Tad Williams - The Dragons of Ordinary Farm

Tyler snorted. “Yeah, this is all great, but I really suggest we get moving again. Before something a lot worse than the mirror happens to us.” Like getting caught by guys with a helicopter, and probably with guns this time. He’d have to get the Carrillos going their own way before they reached the edge of the property where the copter had been. What did that Stillman guy want, anyway? And how had he found out there was anything unusual about Ordinary Farm?

They were out well beyond the last buildings, moving across the open hillsides on the far side of the valley, scuttling in and out among the cottonwoods and the stunted oak trees. Steve was still complaining, but not so often or so loudly-he didn’t have the breath. Tyler was just trying to decide if it was time to send the Carrillos off on their own when a massive dark shape loomed up out of the shadows, spreading its arms wide.

Carmen, who was ahead of the others, almost ran right into it. She shrieked and lost her balance, then fell and began to roll down the steep hillside. The thing leaped after her, bulky but quick as a hungry bear, and pinned her to the ground before she’d rolled more than a dozen yards. Tyler was frozen with fear until he saw the shadow bend over the panting, terrified girl. Tyler grabbed the first thing that came to hand, a piece of fallen branch not much bigger than his flashlight, and sprang down the slope.

“Leave her alone!” he shouted.

“Shut your mouth!” the shadowy figure growled at him. “And if you swing that at me, boy, I will beat your skin off.”

“Ragnar?” Tyler scrambled down the hill. “Is that you?”

“Yes, me.” He lifted Carmen up as though she was no heavier than a rag doll. “The question is, what are the rest of you doing here?”

Back at the top of the hill, Ragnar set Carmen on her feet, not particularly gently, and stared down at them all. “I am not playing a child’s game. Tell me quick why you are here. If you are the ones who fooled me with that glove you have bought more than a handful of trouble.”

“What glove?” Tyler asked, but when he saw the cold, angry expression on Ragnar’s bearded face he decided maybe he would do better answering instead of asking.

“And you swear this is the truth?” Ragnar said when Tyler had finished.

“It’s true,” said Alma. Her voice was small but surprisingly firm. “We wouldn’t lie to you, Ragnar.”

He stared at her, then at her sister and brother, and turned at last to Tyler. “I don’t think they would lie, but I know you have kept back truth before that you did not want to share. Is that so now?”

Tyler stared at him. He had kept back the story of the woman in the mirror-the one he thought was Grace. He didn’t know why, but he still felt there were things going on that he needed to figure out before he could completely trust anyone, even Ragnar. “I’ve told you all I can,” he said at last, and did his best to hold Ragnar’s eye. “So now you have to decide whether you’re going to trust me.”

Ragnar leaned toward him, lowering his voice to a whisper so that the Carrillos couldn’t hear. “Do not get above yourself, Tyler Jenkins. You learned much this summer, but the dangers here are greater than you have even guessed.” After a moment he straightened up. “A glove was left on the fence to lure Simos and me away from the Junction Road side of the farm. Someone has played a trick on us. If it was not any of you, it was likely one of our enemies. Tyler, take these children back to their house. You three, swear to me you will tell no one-not your parents or other friends, no one! -what you’ve seen and heard here. Swear.”

“We promise,” said Alma promptly. Her older brother and sister looked at each other, but then agreed.

“Hurry, then. Follow me until we reach the farm road, then Tyler will lead you home.”

They ran then. Within only a few hundred yards Ragnar was far in front, lost to sight among the trees despite the bright moonlight. Tyler had just turned back to encourage Steve, who was lagging behind again, when something huge plummeted out of the sky, blocking the stars and-for one terrifying second-even the moon. Carmen shouted in surprise. Steve tripped and fell. For the first second or two Tyler thought it was the helicopter bearing down on them like something in a war movie, but the thing was almost entirely silent-no helicopter sounds at all.

And then a thin voice, full of panic, floated to him from high above-a voice he thought he recognized.

“No! No! Don’t!”

The wind of the monster’s passage knocked Tyler back a few steps as its huge shadow swept over him, wings spread wide, tail stretching over him like a knife slash of blackness against the midnight blue sky. Then it was gone.

Steve stumbled to his feet. “Whoa! Do you know what that was?”

Even by moonlight Tyler could see the strange, rapt expression on Alma’s face as she stared after the departing dragon. “Grandma Paz was right,” she said. “It is the door to another world.”

“That was Lucinda up there,” Tyler said. His insides felt like a block of ice. “Lucinda.” But what would she be doing up there with that giant creature, unless she was… in the dragon’s mouth.

He began to run again, even faster.

With the Carrillos behind him, he charged up the last yards to the top of the hill. As they reached the summit Tyler could suddenly hear the sounds of a real helicopter, the steady, quiet fwop-fwop-fwop of its blades as it idled on the grassy valley floor. It was waiting for something-its running lights and the light spilling from its open door showed a last passenger clambering up the stairs, then the door slammed shut and the blades sped into invisibility. The helicopter began to rise.

“That’s Ragnar running down the hill,” Steve said, pointing at a figure racing toward the scene but still far from the rising helicopter, which was now at least twenty feet off the ground.

“He’ll never get… ” Tyler began, then a huge batlike shape dropped out of the sky. As he watched in horror it smashed into the side of the helicopter just below the rotors with a tremendous thump like a clap of thunder. The helicopter pitched to one side, wallowed for a moment in midair, then dropped unsteadily to the ground, but somehow managed to land on its skids. The dragon had fallen into darkness.

“Lucinda!” Tyler shouted, but someone grabbed at his arm. It was Carmen. Sparks began to pop from the doorway of the helicopter where it stood on the ground, its propeller still rotating.

“Don’t,” she said. “Those are guns!”

And now Tyler heard the cracks, distant but sharp as hammer blows. “What’s going on? Why are they shooting?”

“Maybe because they just got knocked out of the sky by a giant dinosaur with wings?” Carmen said. “You think?”

“But my sister-my sister was on that dragon!”

Steve Carrillo stumbled up and stood, wheezing. “No… wonder

… you guys never… call us. Sounds like you’ve been… pretty busy.”

Suddenly the field was splashed with light-the helicopter crew had switched the searchlights on, turning the area around the idling chopper bright as day. A shape was running away from the helicopter, toward Ragnar, who waved his arms from the other side of the meadow as if urging the figure on, but more pops and flashes came from the door of the helicopter and Ragnar had to duck down.

“Whoever that is, he’ll never make it!” squealed Carmen.

Then a new shape came from somewhere behind the helicopter, moving over the grassy ground in a blur, fast as a rabbit, but bigger-much bigger. Even with the bright helicopter searchlights Tyler could not make sense of it as it snatched up the figure escaping the chopper, threw it over a shoulder, and ran toward them, moving with what seemed like impossible speed. As the figure sped past Ragnar, the Viking turned and followed it.