Dactyl Hill Squad

by Daniel José Older

  Meanwhile, chaos already reigned in the yard, as two of the trikes thundered toward each other, spooked and furious, and a third stumbled to one side, nearly throwing its rider. “Now let’s see about that howitzer,” Magdalys said. There was a sonorous boom from below and something huge whizzed past just a few inches away.

  “I think someone already did,” Two Step said.

  Another boom sounded and Magdalys swerved the dactyl into a sharp turn and then swooped low. How many times would she have to dodge mortar fire in one night? From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Mapper making another swing through the yard as rifles crackled to life around him. And then his dactyl let out a shriek and crumpled, tumbling through a sudden explosion of dirt.

  “No!” Magdalys yelled, already swerving them into a steep dive toward where Mapper lay beneath his downed mount.

  “Is he alive?” Two Step said over the whistling wind and popping rifles. She didn’t know and didn’t have it in her to answer anyway. “Cover me,” was all she could get out through her clenched jaw. Two Step let off three blasts as they skidded to a halt beside Mapper. The dactyl lay dead; a rifle shot had taken half its head off. Magdalys gasped. Mapper stirred beneath it, unconscious but alive.

  “Let’s get him,” Magdalys yelled, dismounting. Two Step was right behind her, and then more shots slammed into the dirt in front of them and the ground shook. When Magdalys looked up, an armored triceratops was thundering toward her, its sharp beak-like snout inches above the ground, those three horns aimed directly at Magdalys. Yells sounded from somewhere nearby, but everything seemed to move in slow motion. The trike bore down on them; the cloaked rider raised his rifle, and then a shot rang out from right next to Magdalys. She flinched. Up ahead, the rider had slumped forward and now his limp body was sliding from the saddle. Magdalys looked up from her crouch. Two Step hadn’t lowered his carbine; he just stood there, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. The trike had barely slowed its roll, and now was bearing down on them with renewed vigor as more shooting erupted at the far side of the yard.

  Then a purple-brown blur blitzed in from the side, landing on the charging beast.

  “Reba!” Magdalys yelled. “Redd!” The slender raptor skittered across the trike’s rump with surprising agility, sending both reeling into a sharp turn.

  “Heeyah!” Redd yelled, taking a few potshots from the top of his now dinoriding dino. The trike spun a wild circle beneath them, dust billowing in all directions.

  Two Step still hadn’t lowered the gun. For a second she was worried he’d been hit by some flying debris or something, but then he spoke and she understood. “I killed him,” Two Step muttered. “That man.”

  The trike rider was indeed lying crumpled in the dirt about ten feet from them.

  “Two Step,” Magdalys said, “he was going to kill you. He was going to kill me. You saved my life.”

  He seemed to snap out of it a little, finally lowering the rifle, but his eyes still stared at some nonexistent point in the distance.

  “And now we gotta get Mapper out of here, man.” And you too, she thought, casting a worried glance at her friend’s wide-open face. “Come on.” He stumbled over to the dactyl corpse with Magdalys. Seeing Mapper unconscious beneath it brought Two Step back around even more. Together, they heaved the dust and blood-covered ptero off to the side and then hoisted Mapper up and brought him to where their dactyl waited anxiously.

  “Get him on,” Magdalys ordered. “Hurry.” A shotgun blast exploded nearby and Magdalys jumped out of the way. On the parapet above, the knuckleskull-mounted prison guards were filing in at a lopsided canter. They seemed to be shooting at random into the courtyard below.

  “Mags!” Redd yelled from a few feet away. “Heads up!” She looked, bracing to meet some new attack head-on. Instead, a huge set of keys flew through the air toward her. The door guard keys. Redd’s toss went high, but she swatted them into the dust and then scooped them up. “We can’t hold off these trikes for long,” Redd said. Behind him, Halsey Crunk and Miss Josephine were ducking behind a pillar, poking out every few seconds to pick off their attackers. Halsey wasn’t kidding when he said he was a crack shot — every time his Springfield rang out, a cry and thud sounded from across the yard. “Take the keys and get our folks! Now! We’ll cover you!”

  Magdalys barely had time to nod before Redd spun Reba around one more time on top of the trike and then sent her leaping off, directly into the fray as shotgun blasts erupted around them.

