Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
“Riders to your dragons!” I heard someone calling. “Riders to your Dragons—Madlings have been sighted!”
70
AURORA
Anyone can blame me who likes, but I wasn’t about to stay inside while the battle was taking place overhead. I loved Ryse and he was my Wing Leader—I would obey him and not try to fly with the more experienced cadets, but I wouldn’t just sit in the Academy and wait to hear if he was all right or not. I needed to see what was happening for myself.
L’eesha felt the same way, of course. She was already waiting for me when I slipped up to the Caverns on Level Five. You wouldn’t think that a huge golden dragon could be sneaky, but she was as quiet as a mouse as we slipped through the honeycombed caverns until we came to the wide single entrance that had been kept open.
We stayed in the shadows, watching as the Wings mounted and flew out, taking their formations in the sky above. Then, when all of the dragons that were flying in the upcoming battle had gone, we went right to the entrance to watch.
I was a little afraid that the two elderly dragons guarding the entrance would stop us, but L’eesha told them to let us pass and they didn’t give us any problems. And so, the two of us were able to take up watch right at the edge of the entrance where we had a clear view of the sky above.
At first all I saw were the different Wings flying in formation. They were spaced evenly but each Wing was separate from the others. There were worryingly large gaps between them, too.
“If they keep flying like that, the Madlings will get through,” L’eesha pointed out.
“I know,” I murmured, but what could we do?
I didn’t see any Madlings coming and for a brief instant, I hoped that we had all been mistaken. The rising sun was lighting the sky and shedding light on the villages below the base of the Old Drake. I saw no activity there—the villagers were clearly staying inside—very wise of them.
I watched Ryse and M’alex flying at the front of their Wing and felt my heart swell with hope and love for both of them.
“i love them too,” L’eesha told me. “even when Ryse gets mad at me, I still love him.”
I started to laugh…but the sound died in my throat, which was suddenly horribly dry. Up ahead, where the Western Mountains loom, I saw it—a black smudge on the horizon.
At first I hoped it might be a trick of the light—a play of shadows from clouds, maybe. But the smudge kept getting bigger and bigger and darker and darker…whatever it was, it was coming fast.
You know what it is, whispered a dark little voice in my head. And you know what it means.
Death.
That was what the Madlings meant, always. No one knew where they had first come from or why they chose to hunt humans, but their bite was invariably fatal. Only dragon fire could cleanse their evil from the sky.
“They’re here,” L’eesha said, and I knew she’d seen the smudge too. Her whole body trembled with eagerness—with the instinct to fly and wipe that wrongness from the air.
I put a hand on her neck.
“Easy, dearheart. You know we’re not allowed.”
“I know…I know…” She shifted from foot to foot. “But maybe I should have them put my saddle on, just in case.”
I looked down at the Flight Terraces on the level below us. The Terrace workers were just standing there, waiting. Every dragon who was flying had already been harnessed and saddled. Now there was nothing for them to do but wait.
“All right, let’s go down,” I said to her. “Come on, it should be safe for me to ride you long enough to go down a level.”
But just as I was about to climb up her offered foreleg, the Madlings came into view.
I had never seen one up close—no one had and lived to tell about it. I had seen the pictures in the ancient texts, of course, but it wasn’t the same. In the books and old drawings, they just looked like oversized bats.
But what I saw when they came close enough was so much worse than bats.
They were much bigger than bats for one thing—most of the ones I saw were the size of a person—a large man, in fact. Even worse, their faces looked almost human—human but distorted, as though some dark God had made a corrupted creation and given it wide, leathery black wings and huge, grasping claws for hands and feet.
Their mouths were wide slashes in their faces, filled with tiny, needle-sharp teeth and their burning, sightless eyes stared blindly as they turned their misshapen heads from side-to-side as though they were seeking something.
As they came, I could feel their hunger—a single-minded purpose to devour. These creatures weren’t newly hatched, I suddenly understood. They had been sleeping for years—for over a century. And now they were starving and we were their prey.