"Rumors?" Kendra asked.
"She speaks!" Nyssa laughed. "Is that permissible, dragon brother? I can tell you prefer to do the talking. Yes, rumors. Word has it Navarog was sighted outside the gates of Wyrmroost."
"Navarog?" Gavin cried.
"You have heard of him, I trust," Nyssa said. "A dragon so evil they made him an honorary demon! He has a fearsome reputation. He was one of the few of us who avoided being herded into a dragon sanctuary. Visitots are normally a rarity here. Could his sudden interest in Wyrmroost have anything to do with my new human friends?"
"This is horrible news," Gavin admitted. "He wasn't seen inside the sanctuary?"
Nyssa gave a sly smile. "Not to my knowledge. If the demon prince is here for you, why not let me devour you instead? Less hassle. Less drama. I'll be gentle."
"Thanks for the offer," Gavin said. "I think we'll take our chances."
"The gates to Wyrmroost are strong," Nyssa said. "If he lacks a key, even Navarog will not get past them. Perhaps you should solicit Agad for employment. With Navarog at the only exit, you might wisely opt to stay longer than planned."
"W-w
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'we'll take that under advisement," Gavin said.
"The brave little stutterer," Nyssa replied lightly. "You have just been told your death is certain, yet you hang on to your composure. Maybe you actually deserve to be a dragon brother."
"I would like to think so," Gavin said, lowering his eyes.
Nyssa embraced Kendra. "Meeting you has been a delight," Nyssa said. She extended a hand to Gavin, who clasped it and then lightly kissed it. "How chivalrous. This has been nearly as diverting as I had hoped, albeit I would have preferred to partake of your company a while longer. So it goes. I will not intrude. Sorry to bear unhappy tidings. If it comes as any consolation, your demise was almost certain even without Navarog lurking about the gates. Enjoy the remainder of your visit."
Nyssa turned and strode away into the night without looking back.
Kendra grabbed Gavin's hand, squeezing it tightly. He squeezed back.
"Could she help protect us?" Kendra whispered.
Gavin shook his head. "Considering where we're headed, our surest death would have been to invite her to join us."
Trask came up beside them, crossbow in hand. "I had an easy shot."
Gavin snorted. "You could have done it. She was vulnerable. Of course, we would have died shortly thereafter. Nothing would dissuade the dragons who came to avenge her."
"That crossed my mind," Trask said. He sighed. "I'm not glad to hear Navarog is on our tail. I suppose it's no less than we expected."
"But it's a good deal less than we hoped," Gavin replied.
Nobody argued.
* * *
The next day Kendra awoke with a sense of foreboding. The news borne by Nyssa had left her unsettled. Kendra had a hard time recalling the details of her dreams, but they had involved beautiful women morphing into dragons, and lots of running. At least the first part of the day should be relatively safe. While they journeyed inside of Sidestep Cleft, no huge monsters would be able to reach them.
Kendra brought Warren his breakfast. He seemed in good spirits, although his breathing was shallow and labored, and whenever he shifted position his face showed reactions to twinges of pain. Together they drank hot chocolate. Kendra also ate an energy bar, but Warren passed, contenting himself with some slices of an orange.
After breakfast, they loaded their sleeping bags into the knapsack and walked to the cleft. The tall crack in the rock wall stretched at least a hundred feet high, narrowing as it rose, ending before it reached all the way up. Kendra had never seen such a tall, narrow cave.
They marched into the fissure with Trask and Gavin in the front. Dougan and Tanu brought up the rear. For a good distance two people could comfortably walk abreast. Before progressing far, they switched, on flashlights. Kendra shone hers up and stared at how the gap tapered to an end high above. Eventually they had to proceed single file. At one point, Tanu and Dougan had to turn sideways to fit through a tight section. Kendra tried not to picture the walls closing in, crushing their little group to jelly.
The cleft did not extend quite as high at the far side, maybe thirty or forty feet at most, but the gap ended wider than it had started. For the last couple of hundred yards, four of them could have marched shoulder to shoulder.
