Evanescent (13 page)

Stunned, I watched as three very large, SUV-sized black birds burst out of the fire, racing toward us. Those definitely weren’t part of my army.

Chapter Fourteen

“What in the name of Esmeralda and corn flakes are those things?” Mercedes yelled as she looked back at the bird trailing behind us, screeching at the top of its lungs.

“They’re ravens,” Kitsuna said. “Now keep your head down so that they can’t aim for you.”

“Those monsters are not ravens,” Mercedes said. “Ravens are ugly black birds that perch on desks next to Edgar Allan Poe and yell ‘nevermore’ all day long. They aren’t monstrous killers with beaks the size of New Jersey.”

“Yeah?” Kitsuna reached for the knives she had stuck in her belt and threw one at the ravens. “Well, we grow them a bit bigger here. If I were you I’d use that bow you’ve got strapped to your back. It’s not just for decoration.”

I threw the knife that was nestled in my own sword belt at the bird, missing it completely. Mercedes had managed to free the small, curvy dryad bow she’d been training with and was loading an arrow into it.

“Keep your head down,” Kitsuna shrieked as Mercedes let the arrow fly. A loud, angry shriek preceded the sound of breaking branches as something
big
fell out of the sky.

Winston flew into a deep dive, throwing me forward. I grabbed his neck with my arms and dug my heels into his sides, scrunching my eyes shut and trying not to scream as he hurtled toward the ground.

“Don’t crash,” I howled, my eyes still closed. “Please, please, please don’t crash.”

He leveled off, and I opened my eyes, staring in horror at the ground not so far below me. I heard another dull
thwap
and then a shriek, and glanced behind me to see that the other two dragons had managed the same maneuver.

“Is everyone—”

“Duck!” Mercedes yelled.

I looked up to see the two trees we were speeding toward. There was no way we’d make it through the narrow space between them. On instinct I tightened my grip on Winston’s neck and tried my best not to wet myself.

“
Lento
!” Mercedes screeched, her voice high and panicky.

Winston flipped sideways, and the trees leaned away from us. We zipped between them, leaves slapping me in the face and twigs tangling in my hair as we brushed past the branches.

I squeezed my eyes shut again and decided to keep them that way until we were back on land. Screw being some sort of heroic warrior queen—I wasn’t cut out for this level of excitement.

“
Redito
!” Mercedes yelled.

I heard the snap of branches and the groan of trees moving just before a loud squawk pierced the air, followed by the
boom
of a large object crashing into the thick foliage.

I loosened my hold on Winston to draw my sword and looked over my shoulder for the ravens. Behind us, inky feathers filled the gap between the two trees. Obviously our little friends hadn’t made it through in time.
Oops.

Winston shifted upward, taking us out of the trees, and I quickly sheathed my sword before holding tight once more as we burst out of the forest and into the blue sky. When we leveled off I let go of his neck and turned, trying to see my palace as it shrank from sight.

Everywhere I looked blackness filled the air. Plumes of fire and smoke had turned the remaining forests around my palace into huge bonfires. Even if we made it back to the palace grounds there would be little left to save.

The dragons flew faster and the sky darkened as we moved farther west, away from the people I’d sworn to protect. When I thought we’d never stop flying, that we’d keep going until we reached the edge of the world itself, we went even farther. Later we circled back, and I realized that we’d been traveling around Dramera Lake, close to the main village of the dragon clans, keeping to the air as the dragons determined whether or not we were safe.

Winston tilted his body forward, and all three dragons glided to a graceful stop in the middle of the large, cobblestoned town square. Surrounding us were tall, narrow houses, each of them covered in tidy straw roofs.

I slid off his back and felt for the crown case, still safely nestled inside my tunic. “What do we do now?” I asked. “We’re here, our army is there.”

The other two dragons let Kitsuna and Mercedes off, then followed Winston back up into the air, probably to find somewhere to shift back to their human forms.

“Take me back!” I yelled after him.

“No,” Kitsuna snapped.

I shot her a glare. “I need to go back. My people are dying there.”

“And we’re needed here,” Kitsuna said. “
You’re
needed here.”

“Why? What are we supposed to do here? Away from the fighting?”

