Kael Wildborn's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

Kael's fingers dug into the rock. The ledge crumbled where the flowers had been, and his grip slipped one knuckle at a time. Below him the drop fell away into gray air. He pressed his cheek to the stone and breathed. His feet had a crack. His hands had almost nothing. He would not last long. He searched the wall for a new hold. Nothing. The wind pushed at his back like a hand trying to peel him off. His right hand slid. He caught himself, but he felt the last of his strength drain into the cold. Then he heard beating wings. Not the dragon that had left him. Something smaller, quicker. He turned his head and saw a young rider cut over the ridge on a strange beast. The creature had a horn like a spear and scaled wings. On its back sat Walnut, dark hair whipping, silver boots braced hard in the stirrups. Kael's grip failed. He dropped. He fell only a breath before something caught his wrist. Walnut had swung low and seized him. The boy's arm shook with the weight, but he did not let go. The winged mount held steady beneath him. "Pull," Walnut said. One word. He hauled, and Kael got a knee onto the beast's flank, then rolled up behind him. The creature climbed away from the cliff and hung in the wind. Kael gripped the boy's shoulder. "I told you to stay. You have a village to lead." "The village can wait," Walnut said. He did not turn around. "You couldn't." Kael looked at the mount under them. Its scales shifted color as it breathed. "Another dragon?" "No. It goes where dragons can't." Walnut steered it along the cliff face, past the dead flowers, past the high stone. "I felt the wraith turn on you. Same way I feel a current. So I came." Kael said nothing for a moment. He had left this boy behind to keep him safe. Now the boy had his hand on the reins, and Kael was the one who had needed saving. The mount carried them upward. The ledge that had trapped Kael fell away below. Ahead the peak rose sharp against the sky, and Kael saw, faint on the summit, the shape of a throne and a serpent coiled at its base. "She's up there," Kael said. "The witch. The throne is already hers." "Then we take it back," Walnut said. Kael's arm tightened around the boy. He had wanted to climb this mountain alone. That plan was dead on the ledge behind them. He had a mount now that ignored the mountain's rules, and a rider who would not obey him. The cliff no longer held him. The witch did not know he was coming with wings of his own.