Dragon Blood 2: Wyvern (8 page)

Kade’s arms tightened around Amber. “Don’t take too long. I want to get her home.”

For once Amber didn’t protest about someone making plans for her. With the chaos inside her head there was no way she could think clearly let alone make decisions.

“Who is it?” Brann asked.

“Paili. Kiani’s closest ally.” Rian’s words brought silence.

“Are you certain?” Kade finally asked.

“I soon will be.”

Silence filled the hallway again, broken only by the sound of Rian’s footsteps. Amber pulled back from Kade. “Would your mother be a part of this?”

Kade shook his head without hesitation. “No. But Paili and Ronan are old enemies. Although none of us thought Paili felt that strongly about him to risk current ties. We were obviously wrong.”

Amber turned when she heard a slight sound behind her. Ronan strode towards them. She was glad Kade kept his arms around her so she could lean back against him. She wasn’t certain her legs could support all her weight yet.

“So who is it?” Ronan looked directly at Amber.

“Paili.”

“That bitter old bitch? I thought she’d be over it by now.”

“Over what?” Amber asked.

“Nothing. It’s history. Are you certain? He wasn’t just trying to save his life, was he?”

“Rian has gone to collect the proof,” Amber said.

“Good. I’ll see it’s verified as soon as he brings it back.” Ronan smiled at Amber. “And you doubted my plan would work.”

“Guess I should know better by now.” Returning his smile was too much effort, but she did allow herself a yawn. “I hope Rian hurries. I want to crawl into bed and sleep for a week.”

“Does this mean you don’t want to hunt down wyverns after all?”

At this comment Amber was able to dredge up a smile as she turned slightly so she could look at Kade. “Dream on.” He wasn’t going to keep her safe in his castle while he went out hunting. She wasn’t the type to sit at home cowering in the shadows, waiting. He’d just have to get used to it.

Amber stared at the map spread out on the table in front of her, trying to suppress yet another yawn. She nibbled on the piece of toast she held and tried to focus on what Flinn said. Instead, her mind roamed and she glanced around the table to where Shannon sat beside Jasper, her warriors behind her, just like Flinn’s were. Crystal sat beside Flinn and Kade was on her right while Maira and Brann were seated at her left. Rian stood behind her as usual. In the corner of the room sat a man taking notes in the folder he held.

Testing had already begun and she hoped the man hadn’t noticed her inattention and was marking her down because of it. She tried to recall his name, but failed. It was something ordinary. At least she thought it was.

“Amber, Flinn wants to know if you and Kade are fine to take the northern entrance,”
Rian prompted her.

“I don’t see a problem with that.” Amber took a large bite from her piece of toast rather than smile like she wanted to do. It was a pity Rian couldn’t walk in the Void. He would have been able to help her out in class. Maybe she could hire a Gold Warrior to do that for her. Suddenly everyone around her started to rise and Amber hurriedly rose to her feet.

“Do you need me to give you a quick explanation of the plan?”
Rian asked.

She grinned at Rian.
“Was it that obvious?”

“No.”
He returned her grin fleetingly.
“There are four exits. Only three Gold Warriors. The smallest exit, which is the eastern one, will be attacked by Maira, Orin, and Shannon’s youngest warrior, Rhobert. Flinn’s team have the west and Shannon’s the south. You, Kade and Brann will take the northern entrance. Each team leader will keep communication open with their own group so everyone can hear the moment any attack plans are changed. And you were reminded to aim for the wings. They are not human and never have been. Think of them as rabid dogs.”

“And what will the scribe be doing?”

“Scribe?”

“The one sitting in the corner making a million notes about us.”

“Along with his staff, he will watch you from the Void, making more notes. And the testing will not be over until you have all returned to the castle and taken care of the injured.”

Amber stepped outside, popping the last piece of toast in her mouth. She really hoped that later she wasn’t going to regret having something to eat, but she’d been starving. In the castle courtyard, three dragon saddles waited. Amber stood beside Rian as Kade, Shannon and Flinn were saddled.

“I never asked you what you did with Doneele last night.”
She glanced towards Rian.

“I left her and her granny at a motel. I’ll find somewhere more permanent for them after this test. Do you need help mounting?”
Rian nodded to where Kade waited for her.

Amber shook her head and then was nearly bowled over by Crystal who threw her arms around her.

“Good luck. I’ll see you after we win.”

Amber grinned as Crystal ran back to Flinn and hurriedly strapped herself into the saddle. She did the same. “Okay. Rabid dogs. I can do this.”

“You better be able to,”
Kade warned her.

“I can.” She held on as Kade launched himself into the air, Brann and Rian on either side of him. As they drew closer to the wyvern nest, Rian dropped back so the ‘scribe’ could clearly see he wasn’t interfering in the test.

