02 Unicorn Rider (15 page)

‘Mother is gone. I awoke this morning and the temple was empty. It is the greatest shame of all. This place is cold without her. If she is dead, what reason have I left to live? When I leave this place I will never return. Only those few enchanted books that even time cannot truly ravage will remain as evidence of my time within these walls. That is one promise I will be able to keep. I wish I had never become a Wing Warrior. I wish I could change the way things are.’

Nimbus closed the book and pushed it across the table. The reason his father had hid the truth from him for so long was now awfully apparent. How could any father wish a life of such hopeless misery upon his only son?

‘And so,’ a quiet voice said, ‘far too late, you realise your father isn’t so different to you after all. How upsetting for you. And such a shame you will never get the chance to apologise.’

Nimbus glanced up, gripped by fear as the shadowy figure of a man slipped into the room in the same way a snake might wriggle into the nest of a sleeping bird. The man was wrapped in a dark cloak, and carried a gnarled staff. A hood concealed his face, but Nimbus knew well what that face would look like: It would be handsome – unnaturally so – but it would be a lie, masking a deeper, darker evil. Nimbus knew, because he had seen that face in his dreams every night for the last two months.

‘Crow,’ he said, leaping to his feet and scrabbling for the Wing Warrior sword. ‘I should have known you would have something to do with this.’

‘You do not need your sword,’ Crow said, gesturing with one hand.

‘You’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you.’

‘Little boys shouldn’t play with sharp knives, they may fall and cut themselves.’

‘I’m no little boy.’ Nimbus began backing towards the door through which he had entered.

‘That’s exactly what a little boy would say. A scared, little boy.’

Nimbus knew that Crow was just trying to upset him, but even so, every time the necromancer said ‘boy,’ Nimbus felt as if he was shrinking. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, his voice trembling.

‘I like it here.’

‘This is Mother’s temple, you shouldn’t be here.’

‘But this is where it all started.’ Crow threw up his hands theatrically. His face remained totally hidden beneath his hood, and Nimbus was grateful for that. ‘This is where I poisoned Mother and turned her against her own kind. This is where I made the first step in destroying the Wing Warriors.’

‘I guess I must be something of an inconvenience to you.’

‘A minor inconvenience.’

There was a low hiss behind Nimbus, and he turned to see a gigantic serpent with nine flailing heads slithering into the room. Its intelligent eyes glowed evilly as it squeezed its bloated body through the doorframe, and its teeth dripped green venom.

‘This is a hydra,’ Crow said. ‘I believe you two met down in the dungeon a few moments ago.’

‘Looks like a big worm to me,’ Nimbus said.

‘I found her as a baby on the far side of these mountains. I raised her. She will do whatever I ask her to do.’

Nimbus pressed his back to the wall, glancing around for some way out of the situation. He was totally stuck between Crow and the hydra.

The Wing Warrior sword seemed very heavy, and his armour seemed incredibly awkward.

The hydra blinked and snapped, but she made no further move to advance. She was waiting for Crow to give her the command to kill. Her tail flicked impatiently.

Nimbus had no other choice. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to fight.

He threw himself across the room at Crow, swinging the sword in a deadly arc.

Crow casually lifted one arm. ‘Stop,’ he said.

Nimbus stopped.

The Wing Warrior sword fell out of his hand, and clattered on the stone tiles. Every muscle in his body seemed to have turned to stone, and no matter how much his brain screamed at them to move, they would not respond.

‘Now,’ Crow said, ‘you’re probably wondering how I did that. But that was nothing. This next bit is really going to blow your mind.’ Nimbus could just see the beginning of the necromancer’s cruel smile under the hood. ‘You are now going to walk over to the hydra and put your head in one of her mouths.’

To his horror, Nimbus found his legs carrying him across the room to the waiting serpent. He tried to resist, but his feet had a mind of their own, and nothing he did could stop them carrying him closer to those venom–dripping fangs.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I don’t understand. You can’t do this. You can’t control me.’

Crow shrugged. ‘Being a necromancer has its advantages.’

Beads of sweat formed on Nimbus’s brow, and he gritted his teeth with the effort of concentration required to stop his legs from continuing their deadly stroll.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said.

