The rebels were mostly helping injured dwarves.Rynni waited, still in her dragon form, just a few paces from thesunshaft—poised to fly people to safety. Above, Arava and Lasvin flew in circles. Shocked as I was that the others had gotten the pegasi to come, I swore Arava’s eyes brightened when I caught sight of her.
I joined Sigri at the hole and when I peered down, a relieved exhale parted my lips. Vale was so close, and holding onto his legs were the king and another dwarf.
Falagog was alive, but between Rynni’s pointed attack and the dwarves axes, she’d sustained great damage. The mother spider lay on the cavern floor, her legs twitching and shuddering and two dozen of her children swarming her, presumably trying to help. I only wished they’d managed to end the bloodthirsty beast for good.
One after the other, Vale, Thyra, Luccan, and Caelo emerged from the hole, carrying dwarves in various states of injury. The King of Dergia released Vale’s ankle and stood stoically, not a scratch to be seen on him.
Tonna and Halladora followed, neither of them had carried dwarves, though they’d been fighting off spiders leaping from tunnels the whole way up. As a result each Valkyrja was covered in dark spider blood.
Livia came next, emerging unharmed.
Thantrel rose right behind the vampire, and was nearly to the top when a spider the size of a boar leapt from one of the tunnels high in the rock. I screamed as the spider landed on Thantrel’s back and tore into his wing.
Somehow Thantrel ripped the spider off his back, only for the creature to fall on the dwarf he carried. It knocked off the soldier’s helmet, revealing none other than Princess Bavirra.
“Bleeding monster!” she shrieked and wriggled which did not help Thantrel, now injured, as he continued to fly for freedom.
“I have him!” Thyra leapt into the hole, wings spread and soared their way. When she reached them, she offered her own ankle not to Bavirra, but Thantrel. “Grab on!”
Thantrel did so, and I couldn’t decide what shocked me more: that Princess Bavirra had been allowed to leave Dergia and fight or that Thyra was letting Thantrel touch her.
“Sister! What are you doing here?!” Thordur bellowed.
I winced, realizing how wrong I’d been. Bavirra was not here by permission. She’d snuck out. Disguised as a soldier no less.Both the Prince and King of Dergia glared down at their family member, a mixture of worry and anger in their eyes.
But there was no time for me to fixate on their family issues, for the next second, Thyra, Thantrel, and Bavirra appeared, followed closely by Astral and Freyia and their dwarves. Lastly the four soldiers being lifted by the air workers soared out of the sunshaft.
I double checked below. Everyone was out.
“Time to fly!” Sigri yelled when it became clear that King Tholin and the prince were in no shape to give commands. They were too focused on Bavirra.
Everyone dashed to a creature, just as Arava appeared at my side.She snorted, her eyes wide and wild as she cut a glance to the sunshaft.
“Ice spiders are one of the only creatures pegasi are terrified of,” Aleksander said, mounting a nearby gryphon. “But we needed more fliers for the dwarven army and told the creatures. Your pegasi seemed to understand you and your sister were in trouble. They recruited the gryphons.”
My throat tightened. Arava and Lasvin hadn’t fought the spiders, but they’d done what they could for my sister and me.
“Good girl,” I mounted the pegasus.
“Everyone’s up!” Vale yelled, from where he sat right up against Rynni’s neck. “Ready to fly!”
“Fire, Rynni!” Thordur’s voice boomed from above, where she circled the sunshaft on gryphonback.
Fire? What does that?—
The answer came when the dragon lumbered toward the sunshaft hole and bent her neck so that her maw entered the hole. Heat built in the air, and I stiffened as what the Shadow Fae King told me came rushing back.
“Only the most remarkable magic can free me. Only the most powerful creatures.”
Rynni had already targeted Falagog. This time, I had a hunch that she was going for utter destruction.
“No!” I yelled just as the dragon loosed her flame—one of two good ones that she had per day, or so she’d once told me.
The blast of heat made me recoil, and Arava launched into the sky.
“Wait. I need to see inside the mountain!” I yelled into the wind, and though I could tell she didn’t want to Arava circled toward the shaft.
I peered down at the flame filling the cavern, and dread welled inside me.