Amber felt a moment of fear when the first wyvern flew out of the nest towards her. She couldn’t resist reaching out with her mind to check that it was like a rabid dog. A shudder went through her as she made contact with its mind. Nothing sane there. Rabid dog was too kind a description. She momentarily froze, then all the hours of practice kicked in and she flung balls of fire at its wings. The screech it made as it plummeted to the ground brought more wyverns pouring from the nest. Amber’s mouth fell open at the sight of them. They were meant to take out all of these?

She frantically threw fireballs as Kade dived in amongst them, slashing and retreating. Brann did the same and Amber had to keep an eye on where he was so she didn’t accidentally hit him by mistake. At times, the day seemed full of shadows as the wyverns blocked the sunlight from them. With the way Kade flew, Amber was glad to be strapped in.

“Down.”

She flattened herself against Kade, at his command, and felt the air rush by her as they slid through a crowd of wyverns. As soon as they were past, Kade wheeled and headed back to them. Amber sat up and launched two fireballs before she had to press herself against Kade again. This was going to take them all day. Or did they have the bulk of the creatures? Surely each team weren’t fighting this amount of wyverns.

Amber soon learned the quickest way to deal with them was to throw fireballs at their wings. It was the same area Kade and Brann aimed for when they slashed at the wyverns. It was the wyverns and dragons’ biggest weakness. From the heights they flew at, survival was impossible once the wings were disabled.

“Amber, are you hurt?”
Kade asked.

“Her upper left arm. It’s little more than a scratch. She should be able to heal it herself,”
Rian said.

Amber looked at her arm in surprise and noticed blood dripped onto Kade. A ten centimetre long gash ran along her arm. Pain burst through her as soon as she noticed it. She pressed a hand against the wound and focused on healing. She hated to think what Rian considered a gash if this was a scratch. It took her a few seconds to find the small amount of dragon blood running through her veins. It was only this that enabled her to heal.

“I think I’ve taken a bit more than a scratch.”
Brann angled down sharply, one wing barely working. Two wyverns took off after him.

Amber couldn’t throw fireballs at the wyverns without risking Brann and was relieved when Kade flew towards him. Her relief was short lived when a cluster of wyverns came at them.

“I can’t get to you, Brann.”
Kade took a quick turn to the left, trying to avoid the wyverns.

Amber clung tightly as she saw a wyvern grab hold of Brann and try to rip into his unharmed wing. Brann twisted in midair, trying to dislodge the creature.

“I can’t get it off me,”
Brann called.

“Rian, help him,”
Kade ordered.

“If I help, you will fail,”
Rian warned.

Kade didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“His life is worth more than the test.”

Amber took a deep breath.
“Hold off, Rian.”
She unsnapped the harness and turned into a goshawk. Her smaller size made it easier to fly through the gaps between the wyverns. A second wyvern latched onto Brann and he started to rapidly loose altitude.

She reached Brann, claws outstretched as she tore at the second wyvern’s wings. It left Brann to attack her. Amber darted out of the way of its barbed, serpent like tail and went for the wings again. She screeched in victory as the wyvern plummeted away and she turned back to Brann who struggled with the other wyvern. She harried it, going for the wings. It refused to let go. She aimed for the red eyes, barely being missed by sharp fangs as the wyvern’s mouth snapped closed.

“You better deal with him fast, Amber. At this rate I’ll have streamers instead of wings,”
Brann warned.

“This bastard is already flying streamers. If he’d just let go he’d be eating dirt,”
Amber said.

“He’s not going to let go easy. I think his claws are-”
Brann’s thoughts became a roar of pain.

Amber launched herself at the wyvern, her wings wrapping around it as best she could. She tried not to think about what she was about to attempt as she became human.

“Amber! Do not do it. Whatever you are planning do not do it,”
Rian ordered.

Her human arms could barely hold the wyvern as it twisted and turned, trying to bite at both her and Brann. She felt fire pool in her hands and she forced it at the wyvern. Suddenly they plummeted towards the ground and she opened her arms wide, trying to focus on becoming a goshawk. She closed her eyes as she saw Rian hurtle towards her, claws outstretched to grab her. The change came and she opened her eyes to fly out of Rian’s grasp at the last second. She headed back to Brann, who struggled to stay aloft.

“If you pull a stunt like that again I’ll lock you in the dungeon.”
Kade wheeled in close. Several wyverns trailed him.

“Oh shut up. I managed it didn’t I?”
She landed on Brann’s back.
“Hold steady and try to coast.”
The moment he was, she became human. Her hands held on tight and her legs pressed against his sides as she tried to keep herself from falling off. She focused on healing Brann and watched in amazement as the tatters in his wings became whole. She laughed, letting go to become a goshawk as she dropped away from him. She flew towards Kade, ignoring Rian who followed as close as a shadow.

