Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 13 of 46

By first light the torches had reached the ridge below. Violet counted the men climbing the low routes. Six, maybe more. They spread across every trail down the mountain. The brood was rested now, wings strong. But the men blocked the way out. If the dragons flew low, the men would loose their nets. If they climbed too fast in the thin air, the hatchlings would tire and fall. Violet knelt at the mossy cave mouth and searched the slope for a gap she had missed. A voice came from the dark behind her. "You brought sheep blood onto my clean floor." Violet spun, knife up. A broad young man stood among the hatchlings, sweeping bones into a pile with his hands. Antlers rose from his head. Patchy fur ran along his arms. He did not look at her weapon. He looked at the gold-horned hatchling nosing his boot, and he smiled like it was an old friend. "I keep this cave warm," he said. "Travelers hide here. I wave them in before they see my horns." He tipped his head toward the entrance. "Men with torches don't count as travelers." "They've blocked every trail," Violet said. "We can't fly out low, and the little ones can't climb high enough yet." The young man crossed to the back wall. He pushed aside a curtain of silver-green ferns. Their lacy fronds shivered and revealed a crack in the stone, tall enough to crawl through. "This runs up through the mountain," he said. "It opens on the far peak, above where your men stand. From there the drop is long. Long enough for young wings to catch the wind." Violet stared at the crack. A high launch. The hatchlings could glide down instead of clawing up. The men below would never reach that peak in time. "Why help me?" she asked. He scratched the fur on his arm. "You fed them before you fed yourself. I watched." Theo pushed in from the entrance, breathing hard. "They're a quarter mile out." Violet moved. She herded the hatchlings toward the crack, and the mother dragon squeezed after them, scales scraping stone. The young man led with one hand on the wall. The passage climbed and turned. Cold air poured down from ahead. Then daylight opened wide, and they stood on the far peak, wind rushing up the cliff face. "Go," the young man said. "They'll search the cave and find only bones." The mother dragon spread her wings and dropped off the edge. The hatchlings followed, one by one, tipping into the rising wind. Small wings caught and held. They glided out over the valley, far above Kael's men. Violet swung onto the mother's neck as she banked. Below, tiny figures reached the empty cave. They would find no dragon. But the far peak faced open sky in every direction. Kael's fortress lay one way. And there was nowhere left to hide.