03 Sky Knight (23 page)

‘What is happening to us?’ Obsidian asked, through clenched teeth.

Moon looked at him, and her eyes were filled with unequalled sorrow. ‘We are dying.’

***

Glass felt new power welling inside her, the power of a whole host of different people. She could hear their thoughts, taste their dreams and hopes, smell their fears. She was no longer one girl; she was a whole village. She was legion.

And every bit of that new power she released into the body of the Wing Warrior.

Every wish, every promise, every failure, every success. Everything that the Wing Warrior was fighting for, she gave to him.

And he was strong again. Strong in a way he had never been before.

He was strong as a nation.

***

With a sound like an ancient animal’s death rattle, the chain started to give way, weakening simultaneously on several links before shattering completely.

Nimbus fell in the sand, and as he lay on his back, he could see Tidal swinging his legs up onto the side of the cliff face and then shoving himself out into space.

With a terrific roar, and the thunderous flap of immense wings, Cumulo drove himself up into the sky.

Tidal twisted in the air, hitting an outcrop of rock. There was a sickening cracking sound and he spun around, striking the cliff a second time before continuing his descent. For a third time he made contact with stone, this time a ragged spire cutting a slash along his left side; and then he bounced limply into Cumulo’s outstretched claw.

‘No,’ Nimbus whispered, as the dragon circled down to the beach with Tidal’s twisted remains. ‘No.’

He got to his feet, watching in horror as Cumulo carefully laid out the body in the sand. He felt hot tears brimming around the edges of his eyes, and a gaping chasm opening in his gut. Tidal’s eyes were closed, and his arm was bent in a peculiar way. The sand around him was already stained red with blood.

‘Is he...?’

Cumulo shook his massive head. ‘He is breathing. Just. You should be with him. I will go for Sky.’

He thrust himself back into the sky, leaving Nimbus on the beach.

‘It looks bad,’ Captain Spectre said.

Nimbus crouched beside Tidal, and his tears flowed freely.

Behind him, unseen and unheard, the ethereal forms of Glass, Moon, and their familiars, broke on the gentle currents of the late afternoon breeze, and drifted away.

***

At the ruined watchtower, all of the Landmark villagers, and those other survivors who had gathered there, sat in silence. The beautiful woman, Moon, had vanished; and with her had gone that terrible feeling of being drained of their strength.

Now a change had come over every person who had been involved in that incident, and even though nobody ever spoke of it, they all felt that a new bond had been formed between them.

Now, they truly appreciated what it was they were fighting for.

They were fighting for each other.

The shadows continued to mass in the woodlands: Ugly, twisted, twitching shadows with jittering legs. But the defenders were ready for them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

‘He’s going to die, isn’t he?’ Sky asked.

Nimbus stared intently at the shattered thing that had once been Tidal. The shadows were lengthening as the afternoon gave way to the evening; in the faltering light Nimbus’s face was dark and mysterious, and impossible to read.

‘Nim?’ Sky said, when it became apparent that her question was going to go unanswered.

‘No,’ Nimbus said. ‘He’s not. Cumulo’s going to fix him.’

‘Am I, indeed?’ Cumulo said. His scales were now a healthy red colour as his strength gradually returned.

‘You fixed me. You can fix him.’

‘This is not the Tidal you used to know. He captured us, nearly killed us both. Whatever friendship you may once have had with him, it is long gone.’

‘That doesn’t matter. We were friends once, and I can’t...’ Nimbus drew a deep breath. ‘I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It doesn’t matter what he tried to do. He’s Tidal.’

‘He wanted to die,’ Sky said, moving closer to Nimbus and holding his hand. ‘I could have saved him on the cliff, but he didn’t want me to. He said as long as he was alive, he would be our enemy. But maybe, if he’s dead...’

‘He’ll be dead.’

‘Not if we remember him. Remember him as he was, I mean. Not like this.’

‘That’s stupid. We can bring him back.’

‘You don’t understand. He made some kind of deal with the leviathan. As long as he’s alive, he has to honour that deal.’

‘Don’t you want to save him?’

‘Of course. But not if he doesn’t want to be saved.’

‘Sky’s got a point,’ Cumulo said. ‘I can’t put him right unless he asks to be put right.’

Nimbus snatched his hand away from Sky. ‘Ask? And did I ask to be brought back from the dead, Cumulo? Did I ask to become a zombie?’

‘That was different.’

