After just a moment, though, the two soldiers pulled apart and self-consciously wiped their eyes.
Changing the subject, John looked to the sky. “Looks like a storm is coming.”
A dark cloud moved across the full moon, eclipsing it for a moment.
Deacon followed John’s gaze. “That’s no storm,” he said ominously, as giant winged beasts swarmed out of the cloud.
Chapter 57
A battle horn echoed through the canyon. Everyone froze. Dancers stopped dancing. Feasters stopped eating. Children ceased running.
A moment of silence, as the community collectively held its breath, all asking themselves the same question: Was that what I thought it was? Then all the questions were answered as the horn blasted again, and the valley erupted into mayhem.
Mothers grabbed their children, and men shared hurried embraces with their wives, then rushed to their dragons.
The horn blast reached the stable. Ellie sprung to her feet in an instant.
Confused, Thomas rose slowly from the hay.
“What’s wrong?”
“They’ve found us,” she responded gravely.
Chaos filled the canyon floor. Deacon and John ran into its midst, shouting as they went: “Riders, to your dragons! The rest, to the stronghold!”
A woman fell in front of Deacon. He deftly helped her up, and she gained confidence from his steady hand. Then she ran on her way.
Deacon looked to the sky and called loudly: “Thorn!”
Chapter 58
Lightning lit up the dark sky, revealing the magnitude of the shadow warrior army. They came riding on the storm—their hideous beasts in tight formation, the beat of their wings rumbled like a continuous roll of thunder.
One shadow warrior rode point: General Nawg. His iron breastplate glinted in the night, and his black cloak whipped behind him. From the back of his black dragon, he surveyed the terrified villagers scurrying far below him.
“Mine,” he hissed.
Nawg spurred on his beast, and they dove followed by the black wave of shadow warriors.
Chapter 59
Thorn leaped from the cliff and into the sky, trumpeting his battle cry.
Running out of the stable, Ellie and Thomas watched Thorn take to the air.
“Go, Thorn, go!” Thomas hollered.
“Come on!” Ellie yelled to Thomas as she ran off at full speed.
“Wait up!” Thomas called, trying to catch up with her. Then she had a thought, and, looking over her shoulder, she let out a whistle and yelled: “Splinter!”
Within the stable, a small emerald dragon jumped to attention, then took herself into the air to catch up with Ellie.
Thomas felt Splinter fly over him, then was amazed as Splinter passed Ellie and flew out of sight over the upcoming cliff. Thomas was even more amazed when Ellie sprinted straight to the edge of that cliff… and leaped off it.
Thomas screamed—“Ellie!”—Then skidded to a stop on the cliff’s brink… in plenty of time to see Ellie land securely on the well-trained Splinter’s saddle.
“Wow,” Thomas breathed in awe. Then he shifted his gaze to the further-out cliffs overlooking the valley, and deep dread filled him.
Shadow warriors and their dark steeds streamed over those cliffs like a black waterfall, then plunged toward the valley below. Thomas cringed as, one by one, villagers were snatched from the ground by the dark dragons’ ebony talons, or were cut down by a deadly rain of black arrows.
On the valley floor, a confused girl-child stood crying amidst the mayhem. The child was scooped up by the running John, who gripped his sword in one hand while handing the girl off to her frantic mother.
Just then—thunk!—a shadow warrior’s heavy iron-tipped spear pierced into the ground just inches from John’s toes.
John followed the spear’s reverse trajectory, saw that shadow warrior bearing down on him. Like a madman, John broke into a sprint toward the beast and its rider.
Yet before they got down to John’s level, he leaped atop one of the lined-up feasting tables, ran the length of two tables, then jumped high into the air just as the beast dove to attack. Which was to John’s advantage, because he jumped clear over the beast’s wing while also swinging his sword, and thus cleanly lopped off the shadow warrior’s head.
The head fell one way and the body the other, then the riderless dragon squawked, wheeled, and turned back to the sky.
Chapter 60
Deacon ran through the chaos. As he stooped to assist another mother with her child, a shadow warrior leaped from his low-flying beast and knocked him to the ground.
