‘I told you it would all work out.’ Isla peered out of one of the windows of the gigantic suite we had been taken to after the trial.
I crossed to stand next to her.
Brilliant, green mountains towered on either side of us. They curved slowly, creating a crown with us, the jewel in the centre. I could see the sun setting over the ocean between two of the peaks opposite us.
Beneath us, the side of the mountain sheered away in a steep cliff, disappearing down to a shadow-filled valley which stretched across the distance to the mountains on the other side. It was breathtaking, and if I hadn’t been so annoyed, I would have been enjoying it.
‘So,’ Isla said, ‘that Turos certainly has it going on.’
‘What do you mean?’ My voice was far too defensive. Damn the man. I hadn’t done anything wrong and he had me jumping around like a guilty rabbit.
‘Oh puulllease.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t notice what a hunk he was.’ She crossed over to one of the large, comfortable lounge chairs and sank into it. ‘I didn’t notice while you were assaulting him. I mean he seemed like a bit of a wuss then.’ She examined her nails for a second and then stretched her arms above her head. ‘What time do you think dinner is?’
‘How can you think about food at a time like this?’ I plonked myself onto the chair opposite her, sitting on the edge and tapping one foot on the ground.
‘Well, it is dinner time.’
I shook my head. ‘We’re trapped here for at least another two weeks, while at home anything could be happening. And Mum will be going out of her mind, and Grams and Sabby will be….’ I stopped talking and shifted back onto the couch so I could lay my head back. I could still see the look on Sabby’s face when we’d left without her.
‘Ahhhh. At home. Let’s see. Well, no doubt both the witch and human Prime Ministers still have their heads stuck in the sand as they continue to ignore our warning about Santanas.’ She shook her head at their idiocy. ‘And if they do come to their senses, Grams and Lionel will be extremely capable of filling in for us. Lionel has far more credibility with them than I do anyway. Sabby is sitting her exams, secretly pleased that she did not miss them. Your Mum will have had her temper soothed by Radismus’s hands and mouth.’
‘Urghhhh. Can we please not talk about them like that.’ I put my hands over my eyes hoping it would block the mental image of Mum and Radismus doing the horizontal tango.
‘Why not?’
I dropped my hands and looked over at Isla with what I hoped was an incredulous look on my face.
Isla raised one delicate shoulder. ‘I think it’s beautiful.’
‘Oh, and you’re totally comfortable thinking about your Mum and Dad doing the wild….’ My voice trailed off at the look on Isla’s face. ‘Sorry.’ We still hadn’t spoken about her Mother.
Before she could respond there was a knock at the door. Isla leapt lightly to her feet and floated across the room. She opened it to reveal a small woman holding a large, lit candle in one hand.
‘I am Deidre. I’ve come to light your candles and see what you require for your comfort.’ She looked down at Scruffy, who was taking an avid interest in her ankles. He finished sniffing, ruffed once, and then trotted back to the mat on the floor he had claimed as his own.
‘You’re not a faery?’ I stood and crossed the room to peer at her. The gathering shadows made it hard to see her features.
She move over to a low table and used her already lit candle to light the ones sitting there.
‘A have some small amount of faery blood in me,’ she said as she moved to the next table.
I watched her as she went, trying to scratch my mental itch. Finally it came to me. ‘You’re Ubanty.’
Deidre paused in the process of lighting a candle. ‘Now that’s a name I haven’t heard for a while.’ She straightened and turned to me. I could see her smile in the soft glow of the candles. ‘Once we were Ubanty. Once we were slaves. Now we are all Milleniums.’
‘They set you free?’
‘The night faeries who came here were the dragon keepers. When the magic makers began taking the baby dragons to force their souls into other beings they rebelled.’
‘Hagons?’ Isla said.
Deidre nodded. ‘They found one among the magic makers who sympathised and they planned their escape. All the dragons, and as many of the Ubanty that could escape without notice, came with them. Here they set us free to find our place among them. Now we are all one people.’ She turned and continued lighting the candles around the room. ‘Shall I have your supper sent up?’
