02 Unicorn Rider (28 page)

The soldier did not hesitate to take advantage of Nimbus’s momentary concussion, wrapping his hands around the young Wing Warrior’s throat in an attempt to strangle him. As he did so, his hand brushed against the sliver of tower stone hanging around Nimbus’s neck; and with a flash that momentarily painted the mountainside into stark contrasts of white light and pitch black shadow, a bolt of energy sprang between the stone and his hand. The soldier was thrown halfway across the clearing, where he landed in a pile of armour and twitching limbs.

Nimbus staggered to his feet, gasping for breath. ‘What just happened, Captain?’ he choked, rubbing his throat.

A waft of white mist swirled into the form of Captain Spectre. The visible part of his face was twisted into a look of concern and confusion. ‘Something terrible,’ he said.

The spider–soldier had already picked himself up and was preparing to attack again.

‘What is he?’ Nimbus said. ‘How did you stop him killing me?’

‘No time to explain,’ Spectre said. ‘Get your sword. This thing isn’t going to stop coming after you until you’re dead.’

‘The sword is no good to me. I never learned how to use it. I need to find some other way to beat him.’

‘Do you have a plan?’

‘No, but I...’ Nimbus paused, cocking his head slightly to one side. ‘Do you hear that?’

As Spectre strained to listen, and the soldier advanced again in his mechanical, unstoppable way, the distinctive clatter of hooves sounded across the clearing.

‘I think the cavalry has arrived,’ Spectre said.

Sure enough, the unicorn was galloping back into the clearing, weaving through the rocks like a streak of moonlight that scattered the shadows before her.

As she entered the clearing, she reared up on her hind legs, whinnying angrily. Her horn sparkled, her eyes glimmered, and bolts of light sprang out of her in all directions, cutting brilliant swathes through the darkness. The clearing was bathed in as much light as if it was the middle of the day, and clearly visible on the edge of that light was a young man with a bow, poised to fire.

‘Hawk,’ Nimbus shouted, bursting into relieved laughter.

‘Heads up,’ Hawk said, and he loosed his arrow.

The arrow arced across the clearing with a whir, and found its target right between the soldier’s eyes. The soldier staggered, raising his hands to his face and letting out a terrible, gurgling scream.

Hawk was already notching a second arrow, but there was no need. The monstrous hidden legs had already sprouted from beneath the soldier’s cloak, and they scurried off over the rocks and down a steep drop on the other side, dragging the screaming soldier behind them.

The unicorn snorted and shook her mane, and gradually the light she was giving off faded away. Once more the clearing was plunged into the arms of the dark night.

Nimbus walked over to the point where the soldier had disappeared from sight. There was no sign of him anywhere among the shadows of the mountain’s lower slopes.

Certain that the threat had passed, Nimbus turned his attention to Carnelian. With tears in his eyes, and a horrible feeling in his stomach, he knelt beside the body of his friend. Hawk, the unicorn, and Captain Spectre gathered together a short distance away, their heads bowed in respect for the fallen cyclops.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nimbus whispered, blinking away tears. ‘I gave you the chance to go. You should have gone. You weren’t supposed to die for me. Nobody was supposed to die for me. I’m the Wing Warrior, I was supposed to protect you.’

A heavy silence fell over the clearing. Up here in the mountains, this close to the realm of the vampyr, even the birds dared not disturb the peace.

Nimbus was just about to move away when Carnelian grabbed his hand. ‘Don’t worry, Nim,’ the cyclops said, in a thin voice. ‘I didn’t die for you.’

‘You’re alive!’ Nimbus said, putting a hand on Carnelian’s shoulder.

‘Don’t get too excited. I don’t have long left for this world. I just wanted to stick around to let you know this isn’t your fault. I’ve always known this was how it was going to happen.’

Nimbus could feel each strained and desperate breath passing through Carnelian’s body. ‘Then why come here? Why bring me to this place if you knew it meant you were going to die?’

Carnelian laughed, and the sound turned into a bloody gurgle in his throat. ‘I’ve always had it wrong, Nim. I always thought you could learn more from the future than from the past. A long time ago my visions convinced me to lead my people to war with the dragons. I should have remembered that, but I was too stupid and pig–headed. I thought I could come here and change my future by killing your unicorn, but by coming here all I managed to do was kill myself and make the future I saw in my visions a reality. I’ve made exactly the same mistake I made when I believed I had to kill the dragons.’