Deacon rolled over, just in time to block the thrust of the shadow warrior’s jagged blade. Yet the warrior was larger than Deacon and had his full weight clamping Deacon to the ground.
The dark warrior raised his arm for another stab, but Deacon grabbed his wrist and stopped the knife’s deadly trajectory. So the warrior bore down on that arm, inching the blade ever closer to Deacon’s chest.
Deacon’s veins popped, and beads of sweat rolled off his forehead as he tried to resist, his imminent demise seemed inevitable.
The jagged blade’s sharp point began to dig into the leather of Deacon’s jacket. He thought: Why keep resisting? Why continue this fight? Maybe it’s time to join Aiden and my wife.
Just then, the hulking shadow warrior was lifted, as giant talons closed on him and ripped the screaming warrior off of Deacon and straight into the air.
Even better, the shadow warrior had barely begun his shadow-turn when Thorn’s two vice-like talons simply pulled the warrior’s neck from his body, then dropped the two lifeless clumps next to the remains of John’s last opponent.
Then Thorn roared his victory, and Deacon had to acknowledge, even as he painfully stood: “Show off!”
Chapter 61
Thomas watched the battle from high above the canyon floor, just outside the cliff stable’s door. He sighed as Ellie’s red mane whipped in the wind, and she and Splinter dove to the battle.
“Let’s go, girl!” Ellie encouraged her small dragon. Ellie pulled her sword from the saddle sheath, and Thomas saw the blade glint in the moonlight as she lifted it high, then aimed it at a flying-away shadow warrior.
Sensing Ellie’s approach, that shadow warrior turned in his saddle, then quickly spurred his beast and steered it up to Ellie and Splinter’s level. The smaller emerald dragon banked and bugled a surprisingly resonant challenge cry.
The shadow warrior hefted his heavy spear, took aim, and launched it. Ellie ducked in time, as the spear whistled past her ear.
On the ground, Deacon desperately fought several shadow warriors at once, moving quickly to use their confusing numbers against them. But they managed to cooperate in semi-circling him up against a villager’s house’s wall, then one struck a tremendous counter-blow against Deacon’s parry. This blow flung Deacon’s sword out of his hand, and the blade flew end-over-end into the night.
Deacon watched briefly as his blade disappeared in the darkness, then swallowed and turned back to face what he thought was surely his death.
Yet the five shadow warriors did not stab at him. Instead, they all kept their swords aimed at his throat and gradually closed in on their prey while hissing like pit vipers.
Above, Ellie and Splinter dove to meet the spear-throwing shadow warrior, who had now drawn his sword. But the warrior’s lumbering beast was no match for the smaller dragon’s lightness and agility. When the shadow warrior swung his sword, Splinter evaded to the left, while Ellie’s sword sliced off the warrior’s sword arm.
The shadow warrior’s arm fell, its hand still clutching the sword landed at Deacon’s feet with a thud, sending up a puff of dust and startling the closing-in shadow warriors.
The dragon rider stared in disbelief for one millisecond, then snatched up the sword and cut the nearest shadow warrior in half before impaling the unfortunate warrior right next to him. Now the remaining three sensed that perhaps
the tide had turned.
Chapter 62
High above the valley floor, perched on the threshold of the cliff-side stable, Thomas, now alone, watched the battle below in fear. Fires had sprung up here and there as shadow warriors stormed through the once peaceful village. Even from this distance, the piercing screams of dying people reached his ears. Finally, he tore his eyes from the chaos and ran, as fast as his legs could carry him, away from the horrific scene.
He had no idea where he was running—just away. Coming to the stairs cut into the cliff’s side, he began climbing.
Astride his dark beast, one shadow warrior was making wide loops above the battlefield. He spied the odd-looking boy scurrying up the side of the cliff above the dragon stable. The warrior’s spine stiffened: Is this perhaps the Otherlander that Darcon and Nawg so desire?
Red eyes blazing with ambition, the warrior spurred his beast into a sharp dive, right at the fleeing boy—Thomas.
