Snow was soaring high when the riders came out of the Worldspine, just as Kemir knew they would. Five dragons, all fast-flying war-dragons, each with two riders. They were wary, flying in a loose diamond formation, one low and close to the ground, another up high, above the little puffs of cloud that hung in the air, and then one to each side and the last dragon hanging back. Kemir didn't know too much about flying dragons, but he knew that riders looking for a fight flew close together where they could quickly support each other. These ones were expecting the sort of trouble that would make them turn and run. In hindsight, that should have been a warning.
As if it would have made any difference. There was probably a right way to attack the diamond. Kemir had no idea what Prince Lai's Principles had to say, but if he had had to guess, he'd have said go for the one at the back. Snow, however, had never heard of Prince Lai. She simply climbed higher, then tucked in her wings and dived out of the sun, smashing into the dragon at the top of the diamond. The impact would have hurled Kemir far into the air if it hadn't been for his harness; as it was, the straps nearly tore him in half and he slammed forward, breaking his nose on Snow's back. The two dragons curled around each other, plummeting out of the sky together. Kemir didn't see what happened to the riders, but they must have been in the middle when the two dragons collided – probably now nothing more than a big bloody smear with bits of armour sticking out.
For a moment everything vanished into a white mist as they fell through a cloud. By the time they emerged, the dragons were apart. Snow had something dangling out of her mouth. She shook her head and it flew off through the air, leaving a streak of fine red mist to dissolve in the wind.
'Ow! Damn you, dragon, you nearly killed me!' He held on to her, arms spread wide, white-knuckled fingers locked around her scales. The other dragon was diving for the ground now and Snow wasn't far behind. He could see the ribbon of the river and the town that Snow had burned, a slight dirty haze that still hung over it.
There. One free. Four to go. She didn't slow down, but arrowed on towards the next dragon, wings folded back, wind howling around her.
'Alive! Take a rider alive!' bellowed Kemir, as if anyone could hear a thing at such a speed. He screwed up his face and tried without much success to shield his eyes with his hand. 'Can't you ever control yourself?'
Why?
'Useful food, remember.' How is it useful?
The riders on the next dragon had seen Snow coming now. She was flying too fast for them to get out of the way, but they'd turned their scorpion to fire at her.
No, not at her, at her rider. At him. Kemir threw himself flat. A few moments later he felt a pinch of pain from Snow as the scorpion bolt hit her. He had no idea where. Didn't care much either. It hadn't struck him, that was what mattered. You could probably shoot a hundred scorpions into a dragon without doing much more than make it very cross.
No! The dragon's fury slammed into him like a hammer and Kemir roared with anger without really knowing why. He clenched his fists and would have sat up straight in Snow's saddle, except as soon as he moved the wind almost ripped him off her back. Then Snow hit the other dragon like a thirty-ton battering ram. He was thrown up into the air, the harness almost tearing his legs off this time as both dragons lurched sideways. The other dragon was twisting to present itself as all claws and teeth, but it wasn't fast enough. Snow snapped at it with her teeth, raked it with her claws and lashed it with her tail. The teeth got one dragon-knight, the claws got the second. Kemir wasn't sure what the tail did because he was too busy ducking as the other dragon's tail snaked around Snow's neck and sliced the air where his head should have been. Rage filled him. Dragon-rage.
Poison, Kemir. Their bolts are poisoned!
Thoughts jumbled on top of each other, some that were his, some that were not. That if they were shooting scorpions with dragon-poison on them, they weren't shooting at him. That Snow ought to flee now, back to the lake. Back to the glaciers, if she could make it. That he didn't care, that she should stay and kill and kill and then run for the glaciers. How many poisoned bolts would it take to bring a dragon down? One? Ten? A hundred?
The one between my teeth still has thoughts. They are not useful thoughts, Kemir. I want to eat him.
'Do you know he's not poisoned too?'
