by C J Preece
It flew over them again, spewing fire everywhere. She couldn’t see Greta or Kay now,but she hoped they had gotten to safety. She was still out in the open, hopefully the only one the dragon would be able to see. Neither Greta or Kay knew how to fight properly. To try and keep its attention she fired again.
Dragons were armoured from head to tail, even their eyes were covered in some sort of hardened substance. Their wings could be punctured, but only with magically blessed blades. She did have such a blade, back in the Dark Forest in her base. She didn’t think it would do much good to her there. She grabbed the bag and started to move, sticking to the cliff face in the hope that it wouldn’t be able to get as close for fear of striking its wings against the rock. There was crash above her and she looked up to see it clinging to the rock wall, snarling at her. The inside of its throat was glowing.
Thee was no where to run, but before she could even manage a prayer something sparked off the dragon’s eyes, drawing it attention away. Red look to the side to see Greta with a slingshot in her hand. “Run!” She shouted, before ducking back into the cover of the boulders.
Red went back the other way, aiming for a small outcropping of rock that would shield her from above. She made it just as a blast of fire ignited the ground behind her. The dragon fire burned despite being on bare rock, hot enough that she started sweating. There was another roar from above and a gout of fire dropped right next to her. The rock above her head had only just protected her from the attack, but the heat was nearly too much to bear.
Moving quickly she dropped her bag to the ground and pulled out a small sphere with a metal catch on top. It was a bomb loaded with fire oil, designed to explode only once the catch had been pulled off. The fire wouldn’t do much of anything to the dragon, but if she could hit it in the face it would blinded for crucial seconds. Above her the rock she was on shook and the very tip of a talon curled around the edge. She pulled the catch and ran back out into the snow field, hurling the sphere as soon as she was clear of the rock.
Her aim was good and the sphere hit right in the centre of the dragon’s head, between the eye ridges. The impact detonated the sphere and it sprayed fire oil out, most of it dropping over the dragon’s eyes and snout. Red kept running, aiming for where Greta and Kay were hidden. Behind her the dragon took flight again, shaking its head to clear the oil. As it turned in the air and looked for them again they were already running for the path away. Before they could reach it fire exploded on the rock above, and they reversed direction, looking frantically about for any shelter.
Red spotted another shelf of rock, jutting out at head height. Beneath there were boulders to give protection from the front. “There,” she shouted, already changing direction.
They sprinted as one, diving for cover inside the rocks. Kay landed heavily and rolled until he was nearly underneath one while Greta and Red both crashed into the rock, falling to the ground and pressing their backs up against the two biggest rocks. The dragon stayed airborne for a moment, but soon realised they were protected from above. It came to a soft landing and stalked towards them, belching a fireball that fell close enough to melt the snow at Red’s boots.
“Now what?” Greta said.
“Give me a minute.” There was nothing Red could see that would help them get out. The path that led down was only a short run away, but it was across open ground, and even if they did make it the dragon would only follow them down the mountain. She needed to find some way to either distract it or contain it. In desperation she looked up to see whether there was any chance of starting an avalanche, but if the dragon crashing into the rock hadn’t caused one she didn’t see how she could. It looked like their only option was to make a sacrifice. She looked over and saw the same realisation in Greta’s eyes.
“One of us needs to get back to Belle,” she said.
Red nodded. “Any of us will do.”
“I can’t leave Kay.”
“Alright then.” Their options were narrowing by the second. The dragon was coming closer, and soon it would be able to reach in between the rocks and simply pluck them out. “You may need to distract it again further down.” She didn’t have to point out how that was another sacrifice. “I’ll stay here and hold it as long as I can.”
Greta clenched her fists but nodded anyway, looking down to where Kay was hiding. “No point waiting.”
“No.”
From behind them the dragon screeched, and a second later they heard the heavy thump of its body hitting the ground. Red peered cautiously over the top of the boulder and saw that it was lying on its back, wings struggling to beat as it tried to claw its way onto its front. From above there came another bellow and a gigantic figure dropped into view, landing in the snow next to the dragon with a resounding crash.
