by Perrin Briar
53.
IT WAS just then, a moment too late, after Lady Maltese had pressed her ruby button that Cassie brought her cudgel down for the antennae’s killing blow. The George and dragon statue slid off the roof and clattered to the stony ground, flipping end over end.
The skeletal soldiers stood stock still for a moment before collapsing on the ground, in a pile. The townspeople began emerging from the great hall almost immediately afterwards. One sported a robot arm. Rosetta. She blinked into the light.
Cassie began to lower herself back down using the rope. She got to the window, Aaron ready to help her back inside. It wasn’t a few seconds later when there was a great roar somewhere to the west of the city.
This roar wasn’t of fury or desperation, but of pain, Cassie thought. Then there was a great creaking and buffeting noise, like someone was waving a huge fan. Cassie thought she caught sight of a shadow rising into the clouds, but it was gone just as soon as she turned toward it. She let the image of the rising shadow enter her mind. She played it over and over, trying to work out its features.
“What?” Aaron said. “What is it?”
“We have to get out of here,” Cassie said, her voice haunted. “Nowhere is safe.”
54.
BRYAN APPROACHED the gates cautiously, his stallion’s hooves clip clopping on the drawbridge. The gate was big, built to be impressive, but did not provide the best view of what lay inside.
The dinosaur could have been right around the corner and he wouldn’t have known. If it came at full tilt Bryan wasn’t sure he’d be able to get his horse to run fast enough in the opposite direction, and so he approached slowly.
He leaned forward, hands clasped tight around the reins, and peered around the corner. He felt relieved when he found nothing there but empty streets in either direction. He felt nervous. If it hadn’t chased him, where had it gone? To the castle? To the great hall? To the inventor’s tower?
Bryan eased off the reins to lead the horse into a gallop. When he stopped, he heard a loud fluttering noise like an old airplane’s rotor blades warming up. It was getting closer. Bryan was growing nervous, his horse skittish. He didn’t blame it. He didn’t like it either.
“Woah there, boy,” Bryan said, slapping it reassuringly on the neck.
The horse did not relax. It whinnied and backed up. Something was spooking him. He reared up onto his powerful back legs and it was then, with his eyes rising to the sky, that Bryan saw what the horse must have sensed.
A dark shadow descended from the protection of the thick mist-like clouds, a pair of enormous flapping shadows on either side of it.
Bryan’s heart froze in his chest, eyes as wide as dinner plates.
They hadn’t thought of this. How could they? They didn’t know the beast could fly. They had mistaken the metal box on its back for a shield, but it wasn’t a shield. It was an extendable pair of wings. Their plan now seemed ridiculously naive. Things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
The T-Rex fell the final twenty feet, tucking its wings behind itself, and hit the ground, making it shake, like thunder. It took the full force with its two powerful hind legs. Its wings were huge and arched, having opened up from what they had previously mistaken for body armor.
The dinosaur threw back its head and let out a roar that would have sent a pride of lions packing. It glared at Bryan, licked its lips with a badly blistered tongue, the smoldering fire within already red hot.
55.
WHERE HAD Bryan gotten to? He was meant to bring the dinosaur to her so she could continue leading it to the trap, where it would eat, get caught, and they could deal with it later.
It also meant the kids and Rosetta—speaking of whom, how in God’s name had she managed to get there by herself?—would be able to join them in the caves so they could search for the Passage and get out of there.
By then, they would have done more than enough to help the locals of this town, to whom they owed no particular loyalty. In fact, they had probably done more than the locals deserved. They had treated the family with suspicion the whole time they were here, and blamed them for everything that had gone wrong.
Despite the creature comforts, Zoe couldn’t wait to leave this place. It was too small minded and set in its ways. Zoe wasn’t exactly ‘normal’ (whatever that meant) on the surface. She did not believe everything she read in the newspapers, and did not subscribe to widely held beliefs because, as history had shown, whatever the majority of people agreed on and thought was correct, was almost always wrong.
Where had that man gotten to? Zoe thought. He should have been there by now. More than a finger of concern had wormed its way into her heart. There were too many things that could have happened. Zoe refused to give any of them time nor credence. She would know what happened when she knew. There was nothing she could do if something had happened in any case, and she couldn’t leave where she was camped now for fear Bryan would eventually turn up.
She heard the familiar soft clip clopping noise of horse hooves coming toward her.
“It’s about time!” Zoe said.
But the irritation died on her lips when she saw the horrified expression on Bryan’s face.
56.
“WHAT DID you see?” Aaron said.
Cassie had been silent ever since she came down from the roof, having destroyed the antennae. Despite Aaron’s repeated enquiries, she hadn’t yet responded to his question.
“We have to get out of here,” Aaron said. “Mother and Bryan will be waiting for us at the caves.”
Cassie shook her head.
“No,” she said. “They won’t. They’ll be dead.”
“What are you talking about?” Aaron said.
“The T-Rex,” Cassie said. “It really is a dragon. It has wings. It can fly. And it breathes fire. It’s a dragon.”
