Firestorm (17 page)

‘Didn’t you say that dragonsense led dragons to pivotal moments in history, Ra? What if this is one of those pivotal moments? We can’t ignore it. It’s too much of a
coincidence.’

‘Perhaps you’re right, Elian,’
she admitted.
‘Perhaps we are meant to help him after all.’

‘Well, whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it
now,’
Elian urged. ‘They could kill him in a heartbeat.’

‘Very well. Hold on tight. I’ll co-ordinate the others.’

Holding on to Nolita suddenly became a major challenge as Ra folded her wings and entered a steep dive. The wind tore at them with bitter claws as they accelerated. Elian’s mind flashed
back to his fall from the Devil’s Finger. We must be approaching a similar speed, he thought. With his arms wrapped around Nolita’s waist, he hung on with all his might.

Firestorm dived with them, and to his other side Elian could just make out Kira plunging on a parallel course. They were not diving directly at the circling fight, but appeared to be positioning
a cloud between them and the wheeling machines. Gradually extending her wings again, Ra began to pitch out of the dive. Elian’s muscles screamed as Nolita’s weight seemed to increase
and the force acting on his own body pressed him hard against Ra’s back.

As they reached level flight the pressure suddenly reduced, but Elian did not have time to feel relief before they plunged into a wall of freezing white moisture. Needles of cold stabbed his
face and, as they burst free from the cloud, he realised he had been holding his breath.

The man whom they had come to help had banked his machine into a tight turn towards his enemies in what looked a suicidal manoeuvre. As a result his machine was belly up to the approaching
dragons, leaving him blind to their approach.

Ra dipped beneath the friendly aircraft before bumping back up to fly head to head with the three hostile machines. The disconcerting rattle of weapons began again and Elian heard slivers of
death whizz past him in a deadly stream. He felt more stabs of pain through his link with Ra as some of the enemy weapons struck Ra on her chest, neck and wings.

They were closing fast on the enemy. He crouched as low to Ra’s back as Nolita’s unconscious body allowed. Suddenly Ra seemed to bounce and there was a terrifying crunch. It was all
Elian could do to hold Nolita in place. He heard the roar of Firestorm’s flaming breath and felt a momentary flash of heat – then it was over. Ra’s normal, rhythmic wingbeat began
again and Elian sat up, heart beating wildly, as they entered a gentle turn. Looking down and back, he saw the fragmented remains of two machines tumbling through the air below, with a third
spinning out of control trailing fire and black smoke. Ra and Fang had literally ripped two of the machines apart, while Firestorm had torched the third.

A sudden feeling of responsibility swept over him. Ra and the other dragons had destroyed the machines at his request. Suddenly he wondered about the men who had flown them. They were now either
dead or falling to their deaths because of his decision. It was a sobering thought. If he had not been so sure he had made the right decision, it would have been easy to feel guilty.

‘Did you notice, Ra?’ Elian observed aloud. ‘All the machines we destroyed had black crosses on their wings. The other aircraft has coloured circles. Look.’

‘You’re right. I hadn’t noticed that.’

‘There he goes. Look, he’s waving,’ Elian called out excitedly.

And he was. Waggling his wings in a rocking motion, the man flew his machine past them, waving as he went.

‘I wonder what he’ll tell his colleagues when he gets down on the ground!’
Ra chuckled.
‘Whatever he tells them, they are unlikely to believe him. Let’s
get well away from here. I think we’ve done quite enough interfering for one day.’

Chapter Fifteen

If anyone saw the two visible dragons make their dive from the base of the clouds to settle at the edge of the woodland glade, they did not come to investigate further. Once on
the ground, the dragons moved beneath the cover of the trees. By the time Elian had managed to untie Nolita, Kira had dismounted and was there to help him lift her down out of the saddle.

‘She’s frozen,’ he said anxiously. ‘What should we do?’

‘Firestorm will revive her,’
Ra assured him, simultaneously relaying the thought through Fang to Kira.
‘Place her on the ground and stand back. If Nolita has any
sense, she will learn from this experience that there are great benefits to being the rider of a day dragon. He is a gentle soul. She should gain some sense of that through his healing
breath.’

The two young dragonriders laid Nolita gently down and stepped well clear. Firestorm moved forwards, his cornflower-blue scales seeming out of place amongst the trees. He stretched his head
forwards on his long neck until his nostrils were almost touching the fabric of Nolita’s jacket.

‘He’s not going to set fire to the forest, is he?’ Elian whispered to Kira, his eyes never leaving the blue dragon.

