02 Unicorn Rider (13 page)

‘That’s a big risk.’

Tidal shrugged. ‘She’s worth it.’

‘What if there are no horses in the stable? What if you don’t reach it before they get you? There are two of those soldiers and a wyvern around there. How do you intend to get past them?’

‘If I knew the answers those questions then it wouldn’t be such a risk, would it?’ He glanced around the corner. Each of the soldiers had a huge sword, and the wyvern’s teeth looked sharp. Fighting his way to the stable was not an option.

‘You’re really going to do this?’ Hawk asked. There was an equal share of fear and admiration in his voice.

‘I am. The question is, are you going to help?’

‘Me?’ Now there was only fear in Hawk’s voice.

‘I can’t make you. It’s your choice. You can either come with me, or you can escape from the village while I’m distracting the wyverns.’

‘I... But... I...’ Hawk’s legs were shaking so badly he had to lean against the wall. ‘The wyverns... I can’t...’

‘Okay. But if you’re going to run, make sure you don’t get caught. If I die here, I want to die knowing I managed to help at least one person escape.’

Hawk shook his head. There were tears of embarrassment and frustration running down his cheeks. ‘I’m sorry, Tide, really I am.’

‘Don’t worry about it. In a second I’m going to make a break for the stables. I would appreciate it if you could fire a couple of arrows at that wyvern or something, but then get out of here as fast as you can. Head for Crystal Shine and alert them to what’s happened. If we’re under attack then you can be sure other places are too.’

Hawk wiped the tears from his eyes and sniffed. ‘I’m giving you one arrow. I can’t guarantee I’ll hit anything while I’m shaking like this. Do you have a weapon?’

Tidal brandished a fishing knife. It was not a particularly long or particularly sharp knife. In fact, it was quite generous to call it a knife at all.

‘You’re braver than I thought,’ Hawk grinned, moving to the corner of the building and dropping to one knee. He drew aim on the wyvern and did his breathing exercises. ‘When I fire my arrow, make your move. I’ll be heading in the opposite direction by then, so don’t waste your chance. You won’t get another.’

‘Ready when you are,’ Tidal said, holding his knife tightly and thinking quite how short it was compared to the massive swords being carried by the silver soldiers.

A single bead of sweat rolled down Hawk’s forehead and into his eye. He blinked, breathed, blinked, breathed. Breathed. Breathed.

Breathed.

For a second his hand was completely still, and that was the second he fired his arrow. At exactly the same moment, Tidal started running.

‘Good luck,’ Hawk shouted, gathering up his things and racing off in the other direction.

The arrow lodged in the wyvern’s chest, and Tidal kept running, screaming at the top of his lungs and frantically waving his arms. The soldiers, seeing the wyvern flapping and wailing and thrashing as it snapped at the arrow with its beaky mouth, and seeing Tidal approaching so fearlessly, must have assumed they were under attack by some mighty warrior for they did not draw their swords and attack. Instead, there was a cacophonous scuttling noise, and both soldiers vanished from sight.

Tidal he ducked away from the hissing wyvern and leapt into the stables. There were three horses so he took the biggest one, and with a triumphant cry, he burst out onto the street, galloping towards Sky’s house.

Even before he had got halfway, the other wyverns throughout the village had leapt into the sky. Their gigantic shadows loomed over Tidal and his shout of triumph turned to one of fear as he realised he was never going to reach Sky’s house in time.

There was a whoosh of wind and noise, and talons glanced off the side of his head. The horse bellowed in terror, rearing up and throwing him on his back in the dirt. He did not even pause for breath: He crawled along until he managed to get back to his feet, and then he was running again, feet pounding, lungs screaming for oxygen. There was a horrible, meaty crunch behind him, and the horse went hurtling through the air. Bloody gashes along the poor creature’s flanks showed where it had been struck by one of the wyverns.

Tidal ducked to one side as he heard the next attack approaching. Claws raked the earth by his left side and threw up chunks of dirt and stone.

‘Tidal!’

A familiar voice.

‘Tidal! This way!’

Tidal looked around in confusion. He was still a long way from Sky’s house, but that didn’t matter. It was Sky who was calling, beckoning him anxiously from a nearby doorstep.

