01 Wing Warrior (18 page)

‘Oh right.’ Nimbus scratched his head. ‘You know, that isn’t really an explanation.’

‘I know.’

The chattering of goblins was suddenly deafening, and the tiny stick creatures swelled out of the gloom, an ocean wave of pointy arms and legs. Nimbus’s father sprang at them, swinging his sword, and the goblins swarmed all over him. There was a terrible screaming, and a gnashing of teeth.

‘Can’t I help him?’ Nimbus asked.

‘I’m afraid not. The power of infinite vision is a blessing and a curse. While you can see and hear that which is far away, you have no power to intervene.’

‘So why am I being shown this, if I can’t do anything?’

‘Because vision is also a riddle. I do not believe the sword intends for you to help your father.’

‘Then what does it intend?’

‘Think about it, Nim. How many great warriors are there in your village?’

‘Our garrison is twelve strong.’

‘But how many of those men are great?’

‘I don’t know. Obsidian was brave enough to fight you, and I always used to think he was a good person before he broke his promise to me and hurt you. I don’t know if that makes him great, though.’

‘Assume he is.’

‘Okay then. Captain Obsidian is a great warrior.’

‘And where is he?’

‘With you.’

‘Correct. With a party of his men. Men who should be protecting your village.’

‘And my dad... I didn’t know it, but my dad is a soldier too.’ He could still hear the clanging of his father’s sword, even though he could no longer see him beneath the filthy mass of goblin bodies. ‘And he’s trying to rescue three more of our soldiers.’

‘So there’s your riddle, Nim.’

‘Is the sword telling me my village is in danger?’

‘That would be my guess.’

‘Is the other dragon coming to Landmark?’

‘It’s looking for you. It seems a logical place to start.’

‘Right.’ Nimbus took one last look at his father struggling through the tightly–packed crowd of goblins. ‘I’m coming to rescue you, Cumulo. My dad is going to have to look after himself.’ A spindly goblin body went hurtling through the air, slamming into the cavern wall with a wet thud. ‘I think he’ll be okay.’

‘There’s no time to come for me,’ Cumulo said.

‘But I need your help.’

‘There’s no time, Nim. Get to your village. Hurry.’

Cumulo swam out of focus, fading back into the darkness like a reflection breaking apart on the surface of a disturbed lake. Then the cavern, Cloud, and all of the goblins, shimmered and vanished.

Nimbus was sitting in the storehouse.

Alone.

He looked at the Wing Warrior sword. The flickering candlelight inside the blade had died, and now all he could see was his terrified eyes reflected there.

The black dragon, the evil magic, had destroyed Flint Lock in a single night. What chance did his little village have?

CHAPTER TWENTY

The morning after she was returned to her mother by soldiers from the village garrison, Glass woke early and sat on the front porch of her house. Only the first few flickers of sunlight could be seen on the horizon, and the quiet street was cold and gloomy.

There was nobody else around; no birds in the sky. There was just her, alone in a sleepy world.

In truth, she had hardly slept. She had sat up through most of the night waiting for her mother to stop crying, and waiting for her father and Nimbus to come home.

She had waited, and waited.

But Nimbus didn’t come home, and neither did her father.

Her mother only stopped crying when she finally drifted off to sleep in a rocking chair by the stove.

Glass folded her arms around her knees. Her head sank. She was really tired, but every time she closed her eyes she remembered all those soldiers chasing her, and then she started shaking so badly there was no way she could sleep.

Her heart beat fast every time she thought of how afraid she had been, and how brave Nimbus had been.

The mayor had been happy to get Onyx back, but he had been angry too. He had shouted at Glass, and he had said Nimbus should be locked away for the rest of his natural life. Glass said she was sorry, but the mayor said that wasn’t good enough.

She sucked her teeth, and blinked tears from her eyes. Why wasn’t saying sorry good enough?

What was good enough?

She rested her head on her arm, and watched the sky getting lighter as the sun got higher. Slowly, people began to come out of other houses in the street. Night became day, and the village woke up.

Sky and Tidal appeared at the end of the street. They were walking side by side, and Glass wasn’t sure why but she thought Nimbus might not like it if he saw the two of them so close together. She waved, but they were deep in conversation and didn’t notice her until they were only a short distance away.

‘Hello,’ Sky said, sitting next to her. ‘We stopped by yesterday, looking for you and Nim. Your mum said you were out. She looked concerned. I think she may have been crying.’

