Longfang (2 page)

‘Come on, Fang,’
Kira said, unable to keep her frustration from colouring her tone.
‘We’d better follow them before they get themselves into more
trouble.’

As they accelerated it was hard to ignore the huge red area of blood-soaked snow and the lifeless carcass of the night dragon, Knifetail. Her twisted body had been literally torn open by
griffins, and her heart now formed the centre of the dark orb tucked deep in Pell’s saddlebag. Kira shuddered. The body could so easily have been that of Shadow, but Dirk, Pell’s
opponent in the challenge for the dark orb, had cheated and inadvertently brought the fate upon his own dragon. For the briefest moment, the thought crossed Kira’s mind that their quest might
have stood more chance of success if it
had
been Shadow who had died. Pell and Shadow had done nothing but lead them into trouble by trying to act alone since the quest began.

That’s unkind thinking, Kira, she berated herself. Pell is annoying, but the Oracle chose him in the same way it chose me. He and Nolita have won their orbs and both went through painful
trials to get them. It’s my turn next. What if the dusk orb also requires a dark sacrifice? Will
I
do whatever it takes to see the Oracle survive?

The question hung in her mind, but she could not bring herself to answer it. She had no answer. How could she say without knowing what price she might have to pay?

Let’s get the dark orb to the Oracle, she thought. There’ll be time to worry about the dusk orb later.

Longfang skipped into the air and Kira was forced to concentrate on the take off. Ahead, she saw Shadow’s wings kicking vortices of snow into the air. She glanced across at Fang’s
wingtips. He too was stirring up mini-whirlwinds that swirled white against the vertical rock walls on either side of the deep mountain valley. They fizzled out quite quickly, but Kira had never
seen anything like them before. They were fascinating.

She realised her focus had slipped again. Why was she getting distracted so easily? This was not like her. If anything, she should be working on practical considerations. She needed to plan
their next move. Even with one dragon and his rider dead, Segun still held the advantage of numbers. He and his four remaining lieutenants would undoubtedly mount their night dragons and give chase
as soon as the griffins allowed them to leave at sunset, and there were three more riders on night dragons waiting for them somewhere outside the valley. If Segun joined forces with them, he would
outnumber the questors by two to one. Not good odds, but Kira knew that if they could hold off the night dragons until dawn, Aurora could open a gateway into the other world, where Segun and his
men could not follow them. Despite the strangeness and the horrors of war that awaited them there, Kira felt certain that going through the gateway would solve many of their immediate problems.

The valley narrowed until they reached the sharp right turn into the tunnel that led out of the Valley of the Griffins. The familiar pressure forced her down hard against Fang’s back as he
tipped into a steep turn. The rock walls to either side raced past as they rolled back to level flight. Looking ahead, Kira could see the end of the tunnel beyond Shadow and Pell. Spots of white
were visible in the air. Snow was beginning to fall.

‘Fang, do you see what I see?’
she asked.

‘Yes, it’s snowing,’
he replied.
‘But don’t worry. This could prove to be the best luck we’ve had all day.’

‘Luck? In what way?’

‘Visibility will be limited, but it will be far easier to throw Segun off our trail.’

‘Well I’m glad there’s something good about it,’
Kira said sourly.
‘We’re going to get extremely cold and wet, and I’ve had quite enough of
the cold. I hope the dusk orb is somewhere warmer.’

‘Shadow will probably welcome the cold and wet after Firestorm sealed her wound with his fire,’
Fang pointed out.
‘She is strong, but that’s a nasty wound
she’s taken. I know I would not be able to fly far with the pain she is suffering. Keeping the cauterised area cool will help to ease it a little. Night dragons are not easily harmed.
Unfortunately, they do not heal easily either. I imagine it will be some years before she’ll be free from the pain of that injury.’

‘Years! But that’s awful! And Pell will feel her pain all that time?’
The part of her that disliked Pell wanted to take sadistic pleasure in that thought, but she knew
what it had felt like when Fang had been injured by dragonhunters.

‘Don’t worry, Kira,’
Fang answered.
‘Pell may be annoying, but he is strong. Shadow is strong too. They will recover.’

The icy breeze as they emerged from the end of the tunnel cut through Kira’s protective clothing as if it were made of thin Racafian cloth. Although snow was falling, it was still light,
and the visibility along the valley was not too bad. Kira could see the best part of a league in both directions, but a quick glance at the cloud above was enough for her to realise it would not
stay this benign for long.

‘Shadow is suggesting we head southwards, but stay amongst the peaks until it starts to get dark,’
Fang told her.
‘In these conditions I’d normally want to get
out of the mountains as quickly as possible, but that would leave us vulnerable to attack. Remaining in the network of valleys while it is snowing will bring danger, but it will make it far more
difficult for Segun and his men to find us. I think Shadow’s plan is probably sensible.’

They turned right along the valley and on reaching the first fork they turned left. Pell had told them about his final race for the orb. This valley took them away from the race route. More
importantly, it took them away from the last place Pell had seen one of the three night dragons they knew to be lurking in the mountain range.

The mountain peaks slipped past on either side as the dragons did their best to fly at high speed, but they had not gone far when the snowflakes began to get bigger and more numerous. The wind
picked up, moaning and howling across rocks and hollows on the steep slopes. Visibility worsened and the air became rough with turbulence as the mountainous slopes twisted its flow, shaping it into
swirling vortices and wicked vertical drafts.

‘This is not good. If it gets any worse, I think we might have to land somewhere and try to hide away until dawn.’
Fang’s voice in Kira’s mind sounded worried.
They had hardly gone any distance from the Valley of the Griffins. If the blizzard conditions blew through before dusk, it would leave Segun and his men almost on top of them.

