01 Wing Warrior (16 page)

Obsidian started drumming his fingers on one knee. ‘This all seems very strange to me,’ he said. ‘Why did your sister say you were friends with the dragon?’

‘She didn’t.’

‘We all heard her.’

‘She said I was friends with a dragon. She didn’t say I was friends with that dragon.’

‘There’s more than one?’

‘Please, just to let me go. If you don’t, more terrible things will happen.’

‘Is that a threat?’

‘No. I’m not threatening anyone. I’m one of the good guys.’

‘If that’s true, then take us to the dragon.’

Nimbus felt as though the weight of the whole world was bearing down on him. If he didn’t help the soldiers, they were going to execute him as a horse thief; but if he did help them, Cumulo might get hurt.

‘I can’t,’ he whispered. ‘Cumulo is my friend. I can’t say where he is.’

‘But don’t you want to prove he’s a good guy, like you say he is?’

Tears sprang up in Nimbus’s eyes. He wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve. ‘Of course I do.’

Obsidian leaned closer. When he spoke again his voice was almost friendly, but there was something in his eyes that let Nimbus know it was all just an act. It was obvious Obsidian didn’t trust Nimbus, and it was very unlikely he was going to trust a dragon. ‘This is your chance to prove your friend is innocent. Just tell us where he is. I promise he’ll be safe.’

‘But he’s already safe.’

‘Not really. If you don’t tell us, we’ll take you back to Landmark for sentencing, and then we’ll hunt the dragon down ourselves. Sooner or later, we’ll find him, and if you aren’t there to speak in his defence, we may have no other choice but to kill him.’

Nimbus’s insides cramped up, and a painful convulsion went through his chest at the thought of Cumulo being hacked up by these men with their cruel swords.

He wanted to be sick. He wanted to scream and cry.

He wanted to go home.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘Good choice,’ Obsidian said, with a note of triumph in his voice.

‘But Cumulo hasn’t done anything wrong. You have to promise not to hurt him.’

‘Of course.’

Obsidian smiled. But his eyes didn’t smile. His eyes remained as stern as always.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Obsidian and the other soldiers watched the dragon from a nearby hill.

At first the dragon was lying in the sun, apparently without a care in the world; but then it got up and started to pad around its ruined lair. For a while it looked as though it might have been talking to somebody in the old watchtower, but no matter how hard Obsidian looked, he couldn’t see anybody there.

‘Is that a real dragon?’ one of the soldiers asked.

‘Either that, or the lizards get really big around these parts,’ Obsidian said.

‘Why is he here? This place is supposed to be haunted.’

‘I’m not sure dragons care much for the dead.’ Obsidian watched carefully, examining the movements of the dragon, and the way in which the light glinted on its thick armour of scales. ‘I doubt they care much for the living either.’

The wind whipped through the leaves, causing branches to rattle together. The shadows of the trees danced and swayed, casting groping patterns over the assembled soldiers. They could hear the dragon’s claws scraping on stone even from this distance.

Nimbus, sat in Obsidian’s saddle and quickly realising how difficult it was to scratch an itch with your hands tied together, watched the way the sunlight shimmered on the soldiers’ drawn swords. ‘What are you going to do now?’ he asked.

‘Is that thing your friend?’ Obsidian said.

‘His name is Cumulo.’

‘He doesn’t look dangerous,’ one of the soldiers said.

‘Neither does a sleeping lion,’ Obsidian snapped. ‘That thing is a monster.’

‘He’s harmless,’ Nimbus objected. ‘He could have eaten me a long time ago if he wanted to.’

Obsidian’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s true. But he didn’t. Why do you think that is?’

Nimbus shrugged. ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

‘Let’s do that.’ Obsidian leapt into the saddle behind Nimbus. ‘On my word, we attack.’

‘Attack?’ Nimbus yelped. ‘Why are you attacking him? He hasn’t done anything.’

‘There are plenty of soldiers at Flint Lock Fort who would contest that.’

‘No, wait. I already told you. Cumulo wasn’t there.’

‘I’m afraid we don’t take the word of horse thieves.’

‘No, please.’

Obsidian kicked his heels, and his horse bolted down the hill. The other soldiers followed close behind, screaming a battle cry loud enough to wake the dead.

