by JA Andrews
He smiled, a little wearily, but thanked her.
Alaric cast out toward the wall, and Sini felt the quiet hum of the rune that controlled the entrance.
“It’s so peaceful.” Will looked up into the clear blue sky. “At least we know we arrived before the dragon.”
Avina let out a long hiss at his words, her little face turned upwards.
Sora’s head snapped up toward the sky, as well. Her hand gripped the knife at her belt.
Sini cast out, flinging the wave into the sky. Will and Alaric’s waves washed over her in the same heartbeat.
For a breath the casting out returned nothing.
The horses flinched, their ears flicking back and forth.
And then inferno of vitalle blazed out above the forest. Sini shrank back against her horse, her eyes fixed on the clear blue sky.
Dark red flashed between the tree tops.
Anguine soared into view, blocking half the sky. His wings were spread wide—a jagged membrane stretched between thin ridges, letting through dark red sunlight. Tendons splayed through them like black veins.
He soared over the cliff toward the valley of the Stronghold, black shadows rippling across the red scales of his belly like dark, grasping fingers.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sini’s blood chilled in her veins. Her horse jerked away. Roan’s reared up, hooves flying dangerously close to her head.
Alaric sprinted to the wall and slammed his hand onto the stones. “Aperi!”
The wall shifted. Alaric and Will raced in before the dark entry to the tunnel was clearly visible. Sini tore into the shadows after them. The running steps of the others followed.
The tunnel was longer than it had ever been, the bright arch at the other end so small she could see only a patch of light beyond it. The air was cool and silent except for the sounds of their pounding feet—until a crash thundered from the valley, shaking the floor and knocking dust loose from the ceiling. A cloud billowed across the end of the tunnel and Sini’s heart clawed up into her throat.
The Shield. The twins. Gerone. Mikal. She gasped in a breath. Rett.
Tiny rocks pelted her from the ceiling and she pushed herself faster. Alaric reached the end first and stopped short at the exit. Beyond him the valley was hazy with dust. Sini ran up beside him, expecting the entire tower to be a pile of rubble.
The main tower of the Stronghold still stood, glowing white in the bright midday sunlight.
Tucked up beside it, the shorter brown library wing was unharmed, as well. The other low buildings dotting the valley near the tower looked fine, except where dust settled around the barn, now crushed under an enormous boulder that must have been flung down from the cliffs.
Sini searched frantically for the dragon. She caught a glimpse of red arcing high above the cliffs. In the yard behind the stable, the closest building, Rett stood amid a herd of sheep and stared stunned at the ruined barn.
“Rett!” Sini called.
Will took a step toward the man. “Get the animals into the tunnel!”
Rett stood frozen for just a breath until the tiny lamb in his arms bleated in terror. He set his hand on its head. “Paxa, little one.” The lamb relaxed. He held his hands out over the animals. “Paxa.”
Sini felt a twinge of astonishment. He’d calmed the entire flock. Still talking softly to the animals, he herded them out the gap in the fence toward the tunnel.
“We need to get the Keepers out of the tower.” Alaric leaned out of the end of the tunnel, searching the sky for the dragon.
Motion at the top edge of the far cliff caught Sini’s eye. The red dragon hovered, beating his wings and tearing off a huge boulder with his claws. A shower of smaller rocks cascaded into the valley below. Between the mouth of the tunnel and the tower lay a long stretch of open grass.
“You’ll need a distraction,” Douglon said, hefting his axe. Avina crowded close to him, her arms wrapped around his leg. The dwarf leaned down to look at her. “That is the dragon that tore up the Elder Grove.”
The little elf’s face darkened, and she drew back her lips. Sharp teeth slid out of her gums and she hissed.
“Let’s go say hello.” Douglon lifted her with one hand and Avina swung herself up onto his shoulders, glaring over his head at Anguine who now flew toward the tower, gripping the huge rock in his claws.
Douglon let out a long, deep battle cry and ran out into the grass. Avina held out one hand. She curled it into a claw and a ball of fire burst into life in her palm. With a screech, she hurled it at the dragon. The fireball fell to the ground before it reached him, but Anguine’s attention snapped to her.