‘There must be something I can do. I could... I could get Cumulo to bring you back, like he brought me back when I died.’

Carnelian shook his head. His breathing was getting shallower. ‘By the time Cumulo wakes up, I’ll have been dead for too long to be brought back. This is it, the end of me, the end of my people.’

‘No,’ Nimbus said. ‘No. I won’t believe there’s nothing I can do.’

Carnelian gripped Nimbus’s hand tighter. ‘Get me the boy with the bow,’ he wheezed. ‘Bring me Hawk.’

‘I’m here,’ Hawk said, stepping forwards. ‘The unicorn found me. She led me here.’

‘Come closer, Boy,’ Carnelian said.

Hawk crouched to hear Carnelian’s last whispered words. ‘I’m right here,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t help you with the wyverns.’

‘I hardly think that matters now. But listen, I need to tell you something. I don’t want you to end up with the same regrets I have.’

‘I’m listening.’

‘I was given a gift, and I wasted it. I could have helped people, but I was always too busy trying to run from my destiny. I’m going to die, and I am going to die knowing I could have done more.’ He pointed to Hawk’s bow. ‘This is your gift, and your destiny lies with your friends. Don’t die regretting that you didn’t do more.’

And so it came to pass that it was Hawk who heard the very last words spoken by the very last cyclops; and it was Hawk holding Carnelian’s hand when the cyclops finally closed his single, crystal ball eye, breathed his last breath, and the cyclopean creatures of legend left the world forever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Nimbus and Hawk moved Carnelian’s body to the edge of the clearing. ‘We’ll stack stones around him,’ Nimbus said. ‘Like a tomb.’

Hawk cleared his throat awkwardly. ‘I don’t think we have time,’ he said.

‘I know, my sister needs me. But I have to do this last thing for Carnelian, to protect him from the things up here that might...’ He shivered. ‘To protect him from anything hungry, I mean.’

‘I’m serious, Nim. You don’t have time.’

Hawk wrapped his arms across his chest and stared off into the gloom. In a few hours a new day would break. Did Landmark still stand to greet the sun, or had the invasion left behind nothing but ruins?

He had no desire to tell Nimbus he had fled Landmark, leaving all the villagers, including Nimbus’s family, to whatever fate the silver–armoured soldiers and their wyvern mounts had planned, but there was no other choice.

‘Hawk? What’s wrong?’ Nimbus asked.

‘I...’ Hawk paused. He took a slow breath. It was time to do what he should have been doing all along. It was time to help his friends. ‘It’s Landmark. It’s under attack.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, wyverns, and lots of soldiers like the one you were fighting here. They’ve taken over the whole village.’

‘How do you know this?’

‘I was there. I saw it happen.’ Hawk gulped, and it felt like he was swallowing a piece of stale bread that stuck in his throat. ‘I... I came to find you.’

‘How did you know where I would be?’

‘I just... It was because... I thought... Lucky guess?’

‘You ran away, didn’t you?’

Hawk wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. ‘There were wyverns everywhere. I wasn’t being any help to anybody.’

‘What was the village like when you left?’

‘Completely overrun.’

‘Had anybody got out?’

‘No.’

‘My family?’

A long pause.

‘Hawk, did my family get out?’

‘No.’

In a sudden explosion of anger, Nimbus punched Hawk in the face, lifting him right off his feet. ‘You coward,’ he spat. ‘You lowly, spineless worm. How could you do that? How could you leave everybody?’

Hawk made no attempt to get up. He touched his already swollen lip, and tasted blood in his mouth. ‘If I hadn’t come here, you’d be dead,’ he muttered.

Nimbus sighed heavily. The unicorn looked at him in a way that suggested she did not necessarily approve of him punching a friend. His hand throbbed painfully.

‘Get up,’ he said, flatly. ‘You’re going to come back with me and help our people.’

‘The cyclops was right,’ Hawk said, as Nimbus helped him to his feet. ‘I’ve been running away. I don’t want to run any more.’

Behind them, Captain Spectre was sitting on a rock. As usual, his face was hidden behind his helmet’s visor, but Nimbus did not need to see his face to know the captain was unhappy about something.

‘Are you ready to leave, Captain?’ he asked.

Hawk leaned over. ‘Who are you speaking to?’