From atop Splinter, Ellie saw the black dragon diving toward some prey. She leaned over her saddle and peered into the distance. She suddenly realized the beast’s intent.
“Thomas!” she whispered, then ordered: “On, Splinter!”
Thomas scurried up the stone stairs, oblivious to the impending danger.
Licking his lips, the dragon-riding shadow warrior streaked toward his clueless, helpless prey.
Ellie bent low in the saddle and urged Splinter on. The sky’s cold mist stung her face as she sped to the rescue.
The shadow warrior was almost on Thomas. The black dragon, fearsome talons flexed in anticipation, let out its blood-curdling screech and Thomas spun.
Horrified, the boy threw up his hands and closed his eyes, paralyzed like a tiny rabbit before a raptor.
Chapter 63
Another dragon’s distinctive trumpet reached Thomas’s ears. The boy’s eyes popped open—“Splinter!”—And just then, the emerald dragon smashed into the black beast and sank her talons into its wing-flesh, forcing the creature out of the air and onto the stable’s threshold. Thomas quickly back-pedaled up the stairs behind him. “Yeah! Get ’em, Splinter!” He cheered.
Despite the larger beast thrashing and swinging its tail to strike at Splinter or Ellie, the little dragon would not let go, and Ellie’s swinging sword made several deep gashes in the black dragon’s hide.
Meanwhile, the shadow warrior tried to figure out how to injure Splinter, to get his beast away, or to get out of his saddle and run across his dragon’s talon-gripped wing to attack Ellie directly. He couldn’t decide, for he didn’t want to abandon the dragon he had worked so hard to own.
Just then, Ellie saw Thomas, frozen indecisively above her on the cliff stairway. She knew he was torn between fear for his life and concern for her, his friend.
Their eyes locked, and she commanded: “Run! Thomas! Run!” But he didn’t.
Just then the shadow beast threw its head back to bite at Splinter, but the little dragon swiftly dodged those fangs—and, seeing an opportunity, just as quickly sunk her own sharp teeth into the other dragon’s exposed throat, while still maintaining a tight grip on its injured wing.
Now screeching in pain, the beast thrashed and shook and flailed with wing and tail, but to no avail, it could not dislodge the little dragon.
Swinging his blade, the shadow warrior nicked Ellie’s shoulder. Yet she continued to keep slicing and stabbing at the black dragon’s side, even though her face was now locked in a pained grimace. The shadow warrior seemed to be secured to his prized dragon.
Splinter forced the dark dragon toward the edge of the cliff in front of the stable. The bigger dragon could not find a foothold on the rock and steady itself, no matter how it scrambled.
That was because its loss of blood was beginning to tell. The flapping of its wings began to slow, its tail hung, and its neck jerks were weaker.
Splinter kept biting its neck deeper and deeper, and Ellie kept stabbing and slicing, and the shadow warrior considered and reconsidered his options, and the wounded dragon’s belly poured out more and more black, oily blood.
Next, Splinter beat her wings with all her might, forcing the spent dragon backward over the cliff’s edge. Yet the determined beast managed with the last breath to snag one talon around Splinter’s saddle-belt.
So as the dying dragon’s full weight slipped over the edge, Ellie and Splinter were dragged right over the precipice with it.
“Ellie!” Thomas shouted.
Ellie, realizing her fate, peered up one last time to see Thomas staring helplessly from the cliff.
“Go!” she commanded.
They fell.
“Noooo!” Thomas screamed in anguish.
The dark beast plummeted upside down, its wings akimbo as Ellie attempted to cut loose Splinter’s harness so the black dragon’s talon would dislodge. As the shadow warrior struggled for an escape, the ground rushed to meet them, and Splinter screamed.
Ellie cringed, preparing for impact. Both dragons smashed into the canyon floor with a bone-crunching thud.
The dust settled. The shadow warrior’s black-gloved hand protruded from under his broken, dead beast.