The heads of the hydra gathered around. Nimbus closed his eyes.

It was at that exact moment that Cumulo arrived. With a deafening crash, he powered through the windows, his massive wings flapping, his fangs bared as he screeched at the towering hydra. His scales turned red as he landed in the middle of the room.

The hydra immediately lost interest in Nimbus and turned on the new threat, wrapping around Cumulo in a deadly embrace even before the last flecks of window had hit the floor. Nimbus suddenly had complete control of his legs again, and he ducked for cover as shards of glass rained down on him and clinked off the walls. The two legends rolled across the floor, biting at each other as their tails swept rows of books off the shelves.

One of the hydra’s many heads clamped its teeth on Cumulo’s neck, and the dragon threw back his head and roared. A jet of fire erupted from his throat, setting fire to several books, including Cloud’s journal. A second hydra head bit Cumulo, and then a third; and the serpent’s body wrapped tighter around the dragon’s body, squeezing the air from his lungs.

Nimbus grabbed the Wing Warrior sword, and without hesitation he turned the blade on the massive serpent, sticking it deep into an exposed part of her belly. Each of the horrible heads cried out, and the hydra’s grip on Cumulo loosened enough for him to wriggle free.

In another moment the hydra was slithering out of the shattered remains of the window and down the side of the mountain.

Nimbus looked around for Crow, but he too was gone.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The wyvern had picked at the roof of the garrison building all night, toying with the trapped soldiers without actually making a concerted effort to get through to kill them; but by midday it had begun to grow weary of the game and it finally thrust its ugly, angular head inside.

The soldiers scattered, pressing themselves against the walls in a desperate attempt to move out of range of the snapping monster.

Private Silver threw himself into one of his colleagues to shove him out of the way of the wyvern’s slavering maw, but was caught himself and slammed into the ground. As he tried to rise, the wyvern lunged down at him, mouth open wide.

Silver flinched away, covering his face and kicking wildly. With more luck than judgement, one foot connected with the wyvern’s snout, and it recoiled enough for Silver to roll clear.

Hissing furiously, the wyvern reached farther into the building, chasing Silver with its long neck. It was determined now to murder the private, and easily manoeuvred him into a corner from which he would not be able to squirm free.

‘Come on, then!’ Silver screamed, pounding his chest with his hands. ‘I’m right here. Take a bite. I hope I choke you.’

The wyvern wriggled its body farther into the hole in the roof, resting one clawed foot on a creaking beam. Its eyes glittered as it loomed closer once again, snarling and dribbling.

‘Hey!’ Captain Obsidian shouted.

The wyvern turned its head at the sound of the new voice and had just enough time to squawk comically before a table smashed into its face. Wood splintered, Land Lock pieces flew across the room, and for a second the wyvern looked slightly dazed.

The men cheered as Captain Obsidian picked up a chair with the intention of doing much the same as he had with the table; but the wyvern regained its senses, and snapped at him so quickly and so violently that he did not have time to dodge. The wyvern’s sharp jaws chomped down on his arm and then jerked upwards, heaving Obsidian off the ground and up through the roof. Before he really knew what was going on, Obsidian was already in the air, and the garrison building was just a dwindling speck beneath him.

With his free hand, he tried to grab hold of the wyvern’s neck as it flew high above the clouds. His fingers scrabbled on the rough scales, almost finding some grip; but then the wyvern released him, and with his hands grabbing uselessly at thin air he started the terrifying fall back to earth.

The world went tumbling past him as he spiralled towards the ground with his heart wedged in his mouth. He closed his eyes and waited for impact, but just before he hit the ground, something snatched him back out of the air, saving him from certain death.

By the time he realised he was in the talons of a second wyvern, he had been thrown again and was once more hurtling through the air. He even passed a small bird called Light Feather, who was more than a bit surprised as she had never realised humans could fly.

As large objects that were probably houses sped past him, Obsidian tried to relax so that when he finally hit something it didn’t hurt so much. However, trying to relax while spinning through midair is a lot easier in theory than in practice, and he was still quite tense when he finally crashed into a thatched roof, punching a hole straight through to the kitchen beneath.