‘Please,’ Isla said. ‘We seemed to have missed a meal today. We also need clothes.’
‘Of course.’ Deidre nodded. ‘You will find toiletries already in your bathroom.’ She crossed back to the still-open door, smiled at us again and then pulled the door shut behind her.
‘So that’s what happened to the dragons.’ Isla had a gigantic smile on her face. ‘According to folk-lore, one day they were there, the next gone. No wonder the night faeries failed to inform the world of what really happened. They must have been livid.’
I wasn’t sure now if her smile was for the mystery solved, or for the fact that someone had gazumped the night faeries. I was going to go with both.
‘And then Emerald showed up during the Great Faery War and turned the tide of battle. We all just assumed some disease had wiped the rest of them out.’ She sat back down on the couch and stared off into space.
She didn’t seem to notice the knock at the door as she worked her way through the historic sequence of events. I opened it to find Turos standing there.
‘You look disappointed to see me.’ He moved to lean against the door frame before I could slam the door on him.
‘I thought you were dinner.’
‘I can be your dinner if you want.’ He leaned in closer to me and I took an involuntary step back. ‘And you can be my dessert.’
‘Never going to happen.’ I grabbed the edge of the door. If I slammed it hard enough, I might just be able to close it.
‘What’s never going to happen?’ Isla asked.
Turos pushed past me till he could see Isla. ‘Fair lady, I was just explaining to Isadora that dinner was on its way.’
‘Coward,’ I muttered under my breath.
‘Oh fantastic.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘I’m famished. Will you be joining us?’
‘Alas, no. My father requests the pleasure of my company tonight, but perhaps tomorrow night.’ He gave me a look that spoke of other sorts of pleasure to be had.
Two other Milleniums, both holding a tray with food piled onto it, appeared in the doorway. I moved to the side so they could enter the room.
I had been too angry to be hungry, but now my stomach rumbled in response to the aroma that washed over me. Some sort of roasted meat – chicken? – a pile of vegetables, and a pudding of some kind. I was suddenly as aware as Isla that we had missed a meal that day.
‘One day you will look at me like that,’ Turos murmured.
I hadn’t realised how close to me he was. ‘Like what?’
I moved to step backwards, but he seized my arm and pulled me towards him instead. The musky smell of him replaced that of the food, and I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. ‘Like you want to devour me and come back for seconds.’ He rubbed a finger up and down the inside of my wrist. ‘I’m going to enjoy letting you do it, too.’
Isla had her back to us as she moved candles on the low table to make room for the trays of food. Scruffy sat at her feet looking up expectantly, so neither of them noticed as Turos backed me through the doorway and up against the wall of the hall.
‘You want it, I can tell,’ he whispered, leaning down to smell my hair. ‘I’m going to enjoy driving you wild.’
The tiny part of me that had enjoyed his mental assault, seized control of my body. My traitorous eyes closed at the feel of his lips on my neck. My back arched and I moved towards him, wishing and wanting for his lips to find mine.
A small gasp escaped me as his hips pressed into me. Then his fingers twined themselves into my hair as his lips bit down onto mine with a savagery and sensuality that promised hours of sexual delight.
And then, before I could react the way I wanted to, before I could ram my knee into his groin and tell him where he could put those hotly, persuasive lips, he was gone.
***
How dare he. I mean, how dare he.
The feeling of violation hadn’t faded one little bit and now my anger was further fuelled by the small amount of sleep I had managed to get.
Isla bounded into my bedroom. ‘Good morning,’ she sing-sung as she threw open the heavy fabric of my curtains.
‘What’s good about it?’ I rolled away from the light and punched my pillow a few times, forcing the feather into a lump large enough to support my head.