“Come down and fight, ya’ coward,” Douglon boomed.
While the dragon was distracted, Will sprinted out of the tunnel toward the tower. Sini followed, with Alaric on her heels.
Avina flung another fireball. Anguine rushed closer but the ball of flames still fell short. The dragon dismissed her and shifted his attention back to the tower, diving toward it. One of Sora’s arrows ricocheted off the scales beneath Anguine’s eye.
The dragon closed on the tower before the Keepers had run halfway. Mikal and Gerone stumbled out the front doors, spinning to look into the sky.
“Run!” Sini shouted at them.
The old men caught sight of the dragon and broke into a run. They’d only taken a few steps when Anguine hurled the boulder at the base of the tower and shot out a stream of flames. Mikal and Gerone stumbled and fell as rocks exploded from the tower. The wooden front doors burst into flame and huge chunks of rock showered down on the old men.
Sini’s heart leapt into her throat. The two men were buried in stone. She raced up to them as Anguine sped off down the valley.
From the front edge of the pile, she caught sight of a hand. She dove to her stomach and looked into a small cave under the rocks. The underside of the stones shimmered slightly. Gerone’s wide, shocked eyes blinked out at her. Grabbing his hand, she pulled. Will grasped Gerone’s other hand and they drew him out while Alaric pulled out Mikal. Once the Keepers were free, the pile of rocks shifted and collapsed, sending a cloud of dust into Sini’s face, stinging her eyes and catching in her throat.
Gerone gripped Will’s arm tightly. “How…?”
“The twins,” Will said, nodding up toward the top of the tower.
Sini’s eyes raked the Stronghold until she saw them—Nikolas and Steffan, standing together on their balcony, unprotected and vulnerable, peering down at them. Their skin was bone-white and one of them leaned heavily on the railing.
Sini grabbed Will’s arm. “We need to get them down!” But there was no more entrance to the tower. The doors, what could be seen of them past the pile of rubble, were alight from dragon fire. There was no way in.
“Strangers!” Hissed Mikal, pointing at Douglon, Avina, Sora, and Roan. “You brought strangers into the valley?”
“People!” Gerone interrupted him. “Just in time! They look like they can fight!”
Sini started to explain, but the Shield rushed out of a small door at the side of the library wing. “Alaric! Sini!” he called, his voice steely. “I have need of you.”
Alaric ran toward him without hesitation.
Sini sprinted after him. “But the twins!”
“The Shield needs us,” he called back to her, angling for where the tiny old man stood, peering at the library.
Over her shoulder she saw Anguine soar up to the top of the cliffs at the far end of the valley, breaking loose another huge stone while the sunlight flashed scarlet on his scales. The sun was high in the sky and sunfire poured down. She drew it in, the warmth of it driving off the chill of the air. It filled her chest and her arms and drove her legs faster.
She cast out and could feel the vitalle of the dragon like an inferno hurling into the valley behind her. She cast a glance over her shoulder. He raced up the valley toward them, skimming over the grass, sending out a stream of flame that blasted into the side of the w
hite tower. Chunks of charred rock toppled off the far wall, and the dragon streaked past before launching back into the sky. Two arrows in quick succession from Sora skipped off his scales.
Sini ran past Alaric, reaching the Shield first at the brown stone wall of the library. He turned toward her, his normally serene face frightened. “I can’t save the books.” He grabbed her sleeve, his fear churning a rush of her own in her stomach. “I need something strong!”
“The scale!” Alaric yelled running up to them.
The dragon scale. Sini dug it out of her pocket and handed it to the Shield. He stared at it for a moment before comprehension dawned. “You can get its essence?” he demanded of Alaric.
The tall Keeper nodded and took the scale. The Shield ran his hand over his bald head, his face regaining some of its composure. “Clearly we need to strengthen more than the roof.” He turned to Alaric. “How much can you give me? Enough for the tower, too?”
Alaric’s face was bleak. “Only enough for the library, and even that might be a stretch.”