Beyond Sidestep Cleft they found themselves following a rocky ledge with a steep drop to one side and a sheer rise on the other. The width of the ledge fluctuated, sometimes many yards wide, sometimes only a few feet. Kendra bit her lip and leaned toward the rock wall as she passed the narrowest sections, tracing her fingers across the cold, rough stone. She tried to avoid fixating on the dry gorge far below. Gradually the ledge descended and became wider, until they reached an area haphazardly strewn with boulders the size of trucks.
Trask abruptly halted and raised a fist. Gazing forward,
Kendra saw a griffin atop a wide, flat boulder up ahead. Standing taller than a horse, the creature had the head, wings, and talons of an eagle attached to the body and rear legs of a lion. The long, hooked beak looked made for tearing, and the golden brown feathers shimmered in the sunlight.
Astride the griffin sat a dwarf on a crimson saddle of tooled leather. He had bronze skin, black eyes, and a stubbly beard, and he wore a dented iron helm. A short sword hung from his belt, and he bore a battered shield emblazoned with a yellow fist. The small man raised to his lips a megaphone made from a furry black hide. "Today is the day you were captured by a dwarf."
Trask leveled his crossbow at the little man.
"Lower your weapon, sir," the dwarf demanded, without a trace of concern.
"Unlikely," Trask growled. "I'm not half bad with this. Slide off the griffin toward me."
The megaphone partly concealed the dwarf's grin. "In the realm of Thronis the Magnificent, trespassers do not issue orders. If you lay down your arms and come quietly, you will not be harmed. Initially."
Trask shook his head. The crossbow remained steady. "Open that mouth again and you'll eat a quarrel. I have another for your mount. Fly away, little man. We don't mean you or the giant any harm. We're just passing through."
The dwarf lowered his megaphone and lightly kicked the griffin. The creature pounced behind the boulder.
Kendra heard the rush of wind an instant before a riderless griffin swooped into view from behind, huge claws clamping hold of Trask's shoulders. Powerful wings swept downward, and the creature jerked Trask off the ground. A second griffin grabbed Dougan in similar fashion, and a third snagged Tanu.
Gavin tackled Kendra flat to the ground. Mara whirled and thrust her spear up into the belly of the griffin reaching for her. The creature screeched and swerved away, the long spear deeply attached. Several other griffins swept by, talons grasping.
"Into the backpack," Gavin insisted in Kendra's ear. He pulled the knapsack from her shoulder and lifted the main flap. "You too, Seth," he called. "Get in here."
The griffins who had missed on their first pass were wheeling around for another run. Kendra counted seven, not including the one behind the boulder and the ones who had already snatched people.
Gavin grabbed her shoulder and shoved her into the knapsack headfirst. It was an awkward way to start down a ladder, but she grasped the rungs and managed to twist around and descend correctly. Kendra hurried down to make way for her brother. She heard several of the griffins screaming--deeper, louder screeches than should come from any bird.
"Nice nosedive," Warren said, leaning up on one elbow. An electric lantern shone beside him. "What's going on out there?"
"Griffin attack," Kendra gasped, staring up at the mouth of the sack. "Lots of them."
"Griffins don't normally come after humans."
"They already carried off Trask, Tanu, and Dougan."
"Oh, no."
Kendra watched in suspense as the mouth of the knapsack closed. Someone had shut the flap.
* * *
Seth scrambled over to Gavin and started to climb into the knapsack. He had one leg inside when a griffin slammed into him with great force, sending him spinning and rolling across the ledge. Elbows and shoulder aching, it took Seth a moment to realize he had not been the target. The griffin had snatched Gavin and was soaring skyward with him.
Three griffins dived at Mara in formation. She cartwheeled away from the leader and twisted to barely avoid the outstretched talons of the second, but the third one snagged her. Her legs flailed as the creature bore her away.
Seth heard a jangling. Mendigo had been scouting ahead, but Seth saw the puppet sprinting back to them. "Mendigo!" he yelled.
Two griffins swooped at Seth, but he rolled flat next to a boulder. Although he felt the wind of their passage, the grasping talons came up empty. Instead of coming fast, the next griffin landed beside Seth, scolding him with a harsh squawk. The limberjack was only a few paces away.
"Escape with the knapsack!" Seth cried, waving the puppet away. "Keep Kendra safe!"