The figure was human shaped, but far taller than any man. At least thirty feet high, maybe more, with arms as thick as tree trunks and legs made thicker still by being swaddled in enough fleece to warm two dozen men. The great arms were bare, but he wore a thick leather tunic and what looked like a heavy scarf. His head was a mass of woolly hair, tangled by the harsh winds and cold. He carried a club made from a tree branch, and as they watched he swung it down, cracking the dragon hard on the ribs.
“What do we do?” Greta hissed.
“Move for the path,” she said. “If he notices you I’ll distract him.”
“He’ll kill you if he sees you.”
“Yeah, well,” she gestured vaguely. “Just go.”
They started to move, Red going the other way. She kept one eye on the giant as he hammered the dragon again. She knew it wouldn’t do any good, but possibly the giant was too stupid to realise that. There were some giants so stupid they would attack a mountain if they ran into it. She fumbled in her bag and found another small sphere, taking it out and double checking the catch at the top. Neither the giant or the dragon could be killed by anything she had on her, but a face full of exploding fire would probably give them pause.
“Don’t go that way!” The giant boomed suddenly. “Run, I will hold him.”
So he’s a clever one. “You can’t kill it!” She shouted as loudly as she could.
The giant grabbed the dragon’s neck and twisted it away just as it vomited fire, splashing the side of the cliff.
“I know,” he said. “You are Pure. Go back to your city. Stop this.”
She stared at him, lost for anything to say. The giants had been gone for so long they had assumed that all of the good ones had been killed. But there wasn’t time to think about that. Instead she turned and ran to follow Greta and Kay as behind her the giant was thrown clear of the dragon, landing in a pile of snow. The dragon was finally back on its feet, and a blast of flame licked at her heels as she ducked between two rocks and out onto the path.
The noise of the battle followed her as she ran back across the gullys. Ahead she could barely make out Greta and Kay, two dark smudges against a sea of white. They were moving fast, much faster than her, and seemed to be heading for the edge of the mountain, instead of the road that had led them up.
“Where are you going!” She shouted, catching their attention. They paused and waited until she reached them before hurrying on.
“We’re close enough to the ground,” Greta said. “We can use the ropes and get there faster.”
“Where’s the giant?” Kay shouted back.
“He’s fighting the dragon, he told me to run.”
“What?”
“No time,” Greta cut off her explanation. “Picks and hammers.”
The two of them got to work while Red looked back to where the faint roars could still be heard. She almost couldn’t believe that the kindly giants still existed. And the thought that one considered them worth dying for was a shock. Even in the old days the giants had kept to themselves, usually untroubled by mortal worries.
“Red.” Greta had finished setting up her rope line and now beckoned her over
. “I’ll go first, you follow.”
She nodded, watching as Kay and Greta both swung themselves over the edge of the cliff and disappeared from sight. Hopefully it was easier than it looked, because as she went to the edge the drop below was heart-stopping. Gritting her teeth she bent down to grab the rope, easing herself over the edge and planting her boots solidly on the cliff wall. The rope twitched and moved beneath her fingers as Greta lowered herself down, and out on the edge of the mountain the wind picked up once more, but she found that if she concentrated on the wall in front she could edge herself down slowly.
It felt like an eternity. Constantly listening for the screech of the dragon. Trying to ignore the ache in her hands. Keeping calm when her foot slipped off a bit of rock and she fell away from the wall for one dizzying second. Below her Greta shouted encouragement constantly, but it became white noise as she focused only on the rope between her fingers, and putting one foot below the other again and again. It was a shock when the ground was suddenly horizontal instead of vertical, and she let go of the rope in shock, landing on her back, the guns in her bag digging in to her spine.
“Not bad for a beginner,” Greta said, helping her to stand. “Where’s your bike?”