‘That’s what that noise was.’ She stood with her hands on her hips, her head tilted to the side. ‘You certainly taught that pillow a thing or two last night.’ She smiled and walked over to where Scruffy lay on the end of the bed. ‘You going to tell me what the pillow did to deserve it?’ she asked as she rubbed Scruffy’s belly. ‘And when I say pillow, I mean Turos.’
‘He didn’t do anything.’ Well, technically he hadn’t. Could you scream rape if it was all in your head? And, well, the kiss in the hallway – I was going to pretend that had never even happened, and totally deny the fact that my sleepless night had been caused by that very kiss. ‘And I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Well,’ she twirled on the spot, ‘what do you want to do today?’
Get about another twenty hours of sleep.
‘And don’t say sleep. We’ve got a whole city to explore.’ For a second she looked so excited I thought she might explode. ‘I mean Izzy, we’re in another world. Another solar system, another…what’s bigger than a solar system?’
‘Universe.’ She obviously wasn’t going to go away and leave me alone. That meant humouring her. ‘And you don’t know it’s another solar system.’
She poked her tongue out at me. ‘Spoil sport.’
She did have a point though. I felt something slightly akin to excitement flood into me. Another world. And not just any world. A world full of dragons.
I threw the covers back and hopped out of bed. Scruffy opened one eye and peered up at me before shutting it again and snuggling further into the covers. It seemed Isla wasn’t the only one I had kept awake with my pillow punching.
I looked at Isla, noting for the first time that she was wearing different clothing. A long loose shirt hung from one shoulder and grey pants hugged her legs. She looked stunning with her hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head. I sighed. Hanging out with her so much wasn’t good for my ego.
‘Where did you find them?’ I waved a hand at her clothes.
‘What? These old things?’ She flashed me a smile. ‘They were in the bathroom.’
Another set of clothes similar to those Isla was wearing, hung from a hook in the bathroom. The bath was already full of steaming water and piled high with bubbles.
I shed my clothes and slipped into it, feeling my anger starting to melt just a little. I mean, he was just one stupid man. And there was a whole city to explore. And, well, considering Mum was going to tear shreds off us with the tip of her tongue when we got back, I may as well make the most of it.
I felt Emerald rustle in the back of my mind. She didn’t say anything, but the contentment which was already radiating off her permeated further as she felt my mood improve.
I picked up some bubbles on the palm of my hand and blew onto them as I wrangled with my sudden guilt. I had probably put a major downer on her reunion with Lance. And after everything she had been through, was about to go through, that hadn’t been fair.
It seemed that being a War Faery might have brought me power, but it certainly hadn’t brought me any wisdom.
I lay back into the bubbles and closed my eyes, letting the warmth of the water relax me. He was just a stupid man…correction, a stupid faery. I shouldn’t let him get to me.
‘Thinking about me?’
I let out a shriek as I opened my eyes to find the stupid faery I had been trying not to think about sitting on the edge of the bath. I scooped at the bubbles, piling them even higher in front of me till I was glaring at him over the top.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t look. Much.’
‘Get out.’ I pointed an arm at the open door, tucking it back under my foamy cover as he stared with a little too much interest at where it met my chest.
‘I just came to say that I will be your guide for today.’
‘We don’t need a guide.’
He shook his head, a look of mock sorrow gracing his face. ‘That is where you are incorrect. The king has decreed that while you are no longer prisoners, you are to have a guard with you at all times.’
‘I thought you said you were our guide.’ Was it my imagination or was my pile of bubbles decreasing in size?
‘Oops, sorry, slip of the tongue.’
At the mention of the word tongue, my eyes darted down to his lips.
His grin broadened and he picked up a large sponge from the side of the bath tub. ‘Need help scrubbing your back?’
‘Get out,’ I snapped.
‘Are you always so testy in the mornings?’
‘That, is none of your business.’
He trailed a hand in the water. ‘Ahhh, but I would like to make it my business.’
‘Out.’ I screeched, not caring what part of my anatomy he saw as I flung a handful of bubbles at him.
