Sam Bowring - Destiny's Rift

Night fell, and they stared apprehensively from the tree line. About half a league to the south stood Crystalweb, an island in the plains. Above, the sky was cloudy, and a few drops of rain were beginning to fall.

‘Maybe the rain will help?’ said Hiza. ‘It will be even harder for him to see us through it.’

‘Or maybe,’ said Jaya, ‘he will get distracted by trying to count it.’

‘Let us wait,’ said Bel, ‘and see if it gets any heavier.’

Soon the rain was falling hard and fast, while the air grew ever more humid. Bel worried that the grass would be slippery under their pounding feet. On the other hand, perhaps it would wash away their trail, and Olakanzar would not be able to smell his way after them.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘It’s now or never.’

‘Or later,’ said M’Meska matter-of-factly.

‘Now,’ clarified Bel. ‘Is everyone ready?’

Tense stares met his own, but there were dripping nods.

‘Everyone together then. One …two …three!’

They burst from the trees, moving as fast as they could. Their packs were light, for they had dumped everything but the bare necessities, but as the rain soaked through them they seemed to drag. Under their feet the grass squeaked treacherously – to Bel each squeak sounded as loud as an alarm bell, pinpointing their trajectory across the plain. More than once his foot sank into mud and threatened to send him sprawling, but each time he managed to use his momentum to carry him forward and keep going. Crystalweb loomed, spreading out across their field of vision.

‘We’re going to make it,’ said Hiza between breaths.

As if in answer to his optimism, an all-too-familiar roar came from behind.

‘Pick up your heels!’ shouted Bel, though the others needed little encouragement. He chanced a glance behind.

Olakanzar flew with flames building in his open maw, shining off broken raindrops that bounced from his back, waves of water shimmering away with each beat of his wings. He was catching up fast but not flying levelly …he was going to crash into them all.

‘Spread out!’ shouted Bel, and his companions raced off at diagonals around him. As his blood tingled with adrenaline, he felt his senses heightening: now he felt every raindrop that fell upon him, the air sucking through his nostrils. When circumstances change …but the path urged him forward, and he dared not turn and take a stand.

This is no special talent, hero , came a treacherous voice from within, to know that one should flee from an insane dragon bent on revenge.

There was a hiss of boiling rain as heat licked Bel’s thighs, and he knew he was just barely cresting the flames that sought to end him. The path veered off and he followed it, as the enormous bulk of the dragon rushed past and landed with a crunch that shook the ground. As Olakanzar thrashed to right himself, Bel dove under the heavy tail that went sweeping overhead.

Just keeping me safe , he thought. Not telling me to kill.

His companions were disappearing into Crystalweb, scant paces ahead of the dragon. Only Jaya stopped and turned, waiting for Bel just inside the trees.

‘Don’t stop!’ he bellowed, driving mud under his fingernails as he pushed to his feet. The sword at his side banged repeatedly against his legs, making him feel out of sync with the universe. He pounded straight past the dragon with feet barely touching the ground and Olakanzar snapped, but the pale trees rushed up to meet him. He blundered in, his speed almost sending him headfirst into the deadly carpet of broken crystal shards. He reached for a branch to slow himself down, and instead ripped it right off the tree. Leaves spun free as he dropped it, and he felt razor-thin shards cut him. To his left and right, his companions were now treading as carefully as they could, trying to balance on the white roots above the sharp detritus. He felt shards sink into his boots, prickling the soles of his feet and soaking the leather with warm blood. He scrambled onto a raised root, driving some of the shards further in, breaking away others. He did not yet feel the pain.

Behind them Olakanzar tried to smash into the trees, but found the thick white trunks sturdier than those of a regular wood. He wedged his body between two of them, trying to ram his way through, and an avalanche of leaves fell upon him. Bel realised that the dragon was, for the moment, stopped in his tracks.

He gathered his companions together. All were bleeding from multiple cuts.

‘Slow,’ he told them. ‘We made it. Catch your breath before we move on.’

At the tree line Olakanzar thrashed as shards spun at him, and his roars turned to a pained wailing. He froze for a moment, and saw them watching him. His rolling red eye shot a look of malice such as Bel had never seen. The dragon breathed a cone of fire at them but they were too far away. They felt the heat of it, though, and liquid glass ran down the trees. Olakanzar swept his fire back and forth at the leaves that came towards him, spattering his body with molten glass. Then, with an almighty push of his front legs, he wrenched himself backwards out of the wood.

‘We should find the path as quickly as we can,’ said Hiza.

The reason was obvious. In the storm, leaves all around were breaking free, a multitude of flashing blades spinning through the air.

They started to move, shaking, bleeding, trying to stay close together so that less of their collective skin was exposed. It was difficult, for while the roots they traversed were wide, they weren’t flat. On either side, rivers ran brimming with protruding shards, and a tumble into those might be as good as death. Threads of blood washed down their legs, staining the bark and diluting in the swirling streams.

‘Hold of me!’ said M’Meska. ‘I dig claws in!’

They were able to take a firm grip on the Saurian as she shuffled along, sinking her claws into the wood with every step, functioning as a kind of anchor for the group. However, since they walked as a clump, any who fell threatened to take them all down.

‘Oh, Arkus,’ moaned Hiza, from the front.

‘What?’ said Bel, from the rear.

‘The magic of the path,’ Hiza said. ‘I think it protects from more than just the leaves.’

In front of them a crystal spider lowered itself, working its mandibles and glinting in the lightning. Hiza swung his sword at it, almost uprooting them all with his follow-through, to send it clattering away. It sprang up from the ground, apparently unharmed, and skittered back towards them over streams and roots. Others began to descend from branches, wavering in the wind on the end of crystal threads. As Bel drew his sword one landed upon his arm, sinking in its fangs. In horrified fascination he watched his own blood travelling up into its belly. Then he yanked it loose, almost losing his balance as he flung it away as far as he could. It curled into a ball and bounced off a tree, flipped back on its feet and headed back towards them, along with others.

‘Of course,’ said Hiza hysterically. ‘Because this wasn’t bad enough in the first place.’

‘Jaya!’ said Bel. Facing so many enemies, he was beginning to feel himself being taken over by the spirit of battle – but he clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the tantalising promise of joy. He needed to get the others to safety, and whatever footsteps would keep him alive if he left the branch to whirl into the wood, he was sure would not do the same for his companions. Instead, as he mentally rooted himself to the group, patterns realigned, and at last it seemed that a balance could be struck.

‘Jaya?’

‘Yes?’

‘You’re a spry and nimble thief. You can run. So run! M’Meska!’