Splinter was dazed but alive. The more massive dragon’s body broke her fall, and Ellie didn’t fall out of the saddle until after the impact.
Body aching, Ellie groaned and shook her head. As her eyes focused, she saw the twisted arm of her enemy. Relieved, Ellie reached up, stroked her little dragon’s neck.
“Good girl, Splinter.”
But Ellie’s relief was short-lived. As she turned and struggled to stand, her rising eyes took in the black boots, dark cloak, and unmistakable steel breastplate of the looming General Nawg.
Chapter 64
Elsewhere on the valley floor, Deacon and John stood back to back, holding a horde of shadow warriors at bay. Thorn growled savagely as he stood his ground with them. Around them lay several bodies of those shadow warriors foolish enough to get within striking distance of either man’s sword or the dragon’s teeth.
In the sky, a new threat winged its way toward the men. Two shadow warriors, their dragons flying abreast, dragged between them a vast net of woven rope.
Both men, seeing their impending fate, broke and ran. Deacon yelled, “Thorn!” The great dragon turned to his master. “Thomas! Find Thomas!”
The mighty beast hesitated at Deacon’s words, torn between loyalty to his master and obedience to his master’s command. Thorn chose the latter. He coiled like a giant spring and launched into the sky—just before the net fell and knocked Deacon and John to the ground. The shadow warriors swarmed, covering the men like a colony of black bats.
Thomas ran along the top of the cliff. After he saw Ellie fall, he watched for a moment, hoping against hope that she and her little dragon would somehow be okay. Then he had finally followed his friend’s command and ran.
As Thomas blindly rushed forward, he was surprised to realize he was longing to be sitting in his boring literature class back in Britain.
I would even gladly trade all this for a sorry game of cricket, Thomas thought. He missed Pudge. He missed his “mates.” But more than anything, he missed his mom.
Even as he kept running, tears spilled from his eyes. He wondered what his mom was doing, and if she could ever forgive him for leaving.
Exhausted, Thomas slowed to a forced march. If I could just find my father, he would know what to do. Dad would fix it all. He would know how to get us home, and everything would be right. We could be a family again.
Thomas’s thoughts were derailed by a thwapping sound that only a few days ago was utterly foreign to him; now, he recognized it as the beating of dragon wings in descending mode. I knew it—they’ve finally got me!
Ducking reflexively, Thomas looked back. He saw the dark silhouette of a colossal dragon swooping down on him from the night sky, blotting out stars as it loomed.
He tried to run, but tripped over a rock and fell, skinning his knee. Before he could scrambl
e to his feet, massive talons reached out of the sky and snatched him. The ground dropped away as he screamed.
Then the beast carrying him trumpeted, and Thomas thought it was perhaps the sweetest sound he had ever heard.
“Thorn!”
Thomas relaxed as much as he could—given he was being held by the shoulders by a great dragon dangling him hundreds of feet off the ground.
“Thank you!”
Thorn trumpeted in response and beat his mighty wings quickly. They gained altitude and soared away from the stronghold.
“Good old Thorn,” Thomas mused, as they sailed away from the battle and into the night.
Chapter 65
Quite some distance from the once-protected valley, a shadow warrior’s beast glided slowly over tall jagged cliffs and impossibly smooth rock faces. Scanning but seeing naught, the warrior tugged his dragon’s reins, and they began an adjacent circle, methodically searching many miles of hidden canyons and complex terrain.
Yet within the warrior’s range, beneath the cliff edge, he had just surveyed, Thomas sat in the mouth of a good-sized cave, silently watching the dark scout from behind a pile of branches and brush that he had used to camouflage the cave’s entrance.
As the beast turned and winged away, Thomas released a sigh of relief. Then he crawled to the back of the cave, where Thorn lay resting.
Thomas patted the huge dragon’s head. “They’re gone,” he said bravely.
Thorn winced and whined softly—which confused Thomas. How could such a fierce, giant beast be in pain? Curious, Thomas looked the dragon up and down then exclaimed: “Thorn, you’re hurt!”
OTHERLANDER: A Long Way From Home Page 10