His laugh, low and throaty, held the same contented edge as Emerald’s thoughts. ‘Don’t get your knickers in a knot.’ He stood up and headed for the door. ‘Well, not without me.’ One last devastatingly-handsome smile, then he was gone.
Great Dark Sky. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to put up with having him near me for a whole day. His presumption where I was concerned was already old, and my apparent lack of mind control was deplorable.
Isla stuck her head around the door. ‘Did you say something?’
I waved a hand in the air. ‘Don’t suppose you thought perhaps I might not want Turos in here while I was having a bath?’
‘Turos? He was here? Huh.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘Well, he’s gone now. Anyway,’ she reached out one elegant hand and tapped the lock on the handle, ‘if you don’t want gorgeous men visiting you when you’re naked, feel free to close and lock the door.’ She let out a silvery laugh as I stuck my tongue out at her. ‘Don’t be too long in there. City to see etcetera, etcetera.’
I tossed around the idea of spending the day in the bath but suspected that I may be so pruney that I’d never recover if I did. So instead, I finished washing, dried myself off and slipped into the clothing.
My shirt was a brilliant blue that matched my eyes, and my leggings were brown. The material felt as soft as it had looked and I held it up to the light to examine the fabric.
Isla’s voice made me jump. ‘It’s made from spider webs.’ She tilted her head to the side and examined my face before letting out a tinkly laugh. ‘You’ll happily fight a horde of goblins but you’re scared of spiders?’
‘Goblins don’t have eight legs.’
‘Thankfully. Or we’d never be able to outrun them. Now…’
‘Yes, yes. City to see,’ I said, pushing a damp tendril of hair behind my ears. ‘We have to wait for Turos. He’s our guard guide for the day.’
‘Oh lovely.’ She twirled and headed for the door, looking more like she was dancing than walking.
I clomped after her. ‘He’s probably gone off without us.’
The door opened as Isla was reaching for it. I would have ended up flat on my face but she pranced backwards and clapped her hands together.
‘Oh goody,’ she said. ‘You’re here.’
‘Princess,’ I heard Turos’s voice, ‘if only all maidens were of as fair a disposition as you.’
‘Your women folk are not happy?’
‘Oh, our women folk are deliriously happy.’
Isla glanced over her shoulder at me, an impish smile on her face. ‘Oh just ignore Izzy. She’ll come round eventually.’
I resisted my urge to poke my tongue out at her and bent to pull on my boots. I avoided looking at him when I stood up again. If I pretended he wasn’t there this might be bearable.
‘First,’ Turos said, ‘I thought we’d go to the library.’
‘Ah, yes,’ Isla said. ‘My first thought when we arrived in your beautiful city was, “I wonder what the library looks like”.’
I let out a snort.
‘So…if you don’t want to see the library where do you want to go?’
‘On please.’ Isla tapped a foot. ‘You know exactly where we want to go.’
‘We want to see the dragons.’ It burst out of me before I could stop it. And I’d been doing so well at ignoring him.
His face lit up. ‘The dragons. Well, I thought you’d never ask.’ Then he turned and started walking down the corridor away from our room.
I tried not to admire his elegant stride or the way his pants fit him so snugly, but there was a part of my brain that was totally ignoring my commands. Great. Just what I needed. A group of rebel brain cells.
‘Come on.’ Isla hurried out of the room after him.
‘You coming?’ I looked over my shoulder towards my bedroom. Scruffy was standing in the doorway. As I watched, he disappeared and a few seconds later I could hear sounds that meant he was turning circles on the bed, rucking up the covers to make himself comfortable.
I closed the door and trotted down the hallway to catch up with them.
Turos led us through a complex set of twists and turns, along halls and down gracefully-curving flights of stairs. Our boots clicked on the stone floors as I tried to memorise where we were going.
Just when I thought he might be taking us to the library after all, he pushed open a large set of doors and led us out onto a platform that ended in a drop to the valley floor.