The Shield spared a stricken look for the tall white tower of the Stronghold before facing the library.
“Vitalle, Sini,” he said gravely. “As much as you can find.”
Alaric knelt down and placed the scale on his palm. Sini drew in the sunfire that poured down on her. She looked up at Steffan and Nikolas, leaning on their railing, surveying the valley.
“They can’t stay there,” she said.
“The twins know what they’re doing.” the Shield said without looking. Alaric held out the scale and the Shield touched it. His eyes widened, and he set his other hand on the library wall. “That vitalle, Sini! Now!”
She felt a rush of energy pour out of the tiny man. A huge stream of bright white light shot out of his palm toward the library wall. The vitalle flowing into him was more than she’d ever felt near Alaric or Will. A hundredfold as much. It seeped out of the ground through his feet, but it also streaked toward him from the white stones of the Stronghold itself. She was blinded for a moment by the light flooding from all directions into the tiny man.
“Sini!” he called, in a strangled voice.
She brought her hand next to his and let the sunfire stream out of her, pouring her own pink river of vitalle into the path of light he’d created. The magic he’d started lapped greedily at the extra energy. She closed her eyes and turned her face toward the sun, drinking in the heat and the power.
Her body began to thrum with it. The sunfire warmed her, filled her, called her to itself.
She opened her eyes to see Alaric drawing bits of yellow from the dragon scale, sliding them into the stream of light like seeds bobbing in a river. The Shield’s arm shook, funneling the energy and the essence of the scale up to into the wall. A web of light crawled upward and around the brown stone of the library, covering the walls and sliding up onto the roof. Where the library connected to the white tower, the web disappeared into the building.
The sunfire filled Sini with light. Her mind stretched out in it, reaching across the valley, out into the boundless sky. The tips of her fingers began to glow, not with the pink light, but with a radiant gold. The edges of her fingers tingled and blurred. Her thoughts of the Shield and Alaric and the library faded. She breathed in the goodness of the light. The wholeness of it. It pressed against her skin not with pain, but with a longing for freedom.
A crash above her snapped her vision back to the valley. The dragon’s red tail flicked overhead, catching the edge of the tower below the twin’s window. A white chunk of rock, larger than her whole body, ripped out of the tower and plummeted down toward the library roof. When it hit, the library shook and the ground beneath Sini’s feet shuddered. But the rock splintered and cascaded over the edge of the roof, leaving the arched ceiling undamaged.
The Shield sank to his knees next to Alaric, cutting off the vitalle to the building. “That should hold,” the Shield managed.
With nowhere else to go, the sunfire filled her, infusing her with warmth and light and hope.
“Sini.” The Shield’s quiet voice tugged at her. She clenched her fists and with a tremendous effort closed herself off to the sunfire, letting it drain out of her, leaving her empty and dark. She fell to her knees next to him. His face was white and his eyes unfocused.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, turning his hand so she could see his palm. A blister, red and split, leaked clear fluid.
He shifted their hands until her own palms were facing up. They were perfectly smooth and healthy. “Well done, my girl. Well done.”
Before she could answer, he slumped forward. A sharp crack sounded, this time directly above her. Another huge white stone slid out of place and plummeted toward them. An earsplitting crash sounded just above her, and Alaric clenched his arms around them. Above them the rock burst into pieces and bounced off a thin, wavy layer of air. Rubble shot in all directions and when it cleared she saw, high above her, the twins stretching their hands toward her. The air smoothed itself out and the final bits of white rock pelted down on them. The twins peered down long enough to see her, Alaric, and the Shield stir, then turned back to the sky.
The dragon roared out a burst of fire to her left and she spun to see him send the roof of the stable up in flames. She looked for Rett but saw no sign of him or the sheep. Hopefully they were tucked away in the tunnel by now.
Around her the valley was ablaze. The workshop was a smoldering pile of ash, the barn was not only crushed, but burning. The stables were in flames. Huge swaths of grass were charred down to the earth. The forest on the south end of the valley poured out huge plumes of smoke. Roan, Sora, Douglon, and Avina were huddled together against a tall stone wall that ran along the stables. The dragon shot up past the face of one of the cliffs and Sini spun to face the tower. Huge chunks of stone had been knocked loose.