“It can fly?” Aaron said.
He took a seat, suddenly feeling light headed.
“Yes,” he said. “That changes things.”
“We’ll never get to the caves while that thing is flying overhead,” Cassie said. “It’ll burn us to a crisp before we even get to it.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Aaron said. “We can’t just sit here. It’s going to come back and get us eventually. Especially with all the dead bodies and the locals in the great hall. What are we going to do?”
“I’m thinking,” Cassie said.
Footsteps came running up the spiral staircase.
“Kids, we have to go find your parents,” Rosetta said.
“No,” Cassie said. “We have to do more than that. We have to save them.”
“From the dragon?” Rosetta said. “How?”
Aaron was looking at Jeffrey’s stash of inventions. There was a pile of weapons on the table beside a stack of white backpacks.
“I have an idea,” Aaron said.
57.
THIS WHOLE time Bryan had been working diligently to get the dinosaur to follow him so they might trap it, when the whole time the dinosaur had a secret on its back, and now they found themselves on the backfoot.
Bryan ran the horse hard, and when the dragon disappeared into the thick clouds overhead, Bryan had no choice but to rush into the forest, to hide himself as best he could. He changed direction and headed right, running through the forest closest to the town walls, but far enough inside the woods that the dragon would not see him from above.
The dragon came out of the sky like the harbinger of death, and breathed a hot bolt of flame that fell upon the forest, scoring a line through it. Burnt woodland and charcoal filled Bryan’s nostrils. He never stopped, and only pushed the horse harder.
The woodland would catch fast, and there would be nothing for it but to break cover. The moment Bryan did that, the dragon would be on him. The dragon held all the cards.
Bryan saw Zoe the moment he ascended a steep hill. She was waiting for him on the other side.
“It’s about time!” Zoe said.
“What is it?” she said.
The trees burned and crackled in Bryan’s wake, working its way up the incline.
“You started a fire?” Zoe said. “What did you think that would achieve?”
“It might keep us warm,” Bryan said. “I didn’t start it. Our reptile friend did.”
“What are you even doing in the woods anyway?” Zoe said. “You should have steered clear of it, working your way around to the front, and then entering so I could come out.”
There was a roar overhead, and a black shadow flitted behind the clouds.
“Oh,” Zoe said.
They turned their mounts and trotted through the forest, keeping a step ahead of the fire.
“This is great,” Zoe said. “Since when could it fly?”
“All along, apparently,” Bryan said. “That was what the metal armor on its back was for. To unfold once the right button was pressed.”
“So the antennae is still working too,” Zoe said.
“Apparently,” Bryan said. “Though the dinosaur never attacked the inventor’s tower. He came close though.”
“At least we know the kids are okay,” Zoe said. “And they’re far from all this.”
A bell rang, high pitched and clanging.
“What’s that?” Bryan said.
“It’s the church bell,” Zoe said. “It’s ringing.”
“It’s a bit late,” Bryan said. “The town has been half destroyed by hordes of skeletons and a fire breathing T-Rex with wings.”
“Maybe it’s not a warning bell,” Zoe said.
“What do you mean?” Bryan said. “What else could it be?”
Zoe rode forward, in the direction of the town.
“You’re going the wrong way!” Bryan said.
Zoe didn’t stop. Bryan trotted after her. Zoe pulled up on the fringes of the woodland. She squinted at the church bell tower in an effort to see clearer.
“Someone’s up there,” Zoe said.
“Of course someone’s up there,” Bryan said. “The bell is ringing.”
“No one needs to be on the roof to ring the bell,” Zoe said. “That’s what the bell ropes are for. They’re setting something up.”
“What do you think it could be?” Bryan said.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Zoe said. “But we’d best hope it’s something that’ll work. Our plan is a failure.”
The fire woofed. It was really tearing through the forest now. They didn’t have long to make a decision.
“The dragon is expecting us to race across the plain toward the caves,” Zoe said. “It’s the only place where he can’t reach or hurt us. The monster might not know much, but it knows that.”
“Yes,” Bryan said, though he didn’t look much enthused by the idea. “I suppose we’d better head back into town. I just hope we can make it back.”
“By ringing the bell, they’re hoping to get the dragon’s attention,” Zoe said. “But it won’t leave here till it has us. It knows it has us on the ropes.”
“I sure hope whoever is on the roof of the church knows what they’re doing,” Bryan said.
58.
“WHAT ARE we doing?” Cassie said. “We must be crazy to attempt something like this.”
“It’s the only shot we’ve got,” Aaron said.
“Speaking of shots, one is about all we’ll have,” Cassie said. “As soon as that thing is above us, it’ll blast us with its breath and there will be no chance we’ll escape. We’ll have to be up here to fire the net too. We’ll need a way to get down quickly.”
“Don’t worry,” Aaron said. “I’ve got us covered.”
