71
AURORA
The closer we got to the Madlings, the worse the dark emotions got. I felt them tearing at my mental defenses, trying to find a chink in my armor to drown me with their evil.
No, think of Ryse, I told myself. He needs you now—all of them do. L’eesha can’t send good feelings unless you help her.
I tried to ignore the fact that the Madlings were getting closer and closer. I was all too aware that I wasn’t even in a saddle with stirrups that might hold me in place. If one of those living nightmares decided to snatch me off L’eesha’s back…
But no. I couldn’t give in to that kind of thinking.
Fixing my eyes on Ryse, I concentrated again on how much I loved him. How brave and honest and kind he was. How good he made me feel when he held me tight and how I loved it when he kissed my forehead.
I pushed all of those good emotions into my dragon and then waited for L’eesha to echo them back and send them out to the other riders and their dragons.
I didn’t have to wait long.
“LISTEN TO ME, ALL OF YOU!” I heard her shout. “FEEL WHAT I AM SENDING YOU! DON’T BE AFRAID! YOU ARE STRONG! YOU ARE BRAVE!”
Suddenly, I sensed a change in the air. Some of the terror was being replaced by hope, it seemed. And the dragons and riders who had been fleeing in terror suddenly paused and turned. I saw several of them starting to flame. More and more Madlings began falling from the sky, burning and screaming as they shriveled in the cleansing dragon fire.
But they were all over the place—all the Wings were scattered. Even Ryse had only a few riders left in his Wing still in formation. Off to the side, I saw Professor Humbolt wildly waving his signaling flags, but no one was watching him.
“Keep giving them courage, dearheart,” I told L’eesha. “But give them direction, too. Now is the time to use your voice—tell them what to do and how to fight!”
I felt a surge of confidence and excitement from her and then she surged forward. A Madling reached for me—its long claws set to tear me from her back, but my Golden Queen wasn’t having it.
Whipping her head towards the Madling, she took a breath and blew out a jet of flame longer and hotter than any I’d ever seen or felt before. The Madling that was reaching for me—including five others around it—instantly disintegrated.
I felt L’eesha’s surge of victory and then she was shouting again, sending messages to every dragon in the air to listen to her and obey her orders.
Before my eyes, I saw almost four hundred dragons and their riders fall in line. As the Wings grouped into formation, it was clear they were perfectly spaced and aligned. It was a result that no Battle-flag signal could ever achieve.
I felt a surge of confidence from the assembled dragons and knew they were projecting the feelings of their riders. The tide of battle was turning—the confusion and terror was over, replaced with confidence and courage.
The Madlings were now literally flying blind. Their burning red eyes, blind in the sunlight, were useless to them. And the terror they were hunting for was gone, leaving them to fly aimlessly, searching for prey that was now essentially invisible.
L’eesha took full advantage of their blindness.
“FLAME!” I heard her shouting. “THEY CAN’T SEE YOU WHEN YOU’RE NOT AFRAID! FLAME THEM!”
As one, the dragons obeyed her. Almost four hundred jets of white-hot dragon fire shot out at the same time. Madlings shrieked and sizzled, dropping from the sky in burning clumps.
I felt a surge of triumph and sent it to L’eesha, who fed it to all the others. They flamed again and again, wheeling through the sky in brightly colored patterns as she directed them effortlessly. There wasn’t a single collision or a single break in the pattern.
But she wasn’t controlling them—she was directing them, I thought. The Wing Leaders took their cues from her and their Wings followed their lead. And all the time, L’eesha kept sending confidence and love and courage and bravery until I couldn’t feel a bit of the terror and dread which had filled the air only a few minutes before.
But as many Madlings as the dragons flamed from the sky, there always seemed to be more. The battle went on and on. The Wings worked tirelessly, slowly clearing the evil threat and my hands grew tired from gripping onto L’eesha’s long dorsal spine.
Occasionally the Madlings threatened us, but L’eesha was flaming them without a second thought now. Her fire was so hot and reached so far, she was able to keep the air around me clear almost effortlessly.
And then, just when it looked like most of the Madlings were gone, I saw it happen—a single Madling got past M’alex’s fire and fell like a stone, landing on Ryse’s back.
“Ryse—no!” I shouted and L’eesha felt my terror for him.
She managed not to project it—which was more than I could say for myself—but she bugled for M’alex, and I heard her shouting for him to come in quickly.
The huge Midnight Gold-wing turned at once, beating his way through the chaos. Diving and weaving through the formation and the fighting, he headed for the Flight Terraces.
