The Winter War, epub

by Priscilla Shirer

  “You can come with us,” Ivy said, cutting her off from another monologue. “We’re looking for the others.”

  “But what about the tank?”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll protect you,” said Finn.

  “Let’s go,” Ivy said. “Watch out for snakes.”

  “Snakes?” said Mary. She jumped a little as her foot brushed a twig on the ground.

  “Ice-snakes,” said Finn. He swung his sword and smashed through a web. Mary jumped again.

  They walked through the tangle of woods, following the human boot tracks, as the sun sank and the shadows of the trees lengthened. Mary tripped a lot and jumped often when she was sure she was being attacked by a snake, but usually it was just a tree branch grazing her leg. Ivy and Finn knocked down more webs as they went.

  They came upon an Askalon unexpectedly and froze, waiting for it to pass by. But it wasn’t moving even though steam rose from its vents. Finn motioned for the girls to get back.

  “What’s it doing?” Mary asked.

  “It’s waiting,” said Finn. “For something to chase.”

  “Why isn’t it chasing us?”

  “We’re behind it. It can’t see us.”

  “I don’t know. . . . The last time, this big monster man got out and came looking for us.” Mary started to hide behind Finn.

  “You mean Thayne,” said Ivy.

  “Well, Thayne could be in there,” said Finn. Let’s see for sure. Don’t move until I say so.” He slowly reached down and picked up a stick from the ground, then threw it with all his might. The Askalon came to life, chasing after the stick.

  “Now! Run!” Finn said. He darted out behind the Askalon and raced to another large tree. Mary and Ivy followed. They watched the Askalon continue to roll away from them.

  “Whew! That was amazing,” said Mary breathlessly. “How did you know it would do that?”

  “Practice,” said Finn. “Let’s keep moving.”

  They continued to follow the boot tracks, which led them to a deep ravine.

  “Dead end,” said Ivy.

  “There they are!” Mary said, pointing down. “Hello down there!” she called out. “We come in peace!” Ivy looked down into the ravine and saw dozens of Prince Warriors staring back up at her.

  “Good hiding place. Askalons can’t go into the ravine,” said Finn. The three of them slid down into the ravine as the Prince Warriors gathered around. They quickly introduced themselves.

  “Hey guys. I’m Ivy, and this is Finn,” said Ivy. “And this is our friend Mary Stanton. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” said a thin, pretty girl with a bright smile. She came forward. “I am Bupe. I come from Zambia.”

  “Is that near Cedar Creek?” asked Mary.

  The girl laughed. “It is in Africa. This is Banji. And Luki.” She indicated a boy and girl on either side of her. Their armor was slightly different from the other Prince Warriors; their helmets were more conical, and there was an intricate design engraved in gold on their breastplates.

  “Nice to meet you,” said Ivy. She put out her hand to shake. Bupe took it. Then she switched to a hand clasp, then back to a regular shake. But she still wasn’t done. She grasped Ivy’s fingertips in her own and clicked their thumbs together as she put her hand over her heart. She finished with a little bow.

  “That is how we shake hands in our country,” said Bupe.

  “Wow,” said Ivy. “That was cool.”

  “I love secret handshakes! Let me try,” said Mary. She went through the ritual with Luki and laughed with delight. “That was so fun! I can’t wait to show the kids at the rec center.”

  “What is a rec center?” Bupe asked.

  Soon all the Warriors were introducing themselves. Ivy met two boys from India named Ravi and Ninad, who bowed with their hands together. Their breastplates and boots had elaborate scrolling, and their helmets came to a point at the top of their heads. There were Prince Warriors from many other countries too.

  “We want to fight,” said Ravi. “This ravine offered us a safe place to regroup and come up with a plan.”

  Ivy and Finn told them how they and their friends had learned to avoid Askalons, as well as their plans to blow up the fortress.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said Ivy. “We must gather and prepare for the battle. We need all of you. I’m not saying it isn’t dangerous. But I am saying that if we stand together, we will have victory.” She pulled out her Krÿs and extended it to its full length. “So, are you with us?”

