These weren’t wild Wyverns. Or even Wyverns at all. They’d once spent their time on four swift hooves.
My panic now matched Caliel’s. They were here for me. It was then that I remembered my dream—that clearly hadn’t been a dream.
When was I going to get control over my damned visions?
We can discuss that in committee later,Caliel grumbled.We are in quite the predicament here.With a blur of feather and wing, he darted to the left. Only to veer right again, as the fourth Wyvern appeared.
They are driving us,he said desperately, as he took the only open avenue—straight ahead. For precisely three seconds. Then he winged hard for the clouds overhead.
Can you get above the mountains?I asked.
Not for long. I do not have the Dragon’s resilience to cold.
Then huge shadows dropped down on us. Three Dragons that I didn’t recognize, and they weren’t alone. Each carried a rider.
One was a full-figured woman with flowing white hair. Aurora.
The Dragons pushed us back down into the valleys, and as Caliel ducked right and left, looking for a way out, another Dragon rider raised something to his shoulder.
The first volley of darts missed us when Caliel dodged, but it drove him right into the firing range of the other rider. With stabbing pinpricks of pain, they sank into our scaled hindquarters.
And almost immediately, Caliel’s wingbeats faltered.
This sedative is powerful.His voice was strained.I can fight off the worst of it, but I won’t be able to stay aloft for long.
No. If we went back to Victor now, he’d ensure we never got free again. I fought to subdue my panic.We need to find somewhere to hide.
That will only work if I can elude their pursuit,his mindvoice panted as hard as his body. He was outflying the Dragons, but not the Wyverns. I had the distinct impression that they could have caught us, but they now seemed content to wait for the drug to work.
They know what we house inside,Caliel stated, and he gave me a glimpse—the monster was spinning angry circles.
The clouds hid the very peaks of the tallest mountains.
Clouds.
Can you let it go?
And still fly? I will try, but we may go splat.
Perhaps this was not the best time for Caliel’s sense of humor to resurface, but it did help me to remain calm.Cara would say we need practice anyway.
Yes, she would likely say that, and so much more.And I sensed him open the door for the beast.
His wings did threaten to shrink as pale-blue scales erupted amid the feathers. But I was already reaching for what I knew had to be above us?—
Water vapor.
I seized it, and then, I froze it.
As Caliel struggled to stay aloft, a few bits of frozen moisture fell. I tried harder, and soon we were flying through a storm of sleet.
As the ice froze on our feathers, it hampered us even more than it did our pursuers, but that wasn’t why I called it down. The sleet thickened, and in moments, they vanished within it.
Caliel dropped lower, partly because he had no choice. Between the ice on his feathers, fighting the drug, and channeling the monster, he was weakening fast. I scanned below us—and saw a gleam against the rock and snow.
Water.
Can you swim?
