Darting my eyes over to Pharis, I sent him a desperate plea.
Do something. Help her. Stop this from happening.
What will you give me?he asked, making deals even now.
Anything you want,I screamed at him mind to mind.Everything I have. Take it all. Just save her.
He grinned at me.Way ahead of you, brother.
A shadow covered the arena, and a loud screech pierced my eardrums as a powerful wind buffeted me and forced my eyelids closed.
When I opened them again, I saw a flash of movement and color and then a white-hot blast of fire.
A dragon.
The largest I’d ever seen. And I’dneverseen one this close—no one had and lived to tell about it.
It swooped past our platform and circled low through the arena, dipping its head as it reached the gallows.
The hangman turned and leapt off the back of the structure, but before he hit the ground, the dragon scooped him up between its rows of sharp teeth and crunched down.
The two guards who’d been standing behind Raewyn and the Earthwife jumped from the raised wooden edifice and scrambled underneath it, away from the dragon’s view.
Raewyn.She still stood there, hooded and bound, helpless.
All I could do was watch in horror as the dragon blasted the gallows with its fire, burning the top part of the structure. The rope attached to the noose around Raewyn’s neck was instantly severed.
I ran to the edge of the royal platform, yelling down to her. “Jump! Raewyn, run and jump!”
She might have heard me, maybe not, but in either case she ran forward, flying off the edge of the platform and hitting the ground, where she fell to her knees.
It had not been a moment too soon. The dragon torched the rest of the gallows with dragonfire, incinerating the witch atop it and the guards cowering beneath it.
Their screams tore the air as Raewyn got to her feet, still hooded with her hands tied behind her back, and began running blindly.
I hoped she’d reach the shelter of the arena stands, but before she even got near the wall of the pit, the dragon’s shadow covered her.
It dived and grabbed her in its talons.
Terror split my chest, grabbing my heart in its fist and squeezing until I saw black spots in my vision.
Screams echoed all around me, some Raewyn’s, some from the terrorized onlookers, some from the people on the platform with me.
I might have screamed as well for all I knew.
Turning to the guard nearest me, I grabbed his crossbow and loaded a bolt into it, firing it at the dragon. The projectile bounced off the creature’s scales unnoticed as it rose into the air again.
“Don’t, you idiot,” Pharis yelled over the chaos. “You might hit Raewyn.”
I ignored him, knocking another bolt into the bolt rest and pulling the trigger. Being crushed to death in a dragon’s talons—or eaten—would be a death thousands of times worse than hanging.
If it was the last thing I did, I would spare Raewyn that.
This strike landed on the dragon’s neck where the scales were smaller and hopefully thinner.
Apparently, it felt the blow that time, because it changed directions, turning back toward our platform.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be harmed. And it appeared to be angry.
