Shadow (18 page)

As Pell surfaced, he stretched. It was a self-satisfied stretch, like a cat waking from a snooze in front of an open fire and luxuriating in the lazy heat. He felt good.
Incredibly good! He drew in a deep breath and tasted the clean mountain air as it passed over his tongue. It was fresh and invigorating. Then he remembered.

His eyes snapped open. He was outside. The ground under his body was far from comfortable. Elian, Kira and Nolita were all looking down at him. Elian and Nolita looked pleased, while
Kira’s expression was unreadable. What had happened? He couldn’t make sense of it. They were outside the cave where they had met with the other dragons. It was still dark. How long had
he been unconscious? He felt rested, as if he had slept for days. The pain had gone. He ran his fingers tentatively across the areas where the bruising had been worst. Nothing. He prodded harder:
still no pain.

‘I don’t understand. What happened?’ he asked, climbing to his feet and testing each limb in turn as he continued to check his body.

‘Firestorm healed you,’ Nolita said. Her voice sounded strange. It was as if she was torn between being delighted and scared.

Pell could sense Shadow’s displeasure through the bond.
‘What is she on about?’
he asked her silently.

‘When they are so moved, day dragons can imbue their fire with healing qualities,’
she said, her tone cold.
‘Firestorm breathed such a healing flame over your
body.’

‘So why aren’t you happy?’
he asked.
‘I feel great. Isn’t that a good thing?’

‘I’m mindful that day dragons have little history of healing when it comes to night dragons and their riders,’
she stated coldly.
‘They say the healing
powers are incompatible with a night dragon’s physiology, but I know of none who have confirmed this claim. The long history of enmity between our enclaves is not without reason. You saw the
sort of flames Fire hurled at the dragonhunters. Seeing Firestorm heal you reminded me that my brothers and sisters are more familiar with the destructive day dragon flame.’

‘Well let’s be thankful that Firestorm is friendly then,’
Pell said.
‘I can’t remember the last time I felt this good.’

The initial sense of confusion had passed. He knew now what he had to do.

‘Please thank Firestorm for me,’ he said aloud, bowing first to Nolita and then to her dragon. ‘I can’t tell you how glad I am to be free of the pain.’

Nolita blushed and lowered her eyes, glad that the darkness was masking her embarrassment. ‘Fire says it was his pleasure to help,’ she mumbled a few seconds later.

‘Enough!’ Kira snapped. ‘We need to get out of here. I suggest we mount up and get going before we have the entire night dragon enclave breathing down our necks.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Pell replied. He noticed Kira’s eyes narrow as she tried to determine if he was mocking her again. Giving her no time to react, Pell leaped up
Shadow’s side. No sooner was he in his saddle than he reached down to give Elian a hand up into position behind him.

After her admonition to get moving, Kira did not want to appear foolish by delaying. Within a few heartbeats she was also in position. Nolita hesitated, but followed her reluctantly up onto
Fang’s back. The four dragons launched in quick succession. Shadow led briefly, but Fang eased ahead of her before suddenly disappearing as he employed his camouflage. Unburdened by riders,
Fire and Aurora climbed quickly past them. Their wings were beating hard as they sought to gain height as rapidly as possible. Pell followed their progress for a while until their outlines were
lost in the black mantle of the night sky.

Shadow and Fang had to fly back past the entrance to the canyon that housed the night dragon enclave. They angled across to the opposite side of the main valley, staying as far from potential
trouble as possible. Pell stared into the black throat of the narrow valley as they passed, half expecting to see a huge flight of dragons pour out towards them at any second.

He told himself that the nervous fluttering in the pit of his stomach was excitement, but in his heart he knew the truth. The thought of going back to his cell, or worse, caused his buttocks to
clench and his fingers to tighten their grip on the pommel. He was afraid. Denial worked to a degree, but he could not ignore the fear for ever. Would he end up like Nolita?

‘You will never be like Nolita,’
Shadow said suddenly.

Pell was startled. He had not intended his dragon to hear his thoughts.

‘Fear can be a healthy response to a dangerous situation,’
she continued.
‘As long as one keeps it under control. You are too strong to allow fear to overwhelm
you. Nolita’s fears are largely irrational. There is a big difference.’