Snow shuddered. She spat the knight out of her mouth. He sailed away through the air with a forlorn cry and fell out of sight. 'Alive!' screamed Kemir. 'Take one alive!'
Why? Snow turned, throwing Kemir sideways. They were getting close to the ground now. If Kemir hadn't had about a hundred more pressing things to do, he could have counted the trees and the animals in the fields beneath them.
The dragon's fury coursed through him.'So we can ask him questions!' So I can kill him myself. 'About dragon-poison and scorpions.' So I can feed him his own entrails while he's still alive. 'About how many times they think they need to hit you!' So I can crush his skull with my bare hands.
The last three dragons were closing now that Snow no longer had height and speed to her advantage. They were trying to position themselves around her, to trap her. A scorpion bolt fizzed through the air past Snow's head. Another punched straight through the thin skin of her wing.
'Go go go! Now!' Kemir urged. The curtain of the dragon-rage was lifting at the edges. Behind it, his own feelings began creeping through. Fear. Alarm. A certain uneasy dread. 'They've fired. Take them before they can load another bolt!'
Snow veered, twisted and powered towards the nearest dragon, her whole body shuddering as her wings ripped the air. The straps of the dragon-rider harness groaned and Kemir felt something at the bottom of his spine pop and creak. Snow closed the gap, but not enough before the other dragon turned and pulled away. A scorpion bolt from above bounced of Snows nose. She shrieked in frustration, turned sharply and launched a futile charge at another of the dragons. That one danced away too. The riders knew what they were doing. Kemir could just about see that now. They'd be happy to keep their distance and pepper Snow with their poisoned scorpions for as long as it took to wear her down. He clung on, gritting his teeth as Snow pivoted and whirled back and forth. Her wings strained, her seething tail slashing the air, but each dragon she chased only powered away while the other two closed and took their shots.
'That's what you get for being stupid,' muttered Kemir. He could still feel the fury, smouldering waves of it pulsing out of Snow like a bad hangover, but he was its master now.
Stupid, Kemir? When I fall out of the sky, I shall be sure to land on my back!
'Stupid because you landed in the middle of a town and burned half of it to the ground. Stupid because hundreds of people saw a riderless white dragon. Stupid because you never stop to think-You just smash and burn and eat people.' He flinched as another scorpion bolt split the air nearby. Snow was climbing again, hauling herself steeply up towards the little scattered clouds, but Kemir could see straight away that they were too small and too few to offer any cover. Why am I shouting? Because it makes me feel better, that's why. 'What did you expect? Did you think they were going to come out here after you and form up in an orderly line to be eaten?' Wind tore past Kemir's face, almost pulling his words out of his mouth. He could barely open his eyes. Proper riders had riding helmets with special visors for this sort of thing. He pushed himself forward into Snow's scales again. In the end, he was helpless up here.
Her scales were hot.
Your thoughts are a distraction, Kemir. They are not helpful.
'My thoughts are a distraction? Well, why don't you just land and let me off then? Then you can blunder about on your own. It's not like you listen to me anyway and then I won't have to worry about being shot at by giant arrows any more!'
Kemir!
'Hey, you know what? Next time you burn a town you could jump inside their heads and ask them to bring some nice tasty donkeys when they come back to hunt you. They're not stupid, Snow.' In fact so far they've been cleverer than you. He tried to think the last thought quietly. Not quietly enough, Kemir.
Valmeyan's dragons were faster than Snow. She wasn't quite fully grown. Maybe that was why, or maybe the mountain men simply had better dragons, war-dragons, stronger and faster and more enduring. Snow had five bolts in her now and more would come. Sooner or later they'd get enough poison in her to bite and she and Kemir both knew it. She reached the level of the clouds and wove through and in between them. The other dragons settled in around her, patiently awaiting their chances.
I must go back to the mountains. To the lakes.
Into a cloud. Everything white. Turn. Out again into the sunlight.
