Ruth gives me a sly smile and hands me a pair of binoculars. ‘Over there, above the hill.’
I level the binoculars in the direction she’s pointing. Flying in the sky towards Compass Hill are the lithe blue bodies of the Hebridean Wyverns.
‘That’s Cindra,’ I say as I focus on one. ‘And Aberdine.’
‘Can you see Aodahn?’ Serena says hopefully.
I shake my head.
‘Looks like they’ve decided to fight,’ Marquis says. ‘I wonder what Abelio thinks of that.’
‘Hollingsworth wants me to ask them to use their echolocation to defeat the Bolgoriths,’ I say, turning to look ateveryone. ‘But if they do, they’ll have to live in hiding for the rest of their lives.’
‘What’s an echolocation?’ Jasper says.
‘Ultrasonic dragon language,’ Marquis replies cheerfully. ‘Don’t tell anyone.’
Chumana growls.
‘So I’m not going to ask them to,’ I finish.
I look around at them, waiting for an objection, but none comes.
‘So, we ’ent going to win this war?’ Ruth asks.
I shake my head.
‘We will fight anyway,’ Chumana says, ‘No dragon chooses surrender when they could die in flight.’
‘Andyouneed to hide,’ I tell Ruth, Jasper and Freddie. ‘As deep into the tunnels as you can go. You’ll survive a few months down there if you pool your supplies.’
I think of Ursa, who will have escaped Eigg on dragonback with Dr Seymour. She’ll have the sense to hide my little sister and her own baby. Perhaps they’ll go underground, too.
Ruth is shaking her head. ‘We changed our minds.’ She glances at Chumana and Daria. ‘He’s got some dragon-killing guns –’ she points to Freddie – ‘and I want to try ’em.’
Freddie grins.
‘No,’ I almost shout. ‘I can’t ask that of you. You’ll be killed!’
‘We’re not doing it for you,’ Jasper scoffs. ‘Wewantto fight.’
‘You think this isyourbattle?’ Ruth says to me, her eyes flashing. ‘We were the ones abandoned on this island. Fed to the dragons as part of Wyvernmire’s Peace Agreement. AndI’m going to make her pay for it. This is as muchourwar as it is the rebels’.’
‘But—’
‘Lay off, Viv,’ Gideon says. He casts another nervous glance in Daria’s direction. ‘Ican’tbe eaten by a Bolgorith, all right? The teeth, that awful clicking sound . . .’ He pales. ‘I think we should try those Speerspitzes.’
Freddie slaps him on the back. ‘That’s the spirit, Giddy.’
‘We’ll leave the littl’uns in the tunnels with the supplies,’ Ruth says, turning to Freddie and Jasper. ‘If we don’t come back, they’ll have enough food to survive down there until next spring, and I’ll tell my girls to up the doses in their poison pouches.’
I turn away, my heart hammering as they all casually discuss their potential deaths.
Atlas’s face appears in my mind. Is he still with Hollingsworth? Does he truly believe that the wyverns won’t come to harm once the existence of their Koinamens is revealed to the world? I think about the efforts he put into teaching the wyverns about Britannia, of the horror on his face when Aodahn’s egg died. The Atlas I know wouldn’t be advocating for this if it meant hurting them, if he didn’t believe it was the right thing. Hollingsworth must have tricked him.
He still betrayed you.
I remember our conversation on the beach before we found Chumana. Was any of that real? He let me believe his hesitation was about the priesthood. So were his plans to leave that all behind a lie, too? All this time I thought we were working as a team, but actually he was leading me by the hand like a gullible child.
