by Amie Kaufman
Anders pulled the other three pieces from his satchel. The top was easy, with its iron orb to mark it, and he quickly saw the order in which they’d screw together, from the flow of the metal strips that wrapped all around it. The thrill of assembling such an important artifact, here in the main workshop where its creator—their mother—had worked, ran through him.
As he screwed the last piece into place, he felt the familiar tingle of the essence awakening inside it. All the runes along it briefly glowed, then subsided. “I can feel how to use it,” he said after a moment, wondering. “I never thought about how you’d activate it, but now I’m holding it, I can tell that it’s . . . listening, I guess, is the best word. All I need to do is tell it what I want.”
Rayna held out her hand, and he passed it to her. A moment later, her face lit up. “We’re ready to use it,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“One more thing,” Anders said, turning back toward the door. “Cloudhaven,” he said, as clearly as he could, though the nerves were making his throat feel tight. “We have another true purpose. We want to find out where Drifa the dragonsmith went.”
For a moment, nothing happened. And then, just as it had before, the glow out in the hallway faded. When it returned a moment later, the path of runes led down the stairs again. Anders and Rayna hurried down them, and when they reached the base, the new glowing path led in an entirely new direction.
“Pack and paws,” Anders whispered. “It’s taking us to an answer.”
Rayna was just drawing breath to reply when Lisabet’s voice rang down the halls in a shout that came all the way from the entrance, raw with panic. “Anders! Rayna! The dragons are coming!”
The twins exchanged a glance that lasted only a heartbeat, and at the same time, lasted forever. Anders asked a question with his eyes. With infinite reluctance, Rayna nodded.
“Cloudhaven,” Anders said. “Show us the way back out again.”
The path faded before them, and the old one sprang up again. They wasted no time in tearing along it, running back to their friends as quickly as they could.
Lisabet and Theo were waiting at the door, leaning through it without daring to set a foot on the flagstones inside. “Quick,” called Lisabet. “Rayna, transform, we need to get your harness on!”
Ellukka was out on the ledge in dragon form when they ran across the huge hall to burst outside, Mikkel pulling her harness on over her head and buckling it into place. Rayna ran to a clear place to make her own change.
“We’ve got the scepter,” Anders called, as he and Lisabet grabbed Rayna’s harness.
“What do we do?” Mikkel called.
“We have to keep it away from the dragons,” Lisabet said. “They’ll use it to warm up the whole of Vallen, to attack the wolves.”
“So do we hide it somewhere?” Theo asked, looking out into the fog, in the direction Mikkel and Ellukka must have seen the dragons coming from. “If they’re going to catch us, we can’t have it with us.”
“We—” Mikkel got no further—a sudden wave of cold swept over the wide landing platform, so strong that even the natural power of Cloudhaven’s deep-rooted lava was overwhelmed. His knees sagged, and Theo cried out, and in their dragon form, Ellukka and Rayna groaned.
“No,” Anders said. “We have to use it as quickly as we can. If they catch us, they’ll make us prisoners and take it for themselves. We can’t risk that happening.”
“But how?” Theo cried, frantic. “We still don’t know what it does, apart from make things warmer. Or how to use it, or where we should use it, or—”
“I can use it,” Anders said, cutting him off. “And we’re taking it to Holbard.”
“Holbard?” Lisabet’s eyes went wide. “If you think those dragons chasing us are mad, just wait until we fly right over the capital city! The wolves will bring a whole new meaning to the word mad!”
“It’s the most likely place for Sigrid to have the Snowstone,” said Anders. “If she’d left the city to hide it, someone would know, and there’s no way she’d want it where she couldn’t control it.”
“So either the wolves are going to catch us, or the dragons will,” Mikkel said, buckling the final piece of Ellukka’s harness into place.
“And we don’t even know which is worse,” Theo concluded, as the two boys ran back to find room to transform.
“We have to use it,” Anders said. “Whatever it costs. Or there’ll be war. And we have to keep it away from the dragons . . .”
