02 Unicorn Rider (2 page)

The soft voice continued to chant, and Nimbus realised it was not one voice at all, but many voices speaking at the same time. Dark shapes appeared through the fog, weaving and swaying. ‘Come with us,’ the voices whispered. ‘Come with us. Be with us. Forever.’

Nimbus’s eyelids started to feel heavy as a wave of sleep washed over him. The sword slipped out of his hand, and he staggered, almost losing his balance completely.

‘Come with us,’ the voices said.

‘No,’ Nimbus said, through gritted teeth. ‘Tell me what you did with the children.’

The shapes started to move closer. The ground around Nimbus’s feet shook, and thick, ropey vines twisted out of the dirt and wrapped around his ankles. Cumulo continued to sleep, unaware of the danger.

Nimbus frantically pulled on the vines, but they continued to tighten, until it was no longer possible for him to move at all. ‘Cumulo,’ he screamed. ‘Wake up. I need you. Cumulo, wake up!’

The softly whispering things were so close now they were fully visible. Each one was about as tall as a man, with long, thin arms and legs similar to the branches of young trees. Their eyes were silver pools of liquid moonlight, and instead of hair they had tangles of thorns and sprouting ivy leaves. Their spindly fingers beckoned Nimbus to come to them. ‘We’ve been waiting for you. We’ve always been waiting for you.’

‘What are you?’ Nimbus said, straining against the vines as they dragged him to his knees. ‘How can you control the woodland this way?’

‘We are the woodland,’ they said together.

‘I have no quarrel with the wood. Let me go. And let the children go. We’ll leave and never come back. We don’t even like it here all that much. Honest.’

The creatures stopped, and Nimbus thought they might actually be considering his offer; but then he realised they were listening carefully. Nimbus listened too, but he couldn’t hear a thing other than Cumulo’s rumbling snores.

Slowly, the creatures turned away from him. Two silhouettes were approaching through the fog. One was tall and broad; the other was much shorter, and appeared to be jogging to keep up.

The creatures fanned out in a wide arc as the silhouettes entered the clearing. It was a man dressed in a hunting tunic, and a tiny girl in a thick cloak. The girl was holding the man’s hand; the man was holding a sword.

‘Dad,’ Nimbus smiled. ‘Glass.’

Glass waved her free hand in Nimbus’s direction. Her fingers shimmered with magic, and the vines that had strangled him into submission immediately withered.

‘Be careful,’ Nimbus called. ‘They can hypnotise you or something. They can make you fall asleep just by talking.’

Glass let go of her father’s hand. ‘Silly Nimbus,’ she muttered to herself. ‘Always getting in trouble.’

Cloud stood back, his sword ready, his serious eyes darting left and right as he watched for the first sign of an attack.

‘Come with us,’ the creatures whispered.

‘Don’t listen to them,’ Nimbus shouted, already feeling sleepy again.

‘I’ve come to take my brother home,’ glass said, sounding very powerful and grownup, even though she was only eight years old.

‘Ours now. He is ours now,’ the creatures whispered.

‘He’s my brother. He’s pretty stinky, and he can be a real pain sometimes, but I can’t let you have him. Please go away and let us leave.’

‘Ours now. He is ours now. You are ours now. All of you.’ Their voices had the quality of a babbling stream on a hot summer’s day, with a current that could sweep away all of a person’s troubles. It would be all too easy to give in to those voices, to be swept away into blissful darkness. ‘Ours now.’

Glass turned to her father. ‘Should I do it now?’ she asked.

Cloud nodded cautiously. His eyes were full of fear.

Suddenly – horribly suddenly – the creatures lurched into motion, swaying across the clearing with their clutching arms outstretched. They were no longer whispering; their actions were carried out in silence.

Glass clenched her hands into fists. ‘Please go away,’ she said. Tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone. Please just go away.’

The first creature was almost on top of her when it burst into flames with a horrible scream. It stumbled around blindly, flailing its arms until it collided with one of the other creatures. Within seconds they were both burning. Glass’s eyes widened and she jumped back with a yelp of surprise. ‘Please just go,’ she said, but more of the creatures were on fire now. They were running around, beating at the flames, howling in fear and pain. The delving became a searing hot furnace. The air crackled.

‘It’s time to go,’ Cloud said, rushing over to Nimbus and grabbing his arm.