Only the library was unharmed.
A dozen paces from the door of the Stronghold, Will, Gerone, and Mikal pulled balls of water out of the well and hurled them at the burning front doors, quenching most of the fire.
The dragon flew up over the cliff and disappeared from sight. The Shield moaned and Alaric knelt to look at him. The old man’s head drooped, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
“Is he…?” Sini asked.
“Just exhausted,” Alaric answered, his face uncertain. “I think.” He picked the tiny old man up and ran with him toward the safety of the tunnel.
Sini sprinted to the well, arriving at the same time as Douglon and Avina. The dwarf’s sleeve was charred and his face was furious. “Singed my beard!” He pointed at shriveled, blackened ends of his copper red beard.
“Dragon gone?” Asked Avina, peering into the sky.
“It won’t be that easy,” muttered Douglon.
Sora and Roan joined them. Sora limped slightly and Roan had a gash on his arm.
“What do we do now?” Sini asked as Alaric and Rett joined them.
“Never fight a dragon in the air,” Mikal quoted the famous poem “Dragonsbane”, by Flibbet the Peddler.
“We ground him,” Gerone agreed. “And keep him down.”
Sini stared at them, almost more shocked at their agreement than at their idea. “How are we supposed to do that?”
“Gerone and I will knock him down,” Mikal said, still looking up, waiting for the dragon to reappear. “Will, maybe you can control the beast the way you control that hawk.”
“He doesn’t control the hawk.” Gerone argued. “He befriended it.”
“That’s worked before with this dragon too,” Mikal pointed out.
“He’s not going to stay still long enough for me to do either,” Will said. “Besides, it’s not just the dragon. There are two distinct entities in that creature. I can feel the dragon’s emotions and Lukas’s as well.”
“He must be nearby,” Sini agreed, “or he wouldn’t have enough control.” She scanned the top of the valley. A lone figure stood on the top of the eastern cliff. She
pointed up at him and everyone turned. “Lukas is using compulsion stones to control Anguine.” There was plenty of sunfire raining down. “I can break them and free Anguine if I can touch him.” She glanced at the others. “We might be able to convince the dragon to leave us alone.” She swallowed the bitterness of the next thought. “We’ll never convince Lukas to.”
“Anguine has cooperated in exchange for his freedom in the past,” Alaric agreed.
“How many times do we need to free one dragon?” Douglon grumbled. “And why is it that no matter who is controlling it, they always want it to attack you Keepers?”
“If we can get the dragon grounded,” Sora said, ignoring the dwarf, “we could pin his wings.” Everyone stared at her blankly. “In my home caves there are ice bats. They’re enormous. But you can hold them if you grab the thin membrane of their wings. If they pull too much, the membrane will tear, so they stay still until you release them.”
“And you think the dragon’s wings are thin?” Douglon asked.
“Not that thin, but if he were grounded we could roll some heavy rocks onto the thin parts between the thin bones. Enough rocks would pin him.” She looked around at the rest of them. “Right?”
“That’s the craziest plan I’ve ever heard.” Douglon grinned. “I like it. Let’s pin the monster and destroy it!”
“I doubt the destroying part is feasible,” Will said, “but Anguine has been reasoned with before—”
Sora twisted to look north. The red silhouette of the dragon soared into view, far to the north, high even above the cliffs.
“And I don’t have a better idea,” Will finished.
“This is ludicrous,” Roan said, but he hefted up a large white rock.
“Someone’s going to explain to me at some point who all of you are,” Mikal said, scowling at the newcomers, “but for now, if you lure him to this open space, flying low, a strong enough wind should ground him. At least for a short time.”
Gerone nodded. “You get him here, we’ll bring him down”
Sini looked up at the top of the cliffs, a cold fear growing in her. There was only one person that Lukas might pay attention to. “Lukas can see through the dragon’s eyes. If he sees me, I might be able to get him to fly closer down…and I don’t think he’d kill me.” The words sounded unconvincing, even to herself.