She swallowed her nerve. What choice did she have?
Taking a deep breath, she leaned into a crouch and sprung forward. One step, two steps…
The dragon’s head shook violently, throwing her to its surface as a wave of flames shot out from between its teeth, the blast taking the knight full in the face.
Reecah’s momentum carried her to the edge of the dragon’s upper lip. If not for the handholds provided by its smoking nostrils, she would have fallen into the fire’s path.
Unable to keep her legs from sliding over the front edge she screamed, folding her legs at the knees. The heat of the roaring fire threatened to burn through her breeks and melt her boots.
Hanging by her fingers, her wild eyes were drawn to the knight. A horrifying noise escaped his helmet as he cooked inside his metal sarcophagus. His anguish lasted long enough for him to drop to his knees and tumble off the bridge, wailing like a banshee and plummeting out of sight. She was certain she was going to wake up in a cold sweat for many nights to come remembering his agonized cry.
The blast of flames petered out moments before Reecah’s strength gave out. Straightening her shaking arms, she lowered her body across the glowing hot fangs and fell to the stone journal with a yelp. Landing hard, she fell to her rump. She winced, lifting her tunic away from her waist and seeing her pale skin bright red where her body had come into contact with the fangs.
As soon as she landed, the bridge retracted into the wall from which it extended. Reecah jumped to her feet, not waiting to see if the stairwell would remain accessible once the journal settled back into place against the arm of the female wall carving.
“Raver, to me!” She picked up her quarterstaff and ran without looking back.
Raver flew by her head as she ducked inside the stairwell and disappeared up the spiralling shaft.
Taking two steps at a time, her thighs burned by the time she reached the landing. The sight of the soft glowing tunnels on the far side of the volcanic crater lifted her spirits—the upper stone slab no longer barred her way.
Before she entered the crater, she heard men shouting.
“There’s the bird! Shoot it down!”
Reecah burst onto the circular ledge and gasped. A small group of knights ran at her from the mouth of a tunnel farther around the crater. Behind them, a man with Waverunner blonde hair pointed. “There she is!”
All around the perimeter of the crater, knights stopped their progress and turned to see Jaxon’s group chase after her.
“To me! To me!” Raver called.
Several crossbow bolts zipped through the air, missing Raver by the narrowest of margins as he dropped headfirst out of the air and disappeared into the second tunnel on her left—the exit tunnel. If the knights were in the crater, that meant the avalanche blocking the courtyard entrance had been cleared.
Her legs carried her faster than her heavily armoured pursuit—all but Jaxon, who had separated himself from the pack.
Slowing just enough to slam into the far wall of the exit tunnel, she looked back, surprised. Jaxon had gained on her.
She sprinted toward the rockfall at the end of the tunnel. If she was wrong about her theory, she would be trapped. Her heart caught in her throat. The fallen rock didn’t appear to have been touched at all, but Raver tucked in his wings at the last possible moment and disappeared into the blackness beyond.
Lightning flashed, illuminating a fair-sized breach at the top of the blockage. Her spirits lifted. All she had to do was reach the far end of the tunnel and she would be free.
Approaching the debris, Jaxon’s high-pitched voice reached her from halfway down the tunnel. “Reeky! Don’t make this harder than it has to be. It’s just a matter of time now.”
Reecah swallowed her mounting fear. Scrambling up the side of the rockfall she glanced back before slipping through the gap and into the pouring rain.
Gaining her feet on top of the pile, she raised shaking hands to her face. Even knowing Grimclaw must have been killed in order for the knights to enter the temple, nothing could have prepared her for the sight sprawled across the courtyard—Grimclaw’s glistening corpse illuminated by lightning. A magical creature, alive for as long as time could remember, slaughtered while protecting her. An amber eye stared back at her, pale and lifeless.
“No. No. No, no, no, no.” Reecah dropped to her knees—her legs too weak to bear her weight.
“Got you!” Jaxon exclaimed triumphantly. Extending his arms through the breach atop the debris pile, he latched onto Reecah’s ankles and pulled.
