Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (16 page)

An ocean of grasses swelled and rippled on either side of us, flickering silvery green with every strong gust. During one such gust, I paused. There was a large splotch of orange amidst the green, about a hundred yards to my left. I wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't been for the swirl of the wind that separated the grasses for a split second; there were no traces of orange now. It was as though the wind had wanted me to see it. But that wasn't all that had caught my attention.

It was death.
Fresh
death.

Vera had said hunters used this path, but there was something…off. Something that made me feel unsettled. Vera walked on; she hadn't noticed. I hesitated, glancing back and forth, and then I started toward the spot I'd seen the orange. My legs screamed as I made them jog, each footfall jolting sharply through my hip while my arm throbbed. But I had to find out what it was.

"Vera, wait!" Alex yelled and wasted no time in catching up to me.

I jogged through the grasses, carefully avoiding small rocks. It wasn't long before I reached the orange splotch, and I stopped, gasping for air and cradling my left arm.

Before me was the carcass of a…a… "What"—
breathe
—"is that?" It looked like some sort of tiger, but one that had taken some serious growth hormones and steroids. Its spine arched outward and a pair of tusk-like fangs curled over its slack jaw. It was easily the size of a bear, and there were three deep and nasty lacerations along its ribcage, where thick blood pooled all over the ground and splattered over its white belly.

"
That
," Alex panted, "is a sabre."

I snapped my attention back to Alex. "You're joking."

He wasn't joking. His lips tightened as he crouched beside the…sabre. "One branch of the species existed on Earth at one time, you know." He waved his hand over its pale green eye that stared absently into space. "Most of them left with Gaia, though, and the ones that remained on Earth died off. Apparently, they needed magic for survival."

And a side of baby elephant daily.

Unfortunately, all of what I knew about sabre-tooths was from the movie
Ice Age
, and, well, that wasn't saying much. It failed to show that this beast was, first and foremost, a
beast
. A behemoth of a predator. It wasn't the large, pretty, orange, white-pawed cat that could talk. Its fur was mottled with browns and blacks and rusts, and its strangely arched spine was rimmed with bristly black hair. Its titanium-colored claws were easily the size of my face, course and scratched from wear and use, and the bone of its fangs was ridged and browned in the creases with traces of dried blood from its last meal.

It had been
alive
. A creature that prowled and hunted and killed. A creature that could've easily killed all of us, and it had been rendered lifeless in one fell swoop. By something with claws the size of its body.

I didn't want to think about what might have claws that size.

I glanced up and caught my breath. "Alex." I placed my hand on his shoulder and he followed my gaze. There was an entire pack of them, and they were all dead. Most of the bodies were severely mutilated. I swallowed and glanced back to the carcass at our feet, and then crouched, trailing my finger over one of the long fangs as the wind ruffled its mane. The sabre's life force was almost depleted, the heat fleeting from its mighty build, as though the wind were carrying it away. "He hasn't been dead for more than an hour," I said, surprising even myself.

Alex looked sharply at me.

I stood, dusted my hands and squinted at the sky. "The question is: what killed it?"

Vera appeared beside us. By the look on her face, I expected to get some sort of reprimand, but when she saw what had stopped us, none came. She approached the sabre and took in the massacre beyond with a look of utter shock mixed with something like grief. She touched one of its wounds, then pulled her hand away and sniffed the dark red blood on her fingers. "She's right," Vera said, looking up at me. Her expression was carefully stoic. "How did you find him?"

"I noticed him through the grasses."

She studied me, and I could tell by the look on her face that she was disappointed in herself for not having found them first. She then exchanged a look with Alex, and Alex stood with his sword drawn.

"This isn't a good omen," Vera said.

"You said to pray we weren't hunted," I reminded her.

Her eyes flashed with angst. "By
sabres
. I do not know what hunted
them
."

"Well, whatever killed them had to have come from the sky," I said. That unsettling feeling inside of me was creeping into my limbs and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

"That's not possible." Vera stared at the sky, but she looked like she doubted her own words.

