A shape lunged from behind, and threw itself at the dragon’s head, knocking its aim off.
In the gloom, lit by fire from below, green orbs peered down at me, before the tail wrapped around, arms reaching down, constricting.
The dragon’s head moved in response to the impact. Her fins flared, joining her body in obscuring the reptile’s vision.
The flaming fluids shot from the dragon’s nose, rather than its mouth, firing off to one side. It lurched, and it threw itself against the exterior wall that ringed the place.
I didn’t have time to worry about her welfare. There was only the Barber. Forcing me down with a strength that didn’t belong to Johannes.
My grip started to slip.
He parted the shears, shifting the angle. One blade at my shoulder, the other moving to one side. The ‘v’ of the blades slid closer to my neck.
I let go, collapsing, falling backward. I had an upside-down view of Mags, standing behind me.
Mags slammed the pipe together, firing a shot at the Barber’s head. He whipped around, one hand leaving the shears to touch the wound. Tendrils of ichor wrapped around his fingers in their effort to find and cover the damage.
“Go, Buttsack!” Mags ordered.
“Fuck you!” Buttsack replied.
“You’re bound!” Mags said.
“Fuck you, you lunatic! You’re fucking crazy! Call me forsworn! Nothing’s gonna happen that’s worse than me going out there!”
The Barber straightened. He coughed, a small sound, then said something under his breath.
White light flared, and he moved himself clear across the rooftop.
Face injured, arm injured. And I was largely unhurt.
I started to rise, only to collapse partway through the process.
I blinked.
The arm I’d used to grab him was hurt. My legs weren’t functioning right. Even my back, Rose’s back, was locked up.
The power of adrenaline had kept me going, strength of fear, but it wasn’t capable of undoing damage.
Mags did something to move the fire around, stepping out of the stairwell. She offered me a hand. I was in the process of accepting it when other hands seized me, lifting me up from behind. Peter.
Paige was still at the rear, crouched down, her attention on the dragon and Green Eyes. The thing was bucking, clawing blindly at a foe it hadn’t seen, putting holes in the wall and gouges in the ground.
I could have gone after the Barber, pursued the fight. It even made sense, on a level, given the role he played.
But Green Eyes was a priority. Taking on the one enemy here we could theoretically kill came a close second.
The dragon wretch, as I turned my back on our antagonist to focus on the reptile, was different than it had been. Mangier, in the same way that a person left to fend for themselves in the wilderness might look tougher and more dangerous, even if it was only hardship that painted that picture. The scales were ragged, but bristled like saw blades, there was a feral look in its eyes that hadn’t been there before, and it was leaner, narrower, with more muscle.
I moved, and I was surprised at how bad I was at that simple action. Moving. Putting one foot in front of the other.
The dragon wasn’t a complete being. It had weaknesses.
As it happened, I’d seen a cross section of the monster, viewing its insides.
I knew exactly where its heart was. Low in the chest. The rib cage was triangular, and the heart rested at the lowest point. I could see how the scales didn’t line up right. The Hyena in my one good hand, I aimed it to match the gradient of the scales, to slide under and in.
My lunge missed entirely, as the thing wheeled its bulk around. In the process, blind, it scraped its head against the wall, and Green Eyes with it.
Bloodied, twisted around, she lost her grip, dropping her constriction of the dragon’s head. She pulled her tail up and away as it opened its mouth. Its mouth was full of fluids, and they poured down to the base of the wall.
I backed away before it could splash up on or around me. I wasn’t very intact. Maybe only a quarter of my body was protected by the bogeyman exterior. Rose’s body was almost as battered, inside.
“Blake, guys!” Paige called out.
The Barber.
Moving his pipes in the air, a circular motion.
I felt it like a stiff breeze. I could see others touched by that same breeze. Hitting each of us from different directions.
The fire, too, was touched.
Fluids had ignited, and fluids now spread. Pushed by the effect, they were covering more ground. The larger flames stayed just as large, but got wider.
I was put in mind of Rose’s sprint through the illusory flames. Fire on either side of us, spreading, lifting, the gaps all closing.
Working to make the rooftop an expanse of dragonfire.
The spread was too fast. I climbed onto the only thing that was available. The Hyena stabbed the side of the dragon for traction, and my toes scratched at scales. Rough, sharp, they were traction, allowing me to climb.
Before I’d found my first handhold, my wooden fingertips were smoking from contact with the beast.
It lurched, very nearly throwing me off, and lowered its head to claw at the offending mermaid that was clinging to its upper face. She evaded the scratch and climbed over its head and onto its neck, to a point that head and claws couldn’t reach, between the dragon’s wings.
The dragon’s head turned to one side, peering over its own shoulder. The eyelid was torn, ragged.
I climbed up higher, but already, the wood of my fingers and feet was turning black, smouldering. I made a moment’s eye contact with Green Eyes.
“Thu!” the Barber spoke, and his voice had a ragged quality to it. “Fi!”
The dragon responded. Its head drew back, neck shortening. I could see spaces at the sides of its neck glow, as loose skin stretched and filled with fluids. Gorge.
Aiming for the others? The stairwell?
No. Mags was manipulating fire, and Paige was drawing out a diagram with glowing lines. The fire that Johannes was trying to move licked against the edge of the diagram, but didn’t pass it. Fire wouldn’t hurt them. Shouldn’t.
No, the dragon pointed its snout straight up.
Well, I suppose this was how dragons dealt with dragonslayers who thought they were clever, occupying the same blind spot as Green Eyes.
Green Eyes was shifting position, getting ready to pounce. I could visualize the scene, see how she would be too late. She might stop it partway, but she’d get the worst of it.
“No!” I barked out the word. “Here!”
I extended my bad hand, as I ran along the dragon’s back. I felt her take it.
We leaped together, though her leap was far more powerful. Almost enough to screw us up.
I managed to catch the edge of the broken wall with the Hyena. We swung out, and we swung around. I lost my grip almost immediately, blade skittering over stone, but Green Eyes saved the day, finding a ledge.
I dangled from her grip. I could see the firework spray of the fire spouting skyward, higher than the walls, though most seemed to strike sections of the remaining wall and pillars on the way up and the way down. That which fell beyond the confines of the rooftop spread out around us.
I saw two droplets strike Green Eyes, felt it in her grip as she reacted, whole-body, head bowed.
Still, she lifted me up, so I could use the same ledge for a grip. She fixed her position, and then clawed at the site of her wound.
We started scaling the wall, much as I had before. I paused to sheath the Hyena in a gap in my midsection, then resumed climbing.