Reecah looked back in horror. Devastated by Grimclaw’s demise, she had forgotten about Jaxon. Forgotten about the brat who had vexed her for as long as she could remember. Forgotten about the man who had ridiculed her family. The detestable human being who, with his brother, had led the black knights to the temple and killed Grimclaw.
Rage replaced her fear. She no longer cared what happened to her, but she did care what happened to Jaxon. A sadistic smirk twisted her face—one noticed by the blonde-haired man hanging onto her.
He sneered. “What’re you going to do now, huh?”
Reecah’s answer came at the end of her quarterstaff as it cracked Jaxon between the eyes.
He released one of her ankles to staunch the blood pouring down his face. Examining his hand, blood washed onto the marble in the rain. He growled and wrenched her other boot toward him. “You little witch! You’ll pay for that!”
Reecah twisted in his grip and slid toward him as he hoisted himself through the gap.
Kicking out with everything she had, she caught him square in the face with the bottom of her boot.
Jaxon’s head snapped back with a yelp, his body tumbling backward and impacting the tunnel floor with a thud.
Reecah experienced a burning desire to re-enter the tunnel and stomp on his face. Her adrenaline demanded she smash his insolent sneer into a gory pulp, but the sight of Grimclaw’s body sucked the fight from her.
She slipped down the outside of the rockfall and stumbled to Grimclaw’s rain-soaked head.
On his side, Grimclaw’s jaw was still higher than her. She slopped through a puddle to stand before the top of his face. With a trembling hand she stroked the space between his lifeless eyes.
Speaking through heaving sobs, she whispered, “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I should never have come. Please forgive me, you beautiful soul. You deserved better than this.”
The horrid damage the knights had inflicted on the timeless creature twisted her gut. Her gaze fell on the temple entrance, hoping Jaxon, or anyone, would appear so that she could avenge Grimclaw’s death.
Something deep inside warned her that her wish would soon be realized if she didn’t leave soon. It wouldn’t be long before the black knights emerged from the gap and seized her. She swallowed. If that happened, Grimclaw would have died for nothing.
A building resolve crept from the depths of her soul. If it was the last thing she did with her life, she vowed to avenge the needless slaughter perpetrated by the high king’s men on the dragons.
The rain had stopped and the clouds parted. Moonbeams lit up the mist rising off the ground as she leaned in to kiss Grimclaw’s face. “Good-bye, my brave friend. I will not let your death be in vain. I, Reecah Windwalker, pledge to you, oh noble beast, that I won’t rest until the plight of the dragons is remedied or I die in the attempt. I promise I will not go down quietly.”
Stepping away from Grimclaw, her delicate fingertips trailing on his rough skin for as long as possible, she located the tunnel leading to the ivy-covered wall. Steeling herself not to look back, she strode boldly away from the dead guardian.
Jonas Junior separated himself from the shadows of the courtyard tunnel, his face looking more beat up than it had a short while ago. “Reecah!”
Reecah’s eyes narrowed. Soaked to the skin, she wiped the tears from her face to see Junior clearly. Her sword slid from its sheath. “You traitorous bastard!”
She extended the blade behind her. “Look what you’ve done! You’ve stolen the beauty from the world!”
Junior’s sword appeared in his hand, his head shaking.
She didn’t give him time to respond. Running through the muck, she ran headlong to engage the man twice her size.
“Reecah, no!” he cried out and grunted.
His eyes went wide and his sword fell to the ground. Dropping to his knees, he said through clenched teeth. “Run, Reecah, run.”
Reecah frowned at the strange behaviour. What kind of foolery was this?
Junior’s eyes rolled into his head and he fell face first into the mud, his hands not breaking his fall—an arrow buried in his back.
Before Reecah realized the inference of the arrow, dozens of men in king’s livery stormed through the courtyard tunnel and fanned out, crossbows and longbows brought to bear.
Reecah spun one way and then the other searching for an escape route. Not that it mattered. The archers would cut her down before she took a second step.