  When she turned back, Two Step was backed all the way against the wall, eyes wide, head shaking back and forth. Mapper lay slumped across the dactyl. Magdalys pocketed the keys and ran over to Two Step. “You gotta go, man. You gotta … Listen to me! Get Mapper out of here. Go back to the Bochinche and tell Miss Bernice to call for a doctor.” Her voice sharpened and he finally blinked and turned to her. “Two Step?”

  He nodded, face stricken. “I … I can’t leave you guys.”

  “You have to, man. You can’t help us right now. Mapper needs you.” He shook his head, then nodded. She guided him to the ptero, which was nuzzling its fallen squadmate and stomping its feet. “I know, big fella,” Magdalys said, patting its snout as she helped Two Step climb on. “I’m so sorry.” Take my friends back to the Bochinche, she thought. And then don’t let them come back here no matter what.

  A series of blasts rang out, but Magdalys couldn’t make out what was happening through the smoke and dust. “Go!” she yelled. “Go!”

  MAGDALYS MADE A breathless dash to the nearest wall, sliding into the dust beneath the walkway and then skittering behind a pillar as an artillery shell blew out a chunk of wall a few feet away. Tiny shards of rock and mortar splattered her face. “What’s going on out there?” someone screamed. Magdalys could make out a group of figures through the bars on the door directly in front of her.

  She stood, dusting herself off. “Is Cymbeline in there?” It didn’t look like any kids were there. But maybe … “Or someone named David Ballantine?”

  “Cymba who now?”

  “Man, we don’t know no David.”

  “But get us out of here!”

  “Yeah!”

  Magdalys gazed down the long wall of barred cell doors. There were at least a dozen on this side alone. Out in the courtyard, a group of knuckleskulls had come down from the upper walkway and were swarming toward where Miss Josephine and Halsey had holed up. Redd was nowhere to be seen. She looked back at the cell in front of her.

  “Girl?” someone said. “Will you help us?”

  Magdalys dug out the keys. “If you help me.” Cheers erupted as she shoved one key and then another into the lock. “When I open this,” she said, “I need you to take these keys and open all the other ones. Got it?”

  “Ha! We with it!”

  “Who is this girl? Someone give her a medal!”

  Magdalys grimaced. “You’re not free yet.” But even as she said it, the key she was holding slid into place with a click and the barred door swung open. Magdalys pulled the keys out and stepped out of the way as a flood of prisoners surged out. A tall, wide man with one eye and trembling hands towered over her. “I’m Tiny Shanks,” he said, breaking into a grin. “Pass me those keys and I’ll handle the rest of those prison cells for you. And thanks!”

  Magdalys held out the keys to him. She wondered what crime, if any, this man had committed to be locked up here. Cops seemed to arrest black folks at random most of the time, just scooping people up and carting them off for the most nonsensical offenses.

  Tiny Shanks took the keys with a doff of his imaginary cap and then ran off. Magdalys threw herself against the wall, panting. Pretty soon, newly freed inmates flooded the yard.

  “Mags!” a familiar voice yelled. Magdalys looked up to see Sabeen and Amaya running toward her. Cymbeline was right behind them, a nasty bruise on her forehead but otherwise okay.

  “Are you guys okay?” Magdalys gasped as they all embraced quickly and then hurri
ed out of the way of a rush of inmates swarming a knuckleskull rider.

  Cymbeline shook her head. “We are now. Where’s Halsey?”

  “Over —” Magdalys started to say, but a monstrous growl erupted from the front gate, cutting her off. A gigantic shadow lurked beyond it, just out of sight. Magdalys gasped.

  A tyrannosaurus stomped into the yard, ducking forward so it could fit under the gate and then rearing up to its full height and stomping up mountain clouds of dust on either side. One man rode on its saddled back: Magistrate Richard Riker. He carried a whip and wore those long robes. A wide smile crossed his face as he urged the tyrannosaurus into the fray.

  “Back!” Riker called. “You are all my prisoners! My property! Seal the entrance, men!” Two triceratops riders headed toward the gate but the mounts pulled away, spooked by the humongous carnivore. In the yard, newly freed prisoners screamed and scattered, but there was nowhere to run.

  Dust blew across the yard as Riker’s tyrannosaurus stomped back and forth in front of the gate, terrorizing prisoners, guards, and trike riders alike and chomping down anyone who wasn’t fast enough to get out of its way.