  “Yes! Yes!” The Warriors all chimed in. They too raised their swords.

  They climbed out of the ravine and followed Ivy, Finn, and Mary back through the woods to the meeting place. The sun had set, and it was getting darker by the minute.

  Finn halted the column when he came upon an Askalon. He raised a fist for everyone to be quiet. He waited, but the Askalon didn’t move or make any noise.

  “Maybe they don’t operate at night,” Ivy remarked.

  “Let’s see,” said Finn. He threw a snowball right in front of the Askalon. It didn’t move.

  “I don’t think they can see in the dark,” said Bupe.

  “I have an idea,” said Ravi. “Gather some sticks. We can put them in the spokes of the wheels and keep them from moving.”

  As the Warriors moved through the forest, they gathered tree branches and stuffed them into the wheels of all the Askalons they saw.

  “By the way,” Ravi asked Ivy as they worked. “How did your friend get up to the skypod?”

  “Tannyn flew him. He’s a dragon. A friend of ours.”

  “You have a friend who is a dragon?”

  “Doesn’t everyone?”

  CHAPTER 39

  The Red Dragon

  High up on the skypod, Xavier lay flat at the edge and kept his eyes on the mountain, waiting for some sign that Levi and Brianna had made it to the top. They have to be there by now, he thought. What was taking so long? Maybe they got stuck. Maybe they gave up. Too many possibilities. It was getting dark, and soon he might not be able to see anything at all.

  “Come on, guys,” he whispered, as if Levi and Brianna could hear. “Where are you?” He looked down to the tree line. He couldn’t see any Warriors; he hoped they were there, that Ivy and Finn had managed to assemble them. His palms began to sweat; his breath felt stuck in his chest. The longer they waited, the more time they gave Thayne to redirect his catapults toward the skypod.

  “Evan,” he called out. There was no answer. “Evan!” Still no answer. Xavier finally turned around. He saw Evan and Manuel lying against Tannyn’s big belly. They were both asleep. Annoyed, Xavier got up and walked over to them. He kicked the bottoms of their boots.

  “Wake up!” he said. “You’re supposed to be keeping watch.”

  “What? Sorry!” Evan said. “I’m just so tired.”

  “Yeah, me too,” said Manuel, rubbing his eyes.

  “I can’t believe you fell asleep!” Xavier said. “We’re in the middle of a war here.”

  “It’s kind of a boring war,” Evan said with a yawn. “When’s something going to happen?”

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the ground in front of him burst into flame.

  Evan and Manuel both screamed at the same time. Tannyn gorped and spread his wings, flopping over to one side. Xavier dove under the cover of the wings with the two boys, grabbing his seed-shield from his pocket.

  “Dragon!” he yelled. Evan and Manuel fumbled for their seeds.

  The dark shadow of a giant red dragon loomed over the skypod. It roared and blasted them with its fire breath just as Xavier threw up his shield. Manuel followed his lead. Tannyn bellowed and took off after the red dragon. The two dragons grappled in the air above the skypod, and random blasts of flam
e landed all around the Warriors.

  “My seed!” Evan shouted. He’d pulled his seed out of his pocket too hastily. It flew out of his hands and landed several feet away.

  “Get it!” Xavier shouted.

  Evan started to crawl toward the seed. He was about to grab it when a Bone Breaker flew in out of nowhere and snatched it in its beak.

  “No!” Evan yelled as the Bone Breaker flew away. “Nooooooo!”

  * * *

  Levi and Brianna cautiously poked their heads above the dark cloud that encircled the mountain and took deep breaths. The noxious fumes of the cloud had made them feel dizzy and disoriented, so they took a moment to rest and gaze up at the daunting journey that still lay before them.

  The terrain around the crater looked like a carpet of blackened blobs folded all around each other. In between the blobs ran red spidery rivers of hot lava that occasionally erupted into fires.

  “It’s worse than the last time I was here,” said Levi.

  “It’s going to be like walking on hot coals,” Brianna said. “Well, at least it’s warmer up here.” It was so warm, in fact, that both of them had broken into a sweat.