Nimbus’s doorstep.

Of course; Tidal should have known where she’d be.

He changed his course, thankful that he wouldn’t have to outrun the wyverns, yet still unable to ignore the twinge of anger he felt knowing that Sky had been with Nimbus.

To think, he had been racing off to save her!

Cursing himself for a fool, he ducked inside the house, bolting the door behind him.

Outside, there was a terrifying screech, and busy scuttling, but there was no attempt to break through the door. He was safe.

He was alive.

On the outskirts of the village, Hawk paused. He looked at the open road leading to Crystal Shine, and then he looked at the distant Grey Mountains.

Coming to a decision, he shouldered his sack of clothes, and headed for the mountains.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Tidal braced himself against the door until the scuttling and screeching had faded away to eerie silence. Only then did he allow himself to breathe again. Of course, by then Sky was hugging him so tightly he wished he had started breathing a little sooner.

‘Thank goodness,’ she was saying as she squeezed him to within an inch of his life. ‘What were you thinking? You could have been killed.’

‘I was looking for you,’ Tidal said.

Sky finally let go. ‘What’s going on out there? Those wyvern things are all over the place.’

‘Not just wyverns,’ Tidal said, looking out of the window. ‘Soldiers too.’

‘What do they want? Why would they attack Landmark?’

‘This is the base of operations for the last of the Wing Warriors and his dragon, not to mention the home of Cloud, probably the only person in the world who remembers the days when legends were still being written. If you were going to invade, this seems a pretty good place to start.’

One of the silver–armoured men appeared at the kitchen window. His face was concealed behind the metal teeth of his helmet’s visor, and no hint of his features could be determined. His cloak writhed as though it had been thrown over a nest of snakes.

‘Where did he come from?’ Sky asked.

Strata, who had been wringing her hands as she paced the room, stared at the soldier defiantly. ‘Ignore him,’ she said. ‘He won’t come in. Not yet, anyway. What they’re looking for isn’t here.’

‘You know what they want?’ Tidal said.

Strata shook her head, but said no more.

Tidal looked at Sky questioningly. ‘Is she okay?’

‘Not really. Everybody’s gone. They left during the night.’

‘Well, maybe that’s it. Maybe they want Cloud, or Nimbus.’

‘Maybe Glass,’ Sky said.

As soon as Glass’s name passed her lips, the soldier vanished from the window. For a moment it sounded like there was something speeding across the roof or along the outside of the wall; then with a crash of splintering wood, the front door was separated from its fixings. The soldier clambered inside.

With little thought for his own safety, Tidal grabbed Sky, and threw her out of harm’s way. ‘Run,’ he shouted, waving his knife at the soldier in as threatening a manner as he could. ‘Get out of here.’

‘Not without you,’ Sky said, snatching a frying pan.

The soldier paused in the doorframe. ‘One with a knife,’ he gurgled, ‘and one with a pan. Who should I fear most?’

‘Shut up,’ Tidal said.

‘You don’t have to die,’ the soldier went on. ‘Just tell me what I need to know. Tell me where Glass is.’

 ‘I’ll tell you nothing,’ Tidal said.

The soldier removed his sword from its sheath, slowly and purposefully.

‘You can’t intimidate me,’ Tidal said, sounding not in the least bit convincing.

‘I think I can.’

‘Tidal, come away,’ Sky said, clutching her frying pan in trembling hands. ‘This is not the time for heroics.’

‘You should listen to the girl,’ the soldier said.

‘And you should leave before I forcibly remove you,’ Tidal snapped, rushing to the attack.

The soldier reacted with blistering speed, punching Tidal square in the face. Tidal staggered beneath the force of the blow, but he was able to keep his footing; and with a ringing in his ears and the taste of blood in his mouth, he moved to attack a second time. The soldier jumped backwards, and as his cloak began to writhe, a skeletal, crackling noise filled the room.

Tidal froze on the spot, staring in disbelief. He had thought he was fighting a man – a human – but he was wrong.

‘That’s not something you see every day,’ he said.

***

Onyx had made good time, but the sun was already rising by the time Cloud arrived at the partially–rebuilt remains of Flint Lock.

