01 Wing Warrior (11 page)

There could only be one Wing Warrior.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The hour grew late, day turned to night, and millions of white stars peppered the black vastness of the sky.

Nimbus sat on his bed, huddled under a blanket, and watched a tentacle of moonlight worming its way through a crack in the shutters.

Time passed.

Shadows moved like slithering creatures in the corners of the room, sneaking out to watch him when he wasn’t paying attention, then bobbing back out of sight when he turned to look. The night was alive with evil, and he no longer felt safe in his own bed.

His mind was full of dragons and goblins, giant snakes, horrors in the deeps of the ocean; all manner of monsters that the world had long forgotten. Monsters that, for some reason beyond his understanding, had come back.

What was one boy supposed to do in the face of such things?

He hugged his knees, and waited.

The cold moonlight continued creeping through the shutters.

His bedroom door creaked open.

‘Who’s there?’ he hissed.

A small figure appeared in the doorway, framed by the glow from the hallway beyond. ‘It’s me. Glass. I can’t sleep.’

‘Me neither,’ Nimbus said. ‘Come in, and we’ll sit up together.’

‘Like the time we got sick?’

‘Just like that.’

Glass sat on the edge of the bed, wiping her eyes sleepily. She had her favourite ragdoll with her, the one she always cuddled when she was upset about something. ‘Daddy’s not back yet,’ she said. ‘Mummy’s still sitting by the stove.’

‘I know.’

‘I think she’s crying, so I didn’t go in.’

‘I know.’

‘Why can’t you sleep?’

‘I’m not really tired.’

‘Are you worried about him?’

‘Dad’s the biggest, bravest man I know. He’ll be safe. You wait and see.’

Glass looked at her doll. The doll looked right back with empty, glass eyes. ‘Dolly’s worried about him. I told her it would be okay, but I don’t think she believes me.’

Nimbus touched Glass’s hand. ‘Do you think Dolly would believe me?’

Glass shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

He took the doll, and carefully sat it on his knees. ‘Right, Dolly,’ he said, trying to sound as adult as possible. ‘We’ll have no more of this worrying. My dad is very brave, and I know he’ll be just fine, and back in time for his breakfast.’

Glass watched him silently. The doll watched him too.

‘Did she believe me?’ he asked.

Glass giggled, and snatched the doll back, hugging it to her chest protectively. ‘She believes you. Thanks.’

‘Good.’

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the patterns the moonlight made on the wall. On any other night the patterns may have been pretty, but tonight they just looked like witches on broomsticks, horrible bats, and cave monsters.

‘What about you?’ Glass asked, stroking her doll’s hair. ‘Do you believe me?’

‘About what?’

‘About today. Did you believe me when I said about the snake and the river?’

‘Yes.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course.’

They both fell silent again, listening to the crickets outside the window. Their chirruping was like the metallic grinding of scales on the back of an unknown menace.

‘Why do you think Tide was lying?’ Nimbus asked.

‘I don’t know. I don’t understand boys.’

He brushed Glass’s hair out of her face. ‘Do you think he has something to hide?’

‘Maybe he’s just scared.’

‘Maybe.’

In the distance a wolf howled at the moon. It was a lonely sound, full of terrible sadness.

‘I’m scared,’ Glass said.

‘What of? The thing in the river?’

‘Yes. But not just that.’

‘What else is there?’

‘The thing that’s come back.’

‘What thing?

‘I don’t know, but it’s everywhere. It’s a bad thing, like a dream you can’t wake up from. It sneaks up behind you, but when you turn around it’s gone, and it makes you think it was never there at all. But it is there.’

Nimbus shuddered. ‘I know what you mean,’ he said.

‘It came while we were sleeping. Softly. So quietly we didn’t even see it happening. I think it wants to hurt us.’ Glass snuggled up against him. ‘But don’t worry. I’ll protect you.’

‘Of course you will,’ Nimbus said, but Glass never heard him; she was already fast asleep.

‘Well, at least one of us will get some rest tonight,’ he yawned. ‘I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to sleep again.’