‘Oh, right, you can’t see him. It’s a travelling companion of mine, Captain Spectre of the seventy–third archers regiment, master of the watchtower. He’s a ghost.’

‘A what?’

‘A ghost. Hang around with me long enough and you get used to this sort of thing.’

Hawk scratched his head, more than slightly confused. ‘Right,’ he said, ambling away. ‘I’ll leave you with your ghost. I’ll be waiting with the unicorn, whenever you’re ready.’

‘Do you believe what Carnelian was saying about destiny and fate?’ Spectre asked.

Nimbus shrugged. ‘Honestly, I don’t know. But we don’t have time for this. We have to get to my village right now.’

Spectre made no attempt to move. He rested his jaw in one hand and let out a ghostly sigh. ‘I sometimes feel as if none of us have any control over what we are or what we do. What if our entire lives are all planned out from birth? What if you were always supposed to meet me in the ruins of my watchtower?’

‘Spectre, we’re in a hurry.’

‘Yes, yes, I know.’ He gestured vaguely, as if an annoying fly was buzzing around his head. ‘Do you know what I am?’

‘Of course. You’re a ghost.’

‘But do you know why?’

‘You’ve never told me.’

‘I am a ghost because after I died, nobody ever found my body. It simply vanished, was stolen away in the night. I am destined to haunt my tower until such time as this spirit of mine is reunited with my body. Only then can I rest.’

‘What’s wrong? Why are you telling me this now? Has something happened?’

‘When I first met Cumulo I told him a story about when I was a boy. I told him that once, in order to protect my family, I stabbed a powerful magic user. Although he was badly wounded, the magic user didn’t die, and I always believed that one day he would come back to take his revenge on me.’

‘Why are you telling me this now?’

‘Because I think he did. The magic user I stabbed was Crow. I think he’s the one who killed me, and I think he stole my body to join the ranks of his vile army. There is blood on my hands that I didn’t put there, and that I will never be able to wash away.’

‘What makes you so sure?’

‘Because I’ve found my body.’

‘When? Where?’

The first glimmers of daylight began to appear between the fangs of the mountain tops. ‘You were just fighting with it,’ he said. ‘It was the thing that killed Carnelian.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The shutters of the kitchen window splintered, and one of the soldiers began to clamber inside, his four hairy spider legs scraping and scrabbling to find some grip.

‘Time to go,’ Obsidian said, grabbing Sky’s hand and heading for the door. ‘Private Silver, make sure Strata and the children are unharmed. We’re heading into the street, so keep a tight formation and don’t let your guard down for a second. You know how fast and mean these things are, they will not hesitate to kill you, so don’t go doing them any favours. We are not taking prisoners.’

Strata scooped up Glass, who had not opened her eyes or made any indication that she might be conscious since her reappearance. ‘Come on, Baby,’ Strata said, pressing the small body to her chest. ‘I’m going to get you out of here.’

‘I’m not going to let these things take your girl away,’ Obsidian said.

The corner of Strata’s mouth twitched. ‘Neither am I,’ she said.

Obsidian threw open the front door, and then quickly ducked back as a sword flashed at him from the other side. ‘Keep moving,’ he shouted, as he barged into the waiting soldier, lifting him off his legs and toppling him into the hedge. There were soldiers everywhere, scurrying through the streets and along the walls of the houses. Their horrifying shadows stretched out before them like phantasm claws.

‘Head for the village hall,’ Obsidian bellowed. ‘It’s the most secure building.’

His men formed a protective circle around Strata and the children, including the fiery young girl, Autumn, who would occasionally loose an arrow into the hordes of advancing monsters.

‘Hey, you’re pretty good with that bow,’ Tidal commented, as they all dashed along the street.

‘I should be,’ Autumn said, notching another arrow. ‘I had a good teacher.’

‘Captain,’ Private Silver shouted, as they rounded the corner leading to the village hall. ‘Captain, we can’t go this way.’

Obsidian moved to the front of the group and his heart sank. The village square was filled with soldiers. There was no way through.

‘We’ll never make it,’ Autumn said.

Dark shadows flitted between the clouds, cawing and chuckling playfully. At any second the wyverns might swoop down, and there would be nothing Obsidian could do to stop anyone being snatched away from his protection. ‘We have to find cover,’ he said. ‘We have to find another house to hole up in.’