Orphan's Blade (30 page)

“Burrow’s Bucket! I can climb by myself.” He swiped her away and paused, throwing off the breastplate before scrambling up the crag. Danika grabbed at weeds, pulling them out as she struggled for a handhold. Although she should have focused all her energy on climbing, she gazed up at Bron.

The wyvern dove and lunged, smacking jaws longer than Bron’s claymore. Bron ducked and swung, sinuous muscles bunching and stretching. He missed its shimmering hide by inches. The warrior excelled in hand-to-hand combat, but if the wyvern ignited its belly of fire, he’d have no defense.

“Over here.” The boy had found a path up the incline. He reached down over a ridge and grabbed her hand, trying to pull her up. His scrawny arms shook as Danika slid through his sooty fingers. Her heels skidded backward until they hit a rock. “Don’t wait for me. Go!”

The boy dangled his arm, waving her to him. “Come on.”

She could make it. She took a step back and ran, leaping toward the ridge and catching a bramble. The boy grasped her arm. Thank the gods for all the secret training Bron had given her. Danika hefted herself over the edge. She grabbed the boy’s hand and they scrambled toward the carriage.

She glanced at the place where Bron had stood. Nothing remained except a darkening sky with wyverns writhing through the air. “B-Bron.” Panic rose inside her, along with a feeling of sheer loneliness. What if he’d died for her impulsiveness?

“I’m here, Princess,” he thundered from behind the carriage. He’d rigged the horses and collected the reins in his hand.

The boy jumped in without a word. Danika shot Bron a look that would have killed an ordinary man.

“I thought you’d died.”

“Princess, you know better than to traipse off while wyverns rule the sky.”

Danika gestured to the boy kicking his heels against the carriage seat. “I couldn’t leave him.”

“So be it.” He threw a tarp over a lump of steaming scales, shining oily green black in the twilight. “You have a new trophy for your mead hall.”

“Honestly, I prefer the wall bare.” Disgusted by death, she jumped in the carriage.

Frenzied screeches filled the sky behind them like mad raven calls.

“Hi-ya!” Bron whipped the reins and the horses galloped forward. Danika pressed her cheek to the glass. The wyverns became threads in the darkening sky. Her castle had a bastion of archers, but there were many more beasts than in her nightmares. Her stomach sank to her knees. In time, the writhing masses would overcome Ebonvale’s ramparts as well.