“. . . or there’ll be a war,” Lisabet finished for him.
Rayna stamped one foot on the ground impatiently, with a noise that wanted to be a roar, but only dared be a whisper.
“What she said,” Anders agreed. “Let’s go.”
A few seconds later, Mikkel and Theo were dragons, and Anders and Lisabet were scrambling up onto Rayna’s and Ellukka’s backs, Anders jamming the scepter through the straps for safekeeping, Lisabet tucking Kess inside her jacket.
One after another, the four dragons launched, tipping out into the endless fog and turning for Holbard.
Chapter Fifteen
RAYNA BURST OUT OF THE CLOUDHAVEN MISTS, hurtling toward Holbard as fast as her wings could carry her.
But the Drekhelm dragons were south of Anders and his friends, and now they lay between them and the city. Their only hope was surprise.
Anders couldn’t identify any of the adult dragons—he’d never seen them transformed—but he had an inkling that most of the Dragonmeet, if not all of it, was in the air right now. They were all at least twice as big as the four Finskólar dragons, and they weren’t exhausted either.
Anders heard a bellow of defiance off to one side, and he saw Mikkel peeling away to their left, heading into the Icespire Mountains. An answering roar came from the right, and Theo tore off toward the rivers and lakes. Ellukka was hot on Rayna’s tail, calling out encouragement.
For a moment Anders had no idea why his friends were abandoning him—and then as their pursuers split, it came to him. Mikkel had seen a chance to lead away some of the Dragonmeet, and Theo had understood his bellowed instructions, though Anders had not. The dragons chasing them had no way of knowing what the foursome were doing, or who might be the threat, so they had to chase all of them.
Now there were only ten or so dragons pursuing Anders, Rayna, Ellukka, and Lisabet, fewer than half those in the air. It would still be a race, but their friends had just improved their odds.
Ellukka was making use of her extra strength, weaving around Rayna, no doubt certain that her father would stop the Dragonmeet harming the twins when there was a chance his daughter might be hit.
Anders hoped she was right.
Did the dragons think the children wanted to betray them to the wolves? Or had they somehow guessed they had the Sun Scepter, or something like it, and wanted to take it for themselves?
Another wave of cold hit them, rippling through the air like a gust of wind, and every dragon he could see dipped for a moment, fighting against its weakening force.
Somewhere ahead, there was no doubt that Sigrid had found the augmenter she needed. And whether or not she knew there were dragons on the way to Holbard, she was using the Snowstone to generate as much cold as she could.
The cold seemed to hit the adult dragons even harder than the children, and as minutes stretched to an hour, and then two, somehow Ellukka and Rayna stayed just ahead of them. Anders could hear the dragons roaring in pursuit, and he knew Rayna and Ellukka must be understanding the terrible threats coming from behind them, but neither of the girls faltered. The waves of cold told them they had no choice but to get to Holbard and use the Sun Scepter—and everything Torsten and the others had said and done told them that they couldn’t let the adult dragons be the ones to do it.
They’d flown over the Great Forest of Mists now, and crossed the Sudrain River, and the walls of Holbard were in sight. They’d been flying since morning, first from the Chelle Islands all the way to Cloudhave
n, and now down to the city itself. The sun was starting to dip toward the horizon, and Anders could sense Rayna’s exhaustion.
And he knew that if they could see the city, the wolves could see them—a dozen dragons flying as fast as they could toward the walls. The wolves would be scrambling even now, running to their positions, ready to defend Holbard. He could imagine the fear, the determination.
Another wave of cold hit them hard, and two of their pursuers freewheeled toward the ground, out of control, too weakened to stay aloft. Anders held his breath as they spun downward, and despite the threat they posed, he willed them desperately to spread their wings, to somehow slow themselves enough to land safely. He thought they did, but he wasn’t sure.