‘So long as you don’t feel I’m turning into a coward,’
he replied.
‘I don’t think I could bear it if you started to think of me that
way.’

‘Not at all, Pell,’
she said.
‘I know your heart. You are brave and strong – a worthy dragonrider. Our path together has taken an unforeseen twist, but I
feel no diminishment in our future. We continue on the road to greatness. Believe in this. Trust me. It will help.’

On the road to greatness -
he liked the sound of that. They were some distance past the enclave valley entrance now and there was no obvious sign of pursuit. But Shadow was taking no
chances. She was employing her skills in stealthy flying to the full, cloaked in her strange bubble of silence and hugging the deep darkness near the steep slope of the main valley wall. Pell had
lost track of Kira and Nolita, but he could just make out the sound of Fang’s wingbeats so he knew they were not far away.

‘Do you think riders from the enclave are following, Pell?’

Elian’s voice sounded flat and dead in the silence surrounding them.

‘They will come,’ Pell replied softly. ‘Even if they’re not after us yet, they will be. I wouldn’t like to guess how many will follow, but the night enclave will
not let us get away easily. Once they work out what has happened, they’ll be buzzing like a nest of angry hornets.’

‘Not a pretty picture,’ Elian noted.

‘Quite! The faster we get out of the mountains and away from here, the better. The further we can get, the wider they will have to spread their resources to find us. There are a lot of
night dragons, but they won’t be able to cover all possibilities.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Elian replied hesitantly. ‘About that. . . they might not have to spread themselves as thin as you imagine.’

‘What do you mean?’ Pell asked, twisting in the saddle in an effort to see Elian’s face.

‘Um . . . well . . . Kira told Murvan where we were heading, so they won’t need to spread out so much.’

‘She did
what
?
’

‘Don’t get the wrong idea, Pell,’ Elian said quickly. ‘She had to tell him in order to establish our credibility. It was only because she showed that she knew where Segun
was going that Murvan believed our story. Kira was brilliant. She played Murvan like a maestro. Unfortunately it won’t take a genius to work out that we’ll be following Segun
northwest.’

‘Damn!’ he muttered. ‘That changes things.’

‘Is there a problem, Pell?’
Shadow asked.

Pell told her what Elian had said.

‘
I’ll go through our options with Fang,
’ Shadow told him, her voice sounding unflustered by the news.
‘Don’t worry. We’ll work something out. Ask
Elian where we’re going. The other dragons haven’t told me anything yet.’

Pell had been so caught up in the escape that he had not thought to ask anything about where they were going, or who the ‘brave ones’ were. Northwest – what was northwest of
here? The majority of the northern part of the continent was bleak tundra. There was another mountain range in the far northwestern corner of Isaa that was locked in a perpetual winter. It would be
an extremely hostile environment in which to exist and he had never heard of dragons living there. He doubted anyone would live there by choice. He was reluctant to demonstrate his ignorance to
Elian, but he was left with no option.

‘Griffins!’ he exclaimed softly when Elian told him what they had learned. ‘I’d never have thought of griffins. It makes sense, though: half lion, half eagle –
brave and proud. And they live in the mountains up in northwest Isaa? I didn’t know that. I wonder how they came to be guardians of the night orb.’

‘That was something we didn’t discover,’ Elian admitted. ‘We don’t even know for certain that they have it. But with Segun a day ahead of us and an unknown number
of night dragons following us, we’re likely to become the filling of a most uncomfortable sandwich before we get a chance to find out.’

The temperature was still dropping and the chill night breeze was picking up strength. A shiver ran down Pell’s back, but his body’s reaction was not due to the weather.

With the increasing wind helping them down the valleys, they were covering ground at an impressive rate. Pell could feel Shadow’s concentration as she maintained total silence the entire
way. They were approaching the pass that would take them clear of the mountain range. Even in the dark he recognised the shape of the descending valley ahead. The dragons and riders who guarded the
pass were high up on the shoulders of either side of the mountains. Different riders used different vantage points to carry out their duties. There was no telling where they might be.

