Emily Rodda - Sister Of The South

But Lief had ceased to hear, to smell, to feel. His mind was turned inward and his skin was prickling. For as the memory of Zeean’s faint, halting voice had faded away, another voice had taken its place.

… the Enemy fears dragons, it seems. Even two are too many for him …

The Shadow Lord had thought of everything. But he had not planned on dragons.

Lief opened his eyes. The Ak-Baba had almost reached them. He could see their eyes, like burning pools of madness. He could see their talons, flexed ready to rip and tear. He could see their beaks gaping, their needle-sharp teeth glinting.

He pressed his fingers to the amethyst. He called silently, but with all his strength.

Veritas!

And as he thought the name, more words followed it into his mind. He realised that he was remembering the strange, foreign words that had flowed into him from Doran’s soul stone as he pressed it into the earth.

Veritas hopian forta fortuna fidelis honora joy eu …

And suddenly he knew what the words were. Not a sentence, but a list of names. The most important names in Doran’s life.

He pressed his free hand to the Belt once more, running his fingers across every gem.

Veritas! Hopian! Forta! Fortuna! Fidelis! Honora! Joy eu! Come to our aid, I pray you! For Doran. For the land!

He felt the dragon of the topaz jerk beneath him, saw the dragon of the opal turn abruptly, its rainbow eyes blazing.

And then the seven Ak-Baba were upon them—the Ak-Baba were surrounding them, howling like savage wolves, snarling and snapping, claws and teeth ripping and tearing.

They worked as a pack, attacking from all sides, from above, from below. Three or four would distract their enemies by ferocious charges while the others moved in swiftly under the cover of their wings.

They were vicious, fearless, tireless. They bore the scars of countless battles and were filled with ancient cunning. But rarely had they faced two dragons at one time, and never had they faced a dragon aided by swords, and by the Belt of Deltora.

They screeched with rage as the dragons clawed at them and blasted them with fire. They howled as Lief, Barda and Jasmine slashed at them, preventing them from closing in. Diving at them from above, as fearless as they were, Kree drove his sharp beak into their necks, their heads, distracting and enraging them the more.

Then one fell—one fell, its throat torn open by a single slash of the opal dragon’s talons. Screeching and twisting it plunged to earth, to be engulfed almost instantly by the grey tide.

The dragons roared in triumph. Lief, Barda and Jasmine cheered. But the remaining Ak-Baba charged, shrieking ferociously, and the opal dragon’s roar became a bellow of agony as the soft underside of its neck was pierced by teeth like needles and claws like sharpened iron.

An Ak-Baba with a speckled head was clinging to the dragon’s neck, clinging to it upside down, like a giant bat. Blood flowed from the sides of its gaping beak, dripped over its clawed feet. Howling at the smell of the blood, the other Ak-Baba closed in. In seconds the rainbow dragon was lurching in the air, its body almost hidden beneath a shrieking mass of twisting, snake-like necks and vast, flapping wings.

‘Help it!’ Jasmine screamed. ‘Oh, make haste!’

‘It is finished,’ growled the dragon of the topaz. ‘This is how they end it.’

‘No!’ roared Lief. ‘Get below it!’

The dragon wheeled and soared beneath the struggling mass of bodies. Now the speckled Ak-Baba was directly above them, its ragged wings wrapped around the dragon’s neck, its ghastly body flattened against the dragon’s hide.

Lief and Barda hesitated, suddenly fearful that if they slashed with their swords they would fatally wound the dragon as well as the beast attacking it.

But Jasmine jumped upright, balancing on the topaz dragon’s neck as lightly and easily as once she had surveyed the Forests of Silence from the branch of a storm-tossed tree. Her dagger flashed as she reached up and plunged it into the back of the Ak-Baba’s neck, just below the head.

The vast bird stiffened. It made a hideous, gurgling sound.

‘Go!’ roared Barda.

Jasmine tore her dagger free. Lief caught her by the waist and held her fast, pulling her down as the topaz dragon sped away, and behind them the speckled Ak-Baba dropped like a stone.

There was no moment of triumph this time. Freed from its clinging tormentor, the opal dragon was twisting in the air, slashing and roaring fire at the other beasts tearing at its body. But its movements were clumsy. It was weakening.

And the topaz dragon was weakening too. Its enormous strength had been drained by the terrible struggle with the two-faced beast, drained further by the flight to the Plain of the Rats. All over its golden body, old wounds had begun oozing blood.

The Ak-Baba knew it. They could see the beast’s uneven wingbeats. They could smell the blood.

Shrieking, they abandoned the floundering body of the dragon of the opal, and sped in for the kill. There were only five remaining, but those five were as fresh, as ferocious, as ravenous for blood as they had been at the beginning.

They flew, screeching, through the golden fire and hit the topaz dragon full in the side. It lurched, tilted, lost height, its huge wings beating desperately, its spiked tail lashing. The Ak-Baba pursued it, surrounded it, moved in again.

‘This time, we are lost, I fear,’ growled the topaz dragon thickly. ‘But let us try to take another of them with us.’

And at that moment there was a roar from above them, and the sky seemed to explode in a burning mass of shooting stars. The Ak-Baba scattered, howling in shock. Lief, Barda and Jasmine cowered against the dragon’s scales, coughing in a haze of smoke that stank of singed hair and scorched cloth. And out of the heavens soared the dragon of the lapis-lazuli, wings spangled with stars, starry fire belching from its snarling jaws.

The Ak-Baba wheeled in the air, turning to face it, snake-like necks stretching, beaks gaping wide as they howled in fury. Then suddenly, one was gone, snatched out of the air. There was a sickening crack as its neck broke between vast red jaws.

And as its lifeless body was tossed aside, as the ruby dragon bellowed its triumph and the remaining Ak-Baba shrieked and howled defiance, a ball of emerald fire roared through the smoke haze.

Three of the shrieking beasts dived. The fourth was too slow. The fire ball struck. The feathers of its wings burst into flames and it plummeted to the ground, trailing a plume of fire.

Now only three Ak-Baba remained. Through the smoke and fire they could see five vast, glittering shapes, five snarling sets of fangs, five lashing tails. They shrieked defiantly, hovering, weighing the odds.

But when there was yet another roar, and a gush of purple flame lit the sky in the west, they twisted in the air and fled.

And the dragons did not follow. For by the light of the great, golden moon they could see the grey tide below. They could see it spreading before their eyes. They could feel its deadening chill. They knew what they must do.

20 - Full Circle

Speechless, Lief, Barda and Jasmine clung to the topaz dragon as it flew to take its place in the circle of dragons surrounding the grey sea. They watched in wonder as the dragons dropped lower, lower and hovered.

Then, without a word or signal, the dragons roared.

Flame gushed from their jaws. Flame of green, gold and scarlet. Flame of purple and silver-white. Blue flame filled with stars, and flame that burned with all the colours of the rainbow.

… the Enemy fears dragons, it seems. Even two are too many for him …