‘No. Fang tells me the healing fire isn’t like a normal flame,’ she replied, her voice low and full of anticipation.

Firestorm blinked a couple of times and then his eyes half-lidded. His mouth opened wide. The day dragon could have consumed the young girl in a couple of swift mouthfuls, and any bystander
could have been forgiven for thinking this to be his intention. Instead, the dragon inhaled a long, deep breath, and then with infinite care he breathed out his healing nimbus of fire that
enveloped Nolita’s body in a writhing sheet of blue flames . . .

Time seemed to slow as Firestorm exhaled his long, healing balm of fire. Then he raised his head and stepped back to give Nolita some space. Elian shook himself as if he had just woken from a
standing sleep. How long had they stood and watched Firestorm breathe his fire across the slumbering girl? One minute? Two? Longer? He could not say. Witnessing the day dragon use his healing power
felt magical, although he knew magic had no part in the dragon’s abilities.

Nolita stirred. Elian and Kira ran forwards to help her to sit up. Her hands felt warm to the touch. Her skin looked healthy, if slightly flushed. As she made the final transition to full
consciousness her face displayed a rainbow of emotions from happy contentment through surprise into horror and disgust, before finally settling with one of confusion.

‘Where am I?’ she asked, looking around with frightened eyes. ‘What did you do to me? I feel different.’

‘All good questions,’ Kira answered, flashing her white teeth in a wide smile of encouragement. ‘Unfortunately none of them have easy answers. Just rest a while.’

With Nolita recovering, Elian was quick to attend to Ra. The weapons of the machines had pummelled her chest in particular. Anxious to see that she was not bleeding badly he raced around to
look.

‘Don’t fuss. I’ll be fine, Elian,’
she assured him.
‘The weapons did not penetrate my scales. They did sting, though.’

‘I know,’
he replied.
‘I felt them.’
When he looked he could see spots of red through the golden surface of her scales.
‘Can Firestorm heal
these?’
he asked.

‘He can and he will,’
she answered.
‘If you will move aside, he will do it now.’

Elian did as he was told and Firestorm again breathed out his healing blue nimbus, this time over Aurora. Elian was astonished as he felt the effects through the bond. Even though the sensations
were only dimly sensed, he felt energised and full of vitality afterwards. It was incredible.

Nolita watched Ra’s healing with an expression that flickered between disgust and wonder. When Firestorm had finished and moved away from Ra, she addressed Elian with barely contained
anger.

‘When are you going to tell me what’s going on?’ she grated.

‘We’re in a place called France,’ he offered, not quite sure how much to tell her.

‘France? Never heard of it. How did we get here? Even a dragon would take several days to fly out of Cemaria from where we were. I don’t feel as if I’ve been asleep long. Wait!
I remember something strange. Something was spinning – a weird hole in the air, then I was sort of swimming. No. It must have been a dream. I’m talking nonsense.’ She shook her
head a little as if trying to shake the strange visions loose.

‘No, you’re not,’ Elian said quickly, noting Nolita’s inadvertent use of the word ‘dragon’ with an inward smile. Until now, he had only ever heard her refer
to dragons as ‘beasts’. It was a small, but significant step. ‘We came here through a sort of vortex. We’re not in Areth any more. We’re in another world.’

‘The trees are strange,’ she noted, seeming to ignore the significance of his answer. ‘The sky’s the wrong shade of blue. And that noise . . . what’s that
noise?’

Elian and Kira glanced at one another. The unspoken question between them was clear. How much should they tell Nolita? How much could she cope with?

‘Don’t lie to me,’ she said, looking round fearfully at the dragons. ‘I’m beginning to remember. You tied me up and brought me here. There’s no point denying
it. Come on, I’m waiting. Why are we here and what’s that noise?’

She was right, Elian decided. She did deserve to know what was going on. If she was ever to trust them, they had to be honest with her.

‘We brought you here because it’s the shortest way to Orupee. Aurora can open gateways into this world. When we leave tomorrow she’ll open another one that’ll take us
straight to Orupee. We’ll have saved weeks of flying time.’ Elian paused a moment, because he knew she would not take the second part well.

‘All right, let’s assume for a moment that I believe you. Why don’t we just leave now?’ she asked.

‘Because Ra can only open the gateways at dawn,’ he replied. ‘She says that’s when the barrier between the worlds is weakest.’ He thought about trying to explain
further, but realised it was unlikely to make any difference. ‘The noise you can hear is the sound of war. The people here are fighting with strange weapons that throw death over huge
distances.’