Aurora (13 page)

Elian did not need to talk with Aurora to know that Kira was right. He could feel it too, but the thought of returning to the other world terrified him. The adventure of riding a dragon and
embarking on a quest had been exciting at the beginning. Faced with the prospect of going back to the dangers and horrors of a war he did not understand sent wave after wave of icy fear down his
back.

‘We’re not furthering the quest by staying here,’ she added, watching him intently. ‘The hunters in my tribe would not have stayed in one place this long unless they were
convinced of eventual success.’

Elian felt his face begin to burn with embarrassment. Did she think him a coward? At the moment he felt like one. Nolita had faced her fears. Was this how she had felt before her trial in the
Chamber of the Sun’s Steps? If so, then he now appreciated just how brave she was.

‘You are not a coward, Elian,’
Aurora assured him.
‘You are nervous. That is understandable. I am nervous, too.’

‘Go get some sleep, Kira,’ he advised, turning to busy himself with packing things into his saddlebags in an effort to find focus and hide his flushed cheeks. ‘Don’t
worry. I’ll be ready. I’ll be turning in shortly. Can you ask Neema and Tarl to come and see me, please? I’d like to thank them before we go, but I don’t want to wake them
before sunrise to do it.’

‘Of course.’

Kira strode away quickly. The fear in Elian’s eyes had been obvious. She did not want to embarrass him unnecessarily. He had suffered a trauma that would take time to heal, but they did
not have the luxury of giving him time to recover fully. They had to complete the quest with all possible speed. Segun had had another week to marshal his dragons. How many were blockading the
Oracle’s cave now? And what about Nolita and Pell? Had they reached the day dragon enclave yet? Would Barnabas bring the day dragons to their aide? She hoped so. If not, the job of trying to
sneak past Segun’s men would surely fall to her and Fang. While normally she was happy to brave danger, she felt that a solo effort would be doomed to failure. Segun was no fool. With the
resources he had available, she doubted he would leave any chink in his defences for her to exploit.

Tarl and Neema were hovering at the entrance to the hatching chamber. Kira could hear Blaze shuffling around inside, the dragon’s great talons clicking and scraping against the stone
floor. They agreed to go and see Elian straight away, but Tarl gave an anxious glance back towards the chamber as he left, and Kira had to work hard to keep from smiling at his worry. He looked
shattered through lack of sleep and she doubted that tonight would bring him the rest he needed.

Her message delivered, Kira went to her chamber, packed her saddlebags ready for the morning and climbed into bed. Excited by the prospect of getting underway again, Kira found it hard to get to
sleep at first. When she finally drifted off, it seemed she had hardly settled when Fang woke her. She groaned. Surely dawn could not be here already?

‘No,’
he said.
‘It’s not time to leave yet. We still have several hours until dawn, but I thought you would want to see this before we go.’

‘The eggs?’
Kira asked, jolting upright on the low bed.

‘The first is hatching now,’
Fang confirmed.

For all her restlessness and desire to press on with the quest, the excitement in Fang’s tone was infectious. The unique nature of this opportunity was not lost on her, despite her hard
line with Elian. She paused only long enough to throw on some clothing before racing out of her room and through the enclave to the hatching chamber entrance. She arrived, breathless, but fully
awake a few moments later.

Tarl and Neema were whispering excitedly to one another. They beamed at Kira.

‘Didn’t think it would be long before we saw you,’ Neema said in a breathy voice. ‘You’re just in time, but don’t enter the chamber. When a hatchling is born,
all it thinks about is eating. I wouldn’t want a dragonet to see you as its first meal.’

‘Have any of them hatched yet?’

‘The first has cracked its shell,’ Tarl said proudly. ‘It should break out any moment now.’

‘And because it has hatched before sunrise, it will be a night dragon . . .’ Kira observed, unable to stop a shiver running up and down her spine as she said it.

‘Eventually, yes,’ Neema replied. ‘But according to the archives, when dragons first hatch, they all appear much the same. It takes some time before their bodies change and
develop the characteristic nature of their mature dragon type.’