‘The children,’ Nimbus shouted, above the roar of the fire. ‘Where are the children?’

‘Just along the path from here. Safe and well. We were able to free them, thanks to your little distraction. Now come on, Glass may not have the strength to control this fire.’

In the centre of the clearing, Glass wrapped her arms around her head and screamed hopelessly. The flames howled and danced as the last of the strange woodland creatures fell in a crumbling pile of ash.

‘Put out the fire,’ Cloud bellowed. ‘The danger has passed.’

Glass screamed even louder, and her white dress billowed. Nearby trees started to blacken and smoke.

‘Put out the fire,’ Cloud repeated. He grabbed her shoulder, but was blasted across the clearing by the terrible power coursing through her fragile body. He landed in a semi–conscious daze, not far from where Nimbus was trying to wake Cumulo.

Cumulo opened one eye and looked around. ‘What happened?’ he asked.

‘No time to explain,’ Nimbus said.

Cumulo rose, shaking his head groggily. His scales were the same red as the flames that roared around him. ‘It feels like I have been asleep forever. Is it just me, or is it a bit warm?’

More trees started to crackle and sprout leaves of fire. Glass stopped screaming and fell to her knees, panting heavily. The magical energy had been totally expelled from her body for the time being, and now she was drained and weak.

‘The whole woodland will be destroyed,’ Cumulo said, as small fires became big fires, spreading through the tightly packed undergrowth.

‘We can’t help that now,’ Nimbus said.

‘What are we going to do?’

Nimbus picked up his sister, holding her tightly. She was as light as a rag doll in his arms. ‘I can’t make it stop,’ she sobbed. ‘I didn’t mean to do it, and now I can’t make it stop. I can’t think about anything except fire.’

‘Grab my dad and get him out of here,’ Nimbus said to Cumulo. He sat his sister between the dragon’s shoulders. ‘Make sure you hold on tight,’ he said, ruffling her hair.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

‘I dropped the Wing Warrior sword somewhere. I can’t leave without it.’

‘You could be hurt,’ Cumulo said.

‘You can come back for me, but first you have to look after Glass and my dad and find the children we came to rescue, understand? We can’t leave them here to burn. Go on. Go.’

Cumulo wasted no time arguing. He grabbed Cloud in one claw, and with a tremendous flap, propelled himself up through the leaves and into the sky.

Nimbus looked around in desperation. The white fog had now been replaced by black smoke. Hot tears streamed down his face.

‘You stupid idiot,’ he coughed.

The fires jumped from tree branch to tree branch. The delving was completely encircled with an ever growing wall of heat. Nearby, in the thick brambles, something metallic glimmered, reflecting the wicked, dancing light of the flames.

The sword!

He grabbed the sword handle and gave it a pull, but the blade didn’t budge. Somehow it had got trapped in the thorn bush. He gave it another pull, and the sword moved a short distance before wedging again; but now he could see why. A vaguely human, wooden hand was clinging to the blade, trying to pull it down into the earth. Two pale eyes blinked in the undergrowth.

‘Let go,’ Nimbus shouted, in frustration. ‘Stop it.’

Suddenly, through the fire there came a gigantic stag, leaping majestically over the flames to land with a snort in the centre of the delving. At the same time, there was a pop among the brambles as they combusted in the heat. Fiery sparks cascaded over Nimbus’s head, and he fell back, dragging the sword with him. The nasty woodland creature that had attempted to steal his sword screamed as the fire swept forwards, leaving behind only the brittle, blackened skeletons of bushes and trees, and the things that had once whispered in the gloom.

Nimbus scrambled to his feet, sheathing the Wing Warrior sword; and he found himself looking directly into the calm, thoughtful eyes of the stag.

‘It’s you,’ Nimbus whispered. ‘I saw you before, fighting a goblin not far from here.’

The stag, who was known to all the woodland creatures as Sage, didn’t say anything; but that wasn’t particularly surprising as stags didn’t talk to humans. However, the look he gave Nimbus made it clear he was not best pleased that his home was on fire.

‘I’m really sorry,’ Nimbus said, covering his mouth and nose with his hand as the smoke got thicker.

Sage snorted, and gestured towards the burning undergrowth with his immense antlers. Nimbus could see several rabbits and a badger dashing between the twigs, desperately searching for a way to escape the hungry flames.

‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,’ he said, with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Sage stamped his hoof.