‘She’s been doing that a lot recently.’

‘Where were you?’

‘Different places at different times.’

Tidal shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand. ‘You two weren’t off having an adventure without us, were you?’

‘Nimbus wanted to go to Flint Lock.’

‘Why?’

Glass shrugged. ‘Something happened, and Nimbus wanted to see what it was. People were hurt and sick. It was frightening.’

‘We haven’t heard any news from Flint Lock,’ Tidal laughed. ‘You’re making it up.’

‘No. It’s true. Bad things happened. A sick soldier was taken in at the village hall. That’s why we took the horse.’

‘Horse?’ Tidal asked.

‘Soldier?’ Sky added.

‘Yeah. Daddy found a soldier from the fort.’

‘Horse?’ Tidal repeated.

‘What happened to this soldier?’ Sky asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Glass said. ‘He was really ill. I thought everybody in the village would have heard about it.’

‘We haven’t heard a thing. With all the panic after the tidal wave the other day, maybe the mayor is trying to keep it quiet,’ Sky said.

‘Excuse me,’ Tidal said, impatiently. ‘What horse?’

Glass looked at him. Her eyes were wet with the tears she was trying so hard not to cry. ‘We took the mayor’s horse.’

‘You did what?’ he said.

‘We took the mayor’s horse. We needed to get to the fort, to find out what had happened to this soldier.’

‘So you stole a horse?’

‘No, we borrowed it.’

‘And of all the horses, you chose to steal the mayor’s?’

‘We borrowed it.’

‘What were you thinking?’

‘We needed a horse, and Onyx is the fastest horse in the village. It made sense.’

‘Sense? None of this makes a jot of sense. Where’s Nim now?’

‘He’s...’ Glass’s tiny hands started shaking, and her shoulders trembled. ‘He was arrested by the village soldiers. They’re going to lock him up.’

Sky gasped. ‘No. They wouldn’t. He’s just a boy. He can’t be locked up.’

‘The mayor wants to lock him up forever.’

‘He can’t do that.’

‘He’s the mayor,’ Tidal said. ‘He can do whatever he wants.’

‘Be quiet,’ Sky hissed, putting her arm around Glass and hugging her tightly. ‘I’m sure they’ll let Nim go just as soon as he explains what you were doing.’ She looked closely at Glass, who was staring at the ground and chewing her bottom lip. ‘What were you doing?’

‘Somebody had to go to the fort to see what had happened. Daddy couldn’t because he was in the Forbidden Woods rescuing the soldiers from the goblins.’

‘Goblins?’ Tidal snorted. ‘Goblins? There aren’t any goblins, Glass. Have you cracked?’

‘Nim said there were goblins. In the woods.’

‘Rubbish.’

‘They captured the soldiers and they were going to eat them. Daddy went to save them all.’

‘Your dad works in a mill.’

‘I know that.’

‘You’re not making any sense,’ Sky said, stroking Glass’s hair. ‘Why don’t you start at the very beginning?’

Glass sniffed, and wiped her nose. ‘I don’t know where the beginning is. But Flint Lock has been destroyed. Everyone in it is sick. And there was a monster in the sky. Nim seemed to know what it was, and... Nim has a dragon.’

‘A what?’

‘A dragon. He found it in the cave in the woods.’

Tidal folded his arms. ‘Well I find that very hard to believe.’

Suddenly a shadow passed across the sun, and a cold wind whistled up the street. The sickly smell of poison filled the air. ‘Look,’ Glass screamed, pointing. ‘Look!’

There was a terrible sound, like a clap of thunder, and a massive, black creature fell out of the sky, landing with an echoing boom at the end of the street in a cloud of smoke and dust. For a second the whole world seemed to be in the shadow of the monster and its outstretched wings, then the wings snapped closed on the monster’s spiky back.

‘Is that a dragon?’ Tidal whimpered.

‘I think so,’ Sky said.

‘And Nim has a dragon like that?’

‘No,’ Glass said. ‘From what he told me, it’s nothing at all like that.’

The dragon sat where it had landed, its large head swaying backwards and forwards. It was looking for something, or someone. Smog billowed from the nostrils of its cruel snout, almost completely obscuring its terrifying red eyes. Anything the smog touched went black and died.

‘Can we go now?’ Glass asked, tugging on Sky’s sleeve.

As she spoke, the dragon swung around to look straight at her. Its eyes narrowed, and a purple tongue flicked out of its sharp mouth.

