“Screaaaaar!” Ygdris’ treasure doesn’t change course. He smashes into the lead dragon like a spear, and then we’re on top of the others. He lashes left and right with his razor-sharp beak, drawing blood through the dragons’ armour-like scales.
One of the cloudbreakers lunges at me and is immediately smacked out of the way by a feathered wing. Ygdris’ treasure lands on the balcony just long enough to drop me, and then takes to the sky again, keeping himself between the dragon soldiers and me… and Ygdris.
It’s useless. He’s fast, but smaller than all the dragons. And these aren’t just any dragon soldiers. They’re cloudbreakers, the Emperor-Prince’s personal army.
I scramble across the balcony. It’s coming away from the wall and I can feel it moving under me as I try desperately to reach Ygdris before it collapses completely.
“Oh shit,” I mutter as I crawl to his side.
The cloudbreaker must have clawed Ygdris as he pulled him out of the house. There’s a huge tear across his chest, weeping blood. I try to press the edges together but my hands aren’t big enough.
“Ygdris! Why the fuck didn’t you get out when the patrol came through? You could have…” My voice dries up. I can’t talk and hold myself together at the same time. I swallow back a sob. “What am I meant to do now, you arsehole?”
He makes a noise that might have been a cry of pain. My eyes fly to his face. His pale skin is blood-flecked, but he’s… smiling?
“Take the orb and run?” he suggests.
“Fuck off.”
He coughs weakly. “Had to give you time,” he whispers. “A… distraction…”
“That wasn’t the plan!”
“Saw the… transport. Knew they’d find one of us. At least… if you both survive… My fault…”
“You’re not making any sense. Anyway we’re not going to fucking survive, are we? The cloudbreakers are going to kill us all.” The blood rushing over my hands is slowing. Oh God. That’s not a good sign.
Ygdris gasps, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth.
“Oh God.”
“Tay…”
Like I always say. I’m an idiot. As soon as he says my name, I stare into the dying dragon’s eyes.
It’s cold. Like stepping out of sunlight into a shadow that goes down, down into an ocean as deep and endless as the night sky.
*I need you both. Call him.*
Without breaking Ygdris’ gaze I scream the name he places in my mind. “Raechtar!”
One second. Two. The sounds of battle above us fill my ears and then Ygdris’ treasure – Raechtar – lands on the balcony on all fours, covering us with his wings. Metal screeches under his weight as the veranda almost collapses.
My mouth starts running and won’t stop. Ygdris is so still that if I stop talking and start thinking I might realise he’s already dead. “He said – needs both of us – but I don’t understand—”
*I do.* Raechtar leans down, craning his huge eagle-head to where I am sitting over Ygdris’ motionless body. *He’s been too long alone for just one of us to be enough to help him.*
Raechtar rests his huge head against Ygdris’ chest, over my hands. He closes his eyes. *Follow my lead.*
“What—”
Something pulls at my heart. I gasp, and then, Raechtar’s words echoing in my mind… I let go, and follow him.
Stars explode behind my eyes. Fire and ice dance together in a thousand spinning galaxies, and I dance with them, dissolving into whirling threads of light.
I open my eyes. “What just…”
Strong hands grab mine. I clutch on to them. Raechtar raises his head and I swear his eagle-face is grinning. He sweeps away, back into the fight.