That was an understatement.
The moment they noticed us, one of the manticores peeled away from the entrance, changing its trajectory to give chase. At the outset, it glided past without attacking. Taunting us? I tracked its location with unease.Was that dried blood on its face?We circled each other slowly, neither of us willing to make the first move.
All at once it lunged, accelerating toward us at breakneck speed. I screamed, but my fear was premature—Zorana’s control over her broomstick was absolute. As the manticore threw itself forward, she dropped us lower, speeding around to face the manticore once again, in a game of cat and mouse, each ofus jockeying for the advantage. This manticore didn’t roar in outrage like the others had been wont to do, it turned and regarded us with patient anticipation.
Some predators liked a challenge.
“Our turn,” Zorana said. “Ready your magic.” She tightened her hands around the broomstick. I squeezed my knees more forcefully against her body, temporarily loosening my iron-clad grip on her waist to grab a moonflower from my braid, its trumpet-like iridescent white petals soft and silky in my hand.
The witch leaned forward—and thenwewere the ones pursuing the manticore, zigzagging through the air in a haphazard pattern, trying to position ourselves above its head. The manticore swiped a claw and we pivoted; it lunged to bite and we lurched to the right; it whipped its stinger forward and we rolled a complete rotation, momentarily upside down, to evade its strike. I looked for an opening to use the moonflower, but I found none. The beast finally roared—now, we’d made it mad. Now, it was done playing games. And it wanted us dead. Abandoning its prior patience, the manticore barreled at us going full speed.
Zorana pointed her broomstick, and we plunged downward, shooting away from the trailing manticore. Rapidly, it closed the distance. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel its breath, hot on my neck. “Zorana!” I shouted, and she sped up, but it was too late—the manticore’s jaws snapped at my back. And clamped down on my satchel, wrenching it from my body with violent force. The impact jerked me backward. For an instant, I thought I was going to fall again, but I managed to reclaim my hold on Zorana’s waist, thanks to my knees anchoring me in place.
The manticore’s roar drifted farther behind; it paid the price for attacking too soon. All the while, we plunged swiftly downward toward the cavern floor.Surely it won’t catch us again.If anything, we were picking up speed. Fast, fast,and faster still.Wait, Zorana was planning to stop…right?Suddenly, it became clear to me we were dropping much too quickly, drawing much too close to the ground—
A scream tore from my throat.
At the last possible moment, Zorana leveled out the broomstick, so we never hit the ground. The manticore was less fortunate. Following close behind, it failed to stop in time, hitting the ground in a painful-looking impact. Taking advantage of its disorientation, Zorana finally managed to maneuver the broomstick as close as we needed. As we hovered, I dropped the crumpled moonflower onto the manticore’s head, releasing its magic. The manticore shook its head and started to stand, eyes stubbornly refusing to close.
Anxiously, I grabbed another moonflower and repeated my attempt to put it to sleep. The manticore rose slowly to its feet. Unlike the others, I could feel it fighting me. Rage or hunger or malice—evidently some ill emotion flowed powerfully through its veins, strong enough to keep it awake. Fighting me. A single moonflower was not going to be enough. I reached for another bloom, and then another. The manticore stumbled on its feet, then laid back down. I threw the last remaining petal onto its head and the last reserves of my strength into the magic.
Finally, it slumbered.
Zorana flew us all the way back down until her feet touched the floor. I dismounted the broomstick and immediately staggered a few steps. Apparently, my body still believed it was flying. At least, the woozy sensation in my head suggested as much. I stopped walking and waited for the world to stop spinning. “Can all witches fly that skillfully?” I asked while I acclimated to my surroundings. “Not usually,” she responded with a smile. “I just spend a lot of time in the sky.” She swung her leg up and over the broomstick so that she could stand.
I gazed across the cavern floor, counting five scattered manticores—sleeping, trussed, or knocked out cold.That’s all of them.Farryn, Tercel, and Corvin wandered over to where we stood in the central chamber. Were they laughing? I guessed that was a good sign about everybody’s well-being. Nix padded alongside them. Silently, I crouched down, and he jumped into my arms, eventually settling himself around my shoulders.
Corvin stepped close. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I struggled to hide the exhaustion in my voice. “I’m alright. Just tired. Like I ran around the island a few times.” I expected everybody else must feel the same after the experience we just shared. “How about you? Are you okay?” I asked in return.
Corvin gave me a roguish smile. “Like I said, nobody’s ever died on our adventures.”
As if on cue, a stalactite came crashing to the ground, not far from where we all stood.
I looked skeptically at Corvin. “Or been impaled?”
Zorana chimed in. “Technically, yes. But they survived.” She gestured toward the cavern entrance. “We should get moving. We don’t want to be here when the manticores wake up or escape their bonds.”
As we turned to leave, Tercel patted the closest one’s head. “Sleep peacefully, kitty.”
“Did he just pet that manticore?” I whispered to Corvin, who chuckled as we walked away.
“No fearandno common sense,” Farryn muttered under her breath, but with obvious affection.
I could feel Corvin studying me. “You’re limping,” he remarked with a frown. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“She’d be better if you hadn’t woken up those manticores,” Nix sniped.
I gave the cat a slightly chastising scratch on the head. “My hip is a bit bruised,” I admitted to Corvin.
A small storm cloud flickered in his eyes. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said with a shrug, and then we were stepping outside the cavern for the first moment in what felt like many days, but had only been a few hours. Our small group stood at the edge of the mountain, away from the cavern entrance. Tercel threw his head back and let out a long, drawn-out howl. Laughing, Zorana did the same. “You do all realize we almost died? Right?” I asked faintly. Tercel patted my shoulder good-naturedly. “All the more reason to declare our triumph!”
Farryn spread her iridescent pixie wings. “Someone will need to take Elvira.”
Right, we could fly off the mountain.No need to hike for hours when you possessed wings.