“We hide, and we hope that no one from the Fate Maker’s army manages to arrive before our own soldiers do,” Kitsuna said.

“Who could have followed us here?” Mercedes asked.

A loud squawk sounded behind us, and I turned to see an enormous, angry, black raven that was missing half its feathers coming straight at us. Again.

“Them.” I pointed.

Mercedes stared at the bird. “I thought we killed them already?”

Kitsuna grabbed my arm to pull me away, and I watched, horrified, as the dragons who had taken off a moment before raced across the sky, flames erupting from their mouths like giant, flying volcanoes.

The raven managed to get over Dramera Lake and swooped toward the ground. A man slipped from the bird’s shoulders, and once the rider was free, the beast arched itself up to its full height, wings beating ominously as it let out a loud squawk and then hurled itself at Winston, Ardere, and Kitsuna’s mother. Winston roared and shot forward, driving his head into the raven’s stomach, and launched them both toward the lake. The other two dragons moved upward, circling above them as if searching for other attackers in the sky.

Winston reared up, dragging the raven upward in his claws, and then did the dragon version of a body slam into the raven’s stomach, driving it down onto the banks of the lake. The bird skipped across the ground like a large stone and both the bird and the dragon plunged into the water, still swiping at each other.

“Come on.” Kitsuna tugged urgently on my hand, and we both backed away from the square.

“What about Winston?”

“He can take care of himself,” Kitsuna said. “We need to warn the others.”

A burst of magic exploded in front of me, enveloping the spot where Winston had disappeared in brilliant blue-black flames.

I froze. “Oh no.”

“Allie, come on,” Mercedes shrieked.

“Wizard.” Kitsuna pulled my arm and dragged me through the winding streets of Dramera at a flat-out sprint, one of my arms cradled over my chest as I tried to keep from dropping the box with my crown and the Dragon’s Tear tucked inside my shirt. “Now come on!”

“Wizard?” Mercedes asked as she ran behind us, already wheezing. “Of course it’s a wizard. What else would it be?”

“Wizards ride on the backs of ravens. They use the birds to go into battle when they want to fight,” Kitsuna said, still breathing fine and not slowing in the slightest. “Then they let the stupid birds eat the bodies of the dead—and the not-so-dead, if the mood takes them.”

“What?” Mercedes’s voice was barely more than a wheeze.

“Raven!” Kitsuna yelled, using her free hand to smack open shutters as she ran, calling out to anyone who could hear her. “Raven in the square. Hide your hatchlings. Guard your eggs. There’s a raven in the square!”

All around us heads began to pop out of front windows and doors of the thick-timbered lodge houses that made up Dramera. And then, as quickly as they came, the windows and doors were slammed closed, and we could hear the collective
snick
of the bolts being thrown into place as the dragons who had stayed behind began to screech for their young.

“Shouldn’t they be going to help?” I panted as we swung wide around a corner.

Kitsuna began to shout again, still running so fast that I was having trouble keeping up. “Did you not hear me when I said that ravens eat the dead? They also eat hatchlings.” She didn’t slow down as we sprinted along one of the side streets and toward a large, thatch-roofed house with a red dragon topping the totem pole outside. She threw open the door, shoved me and Mercedes inside, and then slammed the door closed behind us before throwing the heavy iron bolt.

“Up the stairs.” She made a shooing motion toward a ladder in the back corner. “Into the loft. Hide. We have to hide. Now.”

“Winston—” I started.

“Is distracted by the raven.” Kitsuna pushed me toward the ladder, not bothering to be gentle. “He’s going to be no help against the wizard, so we have to hide. Right now, because I’m pretty sure that guy came specifically for you.”

We scrambled up the ladder and pulled ourselves into the large, airy loft. “Why would he come by himself, though?” I asked. “Shouldn’t there be more of them?”

“There were,” Kitsuna said. “All three ravens had wizards on their backs. This is just the only one who made it past the knives, the arrows, and through our dryad’s rather clever Trees of Death.”

I heard a pained roar and ran to the loft’s large front windows. They must’ve acted as an extra door for those who chose to stay in dragon form. Looking out, I could see Winston and the raven coiled around each other in the air, each trying to close its jaws over the other one’s neck. The black, swirling mass shifted, and Winston was on top, his head tossing back and forth, biting at the raven, gouging at its flesh with his teeth. I struggled to breathe as I watched them do battle. He managed to maneuver so that the bird was falling through the sky, Winston’s claws shoved into its belly, and when they hit the ground, my boyfriend poured flames into the monster’s face.