  Levi took out his Glimmer Glass and raised it up to the fortress high above them. He saw masses of Lava Forgers gathering on the ramparts. They looked as though they were getting ready to begin another fireball assault, and several of the catapults had already been repositioned to face the skypod Xavier had captured.

  “They’re going to attack the skypod,” he told Brianna. “They must know Xavier is there. We’ve got to get up there before that happens.”

  “Can we actually walk on this stuff?” Brianna reached down to touch the blackened rock. Steam rose up around her finger. “It feels kind of crinkly. And soft. And it’s still hot. We might sink. And there’s fire everywhere.”

  “Our boots will get us through.”

  “What if someone sees us? The Bone Breakers or the Forgers or Thayne?”

  “Seems like they’re more interested in the skypod right now,” Levi responded. “Keep your shield ready, just in case.”

  Grasping their seed-shields in their fists, the two Warriors started to make their way to the rim. As soon as Levi put his foot on the black, crusty rock, he felt his boot heat up and vibrate slightly. He looked down and saw something silvery emerge from the bottom. At first he thought that the lava was burning through his boot and was about to pull it away. But as the silvery substance worked its way up the boot, he realized it was some sort of lining for protection.

  His eyes widened. “Our boots are fireproof,” he whispered.

  They climbed slowly, their silver-lined boots leaving deep impressions in the burning rock.

  Suddenly they heard a violent screech and a sound like a blast furnace firing up. They swiveled to see a huge red dragon engaged in a midair battle with Tannyn over the top of the skypod. The two dragons attacked each other viciously, spewing fire everywhere.

  “It’s Tannyn,” Brianna whispered. “And—”

  “Just keep going,” Levi said. “Don’t look at them.”

  It took all Levi’s concentration to continue the steady trek up the mountain, especially with the dragon battle going on and the sense that, despite what he had told Brianna, he had a strong feeling they were being watched. Maybe by the Bone Breakers. Or maybe by that broken-down king who called himself Nameless. Someone knew they were there and wasn’t about to let them get away unscathed.

  CHAPTER 40

  Dragon Fight

  Evan huddled under Xavier’s shield to avoid the flaming jets of the two dragons fighting like crazy above them. And now there were Bone Breakers all around them, squawking and flapping their wings. The Warriors took in their blood-dipped feathers, their long, sharp talons, their thick, bone-breaking beaks.

  “What are we going to do, Xavi?” Evan whispered, hoping his big brother had a plan.

  “Just stay calm,” Xavier said.

  “That bird ate my seed!”

  “Yeah, I know. Just stay cool, little brother. Manuel and I have got you covered. Okay? Listen. Don’t worry about the Bone Breakers. Think of them like seagulls on the beach. You remember, Evan?”

  “Yeah, that time a seagull took a peanut butter sandwich right out of my hand.”

  “Right. These Bone Breakers are just like that. Don’t be afraid of them. Now, we’re going to move together to the edge of the skypod so we can see what’s happening at the fortress before it gets too dark. We’ll stay together, keep the shields up. Evan, just stay between us.” He paused. “Manuel, you with us, man?”

  “Uh . . . uh . . .” Manuel seemed unable to speak, his eyes darting from the squawking birds to the fighting dragons, taking in the chaos all around them. Instead, he started to count, which was what he did when he was getting fearful. “One, two, three, four . . .”

  “Stay with me now. Just listen to my voice, okay? When I say go, stand up, back-to-back. Ready? Go.”

  The three boys rose together slowly, pressing their backs against each other. Evan stayed squashed between them, covered by Xavier’s and Manuel’s shields.

  “Good. Now. Walk with me. Easy does it.”

  They moved as a single unit toward the edge of the skypod. The Bone Breakers flapped around and scolded them with their revolting screeches. Xavier knew they wouldn’t attack, especially with their shields deployed. The Bone Breakers wanted to instill fear, and they were doing a pretty good job of that. Xavier focused on his goal—to get to the edge of the pod.