Red pulled the map back out of her pocket and checked, glad she had committed the bike’s location to memory before she left it. In a lucky stroke it was just to their right, concealed from them by a mound of snow.
“I hope it starts,” Kay said as he got on the back, Greta in the middle and Red driving. She didn’t respond except to kick the starter and rev the engine as hard as she could. It coughed once and caught, the deep growl washing her apprehension away. This she could do.
“Hang on,” she said, pulling her goggles over her eyes and hunching low. Greta’s hands came around her waist and locked on tight and she opened the throttle, kicking up a spray of ice as they shot forwards.
She gunned it hard, keeping as straight a line away from the mountain as possible. They could figure out how to get back once they were clear of the dragon, for now speed was the key. From above came the noise she had been waiting for, the screech that grew in intensity with every second.
There was a blast from behind her and she risked a look to see Greta holding her rifle in one hand, twisting backwards to fire it. She admired the bravery, though if she even hit it wouldn’t do any good. The dragon was closing fast, and the only trick she had wouldn’t work for long. She fixed her eyes on the road and listening for the distinctive crackle of a fire blast. Greta fired again, then turned back to hold on. Even over the noise of the bike she heard the ignition of the fireball, and slewed suddenly to the side, the extra weight dragging the bike almost to the ground.
The fire ball exploded in the road right in front of them, but they skidded around to the right, Red pulling hard and leaning against the turn to bring them back level before accelerating again. The back tyre slid through the flames for a moment but didn’t seem to have melted. It has to be running out of fire, she thought as the rush of air from the wings set them wobbling. It came in front of them and soared up, ready to come down again.
Just when Red had resigned herself to the inevitable the temperature dropped through the floor and a vicious wind tugged at them. The bike’s engine choked and stalled, bringing them to a halt and nearly tipping them onto the ground. They jumped clear and started to run but the wind knocked them over almost at once. Red found herself on her back staring up as the dragon twisted in mid-air and came back down. Before it could get more than a few feet the wind seized it, wrenching its wings and spinning it in the air. It flailed helplessly, then regained control and tried to attack again, but the wind became a gale, then a hurricane, then finally a blizzard as sleep and hail flew sideways, assaulting the dragon.
Slowly, impossibly, it was forced up and away, high enough to disappear into the clouds. The wind didn’t abate for several minutes, leaving the three humans pinned to the floor. It disappeared as quickly as it had come, the heat rising as well. They got slowly to their feet and returned to the bike, looking at one another with the same bewildered expression. Finally Kay turned to look back at the mountain. “She saved us.”
“Why?” Red asked.
Greta climbed back onto the bike. “Honestly? I’d rather not know. Let’s just get out of here. We have news for Belle.”
Red nodded, trying to ignore the chill running down her spine. She could have blamed it on the cold, but it was a different sensation, one she knew from hunting. It felt as though someone was watching her. She half-expected Kay to refuse to leave, but after a moment he got back on as well, resting his head against Greta’s shoulder and closing his eyes, for all the world sound asleep in a heartbeat.
Still feeling more uncomfortable than she had in a long time Red started the engine once more and put them back on course for Ateer.
Chapter Ten: Something Wicked
They reached Ateer by nightfall. For the first time since Red had known it Lips was dark and quiet, its signs switched off and its doors barred. She even had to enter the code into the back gate before she could gain entry. For some reason she had never figured out, Snow had set the code as the date she had woken to find herself in Charming’s palace, two children at her breasts, five years missing and no memory of the time passing. Then again, Red still lived in the same cottage where her grandmother had died, albeit with a few alterations. So maybe she wasn’t the best person to be criticising others for holding onto a bad past.
Inside the red lights had been turned off, and only the dim orange lights shone. At the very least the grime was hidden, but darkness didn’t make Lips feel anymore inviting. Red took Greta and Kay up the back stairs to Belle’s room. Adam answered on the first knock, hustling them inside to where Belle was sitting at her desk. Cheveyo was there as well, clearly in the middle of giving a report. He paused as they entered and smiled at Red, who nodded in return. Belle waved for them all to sit while Che finished.