‘According to the archives’ was a phrase that was beginning to get on Kira’s nerves. Everything these two dragonriders did seemed to be referenced to what the archives told
them.

‘I didn’t realise that,’ she admitted. ‘So are you expecting them all to hatch at about the same time, or will it take a while?’

Neema and Tarl looked at one another questioningly and then shrugged. ‘We don’t know,’ Tarl answered. ‘The records don’t say. We think it will take at least a few
hours for the full clutch to hatch. Take a look. The one that’s cracking is towards the right of the pile.’

The three of them arranged themselves in the doorway so they could all look into the chamber without crossing the threshold. The only source of light inside the chamber was Blaze, whose glowing
scales bathed the huge mottled eggs in a warm, golden haze. Blaze had curled protectively in a semi-circle behind the eggs. The dragon’s eyes were gleaming as she watched intently over
them.

A slight movement and a surprisingly loud cracking sound drew Kira’s attention. One of the eggs towards the right of the clutch was rocking and a long crack had appeared in its side.
Another crack. Another. And suddenly, the shell split wide, spilling an ugly, gangling creature abruptly onto the floor. It screeched with protest and flopped around awkwardly, trying to get to its
feet.

Kira felt an almost overpowering urge to run to the dragonet’s aide. It looked so helpless.

‘Don’t!’
Fang warned in her mind.
‘It will kill you if you get too close. Do not fear. It will right itself soon enough.’

No sooner had Fang spoken in her mind than the baby dragon found its feet. Its oversized head swayed on its long, spindly neck and its legs wobbled as it fought to stay upright. The strangely
colourless eyes looked devoid of intelligence. They were cold and flat, and held a look that Kira recognised instantly – the look of a predator.

The dragonet’s scales were also colourless. They had an almost translucent quality, though Kira could not actually see the tissue and organs beneath. If she had been asked to describe its
colour, she would have instinctively said grey, though it was nothing like the grey of her dusk dragon.

‘Why doesn’t Blaze help it?’
she asked Fang.

‘Dragonets must learn to fend for themselves from the moment they are born,’
he replied.
‘Blaze has put food in the chamber. Finding it will be the young
dragon’s first quest. Do not fret. It will not take long.’

Almost as if the dragonet had heard Fang’s words, it took its first few tottering steps. Arching its neck, the creature raised its wedge-shaped head high and took a long, wobbling look
around the chamber. Its gaze swept past the pile of raw meat stacked not far away and when it moved again, it moved unswervingly towards the ready food.

‘Did I miss much?’

Kira started. She had not heard Elian approach.

‘The first one’s just hatched,’ she told him excitedly. ‘Here. Take a look.’

She moved aside to give him room to lean against the doorframe. He looked into the chamber just in time to see the top of a second egg erupt as the dragonet inside forced its head through the
top. It looked absurd with a cap of shell on its head, but Kira resisted the urge to giggle. She did not want to upset Tarl.

The first dragonet was attacking the pile of meat with startling ferocity. Picking up piece after piece, it tipped back its head and swallowed each one whole. It had problems with one of the
larger pieces, coughing it back up several times. But rather than drop it and move on to another piece, the young dragon persevered until it succeeded in swallowing the huge hunk of flesh and
keeping it down.

‘Obstinate little nipper, isn’t he?’ Kira observed aloud.

‘Remind you of anyone?’ Elian said.

‘You, actually!’

‘Ha! Very funny.’

Kira knew that dragons did not really chew their food. Fang sometimes held a piece of meat in his mouth and rolled it around on his tongue, giving the impression he was chewing, but this was an
illusion. Dragons ripped a kill to pieces with their sharp teeth and then swallowed the pieces, bones and all. The pile of meat near the eggs had already been shredded, presumably by Blaze, into
much smaller pieces than an adult dragon would consume.