***

He woke suddenly. It was dark and cold. Still night. Glass was pressed up against him, sleeping peacefully.

He yawned so wide he thought he might dislocate his jaw, and rubbed his eyes. There was whispering coming from the next room.

‘Something’s happened,’ a very serious voice said. Nimbus nearly jumped out of bed with excitement. It was his father. He was back. ‘Has Nimbus returned while I was away?’

‘Yes,’ his mother said. ‘He missed his reading class to play in the woods, like we thought he had.’

‘Was he hurt?’

‘No, he didn’t know anything about the tidal wave. What’s this all about? You’re scaring me.’

‘Our worst fears are confirmed. The world is alive again. There are goblins in the woods.’

Nimbus gasped. His father already knew about the goblins. What else did he know?

‘There haven’t been goblins for hundreds of years, not since before Moon went into the West,’ his mother said.

‘There are goblins now, and they are fiercer and stronger than they once were. They have had much time to grow in the depths of the earth.’

‘Were you attacked?’

‘I’m fine, but there were three soldiers from the village. They have been taken.’

‘Are they..?’

‘Not yet. The goblins will no doubt want to cook them. I intend to free them tonight. I only returned for my sword and my spear.’

Nimbus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His father was a miller. The son of a miller. He had never been in a war, had never fought any great battles or done any heroic deeds. He didn’t have a sword. He didn’t have a spear.

‘It will be dangerous,’ his mother said.

‘I remember danger, and I remember most of the tricks required to get out of it,’ his father said.

‘It has been a very long time, Cloud. You aren’t used to this sort of work any more.’

‘I am older than I was, that much is true. The whole world is older. But I am not useless yet, and I can’t leave those men to be eaten by goblins.’

‘Send others. Call on the officers of Crystal Shine.’

‘They’re no use here. This is a fight they have never prepared for. I can’t risk their lives.’

‘But you cannot go alone.’

‘You don’t understand. If the goblins are awake, then other things are awake, and the tidal wave that struck the village was more than just the river rising up. The ancient things that have lived for years only in our dreams will live again.’

Nimbus swallowed hard. Could his father know what it was that had slept beneath Sentinel Mountain? Could he know about Cumulo, and the other more sinister creatures?

That couldn’t be possible. His father had always said he didn’t believe in dragons.

His father would never have lied to him.

‘I fear what is to become of us all,’ his mother said.

There was a pause. When his father spoke again he was barely audible. ‘It gets worse. As I was journeying home, I met a soldier from Flint Lock on the road. An archer by the name of Hawk. He was sick. Coughing violently. He could barely stand, and his eyes were wild, like he had been forced to endure every nightmare imaginable. I had to carry him to the village hall for medical assistance.’

‘What had happened to him?’

‘I don’t know. He just kept saying the same thing over and over again. He just kept saying Flint Lock has fallen.’

Nimbus shook his head in disbelief. Flint Lock was a powerful fortress full of soldiers: A well–defended stronghold. Its walls were high and impossible to climb. Its gates were indestructible. There was no enemy strong enough to destroy it.

‘How has this happened?’ his mother said.

‘A great terror has destroyed it. The soldier could not tell me, but I feel in my heart that Sorrow has risen in the West and she is responsible.’

‘That’s not possible. She was destroyed.’

‘Beaten. Not destroyed. We always knew there was a chance she could return. That was why I built the fortress in the first place.’

‘Has she come back for you?’

‘No. She doesn’t even know I’m alive.’

‘Why else would she attack the fort? She must have been looking for something.’

‘I haven’t been to Flint Lock in many years, not since I decided the armour should be moved.’

‘That doesn’t matter. She can sense you. She’s always been able to sense you. After the dragon war, and all the hurt it brought, you put your life into that fort because it was all you had left. She will know your heart is always there.’

‘My heart is always with you.’

‘And if you did not carry the weight of so many years on your shoulders, I could believe that. But I have always known you could only love me as much as your destiny would allow.’

‘Strata.’

