I’m just Vivien Featherswallow.
And if that’s enough for Chumana, then it’s enough for me.
In the twist of wings and scales I see Ralph lift his arm.
‘Chumana!’ I scream.
The rounded end of the Speerspitze is loaded with a heavy metal sphere. I stand up, my arms encircling Chumana’s head.
‘Fly!’
Chumana clamps her mouth on to Goranov’s back leg. With a strength that almost shakes me from her back, she pulls the limb away from his body, his flank splitting open to reveal thick, viscous blood. He lets out an enraged moan.
Chumana is propelled backwards with a loud boom that cracks open my skull.
She rolls.
Suddenly I’m blind, no longer able to tell the difference between sky and sea. And then we’re falling, dropping through the cold air faster than I can think. Something sharp rips open my elbow as I feel Chumana turn beneath me, but when we hit the sand, no pain comes. I open my eyes to darkness.
‘I can’t see,’ I whisper frantically. ‘I can’t . . .’
Chumana’s wing drops from around my body, letting the sunlight and smoke in. I’m lying on her chest, the hard scales of her breastbone hot on my face, my arm sliced open by one of her spikes. I slide down her body carefully, then jump off her tail into the sand. The sound of fighting still hums in the air around us, but I can’t see it from here. We’re in a sheltered bay.
‘Chumana,’ I gasp. ‘Are you all right?’
My eyes dart along the beach, but there’s no sign of Ralphor Goranov. I run around Chumana’s body to her head and fling myself on to my knees next to her. She blinks and lets out a huff, and droplets of blood spray from her mouth. My stomach lurches. I scan her flank until I see it – a bullet the size of my fist buried above her left leg.
‘It’s nothing,’ I say. ‘It’s nowhere near your heart, or anything.’
‘Humiliating,’ Chumana growls.
I climb back up on to her curled tail to reach the bullet. Its rough metal surface protrudes from the open flesh, leaking a shiny grey substance.
‘It’s nothing,’ I tell her again. ‘I’ll get it out.’
‘It has already reached my bloodstream, human girl.’
I sit back. ‘Your bloodstream?’
‘Canna’s children aren’t alone in their idea of using poison against dragons,’ Chumana says.
‘The bullets are poisoned?’
‘How else do you think they bring a dragon down?’ she tuts.
Imported from Germany and named after a snake.
I swallow.
Then I remove Marquis’s knife from my belt and plunge it into the wound.
Chumana roars.
I seize the handle, dragging the blade through the skin around the bullet, trying desperately to dislodge the metal as more liquid seeps across the knife.
‘Pointless, you fool!’ Chumana screeches.
Her tail comes out of nowhere, launching me from herbody so I fall to the ground beside her, wheezing for breath.