A clamour arose from the temple entrance as the first of many black knights emerged.
Raver called from atop the thick wall. “To me! To me!”
On the brink of her death, Reecah laughed half-heartedly at the silly bird. If only she could fly. Perhaps when her spirit left her body, she would finally get to experience the rapturous joy of spreading her wings and soaring through the air. She dropped her arms, welcoming death.
“Up there!” someone shouted.
Reecah smiled. Perhaps she and Raver would meet Grimclaw together.
“And there!”
“There’s another one!”
“And another!”
Reecah snapped out of her stupor. What were the knights looking at?
Dropping out of the sky came a brown dragonling, plunging headlong at the line of king’s men, raking two with her claws before swooping back into the air.
“Swoop!” Reecah cried, afraid for her friend but ecstatic to see her.
A green dragon dropped to the ground between Junior’s prone body and the scrambling king’s men.
Lurker roared louder than Reecah would have thought possible as he ran at the nearest man. An arrow bounced off his scales. Another one impaled his wing.
Reecah stared in horror. The archers had stopped their retreat and were pulling their strings taut. “Lurker, no!”
If Lurker heard her, he didn’t respond. One man lay at his feet, his arm mangled beyond repair while two more backed away from the enraged dragon.
From out of the gloom, the red dragon Silence had named Scarletclaws crashed into the line of archers and crossbowmen. She never bothered catching her fall—just kept driving through the knights until her momentum dropped her into a heap beside Lurker.
Together, the two dragons chased after the knights who had broken rank and were running for their lives.
Behind Reecah, three black knights emerged from the temple, cursing the lesser knights for not maintaining their formation.
Reecah turned to intercept them, but a purple blur dropped behind the black knights.
Silence’s fanged mouth closed on the nearest man’s helmet, crushing the metal helm into his screaming head. She twisted her neck with such fury that the man’s body whipped into the air at an unnatural angle from his trapped head.
The remaining black knights charged at Reecah, but Swoop fell out of the sky, smashing into them.
Reecah didn’t know where to look. More black knights streamed out of the Dragon Temple and reinforcements were pouring through the courtyard tunnel, shoring up the lines and blocking any chance she had of escape.
Lurker and Scarletclaws were surrounded, each of them bristling with more than one missile protruding from their scales.
Silence backed away from several black knights, doing her best to keep them from getting at Swoop as the brown dragon finished off the two knights she had fallen upon.
Reecah despaired. The dragonlings still had a chance to escape but they wouldn’t leave without her. “Lurker! Leave me. Fly. Get away before they kill you!”
Swoop swung her bloody-toothed grin Reecah’s way. “Grimclaw gave his life for you, Windwalker. What kind of friends would we be if we left you?”
“But you can fly. I can’t. There’s no other way out. Go, before its too late,” Reecah pleaded. “I release you of Grimclaw’s vow. Now, please, I beg you.”
Wracking sobs shook her to the core. They weren’t listening.
“Reecah, to me!” Lurker’s voice filled her head.
Blinking away tears, Reecah stabbed at a black knight sneaking around the backside of Swoop, her sword tip diving between the man’s shoulder armour and helm. She pulled her sword free, shaking at what she had just done, staring in horror at the blood dripping off the sword’s tip
The knight’s axe fell to the ground, his hands clutching at his throat as he fell with a clang at Swoop’s feet.
“Reecah, get on!” Lurker broke away from the fight and ran to her. He dropped to his chest beside her. “Come on, it’s the only way.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a longbowman steadying himself to shoot Lurker in the head.
The archer drew his string, set his sight and cried out— his errant missile slamming into Grimclaw’s uncaring hide as Raver clawed at the archer’s face with his mangled feet.
Shaking uncontrollably, a numb detachment washing through her, Reecah turned her wrath on the archer, incensed he had further desecrated Grimclaw’s corpse. Before the archer could rid himself of Raver, Reecah ran him through.
Lurker chased after her. “We’re out of time. Get on!”