As they entered the pass, Shadow descended and tucked in tighter than ever to the left wall of the valley. Keeping to the darkest shadows, she skimmed the rock surface with breathtaking
accuracy. Pell could no longer hear Fang and had seen no sign of Kira and Nolita for some time.

‘Where are the others?’
he asked Shadow tentatively.

‘They’ve gone the high route,’
she replied, her voice echoing strangely in his mind.
‘They’re trying to exit the pass at a level above the watchers.
That way Nolita and Kira will be completely concealed by Fang’s camouflage. Hold your silence until we’re clear, or until they spot us. I don’t want to draw attention
unnecessarily. We’re going to try to bluff our way out. I’m hoping that a night dragon leaving the range will not arouse the guard dragons’ interest.’

As they descended along the widening pass, the great moon lit the valley ahead with its pale, silvery light. The cross light from one of the two minor moons added a further complication as the
shadows on the left side of the valley thinned out. There was nowhere ahead dark enough for Shadow to disappear into. No matter which side of the valley she flew, her black outline was going to
stand out against the moonlit countryside.

Realising the futility of attempting to remain unseen, they slid out into the very middle of the valley, in plain sight of the watchers, but using the steep descending slope of the valley basin
to pick up speed. Pell’s eyes narrowed as Shadow began to accelerate. Their airspeed was building fast, making it difficult for him to see without squinting. His dragon’s ability to
deaden sound made the experience particularly surreal as the wind around him increased without the usual rushing noise of high-speed flight.

Shadow seemed to be gambling on the watchers’ attention being focused outwards from the mountains and not noticing her until it was too late for an effective interception. It was a risky
tactic. If they spotted her early, then the two watch dragons would hold all the advantages.

Pell flattened himself as best he could against Shadow’s back and he could feel Elian doing the same behind him.

‘The watchers have seen us already,’
Shadow said suddenly, her voice grim.
‘They’re getting airborne. Hold on tight. This might get
interesting.’

Shadow continued to accelerate, no longer just using the descending track of the valley, but also trading her height above the ground for more and more speed. In what felt like no time at all,
the rocky ground seemed to swell up around them like a rising flood. Rocks and bushes began to whip past barely below eye level as Shadow flew lower than either of the riders had ever experienced
before. The feeling of speed was unlike anything Pell or Elian had ever imagined, and was heightened by the limited visibility offered by the moonlight. The ride was initially smooth, but as their
speed peaked and their height above the ground reached a natural limit, so it also became bumpy. Shadow had to react with fast, minute adjustments of her wings to hug the contours of the
valley.

The next few minutes of flight were the most exhilarating Pell had ever known. The bumps and sudden dips, combined with the silent wind and the eerie scenery racing past at phenomenal speed,
made him feel as if he were in a dream. Although he knew that if Shadow made the slightest mistake they would be unlikely to survive the impact, his trust in Shadow was so complete that he felt
strangely comfortable with the danger. He was at one with Shadow and her fierce concentration. It did not cross his mind to think how Elian felt.

‘Here they come.’

Pell craned his head around to see the incoming dragons, but he could make out nothing. An unearthly screech split the air behind and above them. It was loud, but it sounded more frustrated than
threatening. A second dragon added its voice. This one sounded even further back than the first.

‘As I expected,’
Shadow observed, her voice sounding smug.
‘Their caution has lost them the advantage of energy. They descended too rapidly, trying to drop in
directly on top of us. To begin with they did not realise just how close to the ground we were. As they got lower, the dragons’ sense of self-preservation got the better of them. They should
have used their height to get ahead of us, but they erred. Now they’ve killed all their potential energy, and they don’t have enough speed to catch us.’

‘Did they speak with you?’
Pell asked.

‘They asked me to stop and answer some questions,’
she replied.
‘I ignored their request. It seems Segun has left new orders with the guards. Dragons entering or
leaving the range must now explain the nature of their journey. I could have made something up, but we dragons are terrible liars. Also, I didn’t want to risk other dragons catching us up
whilst we tried to bluff the guards. Things could have turned very ugly if we had stopped to explain ourselves.’