The raven, meanwhile, kept shrieking through the flames, its inky black wings beating at Winston’s head while the creature’s legs pushed at his stomach. The bird reared its head back and then slammed forward, its beak aimed at Winston’s eyes. He cried out, and I shrieked, both of them faltering, looking in my direction. I could see the pure, naked fear in Winston’s eyes as the monster loosened its grip on him, its eyes now fixed on me.

Win roared, swiping at the animal with his claws. Blood dripped from his snout and he opened his mouth, breathing more flames down the raven’s back. The stench of roasted feathers filled the air as the giant bird gave a pained howl.

“Get away from the window.” Kitsuna grabbed me and pulled me toward the back of the room. “That monster could tell the wizard where to find you.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Mercedes groaned as we hurried across the loft.

“They have a psychic link,” Kitsuna explained as she pushed us back. We were pressed against the far wall, on the opposite side of the house from the square where Winston was battling the raven.

“Of course they do,” Mercedes said, “because this can’t get any worse. The wizard and the demon bird would have to have a link to each other.” She paused and looked at Kitsuna as she tugged at the rusted bolt of another large, closed window. “What are you doing?”

“I’m finding us a way out of here in case the wizard tracks us. And don’t say that,” Kitsuna said, the bolt giving way.

“Don’t say what?” Mercedes asked as we tried to heave the heavy wooden hatch out of the way.

“That it can’t get any worse,” Kitsuna said.

“Why?” Mercedes grunted as all three of us put our weight against the hatch. It wouldn’t budge.

“Where wizards are concerned—”

I felt all the hair on my arms go up. Oh, no. Not again.

A ball of magic slammed into the front of the house, causing the entire lodge to vibrate. I tumbled to the floor. “It can always get worse,” I said as another blast hit and the loft shook harder.

Kitsuna grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “He found us. We need to go.” She pushed her shoulder against the hatch and shoved, still not getting anywhere.

“Hold on.” Mercedes grabbed me and Kitsuna, forcing all of us to take a step back. “On the count of three.”

“One,” Kitsuna said.

“Two.” I swallowed and shifted my feet, trying to keep them steady.

Another explosion and the front door below us snapped loudly, splintering open. Mercedes launched herself forward, pulling us beside her as she hit the hatch with her full weight and it flew open with a
crack
as sharp as a starter’s pistol.

I tumbled forward and a strong hand grabbed the collar of my shirt, jerking me back into the loft and onto my feet. I turned and found Kitsuna staring at me, her green eyes bright against her pale skin.

“The woods aren’t far.” Kitsuna threw her arms around me and gave me a panicked hug. “Run straight toward it and hide. And Dryad…”

Mercedes stopped and turned her.

Kitsuna released me and nodded. “Hide the Golden Rose well. No matter what. The fate of our world—”

“Yeah, fate of the world on one set of skinny shoulders,” Mercedes said. “No pressure to keep her safe or anything.”

“What are you going to do?” I grabbed for Kitsuna’s hand. “You have to come with us.”

Instead of answering, Kitsuna turned back to the main room of the loft and lifted her head to breathe a steady stream of blue flames straight into the thatch over our heads. The straw glowed blue for a second then the roof erupted into flames. The wryen lifted her head and breathed more flames onto the walls, catching them on fire as well.

“Kitsuna!” I watched in horror as she set her own house on fire, trapping herself and the wizard underneath the burning roof.

She turned to me, the loft behind her smoking. “Go,” she mouthed before turning away from me one last time.

“Kitsuna.” I lunged forward, but Mercedes grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back toward the hatch.

“She’ll be okay. She’s a dragon. That means she’s fireproof. We’re not. So come on. We have to go while she has him distracted.”

My two best girlfriends were right. For once I was just going to have to trust that Kitsuna could take care of herself. Even if I felt like crap for leaving her and Winston behind while I ran for my life like some sort of spineless chicken. But right now, I was going to have to deal with being a chicken long enough to stay alive.