IT WAS JUST BEFORE LUNCH when Cyrusfollowed Fibian up onto Drache’stail. The armor smelled musky and felt thinly ofoil. Don’t fall, Cyrus thought, pulling his way up the dragon’s back. Heclung, white-knuckled, to the spikesalong the beast’s spine. The serpent’s scales shifted and scraped underfoot.
“We will fly on until nightfall, then find a place to bed-down for theevening,” Drache said, stroking his beard, “It maytake two or three days to reach the north depending on the wind.”
“Will the yeti definitely help us?”Edward asked, huddled inside Cyrus’ jacket collar.
“It would be in their best interests,” Fibiansaid, adjusting the bow and arrows slung around his chest.
The froskman walked across the dragon’s unevenbody as if it was flat, solid ground.
“We both have the same enemy, andwe both desire the same result.”
“Save your breaths until we are airborne,” Drachesaid.
The dragon rose to all fours and began to stalk towards the cliff edge.
“No, wait-” Cyrus blurted.
He sat behind Fibian, clinging to the serpent’sbarbed spine as if he meant never to letgo. Drache paused on the precipice.
“If you want to turn back, now is the time,” the dragon smirked, lookingover his shoulder.
Turn back and go where?Cyrus thought. He set his face in a mask of sternconcentration and fought back the urge to run.
“As you wish,” Drache said.
The rain had long since passed, but the sky was still dark, the windmoaning like a searching wraith. The serpent tipped himself over the edge.Cyrus’ world became a rushing mass of terror. The wind ripped at his ears; atthe rope looped around his chest. His internal gauges spun like mad clocks. Hisstomach screamed of impending doom. Againstall instincts, he fought back the panic, keeping his eyes shut and mouth bittight. Was the dragon trying to kill them?
The wind in his ears calmed, andthe descent began to slow. Then their course evened out, and Cyrus peeked an eye open. They wereskimming the waves. The water was white-capped and dark as coal. Cyrus peeredaround for land. He saw only the Himmel Horn stabbing skyward behind them.
“Edward, you okay?” he asked, his voice thin and shaky.
“I think so,” Edward said, still clinging to Cyrus’ collar.
Cyrus looked out and watched as the dragon’s armor-plated wings pitched and beat against the grey sky, sheets ofsteel buckling and sliding over massive shoulder blades. How could thiscolossus fly with such little effort? Cyrus thought of the yeti and what those giants might be capable of.
“If the yeti stronghold was able to fend off Rorroh’sminions, do you think it will be able to protect us from Rorrohas well?” he asked.
“Perhaps long enough to ready you for what you must do,” Fibian said, “but make no mistake, Rorrohis a rising tide. No one but you can stop her.”
The froskman looked up towards Drache’s severed stump.
“Many have tried and failed, but no one has ever been able to defeather. And no one but you ever will. We can help prepare you for what must be done, but it is you and you alone that willhave to end her vile reign.”
Can’t he see I’m not a hero? Cyrusthought, Can’t he see I’m not the one? How could he be so clever and yet sowrong? Well, he’ll figure it out when he wakes and finds Edward and Ihave fled…
Careful not to hurt his best friend under his collar, Cyrus pulled hiscap firmly over his pointed ears and wrapped his scarf tight around his neck.The wind bit at his hands and face and his body ached with clinging tension.
They flew for several hours, passing strange volcanic islands andcloud-ringed peaks. Cyrus’ lids grew heavy, andhe craved rest, but he dared not for fear of slipping from the dragon’s backand falling to his death.
They neared a distant island with high peaks and deep bays.
“We will bed-down here for the evening,” Drachesaid.
As the shoreline drew closer, Cyrus spotted anabandoned fishing village with several huts and boats along the water’s edge.
“I wonder where all the villagers have gone?” he asked.
The forests below were lush and green and as dense as the deepest,darkest sea. Drache followed the foaming coast totheir unknown destination. In a shadowy cove, near the tree line, Cyrus thoughthe saw several strange people, narrow and bent, peering out from the woods.Were they the villagers from the fishing village?
“What is that?” Edward asked.
“Some sort of castle,” Fibian said.
Cyrus turned and saw a tall, spiny structure, looming over a jaggedcliff edge. Below the cliff was a well-protected bay. And within the bay wasmoored an oily, black ship. Rorroh’s ship!
“Fibian,” Edward gasped, from Cyrus’ collar.
Fibian drew his blade.
“It is a double-cross!” he said.
“Wait, what?” Cyrus gasped.
His legs turned to jelly. He could not face Rorrohagain. He had barely escaped the first time. And this time she would have adragon. Drache veered left, his body flipping sideways.
“Aaah!”
Cyrus scrambled and grasped spine and scale, his hands slipping off theslick steel. Fibian sprang across Drache’swinding frame and leaped onto his head.He stabbed at the beast’s eyes and face. Drache roared,and his flight became erratic. Cyrus’stomach felt full of snakes. He could barely hold on. Fibian’sgoing to get us killed before Rorroh even has achance, he thought, fighting for a tighter grip. Drachedove for the forest, his body clipping the treetops. One caught Fibian in the chest. He came flying off Drache’smantle, flipping and reeling through the air.
“No!” Edward shouted.
If they lost the froskman, they were done for.Cyrus had to duck as Fibian’s flailing form whippedpast his head. Cyrus watched in shocked amazement as the froskmangrasped hold of the dragon’s tail. Without missing a beat, Fibianagain leaped and clutched his way along theserpent’s arching body. The dragon ducked into a narrow river valley, trying toknock Fibian off on either side of the wooded bank.This time Fibian sprang over to Drache’ssevered stump. The dragon seemed to sense the danger. He shrieked and corkscrewed.Cyrus lost his hold and slipped backward.
“Cyrus!” Edward shouted.
Cyrus slid into a row of spines, spun and clung to the nearest he couldgrasp. He hugged the horn with all his might and watched as Fibianheld his blade high. The froskman