And then they were over Holbard, the familiar green rooftop meadows flashing below them, cold air rising from the city, the tiny figures of the wolves racing along the city walls and taking position, ready to cast ice spears and waves of cold the moment the dragons came within range.
Rayna was floundering beneath him, the cold air sapping her strength, pulling her down toward the city, and he could sense she didn’t have much time left before she, too, crashed. And just as bad, now that they’d reached the city, she and Ellukka were forced to slow, giving the Dragonmeet time to close the gap.
Ellukka was still valiantly weaving around Rayna’s smaller form, trying to protect them, but when the Dragonmeet caught up, they’d be surrounded.
Anders pulled the Sun Scepter from the straps on the harness, holding on tight with both hands, desperately afraid he’d drop it. He raised it above his head and fumbled for words, his brain suddenly completely empty. Pack and paws, now wasn’t the time to forget how to speak!
He knew it was listening, but what was he supposed to say to bring it to life? Something grand? Something fancy?
“Heat!” he yelled, giving up on sounding impressive and hoping the scepter could hear him, with the wind ready to whip away his words. It was pummeling him from all directions as Rayna dodged and dove, and only the leather belt he wore clipped to her harness kept him safe.
Ellukka’s sunrise scales darted past, and out of the corner of Anders’s eye he saw a burst of pure white dragonsfire, golden sparks flying from it, falling to the city below.
The flame had been aimed at them!
Ellukka and Lisabet pulled up just in time, and suddenly there were two more dragons there, adults, bigger than any of the others.
One had scales like a warm sunset, and from its similarity to Ellukka, Anders was sure it was her father, Valerius. The other was a deeper red, and for no reason he could explain, Anders was positive it was Leif, protecting his students. The quiet, calm Drekleid was roaring now, his fury directed at the dragons who had dared threaten the children.
Everything was chaos—the adult dragons circling them as Anders tightened his grip on the Sun Scepter, the wolves racing along the walls below, casting up ice spears that wouldn’t fall short of their targets for long, Rayna twisting and turning beneath him, and nothing was happening with the scepter, no heat was . . .
. . . and then suddenly, Anders felt it.
A wave of warmth washed over him like a real wave of water, sending all the dragons scrambling to stay steady, sudden updrafts lifting them unexpectedly, tipping them off balance. Beneath them, wolves howled their discomfort, and the runes on the Sun Scepter glowed so brightly he had to look away.
Theo had been right that the Sun Scepter would bring heat where the Snowstone brought cold—but this wasn’t simply heat. This was changing the very air around them, and it was too much for the wolves below.
Rayna was suddenly stronger, surer in her movements.
But what would the adult dragons do now? They’d peeled away, suddenly convinced that the children were on their side after all, and as they soared out over Holbard, bellowing their defiance at the weakened wolves below, Anders’s heart shrank.
Had they led an attacking force to the city despite all their efforts to bring peace? Were they about to make themselves the traitors to Ulfar they’d never meant to be?
He’d only just finished the thought when far below, a white cloud—a white explosion—appeared over the roof of the Wily Wolf, the tavern he and Rayna had slept above for so many years. Jagged white frost was ballooning out in every direction.
A few seconds later, a wave of cold hit the dragons midair, and Anders realized it had all come from the Wily Wolf.
Sigrid must have hidden the Snowstone in the roof, the highest point in Holbard!
That was why he’d always seen wolves there on his visits—not because they were using it as a lookout, but because they were guarding something.
Could he and Rayna get there? Could she make it through the waves of cold rolling off the tavern’s roof, and if she did, was there a way to pit the Sun Scepter against the Snowstone? A way to protect Holbard from both sun and snow?
A cloud of ice and cold flowed down from the highest point of the Wily Wolf, barreling along the streets of Holbard in every direction, freezing them over. It reached the harbor, and icy fingers snaked out into the water, freezing the surface solid and squeezing the hulls of the ships until they began to crack with bangs Anders could hear even above the city.