  Rifle blasts rang out, but no one could get a clear shot through the chaos.

  Magdalys scrambled with Amaya and Sabeen to a far corner of the yard behind some trembling trikes as the huge dino let out another roar. Cymbeline was gone, already disappeared into the mob. They would all be torn to shreds, everyone she loved. And her.

  Girl, say it loud, Redd had said. Otherwise how you gonna get even better at it?

  So much had already happened since that moment, Magdalys had barely had time to catch her breath, let alone try and understand what he’d meant. Redd had basically told her she was the best dinowrangler he’d ever seen, so how could she get … better … ? The idea formed even as the question was still unraveling in her mind. Maybe those ancient dinoriding warriors really did exist. And maybe they did even cooler stuff with their steeds than anyone could imagine nowadays. She looked up at the three riderless trikes cowering around them. They formed a nice little barricade against the desperate fighting in the yard. But they’d make an even better battering ram. She took a step toward them, hand stretched out. The dinos were too freaked out about the tyrannosaurus to care what Magdalys was doing.

  “Mags,” Amaya hissed. “What are you — ?”

  “I’m Magdalys Roca,” she said. “And I’m the greatest dinowrangler the world has ever known.”

  She heard Sabeen whisper, “Well, shoot,” and then Magdalys leapt up into the closest trike’s saddle. The beast startled some at first, raising its massive forelegs up and then slamming them down again. “Shhh, big guy,” Magdalys whispered. “I know you’re scared.” He calmed, and then, staying low to keep out of the way of any passing bullets or buckshot, she reached out with her mind to the other two.

  At first, nothing happened, and Magdalys wondered if she was ridiculous for even considering connecting with three dinos at once. Then their whinnied replies came back in trembling vibratos. They felt her, understood what she wanted. They didn’t like it, but they knew what they had to do. With some shuffling and grumbled snorts, all three triceratopses wheeled themselves around to face the yard. Terrified though they were, these beasts had been trained. They were armored and battle-ready. Magdalys could feel that grim determination sharpen their focus as their shakiness fell away.

  Out in the dust-clouded yard, Riker’s tyrannosaurus leaned down and gobbled up a man in a prison uniform, then swept its tail in a wide arc, clobbering two knuckleskulls and sending their riders flying.

  All together, now, she thought. As one. And then, CHARGE!!

  PRISONERS, ORPHANS, KIDNAPPING Clubbers, and guards all scattered out of the way as Magdalys’s three armored trikes thundered across the yard. Her heart galumphed along with their roaring stomps, and their combined grit and determination pulsed through her. Up ahead, Riker looked up from his rampage, his face red and scrunched with fury. He let out a yell and then urged his mount forward to meet their charge.

  As the trikes closed in, the tyrannosaurus launched into the air, landing with his huge hind legs on the triceratops directly to Magdalys’s left. Hers and the one to her right skidded off to the side as the poor beast collapsed with a squeal. Dust flew up around it. Riker howled with triumph. The tyrannosaurus, just a few feet away, leaned in and tore out its fallen prey’s neck.

  No! Magdalys thought, circling her mount back around. If she could catch it while it was still chomping, maybe … They rushed forward, the other trike pulling ahead and lowering its great armored head as it charged. Riker’s tyrannosaurus looked up and bellowed just in time to catch a horn through its thigh. Its roar turned into a shriek of pain. Magdalys’s trike hit next, its top right horn tearing a nasty gash across the larger dino’s flank as they passed.

  The wounded beast’s roar was almost deafening. It wrenched itself free of the other trike’s horn and spun, bashing the triceratops with its thick tail. Both dinos stumbled away from each other, stunned and bleeding.

  “Riker!” Magdalys yelled.

  “Ah, one of the little orphans,” Riker sneered. He was winded and his cheeks were flushed, but that triumphant smile still spread across his face. He raised one arm, the long black sleeve of his robe dangling beneath it, and wagged a finger at Magdalys. “When will you children ever learn your place, hm?”

  Magdalys just stared at him, her mount strutting a slow circle around the yard, head bowed, ready to charge.

  “Well, you’ve already lost, my dear. We chased you out of Manhattan that night, and then we chased you out of the harbor when you tried to steal back your friends, my rightful property, and now we’re chasing you out of Dactyl Hill, where you thought you were safe.”