‘No, it wasn’t. I was dead. You brought me back without permission. It’s the same thing.’

‘The world needed you. It does not need Tidal.’

‘Who are you to judge that?’

Cumulo padded forwards. His eyes narrowed, and he puffed smoke in Nimbus’s face. ‘I am a dragon.’

Nimbus stalked away, crouching beside Tidal and feeling for a pulse. ‘It just doesn’t seem right,’ he said. ‘He was a friend for a lot longer than he was an enemy.’

Tidal’s eyes opened, and his mouth twisted into a wry grin. ‘Hello, Nim,’ he said.

‘Don’t talk,’ Nimbus said. ‘You’re pretty busted up.’

‘I should be dead. I guess you saved me again.’ He laughed, and the sound was a painful, choking gurgle. ‘Still playing the hero. Am I supposed to be grateful?’

‘Isn’t it time we put aside our arguments?’

‘Oh, Nim. We can’t ever put aside our arguments. We’re enemies now, whether we like it or not.’

‘It doesn’t have to be like that. Cumulo can fix you.’

‘If he does, we’ll just go straight back to fighting. That’s the way it is now. I threw myself off the cliff to put things right. For her.’ He nodded his head towards Sky, who was hanging back nervously. The terror of her day on the run throughout and beneath the island was still too fresh in her mind for her to come nearer, and the look on her face was as painful to Tidal as any of his cuts and broken bones. ‘Why couldn’t you just let me die?’

Nimbus rubbed his eyes. ‘We used to be such good friends, Tide. Why did you have to do this?’

‘I just wanted to be special. I just wanted Sky to notice me, like she notices you. It wasn’t supposed to go this far. But the Ocean King was there for me when nobody else was. And now look at me.’ He turned his head to one side to reveal his pulsing gills. ‘I’m not even human any more.’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to let you die.’ Nimbus rose, turning to Cumulo. ‘Fix him,’ he said.

‘Don’t you dare,’ Tidal wheezed.

Cumulo snorted. ‘You heard the boy.’

‘Fix him.’

‘If you fix me, I’ll kill you all,’ Tidal growled.

‘I won’t do it,’ Cumulo said.

‘I’m ordering you to put him right,’ Nimbus shouted.

Cumulo pounced forwards, causing Nimbus to lose his balance and fall. The dragon towered over the Wing Warrior. ‘You can’t ask me to do this thing. The boy is tied to a contract with the Ocean King. If we bring him back, we only condemn him to a lasting fate as the servant of evil. Let him go, and take away only your memories of what he used to be. It is the way of things. It is proper.’

‘Listen to the dragon,’ Tidal said.

Nimbus got to his feet, clearing his throat awkwardly. ‘If he wants to die so badly, let him, but don’t ask me to stay here and watch it happen. We should go back to the mainland.’

‘You’re leaving me?’ Tidal asked, with just the slightest note of panic in his voice.

‘You have kept me here too long already,’ Nimbus said, coldly. ‘There are people waiting for me.’

‘But...’

‘But what?’

Tidal closed his eyes, and swallowed hard. ‘I’m scared, Nim. It’s getting cold.’

Nimbus turned to Sky. She nodded, knowing what he was asking of her without needing to hear the words. ‘It’s okay, Tide,’ she said. ‘I’m going to stay with you.’

She came closer, and she could see there were tears glistening on Tidal’s cheeks. ‘Sky,’ he said, and the word came out as barely more than a whisper. ‘I never meant...’

‘Don’t you dare,’ she said. ‘After all this, after everything you’ve put me through. I don’t want to hear it.’

‘Don’t get too close to him,’ Nimbus warned.

‘I won’t. And I’ll follow you as soon as I can. But I need to tell you something.’ Sky’s expression brightened as she suddenly remembered why she had been looking for Nimbus in the first place. ‘Your father.’

‘Nim,’ Cumulo interrupted. ‘You need to see this.’

‘Hang on,’ Nimbus said.

‘This can’t wait, Nim. Look at the shore.’

A single, gold–scaled fish was flopping about on the sand, its mouth gaping, its gills pulsing uselessly. As Nimbus watched, another fish threw itself out of the surf, skittering along the beach as if it had developed a fear of the water it needed for its very survival.

‘This is bad,’ Nimbus said. ‘Very bad. Sky, grab one of Tidal’s legs. We need to drag him into the cover of the rocks.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Tidal grunted.