For one hope–filled second it looked to Nimbus as if Cumulo was going to fly away to safety, but then he rose to his full height and spread his mighty wings as far as they would go.

Nimbus hung his head in despair. He had betrayed Cumulo, even if he hadn’t meant to, and now there would be fighting. People would get hurt.

And it was all his fault.

***

When Sky found him, Tidal was sitting on the beach. He was staring hard at the water, like he was trying to count the fish in the foaming waves.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked, sitting beside him on the overturned remains of a fishing boat.

Tidal scratched his bandaged chest absentmindedly. ‘I guess so. It itches a bit.’

‘That means the wounds are healing. Don’t scratch them.’ She touched his hand gently. He stopped scratching. ‘What is it you’re looking for?’

Tidal frowned. ‘Sorry?’

Sky pointed to the choppy ocean waters. ‘Out there. What were you looking for?’

‘Nothing really.’

‘Were you thinking about the tidal wave?’

‘Among other things.’ He wiggled his bare toes in the sand. A crab scurried away, following a peculiar zigzag path to whatever rock pool it chose to call home. ‘They still haven’t found any of the missing villagers. I guess I was probably keeping an eye out for the boats.’

‘Or perhaps you were looking for the thing that sunk the boats?’

‘What thing?’

‘The snake Glass was talking about. She wasn’t imagining it, was she?’

Tidal snuffed a laugh through his nose. ‘Don’t be silly, Sky. There’s no such thing as a giant snake.’

‘I think you believe Glass saw something.’

‘That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. Giant snakes. How silly. Just the kind of thing a stupid girl would believe.’

‘Okay then, go for a swim.’

Tidal gulped. ‘I... I don’t want to just now.’

‘Okay, I’ll go for a swim.’

‘No.’ Tidal grabbed Sky’s arm before she could move. She watched him closely. He grinned, and let go of her arm. ‘I mean, no, don’t do that. There are lots of bits of wood from the boats and the pier in the water. It’s not safe. Look what happened to me.’

Sky dug a shell out of the sand with her long fingers. ‘You are such a boy sometimes,’ she said.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means I’m quite capable of looking after myself without you playing my knight in shining armour.’

‘Girls are weaker than boys. Boy’s have a responsibility to look after them. To protect them.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘No–one. It’s just the way it is.’

‘And what if we don’t want to be protected?’

‘Then you’ll just have to grin and bear it, because you get protected anyway.’

Sky sighed and shook her head. ‘You boys are all the same. You’re as pigheaded as Nim is.’

‘Yeah, but I’m better–looking.’ He smiled cheekily, and then glanced up and down the beach. There were other people standing on the shore, doing the same as him, staring out at the ocean as though they expected something to happen but weren’t sure what that something might be. ‘Where is Nim, anyway?’

‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since he was at the village hall. He’s been strange recently.’

‘He’s always been strange.’

‘But he’s stranger now. More secretive.’

‘Do you think he’s hiding something from us?’

Sky threw her shell into the sea. It made a satisfying plop as it hit the water. ‘I don’t know. Sometimes he can be as mysterious as the ocean.’

Tidal returned to his study of the waves. ‘He didn’t seem surprised about the snake,’ he said.

‘You mean the snake that doesn’t exist?’

‘Yeah, that one. When Glass told him, he didn’t seem surprised. Why do you think that would be?’

‘Who knows? I gave up trying to understand Nim years ago. He’s infuriating.’

‘What if there was a snake?’

‘I thought you didn’t believe in that?’

‘No, but if I did believe. What then?’

‘Then I guess your job of protecting all the girls just got a little bit tougher, didn’t it?’

‘I guess so.’

‘It also means you may not want to sit so close to the edge of the water in future.’ Sky stood, wiping the sand off her skirt. ‘I’m heading back to the village.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m going to see if I can find Nim. I think I’d feel more comfortable if I knew where he was.’

Tidal stared at the bobbing ocean horizon. For a moment he thought he could just see the arch of a long, silvery body on the surface of the water, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. ‘I think I’d like to know where Nim is too,’ he said.

***

At the bottom of the hill, Nimbus decided to take matters into his own hands. Swallowing his fear and doubt, he came up with a plan to escape from Obsidian and his war party before they could use him as a means of getting the upper hand against Cumulo. He knew it was dangerous, and he knew he could be seriously hurt, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

He held his breath, closed his eyes, and threw himself off the horse.