“There was no sign of any of the remaining bronze, silver or gold,” he said. “Or of the dogs. However I never did know whether they lived within the fortress or returned to some otherworldly place when they had been summoned. The fortress itself was in as good a condition as when I last saw it, which is still an advanced state of disrepair.”
Belle nodded. “Thank you sergeant,” she said, and he saluted in response. Once he had sat as well Belle stood and crossed to a large blackboard she had set up. On it were a dozen pictures and tiny notes written in chalk. She rubbed some of the notes off and turned to Kay and Greta. “Now let’s here what you found.”
“Not a great deal,” Greta said. “Although Red said you thought it might be the Snow Queen?”
Belle nodded. “We were looking for someone with power, and she has that.”
“Well it’s not her. She’s locked herself away in her tower.”
“Did it occur to you that maybe she did that because she’s behind this?” Adam asked.
“Of course,” said Red. “Right up until she saved us from the dragon.”
There was immediate shouting. Belle, Adam and Che were all on their feet and surrounding the three, demanding answers. Finally Belle calmed down enough to silence the others. “Tell us everything, leave nothing out.”
Greta went first, explaining how she and Kay had made their way to the mountain and begun to climb it, finding the blizzard worsening as they climbed. “Eventually we were forced to a stop. That was when Red found us. We started to make our way back down and the storm lessened.”
“Which is when the dragon showed up?” Che asked.
Red nodded, taking over. “It came from above. We were pinned down.”
“Did you notice anything distinctive about it? Anything that might help us work out which dragon it was?”
“It had black scales, but dark yellow in places. The wings were deep red, almost dark enough to be black.” She tried to picture it properly. “I think it had horns. And it defin
itely had a tail with a spike at the end.”
“Legs?”
“Four. Only one set of wings.”
Adam and Belle exchanged a look.
“What is it?” Che asked.
“There’s only one dragon I can think of that matches that description, but it died years ago.”
“Then how is it back?”
“I don’t know,” Belle swept back to the desk and pulled out her files. “If it’s been brought back then the list is narrowed down to two, maybe three people powerful enough.” She looked up. “Red, exactly how sure are you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe seventy percent. I was a bit more concerned with not getting roasted.”
“I think it’s mostly right,” Greta said. “I saw a ridge of yellow scales on its back as well.”
“That’s enough for me,” Adam said, going over to the desk as well. “We need to find Tom.”
“Of course, any suggestions? Last I heard he had disappeared again.”
Belle and Adam continued to bicker as Che knelt down next to Red. “But the Snow Queen saved you from the dragon? Why?”
“Well actually at first there was a giant. It came down and fought the dragon off so we could escape. The Snow Queen blew it away once we were off the mountain.”
“A giant?” He was looking utterly bewildered now. “What the hell happened on that mountain?”
“Well we had just agreed that Greta and Kay were going to run for it when he showed up. I wasn’t sure if he was on our side or not but he told me to run while he held it off. I thought the last of the kindly giants had died?”
“I think you may have just seen the last of them,” Belle said from the desk. “Savitri got back to us with more information. There was some sort of power struggle among the giants. It looks like the last of the kindly giants died arguing that their cousins shouldn’t join this new army.”
“Right,” Red couldn’t help but feel little sad. The last of the kindly giants, and she hadn’t known anything about him, or why he had decided to come to their aid. Surely he had known he was going to his death, and for people he didn’t even know. Suddenly she regretted never meeting any of the kindlies while she was young. Everyone who met them spoke of them, but her own wariness convinced her to stay away. She shook herself a little to get rid of the feelings. “Anyway, he fought the dragon while we got down the mountain. Then the dragon started chasing us on the bike. The Snow Queen conjured a blizzard and sent it into the clouds.”