tactics.
With a titanic effort, Nibbler broke free from the fluttering pack of venomous birds. Stretching his long neck forward, he strained his mighty muscles and put everything he could into creating some space between him and his opponent. Flying low over pathways and ducking beneath bridges, weaving between rapid explosions of fireworks, Nibbler twisted and turned and with each passing second managed to create a tiny bit of distance between himself and the cawing crows.
With a ferocious shout, the young dragon skimmed past the Jade Tower, dived through a narrow gap between two busy boulevards and, looping around the Torn Bridge, suddenly reversed his position so that he was flying directly towards the large pack of birds.
With a big grin spread across his face, Nibbler opened his mouth wide and exhaled a huge, spouting gust of flame.
The birds squeaked in terror. Battling to stop their headlong rush, they attempted to flutter sideways. About half the flock made it to safety, but the other half were engulfed in the roaring, flickering flames. Crispy lumps of feathered carbon dropped from the sky and shattered into piles of ash when they hit the towers and bridges below. The remaining crows fled shrieking into the night.
Nibbler smirked triumphantly. Beating his mighty wings in victory, he made his way back to the Ivory Tower.
63
The Long Scream
‘No!’ screamed Charlie.
Lunging forward, she sprinted across the rooftop. Leaping with her arms outstretched, she rugby-tackled Lady Narcissa as hard as she could. Narcissa bounced off Charlie, staggered backwards and teetered for a brief second on the edge of the roof before slowly toppling over. Screaming with fear and a terrible determined malice, she reached out, grabbed Jensen by the arm and pulled him down with her.
‘No,’ whispered Charlie, as she stared in shock at the vacant patch of rooftop. ‘No!’
Kelko knocked aside the last of his opponents, then rushed to the edge of the roof to join Charlie. Together they stared in horror as Jensen and Narcissa rapidly fell from sight.
‘OK, OK. Gotta save him,’ rambled Charlie, a look of dread spread across her face. ‘Gotta concentrate … I’ve got to concentrate.’
Raising her glowing hands, she focused at a spot a couple of metres in front of her. Frowning with an intense, driven look, she made a slight opening gesture with her hands. Warm light rippled outward, the air quivered and then pulled back to form a circular Portal, from within which a wild, high-pitched, almost girl-like screaming echoed out. It rapidly grew in volume until the scream sounded like it was being made by a distressed elephant. Whooshing into view, a very white-faced Jensen zoomed through the Portal … only to continue falling back down the side of the Ivory Tower with a horrible cry.
‘Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!’ he screamed.
Several seconds later he reappeared back through the Portal and once again continued to fall. Of Lady Narcissa there was no sign.
‘Er,’ said Kelko with an astonished look, as he stared at his friend, who rushed by screaming and falling for the third time. ‘Well, that’s, er … very good. I’m glad ya’ve saved him, blossom. But if ya don’t mind me asking, why haven’t you opened the Portal on to the roof? I mean, does he really have to continue falling like that?’
‘I didn’t know what else to do. He was falling too fast by the time I opened the Portal.’
‘So?’
‘Well, if I opened the Portal on the roof he … Well, let’s just say that he probably would have splattered.’
‘Huh?’
‘Well, it’s physics, isn’t it? I mean, he’s dropping really, really fast, right?’
‘Well, by that expression of fear on his face, I’d have said so.’
‘Well, if he’s travelling that fast when I open the Portal and he hits the roof …’
‘Aah!’ said Kelko, and made an ‘O’ with his lips as he worked out the logic. ‘I sees wot ya mean.’
Together the two of them watched Jensen continue his headlong flight, to repeat it over and over every four seconds. Sic Boy, fed up with growling at the unconscious guardsmen lying haphazardly across the rooftop, padded over to join Kelko and Charlie. He watched the hollering and yelping Treman with some interest. Surprisingly enough, Jensen hadn’t grown bored with screaming.
‘So, uh, wot are we going ta do?’ asked Kelko.
Charlie shrugged. ‘I think we’re just going to have to wait for Nibbler to get back. He’s the only one that can snatch him from the skies and bring him back safely.’
‘And wot are we going ta do until then?’
‘Erm, I’m not