We passed the edge of the forest. The abandoned buildings of the town seemed to leap up at us with dizzying speed.
“What did you use?” I asked.
“Copper nail.” Liam’s face was tinged green as he stared at the rapidly approaching ground. “Trees hate them.”
“Why did you have a copper nail?” I said.
“In case we met an angry tree, of course.”
Why did I bother to ask?
“I’d better hop off here,” Calla said. The dragon was flying low, skimming the beach, well out of range of the reachingbranches high above. Ahead of us, the monstrous army was scrambling onto the still-forming stone-giant bridge. “I’m going to the forest to rally some troops.”
“Wait!” I said, but it was already too late; Calla swung both legs over to one side of the dragon and slid off, Lord Thrombwobbley clutched in her arms. She landed on the beach and scurried into the forest. The goldfinches fluttered along in her wake.
“I should go with her.” Liam sounded less than thrilled by the idea of jumping off, but he pulled a handful of copper nails out of his pack. “I can protect her from the trees.”
“You’re going to do what?” said the mirror. “Hold on a minute. I’m very fragile.”
Liam ignored the looking glass and, trying hard to conceal his expression of stark terror, followed after his wife.
“Don’t break my faaaaaaace!” the mirror screamed as they dropped.
“Now it is my turn.” Gnoflwhogir readied her claymore. “I will attack the monsters from the rear. They will be crushed between the two sides.”
Jonquil heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Crushed between the army of Tailliz and…you? Darling—”
“Away!” Gnoflwhogir leapt off the dragon, thumping onto the ground at the edge of the surf. Without pause, she rushed in the direction of the monstrous army, her great sword waving in the air.
The dragon flew on, over the blue-gray water. The wind of its passage cut a wake through the waves.
“Do you ever wonder,” Jonquil asked me after a moment, “if our entire family is insane?”
“It’s crossed my mind from time to time, yes.”
She gazed off in the direction her wife had gone. “You and I should help out the defenders as best we can, I suppose.” Twin lines of worry creased her brow.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” I reassured her.
“Oh, I know. It isn’t that. It’s only…”
I waited for more and began to grow concerned when it didn’t come.
“Jonquil. What’s wrong?”
“It doesn’t matter, I—” She broke off to chant a lengthy phrase in language that hurt my ears as a scabrous warthog with four mismatched wings hurtled toward us. When she finished, its body swelled until it was nearly spherical and then burst like an overfilled bladder. “It’s not important,” she went on. “Forget about it.”
I knew an evasion when I heard one. “I’m not—Look to your right!” She turned to where I pointed and directed a jet of dragon flame at a whirling, buzzing monstrosity. “I’m not going to let this go,” I finished.
Her shoulders hunched ever so slightly, creeping up toward her ears. “It’s nothing. It’s just, there she went, charging straight into danger again, and here I am, staying behind on the back of my dragon again, and I can’t help but wonder if…”
It was easy to forget that my sisters needed my support, too, sometimes. Even during the most perilous of situations. Maybe especially then. “Gnoflwhogir adores you. For exactly who you are.” I laid a hand on her wrist, where the scar encircled the joint. “And she knows what you’d do for her, if it came down to it. You don’t have to prove it to her over and over again. She knows.”
Jonquil gave me only a single stiff nod in answer, but where my hand rested, her arm felt a little less tense. The dragon snapped at a thorn bird that flew too close, and a mess of blood and feathers plummeted into the sea with a faint splash.
“Well,” my sister said. “I do, in fact, intend to stay here on dragonback. Light whatever I can on fire, cast every spell I can think of on the rest. You?”
Staying with Jonquil would have been the smartest option. Iwasn’t even sure what else I could really do. No True Love’s First Kisses would be mine for the taking here, not unless far more people found me irresistibly attractive than I was willing to believe. If I spent the battle clinging to a dragon, then at least I wouldn’t be in everybody’s way.