‘You’re in no position to argue,’ Nimbus said, taking one leg as Sky took the other.

‘What’s going on? Sky asked, as they dragged Tidal away.

‘The Ocean King,’ Nimbus said.

‘He can sense the coral,’ Tidal laughed. ‘He’s come to reclaim his throne. Doesn’t look like any of us will be getting off this island after all.’

‘Shut up,’ Nimbus snapped. ‘Sky, stay among the rocks. Cumulo and I will deal with this monster once and for all. You’ll see.’

Nimbus ran back to the beach where Cumulo was pacing and flexing his wings. The sea was a frothing white mass as hundreds of fish hurled themselves onto dry land, and hundreds more darted and flickered just beneath the surface of the water.

‘I’m still weak,’ Cumulo muttered.

‘You’re strong enough to fight, aren’t you?’ Nimbus had drawn Venom, and in light of the gigantic thing they were preparing to face, the spirit blade seemed stupidly small and insignificant. ‘Fighting together, he can’t beat us, can he?’

‘He beat me when I was at full strength. As I am now, I do not think this is a fight we can win.’

‘Great. Just the news I was hoping for.’

The dragon growled, and the colour of his scales changed several times before settling on a deep red. Smoke began to curl around his nostrils, and Nimbus could feel the heat emanating from Cumulo’s body as his insides filled with fire. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I intend to make that thing pay for what it did to me.’

The ocean continued to boil, foaming and bubbling as panicking fish thrashed around, squelching and flopping and dying in miserable torment.

Sweat sprang up on Nimbus’s brow as he prepared himself for what had to be done. He was afraid: More afraid than when he had faced Sorrow back at Landmark; more afraid even than when he had travelled to Blood Stone to meet with the vampyr. He wanted to run. He was tired and weak and scared; and it would be so easy to run. But cowering in the rocks behind him was Sky, and no matter how afraid he was, he knew he had to stand his ground.

There was a gurgling scream, like a vent opening on the ocean floor and releasing a hot geyser of superheated water; and then surging up through the shoals of dying fish and seaweed there came the Ocean King, an immense beast of unquestionable power and tangible evil: a force of destruction greater than the sea itself, from which nothing was safe, and before which no human could stand.

‘Here he comes,’ Nimbus said.

The serpent’s arching, muscular neck thrust out of the water, and he loomed over the beach with his teeth bared and great trails of drool hanging from his jaws.

‘Do you have something of mine?’ he hissed, as his gaze came to rest on Nimbus.

Nimbus raised his eyes and jutted out his chin defiantly. ‘Your servant is dead,’ he shouted. ‘Tidal fell from the cliffs. There is nothing left here for you now.’

The Ocean King brought his head down, low enough for Nimbus to see the fish bones stuck in his fangs.

Cumulo spread his wings, making himself look as big as possible, and drawing the serpent’s attention.

‘Are you still alive, Little Lizard?’

‘It takes more than a jewellery–box necklace to kill a dragon,’ Cumulo said.

‘How did you do it? How did you break the chain? Even with all my strength, I could not.’

‘We’ve heard this story,’ Nimbus interrupted. ‘Now swim on. We have already told you Tidal is dead. You have no allies here.’

The Ocean King moved his head dangerously close to Nimbus, but the Wing Warrior stood his ground bravely. He was battered, bloodied, and bruised, his armour was ruined, and his strength was failing. But he was still the Wing Warrior.

‘I know the coral is close,’ the sea serpent said. ‘I can smell it. My scales tingle with the strength they used to know. Give me the coral, and I will let you return to the mainland to finish this petty war of men.’

‘You will let us?’ Cumulo snorted. ‘You’re outnumbered. What makes you think you can beat us?’

Wordlessly, the leviathan swung around, smashing his armoured head into Cumulo and sending the dragon thundering into the side of the cliff. Cumulo slumped on the beach, with his head twisted back at an unusual angle, and his tongue lolling out of his mouth. One wing twitched, and then the dragon lay still.

‘Cumulo!’ Nimbus screamed. He tried to run to his friend, but the leviathan had already moved so that his head was obstructing the way.

‘I think you underestimate me,’ he said.

‘I think you underestimate me,’ Nimbus snarled. He slashed at the Ocean King with the spirit sword, a mighty blow using every bit of strength and hatred he had left within him. The blade glanced harmlessly off the sea serpent’s scales, sending shockwaves through Nimbus’s body that made his arm go numb.