My stomach did a flip as I looked over the edge. It was a long way down.
I stared up at the looming peaks, their long shadows reaching across the valley towards us. It seemed as if a group of sentinels watched us, judging whether we were worthy to be there in their silent presence. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
‘Impressive, aren’t they.’ Turos moved to stand next to me and I had a sudden thought that he might push me over the edge. But instead, he pointed to a peak off to our left. ‘That one is where Silvanta must go. Where all the queens go to give birth.’
I put my hands on my hips. ‘Her name is Emerald.’
‘It’s Silvanta.’
‘She prefers Emerald.’
He cocked his head to the side and got the far off look that meant he was talking to Lance. ‘Okay,’ he finally said. ‘Emerald it is.’
‘Huh.’ I took my hands off my hips and glanced up toward where he had pointed. A soft glow broke the shadow at the top of the mountain. ‘The volcano?’
‘It helps keep the eggs warm during incubation.’
A shadow rushed over us and I jumped as a dragon, complete with a hooded rider, dived over us and down into the valley below. The dragon tucked in his wings and stretched out his neck as the rider let out a whoop of delight.
I could feel the first real smile of the day stretch my mouth as I watched them level out in the valley below. The dragon stretched out his wings and made large lazy sweeps that lifted them up, up, up, till they were spiralling high above us.
‘Come on.’ Turos grabbed my hand, and I let out a shriek as he pulled me over the edge of the platform.
A scream tore from my throat as I plummeted towards the valley. Air rushed up past me, tearing my hair from its loose bun and forcing my shirt up over my head.
Turos’s arm snaked around my waist as he pulled my shirt back down.
I knew it. I knew it. The man was totally crazy. His manic smile lit up his eyes and I thought about killing him before we died – just so I would have the last laugh, but then a large black dragon appeared, swooping beneath us and levelling out so that we landed on its neck just behind its head.
Lance.
Turos sat astride Lance’s neck, holding me in his arms as if he were about to carry his bride across the threshold. Laughter shook his body and a tear glinted at the corner of one eye.
I balled up my fist and punched him as hard as I could. His nose made a satisfying crunch under my knuckles and his smile was instantly replaced with a grimace of pain.
One hand clutched his face as he said, ‘I might have deserved that.’
‘You think?’
‘You got to admit though, it was fun.’
‘What part of thinking I was about to be broken into a million pieces was meant to be fun.’
He grimaced and shrugged a shoulder. ‘A little forewarning next time then?’
I looked at the volcano that was soon to be Emerald’s home. ‘You do that a lot?’
‘Dragon diving?’
‘Yeah.’
He nodded his head. ‘It’s a fine way to wake up in the morning.’
‘I find coffee useful for that.’
He tilted his head and frowned.
‘You don’t have coffee?’ I sighed. ‘Oh well, I’m more of a tea drinker myself.’
Lance circled above the platform in lazy circles. Each one taking us closer to where Isla waited. She was bouncing up and down on her toes and I wasn’t sure if she was excited or annoyed.
‘My turn,’ she said when Lance touched down.
Ahhh, of course. Excited.
‘Where’s Emerald?’ I asked as I slid down to the ground.
Turos pointed along the platform and I noticed for the first time a row of rectangular openings partly filled with a door. Each door had a dragon head poking over the top.
Dragon stables.
The third head along was a deep, glossy green. I reached out towards Emerald’s mind and she pivoted so she was looking at me and not Lance. One of her giant eyelids closed in a wink as her awareness rushed into me.
Isn’t he marvellous?
He’s a suicidal, egomaniac.
She snorted again. Not Turos. Lance. Her thoughts held the emotion of a love-struck teenager.
I looked back at the gigantic beast. The sun glinted off his scales, and red highlights shimmered as he moved.
He is something.
Isla let out a shriek of delight as Turos grabbed her hand and pulled her off the platform with him. I could hear her laugh disappearing into the distance.
Ummmm. Shouldn’t he be going after them?