Claws seized Seth by the shoulders, strong wings beat down, and he rose into the air. Craning his neck to look down and back, Seth saw Mendigo beat a griffin to the knapsack, snatching the bag and somersaulting out of the way. The wooden man dodged another griffin on the way to the brink of the cliff and then jumped off, falling out of sight into the gorge.
Could Mendigo survive a fall from such a great height? What about Kendra? Seth knew from experience that the storage room didn't feel the movements of the knapsack. No matter how much the bag was jostled or handled, the room inside remained stable. He hoped that held true for flinging the knapsack off a cliff!
Turning his eyes forward, Seth saw that they were climbing fast, heading toward Stormcrag. Mara, Gavin, Tanu, Dougan, and Trask dangled from griffins ahead of him. None of the other griffins besides the one with the dwarf had riders. Even through his winter jacket, Seth could feel the sharp talons, although they had not broken his skin. Glancing down, Seth saw the distant rocky ground beyond his boots, with hundreds of feet of empty air in between. If the griffin dropped him, he would be skydiving without a parachute. Fortunately the giant claws seemed to have a secure hold.
The sensation of flying with the griffin was undeniably exhilarating. The creature curved left and right as they ascended, sometimes banking steeply and making Seth's stomach tingle. At times the wings beat hard; at other times they glided, the wind whistling in his ears. Higher and higher they rose, until it felt like he was looking down at a map of Wyrmroost, complete with miniature trees, ridges, cliffs, lakes, and ravines.
Stormcrag grew snowy as they gained altitude. He tried to look up, but they were too near the mountain for him to see the top. The air steadily became chillier. The morning had been relatively warm, so he had worn no gloves. He managed to zip up his coat, but even so, the wind created by their speed continued to steal warmth away. He massaged his ears and alternated between jamming his hands in his pockets and rubbing them together.
Eventually, Seth laid eyes on the summit of the mountain. Just below the peak, resting on a jutting expanse of rock, Seth beheld a huge mansion, partly supported by an array of pilings and struts. The sprawling edifice had steep roofs shingled with slate, massive chimneys, and broad stone patios. The closer they got to the unlikely building, the more impressive the scale of the mansion became. The railings around the terraces were taller than his house--the front door considerably taller still.
As his griffin followed the others to the spacious patio before the colossal door, Seth realized that the vastness of the dwelling should have been expected. After all, this was the home of the largest giant in the world.
* * *
Kendra listened to the tumult from near the top of the ladder. The fierce cries of griffins mingled with the shouts of her friends. She heard Seth command Mendigo to grab the knapsack, heard the windy hiss as they plummeted from the cliff, and heard the sharp crack of wood on stone when they landed.
Gripping the ladder desperately, Kendra had braced herself for impact, but inside the storage room she felt nothing. The room never tilted ot wobbled or trembled. She heard jingles and clicks as Mendigo scrambled over the rocky floor of the gorge, then heard the rasp of leather against stone.
Griffins shrieked again. Desperate to know what was happening, Kendra moved to the highest rung and poked the top of her head out of the knapsack until she had a view. She found herself peering out of a small cavity of rock. Missing an arm and with a deep crack visible across his torso, Mendigo ducked and spun and sidestepped until the claws of a griffin locked hold and carried him out of view. A second griffin retrieved his arm. Then a third reached grasping talons into the cavity, but the claw could not reach the knapsack. The creature shrieked and Kendra ducked her head back inside the room.
"What's going on?" Warren asked.
"Mendigo jumped off the cliff with us. We landed in a ravine. He stuffed us in a crevice in the rocks. Seems like the griffins can't reach the knapsack."
"Sit tight," he advised. "Don't peek again."
"I'm not sure we can get out on our own. The little cave is pretty small. I don't know if I can crawl out of the bag."
"Wait until they're gone to try."
"What if the dwarf comes down here?" Kendra asked. "He might be small enough to fit into the crevice and reach us."
"The fissure is small?" Warren asked.
"Close and narrow," Kendra said. "I'm not even sure if Mendigo could have fit. He must have tossed us in. Even the dwarf might be too big."