The stone itself screamed as the Fell Dragon raked its massive claws across it, hauling itself closer to me. Eggs and I looked into each other's eyes, then into the yawning void that came to claim us. Vicious, sharp teeth framed what looked like an abyss, a howling wind of foul, hot breath wafted my hair back, and I covered my eyes with my arm. My breath caught in my chest, unseen talons squeezing the life from me.

  It would be so easy to climb onto Eggs and fly away. But Gertha, Sila and Sayo were down. I couldn’t leave them to any ill fate. We’d embarked on this journey together, and I would not abandon them.

  Better to die than live as a coward who betrayed his only friends.

  Movement caught my eye in the rubble ahead. Gertha had already been crawling toward Sayo and Sila, so the worst of it had missed her. She emerged in a cloud of dust and rubble. She glowed with a slight blue hue, and I realised she must have shielded herself. Her eyes were dark, sunken, and her mouth dripped with thick blood from the cuts her arrowheads had inflicted on her. Behind her, I saw the pale, injured Wyvern limping away, its head cowed.

  The Fell Dragon’s eyes glinted as they flitted to Gertha, its unrelenting advance never faltering.

  “Eggs,” I said softly.

  They looked at me, eyes widening.

  “Help me protect the others,” I said, hardening my voice and raising my blade to touch my forehead.

  There were worse ways than going out against a Fell Dragon. Much better ones, too.

  I didn’t think I’d get my death in a warm bed, but if the others could. Surely that would be worth it.

  Eggs looked at the Fell Dragon and shrieked. Then they launched into flight, rising high into the air and through a gap in the ceiling. Small pieces of the roof fell in their wake, and against the sky I saw their rapidly shrinking silhouette.

  The howling thunderstorm that was the roar of the Fell Dragon knocked us to our feet as the gargantuan beast thrashed. Larger pieces of what remained of the hall descended like deadly rain, as the wind from our altitude began to pick up and batter us.

  Then I realised it wasn’t the wind. The Dragon was starting to flap its wings. I ran toward Gertha and scooped her up in my arms, immediately dashing for Sayo and Sila. Stone fell, smashing near my feet, one piece the size of my torso landing just in front of us. I felt something pull to my left at the last moment, and I avoided being crushed. More rocks fell where the Dragon had been supporting the stonework inadvertently, and pieces of flooring fell through to other floors beneath as the beast took flight to the sky. Dust and rubble trailed off its body as it snaked upwards, howling its ear-splitting roar.

  It was in pursuit of Eggs.

  “No,” I whispered. I’d expected Eggs to help me fight, maybe burn the Dragon so I could get close enough to its eyes to try and stab into its brain.

  Instead, they’d led the creature away. Protecting us.

  I just hoped the cost wasn’t too high.

  I could see Sila shifting on the ground, he was shirtless and he’d placed his hands over Sayo’s wound. I quickly realised he’d plugged the wound with his shirt. His skin was bruised and grazed, the Drake’s handiwork. I was relieved it hadn’t killed him.

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  In the distance, high above, I heard roaring and shrieking. Down below, I heard a city in chaos, fully ensnared in its own fear.

  “Sayo…Sila.” Gertha panted, she mispronounced her words, he tongue sounding like it was too large for her mouth.

  “I’ve got you. We’ll get out the way we came,” I said. I had no idea if it was safe, but they’d at least be able to evade the Fell Dragon for longer than I could. That’s all we could hope for.

  “Hold…Mother. She’s hurt…hurt bad.” Sila gasped.

  I knelt by his side.

  “Can you move?”

  “Just about, only just healed my sodding ribs, now they’re gone again.” He croaked.

  Gertha didn’t say a word, instead tenderly cupping Sayo’s face, who lay pale and still. Only the faintest movement of her chest and the flit of her eyelashes betrayed the fact that life still clung to her. Tears pricked my eyes, and I let them fall down my face.

  “I can…I can make it less…” Gertha breathed, and she placed the tip of Sayo’s one remaining blade on her tongue.

  “Gertha? What are you?” I started, but a crackling noise hit our ears so hard that Sila and I clamped our hands over them, screaming in pain.

  Gertha was wide-eyed, her tongue fully outstretched as the steel of Sayo’s blade bit into the flesh. It cracked and sparked as it slowly dissolved, dark acrid smoke rising into the air as Gertha gripped Sayo’s arm so hard her fingers turned white. Her eyes were utterly focused on Sayo, who had started to blink and move her lips; she clamped her hands over her own ears. Gertha leaned in closer, leering into her Hold-Daughters face as the blade continued to dissolve and a mixture of blood and salive spattered over Sayo.

  Sila had dropped the rags when covering his ears, and so the bloody makeshift bandage keeping her from bleeding out had fallen to the ground. My heart leapt, and I made to retrieve the bandage, being rewarded by a stab of pain in my ears, but I stopped in amazement. The jagged hole in Sayo’s side had started to smooth and round out at the edges. Over several heartbeats, it gradually shrank, the trickle of blood slowing before the closure finally stopped. Her wound was nearly a tenth of the size it had been before.

  The ear-splitting noise began to subside as the blade on Gertha’s tongue now resembled a dagger. A patch of crimson began to spread across Gertha’s side as she locked eyes with me, just before they rolled to white. My friend crumbled to the ground.

  Sila immediately held the bloodied rags to Gertha’s side as Sayo sat up. Clutching her own wound.

  “WE NEED TO MOVE!” I shouted above the commotion of a city in panic.

  I hooked my arm under Sayo’s lifting her to her feet. She winced as blood trickled out of her wound. I went to plug it in with my hand, but she shrugged me off.

  “I’ll…live. My Mother. Help.” She strained out.

  Sila had already gotten Gertha’s arm over his shoulder and rose shakily to his feet, gritting and straining through his teeth. I took her other arm, and between us, we took enough of her weight. We’d make it to the door so long as I could carry her. Sila and Sayo’s injuries were too much for them to do it alone.

  “TULLEN… FAL BARRAZ! FACE ME!” A scream came from behind me. I turned my head. A bloodied, but unbowed, blue-hued face snarled at me. Blood ran down a wound from the temple, curling around the chin and dripping to the ground. By all rights, Mavev Tlatz’s broken form should lie dead in the rubble, his overbearingly stupid name consigned to history. But here the fucker stood, his blade pointed at me without even the decency to shake.

  I swear he’d reappeared more often than that bloody Lindwyrm.

  “Get to safety, I need to end this,” I said to Sila.

  “Leave him…need your help.” Sayo gasped.

  “He’ll keep coming, catch us all, this is the only way to protect you,” I said as I stepped forward, pointing my own blade at Mavev.

  I waited for several heartbeats, watching Mavev, seeing how he held his offhand close to his chest, how his stance leaned forward, just too much.

  His eyelid twitched, and we both exploded into movement.