  Magdalys tried to tune him out. He wanted to distract her, keep her off her game. Beneath her the trike grunted and growled in heaving snorts. He was a good, determined mount. Even after the carnage they’d just been part of, he was ready for more.

  “Do you see what I’m saying, dear?” Riker taunted. “You’re not safe. Not even here, up north, in the beating heart of Lincoln’s anti-slavery crusade. You’re not safe and you never will be. You may have burned down my associate Mr. Weed’s home, you vile savage, but he’s already set up operations in a new one. Our network stretches across the globe, don’t you see? We are everywhere.”

  The Knights of the Golden Circle. What a pitiful and horrendous idea to build a secret society around. It was like Riker’s Kidnapping Club times a thousand and spread across the Americas. And who would stop them? The U.S. Army was all tangled up trying to hold off the Confederates down south. And anyway, it wasn’t so long ago that slavery was common practice throughout all the United States.

  Magdalys kept circling as the battle raged on around them. She held her focus on Riker, but from what she could gather, things weren’t going well. The prison guards and Kidnapping Clubbers had gotten it together enough to realize they were on the same team, and a bunch of the freed prisoners were simply cowering in the shadows, hoping the whole thing would just be over soon.

  Riker’s tyrannosaurus roared and leaned forward, chomping its huge jaws and sending Magdalys and her trike stumbling a few steps back. “Even if you get your friends free tonight,” Riker yelled, “you’ll know, won’t you, that around every corner we wait, ready to pounce. You’ll always have to watch your back, because I’ll always be there, and if not me, someone else, and someone else, and someone …”

  Magdalys had heard enough; she leaned forward, spurring her mount into a charge.

  “Oh ho!” Riker chortled, pulling back on his reins. The tyrannosaurus growled, then opened its huge mouth and let out a roar. Those teeth were almost as big as Magdalys. Instead of hitting the beast head-on, she lifted to a standing crouch on the saddle and pulled the trike to the side at the last second, hurling herself onto the tyrannosaurus’s back.

  Around them, shots rang out as Cymbeline and Redd led
the freed inmates in a desperate charge against the guards; the two sides clashed amidst growling, snorting dinos and battle cries. The tyrannosaurus spun, snapping at Magdalys as she scurried up toward Riker. The battle-strewn yard whirled around them dizzyingly as more screams and roars sounded.

  Calm, Magdalys thought, trying to latch on to the mighty dino’s mind. The reply was only a desperate howl within her. But it sounded more fearful than fierce. That was odd. Magdalys looked up, saw Riker grinning down at her, pulling a pistol from his belt. But behind him, something gigantic took over the sky. The tyrannosaurus had seen it, was already yelping and crouching out of the way.

  Magdalys blinked, her mouth falling open. Riker turned to curse at his mount and then shrieked.

  Stella the pteranodon swooped out of the night, landing with one huge claw on the neck of the tyrannosaurus, pinning it to the dusty ground. Magdalys watched the claw tighten as the dino’s eyes went wide. Riker raised his pistol to the pteranodon’s huge face.

  “No!” Magdalys yelled, launching forward and jumping on him from behind. The gun went off, its ball blasting uselessly into the sky. Magdalys smashed Riker’s gun hand against the fallen tyrannosaurus’s hide as hard as she could. The pistol clattered into the dust.

  “Unhand me!” Riker yelled, wrestling his wrist out of Magdalys’s grip. He reached back and swung at her, but the magistrate was slow, and Magdalys dodged out of the way, feeling the side of his fist grazing her cheek as she nearly toppled from the saddle.

  Instead, she gripped one of the dangling reins and used it to swing back around, smashing shoulder-first into Riker, who toppled backward. Magdalys scrambled up toward Stella, grabbing the ptero’s neck just as the ground fell away beneath them, and with a tremendous flap of those forty-foot wings they lifted off.

  A hand wrapped around Magdalys’s foot and she screamed, glancing down.

  The tyrannosaurus was still dangling from Stella’s claws and Riker still clung to its saddle with one hand, Magdalys’s ankle clutched in the other. “You stupid girl,” Riker yelled into the wind. “You’ll never ever be safe! Don’t you see?”