Aurora (8 page)

Chapter Seven

Nolita awoke with a start. The
whooshing
sound of retreating dragon wings brought her to her hands and knees in an instant. She was alone in the shelter. She crawled
outside. There was no sign of anyone around the campsite. Had they all left her? The tightening sensation of panic gripped her chest making it difficult to breathe. She could feel her heart rate
accelerating as fear swept through her.

Fumbling for her boots, she struggled into them and stumbled across to the edge of the trees. She arrived just in time to see Aurora disappearing into a swirling grey vortex at the far end of
the lake. The vortex collapsed behind her. She was gone. But who had gone through ahead of her? Had anyone stayed behind? The thought of reaching out to Firestorm made her chest tighten further.
She interlocked her fingers and squeezed them together until sharp spikes of pain forced her to ease off the pressure.

‘Shadow and Pell are still here.’

Firestorm’s voice in her mind made her jump and then shudder. She doubted she would ever get used to the feeling of having a voice talk to her inside her head. She hated the sensation. It
felt wrong – an invasion of her privacy. It left her nowhere to hide. She knew the dragon could hear her thoughts, but she did not know how much he could hear. Were there any corners of her
mind that he could not reach?

‘Pell is behind you and to your right,’
Firestorm continued.
‘He’s watching you from the trees. I cannot say for certain, but I think he is taking pleasure from
watching your discomfort.’

‘Thank you,’
she thought back, projecting the words at the tenuous bridge she knew to be the path between their minds.

She did not need to look for Firestorm. She could feel where he was. Since she had accepted her role as a dragonrider, she had gradually become aware that she had gained another sense relating
to her dragon. Even when she could not physically see him, she could feel where he was. At the moment she sensed he was tucked away among the trees a little way down towards the lake.

It would be a useful sense if I could extend it to feel the presence of others,
she thought
. Then I would have known that Pell was still here.
Anger slowly began to replace the
feeling of panic. The muscles across her chest relaxed and she drew in a deep breath. Pell knew her well enough to understand what she would be feeling at the moment. He had been cruel to
deliberately conceal himself. Was this what the trip to the day dragon enclave was going to be like? Was Pell going to deliberately provoke her panic attacks to satisfy some twisted form of
personal entertainment?

The fire of her anger burned hot in her gut, but she controlled it. If Pell drew pleasure from watching her panic, how much more would he gain from seeing her get angry? Nolita had no desire to
further his pleasure. She bottled her anger up deep inside. He would want to go soon and there were things she wanted to do before they left.

Making her way back to the campsite, Nolita collected her water bottle and her precious bar of soap. Pell walked into the campsite as she was leaving for the lake. She ignored him. She needed to
wash. Washing would help calm her.

‘Don’t be long,’ he called out to her as she left. ‘We need to get going soon.’

‘I’ll take as long as I want,’ she muttered under her breath.

The water of the lake was cool and refreshing. She washed her hands first. Four turns of the soap for the first wash, three for the second. Her face and hair were next. The cool water felt
wonderful as she soaped her hair. When she was finished, she wrapped the soap in its special cloth, wrung as much water from her hair as she could and walked back up to the campsite.

Pell was packed and ready to go. He had revived the fire and was sitting next to his saddlebags chewing on a piece of roasted meat.

‘Feeling better?’ he asked. ‘Throw your things in your bag. We’d better get south of the mountains as early as possible. We don’t want to draw unwanted attention to
ourselves.’

Nolita did not trust herself to give a civil answer, but she went straight to the shelter and pulled her saddlebags and her blanket out in preparation to pack. The process of packing was another
of her calming rituals. She spread the blanket on the ground outside the shelter and quickly took everything out of the saddlebags, laying them with precision in a neat pattern across the blanket.
Once everything was laid out, she rapidly repacked, slotting and folding with careful accuracy to make the best use of the space inside the bags. The routine served a double purpose. It ensured
that she never inadvertently left anything behind and the repetition helped to calm her nerves and prepare her for the day.

