Chapter 29

 

 

Grace took one last longing look around the castle entrance hall. Her eyes dallied over every stone in the floor and every tapestry on the walls. She inhaled every detail one last time before she pulled the door shut behind her.

Jamie leaned against the stone pillar at the bottom of the steps. He gazed off into the forest. He showed no sign of noticing her until she descended the steps to join him. He hopped up. “All ready, then?”

“I’m ready. Are you?”

“I’m allus ready.”

She snorted. “That’s a good one.”

He moved away from the steps, out into the yard. In an instant, he dropped onto his hands and changed into the golden dragon. He crouched there with the sun glinting off his scales, and he pumped his wings. The wind rushed into the trees and set the forest roaring.

Grace smiled up at him. She worshiped him like this, so strong and brave and powerful. She came to his side, but before she could climb onto his back, he reared onto his back legs. He thrust out his wings and screeched at the top of his lungs.

He arched his long neck, and his head flailed against the sky. His voice rose to the mountains high above and rang off the rocks. He stood on his hind legs and pawed the air with his claws. He gleamed golden in the sunshine.

He landed on all fours in front of her, and she jumped on his back. His neck curved to hold her in place. With a few powerful strokes of his wings, he took to the air. He soared over the mountains on a winding spiral into the clouds.

They passed the mountains, and Jamie cut down a long, steep ridge between two pinnacles. It stuck out into an open plane like a bird’s wing, and a tall, thin man stood almost naked on its peak. He raised his stick to the dragon and waved.

Jamie let out another ear-splitting shriek. The sound thrilled Grace, and she whooped to the skies. She was free at last! They were on their way to Urlu, to the new and wonderful life awaiting her there.

She lifted her arms to the sun, and the blessed air filled her lungs. By the time she thought to look down on the village, it already passed far away to the east.

Jamie flew over a wide stretch of inland water before he turned his head for the open sea. He mounted higher on twisting thermals until the whole landscape dwindled to a painting below.

Grace drew a deep breath of freedom. She never looked back at the life she left behind. She never dreamed of her house and her job and her retirement account so far away in America. Nothing could induce her to go back there even if she found a way to do it.

Jamie didn’t streak away westward like a burning fiery arrow, though. He lingered in the clouds and surveyed the landscape below him. While they drifted on the jet streams, Grace spotted something moving down below. She murmured in his ear, “Jamie, look!”

He turned his head, and they both saw a distinct black cloud hovering on the horizon. Grace’s blood ran cold. It blocked her view of the country beneath it, but she clearly detected a bright outline of an island against the cold grey sea. It was the Isle of Mull. Those black things crowded over it in such thick swarms she could barely see the island itself.

Jamie looked away and started flying. He headed due west, away from Mull. Grace’s heart leapt into her mouth. He picked up speed. He would fly away and leave the McLeans to defend their homeland alone.

Grace couldn’t allow that. She couldn’t turn a blind eye to the McLeans’ trouble, not after everything they did to help her when she really needed it. She lay down low on Jamie’s neck and whispered to him. “We have to help them. We can’t leave them like this. We have to do something.”

He didn’t respond. He flexed his wings and flew faster than ever. The wind beat against Grace’s eyelids. She couldn’t watch him fly away from another Clan in distress. She buried her face against his warm scales and closed her eyes. “Oh, Jamie!”

All of a sudden, he tipped over sideways. She cried out in surprise, but he already banked hard to his left. He zoomed down out of the sky flying faster than a bullet. He pulled in his wings and stretched out his neck and tail until he made himself a burning rocket cutting through the air.

Grace held on for dear life. The Earth caught them and hauled them toward the ground at terminal velocity. Jamie plunged down fast. He only adjusted his course at slight angles to turn his slit eyes on Mull.

In seconds, the island rushed at Grace’s face. Jamie let his fire rip, and he blasted his way through the clouds of winged creatures. Grace never got a good look at them. She ducked her head low while Jamie cleared a fiery path across the island and left nothing in his wake.

He rocketed into the air over the wide ocean. Grace didn’t have time to raise her head to see what destruction he left behind. He whizzed around going the other way for another pass.

In the distance, Moy Castle raised its square walls out of the rocky fields. Torrential waves smashed against the coastline. The next instant, Jamie exploded into the cloud of flying monsters and scorched them to cinders.

Men on the castle walls waved their weapons at him and cheered, but Jamie never slowed down for an instant. He punched through the swarm blasting his fire in all directions. He didn’t stop until he gained the heights and turned in the clouds to take aim on his enemies again.

After each pass, the winged demons filled in the gap he left with his fire. They flooded in to crowd the castle with their black bodies. Where did they all come from? Jamie paid no attention. He stooped for another assault, and when he hit the swarm, dozens of the things bounced off his tough hide.

Grace bent her head to let them fly over her. She listened to the resounding thunk of the things pelting Jamie from all sides, but she never doubted she was safe. Jamie would never let anything happen to her.

Just then, she noticed the pounding noise didn’t diminish. It kept on thudding his sides, on and on without end. One of the winged creatures hit her in the head. It bounced off, and another one hit her in the shoulder.

Faster the impacts came. She dared not open her eyes or raise her head to see what was going on. At that moment, a thousand tiny claws pierced her skin. They tugged and tore her in a million directions at once.

She cried out in alarm, but it was already too late. She barely got her eyes open in time to see those things crowding all over her. They clustered so thickly around her head and body she got a slim glimpse of Jamie a few feet in front of her.

The things covered his skin and blacked out the golden gleam of his scales. He fought with all his might to shake the things off. His fire shot out every which way, but he couldn’t shoot them off himself.

He lashed his tail around and slapped them away right and left, but there were just too many of them. The instant he cleared one patch of skin, thousands upon thousands of them attacked him from all sides. He bellowed in rage, but he couldn’t do anything.

Grace fought back, but they came at her so fast she couldn’t react. Before she could do anything, they seized her by the arms and legs and hair and clothes. They dragged her off Jamie’s back, and she plunged into the open sky.

Clear blue sea spread out below her. The things pecked and scratched and tore at her, but they couldn’t stop her falling. She plummeted downward. She screamed for Jamie, but he couldn’t get to her in time. She hit the water with catastrophic force. It crushed her to a floppy bundle of pulp and bone, and she sank into the cold black depths.