And if it doesn’t?
Then we try plan B.
Kanin cocked his head and half turned to face Khollo suspiciously. What is plan B?
Don’t know yet, the young Keeper replied grinning. Just find a boulder.
Kanin hovered for a moment, then swooped towards the cliff. About fifty meters from the ground was a boulder resting on a small overhang, torn loose from an earlier avalanche. Khollo thought it would be too heavy, as it was easily a meter across, but Kanin lifted it in his front claws without complaint, then wheeled away to the north gathering speed and height, turning in a wide circle.
Hold on, he warned. I will have to pull up quickly.
Khollo nodded and wound his hands into the fighting straps. He heard an ominous creak of leather, and looked down. Had it been his imagination, or had the frayed section he had noticed days earlier flexed slightly? Khollo let go of the fighting straps with one hand and wrapped an arm around one of Kanin’s spines, just in case.
Kanin was barreling directly at the cliff now, coming in at a higher altitude than before. When they were over the end of the lake closest to Dun Carryl, Kanin released the boulder and pulled up, climbing straight into the air and executing a backwards loop Ezraan would have been proud of. Khollo looked back, watching the boulder eagerly.
It struck the cliff face with tremendous force, tearing loose several more boulders and starting another avalanche. But Khollo could tell immediately it would not be enough. Already new rock had stopped tearing loose.
Enough of this, Kanin growled. I am a dragon. I will take the mountain down myself!
Kanin put on a burst of speed and drew up before the cliff, sinking the claws of his front and back legs into cracks in the stone. Khollo heard vertaga shouting, flinched as the ugly smack of crossbows firing reached his ears. But no bolts touched him or Kanin, instead skating harmlessly off the cliff below.
Their puny bows will not reach this high, Kanin growled. But I can reach them from here easily.
The dragon began ripping and tearing at the cliff with his claws. Boulders were yanked from the dirt surrounding them, bouncing and crashing and dislodging other stones along the way. Kanin continued ripping at the stone, climbing slowly upwards, Khollo little more than a passenger. As they climbed, Kanin continued ripping the cliff face apart, bombarding the vertaga below.
Khollo looked down, awestruck. Kanin had created in minutes what the catapults had failed to do for hours. Rock and dirt were cascading down in an ever-growing wave, widening to the left and right as the cliff was weakened. Great sections began falling away in long sheets of broken stone that seemed to fall in slow motion towards the vertaga below.
Then, Khollo was hit on the shoulder by something large and hard.
Grimacing, he looked up, squinting against the dust raining down. Unnoticed by the Keepers, the cliff above them had begun to crumble as well, rock and debris falling down towards them. Khollo ducked to one side as a rock the size of his head plummeted past, disappearing in the clouds of dust and smoke rising from what had been a battlefield not too long ago.
Kanin! Get us out of here! Khollo shouted across their mental link.
A large rock clouted Kanin on the shoulder, breaking the dragon out of his blind rage. Kanin shook his head, then looked around in alarm. Yes, we should go, he agreed. Dun Carryl will soon be gone.
Along with this side of the mountain, Khollo agreed. Now, fly!
Kanin pushed off from the wall, twisting awkwardly and hovering for a moment. As it turned out, he hovered a moment too long. A boulder crashed down on Khollo’s right arm, the one he was holding onto Kanin with. Khollo felt the bone break and he yelled, hunching to one side. For a moment, the flying straps held him. Then, the strap around Kanin’s middle burst and Khollo was falling.
“Kanin!” Khollo shouted, the dragon rapidly growing more and more distant. He saw Kanin turn, then his emerald bulk was rocketing towards Khollo, haloed by stone and dust, boulders following him down to the ground. Khollo noticed that Kanin was not gliding, but had folded his wings. Gritting his teeth, Khollo extended his good arm and his legs to try and slow his fall. He began spinning and jolting from side to side, slowing slightly. Kanin was closing, but Khollo could not see the ground. He did not know how much longer he had.
I come, Kanin said urgently. I will catch you. Just hold on.
Khollo felt as though he had been here before, then he remembered. Kanin’s dream. Or, perhaps, his premonition. Khollo was falling, and Kanin was struggling to catch him. They had lingered too long in their quest of destruction, and now –
Don’t say it, Kanin growled. Don’t even think it. I will get to you in time.
Even as the dragon spoke, the world went dark around Khollo and his eyes and throat burned painfully. He coughed and hacked as dust entered his lungs, stung his eyes, filled his mouth with a foul taste and his nose with a pungent smell. He could no longer see Kanin through the smoke and dust clogging the air around him.
I can’t see, Khollo said desperately, reaching out to Kanin. I can’t see. Kanin, where are you?
I sense you. I come. Nearly there.
Khollo twisted and looked back over his shoulder. He could not even see the ground amid the swirling mess of debris, dust, and smoke.
Then, suddenly, a dark shadow came into being above him. Claws wrapped around his body, miraculously avoiding his broken arm, and his fall slowed as Kanin spread his wings. Guttural
