Valenna swallowed. “I’d rather stay, thanks.”
“If anything were to go wrong,” he said, adjusting his gloves for the third time, “there are two people I want informed. Thomasina has their information, but it would be better if you could write them for me. More personal, to soften it.”
“Of course. But who …”
The barn doors swung open, and Hera lumbered into the sunshine.
Now, one tail swipe from destruction, Valenna felt as though she’d never really seen Hera before—never respected the sheer breadth of her heavy body, the razor spike on her tail, the talons on her clawed feet. She was always so docile, so affectionate, but angered Hera would be a creature from hell.
Evander let out a breath. “Don’t follow me in there. I know you can, but please don’t.”
With a coy smile, Valenna said, “Oh, I won’t let you die today, Evander Trevelyan. I intend to see you live to regret me.”
He smiled at this, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Valenna gripped his wrists, but he quickly pulled away, hopped the fence, and strode toward Hera, the girth strap and three muzzles slung over his shoulder.
He could warn her off until the dragons came home to roost, but Valenna was a trainer in her own right, and she wasn’t leaving him to a band of half-hearted children and a drunk. If the situation called for it, she fully intended to rush into that paddock; Evander and his martyr’s complex could go to Roz.
Evander fished in his pocket and produced a carrot, which he held in his palm and reached toward Hera. She inclined her right head and wolfed it down.
“The muzzle!” Haldir shouted from the fence.
Evander lifted one of the muzzles from his shoulder. Hera watched him, curious and trusting as a kitten. The muscles in his back flexed. Evander hesitated. Tension and anguish tainted his every movement. To muzzle Hera was a betrayal, and Valenna wondered if he would turn away, not go through with it.
Guilt stung Valenna like nettles. She should never have stayed in Silvanlight. The second she saw Evander, she should have spun on her heel and climbed back on the coach for Largotia. The master dracologist could have sent another emissary.
Now, everything was tangled.
Hera lowered her right head, nuzzling Evander’s shoulder, and he rubbed her brow, soothing her with his smooth voice. She relaxed, and he slipped the muzzle over her snout.
Chapter twenty-one
Valenna
Hera reared back, her eyes wild, the muscles under her scales rippling. She shook her head, trying to loosen the muzzle, then tore at it with her claws. Evander tried to calm her, pulling rhythmically on the lead line attached to the muzzle and calling to her, but Hera lurched it from his hands and cracked her tail like a whip. It smashed the fence. Onlookers ran screaming. Valenna ducked, the tail sailing over her head with a whoosh.
In the commotion, she lost sight of Evander, and when she spotted him again, he had retreated to the edge of the paddock, where he stood braced like a runner at a starting line. Hera whirled, her tail slicing. It struck the barn doors, tearing them from their hinges, then slapped her legs and curled around her feet. Evander sprinted toward her and jumped, catching a ridge of bone on her shoulder. He dangled, then pulled himself onto her back.
Mad with terror, Hera didn’t notice him any more than she might have noticed a troublesome fly. She writhed, roaring, her necks twisting as she scraped her muzzled head along the ground, then smashed it into the barn wall, then swept it over a line of fence, cracking the rails like kindling.
Valenna expected Evander to be thrown with every one of Hera’s violent thrashes, but he expertly kept his balance. Her oldsuspicions rose again. How was he so adept at this? One didn’t learn to ride a hydra from two years’ training in Largotia.
Evander dropped the leather strap over Hera’s shoulders, fastened the ends around her middle neck, and swung down along her belly. He landed on his feet, rolled to soften the impact, and waited, bobbing slightly, timing his run.
Hera raised her tail and slapped it against the ground, lifting her stomach and exposing it to the spear.
Valenna shook herself. No, not the spear. Evander was planning to dash under Hera and tighten the tether behind her legs, restricting the motion of her heads. He would have three seconds, perhaps less, to pass beneath her before she crushed him.
In all her years of fighting and training dragons, Valenna had never seen anyone do anything so mad.
“Watch your timing!” she shouted. “Wait until she stands!”
He nodded. He knew what to do, of course. Still, reminding him made Valenna feel better.
Haldir appeared beside her, gripping a long rod made of dragon ivory. It fizzed, spitting sparks from a glowing mushroom head jammed into the end. Behind him, Ignatius, Elspeth, and Rosemary waited, similarly armed. Valenna guessed that he meant to force Hera against the barn, corner her, and muzzle her remaining heads. An insane plan.
“No spark sticks!” Valenna cried.
Hera lifted her tail, and Evander ran toward her, but as he did, Haldir jumped over the fence and plunged toward the hydra, his spark stick buzzing. The others followed.