Reecah cried out, half-crazed with battle-lust. “I have to avenge Grimclaw’s death!”
“I do too, Reecah, trust me, but if we don’t leave now, we won’t survive the day. We need to retreat to a safe place and regroup if we’re to have any chance of fighting another day. Come on. Get on.” He lowered his chest to the ground.
Reecah frowned, realizing what he was suggesting. “You want me to ride on your back?”
“How else are we going to get you out of here?”
“I’m too heavy.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Lurker pleaded. “Besides, I carried a troll, remember.”
How could she forget the troll dangling from Lurker’s back claws? She shuddered. “That was different. You can’t fly with me on your back.”
“Climb on my shoulders and hug my neck. Hurry! We’re out of time.”
She followed his gaze to the temple entrance. The black knight with the gilded piping pulled himself from the gap. The wizard!
Sheathing her sword, she wrapped her arms around Lurker’s scaly neck and swung her inside leg over his shoulder. She couldn’t believe she was doing this.
“Hang on tight!” Lurker straightened to his full height and stretched his wings experimentally, wincing.
“What’s wrong?”
“Remove the arrow from my wing.”
Reecah laid back and grasped the offending shaft with both hands. “Ready?”
Not waiting for a response, she ripped the arrow free and threw it to the ground.
Lurker roared, almost bucking her off.
“Now, Lurker!” Reecah shouted, her eyes meeting the wizard’s across the courtyard.
“Swoop, Silence, Scarletclaws, away!” Lurker ordered. He took two quick steps and launched himself into the air. His great wings flapped quickly but Reecah’s added weight over his shoulders threw off his coordination.
Reecah screamed as Lurker nose-dived over the defensive line set up by the regular king’s men.
An ice-ball exploded against the moss-covered wall where Lurker’s trajectory would have taken him had he been able to remain in the air
Lurker’s front feet hit the ground hard, jarring Reecah from his shoulders. Clinging to his neck, her feet hit the ground beside him.
Lurker ran into the high arched tunnel. “Hang on!”
She kept pace with his frenzied flight, her feet touching the ground sporadically. Newcomers emerging through the breach in the ivy-covered wall scrambled to get out of the way of the charging dragon. All except one.
The biggest man in Fishmonger Bay stepped out in front of them, a large tower shield strapped to his back and a mighty battle-axe held overhead.
Covering a grotesquely scarred face, his unkempt, pepper-grey beard lifted off his chest as he swung his weapon behind him to deliver the killing stroke.
Reecah released her grip on Lurker’s neck and tumbled on the ground. “Nooooo!”
Grog’s gaze fell on Reecah for the briefest of moments.
Unable to react fast enough to save her friend, all she could do was watch Grog step into his attack. She held an arm out before her, closing her eyes and looking away as the battle-axe chunked into the ground.
A collective gasp sounded from the scattered knights and villagers of the dragon hunt.
Reecah lowered her arm and surveyed the damage, stunned by what she saw.
Grog stood before Lurker, his meaty hands held up as if they were enough of a barrier to keep the dragon from ripping his head off. “Do with me as you like, my scaly friend. I’m done with killing majestic beasties!”
Lurker roared, the sound lifting the small hairs on Reecah’s neck.
Everyone stepped back, except Grog who simply lowered his tree trunk arms, awaiting his fate.
Reecah fondly recalled the gentle giant from her youth. One of the few men who had never been anything but kind to her.
“Lurker, no!”
On the verge of clamping his jaws over Grog’s head, Lurker stopped—his emerald eyes beseeching an explanation.
“There’s no time to explain. Just don’t.”
The wizard entered the tunnel behind them.
“We need to fly!” Reecah ran alongside Lurker as he stepped around Grog and began moving.
Clearing the tunnel, Reecah bounded high into the air and landed heavily on Lurker’s shoulder. The sudden weight nearly toppled him but he kept his feet. Without warning, he sprang into the air as a volley of arrows zipped past where his next step would have taken him.
Legends of the Lurker Box Set Page 26