‘Go back to the plane,’ he urges. ‘Ursa is waiting for you.’
I shake my head, feeling the tears fall. In the forest and the courtyard, the battle rages on, but here in the garden we’re alone.
Help isn’t coming.
I squeeze Atlas’s fingers as my mind clouds with panic. Footsteps sound from the forest and Wyvernmire emerges, flanked by several Guardians.
‘Atlas,’ I say. ‘You have to get up.’
He makes as if to sit but winces. ‘Can’t.’
I wrap my arms round his chest and try to pull him upwards, but so much blood pours from his wound that I stop. I lay him back down as I feel my breath coming in short, sharp surges.
‘She’ll have to give you the code now,’ I hear Ralph say behind me.
A shadow falls over us and Wyvernmire stares down at Atlas, then back at her nephew.
‘Otherwise, he’ll—’
‘If he does,’ Wyvernmire hisses, ‘she won’t give me anything at all.’
Atlas cracks a smile, dead leaves crowning his head.
Wyvernmire kneels down beside me. ‘You shouldn’t have destroyed that machine,’ she says quietly.
I take a shaky breath and turn to look at her, my hand still in Atlas’s. She’s so close I can see the droplets of dragon blood on her face.
‘Get him a medic,please,’ I tell her. ‘And I’ll give you anything. I’ll build you another machine. I’ll—’
I can hear the despair in my own voice as it turns to uncontrolled sobs.
‘My Guardians will help him, if you do the right thing—’
‘Keeping echolocation a secretisthe right thing, Viv,’ Atlas says.
I shush him and stroke his hair, terrified that speaking will cost him more energy than he can afford.
He looks up at me, his brown eyes shining. ‘She’s wrong about you. You’re brave and selfless and good. Butyou?’ He laughs at Wyvernmire and brings his other hand down on top of my bloody one. ‘You’re dead without Viv. She could have protected you, and the nation you claim to love, if you’d have just agreed to extend that protection to everyone. Even Ralph knows it – that’s why he shot me. Because he thinks Viv will stay here with me, with you, instead of joining the rebels.’
‘I won’t join them,’ I say fiercely, hot tears streaming down my face. ‘I won’t leave you.’
‘You will.’ Atlas sighs, patting my thigh. ‘You’re one of them, aren’t you, my love?’
The rising sun shines on to his face, a spatter of gold on his dark skin.
‘Atlas,’ I whisper, hiding my face in his neck. He smells of peppermint and dragonsmoke. ‘Please get up.’
Wyvernmire is waiting patiently, like a mother might wait for a capricious child. Above the tennis court, the plane is flying away. Sophie can’t save us now. I look around helplessly, then down at Atlas. His eyes are closed. I lean over him again, shielding him from Wyvernmire’s view.
‘I love you,’ I sob into his ear.
He doesn’t move.
I kiss his mouth, his eyes, the stubble of his jaw. My tears drip on to his face and down his white collar. His chest rises, then falls. It doesn’t rise again. I shrug my jacket off and fold it gently beneath his head. His hand is still on my leg. I kiss that, too, then let it drop to his side. I stand up and, as I do, I notice a piece of paper poking out of his breast pocket. I unfold it and smooth it out. It’s the note I left for him last night after we kissed in the basement.
I am leaving you one more note because, well, I feel like I should make up for the last one. Tell me, Atlas … if God turned the dragons into swallows to make them light and carefree, do you think He’ll do something similar for us? This code,this language of dragons,has weighed so heavily on us all. I can barely bring myself to think of it, of the destruction it could cause. But there is one silver lining. The brightest silver lining I’ve ever known. The Koinamens – and all my dragon tongues – are what brought me to Bletchley Park. They are what brought me to you.
And beneath it he has scribbled his reply.
