03 Sky Knight (21 page)

‘Sky? You stupid girl. Don’t you realise there’s no way off this island for you? Sky?’

She kept going.

‘Sky!’

She kept going.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Onyx stood at the edge of the woodland clearing, munching on grass and occasionally shooting distrusting glances at Reflection. Horses weren’t supposed to glow, and they certainly weren’t supposed to have horns. Even Onyx knew that.

And now the unicorn was coming over, trotting along like she was just like any other horse.

Onyx kept his head down, concentrating on a particularly lush patch of greenery. Maybe she would just trot right on by without paying him any more attention.

There was an intrusive snort by his ear, and he looked up into Reflection’s glassy eyes. They stared at each other, neither prepared to look away, both determined to convince the other that they were the superior. Onyx showed his teeth. Reflection did the same. Then Onyx had the unusual feeling that he was looking at a mirror image of himself in the waters of a magical lake, and suddenly it didn’t seem quite so odd for a horse to have a horn.

He moved closer, and nuzzled the side of Reflection’s head.

From her place by the fire, where she was boiling water for Private Silver’s wound, Glass watched the horse and the unicorn as they cantered off together. ‘They’re playing,’ she said.

Light snarled, laying his head on his front paws. ‘Horses and unicorns are virtually the same. They’re all stupid.’

‘Don’t you play?’

‘I’m a wolf. I hunt.’

Glass took the water off the heat, and then peeled back the dressing on Silver’s wound. In his sleep, the private groaned, grappling with an adversary that was only in his head. ‘Maybe I could give him some nicer dreams,’ Glass said.

Moon smiled kindly. She was weaving daisies together, and her fingers were moving so fast it looked like she wasn’t doing anything at all. ‘The nightmares are part of the healing process. If he wins, he lives. The human mind is an unusual place. He has his own good dreams, he just has to find them.’

Glass didn’t really understand, but she nodded anyway, and started methodically cleaning Silver’s wound. Even without probing into the soldier’s mind too carefully she could sense something dark and evil lurking in his subconscious: A bloody death, or a betrayal. Something to do with Sky.

She shook her head, as if to physically shake off the sense of impending destruction and insufferable loss that was settling around her like the spidery legs of one of Crow’s soldiers.

‘Don’t try to read his mind,’ Moon said, without looking up from the chain of flowers she was making. ‘It won’t make any sense. People in there may be dead who are alive, and people who are alive may be dead beyond even Cumulo’s reach. You will only see things the way he sees them, and what he sees may be far from the truth.’

‘How are you going to kill Crow?’ Glass asked, changing the subject as she wrapped Silver with a fresh bandage.

‘I’m not, as such. That’s why I came here. I need your help. And Reflection’s.’

‘What can I do?’

‘Crow is powerful. He was one of the greatest magic users to take part in the war. He could single–handedly...’ Moon shuddered, and Glass wondered what it must be like to be unable to cry. ‘He was strong in a way that only evil can be.’

‘But you beat him.’

‘I did, but I was different then. I had the light of the sun to give me strength. When he killed my unicorn, the greater part of me died. While I spent my years in the mountains, little more than a wraith, he turned all his efforts to becoming stronger still, breeding an army of the damned, drawing the dark creatures of the world to his cause. If I faced him now, he would utterly destroy me.

‘However, there is one trick up my sleeve. The only thing he doesn’t suspect.’

‘She means me,’ Light muttered. ‘Actually, she means the bit of her unicorn that took up residence in my head. Which it did without my permission, I might add.’

‘He never was too pleased with the arrangement,’ Moon said.

‘It’s like having an itch you can’t scratch.’

‘Light is not the same familiar my unicorn was,’ Moon went on. ‘But there is a piece of her within him, and that is how we will beat Crow.’

‘So what are you going to do?’ Glass asked. ‘And why do you need me?’

Moon threw up the circle of daisies she had made, and suddenly the air was full of tiny white blossoms that drifted across the clearing like snow. Glass held out her hands to catch the petals as they descended, laughing in delight as they brushed against her cheeks and clung to her hair. But her laughter was short–lived, as all around her the blossoms began to wither and dry up. Moments later there was no sign of the magic that Moon had created.

