Koji made a low rumbling noise again, though this time it somehow sounded more pleased.
They continued on in silence, save for the wind that whipped past Florian’s ears as they flew. The horizon ahead never changed, so he could only hope that they were going in the right direction—it felt like Koji was flying straight ahead, but the landscape was unchanging and indistinct in the blinding light, so it was only a guess. Between wondering about Thaddeus and worrying over how their next trip to the kraken kingdom would go, the time went by quickly enough—although it was hard to tell exactly how much time might have passed when the light never changed.
When Florian guessed it had been close to three hours, he felt Koji slowing a bit. It must have been tiring to fly for hours without a break, especially with the two of them on his back; it made Florian nervous, though, wondering how much longer it would take before they could land.
“All good, Koji?” he asked, patting the dragon’s scales. Koji made a sharp nodding motion, continuing resolutely.
At least they wouldn’t have to make the trip back. For all that Kade seemed uncertain about Florian using old magic, he hadn’t complained about the convenience of teleporting. Neither had Koji, but Florian doubted he knew enough about the differences between fae magic and old magic to understand it wasn’t something fae could usually do.
Suddenly, he felt Koji tense beneath him, a low growl rumbling through the length of his body. Startled, Florian snapped his head back up, looking ahead at where Koji seemed focused. He felt Kade grow alert behind him as well, leaning around Florian to scan the horizon.
At first, he couldn’t see anything. After a beat, as Koji’s growling continued, he thought he saw a faint shadow on the horizon; for a moment he was relieved, thinking it was finally land. But why would Koji growl?
“Shit,” he heard Kade mutter behind him. At the same instant he realized itwasn’tthe land he was seeing on the horizon, but some sort of Blight monster flying toward them.
“Oh, fuck,” he echoed, his mind racing. How would they fight off flying monsters while they were strapped to Koji’s back? Surely the monsters couldn’t live in the ocean—which meant that they couldn’t be far from land. The creatures obviously had better vision in the Blight than they did to spot them from this distance, but they had to be closing in on the shore.
“Koji, just keep flying,” Kade barked, one step ahead of Florian. “It’ll be better to fight over land than the water.”
Koji made a noise of acknowledgement, then surged forward.
“Florian, just focus on holding the shroud,” Kade continued. “And not falling off. Alright? Help if you can, but the shroud should be your top priority.”
“Right,” Florian replied, gripping the rope that secured them to Koji until his knuckles paled.
The creatures were coming into sight now, larger than Florian expected. They looked to be quadrupedal animals, flying without wings. They looked like lions, he realized—like the lion-dog statues he had seen in their weeks visiting shrines, and even around the palace in the dragon kingdom.
No one had mentioned that the lion-dogs could fuckingfly. The creatures were way too big for Kade to fight off on his own; there were five or six of them, as best he could tell from this distance, so avoiding all of them until they could reach the shore seemed uncertain. But it was the only real chance they had, so Florian leaned forward and called out,
“They can’t see us!”
His magic strained painfully as invisibility settled atop them over the shroud. He groaned, gritting his teeth to hold on to both spells at once, but it seemed to have worked. Even as they sped closer, the group of lion-dogs slowed, their massive heads looking around in confusion as they had disappeared from sight.
“Florian,” Kade hissed. “I told you to focus on the shroud.”
“Quiet,” Florian whispered. “I’ll drop it once we get past them. There’s no way we could fight through them.” Kade didn’t argue, either out of agreement or understanding that silence was paramount to their survival in that moment; whichever it was, Florian was glad for the lack of distraction. Koji seemed to recognize what he had done, too, and sped up while veering slightly away from the pack of lion-dogs, which were fanning out in a circular formation in an attempt to find them again.
They were close enough now to get a better look at what the creatures actually looked like. They moved with a strange stiffness even as they flew, as if they had once really been statues that had somehow sprung to life. Their faces were broad and more dog-like than feline, with thick tusks protruding from their jowls like saber-toothed cats, and huge bushy manes cascading all around their necks. The creatures were dark in color, and other than their manes, it looked like they were either hairless or had very short, rough coats. None of them had wings, but they flew by moving their legs as if they could run through the air, the same way Koji’s serpentine body seemed to slither through the atmosphere as if it were water.
One of the lion-dogs snarled and bounded in their direction—the others made similar roaring cries and followed. It had either heard them or sniffed them out.
“Shit,” Florian hissed, but the seconds he had bought them had been enough for Koji to rush past, so that the creatures now had to chase them. Their cover blown, Florian dropped the invisibility, and the shroud settled more comfortably over them. His magic was too depleted to do anything like that again.
But he thought he saw the beginnings of land on the horizon—Koji made a strained noise, speeding up, as if he saw it too. Florian felt Kade twisting behind him to watch the lion-dogs chase them.
“They’re gaining,” he said, drawing his sword. “Koji, can you go any faster?”
Koji snarled, but surged forward faster. Florian yelped, the dragon’s long body tossing them back and forth harder as he undulated in wide, rapid waves through the air. Kade swore under his breath, one arm wrapping tight around Florian.
“Hold on to the rope,” Kade panted, though Florian was already clutching the rope like his life depended on it. His lifediddepend on it. “I think we’ll be okay. They won’t reach us til we’re over land.”
Florian nodded, unable to tear his gaze away from the stretch of darkness on the horizon thathadto be the shore. Koji raced toward it as Florian and Kade clung to his back, the sound of the lion-dogs’ half-roar and half-bark drawing steadily closer.
Koji screeched, the pattern of his movement stuttering—Florian and Kade moved in tandem to look behind them. One of the lion-dogs had reached the end of Koji’s long tail and snapped at it; red blood sprayed through the air and disappeared into the bright water below.
“Heal!” Florian hissed, pressing his palms to Koji’s cool scales. The splatter of blood stopped, but the lion-dog kept chasing them, still snapping at the dragon’s tail.
“Almost there,” Kade panted, squeezing Florian. “Get ready to jump, okay? I’m cutting the rope as soon as we’re over land.”