‘No, Cloud. Don’t say it’s otherwise. You love me, in your way, and you love the children. That’s enough for me. But you can only disguise what you are, you can’t change it.’

‘Listen, Strata...’

‘Do you think I don’t know my own husband? Do you think I have never noticed how you stare at the moon? I have always known what the war cost you, and I have always known that the life you have here is not the one you would choose. If ever the chance came for you to make things different, if you ever had the chance to go where I could not follow, you would leave me behind. I know that, and I understand. We all have our burdens to bear.’

There was a moment of silence; the terrible silence before the worst of the storm.

Nimbus held his breath. His hands were tight fists.

‘I’m sorry,’ his father said.

‘Don’t be. And don’t dwell on what can’t be helped. Think about Sorrow now.’

‘But she can’t know I’m alive.’ There was no conviction in Cloud’s voice any more, only a sad realisation. ‘There must be another reason for her attack.’

‘Like what?’

‘I built the fortress to protect our lands. To watch the West and repel invaders. Without the fortress, we are defenceless to an assault. An army could march right across us.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I think a war is coming, and we must be ready for it.’

‘There has been no war in this land since before my birth. How can everything change so quickly?’

‘I don’t know, but we must be ready.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to rescue those soldiers before the goblins eat them.’

‘And what about Flint Lock?’

‘I have already sent word to Crystal Shine. They will send troops to treat the wounded and reinforce the defences. After that... After that, we will see.’

***

Nimbus listened to his father leave, then carefully untangled himself from Glass’s arms. He quietly put on his tunic and his walking boots, then tiptoed over to the door.

He stopped with his fingers resting on the door handle. He knew what it was he had to do, he just wasn’t sure he was brave enough to do it alone. The urge to run out after his father and tell him everything was overwhelming.

‘Nim?’ Glass murmured.

‘Go back to sleep,’ Nimbus said.

‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m not going anywhere. I just needed to stretch my legs a bit.’

‘You’re lying.’

Glass clambered down from the bed, wiping the sleep from her eyes and yawning. Her doll remained sprawled on the pillow, forgotten for the moment.

‘You were going again,’ she said. ‘You were going off without me after I said you weren’t supposed to any more.’

Nimbus grinned in the darkness. ‘I wasn’t. Dad came home. He’s okay.’

‘He came back?’ There was a heartbreaking tremor in Glass’s voice.

‘I told you he would.’

‘I didn’t think... I mean, I knew he would. But Dolly didn’t... She said...’ Her bottom lip trembled as she tried not to cry. She hated crying in front of Nimbus.

‘Everything’s going to be okay,’ he said, hugging her tightly. ‘It’s all okay now. I promise. Go back to sleep.’

‘Sleep?’

‘Yeah. Get back into bed before you catch cold.’

‘No way. You’re going somewhere. You have to take me with you.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’

She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side. ‘You’re a fibber. You better take me, or I’m going to tell on you.’

He sighed, shaking his head. There was no denying it; he had been well and truly caught out. There was at least a small part of him that was actually grateful.

‘Why do you want to come?’ he said.

‘Someone has to watch out for you.’

He opened the shutters to look at the pale moon. The deserted streets of the village were bathed in an eerie blue light, shrouded in a shadowy mystery. He could not even begin to imagine what things might be waiting for him out there.

‘Please take me,’ Glass said.

He ruffled her hair. It could be dangerous where he was going, but what other choice did he have?

‘You’re going to need some boots,’ he said.

Glass’s face lit up, and she clapped her hands enthusiastically until Nimbus motioned for her to be quiet.

‘Where are we going, anyway?’ she asked.

‘Flint Lock Fort.’

‘What’s at Flint Lock?’

Nimbus stared out at the shadows of the night. ‘Sorrow,’ he said.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

As soon as Glass had put on warm clothes and good boots, the two children crept out of the house into the night–bandaged streets of the village.

‘Flint Lock is miles away,’ Glass whispered, as they flitted through the gloom.

‘I know,’ Nimbus said.

‘How are we going to get there?’

‘By horse.’

‘We don’t have a horse.’