neither did Turos.
Without arrows, we were turning into sitting ducks. We had to clear this mess up and get the hell out of there.
I took two quick steps towards him. He jammed his swords into their scabbards and bent, linking his hands together. I landed with a foot on his outstretched hands and, with a grunt of exertion, he straightened, flinging me high into the air.
I flew in a dive towards Emerald, tucking into a forward roll. She banked towards me, slowing my momentum as I came to my feet. I ball-kicked the closest Vulpine in the face, flipping into a backward somersault, up and over number two.
I was moving far faster than they expected, and as I passed over him, I saw him slash his dagger down into the space I had just vacated. I landed behind him and shoved the tip of my sword up under his ribcage. Then I kicked him forwards, using him as a springboard as I leapt back at the first one.
Grams and Lionel had managed to snare another two in a spell, and the Border Guard was battling the last two.
Turos’s muscles flexed as he fought. The fierce grin on my face mirrored his. I looked over at him, just for a second, and a Vulpine landed on top of me. I dropped to Emerald’s back, and he stepped onto my wrist, pinning my sword arm in place. Everything sped up as I lost my grip on my centre of calm.
I felt Turos stiffen in alarm. His cry of horror in my head, echoed Aethan’s.
The Vulpine was too close to me for me to launch a lightning bolt. I would hurt all of us if I did. I raised my spare hand, trying to grab his wrist to prevent the killing blow, but I was too slow.
The light glinted off the edge of the dagger as it sped towards me. I winced, waiting for the bite of the metal, but before it found my flesh, an arrow thunked into the man’s throat. He looked confused as his hand wavered up towards his neck, and then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the side.
I looked from the arrow to Aethan, but he wasn’t looking at me. I felt Emerald huff in pride as I turned to follow his gaze.
Arthur glowed like the sun himself as the light flickered off his scales. Isla stood on his back, her knees slightly bent, her feet tucked under his scales. Almost too fast for me to see, she notched another arrow, pulled her hand back to her cheek, and released it. Four more followed just as swiftly and the eagles pulled away from us.
She looked like the Goddess of War, riding her dragon chariot as she dealt out death. Her forearms sparkled as the diamonds imbedded in her skin threw off rays of light.
Arthur was nimbler than his parents, but all his manoeuvring couldn’t shake the eagle that dropped in on his tail. Isla knocked her arrow and sighted down its length, but the bird twisted in the sky so swiftly and unexpectedly that Isla didn’t release. She couldn’t predict where the eagle would go next. I felt my stomach clench in fear, but then Arthur looked back, his tongue hanging out in his normal goofy grin, and I realised it was all a ploy. Isla shoved her feet further under the scales and tucked her body, and then Arthur was rolling, like a swimmer performing a tumble turn.
He came out of the roll facing the unsuspecting eagle, and unleashed a gush of flames into the bird’s face. Isla released three lightning quick arrows into it, and it plummeted like a stone.
I copied Isla, tucking my feet under scales as Emerald dived towards the ground. I leant forwards, thrilling in the feel of the wind roaring past me as she sped up.
The eagle she was chasing popped its wings out like a parachute and shot up above her line of descent. I fired a lightning bolt upwards and it exploded in a puff of singed, white feathers.
Then, as one, the eagles pulled away. Like a long line of geese, they formed up into a loose V and headed back towards the Gonian Crater.
My heartbeat began to slow from its frantic beat, back towards normal as I walked up Emerald’s back and slid into my spot in front of Aethan.
Slowly, I withdrew my awareness, slithering back into my own body, until I could hear Emerald, but nothing else. I felt small and inconsequential in comparison to what I had. A dragon’s sense of self was so much bigger, so much more than what I was used to. And to have been a part of two of them, well, it was like nothing else I had ever experienced.
Arthur and Isla dropped in next to us, Isla’s broad smile mimicking Arthur’s except for one small thing. She managed to keep her tongue inside her mouth.
‘Yippeee,’ Grams shouted as we banked. I pivoted my head to look at her. She had both her arms stretched out wide as she enjoyed the speed rush from our descent.
There was no need to give the enemy the exact co-ordinates of our army so we flew a wide arc back to camp. We soared down around the far side of the hills which were currently sheltering us from view and back along the edge of the forest on our left flank.
I still wasn’t sure if I was sold on the idea of having a forest so close to the camp. All of my worst goblin encounters had happened in forests. And while it would stop them sweeping around the hill and coming en masse at us, it also meant danger could more easily creep up on us. In the end I had to conclude that the danger that could ‘creep up on us’ would do less damage than a ravaging horde of goblins and orcs.
I scanned the forest below, looking for unfriendly visitors. I could tell Turos saw it at the same time as I did, because Lance banked at the same time as Emerald.
‘What is it?’ Aethan leant forwards and stared out past me.
‘There’s something…weird,’ there was no other way to describe it, ‘in that stand of trees.’ I pointed to an area populated by oaks. A narrow gap with a small creek, meandered through the trees. Something lumpy filled a part of the gap.
As I watched, it moved, and one of the lumps became an arm, and another a foot and I realised what it was.
A giant, lying in the forest.
Lance let out a roar and dipped in a dive towards it. Flames streaked out of his nostrils as he raced for an easy kill.
‘Stop,’ I yelled at the same time that I heard Isla let out a shriek, but Turos was too far ahead to hear us.
Stop him, I urged Emerald. He’s a friend.
Well, I was assuming he was a friend. There was no other reason he would be on this side of the mountain range and not the other.
Lance pulled up at the last second, the downward draft from his wings throwing leaves and sticks into the air over the
body of the giant.
Emerald and Arthur landed at the edge of the forest and a second later Isla and I took off at a run into the trees.
‘Izzy, wait,’ Aethan yelled. ‘We can’t be sure it’s him.’
But I knew in my heart who it was.
Isla looked back over her shoulder at me, a smile spreading her lips wide. She dodged through the trees, heading in the direction we had seen him.
The ground shook, throwing us to our knees.
‘It’s him,’ Isla said, pushing herself back up.
We took off at a sprint, leaves and twigs slapping our faces and arms. The ground trembled again and I heard a familiar voice say, ‘Ouchy. Nasty dragon made a mess of Tiny’s bed.’
I let out a laugh as I flew through the trees, matching Isla stride-for-stride as we raced each other to him.
‘Tiny,’ we yelled together. ‘Tiny.’
The trembling stopped and his voice rumbled, ‘Izzy? Isla?’ We burst from the trees a hundred yards from where he sat.
‘Tiny,’ we both shrieked.
‘Dollies?’ He let out a gurgling laugh as we scrambled up onto his leg and then raced along his shin bone as if it was a bridge. He reached out a hand and we each grabbed a finger, hugging them as if they were trees.
‘Dollies.’ He nodded his head with satisfaction and then lifted his hand up to his mouth so that he could plant enormous kisses on our bodies.
‘Tiny.’ Aethan appeared in the clearing. ‘It’s good to see you man.’ He jumped up onto Tiny’s leg and trotted up till he was standing on his thigh.
Tiny examined him with one eye while the other one stared off to the side. ‘Aethan.’ He prodded him with the fingertips of his free hand. It was meant to be gentle I’m sure, but Aethan lost his balance and fell into a crouch. ‘Where’s Willy?’ Tiny placed all of us on his thigh next to Aethan and then looked around the clearing.
‘He’s not here,’ Isla said. ‘But he will be. And look,’ she held her arms up for Tiny to admire her shiny markings, ‘he gave me these.’
‘Pretty.’ Tiny nodded his head.
Aethan looked at Isla’s arms again. ‘You saw Wilfred?’
Faery Revenge Page 28
