woman from town met her end? The dragon reared its head back and opened a giant mouth to show black teeth. “Look away,” a voice in his head said. But he didn’t.
Fire erupted from its mouth like a wild river of flame and destruction. The fire covered the ground in an instant, swallowing two of the buildings. Then as the dragon drove its wings down the force of the wind carried the flames over the rest of the center, curling up to meet the sky. Never in all his life had Keither even dreamed of anything like this. The dragon busied itself burning the center with a continuous stream of fire that must have lasted thirty seconds. Then it looked in their direction, following the cloud of dust from their frantic retreat. Two grey eyes with yellow where the whites should have been met his. As the first tree of the forest passed by him, Keither knew a new kind of terror, one that he knew would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. Of course the rest of his life was a relative term right now. Chances were there weren’t going to be any dreams now that he had locked eyes with an Iumenta dragon.
He looked forward, panicking. Now they were in the forest, but it was like a dream to him. Nothing was real. Just terror; that’s all that existed. Maybe he could use a script from the Jezeer. He thought, but he couldn’t remember them. Sound was gone, but then he heard that roar again and jerked in his saddle. Pixy was delirious with fear, not unlike her rider, but still running. She was trying to throw him off. It worked. The last thing he saw was the trunk of a tree.
* * * * *
Arkin reached out with his mind, trying to make contact with the resistance. The dragon didn’t pursue them, which had its pros and cons. The pro was that they were alive. The con was that it had surely sent people to come find them. He stretched again, hoping to feel someone, but nothing was there. They were holed up in yet another clearing that Legon found with animals, but this one wasn’t as ideal and they needed to move as soon as Keither woke up.
The boy had hit that tree hard and Arkin was sure that he was going to have a concussion. But that was better than death. For the first time in many years, Arkin felt a very real fear. So much work had gone into this whole thing and the people he was guarding were innocents. Any of them dying would forever stain his hands with blood. He repeated the fear script in his mind.
Fear is the blinder; I am the light and master of sight, I will master my fear and never again see night.
He repeated it again, controlling his breathing, changing his heart rate.
“Wh… what happened?” Keither asked as he started to wake up. Maybe he wouldn’t remember the dragon at all. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?
“You fell and hit a tree,” Kovos said, hovering over him. He hadn’t gone more than a foot away ever since they had arrived at their hiding spot. Seeing his brother awake, a look of relief washed over his face.
“Do you remember anything?” Sasha said as she checked his pulse and looked at his eyes.
“I don’t think so. The last thing I remember was a tree and that I was scared… because we were running from…”
Keither tried to get up but Kovos held him down. “It’s ok,” he said.
“No it’s not, no it’s not! I looked into its eyes! We are not ok!”
So much for hoping Keither wouldn’t remember.
“It’s going to be fine,” Kovos said soothingly.
“No it’s not, Kovos. I’m going to die out here and it’s your fault—your fault I came with you to warn Legon, your fault we left Salmont.”
“Keither, I’m-”
“You’re what? Sorry? You’re sorry for me getting beaten, sorry for me watching someone die, sorry for all this?”
“I don’t know what to say other than-”
“There is no ‘other than’! This is your fault that I am out here! If you want to go get yourself killed for Legon and Sasha that’s fine, but you didn’t need to bring me into it!” Presumably, Keither was only kept from yelling due to a massive headache.
Kovos looked hurt. “Look, I can’t change what has happened, and I told you that I was warning Legon about danger.”
“Then why did