‘I’m sorry. I really am. But I can’t help them. I’ve got enough problems of my own.’

The expression in Sage’s eyes grew sadder, and then he dashed off.

With a dull flap, Cumulo descended on the delving, his wings beating the flames into twisted pillars. ‘Your father is with the children,’ he said bluntly. ‘Beyond the borders of the woods. Get on. I will take you to them.’

Nimbus took one last look at the destruction that could so easily have been avoided if he had not been so stupid, and then he climbed up on Cumulo’s back.

Without another word, the dragon leapt into the air, leaving the burning wood far below.

CHAPTER TWO

Cumulo circled above the clouds for a moment, and then swooped back over the delving. The updraft from the flames buffeted him violently, but he maintained a steady position directly above the clearing as he surveyed the extent of the fire.

‘What are you doing? Get us out of here,’ Nimbus said, gripping the dragon’s neck tenaciously and trying his best not to look down.

‘Be quiet,’ Cumulo said. His scales turned blue, and he started to breathe clouds of icy vapour. Within just a few minutes the section of woodland that had been a blazing inferno, and a large area around it, had become a frozen landscape of crystallised trees and frosty undergrowth. The charred earth was hidden beneath a thick, snowy blanket. Not a single trace of fire remained.

‘Well done,’ Nimbus laughed. ‘That’s incredible.’

Cumulo grunted. ‘It’s easier to fight when I know what I’m fighting against.’

‘Are you mad at me?’

Cumulo ignored the question, dropping out of the sky to land with a thundering jolt at the edge of the wood. ‘This could have been much worse,’ he said. ‘I said we should have got Cloud.’

‘And I said you fly too fast. I think I swallowed a bug.’

Nimbus slipped off Cumulo’s neck. His legs felt wobbly, and he had to lean against the dragon to keep his balance.

‘I took it steady,’ Cumulo protested.

The two children who had caused all the trouble in the first place – a girl with a muddy face and a boy with fuzzy hair – stared stupidly. It was something of a day of firsts for them: They had never been captured by woodland spirits before, they had never nearly burned to death before, and they had never met a Wing Warrior or his dragon in person before. In the face of that much excitement, staring, and a little bit of frightened trembling, was about all they could manage.

‘You kids okay?’ Nimbus asked, trying to sound as adult as possible.

The children nodded. Neither of them blinked. They made Nimbus feel slightly uncomfortable.

‘Well, that’s good news. I hope you’ve learned a lesson about coming out into the woods alone.’

The children nodded again.

‘I can’t always be around to protect you.’

Another nod.

‘Chatty, aren’t they?’ Nimbus whispered to Cumulo.

‘They’ve had quite an ordeal,’ Cloud said, who was sitting nearby on a fallen tree trunk, feeding handfuls of grass to his horse, Onyx. Glass was sitting beside him, staring at her feet.

‘Glad to see you’re all okay. That was quite some adventure, wasn’t it?’ Nimbus said cheerfully. Now that the fire was out, and everybody was safe, it was all too easy to forget how terrible he had felt just a few moments before.

Cloud looked at him sternly, using the exceptionally serious look he reserved for when he caught Nimbus doing something incredibly stupid, like pinching apples from Farmer Burrow’s orchard. When he spoke, his anger was barely concealed. ‘You are lucky Onyx got me here before it was too late.’

Onyx flicked his mane in agreement.

‘I had everything under control,’ Nimbus said, flippantly.

‘Under control? You nearly got yourself killed, you silly fool.’

Nimbus’s jaw froze in a determined line, and in that moment his serious expression matched his father’s. ‘Cumulo,’ he said. ‘Take the children back home. Their parents will be worried.’

‘I am not your servant, Nim.’

‘No, but you are my friend.’

‘Let the horse take them.’

Onyx snorted and showed his teeth.

‘I told you to do it.’ Nimbus’s voice was hard and angry. It was bad enough his dad had told him off in front of the children, but being told off in front of Cumulo was much worse.

‘I should be here with you. I am not a babysitter,’ the dragon said.

‘Please?’

Cumulo flexed his wings and glanced at Cloud. Cloud nodded.

‘I will take them,’ Cumulo said.

‘No flying though. Okay?’

Sulkily, Cumulo lowered his head and allowed the two children to get on. ‘Your trusty steed will see you back at the village,’ he growled, and plodded off.