Jandra went to her teacher’s breast and hugged him by the neck as she had done when he carried her in the harness years ago. She clasped her heels around his waist just below his wing-folds. The fog swirled as the door opened.
Vendevorex leapt. Jandra closed her eyes as they plummeted, the wind whistling past her ears. Then her stomach twisted as their downward momentum changed abruptly to forward motion. Vendevorex grunted with each beat of his wings. She opened her eyes and saw the stone wall of the courtyard mere yards away. In the half instant it took for her eyes to snap shut once more Vendevorex veered upward, clearing the wall by inches. Needle-sharp pains pricked along the back of her scalp as the rough stone snatched away strands of her flowing hair.
She opened her eyes again. They were flying above the forest. In the distance she could see the gleaming silver ribbon of the river. They soared far higher than the tallest spires of the palace now, and it seemed as if she could see forever. It was odd to be overcome with nostalgia while fleeing for her life, especially given the horrors she only just witnessed, but the sight of the world from on high brought back her earliest childhood memories, soaring high above the world, the wind rushing past, clinging to Vendevorex for warmth and safety.
“We’ve got a problem,” Vendevorex said, his voice barely audible above the wind. “We’re being pursued.”
Jandra looked back. A score of sky-dragons were rising from the roof of the castle. It was the elite aerial guard-the swiftest, most agile fliers in Albekizan’s army. Her heart sank.
“Oh no,” she said. “You’ll never escape carrying me! You… you should save yourself.”
“Don’t even think of letting go,” Vendevorex said. “Our only chance is invisibility. You’ll need to create the illusion. I’m too taxed at the moment to concentrate.”
“I-I’ll do it,” Jandra said. “I’ve been practicing.”
“Take care. You’ll find that the wind makes the illusion difficult.”
Impossible is more like it, Jandra thought. Vendevorex was good enough to turn invisible in the wind and even in rain. He could walk and fly invisibly while Jandra could only maintain the effect if she stood still. She could not reveal her doubts to Ven, however.
Jandra clasped her mentor’s neck more tightly with her left arm while her right arm reached into the pouch of silvery dust she kept on her belt. The wind snatched most of the dust from her grasp the second she pulled her hand free, carrying it beyond the range of her control. She knitted her brow in concentration, envisioning each individual particle of dust in her palm, feeling it come to life. She released it, and with effort kept enough of the dust close to her to make the light deflection possible. The tiara on her brow grew warm as she extended the control field, bending the flight of the dust to her will, swirling the motes into a sphere large enough to encompass Vendevorex’s wingspan. Suddenly the sunlight dimmed as the particles began to follow the reflective pattern Vendevorex had taught her.
“Well done,” Vendevorex said, his voice weak. “Maintain control. And please, ever so slightly, relax your arm.”
“Sorry,” Jandra said, realizing she was choking him. As she thought of this the sunlight brightened once more. She gritted her teeth and snapped the dust back into the pattern.
“I can’t believe I’m getting this to work,” she said. “I’ve screwed it up every time I’ve ever tried it.”
“You’ve put in the practice,” Vendevorex said. “All you’ve lacked, perhaps, was the motivation.”
The pursuing dragons drew closer now, but their heads swayed from side to side, searching. Ven actually slowed his pace, dropping low, skimming over the tree branches. The guards pressed forward, passing above them, traveling in the direction Vendevorex had held the whole time they’d been visible. A lone straggler remained behind them.
“We’re losing them,” she whispered as Vendevorex banked toward the river.
“I can’t go much further,” Vendevorex said, the strain evident in his voice. “Once we clear the river I’ll need to land. From there we’ll continue on foot.”
“Where are we going?” Jandra asked.
“I don’t know,” Vendevorex answered, sounding hesitant, even lost.
The wind around Jandra grew suddenly colder. She’d never heard these words from her mentor before, or even this tone. Vendevorex always knew what to do, always had everything plotted and planned and under control.
Her mind drifted for a moment as she considered the implications. Then, suddenly, she snapped back to attention. The lone member of the aerial guard who’d still been behind them was diving straight toward them, a blue streak, still a hundred yards away, but closing fast. When she’d allowed her mind to wander the invisibility had been disturbed by the rushing wind.
The guard held an eight-foot long spear in his hind talons. It zoomed toward them quicker than she could think, closing the distance by a dozen yards a second. She tried to will the invisibility back until, with a sudden jerk, the dragon whipped his rear claws forward and released the spear.
“Ven!” she shouted.
Vendevorex jerked his neck around just in time. The spear passed through the air where his head would have been if he hadn’t looked back.
Alas, they were too close to the treetops. Jandra felt leaves and twigs snatching along her clothes until her shoulder collided on the tip of a pine. The tree was limber; it bent against her momentum, bruising her shoulder rather than breaking it. But it was enough to wreck her grip. Suddenly, she was falling. She closed her eyes as she flew toward the thick limbs of a second pine. The branches ripped at her as she skidded along the thick needles, then suddenly she was back out in open air, her limbs flailing. She opened her eyes in time to see the surface of the river rushing up to meet her. She tried to draw a breath of air but was too late. She smashed into the river, sucking water into her lungs.
Disoriented, she kicked and clawed, trying to make sense of what was up and what was down. To her relief, she broke back through the surface. She coughed out water then drew in great gasps of sweet air. The river wasn’t deep here near the water’s edge. Her feet found traction on the rocky bottom. When she stood the water was barely above her waist.
She staggered toward the shore, rubbing her eyes, half-blind from the water streaming from her hair. She stumbled when she reached the bank as her waterlogged gown tangled around her feet and she slipped on the slick rocks.
She crawled further onto the rocky bank, still coughing and spitting out water. Suddenly, the top of her head collided with something hard. She looked ahead and found herself staring at scaly blue legs with knees that bent backward and sinewy talons sporting two-inch, pitch-black claws. A long blue tail twitched behind the legs, catlike.
“Ven?” she asked, then looked up. It wasn’t Ven. The aerial guard who’d thrown the spear loomed over her, a long knife clutched in his fore-talon.
Jandra flinched as the guard reached for her.
Then, from the tree line, a voice: “Stop!”
It was Vendevorex. He stepped from the trees, looking more frightened than she’d ever seen him. He seemed smaller somehow, diminished in his fear.
“Please don’t hurt her,” he begged. “We surrender. We won’t resist.”
The guard turned from Jandra to face the wizard. “Don’t move,” he growled.
“No sir,” Vendevorex said. “Just please, don’t hurt us.”
“It’s not me you’ll have to worry about,” the guard said, stepping toward Vendevorex.
Then suddenly, the guard vanished. The small, frightened image of Vendevorex shimmered then broke apart. From the thin air before her came a muffled cry of pain and the sickening smell of burning flesh.
Jandra searched the sky. The rest of the aerial guard was nowhere to be seen. She clambered further up the shore and rose to her feet, shivering, chilled by the water and the close call of the fall.