Just wait.
Lance moved to the edge of the platform so that his front claws were locked onto the edge. He rocked forwards and, with a thrust of his wings, propelled himself off the edge. With his body held like an arrow being fired towards the ground, and his wings making short sharp movements, he easily caught them before they were even halfway to the bottom of the valley.
I heard the breath I hadn’t known I had been holding leave my lungs as they landed safely.
I walked over to Emerald and reached up so that I could place my hand on her neck. Even then, she had to bow her head to allow me to reach. How are you?
Scared, happy, sad, excited. Her thoughts paused for a moment. No, make that happy, sad, scared, excited.
Did you want to go for a ride?
She shook her head. I couldn’t carry you at the moment. My body is getting ready to lay the egg.
Does it hurt?
Not so much pain as discomfort. The egg is shifting inside me and the shell is hardening. Soon I will have to go.
Is there anything I can do to help?
She bent her neck further and brushed the tip of her gigantic nose against my forehead. Will you be there with me when it’s time?
Of course.
She rubbed her snout against me. Good. Isla too.
I’d have to knock her out and tie her up to stop her, and even then she’d find a way to be there.
Wind whirled around me as Lance’s enormous wings lowered them back to the platform.
‘Again,’ Isla shrieked, jumping off Lance’s neck and throwing herself off the platform.
Turos let out a laugh and raced after her.
Can he handle three? I asked Emerald.
He has caught up to nine riders before. And that was before I left.
Excellent.
I ran towards the edge, let out a whoop of excitement and dived head first off the platform.
***
‘It’s official,’ Isla jumped onto the edge of my bed and pulled her legs up under her. ‘Dragon diving is my all-time favourite sport.’
Our tour of the city had transpired into a couple of hours of dragon diving and then a lazy brunch. After that Turos had taken us on an aerial tour of the grand city. It had ended when a grim-faced courier carrying a message from the king had found us. We had been escorted back to our suite while Turos went to see his father.
‘Admit it,’ Isla said.
‘Admit what?’
‘You had fun.’
‘What’s not fun about dragon diving?’
‘No.’ She sat up straighter. ‘You had fun with Turos.’
‘We both had fun with him.’ I hopped onto the bed next to her, shuffling backwards till my head reached the pillow. Scruffy jumped up next to me and turned around so that his back was snuggled into my side. I took that as a sign that he had missed me.
‘You going to tell me what he did to make you so mad?’
‘You going to leave it alone and stop asking me?’
She gave me her best butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth smile.
I sighed. ‘I didn’t think so.’ I wiggled around until I was totally comfortable. Now that my adrenaline had returned to normal levels, the hours of lost sleep from the night before were making themselves known. ‘He….’ Dark Sky. How best to put it? ‘Forced himself on me.’
‘What? When?’ Her normal whimsical expression had been replaced with one of anger and I immediately felt guilty.
‘Not like that. Not like with you and….. ‘ I swallowed the words King Arracon before they came out of my mouth. I know she had told me, but it still didn’t feel right to bring it up. ‘At the trial. When we were in each other’s heads. He showed me what he wanted to do with me. To me.’ I squirmed as I thought about it.
‘Ahhhhh.’ Isla nodded. ‘And that would be repugnant to you at the moment. What with you being in mourning.’
I sat back up. ‘I’m not in mourning. Well, I mean, I’m horrified by what happened to Orion. But, and no offence here, I didn’t really know him well enough to be in full mourning.’
Good grief. Could that have sounded any worse?
She shook her head. ‘No. You’re mourning your loss of Aethan.’
‘I haven’t lost him. Yet.’
‘Izzy.’ Dark Sky I hated it when she actually got serious. ‘He will be married to Ebony.’
I shifted uncomfortably. He was mine. I wasn’t ready to let go of that yet. ‘You don’t know that.’
‘There is a Great War coming. The union between the faeries of the dark and the light must happen if we are to have any chance of survival.’