Suddenly ice spears were flying up from the walls, along with huge clouds of cold cast by the most powerful of the wolves, and the dragons were staggering, tossed about by the cold wind.
Anders felt the Sun Scepter tingle in his hands, and as he stared at it, mouth open—not speaking a word—it began to glow again. “No!” he cried, but it was too late—a wave of heat had flowed out from it to crash into the cold air around them, and below, a huge crack was opening up right through the middle of Holbard, running straight through the courtyard and outbuildings of Ulfar Academy itself! Stonework crumbled, walls collapsed, and a jagged trench cut the ground in two.
Was the lava far beneath the city trying to find a way up?
“Stop!” he screamed, shaking the scepter in his hands. “Sun Scepter, enough!”
It was too late to think of somehow counteracting one artifact with another. Both were completely out of control. Now, all Anders could do was try and save as many as he could from the chaos below.
Ice was meeting heat below, sending up great clouds of steam, and Anders could only imagine the pandemonium in Holbard’s streets. The dragons were roaring and breathing flame, and the wolves below were casting ice spears, and the city that had always been Anders’s home was coming to pieces before his very eyes.
Somewhere below him, almost everyone he’d ever known—his friends from Ulfar, the friendly shopkeepers who’d slipped him and his sister meals, the children of the street, the local traders and the foreign merchers—everyone was caught in this battle of fire and ice.
He shouted again, helpless, as half a dozen dragons swooped down at the wolves on the wall, breathing fire and sending them scattering in every direction.
Leif was still flying near his students, but as a sudden volley of ice spears soared toward Ellukka and Rayna, it was Valerius who threw himself into their path to protect his daughter, roaring his defiance.
Ellukka shrieked as a wave of gray cold started at her father’s foreleg, racing along his side. One wing paralyzed, he began to fall, fall, fall toward the ground.
Leif plunged with him, somehow maneuvering himself underneath Valerius. The injured dragon’s good wing flared, his tail whipped, and by sheer luck he managed to keep his balance as he landed atop Leif’s back. And with an extraordinary show of strength, Leif managed to carry him, winging his way toward the plains beyond the city, and safety.
He had saved Ellukka’s father, but he would play no further role in the battle.
As Anders stared after them, a deep red dragon he thought was Torsten soared over the city wall, blasting a long section with white-and-gold flame. He left smoldering ruins behind—Anders couldn’t tell if there were any wolves among the detritus or not.
He jammed the scept
er back into Rayna’s harness and thumped on her back with both hands to get her attention.
“Take me lower,” he shouted, the power already welling up inside him in response to the danger and his desperation, threatening to overtake him. He could feel it coming like a rush, and there was no way to slow it, let alone stop it. “Take me closer!”
He had to transform if he was going to do this, and he had to do it while Rayna was arrowing through the air. Without his safety harness. He unbuckled the belt that connected him to the leather straps, grabbing hold with his hands instead. Once he let go, he’d have only a heartbeat to change and grab hold of her harness again.
If we get out of this alive, he told himself, we’re adding extra straps to these things. Some kind of safety system.
And then he was out of time. Rayna dove, understanding his plan, and Anders hurled himself into wolf form with everything he had, channeling his fear and his determination, making the change more quickly than ever before. He grabbed hold of her harness with his teeth, then let his hind legs slide down until they were jammed between the straps and her body. The bright colors of the world faded out, and he was alive with the sharp scents of acrid smoke and crisp frost.
Rayna took a path that would lead her straight between the attacking Dragonmeet dragons and the wolves assembled atop the walls to fight them. Straight into the path of their flame, of their spears.
Nobody was expecting it.
Nobody could stop themselves in time, even if they’d wanted to.
Anders managed to lift his front paws, and he howled and brought them down on Rayna’s back.
And there was icefire.
Silver flames billowed out, consuming the dragons’ fire and the wolves’ ice, swallowing them whole before they could touch the twins. Rayna pulled up, and Anders grabbed the harness with his teeth again as she looped around to see what lay behind them.