"And up until yesterday, we thought dragons weren't possible," I said. "Wait, could it have been dragons?" When neither of them answered, I continued, "The watchtower you mentioned…they would've seen an attack from the sky, wouldn't they?"

Something flickered across her face, but I couldn't tell what it was. "Yes…"

And I knew why she hesitated. If it had been an attack from the sky—which I was growing more and more certain it had been—why hadn't those guarding the watchtower sounded an alarm? Why weren't they investigating right now? "We should get moving," I said, a seed of fear lodging deep in my gut. "I don't like this."

Vera nodded once and stood, placing her hand on the sabre's brow. She shut her eyes for the briefest moment, then removed her hand and stepped away.

Alex and I followed, an ominous silence pervading. The wind howled, beating our cloaks like flags in the wind. My body ached, but the constant adrenaline running through my veins acted as an effective suppressant. We crossed our first rickety suspension bridge, and I thought my non-acrophobia had been challenged enough lately. The bridge swayed and creaked as we crossed, and when I looked down, I could see nothing but dense, low-lying clouds. A perfect place for a winged enemy, like a dragon, to hide. We landed on the next mesa and continued on our way.

I couldn't get the image of the sabre carcasses out of my head. Such magnificent animals. Deadly, yes, but magnificent. I kept my eyes on the dark sky. The seed of fear inside of me had sprouted, and while we crossed the next rickety bridge, that seed started wrapping around my organs and squeezing them. I knew something was out here, watching us. I knew it as surely as I knew it would rain soon. There was a foul stench upon the wind, and the grasses rippled and bent, taunting me like a great curtain hiding evil within.

We crossed the next bridge, and the rain began to fall. I could no longer see the mountains before us, hidden as they were behind a dark curtain of rain. It was like we were standing at the edge of the world, where ground and sky collided and the mesas were the last vestiges of earth, and they were slowly breaking off into oblivion. Thunder rumbled in the clouds and the rain fell harder, soaking us through.

There was movement in the distance. I squinted through the sheet of rain and spotted tiny black dots in the sky—one…two…
three
.

My heart jumped as we crossed the next mesa.

"Do you see that?" I pointed.

Alex's eyes narrowed as he focused. "What am I supposed to…" His voice trailed as the dots differentiated into wings and a body. He could see them now. He cursed under his breath. Vera followed our gazes and her dread slammed into me with more force than the gales.

Gargons.

I'd met gargons before, and I wasn't eager to meet them again. At least last time we'd had air transport of our own. Where were we going to hide up here? And now we knew what had killed the sabres. Which would be us, soon, if we didn't— "Run!"

We all took off sprinting through the grasses. Of course, we could never outrun them, but maybe it would put us closer to the watchtower, where hopefully we would get help.

"I was hoping you'd lied about the gargons, Alexander!" Vera yelled over her shoulder.

She had meant from when the Del Contes and I had been attacked by gargons after rescuing me from the depths of Lord Tiernan's caverns. We'd blown up the caverns afterwards, which had also blown up all evidence, unfortunately. As far as the council and lords were concerned, we'd made the story up. But everyone who knew my father and the Del Contes also knew they were people of integrity, so as much as they wanted to disregard the truth, they couldn't. Still, hard truths are difficult to accept, even when they're armed in scales and fangs and flying straight at you.

We bolted over the next bridge. Wind ripped across the fields and giant drops of rain splattered against my nose and forehead, but the gargons' flight was steady. Those enormous and powerful wings beat against the wind, challenging it, subduing it, as they held tight to their formation. A boom of thunder cracked overhead. The ground trembled, followed by a torrent of rain.

The gargons were gaining fast.

Harder and harder we ran, our boots splashing through new puddles. The bridges swung violently as we trampled over them, crossing mesa after mesa. Through the pouring rain, I could barely see the dark structure of what I assumed was the watchtower. My pounding heart sank. There was no way we would reach it before the gargons reached us, and even so, if there were guards there, shouldn't they have seen us by now?

