The others peeled off to the edges, but Sakarias couldn’t shake it. Anders caught a glimpse of his pale face as he bolted past, heading for the door that led out to the landing pad. When he burst through it, the artifactwarrior rumbled straight through after him.
Most of the children ran to hide in the shadows, but the elementals, Sam, and Jerro hurtled out onto the landing pad after them, desperate to somehow help Sakarias.
He had backed up nearly to the edge now, and the warrior was advancing on him with a slow, purposeful step.
Jai hurled an empty cooking pot at it, and caught the warrior square between the shoulder blades, but the pot simply bounced off it and clanged away into the misty night.
Without thinking, Anders and the other former Ulfar students slipped into their wolf forms, growling low in their throats as they crept forward toward the warrior. There was a rush of wind behind him, and when he turned his head, he saw that Ellukka had thrown herself into dragon form. But she had the same problem they did. The warrior was so close to Sakarias now that anything they did to attack it, knock it over, or even push it over the edge, was liable to hit Sakarias as well.
Sakarias took another step backward and his heel reached the edge of the cliff, tiny pieces of rubble falling away into the silent clouds all around him.
Then it all happened at once. The warrior flung its arms out and lunged forward for Sakarias. Nimble, hetwisted and ducked, and almost made it under the warrior’s arm,almostmade it to safety.
But its fingers hooked into the edge of his cloak, and as it tumbled off over the edge of the cliff, Sakarias only had time for a startled scream before he was yanked with it.
Viktoria’s howl split the air.
And then Ferdie, still in human form, was running past Anders, legs pumping, accelerating toward the edge.
He threw himself off the cliff, arms spreading out as though they were wings—but they weren’t, and had no chance of slowing him—and then he vanished into the fog.
The pack ran to the edge of the cliff, staring desperately over it. But Cloudhaven still lived up to its name, and the warrior, Sakarias, and Ferdie had all completely disappeared into the mist.
They stood there, hearts hammering in their chests, and one by one, returned to human form, still standing in a line, staring at where their friends had disappeared. Viktoria was sobbing, and Anders couldn’t make himself move, or speak, or believe what he had just seen.
And then the mist parted, and a dragon became visible, winging his way back up toward Cloudhaven.
Ferdie had Sakarias clutched in his claws, and Sakarias had both arms wrapped around Ferdie’s leg. The windbuffeted the children waiting for them as Ferdie hovered, carefully depositing Sakarias on the ground, then landing himself so he could slip back into human form.
Viktoria pushed past the others, running straight for Sakarias to throw her arms around him and began instantly to berate him.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded. “How did you let it get so close to you? What were you doing near the edge? Why don’t you ever think, Sak? Why don’t you ever...” Her words ran out, and she buried her face against his shoulder as Sakarias carefully wrapped his arms around her.
“Are you okay?” Anders asked carefully.
Sakarias opened his mouth to reply, but Viktoria beat him to it.
“Of course he’s okay,” she replied. “Can’t you see I’m conducting a medical exam?”
Sakarias didn’t look too unhappy about it, and he kept one arm around Viktoria as he looked across at Ferdie, whose always-laughing face was grave. “Thank you, Ferdie,” he said quietly.
“We’re friends,” Ferdie said simply. “We have to stick together.”
Sakarias, who Anders knew hadn’t always felt the same way about Ferdie, simply nodded. Whatever he hadthought in the past, his direct gaze said that now, Ferdie was right. They were friends. And they would stick together.
“For now,” said Ferdie, “I have my own very important medical test to conduct to see whether Sakarias really is all right.”
Sakarias’s eyes went wide, and he glanced down at himself, as though there might be some damage he hadn’t yet discovered.
“Sak,” said Ferdie seriously, “are you hungry?”
“I could eat,” Sakarias admitted as the others burst into laughter around him.
“He’ll be fine,” was Ferdie’s prognosis.
Slowly, they all began to trickle back inside.
Anders heard Ellukka speak as she fell into step with Ferdie behind him. “How did you know you were going to transform before you hit the ground?” she said. “It must have been incredibly close.”