He lay sprawled on the floor for a few moments, breathing heavily as he waited for the rest of the world to stop spinning. He felt sick to his stomach, his head was throbbing, his back ached; but he was pretty sure he had escaped the ordeal without any broken bones. All things considered, it could have been much worse.

‘Captain,’ a familiar voice whispered. ‘Captain. You have to move.’

Obsidian blinked to clear his vision. Then he blinked again.

And again.

Something was wrong. What he was seeing didn’t make sense.

He tried blinking one more time, but that didn’t seem to make matters any better.

Lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling, he had quite an excellent view of what he could only describe as a man–spider.

The man–spider appeared to be, in most respects, a normal average–sized person in a suit of silver armour; but sprouting out of his back were four hairy legs which were currently being used to hang from a roof beam.

‘Captain,’ the voice said, in a harsh whisper.

‘Sky?’ he said, rubbing his sore head. The word sounded thick in his mouth. ‘Is that you?’

‘Yes. Move.’

Not waiting to be told again, Obsidian began to inch across the floor, never once taking his eyes off the monstrous thing suspended from the ceiling.

‘Nice of you to drop in,’ Tidal said, helping Obsidian to his feet. ‘That thing’s been up there for hours now, just watching us.’

Obsidian reached for his sword, but the thing on the ceiling stretched out one of its ugly spider–legs. When Obsidian moved his hand away from his sword, the leg retracted.

‘It’s guarding you,’ Obsidian said.

‘It wants my daughter,’ Strata said, emerging from one of the bedrooms. ‘But she’s gone, and we don’t know where.’

The man–spider gurgled throatily. It could have been laughing, but it was hard to tell.

‘My men are trapped in the garrison,’ Obsidian said. ‘There are wyverns standing guard. They’ve taken out all of my sentries.’ He edged along the wall to the kitchen window and looked out at the street. ‘Where’s Lord Nimbus and Cumulo?’

‘Gone,’ Tidal said. He leaned close to Obsidian and whispered, ‘Hawk got out. I sent him to Crystal Shine for help. We just have to wait until the reinforcements arrive.’

Obsidian glared at the thing swaying from the beams above the front door. ‘If reinforcements come here, this village will turn into a blood bath. Those wyverns... They’re everywhere. We need the dragon.’

‘Well, we don’t have the dragon,’ Tidal snapped.

‘And I can’t wait any longer,’ Sky added. ‘My father’s all alone. I have to get back to him.’

‘You aren’t going anywhere,’ Obsidian said firmly. ‘One step outside and those things will tear you apart.’

Sky’s eyes were wide, glistening wetly with tears she was not yet ready to cry. ‘You don’t understand. I can’t leave him. He won’t cope without me.’

‘Your father will be fine. These things aren’t attacking. They’re waiting.’

‘And how long do you think they will wait? I can’t risk it. I have to get back.’

Tidal touched her shoulder comfortingly. ‘I know how important it is for you, Sky.’

‘No you don’t,’ she muttered.

She tried to jerk away from his touch, and Tidal reacted instinctively, grabbing her elbow and squeezing tightly. For a second his face was contorted with anger, but when Sky flinched as if she expected him to hit her, his expression softened. ‘Of course I know,’ he said. ‘I lost my parents in that boating accident. I know what it must have been like for you when your mum left. I understand why you need to get back to your dad. But Captain Obsidian is right. I nearly died getting in here. If you get caught in the street these things won’t show you any mercy.’

‘Are you trying to tell me that if you had the chance to save your parents, you wouldn’t take it, no matter what the cost might be?’

Tidal stared at the floor. He could feel Sky’s gaze boring into the top of his head. ‘My parents are gone, Sky, and no matter what I do now, they aren’t going to come back. I can’t save them, but I can save you.’

‘Tidal?’

‘I won’t lose you, Sky. I can’t.’

Sky was quiet, not entirely sure what Tidal was saying to her, and not entirely sure what she was supposed to say back. It was Obsidian who broke the awkward silence.

‘I would be failing in my duty if I let you go outside. Besides,’ he nodded towards the man–spider, ‘I don’t think he’s letting us out without a fight.’