Defiance: The Umbra Chronicles Book 2 Read online

  Andras wasn’t built for patience. The guards were hot on our heels. Unlike us, they had no reason to keep silent as they ran so they sounded like a legion in loose armour pounding up the stairs. Andras turned his head, just for a moment, to look behind him, just as the first guard rounded the corner. Andras took hold of Rhiannon’s shoulders and shook her like he’d shook me. ‘Jump!’ he whispered urgently.

  ‘They’re over here!’ a guard called. They started to run along the balcony like ants.

  ‘Jump!’ Andras cried. Rhiannon just leaned forward until her head was on his chest. Over her head Andras’s desperate met mine.

  ‘Jump!’ I shouted. ‘Jump!’ I won’t let you fall!’

  Andras bent his knees a little and hooked his arm tight around Rhiannon’s waist, clamping her to him so tightly her feet were lifted clear off the floor. He muttered. ‘If you can’t jump, then hold on,’ and he threw them both off the ledge.

  They weren’t going to make it. I had my arms stretched out as if I was going to catch the weight of two people who were already falling. Rhiannon’s low moan turned into a shriek when she realised they were going to fall short of the eaves. She flung her arms out to try and catch at something. She started to fall away from Andras and her fingers slipped along the smooth edge of the wall. Andras didn’t cry out. His eyes met mine and they looked so blank I could have screamed if I had time.

  I didn’t have time. I begged for Umbra’s aid and called up a wind so strong the roof tiles rattled. But Andras and Rhiannon fell so quickly and a wind takes time to reach its full speed. I was on my knees at the edge of the roof, reaching down like I could still catch them in my hands. Rhiannon’s scream stopped abruptly.

  I cried out, but I couldn’t stop to scream even then. The guards were already at the ledge, preparing to jump across to capture me. In an instant, the first was across, then a second and a third as I ran up the roof. On the ridgeline, I turned and started to cast lightnings. They were feeble sparks since I’d used all the strength the moonlight had given me to bring a wind to save Andras and Rhiannon and I’d had so little strength to begin with. They drew back for a moment in fear, then pressed forward.

  I turned and slipped for a moment when I tried to go too quickly. Where else could I go? We could all run around on the roof for half an hour or so, chasing one another around in a circle, but what then? Where else could I go but down? I drew in a deep breath. I already had one foot forward to step off the roof when I heard the ringing of a sword behind me. I turned around because it made no sense for the guards to be fighting themselves.

  I had to go a few steps back up the roof, away from the edge to see over the ridge line. It was hard to see what was going on from the hard press of bodies. A guard fell off the roof, screaming as he fell, and in the brief gap he left in the scrum, I saw Andras, bloodier than ever.

  I cried out, a cry oddly echoed by Rhiannon as the mighty surge of wind cast her up onto the roof and face first into the tiles. Andras was working quickly and desperately. He had already killed two of the guards, the one who had fallen off the roof and another who lay by my feet, eyes open, staring at the moon.

  I picked up the dead guard’s sword and went down the roof to help Andras. I’m no warrior but I knew enough to defend myself. I probably didn’t help much, but it was enough. Andras managed to push the last guard away long enough to slit his throat and we began to run again. More guards were jumping across the dark chasm to the roof and we wouldn’t have a chance of defeating them all.

  ‘Where to?’ I asked Andras. Five minutes before, I’d been standing on the edge with one foot in the air. Now I was looking at Andras like he had a ladder in his pocket.

  He ran his hands through his hair, which made it slick back from his face in damp rows. I tried not to think about the blood on his hands, on his clothes and now in his hair. It was all over me now, too.

  ‘There must be a way,’ Andras muttered and I felt like the roof dropped away from my feet for a second.

  ‘You don’t know?’ I shrieked.

  ‘My plan wasn’t to run straight into the guardroom and shout “hello”!’he shouted back.

  ‘So, I improvised!’ Even breathless and running for my life I’m a smartarse.

  ‘Improvised!’ I knew that would make him so mad he was in danger of falling off the roof.

  I glanced behind ‒ the guards were only fifty feet behind us. If one of us tripped, we wouldn’t have time to get up before the guards were upon us.

  ‘Emer!’ I looked around ‒ so did Andras and Rhiannon. Neither of them had spoken. I kept running, dancing over the tiles as we turned a corner on the roof. ‘Emer!’ I heard it again, louder and clearer. Then, ‘Emer, you fool, look up!’