‘I don’t like it,’
Kira said.
‘We need to get further away.’

‘I agree that would be ideal, but if this gets any worse it will become impossible to see where we’re going. My eyesight is the best amongst the dragons and I’m struggling
to see far enough ahead to fly safely. How Shadow is leading the way in this, I don’t know.’

‘Then let’s try to get clear of the mountains and fly in the open air to the east of here,’
Kira suggested.
‘We can parallel the range southwards and then nip
back in among the peaks to hide when it becomes necessary.’

‘That sounds like a good compromise,’
Fang agreed.
‘Assuming we can get that far without crashing blindly into a mountainside. I’ll put it to Shadow and see
what she says.’

Kira could see very little now. Her eyes were almost shut in an effort to keep out the driving snow. She looked first to one side and then the other, squinting and straining in an effort to see
her companions. Every now and then she caught a glimpse of one of them before the falling curtain of white snow swallowed them again. She knew Fang was right. Continuing to fly in these conditions
was madness, but if they were to stand a realistic chance of escaping Segun’s reach, they had to press on.

Her face began to go numb with cold as the icy flakes leeched the heat from her flesh. Glancing down she found her jacket and the front of her trousers were white with snow. More was
accumulating on the front of Fang’s ridges and the leading edges of his wings. As the cloud was thickening and the snowfall intensifying, so the light levels were dropping. It felt almost
like dusk, though the sun would not set for some time yet.

‘I cannot say I’m happy,’
Fang reported.
‘But the consensus amongst the dragons is to press on and try to get clear of the mountains. We must hope for the
conditions to improve. It will be less dangerous once we are out of the range. Shadow is going to descend to see if the visibility is better lower down. I’ve agreed to try climbing. Hold on
tight. This is likely to get very uncomfortable.’

Kira did as she was told, leaning as flat as she could against Fang’s back in an effort to minimise the biting cold of the wind and snow cutting through her jacket. The temperature would
get colder as they climbed and Kira already felt as if the seat of her trousers was frozen to her saddle.

Fang had barely begun his climb when the spine-chilling screech of a night dragon rent the air. For a horrible moment Kira imagined that Shadow had crashed into the ground, but then she realised
the sound had not come from below them, but from behind. And it was close. Very close. They were under attack.

Chapter Two

Pell gripped the pommel as tightly as he could as Shadow dropped with a stomach-turning lurch. As they dived, he found his eyes began to play tricks on him. Unless he looked
specifically at something nearby, like one of Shadow’s ridges, or a wing, his focus shifted, unable to settle on anything. This made his eyes hurt as if he were deliberately crossing and
uncrossing them.

A distant screech rent the air. It was a dragon’s cry and it came from somewhere above them. Pell’s chest tightened. He knew the voices of his companions’ dragons well enough
to know that the cry was not one of theirs. It was the cry of a night dragon. Another voice replied, this time from ahead. Their enemies had laid an ambush. And he had led his companions right into
it.

The night dragons were closing. Pell could almost feel their proximity. His skin crawled with the anticipation of an imminent attack. As Shadow dived lower and lower, he scanned the swirling
curtain of snow overhead for any sign of incoming dragons. Where were his companions? Had they already been attacked?

‘The others scattered,’
Shadow said, her voice calming.
‘We will try to meet up later some way south of here. The night dragons should leave them alone. It’s us
they are really after – us, and the orb. The snow should work in our favour, though. Barring accidents, or blind chance, the blizzard will make it impossible for the night dragons to
coordinate an effective pursuit.’

‘But what if they—’

‘Don’t start with the “what ifs”, Pell,’
Shadow interrupted firmly.
‘Let’s concentrate on getting ourselves out of here. The others can look
after themselves.’

Chastened, Pell clung tightly to the pommel as they levelled out from their shallow dive and skimmed across the smooth white surface of the snow-filled valley basin. The wind picked up fast as
the snowstorm struck with its full fury. Flurries of snow whipped up from the ground, racing on the wind in dense white rolls of cloudlike foaming waves on a storm-tossed sea, mixing and whirling
with the myriad flakes falling from above. He felt helpless. It was all up to Shadow again.

The icy blast of the bitter wind cut through his clothing and his face began to sting as the large flakes suddenly changed into pellets of soft hail. Shadow hugged the contours of the valley
floor, staying as low as she dared. Weaving and bumping, she threaded her way along the valley, manoeuvring her gigantic frame like a dragon half her size.

‘Try to watch our backs,’
she warned.
‘It’s taking all my focus to keep us from hitting the ground. I can’t watch for incoming dragons as
well.’

The responsibility of watching the sky for enemies was just what Pell needed. It gave him a sense of purpose that warmed him inside and set his mind alight.

‘I’ll do my best,’
he told her, though he quickly realised that his best was not very good. It was impossible to see much at all.

‘I think we’re nearly through the worst of it,’
she warned.
‘As soon as visibility begins to improve, we’ll become more vulnerable to attack. Stay
alert.’

Pell could feel Shadow’s shoulder burning with pain again. Not with the heat of Firestorm’s flame, but with the fatigue that comes from pushing muscles too hard. They had not flown
far from the Valley of the Griffins, but they had completed an exhausting series of flying challenges before they left. Shadow’s injury was well forwards of her wings but, with the pain as a
reference, Pell could trace the interaction of the muscles in her body through the bond. The combination of fatigue and her injury meant that every beat of her wings now carried a penalty spike of
pain that was slowly building in intensity. She was brave, but he could feel her weakening. She was strong enough and stubborn enough to keep flying for some time yet, but at what cost?