“So let me get this right,” Rosetta said. “You’re ringing this bell to get the dragon’s attention. When it comes in close to investigate, you’re going to fire your giant crossbow and try to knock it out of the sky. And we will probably only have one shot because the dragon will hit us with its fire breath as soon as it knows we’re here.”
“That’s about it, yeah,” Aaron said.
“And this is the best idea we have?” Rosetta said.
“Pretty much, yes,” Aaron said.
Rosetta thought for a moment.
“Okay,” she said. “At least it’ll make one hell of a eulogy.”
“If we fail, there won’t be any eulogies for anybody,” Aaron said.
“Way to increase the pressure,” Rosetta said, rolling her eyes. “If we fail, everyone in this world is dead. Have I got that about right?”
“Spot on,” Cassie said.
“And to think last week I was worried about my quarterly review,” Rosetta said.
She bent down to pick up the giant crossbow.
“Where do you want this?” she said.
“Right here is fine,” Aaron said.
Rosetta braced herself against the wall and used her robot arm to move the giant crossbow frame. It was pointed in the direction of the forest, now a burning blaze, at the dragon that continued to rain fire down on the woodland.
Rosetta hoped Bryan and Zoe were okay. If they were in the caves, they were safe.
“Will this kill it?” Rosetta said.
“We don’t need to kill it,” Aaron said. “We just need to knock it out of the sky.”
59.
THE MOMENT their horses shot from the safety of the smoldering forest, a roar erupted from the dragon as it circled around and took off into the clouds for cover. There was perhaps a minute of uninterrupted silence before the rattling of metal wings above, and the scream of a haggard shard of metal that caught the wind and made it howl.
The town entrance was getting larger in their vision, the drawbridge drawing up close. The horses seemed to understand the situation and were giving it everything they had, a thick white liquid foaming up on their bodies.
“We’re not going to make it!” Bryan said.
“Yes we will!” Zoe said. “Keep going!”
The dinosaur roared, deafening. It must have been right on top of them. Any moment those roars would turn into the roars of fire, blasting them to charred smithereens.
The horses’ hooves thudded on the drawbridge. The riders pulled on their reins, turning the horses hard left. The wood splintered as the fire blasted through it, cutting a sharp line in the dirt road, narrowly missing the riders by inches.
The dragon had to pull up and make a U-turn to head back toward the riders, who were already hustling through the streets toward the church.
High above them, getting into position, was Rosetta, Aaron and Cassie, preparing to take a single shot that would either save them, or destroy them.
60.
“HE’S COMING,” Aaron said, spying the large black shape coming toward them.
“What makes you think it’s a him?” Rosetta said. “It could just as easily be female.”
“Sexist pig,” Cassie said with a wink at Rosetta.
Aaron blushed red. Rosetta’s plan was to get their minds off the task in hand as much as possible. People always performed better when they weren’t focused entirely on the task in hand.
It was one of the most valuable lessons Rosetta had learned in the military, to absorb and soak in as much information as possible, and then to let go, for the unconscious mind to take over. It was a supercomputer, and one of the ways to engage it was to let all tension and stress go, for the mind to take possession of the body. It was as much for herself as it was for the kids. She needed to relax.
What I wouldn’t give for a nice hot bath and some delicious red wine right about now, Rosetta thought.
That thought alone helped her to relax. She felt the muscles around her shoulders unwind. There had been no time to fashion a trigger. Instead, she wielded a hatchet. She would sever the rope and send the net they had locked and loaded spiraling out into the sky toward the large flapping monster.
It was going to be a tough shot. Fire too early and the monster would see it coming
and avoid it. Worse, it would be a smaller target and harder to hit. Fire too late, and the net would have less effect, not having the time to unfurl and trap the monster.
She needed to be patient. She would prefer for the monster to be too close than too far away. At least then she might hit it and have some effect, rather than none at all.
Rosetta got to her feet and squinted at a pair of dust clouds rising, tearing up a trail leading toward the church.
“It’s them,” Rosetta said.
“Who?” Aaron said.
“Your parents,” Rosetta said.
They were coming right for the church, bringing the dragon toward them. The dragon had eyes only for them, and swooped in above the houses, barely pulling its legs up out of the way as it passed over the roofs. It was coming in low and fast, its chest already puffing up to expel fire.
The two horses were in the firing line, the dragon coming up behind them. No way they were going to escape. Bryan and Zoe were putting all their eggs in one basket with this maneuver, putting their lives in their hands. In Rosetta, Cassie and Aaron’s hands.
That really lessens the tension, Rosetta thought. If I shoot and miss, I’ve just made Aaron and Cassie orphans.
Rosetta’s hand felt sweaty on the hatchet handle. She gripped it tighter. The dragon’s head pulled back.
The horses were giving it all they had, fighting a losing battle, Zoe and Bryan’s arms working the horses’ heads hard.
Rosetta raised her axe high and…
Swung it down.
She couldn’t say she was ‘at one’ with the axe, but they had aimed the crossbow as best they could. The axe’s sharpened edge sliced through the rope in one smooth motion. The rope shot forward, sending the net package out, spiraling through the air.