The second hatchling shouldered out of its egg and tottered forwards on uncertain feet. Its head turned, eyes scanning the room until it was looking at the doorway, where the four riders were
standing. Opening its mouth wide, it let out a screech and took two rapid steps forwards.

Kira gasped as she saw the intent in its eyes. She knew the look from predators she had encountered in the savannah. It was the look of a killer. Although newly hatched, the dragon had nearly as
much body mass as she did. It was slow and uncoordinated but, nevertheless, she could appreciate the potential danger it posed.

A rumbling sound from Blaze stopped the hatch-ling in its tracks. Its head snapped around and it let out a defiant screech to its mother, but the objection was over-ruled by another, slightly
louder warning rumble. The dragonet screeched again, but turned obediently to where the first was feasting and staggered the short distance to the waiting food.

Kira realised she had been holding her breath. She let it out in a long silent sigh of relief.

‘I think that was our cue to leave you to it,’ she announced to Neema and Tarl. ‘Congratulations. We’ll stop by again before we leave, but we have a potentially difficult
day ahead.’

‘Of course,’ Neema said quickly. ‘Don’t let us keep you from your rest. It’s been a pleasure to meet both of you. Make sure you stop by the enclave once your quest
is complete. Tarl and I will be here for the rest of the year.’

‘Come and see us before you leave,’ Tarl added. ‘And we’ll say goodbye properly then.’

Chapter Twelve

‘There! On the left!’ Pell exclaimed aloud. ‘How far does it go? They’re closing fast!’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’
Shadow replied.

Banking hard, Shadow turned into the narrow canyon and raced between the towering walls of rock. Pell wanted to look back to see if Longtail had followed them in, but he could not look anywhere
except ahead. The slot they had flown into barely qualified as a canyon. It was about three dragon wingspans wide at the opening, narrowing quickly to two.

A surging stream ran beneath them, foaming across the rocks in a mackerel-striped race of dark water and frothing white. The gushing sound of the mountain stream and the rushing wind added to
the sensation of speed as the rock walls flashed past on either side.

‘Are they still behind us?’

‘Yes,’
Shadow affirmed.
‘But they hesitated before committing. It cost them their height advantage.’

‘Any idea where this canyon leads?’

‘I don’t think it goes anywhere,’
Shadow replied.
‘My senses tell me it’s a box canyon.’

‘Better and better!’ Pell muttered.
‘Are you ready?’

‘Ready as I’m going to be,’
Shadow confirmed, tipping first right and then left as she followed the weaving path of the canyon.
‘Hold on tight. Here we
go.’

As Shadow rolled her wings level, she suddenly pitched hard upwards in an attempted repeat of the manoeuvre she had performed in the mountains of Isaa. The last time they had done this it had
saved them from certain death in The Knife – a similarly narrow canyon that they had been tricked into entering.

Up, up, up, Shadow pitched until she was flying vertically upwards. She intended to roll ninety degrees to the left and use her talons against the cliff wall to turn her body until it was facing
vertically downwards again. Whether she did not have the momentum this time, or she did not pitch up sharply enough into the vertical was not clear. Whichever it was, the result was not what she
planned.

Shadow ran out of momentum before she completed the quarter turn, or got close enough to the cliff wall to use it to aid turning her body. Pell’s memory had softened the fear he had
experienced when reaching the peak of their climb in The Knife. The sensation this time was nothing short of terrifying. His bottom floated away from the saddle and his grip suddenly felt weak and
uncertain. Worse, he could feel Shadow beginning to panic.

The manoeuvre had gone horribly wrong. They peaked and Shadow began to fall out of control – initially tail first, though this was only momentary. The shape of the dragon’s body was
not compatible with travelling through the air backwards, and with breathtaking suddenness the airflow flipped her over. The force created by the rapid rotation slammed Pell forwards. His head
connected hard with the ridge of dragon horn in front of the saddle, the impact setting the world alight in a swimming golden haze. His grip on the pommel failed and both dragon and rider plummeted
headfirst towards the foaming stream below.