‘But he doesn’t love her.’
‘It is immaterial. He is the heir. And the heir does what must be done. We all do what must be done.’
‘But, maybe…after the war…if we win…’
That was when I realised that the only thing worse than Isla looking serious was Isla looking sympathetic. She stared at me, her large eyes liquid with unspoken emotion as she said, ‘We are not like witches and humans. Faeries marry forever.’
Pain lanced through me. I clutched at my chest, certain it was about to explode as I struggled to remember how to breathe.
He was gone. I had lost him.
Memories danced in my head. The tender feel of his hand in mine. The passionate fire of his embrace. The languid comfort of lying in his arms. Gone. All gone. Never to return.
Isla wrapped herself around me as the tears came. Deep, racking, sobs that tore at me and consumed me.
She held me like that as the despair flowed over me, dragging me down, down, down into a dark and starless night.
***
It was night when I woke. My head ached and my throat was raw. Scruffy was curled up next to my feet and Isla lay beside me, her hand still holding mine as she had been when I had finally drifted off to sleep.
A tapping noise. That was what had woken me.
I shifted my head away from the pillow and turned so that an ear was in the air.
Tap, tap, tap.
There, it was coming from the window.
Isla stirred as I slid my hand from hers. I sat up and made my way toward the window. Light from the main room illuminated mine enough that I was able to navigate around the furniture. Deirdre must have lit the candles while we slept.
‘What is it?’ Isla’s voice was still full of sleep.
‘I’m not sure.’
This time the tapping was more insistent. I pulled opened a window and looked out.
Turos’s head moved up and down in time with the strokes of Lance’s wings. ‘It’s time,’ he said.
I reached out towards Emerald but she wasn’t there. ‘She’s gone,’ I gasped.
‘We’ve hooded her,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t be able to block her pain.’
‘What is it?’ Isla asked.
‘It’s Emerald.’
She nodded once and then hopped off the bed. Pulling her hair back and braiding it deftly as she walked towards me. Scruffy followed her, jumping into my arms as I bent towards him.
‘Give him to me,’ Turos said, holding out his arms for Scruffy.
I shook my head. ‘I’ll hold him.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘You’ll be holding me. It’s a tight flight in, and Lance is going to have to manoeuvre sharply. You can’t do both.’
I stared into his eyes, unwilling to give up Scruffy. If anything happened to my little familiar I would be…just like I had been that afternoon. Just like I still was.
Lost.
‘Promise me,’ I said, desperation making my voice tight. ‘Promise me nothing will happen to him.’
‘He will be safe with me.’ It was the first serious thing he had said since we got to Millenia.
Scruffy barked and wiggled in my arms, reaching towards Turos.
‘Fine. But I’m not happy about this.’
‘I apologise. I should have stopped for the basket you use to transport him but Lance is insistent we hurry.’
Lance threw his head from side-to-side and fire curled out of his nostrils.
I scrambled up onto the window ledge and leapt across onto Lance’s head, timing it with a downward stroke of his wings. Turos reached forward, holding out his arms. He took Scruffy and then helped me step down onto Lance’s neck to sit behind him. I slid back to make room for Isla.
‘Hang on,’ Turos yelled over his shoulder.
I was about to make a smart-arse reply about how I had been riding a dragon for years when Lance launched himself forwards. I felt myself rock backwards and just managed to grasp Isla’s waist. I let out a gasp as I grabbed onto the leather straps in front of me.
Sure, I had ridden a dragon for years, but this was something else. Lance was fast. Much faster than he had been on our trip here. Much faster than Emerald, and I found myself wondering if she had been holding out on me.
We screamed through the sky, the glow of the volcano growing rapidly in front of us. I expected Lance to land on the plateau below the rim of the crater but instead he aimed for the solid mountain below, and to the side of it. I dug my nails into my palms around the leather straps as a dark hole became visible.