Pell gave a pointed sigh as she began, but then watched her in silence. The process did not take long. Nolita had it down to a fine art.

‘Are you going to eat before we go?’

‘No,’ she said, slinging her saddlebags over her shoulder. ‘I’ll grab something later.’ She set off through the trees towards where she could feel Firestorm was
waiting for her.

‘Your choice,’ Pell muttered with a shrug. He stamped out the little fire and carefully emptied his spare water bottle over the ashes to cool any remnant hotspots. With one final
glance around the campsite to make sure they had not left anything behind, he headed off towards Shadow. The ferns that had covered the roof would begin to rot quite quickly, but the framework of
the shelter would last a lot longer. It was an expected courtesy to leave such structures for other travellers.

‘Is everything all right, Pell?’
Shadow asked as he approached.

‘I’ve felt better,’
he admitted. The sight of the sleek lines of her gleaming scales between the trees lifted his mood. He could not help feeling good when he was close
to her.
‘I’m just a bit irritated that we have to look after Nolita and Firestorm while Elian and Kira get to go off adventuring, that’s all.’

‘We’re going to the day dragon enclave,’
Shadow said.
‘Not many night dragons have ever gone there. We will be treading a path of adventure unseen by the likes
of Segun.’

‘Trust you to see the positive!’
Pell said, smiling in spite of himself.
‘You’re right, of course, but I’d be happier if we were going
alone.’

‘I don’t think going without them would be a good idea,’
Shadow observed.
‘The day dragon enclave will, doubtless, be pleased to see their newest heroes.
I’m not sure we would be welcome without them at our side.’

‘I give up!’ Pell laughed aloud. ‘Your logic defeats me, Shadow. I’ll try to remember not to grouch in your presence any more. Let’s go.’

He reached her side, leaped nimbly up her foreleg and slung the saddlebags into position. It took a moment to buckle them into place before he mounted the saddle and slotted his feet into the
stirrups. Shadow moved out from between the trees. Firestorm and Nolita were already waiting. The two dragons looked at one another for a moment before leaping forwards and into the air.

The dragons climbed, side by side, into the bright early morning sky, angling first across the sparkling water of the lake and then, as they gained height, turning southwest across the hills and
flying towards the western mountains of central Orupee. They could not avoid crossing the range, but prudence dictated that they avoid the immediate area around the Oracle’s cave. The range
curved around to the southwest here, so they could parallel the mountains for a long way before they would be forced in among the peaks.

Pell glanced across at Nolita. Her complexion was usually pale but, from this distance, her face looked positively milky-white and her blonde hair streamed out behind her like a golden banner.
At first he thought it was the distance that made it appear as if her eyes were closed. The sun was bright and low. When combined with the wind rush it was reasonable to slit one’s eyes, but
there was something unseeing about the way she was holding her head. Was she really so scared that she could not look? Pell closed his eyes for a moment to see what it was like to fly blind. He did
not keep them closed for long.

Firestorm appeared to be working hard to climb at this rate, but Pell could feel that Shadow was virtually cruising. Pride for his dragon swelled within him. She was an incredible dragon –
strong and powerful. No matter what Segun and the other riders from the night dragon enclave did, they could not change her. Shadow was unique – and she loved him. For all his dreams of power
and status, when it came down to the core of what life was all about, she was all that mattered. Since meeting her, he had felt complete, as if a part of himself that he had never realised was
missing had clicked into place.

His feelings for Shadow made it doubly difficult to understand Nolita’s continuing fear. How could she not feel the same way about her dragon as he did about Shadow? How could she remain
so fearful when her bond with Firestorm allowed her to reach inside him and touch the very depths of his love for her? It did not make any sense. Unless her bond with Firestorm was not like the one
he enjoyed with his dragon. Wasn’t every bond between rider and dragon the same?

