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Mal felt his exhaustion burn away as Scarlet—his amazing, brilliant Scarlet—re-filled his wells of magic with her pure, elemental power. He was going to pay for this soon enough, he knew, but the important thing was that he had it now. He had a chance again to fulfill his destiny.
The wyrm was not convinced of that truth, snarling and fighting with all its considerable strength against Mal’s claws.
You cannot beat me, one of the heads snarled.
I do not have to beat you, Mal retorted. Not by himself.
They were in the belly of the storm now, and Mal’s wings could not keep him steady in the raging winds. But he wasn’t trying to fly, he wasn’t even trying to fight. He wrapped a strong tail around the wyrm’s throat and let himself tumble towards the ground with sudden, enchanted mass, dragging his adversary with him as the feathers scraped uselessly on Mal’s magic-hardened scales.
They didn’t fall for long; the wyrm was stronger than Mal’s dead weight, and its surprise at Mal’s action didn’t last.
But they didn’t have to fall far.
They had been fighting high over the tops of the whipping trees of the island, Mal trying hard not to think of Scarlet’s tree and the damage it must be taking as huge branches and whole trees were pulled up into the maelstrom.
Now they were just brushing those treetops and as the wyrm gathered itself to spring higher and unleash his anger from above, the rainforest itself came to life.
Green vines whipped up into the storm and wrapped themselves around the sinuous feathered creature. He broke them easily at first, verdant leaves spiraling up into his storm, but more followed, and more, and more, folding down his feathers, dragging him down into the upper canopy, where thick branches stretched and grew into giant, grasping fingers.
The wyrm thrashed, uprooting entire trees and snapping branches, but the sheer number of trees against him saw him pinned, utterly unable to break free. His wind howled, and his rain drove hard against them, but the jungle was unified against him, and Mal set himself into a dive from above.
Ignoring the wind that tore at his scales, Mal set himself upon the wyrm, driving it further down towards the earth. He roared the names of the runes into the storm and the marks on his front legs flared with power as the bars of the new cage rose from the earth to meet them.
The wyrm, thrashing now like a pinned snake, gave a cry of desperate fury. His wind raged, ripping trees from their roots and smashing them down in every direction. His feathers sliced into thick trunks and severed branches.
Mal wasn’t sure where they were, how close they were to Scarlet’s vulnerable tree, but he made a split-second hesitation at the thought of it.
The hesitation broke his concentration and, for a moment, the wyrm was free. It slipped between the half-formed bars to slither towards the resort itself.
Mal wasn’t sure if it was seeking a place with fewer trees to hold it, or if he knew the value of the shifters huddled in the ruins to the combatants and hoped to use them as hostages. Mal was after him again in a heartbeat as he coiled out of the jungle and smashed through the cottages that were still standing. Broken glass and roof tiles swirled up into the wind, bouncing harmlessly off of Mal as he blocked the wyrm’s escape to the sky with a shield more vast than any he had ever managed before.
Trees exploded up from the ground and potted plants burst their vessels as they instantly grew and grasped at the two-headed wyrm, tying it to the ground.
Mal spoke the words of power again and dropped down onto the wyrm, pressing it down into the earth again as the glimmering bars rose up around them.
The wyrm thrashed and the ground shook and rumbled from the force of its struggle.
A scream made Mal realize that the battered restaurant was beginning to groan and collapse and Scarlet’s ragged staff fled from the bar where they’d been sheltered.
The wyrm, in one final, vindictive effort, chose the most helpless of the creatures before it, and sucked in breath for a last blast of wind.
“Get down!” Scarlet cried in a great voice. “Hold on!” All of them automatically dropped to the shivering ground to cover their heads from the flying debris...
...All of them except Conall, who was not touching Gizelle and could not hear the warning.
Scarlet’s shroud of greenery rose moments too late; the wyrm’s gust caught the musician square in the chest and swept him backwards into the crumbling building.
The musician hit one of the columns, so hard that the terrible crunch of his breaking bones was louder than the storm. Jagged pieces of the restaurant deck rained down like hail over his still form.
Mal did not have to wonder if he had survived the impact; Gizelle’s scream of agony and loss would haunt his dreams forever: a thin wail of despair that threaded the music of the storm like a harmony.
The wyrm, mistakenly thinking that this distraction had bought it escape, made another bid for freedom, to face Mal bristling in new rage.
We will cage you again and bury you deep! his dragon swore. We will fulfill our destiny!
You are nothing! the wyrm snarled.
You cannot defeat us! the other head protested.
The feathered wyrm struck out with its tail, and the earth shuddered and groaned, but when it tried to lift it for a second strike, there were new trees and bushes pinning it, its entire body and both necks were being wrapped in leaves and branches like a great green cast as Scarlet unleashed her forest on him.
The storm continued to rage, but the monster was caught.
Mal landed and shifted to human form to perform the final stages of the cage.