Billy looked back. An ice boulder had struck them, but the pair managed to stay together in the air. The group slowed down, so they could catch up.
‘Ling-Fei!’ screamed Charlotte. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I think my arm is broken,’ Ling-Fei said through gritted teeth.
‘I too am injured,’ said Xing, clearly in pain. Gold blood dripped from a gash in her midsection. ‘We cannot outrun them for long.’
‘What are we going to do?’ asked Charlotte.
‘I have an idea,’ said Xing, wincing as she spoke. ‘Follow me.’
Xing and Ling-Fei turned downwards and dived towards the lake. The others followed.
‘Ling-Fei, I need your help!’ yelled Xing, beams shooting from her eyes down to the lake. ‘Focus on our bond! I am not strong enough on my own.’
As they cut through the air, Billy saw the entire lake rise from the ground like an untethered balloon. It was as if the lake was falling upwards – slowly at first, then faster with every metre it climbed.
‘Hold your breath, children!’ cried Xing as the water’s surface approached. ‘And keep diving!’
Billy braced himself for impact as they shot into the lake like bullets. The water was cold and he fought the urge to gasp. Then, without warning, they punched out of the water, suddenly suspended between the floating lake above and the empty lake bed below.
Billy stared, wide-eyed, at the suspended lake above them. Even after everything he’d seen since arriving at camp, he couldn’t quite believe the sight of a lake floating in mid-air. Would it be enough? Or could Dimitrius and the nox-wings defeat anything with dark magic on their side? No, he couldn’t think like that. He had to believe that he, his friends and their dragons were strong enough to win. But, even as he tried to rally his courage, he saw Dimitrius and the nox-wings were already swimming into the floating lake above them, their expressions fierce through the distorted water.
‘Quick, Spark, now is our chance,’ shouted Xing. Spark looked at Xing, confusion on her face. Dimitrius and the nox-wings were going to catch up any moment now and, even though their bonds made them stronger, Billy was worried how well he would do in close combat. He knew he needed to use his wits to stay one step ahead of the enemy dragons. He looked up at the pursuing nox-wings cutting through the cold water, and wondered how they could be stopped. He remembered Spark using her powers to trap them behind an ice wall when they first met. And then the thought came to him. Spark, Xing wants us to freeze the nox-wings in ice!
Brilliant, Billy! Suddenly, Billy felt an electric cool run through his veins. Bright blue beams of light shot out from Spark’s eyes and into the lake above. He could feel Spark’s ice powers. He focused on their task and helped Spark channel the blast at the nox-wings until they had captured them in a single sphere of ice, like a snow globe. The nox-wings crashed against the insides of the sphere, trying to break free.
‘Well done,’ yelled Ling-Fei from astride Xing. As she spoke, the floating lake crashed down, plunging the children and their dragons momentarily in water before it returned to the dry earth beneath them. Dimitrius and the nox-wings remained frozen above.
‘Spark, Billy! Hold them for as long as you can,’ said Tank.
Spark nodded, beams still shooting from her eyes.
‘We don’t have much time,’ Billy said, his voice unsteady. He could feel how strong Dimitrius and the nox-wings were, and that his and Spark’s power was starting to falter in the face of it. It felt as though he’d been running for a very long time and each step was harder than the last. ‘I don’t think we can hold them off for much longer.’
‘I have never felt such strength,’ Spark ground out. ‘I thought only a human–dragon bond could bring that kind of power.’
‘Spark is right,’ said Tank. ‘The nox-wings are much stronger than we expected – from the dark magic. We will need all our strength and we must work together to defeat them.’
‘I cannot fly much longer,’ said Xing. Her voice was weak. Suddenly, her body slumped in the air and she fell from the sky. Ling-Fei screamed, still on Xing’s back. Billy cried out too, his heart plunging as his friend plummeted through the air. He wanted to go to them, but he knew he had to stay focused on holding the nox-wings in the ice.
Tank and Buttons lunged forward in a flash of red, green and gold, catching Xing and Ling-Fei and flying them down to a limestone pillar.
Spark and Billy followed slowly. ‘Billy,’ said Spark quietly, ‘I know you are overwhelmed, but I need you. I cannot do this on my own.’ The beams from her eyes flickered.
‘Ling-Fei and Xing are gravely injured,’ said Buttons. ‘It will take all my focus to heal them.’
Tank nodded at Buttons. ‘Restore their strength, friend. As quickly as you can.’
Buttons closed his eyes and went very still.
Billy felt the sound before he heard it. The pillar started to vibrate beneath them, rippling the water in the lake below and rattling his bones. A deep growl came from Buttons, almost like a purr, and it gave Billy renewed strength, which he channelled into his bond with Spark to keep the nox-wings imprisoned.
Buttons began to rock back and forth – first his head, then his arms and then his entire body. The purr shifted into a flowing melody. He thumped his belly with his paws in time to the beat of the tune he was singing.
And then great clouds of golden smoke were flowing from Buttons’s body towards Xing and Ling-Fei. As the golden smoke enveloped them, their wounds began to heal. With a crack, Ling-Fei’s arm snapped from a crooked angle back to its original form. Xing’s silver scales closed over the gaping gash in her side, as if it had never been there