As he hit the ground he closed his eyes and tried not to think about how messy it would be if he got stepped on. The earth shook violently as the horses continued their charge. The smell of mulched earth was overpowering.

Eventually the thunderous pounding of hooves began to fade. Only then did he risk raising his head to look around.

He was on a grassy embankment, not too far from the ruins. From here, he could clearly see the soldiers bearing down on Cumulo. Their swords glittered in the cold sunlight, and their armour shone silver–white. At any other time, Nimbus would have thought they looked magnificent.

But not this time.

He shook his head to clear it. His ears were ringing from the deafening noise of the galloping horses, and his eyesight was fuzzy. The rope his arms were tied with was biting into his wrists, and his arms and legs were stiff with bumps and bruises. He could feel the sting of a new cut just above his left eye.

Carefully, he got to his feet, stumbling around on wobbling legs as he blinked his vision clear. A trickle of blood went into his eye. ‘Something sharp,’ he said to himself. ‘Must find something sharp.’

Near to where he had thrown himself, a hideously twisted oak grew out of the embankment. The tree was scarred and cracked, full of wriggling bugs and unpleasant crawling things, and its massive roots burrowed through the earth, occasionally breaking up through the ground in brown coils. Caught among those roots, as though the tree was holding it for Nimbus, was a broken fragment of a sword: a rusting shard of metal from a weapon that had been shattered many years ago.

Nimbus staggered over to the tree and cut his bonds on the metal fragment excitedly.

‘Thank you,’ he shouted to the great oak, before heading off to the ruins.

As he approached, he could see the soldiers were circling Cumulo, hacking at him with their swords. The blades were clashing against the dragon’s scales, and each ringing blow sent a shiver of revulsion trembling through Nimbus’s body.

‘Cumulo,’ he shouted. ‘Cumulo, are you okay?’

Cumulo, who appeared to be a deep shade of red in the lazy light of the early afternoon, bellowed furiously. His roar caused one of the horses to rear up, throwing its rider. The rider fell with a clatter of armour and his helmet bounced off across the rocks. He crawled away as quickly as he could.

Cumulo swung his tail around, knocking a second soldier out of his saddle.

‘Oh no,’ Nimbus winced. ‘No, Cumulo. Don’t hurt them. If you hurt them, they’ll have no choice but to kill you.’

The other soldiers, led by Captain Obsidian, were still darting around Cumulo, stinging him with their swords every chance they had.

Cumulo screamed, lashing out with his claws and snapping with his teeth. The colour of his scales changed from red to dark purple to green to white. Smoke began to pour from his nostrils.

Nimbus stumbled against a massive piece of masonry. ‘Cumulo,’ he panted. ‘Cumulo, please don’t fight them.’

‘Why are they hurting me?’ Cumulo snarled.

‘They think you’ve done something bad,’ Nimbus said, and at that moment he couldn’t remember a time when he had ever felt so guilty and useless.

‘But I haven’t done anything.’

The two dismounted soldiers had found their horses and were preparing for a second attack.

‘I’m sorry Cumulo,’ Nimbus said. ‘This is all may fault.’

‘It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.’ Cumulo snapped at Obsidian, who had got just a bit too close to his toothy end. ‘All that matters is getting you out of here. I’ll keep them busy.’

Nimbus shook his head. ‘No. You don’t understand. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the bad magic. It’s another dragon. I can’t fight it without you.’

Cumulo laughed. White smoke came out of his nose. ‘I am just a dragon, Nim. But you are a Wing Warrior. You are the one who will face the magic. You are the hero.’

Nimbus wiped the tears from his eyes. ‘I can’t leave you here with these men.’

‘If you are captured, we are all lost. I cannot fight the magic without you.’

‘But...’

‘Run, Nim. Please.’

Obsidian turned, waving his sword in the air. ‘Get the boy,’ he shouted.

One of the soldiers dragged on his reins, turning his horse to run Nimbus down.

Smoke continued to belch from Cumulo’s nostrils. His scales turned blood red. ‘Go,’ he roared, so loud that even Nimbus was afraid. ‘Go now, or they will kill us both.’