Samara unclipped and leapt off the dragon. Evander grabbed Giles with his good arm, pulled the cord for the boy’s glider, and flung him over the side. Then Evander jumped.
Chapter fifty-six
Valenna
Before the manor house blew, Valenna had pushed her dragon to its limit, trying to shake the fighter dragons off her tail. As she circled the manor, Valenna glimpsed the dragon willows behind the house. The tallest one had bloomed, white flowers lining its weeping branches like white flags at the heart of the churning battle. A jarringly beautiful song cut through the wails of the dying, and Valenna looked up and saw a shadow in the clouds. For one heart-stopping moment, she thought it was the sunbird.
But as the shadow emerged, she recognized it as Raska. The scavenger looked mangy, her feathers flapping loose on her wings, and raw, pink skin showing on her head and neck.
Shotfire pellets tore across Valenna, pattering her dragon and punching into her vest. It ripped her attention from Raska, reminded her of the danger she was in. Her dragon twisted, but the shots followed her, one pellet tearing her sleeve. She weaved and dodged, then realized the shots were coming from a sniper hidden in an upper window of the manor house, and she couldn’t escape him.
She banked sharply, flying back toward the beach as the pellets punched holes in the leathery skin of her dragon’s wings. The creature shrieked, unable to fly, and Valenna spun toward the ground.
She landed in a spray of sand under the shadow of the dune. Sheltered from the manor, she crawled to her hands and knees and pressed her back into the packed shelf of sand. The beach in front of her roiled, a snake in its death throes. Sennalaithic soldiers plunged into the sea, only to be shot and left to float in the pink surf.
Hera raged, a wake of destruction in her path. Her heads snatched dragons from the sky, men from the ground. She trampled the bodies of the wounded.
Then the world lit on fire; a concussion so powerful, it pounded Valenna’s chest like a punch. She choked on it, gasping. Balls of fire and flaming debris rained from the sky.
Finally, Dread Five had destroyed the manor.
Valenna broke from the cover of the dune and scrambled up the sliding sand, searching the sky for Evander and his crew. She reached the top just in time to see Dread Five’s wing shatter and the crew leap into the open air, their gliders flashing in and out of the smoke.
The dreadnought struck the ground and exploded, a mushroom of red flames licking the sky. Frantic, Valenna searched for Evander, but she couldn’t find him in the haze.
Had he jumped? Did he bail in time?
Her breath coming in gasps, Valenna ran across the field. Explosions echoed hollowly. Her ears rang. She could feel herself screaming, “VANDER!” but she could not hear her own voice. Every shattered body looked like his, every pool of blood could be his. She began to search blank, dead faces, still yelling his name.
She came upon Samara, bundling her glider in her arms.Ignatius was beside her, bent over Elspeth, helping her up. Giles crouched on his knees, wiping blood from his eyes.
Valenna slid to a stop, gripping Samara’s arms.
“Captain Trevelyan!” she panted. “Where is he? Did he make it?”
Samara seemed dazed, her face bloody. She glanced around at the battlefield.“I don’t … I don’t know. I think he was hurt …”
The ground seemed to rock beneath her feet. “But how was he hurt? He was wearing …”
Her voice was stifled by shouts as a wave of Ashkendoric infantry burst from the trees.
“It’s over!” Samara shrieked, drawing her cutlass and her shotfire.
Valenna didn’t see the enemy. She didn’t care. “Where is Captain Trevelyan?” she shouted to anyone who would hear her.
The Dread Five crew looked for a means of retreat, but the beach was in the grip of Ashkendor, their path to the sea cut off, and the infantry was charging toward them.
Then, as if materializing from the smoke itself, Hera appeared—at first just a shadowy smear, then she broke out of a billow of smoke and charged heedlessly into the enemy line.
Cadmus dove from her back, landing somewhere at the feet of the manor house ruin.
Hera swept her spiked tail into the infantry, decimating their front line.
For Ashkendor, it was a sign, an omen. The hydra was sacred, so why was she attacking them?
The infantry skidded to a stop, then turned and ran.
The artillery followed suit.