‘I am a very different person,’ the fairie said, and there was great weight in her words. ‘I have seen how fleeting beauty can be, and now where–ever I walk sadness and despair walk with me. But you, Glass... You are young and full of love and joy. You are not alone. That is why I need you.’

‘She’s a real barrel of laughs, isn’t she?’ Light said, lifting himself up and stretching his hind legs. ‘She’s too much like Crow now. Full of pain and regret. She is crippled, and I was never truly whole. We need you, and the unicorn. Together we can combine our unique talents in a way that should ensure the necromancer’s life is finally ended. But you will be the one who has to land the killing blow.’

‘Me? I don’t want to kill anyone.’

‘You may not have a choice,’ Moon said. ‘I cannot take a life. I cannot grieve as others grieve, and to take a life is a powerful thing. I would have to carry that with me for the rest of my days.’

Silence descended on the woodlands. A small rabbit hopped out from the briars, his nose twitching as if he could smell a change in the atmosphere.

‘It’s time to go, isn’t it?’ Glass said, eventually.

‘I think so,’ Moon said.

‘What about Private Silver?’

‘He will have to stay behind. I will protect him with magic. He will be concealed from anyone or anything that might wish him harm. He will be safe until we can return.’

‘Will we return?’

‘You’re starting to sound like her,’ Light growled.

Glass smiled sadly. ‘It’s all so scary,’ she said. ‘But it wouldn’t be if all my friends were here. If Nim was here.’

As if mention of the Wing Warrior had revived him, Private Silver jerked upright. ‘Sky,’ he screamed, a fraction of a second before he realised where he was.

‘You should lie back,’ Moon said, moving farther away to ensure her presence did not cause the injured soldier too much discomfort. ‘You have received a serious wound.’

‘I cleaned it,’ Glass said, proudly.

‘No.’ Silver attempted to stand, but his strength failed him. He collapsed, gasping for breath. ‘I have to go,’ he said, through gritted teeth. ‘Sky needs me. Your father...’

‘What’s wrong?’ Glass asked.

‘I was with Sky. We were going to rescue Lord Cloud. He’s still alive. But there are soldiers everywhere. I couldn’t protect her.’ He let his head rock back, and his eyes closed. ‘The soldiers took her. I don’t know what happened after that.’

Onyx and Reflection came trotting up, and Onyx lowered his head so that Silver could touch his mane. Reflection bowed her head in a similar fashion.

‘I let her down,’ Silver said. ‘She trusted me. I was supposed to protect her.’

‘By the time I met you on the road, you had already saved her life once,’ Moon said. ‘As I recall, you had single–handedly fought off a number of Crow’s soldiers.’

‘And what good did it do?’

‘Who knows? Who knows if any of us are doing any good at all? But you tried. Nobody can be expected to do more. You should rest now.’

‘I can’t. I have to go after her.’

‘You aren’t fit. And do you really think it would make any difference now? She has been taken. Whatever fate awaits her, you are no longer a part of it.’

‘Sky’s pretty tough,’ Glass said. ‘She’s like my brother.’

‘Lord Nimbus?’ Silver was sat forwards again, eager for news of the Wing Warrior. ‘Has he come back?’

‘Did he go somewhere?’ Glass asked.

‘To Serpent’s Coil. He went to speak with Tidal.’

Glass glanced at Moon, and she was unable to disguise the panic in her expression.

‘Be calm,’ the fairie said. ‘We will see if we can find him. Bring me the last of the water you were boiling.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Silver asked.

Moon and Glass ignored his question. They sat with the water between them, and Moon passed her hand over the top. ‘Your heart is always with him,’ she said. ‘This will need to be your magic.’

‘What do I do?’

‘Put your hand over the water, close your eyes, and see through your palm.’

Glass frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Just do it,’ Light muttered. ‘Water covers the world, it feeds every plant, sustains every animal, and drifts in the clouds above us. There is nothing, and nowhere, the water hasn’t seen. It connects us all. It will flow to the Wing Warrior.’

Glass did as she was told, and as she closed her eyes, it felt as if something tugged at her heart, dragging her through a swirling current into a place where there was only Nimbus. She was almost overcome by a flood of beautiful memories, and suddenly it felt like she was drowning.

‘Focus,’ Light said. ‘Stay calm.’