Kemir could see exactly where that would lead. Snow meant to hide under the water again. 'And what do I do?' The other dragons might be able to follow her but their riders couldn't. They'd wait for her until she came out again. And, in the meantime, they'll amuse themselves chasing after me. Three of them on dragons and me on foot. I'd be better off staying with Snow and hoping to discover a miraculous talent for breathing water. 'They won't give up,' he shouted. 'They'll stay with you for as long as it takes. Sooner or later you'll have to come out to eat. They'd be waiting for you.' There. He could even believe that might be true.
Next cloud. Sharp turn. Back into the light. Sprint after one of the other dragons. No good. Turn again.
And you suggest? She was powering through the air with all her strength, sprinting, turning, keeping the other dragons at bay for now. It couldn't last. Kemir was pressed flat against her scales and could already feel her becoming uncomfortably warm even through his furs. Her thoughts were distinctly irritable. He could see them. She was wondering whether she'd fly faster without Kemir on her back.
Another cloud. Another turn. Into the light. Straight into another scorpion.
'Get them away from their eyries. They need their potions. They can't follow you if you take them away from their eyries.'
And where are their eyries, Kemir?
'In the mountains.' Which was certainly true. But for all he knew, there might be eyries all over the place. He'd never been this side of the Worldspine. Hadn't even known it existed.
Then your advice is flawed, little one. I prefer the lakes. Snow turned sharply in the next cloud, arrowing back at the three dragons in pursuit. Kemir wasn't sure whether it was her patience or her strength that had gone first. The other dragons scattered. She spat fire at the nearest, then pinwheeled and powered towards the distant peaks, climbing higher, putting the clouds below her. Another scorpion bolt buried itself in her flank. Kemir felt the flash of pain and anger. A second one sailed over his head. There was something in Snow's thoughts that he'd never seen before, something that didn't belong. Desperation.
'The sea!' he burst out. 'Go to the sea!'
The sea? There was a pause. Where is the sea?
Kemir tried to form a map of the realms in his mind. 'Somewhere south.'
Why is the sea better than a lake that is smaller but closer?
'Because it's called the Endless Sea for a reason. Because there aren't any eyries. You can fly and keep on going and they'll have to give up and go home, and when they come back they'll never be able to find you.' And you can float on the surface and I can stay on your back and no one needs to drown or be taken by the dragon-riders.
It is far away, is it not, Kemir? Very far.
That was probably true. He didn't know where they were any more. 'I don't know.' He glanced over his shoulder, looking for the pursuit. Snow was leaving a trail of smoke in the air behind her. No, not smoke, steam. When he touched the scales of her back with his bare skin, he yelped. They were hot, painfully hot. Days, probably.
I do not know if I can fly for days at this speed.
'You flew that far when we crossed the Worldspine.' Not at this speed though.
Nor was I poisoned.
Self-pity? Kemir felt his anger return, and this time it was all his own. 'No, but you weren't so fat with people you weren't supposed to eat either. You brought this on yourself. Now you can get out of it.'
They challenged me, Kemir. Two more scorpion bolts flew past Snow in quick succession. A third glanced off her scales. She turned again, changing course to fly parallel to the Worldspine. Kemir tried to work out whether they were going the right way. 'The last time we flew towards the sea, we kept the mountains on the right.' Snow had turned so they were on her left.
Yes, Kemir. And we have crossed the mountains now.
He tried to work out whether that made a difference. He didn't get very far before Snow suddenly dropped out of the sky and plunged towards the ground. Kemir screamed, partly in surprise, partly from real fear that Snow had suddenly succumbed to the poisoned bolts.
I do not feel the poison yet, Kemir. Her thoughts were tinged with amusement. If it is to be the sea then I must fly low to weave among the hills. The dragons that follow us are fully grown. They are stronger and faster than me, but I am more agile. We must use that to our advantage.
We. Snow had never said we before. Despite everything, despite the burned town, despite even Nadira, a warm glow bloomed in the pit of Kemir's stomach. We. It might have been his breakfast trying to escape as Snow pitched into free fall. Or it might have been pride.