The fort was a sad memory of what it once had been, and looked rather crumpled and worn as sunlight flickered on its broken ramparts and crumbling stonework. There was still much work to be done on the repairs, and many months of hard labour lay ahead for the team that would attempt to restore the stronghold to its former glory.

However, despite the mammoth task of reconstruction, the fort was totally silent. There were no stonemasons hanging from the gangways strung across the roofs and towers; no carpenters, locksmiths, engineers, architects, or artisans. If Cloud had not known better, he would have thought the place was deserted.

He patted Onyx on the side of the neck, as he eased the horse into a steady canter. ‘Good boy,’ he said. ‘I think you were faster than ever.’

Onyx neighed proudly and flicked his mane. He knew he had got here quickly, but it was nice to be told anyway.

Cloud dismounted in the mouth–like shadow of the fort’s gate. There was no sign of any guards, and nobody hailed his arrival.

‘No welcoming committee. What do you make of that then, Boy?’

Onyx shook his head. People had a habit of asking him questions he really wouldn’t know the answers to. He was only a horse, after all.

For a split second Cloud was overcome with a sense that he was already too late, that whatever he had been sent here to find had already assumed control of the fort and everybody in it. Then the gate creaked open and the feeling of dread passed.

‘There we go,’ he said, half to himself and half to Onyx. ‘They must have seen us coming.’

The courtyard beyond the gates was empty. Cloud would have expected at least a few soldiers to be marching or training by this time of day. He touched the hilt of his sword. Shadows flitted back and forth along the walls of the fort.

There was still no noise.

Cloud walked through the gates, leading the slightly reluctant Onyx behind him.

The sun continued to rise, but certain awkward corners and crannies of the fort remained dark and sinister.

Cloud drew his sword. ‘I think our friend, Private Clay, may not have been telling us the whole truth,’ he said.

The silhouette of a cloaked and armoured soldier appeared on the wall ahead.

‘Lord Cloud,’ the soldier said, in a voice that barely seemed to be human. ‘We are so glad you could join us.’ Other soldiers made their presence known, moving into sight like so many silver scarab beetles scuttling from a crypt.

Cloud moved around Onyx so that he was in a position to quickly mount the horse and make his escape if things turned bad. ‘Who are you?’ he asked.

His only answer was a creak and a thud as the gates swung closed behind him, trapping him in the courtyard.

‘Lord Cloud,’ the soldier said. ‘You will join us here, as our honoured guest.’

The more Cloud listened to the voice, the more he got the impression that it was not a voice at all, but only the impression of a voice by someone with no lips and no tongue.

‘I’m afraid I can’t stay,’ he said.

‘I’m afraid you must,’ the soldier said. ‘There is no escape.’

Onyx snorted, rolling his eyes.

Cloud let go of the reins and took his sword in both hands.

The soldier on the wall crouched, and with a chittering, clicking noise, four gigantic, hairy legs unfolded from beneath his cloak. The horrible, claw–tipped limbs reached down, latching onto the stone wall of the fort. Cloud could not remember ever seeing anything quite so repulsive, and his blood ran cold as the spider–soldier scuttled down the vertical surface of the wall towards him.

All around, other soldiers were clambering down into the courtyard, using their hideous hidden legs to move over walls and roofs with ease. Their obnoxious scuttling was something from a nightmare.

‘We could be in trouble,’ Cloud said.

Onyx nodded. Even he knew that.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Sanguine Mountains were harsh, unpleasant peaks that jutted up into the unknown sky like a crushed spinal column along the far reaches of the Western Borders. No humans lived on or near those fangs of snow–capped rock, and there was no clear path through to the lands beyond. The only things that lived there were misery and despair.

As Cumulo approached the cloud–wreathed mountains, he swooped low so that Nimbus could see the scarred ravines that crisscrossed the spires of formidable stone. Ribbons of water curled through some of the crevasses, continually wearing away boulders that the ice giants had dropped many thousands of years before. Nimbus did not care to know what sources those streams flowed from. He still remembered the terrible unseen monster he had awoken in the underground river beneath Sentinel Mountain, and he did not doubt that similar beasts lurked here.

‘Are you okay?’ Cumulo asked, feeling Nimbus shiver against his neck. ‘Are you cold?’