Last time I’d tried to take Lex on alone, and I’d lost badly. I was under no illusions that I could beat her and Adair in a fair fight, but to get the cure, I’d have to find a way to get past them. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before all my allies succumbed to the virus, too.
“Hey.” I leaned over one of the fallen mages, who was still conscious. “Where is Lex? Where’s Adair?”
Laughter rippled from his throat. “It’s too late… for all of you.”
The ground exploded, and the wyrm shot out of the earth, tail lashing, leathery wings beating.
“Shit.” I dropped the guy and backed away from the wyrm. “Miles, please say you have another of those mind control cantrips.”
“No, I’m all out.” His hands glowed. “We’ll have to use force.”
“No need for that,” Trix said blithely, approaching the creature. Its tail lashed, its teeth dripping drool onto the ground.
“Trix, don’t go any closer,” I warned. “That thing is lethal.”
“Not at all.” He waved up at the wyrm. “It’s just confused, isn’t it?”
“So am I,” Miles said. “But I’d rather not watch you get eaten. Get away from it.”
Trix whistled, and the creature descended, landing in front of Trix with its head bowed as if in submission. Miles and I both gawped at the improbable sight of the giant monster greeting the elf like a loyal dog and not a giant fanged beast.
“What the hell is going on?” I said.
Trix glided forward and petted the wyrm on the head. “The elves have always had an affinity with animals. Even creatures like this are easy to get along with if you know how to tame them.”
Nonplussed, I watched him stroke the beast until it made a contented noise, as though it hadn’t tried to kill us all—several times.
“This is the weirdest day of my life,” said Miles. “And yes, I include the vampire chicken incident.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “All right. Trix, would you be able to set that wyrm loose on the Family?”
“What?” he said. “No. Creatures like this one are calm under normal circumstances.”
“I wouldn’t call this ‘normal circumstances’,” Miles remarked.
“Not to mention the Family is hoarding the cure,” I added. “If we don’t get it from them, the Houses are screwed. Their house is north of the city, somewhere in the wasteland over there.”
“Excellent,” said Trix. “The wyrm can take us there. I’m sure he’ll be willing to lend a hand. Or wing.”
Miles and I exchanged baffled looks. “Help? How could that creature possibly help us?”
“Wait and see.”
Ten minutes later, I was riding on the back of a giant wyrm, over the city and into the wasteland to the north. Miles sat behind me while Trix sat in front, whispering instructions to make the wyrm fly according to his directions. I had absolutely no idea whatsoever how he pulled it off, but at this point all I could do was sit back and enjoy the ride. Okay, ‘enjoy’ was a relative term, but it was better than being eaten alive.
The citadel was the only obvious landmark from up here, a giant obsidian pillar glowing against our backs. Ahead of us, I could make out the shape of another similar pillar, further in the wasteland. Elysium was closer to the place where we’d ended up stranded than I’d thought… and so was the Family’s estate.
“Where is the house?” Trix asked.
“It’s north of Elysium.” I pointed. “Somewhere up there. The estate is totally flattened, but it’s where the wyrm came from so it should know the way back.”
Trix muttered something to the creature and we veered away up north. How could he possibly be communicating with it? If he could teach me that skill, it’d come in handy, that was for sure. I’d be able to get control over Neddie the zombie horse, for instance—but that was a lesson for another day. Before long, the wind picked up until I could no longer hear anything except for the sound of the creature’s wings beating below us. Then I recognised the shape of the rugged cliffs bordering the Family’s estate, the golden glow of the mines near-invisible from above.
“There.” I pointed down, and Trix murmured instructions told the wyrm to fly low enough for us to see the pile of upturned earth and metal. The illusion must still be in place over the rebuilt house, but I didn’t see Lex… or Adair, either.
“Looks abandoned,” said Trix.
“There’s a house down there covered with an illusion spell.” I indicated the spot below the chunk of metal sticking out of the ruined ground. “And there’s the mine where they get the material for their cantrips.”
A few miles west of the estate, I spotted an odd flickering across the air. Not a node, though it looked similar… and suspicious.
“What’s that?” asked Trix, pointing directly at the flickering lights playing across the air.
“An illusion spell, I think,” I said. “Let’s see what they’re hiding down there.”
We flew closer, past the node and towards the darkened pillar of the citadel among the ruined town. I couldn’t help thinking of the people who’d lived there, before the war. Before the Family had killed them.
A crack appeared in the illusion spell, and I glimpsed a large structure below, shaped like one of Arcadia’s warehouses.
I leaned forward. “I think we’ve found where they’re manufacturing those cantrips.”
“Bastards,” said Miles. “Wanna blow that place sky-high?”
I nodded to Trix. “Can you fly us lower?”
As we dropped in the air, something heavy slammed into the wyrm, which screeched in pain. I
