I’m the only one left on Compass Hill.
I stand, painfully exposed, my eyes on the sky as the battle rises around me. How long until I’m spotted by a Bolgorith? I wish I could use a knife like Jasper’s kids or ride a horse like Ruth. Instead, I have a head full of untranslatable Cannair words and nothing to show for it. What is there left for me to do, apart from hide with the children on Sanday? Every part of me is awash with terror as I see Atlas, Marquis and Serena reach the beach. What if they’re killed in front of me? How can we stand a chance without the wyvern Koinamens?
I watch the patterns of battle emerge. The rebel dragons are fighting the Bolgoriths in the air while the humans take aim from below. The rebels seem to have assigned one dragon and three humans to every Bolgorith, working together to exploit the creatures’ weaknesses. I watch as one rebel punctures a pouch around his neck, filled not with poison but with blood. Its target smells it immediately and changescourse, while the other two rebel humans take aim. They’re firing rifles, not Speerspitzes, but the Bolgorith’s inattention causes it to display the soft undersides of its pouch. A rifle bullet slices through the skin and as the Bolgorith lets out a furious scream, the rebel dragon drags it to the ground.
Along the beach, someone emerges from one of the tents.
Wyvernmire.
So sheisstill here. Two Bolgoriths walk on either side of her, but this is no prime ministerial envoy. Her right shoulder drags, dislocated, and her sleeve is drenched in blood from what can only have been a bite.
They’re escorting her to another tent and just before she reaches the entrance, she lifts her face to the sky. Her mouth twists into a horrified grimace. What must it be like to know that the reason you cannot see the clouds through all the Bulgarian dragons is because you invited the enemy here? What must it feel like to have failed your country so spectacularly? She ducks into the tent, a prisoner of war.
The fighting lasts for hours, but it feels like minutes. I crouch, shielding my head, and planes rattle above. I can’t tell if they’re flown by rebels or by the Guardians being forced to fight for the Bolgoriths. More dragons reach the shoreline. They plough through the sky like airborne giants, but their wings beat and curl with the effortless elegance of butterflies, as if moved by invisible currents. My heart leaps at the sight of an immense Western Drake, so blue she’s almost black.
‘Bolgoriths?’ she bellows. ‘Bow!’
Dragons part as the solid mass of spikes and scales lands on the beach, her tail slashing the face of a Bolgorith that isbattling two rebel Ddraig Gochs.
I stare in awe. Sothat’s where the rebel numbers have come from.
‘You dare defy the Monarch of the Deep Sea Isles?’ the Western Drakes snarls. ‘Victor of the last dragoning, Raptor of Britannia, Mother of Dragons, the Blue Baroness, Terror of Beatrice?Your Queen?’
I sink to my knees in relief.
Ignacia has joined the Coalition.
Her voice is coarse and vicious and the other British dragons appear almost small beside her. She is the same size as the Bolgoriths that immediately launch an attack. A shadow falls across me and I recoil behind the rock as more Bulgarians flock towards the Dragon Queen. They descend on her like dogs and the battle suddenly shrinks to her perimeter as the rebels move to defend her.
I stare at the scene through the long grass. Sand swirls in great golden gusts, Canna abundant with countless British dragons. Children armed with knives and guns and crossbows dart between the huge scaly bodies and wyverns screech as they soar through the air like birds. I spot Atlas and Cormac loading a Speerspitze together while, beside them, two Guardians are helping Serena to point her own skywards. My body tingles. It’s no longer Wyvernmire against the rebels, but Britannia against the Bolgoriths.
And we might just win.
A rush of black.
Goranov streaks past me, another dragon on his tail.
Krasimir.
I jump to my feet, looking for Sophie or Hollingsworth, but there’s no sign of them. Body parts swing from the rings embedded in Krasimir’s skin as he lunges at Ignacia, taking a bite out of her side. She screams in pain as her guards force Krasimir backwards, one of them ripping a lump of scales from the regal’s face.
He springs towards the Queen again in a rush of blood and arrogance.
‘He is demented!’ snarls a voice.
Chumana flies over me. She glides through Ignacia’s defence line, and she must be echolocating because none of them try to stop her. She whirls round to face Krasimir, her jaws an open grin as Ignacia’s tail flicks in recognition. The Queen lets out a groan and then the two dragons launch themselves simultaneously towards Krasimir. The sunlight blinds me momentarily. All I see is a flare of blue and red on black.
‘Death awaits you, oh great Regal,’ Chumana snarls.
They fight him side by side, the dragon who signed the Peace Agreement and the dragon who broke it. Chumana bites down on Krasimir’s leg and he roars in agony. Ignacia clamps her jaws around his tail and jerks him backwards, sending him spinning through the air. The fighting has resumed but it’s almost half-hearted, every eye drawn to Chumana and Ignacia, the scene magnetising the attention of both rebels and Bolgoriths. My blood burns with energy. I’m witnessing history.
I’m witnessing the best of Britannia drive the Bulgarian invaders from our land.
Ignacia lets out a blood-curdling scream as Krasimir strikes from behind. Chumana’s talons rake across his back, but not before his jaws close around Ignacia’s head. Krasimir rolls in the air, twisting the Queen’s neck. She is decapitated in one swift jerk. Blood sprays as her body falls. It collapses to the ground with a thump that reverberates beneath my feet.
As dragonfire erupts on the sand around her, Krasimir flies higher, parading Queen Ignacia’s head through the smoky sky.
ATLAS STUMBLES IN THE BLOOD-SOAKED SAND below, staring in horror at Ignacia’s headless body as Cormac swings the Speerspitze around towards Krasimir. The sky fills with shrieks and movement as several dragons streak back towards the sea. For a moment I think they are flying out to meet another incoming Bolgorith assault, but that’s not what is happening.