She wanted to shout with the rush of adrenaline that coursed through her veins from her stunt. Instead she had to make do with the harsh cry of a goshawk. She landed on Kade’s back.
“Steady.”
The moment he was, she became human and strapped herself in again. She couldn’t stop the grin that formed. “Yes! Let’s kick some more butt!”

“I’m going to kill you later.”

Amber could almost hear the growl in Kade’s thoughts. She ignored it to laugh and launch another fireball into the wyverns they flew towards.

Brann came up on their left.
“Don’t worry Amber, I won’t let him.”

After that, the battle seemed to go quicker, the wyverns thinning. At a glance below to the rolling green hillsides, Amber’s feeling of victory became a rush of nausea when she saw the carnage they’d caused. She quickly pushed that image from her mind and focused on the one of Brann being attacked by wyverns.

“Flinn’s team are waiting to enter the nest,”
Kade said.

“Damn. I wanted to be finished first,”
Amber said.

“I bet we have the higher body count,”
Brann said.

Amber shuddered.
“Great.”

Brann ignored the obvious sarcasm.
“I know, isn’t it?”

Amber couldn’t help smiling as she threw another fireball. She looked around for the next wyvern and was surprised to see the sky was clear. “We did it.”

“Not quite. We have to enter the nest and make sure there are none inside. Shannon only has a couple more wyverns to deal with and then we’re all ready to go in.”
Kade landed and Amber slid off him, her legs nearly buckling.

“I’m going to ache tonight.” Amber kneaded her thigh muscles.

Brann landed beside her and became human, quickly followed by Rian.

“Don’t start relaxing yet. We might have a lot to get through still.” Brann removed the saddle from Kade so he could become human.

“Time to head inside.” Kade led the way, Rian the last to enter, on Amber’s heels. They left the saddle outside.

Amber looked around. The large rough tunnel had plenty of space for a dragon to fly through. With the way her legs ached she half wished Kade had stayed in dragon form so she could have ridden. She soon found out why they walked.

“Over here.” Brann pointed to some disturbed earth and quickly knelt to dig in it. He unearthed four eggs, which he and Kade smashed.

Along the tunnel, they managed to find another seven clutches of eggs. The sound of fighting filled the tunnel and Kade held a hand up to Amber. “Follow well behind and look out for more eggs.”

Kade and Brann rushed ahead, becoming dragons as they did. Amber followed more slowly, Rian a couple of metres behind her. She carefully searched the tunnel, finding only one more lot of buried eggs. Her attempt to put her fist through the egg, like Kade and Brann had done, failed.

“Show offs,” she muttered under her breath as she threw the egg against the opposite wall. Her eyes shied away from the exposed contents and the other two eggs soon followed the first.

When Amber reached the central chamber, the fight was over and everyone searched for more eggs. Her eyes roamed around and relief poured through her as she saw everyone was there. They all had a few cuts and bruises, but they were alive and without major injuries. One by one, Amber checked them over and healed them. The last one she healed was Kade, who’d kept sending her to deal with everyone else first.

Kade pulled Amber back to him when she started to move away, one of his hands curving along her cheek. “You’re looking pale. You haven’t overdone it, have you?”

“I’m fine.” Amber ignored the slight tremor exhaustion caused in her body.

Kade smiled. “Sure you are.”

Amber returned his smile. “Can we go yet?”

Kade shook his head. “We have one more thing to find.”

“What?”

“The best part.”

A shout went up across the chamber and Kade linked his fingers with Amber’s as he hurried her over to the group that formed around one of Shannon’s warriors. Kade clapped him on the back as the warrior stepped away.

“Is that what I think it is?” Amber stared at the tumble of colour mixed with the dark soil.

“A wyvern hoard. They like shinny toys too.” Maira grinned as she reached out to pick up an uncut diamond and hold it at her throat. “What do you think?” She posed theatrically.

“Bag it up.” Flinn threw a hessian bag at her before he moved away from the group.

Crystal grabbed at Amber’s free hand. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

Amber giggled. “Not as good as a castle though, is it?”

“Oh my god!”

Amber laughed, tugging her hand from Crystal’s so she could drape her arm around her shoulders. “Think you might be able to say other words eventually?”

“Ohhhh.”

“Catch.” Maira called to Crystal as she threw a cut ruby towards her.

Flinn reached out and caught it before it hit Crystal, a glare sent to Maira.

Crystal took the ruby from Flinn to examine it closer. “It’s real?”

“It’s not made of glass if that’s what you’re wondering.” Flinn turned to Kade. “Are you going to join Shannon and me to check for stragglers?”