  “Far enough,” said Xavier, stopping their trek. He glanced over to make sure Evan and Manuel were okay. Then he turned to face the mountain. He thought he saw two more specks of white against the dark top of the mountain, reflected by the setting sun.

  “They’re pretty close to the top,” Xavier said. “It shouldn’t be too long now.”

  “Can you see below? Is the army ready?” asked Manuel in a shaking voice.

  “I can’t tell. It’s too dark now.”

  “I hope they’re ready. I’ve had enough of these stupid birds,” Evan said. He slashed out at the closest Bone Breaker with his sword. It shrieked and skittered away. “That’s probably the one that ate my seed. I hope it chokes.”

  Suddenly the two dragons crashed down on the skypod, both of them badly wounded, with large burned spots on their bodies. Tannyn had a broken wing and was gorping loudly. They continued to fight on the surface of the skypod, jets of fire and smoke shooting in all directions. Then the Bone Breakers swooped onto Tannyn, glomming onto his head and pecking at his eyes with their powerful beaks. Tannyn cried out in agony, thrashing around to shake them off.

  “They’re going after Tannyn!” Without waiting for the others, Evan raised his sword and charged at the attacking birds, leaving the cover of the shields.

  “Evan!” Xavier shouted, but Evan didn’t hear. He let out a warrior cry and leapt on top of Tannyn’s back, slashing left and right at the Bone Breakers, screaming at them to leave his dragon friend alone. Xavier ran after him, putting away his own shield and extending his sword. The red dragon swung his great head in Evan’s direction, opening his mouth to incinerate him with a fresh blast of his fire breath.

  Xavier saw only one way to help his brother. Dropping his staff, he charged up Tannyn’s swishing tail and threw himself onto the top of the enemy dragon’s head. He grabbed hold of a spike right between the dragon’s eyes and held on with one hand. The dragon swung its head to shake him off, then opened its mouth. Xavier cried out as he thrust his sword into the dragon’s gaping mouth. He felt his whole arm shudder with the impact, and the searing pain as the dragon’s fire breath raced up his arm. He gritted his teeth and hung on as the dragon screamed and tipped over backward, crashing to the ground. Xavier was thrown clear and rolled all the way to the edge of the skypod. He couldn’t stop his momentum; he was certa
in he would keep rolling right over the edge and fall. With one last gasp he swung out his sword, still in his burned hand, and dug it into the edge of the skypod as his legs dipped over the edge. He threw up his other hand and grabbed the sword, the rest of his body dangling helplessly.

  “Xavier!” Evan shouted. “Manuel! Help!” Both boys went running to Xavier, skidding to their knees and grabbing hold of his arms.

  “Hang on, Xavi!” They heaved with all their might and gradually managed to pull Xavier up over the edge.

  “Xavi! Are you okay?” Evan leaned over his brother, his eyes wide with worry. Xavier’s arm looked really bad, his sleeve burned off, the skin red and puffing up already. The sword dropped from his hand, the outline of its hilt imprinted in his palm.

  “I . . . don’t . . . know . . .” Xavier’s head felt jarred from the impact, and the fire in his arm seemed to be moving through his entire body.

  “Man, that was awesome,” Evan said, once he was sure Xavier was alive.

  “Is it . . . dead?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. It fell off the skypod. Not bad, big brother.”

  “Thanks.”

  “But your arm . . . does it hurt?”

  “Not that much,” Xavier lied. He sat up slowly, cradling his arm. “How’s Tannyn?”

  As if hearing his name, Tannyn cried out sorrowfully.

  “He’s alive, but his eyes . . .” Evan couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “At least the Bone Breakers are gone,” said Manuel. “As soon as the red dragon went over, they just flew away.”

  “They must have been scared,” Evan said.

  “Yeah,” Xavier said. “But not of us. They just don’t want to get hit by the fireballs.”

  At nearly the same moment, the lava fireballs began to fall, exploding all around them. They slammed into the skypod, creating fiery craters from which blasts of smoke erupted.

  Only this smoke fluttered with a thousand metallic wings.

  Ents.