Syla realized that was exactly what she was doing. The other two dragons had caught up, making the odds four to two. The fact that one dragon had lost a rider meant nothing. The blue dragon flapped its wings, its eyes almost as furious as those of the humans as it smashed into Agrevlari’s side. The other dragons focused on helping their ally more than going after Wreylith, and blasts of fire hid the battle from Syla’s view.
She couldn’t tell if the flames seared through the spacebetween her and Agrevlari, or if they struck his riders straight on. Vorik might have magic to let him survive that, but Fel didn’t.
We near the sky barrier,Wreylith said, diving toward the ocean below.
“We have to help the others,” Syla blurted, twisting to try to see the other battle, but with the new angle, a red dragon tail blocked her view.
“It’s too far to shore!” Tibby called.
Though she didn’t want to abandon the others, Syla made herself look forward. Tibby was right. It had to be more than a mile to the shoreline. Thecliff-line. Worse, an obstacle course of rock formations jutted out of the sea between them and the uninviting shoreline, and white water churned dangerously around those rocks.
“Can you get closer?” Tibby pointed toward a beach in the distance.
“The water doesn’t look as rough there,” Syla added, hoping Agrevlari could escape the others and drop Fel off too. But when she looked back, the green dragon was struggling to evade their enemies.Threedragons bit and clawed at him, and was that anarrowthrough Vorik’s shoulder? As strong as he and Agrevlari were, they couldn’t fight off so many.
What Vorik had done or said to draw all their enemies from Wreylith, Syla didn’t know, but he was buying time for the red dragon to fly close to the shield. Had that been his intention? That Syla escape, even if he didn’t?
Wreylith glanced back with one eye, enough to convey a baleful expression.Pesky humans, you will get off where I drop you. I do not know why I did not give you to the human-tainted dragons. You are insufferable.
“I healed your foot. And your tail!” Granted, Syla hadn’t finished mending the tail wound and was using that tendril of magic as much to hold on as to knit the gash shut, but it had atleast stopped bleeding. “And I’ll happily heal any more wounds you receive.”
I am only receiving wounds because I’m helping you.
“Didn’t you get in trouble with the basilisk on your own?”
Maybe it wasn’t wise to point that out because Wreylith gave her another baleful look.
Tibby poked Syla in the back. To tell her to shut up, Syla thought at first, but her aunt was pointing upward and behind them.
Syla looked in time to see Vorik, his face drenched with his own blood, falling, and Fel tumbled off the dragon right behind him. Agrevlari was too harried by the others to fly down and catch his riders.
“You have to help them!” Syla yelled, willing Wreylith to turn around.
She and Tibby could wait if need be—storm god’s madness, she didn’t know if she and her aunt could even survive that swim. Through her tendril of magic, Syla tried to influence the dragon, desperate not to let Vorik and Fel die because they’d been helping her.
But Wreylith snarled, probably sensing the attempt at manipulation. She twisted and bucked in the air, the powerful whipping of her body breaking Syla’s bond and hurling her and her aunt toward the frothing white water and rocks below.
21
Fear filledSyla as she flailed with one hand and clasped her spectacles to her face with the other. As she plummeted toward the sea, the clear sky contrasted starkly with the dark-blue water and frothy white waves. When she plunged in, frigid water jolting her body, the force wasn’t as great as she’d expected, but she barely managed to keep her spectacles from flying off as the sea flooded her mouth and nostrils. She sank deep but didn’t hit any rocks.
One-handedly, she clawed her way to the surface, her clothes and pack making movement awkward. A wave smashed into her face and hurled her body several feet. She tried to get her head up, to look for her aunt and Vorik and Fel, but the sea taunted her. Another wave batted her like a crinkled ball of paper at the mercy of a playful cat. Would the current send her toward shore? Or farther out to sea?
For a second, as a wave carrying her crested, her face was toward the sky, and she saw someone plummeting downward, just as she had. She also glimpsed the red dragon flying in the other direction. Wreylith was done with her.
But was that Vorik? Or Aunt Tibby or Fel?
Another wave smashed water into her face, again trying to wrench her spectacles away and drown her, but not before she spotted someone splashing down. Vorik. He appeared unconscious. Or worse.
Again, Syla clawed her way to the surface. Vorik hadn’t fallen into the water far from her, but in the powerful current, she didn’t know if she could swim toward him. Still, she tried, willing whatever magic her birthmark would lend her to help her. Too bad she couldn’t heal theoceanto anchor herself or do something that would aid her.
But desperation lent her strength, and she managed to paddle in the direction she wanted. When the wave carrying her crested again, she spotted Vorik floating atop the water near a log. Beyond it, the jagged black cliffs were in view. From above, they hadn’t appeared so high and forbidding. At least they could guide her to shore.
Kicking and paddling, Syla angled toward Vorik. She had no idea what had happened to the others. She prayed to the earth, moon, and sun gods that luck would favor them. She even would have sent an appeal out to the deranged storm god if it might have helped.
Another wave brought Syla closer to Vorik. She reached him and the log at the same time. After flinging an arm over it for support, she gripped his shoulder and called his name, but his eyelids were closed. Though the water had washed away his blood, she could see numerous tears in his tunic and trousers, deep red gouges visible beneath, and a broken arrow shaft protruded from his shoulder.
And his head? He must have hit that as well. It was probably where all the blood had come from. Why had the riders all leaped onto him in the end?