A soul-splitting wail cut through the air, silencing both thunder and rain. My heart drummed in my ears, the rush of adrenaline pushing me faster and faster. My body would pay for this abuse tomorrow…if I'd even get a tomorrow.

The first gargon descended. Its long, reptilian neck bent low as its hulking black body sped toward us, wings stretched wide like a ribbed glider. The beast was massive—even more so than I'd remembered. It was like having a building collapse on top of you.

"Look out!" yelled Vera.

Air exploded at my back and I dropped. A line of fire burned down my right shoulder blade, and a shriek sounded above me. Alex jerked me to my feet and shoved me forward as the other two descended.

Vera threw something at one of them—a boomerang? Gold streaked across the gray; one of the gargons snorted a cloud of fire and jerked its head back and forth. Even from here I could feel the heat, but the heat still searing down my back was much hotter.

The gargons plunged. Erratic and terrifying, toying with us like a game of cat and mouse. Every time one dropped near me I dodged, narrowly missing their iron maiden grip. My dagger was nothing against their scales. Bursts of light exploded from Alex and a few from Vera, and the air filled with the acrid scent of burnt flesh. It only seemed to enrage the gargons rather than injure them, and the magic cost too much energy. Alex and Vera's strain was visible even without my ability to sense Alex.

I heaved as I trudged forward. A pair of claws descended and would have skewered me if not for a sudden burst of wind that knocked the gargon off course. But that same gust of wind knocked me over, too.

I landed on my face in a puddle of mud and rolled over. Grasses huddled over me and the dark sky showered rain upon my face. A black shadow suddenly filled my vision, blocking the rest of the world from view—a scaled shadow with a pair of blood-red eyes. It let out a deep, guttural growl as it prepared to close razor-sharp jaws over my body.

Frantic, I reached for my dagger, but it wasn't there. I must have dropped it when I'd fallen. I felt around in the grasses, hoping—
praying
—it was within reach. The gargon reared back its head and I shifted. Something hard pressed into my hipbone. My dagger.

I tilted my body in as slight a movement as I could, wrapped my fingers around the hilt, and just as the gargon brought its massive head down, I rolled over, pushed myself up and sliced.

The gargon shook its head and raked madly at the air, screaming so loudly I covered my ears.

I'd gotten one of its blood-red eyes.

I could see Alex just to my right, but every time he tried running toward me, a tail or a claw blocked his path. And Vera fought her own battle for her life. We were tired and weakened, and we were never going to make it.

A loud horn blared in the distance. It hadn't come from the wall; it had come from somewhere behind us. I couldn't see anything else in the rain, but I began to sense the warm presence of life.
Human
life.

I heard the sudden whiz of flight, and a volley of arrows split through the air, landing in the gargon towering over me. Enraged, it shook its head, arrows bouncing from its scaled armor, and I ducked, covering my head as the arrows landed in the grasses all around me.

The horn blared again, this time much closer, followed by a chorus of human battle cries. A beast exploded from the grasses—some combination of a bull and a dog—and seated on top of it was a man. His hair was long and black and dreaded, and his face and broad torso were covered in black and red paint, and he reared back on his beast with an arrow nocked on his longbow. He let go; there was a sharp snap, and the arrow shot straight and true, lodging somewhere into the gargon's underbelly. A bestial wail filled the sky, and the gargon used its claws to try to dislodge the arrow, while its wings beat frantically at the wind. One of its wings cut fast and would have pummeled right through me if a firm grip hadn't jerked me out of the way.

Tarzan had pulled me atop his beast with him.

I looked around; there were at least a handful of others decorated similarly, all seated on the strange bull-dog creatures. All the men had arrows drawn, releasing them as best they could, but with the wind and rain, only a few penetrated the gargons' soft underbellies.

I glanced up just in time to see the wounded gargon bringing its unhinged jaws down on top of us. "Look out!" I screamed.

Tarzan jerked our beast aside. Enormous jaws snapped beside us, again and again, trying to bite but having difficulty with only one eye. "Stay right!" I yelled, pointing to the gargon's damaged eye. "It's missing that eye!"