Glass gasped for breath, but it was difficult not to be overwhelmed as she thought about Nimbus and all the nice things he had done for her. He wasn’t like most big brothers. He loved her and protected her. And not just her. He loved and protected everyone.

That was why he was the Wing Warrior. That was why he was the only person who could be.

‘You and Nimbus have always been close,’ Light said. ‘He surrounds you like the air you breathe. But you must see through the memories to the truth beyond. Until you accept he isn’t really here, you will never find him.’

Glass screwed up her face in concentration.

But Nimbus was still there.

He would always be there.

Fishing in the Forbidden Woods; arguing with Sky about the one that got away.

Sitting with Glass when she couldn’t sleep at night; telling her that all of this was going to get better.

Putting a hand on her shoulder.

Walking away.

Vanishing.

Then there was only the dark, stretching out in every direction, endless and impenetrable.

‘Don’t panic,’ Light said. ‘Nothing is lost. Nothing is truly forgotten.’

Even as the wolf was speaking, new images began forming in Glass’s mind.

An island.

A dragon.

A boy in badly damaged armour, walking on the beach, with Captain Spectre beside him...

***

Cumulo looked up wearily as Nimbus and Captain Spectre approached. ‘You didn’t find her?’ he rumbled.

Nimbus shook his head. ‘She must be hiding somewhere.’

‘And Tidal?’

‘No sign,’ Spectre said. ‘It is as if they have both disappeared off the face of the earth.’

‘Perhaps they have,’ Cumulo sighed. ‘Do you remember what Tidal told you of this place? There are caverns beneath. Maybe Sky has found a way down into them.’

‘Those caverns will be flooded,’ Nimbus said, sitting on a rock beside the dying dragon. ‘If she has gone down there...’

‘We should continue searching,’ Spectre said.

‘We’re beginning to lose the daylight. There’s no good in us bashing around in the dark. We’ll never find her, and we’d be opening ourselves up to an ambush.’

‘So you suggest we do nothing, and leave Sky at the mercy of that maniac boy?’

Nimbus kicked his toe in the sand. ‘Believe me, I don’t like the idea any more than you do, but I’m out of ideas. Tidal tricked me, captured Cumulo, and he’s bigger and stronger than me. He nearly killed me back there. I can’t beat him.’

‘And you think Sky has more of a chance?’

‘Sky is cleverer than Tidal, and more resourceful. She just has to keep one step ahead of him.’

‘So what are you going to do now?’

Nimbus looked hard at the ghost, and then turned to Cumulo. The dragon’s eyes were closed again, and his breath had become more strained. It seemed as though it would only be a matter of minutes before it was all over.

‘Nimbus?’ Spectre pressed.

The Wing Warrior’s vision blurred with tears. ‘I’m going to sit here for a while.’

***

Sky scrambled out of the darkness of the tunnel, emerging in the open air with a triumphant cry. Tidal was right behind her, and as he tried to grab her she kicked him in the chest. The blow sent him sprawling back into the cave, but she didn’t wait around to see if he was badly hurt. She set off at a limping run through thick undergrowth that snatched at her hair and clothes and scratched her face with wicked barbs.

‘You can’t run forever,’ Tidal hissed, getting to his feet. ‘You might as well just stop and get what’s coming to you.’

Sky could barely breathe; her arms and legs were numb, her lungs felt as if they were about to burst. She stumbled, and pulled herself along with her fingers, weeping uncontrollably. Never stopping. Too afraid to even look back.

But she was out of places to run. As the undergrowth thinned, she realised she was on the uppermost part of the cliff above the beach where Cumulo was imprisoned.

She cautiously moved to the edge and looked over. She could see Nimbus with the dragon, but there was no way down to them. There was no way off the cliff except back the way she had come, but Tidal was already there, covered in filth and slime and looking more animal than boy.

‘I get the impression you’re avoiding me,’ he grinned.

‘Stay back, Tide.’

‘Stay back? After I’ve followed you all this way? I don’t think so.’ He stalked towards her, fingers flexing, eyes full of anger.

Thinking fast, Sky fumbled with the pouch around her waist and removed the piece of unusual red coral that the harpy had given her. She held it up for Tidal to see. ‘Do you know what this is?’ she shouted.

Tidal stopped in his tracks.