Pell had never really stopped to wonder much about the other riders and dragons before. He had been so caught up in his own plans and goals that it had not crossed his mind to think through such
questions. With Kira around, he had felt compelled to focus on controlling the group. Now that she had gone with Elian, he had lost his chief source of irritation and competition. Nolita would go
where he led.

‘It looks as if trouble is set to plague us,’
Shadow warned, interrupting his thoughts.

‘What sort of trouble?’
Pell asked, instantly alert and scanning the sky around them.

‘Three night dragons approaching from behind and to the left,’
she said, her voice in his mind sounding grim.
‘The leader is called Darkhorn. He is telling me to
land. They are angling to intercept. What do you want me to do?’

Pell looked left to locate the night dragons, and then ahead and left to the mountains. The range was still a long way off and they were closing towards the peaks at a shallow angle. He could
not see the night dragons yet, but he did not doubt Shadow’s word. If she was right and they were already positioning to intercept, then any thoughts of hiding were out of the question. It
was run, fight or surrender. Pell had no intentions of surrendering, but the other two options did not seem likely to meet with success.

‘Are Firestorm and Nolita aware?’
he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘What do your instincts tell you, Shadow? Should we run or fight?’

‘I think we should try to run,’
she said.
‘Firestorm is brave, but the odds do not favour us in a fight. The three night dragons are still some way off. If we run it
will take them some time to catch up. They may give up the chase if they think it is going to be too much effort. I imagine their persistence will depend on their orders.’

‘That makes sense but which way should we run?’
he asked.
‘If we turn and make a run for the mountains, we create a bigger corner for them to cut.’

‘You are right,’
she replied.
‘That would not be a good idea. Let us make them run as far as possible by keeping them directly behind us.’

Shadow eased into a gentle turn to the right, adjusting her heading by about twenty degrees before rolling back into straight and level flight. She also began to accelerate. Pell looked across
to see if Firestorm had followed. He had. The blue day dragon’s wings were pumping hard to keep up with Shadow, but there was tightness in the set of his face that conveyed determination.
Pell was surprised. He had never noticed facial expressions on dragons before, and had not thought them capable of demonstrating emotion in that way.

Pell’s heart raced as Shadow powered westwards, but it did not take long for the initial surge of adrenalin to die away. Craning his neck, he scanned the sky for any sign of the pursuing
dragons, but he could see nothing. It was hard to force his eyes to focus much beyond Shadow’s tail, which rose and fell in mesmerising waves behind them.

Looking ahead, he could see wispy puffs of fair-weather cloud beginning to form slightly above them in the otherwise cloudless sky, but Pell judged they would not grow into anything substantial
enough to offer cover. Shadow had climbed to about a thousand spans. She was no longer climbing, instead concentrating on setting a pace that was fast, but one that she and Firestorm could maintain
for a long time if necessary.

As time passed, the feeling of danger faded. Aside from the slight increase of the wind rush and higher tempo of the dragons’ wingbeats, the flight felt much like any other. The
countryside slipped past beneath them. The sun was climbing fast, its bright rays making it a pleasure to be airborne.

‘How are we doing?’
he asked Shadow eventually.

‘They are no longer gaining,’
she replied.
‘I hoped they would give up, but they are still following. Darkhorn is livid that we have not heeded her warning. She has
made it clear that they will not give up the chase. If you look directly behind us and at a similar level, you should be able to see them.’

Pell twisted again and looked for some time. He was about to give up when he finally spotted them. Three tiny black dots, unmoving. Were they really at a similar level? They looked as if they
were lower in the sky, but Pell knew that perspective could play tricks on a person’s eyes in the air. He did not doubt Shadow’s word. If she said they were at a similar height, then
they were.

‘So what now?’
Pell asked.
‘Do you think they’re bluffing? Will they give up if we run fast enough?’

‘It doesn’t look that way,’
Shadow admitted.
‘It looks as if we are in this race for the long haul.’