‘I think it sees us,’ Sky said, getting to her feet. ‘Let’s go inside the house.’

‘I would,’ Tidal said. ‘But I can’t feel my legs any more.’

‘You aren’t scared, are you?’ Sky asked.

‘Me? No. I’m absolutely terrified.’ He grinned in an attempt to appear braver, but the colour had drained from his face, and it was obvious that “terrified” didn’t even begin to describe the utter dread he felt at facing this monstrous creature.

The dragon heaved its huge body forward with muscular forearms. Claws as sharp as steel dug into the ground with each footstep, and the air seemed to tremble with fear.

The smoke belching out of the dragon’s mouth and nose began to seep through the whole village, shrivelling gardens and farmland. Even the stone walls of houses were stained black.

Sky shook Tidal’s arm. ‘Come on,’ she insisted. ‘We really have to get inside the house.’

‘I don’t think Glass’s house is big enough to stop that thing from getting in if it wants to,’ Tidal said, unable to tear his gaze away from the approaching menace.

‘He’s right,’ Glass said. ‘That’s the thing from the fort. That’s the thing that made everyone sick.’

The dragon drew closer. Its tongue flickered, tasting the children’s terror. ‘You,’ it hissed. ‘You three.’

Tidal nearly fell over out of shock. His heart was beating so fast it hurt. ‘Us?’

‘Where is he? Where is the Wing Warrior?’

The three children backed away, pressing themselves against the front door of the house. The dragon’s head was only a few feet away. Plants in the garden choked and crumbled to dust.

‘We don’t know any Wing Warriors,’ Tidal said.

‘Oh,’ the dragon hissed. ‘If that’s so, then tell me, what use is there in me letting you live?’

Tidal’s legs were lead blocks, anchoring him to the ground. He wanted to run, wanted to scream; but he couldn’t. He knew he had to do something to save the girls, but what could he do? He was just a boy, and this was a monster. ‘Well... Actually...’ he stuttered. ‘That is, I mean to say...’

The dragon opened its mouth wide. Its serrated teeth glistened wetly.

‘Wait,’ Glass shouted.

The dragon looked at her. ‘Yes?’

‘I know where the Wing Warrior is.’

‘Where?’

Glass pointed to the end of the street. There, shrouded in the black dragon fog, was a knight in a suit of brilliant red armour. The sword the knight was clenching awkwardly in both hands looked much too big to be easily usable, and the way the plates of armour hung on him suggested he was not quite as big on the inside as he was on the outside.

The dragon turned around. ‘Well, well, well. It is true. The dragon knights live on.’

‘Certainly looks that way,’ the knight said, his voice muffled from inside his helmet as he walked down the street.

‘Aren’t you missing something?’

‘You mean a dragon? I don’t need a dragon to deal with an overgrown lizard like you.’

The dragon rose up to its tree–toppling height. ‘I am no overgrown lizard. I am Sorrow.’

‘Nice name. It suits you.’

The dragon bellowed and stretched out its wings. Thick clouds of poisonous breath swirled out and around them. ‘You dare mock me? I am Sorrow!’

‘So you said.’

‘I am Madam Sorrow. I am the destruction of all dragons, and the bloody death of all Wing Warriors. I am the shadow of disease and famine and misery. I am the cold grip of despair.’

The knight took a tighter grip on his sword. ‘I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest you don’t have many friends. Am I right?’

Sorrow lowered herself down, and stuck out her neck so her head was level with the knight’s. ‘Aren’t you afraid of me, Little Man?’

‘Aren’t you afraid of me?’

‘I think you are terrified. Too terrified to even move. I see through you, Little Man. You may wear the armour, but it doesn’t suit you. You’re no Wing Warrior.’

‘I am a Wing Warrior,’ the knight said, defiantly. ‘I’m the... uh... I’m the best Wing Warrior that ever lived.’

Sorrow tilted her head. She could not see the knight’s face through the grilled visor of his helmet, but as she drew nearer she could just make out the frightened glimmer of young eyes. A child’s eyes. ‘You are not even a man,’ she chuckled. ‘You are just a boy. A foolish boy. Trying to be a hero.’

The knight lashed out suddenly, unexpectedly, and the Wing Warrior sword clanged against the hard, horny part of Sorrow’s snout. She reeled, momentarily stunned by the attack. The sword blade vibrated so violently in the knight’s hand he lost all sensation in his arms. His fingers went numb, and the sword fell to the ground.