A tunnel. And while I was still contemplating the fact that there was no way that tunnel could be wide enough for a flying dragon, Lance gave one more mighty beat of his wings and then tucked them in by his sides.
We shot into that tunnel like a rabbit down a hole as darkness closed around us. A silent scream filled my lungs as Lance twisted through a corkscrew and then navigated a hairpin bend. Then we were heading straight down into the bowels of the earth.
It felt like forever that we fell through the darkness, but it was probably only moments before Lance whipped through another bend and straightened out. Soft light illuminated our path as the tunnel widened enough for Lance to spread his wings. And then the tunnel widened further until it was a vast cavern.
Crystal stalactites glistened like chandeliers as they reflected the light cast by small pools of lava. Warmth rolled over me in a wave and sweat broke out all over my body.
Dragons, lying lazily beside large eggs, were scattered across the floor of the cabin. Lance flew over all of them till we reached the far end of the cavern, then he back flew with his wings till we landed gently beside Emerald.
She lay on her side, curled into a ball and she wore the metal helmet she had had on at the trial.
‘Help me get it off her.’ I slid down one of Lance’s legs and trotted towards her. She rolled a huge eye at me and then squeezed it shut tight as her whole body spasmed.
‘You won’t be able to take the pain.’ Turos shook his head.
I stalked towards him and grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, twisting my fists into the fabric. ‘Take. It. Off,’ I hissed, staring into his eyes.
He must have seen the violence brewing because he tugged my hands free and said, ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
As soon as the helmet left her head her agony became mine. A whimper left my lips and Turos lifted the helmet back into the air.
‘Don’t you dare,’ I rasped as I staggered towards her.
Another spasm wracked her, the flesh of her abdomen rolling like an enormous wave toward her tail. I dropped to my knees and clutched my stomach, waiting for the worst of it to pass before I crawled the last few metres to her. I placed a hand on her stomach and rubbed in a circle. Her mind calmed its chaotic wailing at my touch.
Izzy?
I’m here.
It hurts.
I know. Oh boy did I know. We will get through this.
Scruffy pushed up against her on the other side of me and Isla took up station at Emerald’s head. Lance settled beside her and placed a wing over her.
Waves of agony crashed over me, each one lifting me up and depositing me a little further from my sanity. I lay on the ground next to her and concentrated all my energy on the movement of my hand on her stomach.
Sweat beaded on my body as the spasms increased in length and intensity, coming closer and closer together.
For a moment I thought maybe Turos was right. Maybe I couldn’t do this. But the thought of putting that heavy helmet on her, of making her go through this alone stopped me from calling out to Turos. I couldn’t do that to her.
‘How long?’ I gasped. I looked up at him through sweat-drenched hair.
‘A few hours. Maybe more, maybe less. This is an unprecedented case. No dragon has held onto an egg for as long as this before.’
I closed my eyes and let out a moan in time with Emerald. I knew that whatever I was going through, had to have been ten times worse for her. It was her body that was contorting and bucking as it moved the egg closer to its release. I was just feeling a shadow of her pain.
I felt movement behind me and then Turos lay down behind me. He slipped an arm around me pulling me against his chest as he ran his other hand through my hair, smoothing the damp tendrils back off my face. He reached past me and laid his hand beside mine on Emerald.
‘Easy there my beauty,’ he whispered, his lips moving the hair away from my ear. ‘We’ll get through this yet.’
Blackness pressed in from all sides. Pain became my world. It was all I knew. All I had ever known. It felt like I had lived my whole life in that cavern, floating in a world of pain. I had no knowledge of my name, no knowledge of anything other than the feel of something tearing out through my flesh and bones.
I felt it building. The end was coming I knew. I just didn’t know how it would be. Didn’t know if I would still exist outside of this.
One last push. One last spasm. A great cracking and popping. Emerald’s bellow blocked out my shattering scream, and then it was over. Instead of pain there was nothing.
I stared up at the cavern ceiling, trying to work out why there were stars there, and then I closed my eyes and sank inside my head.