  Looking up isn’t a great idea when you’re running along a roof. I glanced upwards and caught sight of a dragon, massive and practically right on top of us, just as my foot caught the edge of a tile. I tripped.

  I wanted to shout something brave and heroic as I fell, but have you ever tried saying something coherent, much less brave and heroic, while falling? Everything slowed. If I didn’t roll off the roof, the guards were going to get me. Rhiannon turned towards me ‒ she knew at once what it meant to trip. Andras grabbed her arm and swung her around without even breaking stride. He knew, too, that it wasn’t going to be possible to save me this time.

  Just before my face hit the tiles the dragon roared and pounced. His claws went around my body, so close to the roof that the tiles beneath me were knocked loose and sent skittering off into the darkness.

  The dragon drew his leg up towards his body and the next thing I knew a hand ‒ a human hand! ‒ grabbed my arm and yanked. A wind that had to be magical rose beneath me to thrust my body upwards and then I was falling again, down into the enclosure that sat atop the dragon’s back. Lynnevet was there, too, small and pale, firmly strapped in with a leather harness. There was space in here for half a dozen troops, a flat platform surrounded by bars and equipped with straps to hold the troops safely. I’d been ready to fight, but in my defence, it had been a rough day and a rough night and my reaction time was down a bit.

  The dragon’s rider was Kiaran and behind him in the enclosure sat Ronan, his hair wild and beaded, his pale skin gleaming in the moonlight.

  ‘My friends!’ I cried, pointing down to Andras and Rhiannon. The dragon had wheeled away from the roof so Kiaran wheeled him back again.

  ‘Trust me!’ I shouted when we were close enough to hear. Rhiannon glanced up and shrank back a little, but the guards were closer than ever and she had no more time than to spare a glance at me. Andras didn’t even look up. He turned to Rhiannon midstride, grabbed her waist with both hands and flung her up into the air. She screamed when the dragon caught her in its claws, but the dragon drew her upwards, Kiaran cast magic to hold her aloft and Ronan pulled her into the enclosure with us.

  The movement cost Andras momentum. The guards were right behind him now.

  The guards were close behind Andras, but he’d made a vital mistake. He hadn’t turned the right corner. Instead of going around the roof, he headed left, onto a wing that jutted out from the main building and led ‒ nowhere.

  Kiaran urged the dragon faster. When Andras reached the end of the roof, the guards would be upon him and there would be nothing he could do but fight for a few moments and die.

  Andras didn’t turn to fight at the end of the roof. He didn’t even slow down. He launched himself into the air. Kiaran leaned down low over the dragon’s neck and stretched out a hand. I was more powerful, but Kiaran had been training in magic all his life. He cast such strong magic at Andras that we all had to hold tight to the enclosure to keep from being blown away.

  Kiaran’s magic threw Andras so high in the air that Ronan didn’t need to pull him up, we had to make a space for him to land. He landed like a cat, lightly, on his feet, then looked around at us, sitting around him, clutching the edges of the enclosure. He gave us that ready grin that had been so
entrancing when he was younger and was slightly terrifying now he was covered in blood.

  He leaned forward to shout to Kiaran. ‘Go west! The Dark Queen is waiting for us!’

  Kiaran turned the dragon’s head and we flew away towards the Front. It was strange to think how close the Front was to Caillen and Cairnagorn. No wonder Aine had been able to crash into Cairnagorn the day I’d first gone through the Portal. The Front was barely fifty miles away.

  We landed far enough away from the Dark Queen’s camp that we weren’t shot out of the air. Kiaran insisted that we land a safe distance away. Although he never specified exactly what distance was safe, he held forth at length on the risks to his dragon, himself, and how he would cast every last one of us to the winds if his dragon was injured. Since we were still roughly a thousand feet in the air, we all readily agreed to any rule Kiaran chose to set.

  We landed in a clearing, just east of the plain where the Dark Queen’s forces were encamped. Even in the woods, there was a heavy pall of smoke in the air. It smelled like a barbeque when the chef was distracted by a horde of angry children. The charred, ashy smell only grew stronger until my eyes were watering and we were each looking at each other wondering who would be the first to whinge about it.

  Kiaran was the last to dismount from the dragon. He didn’t sit in the enclosure with the rest of us. He had a saddle that sat on the dragon’s neck, not far behind its head, straddling one of the protrusions that grew from the dragon’s spine. He kept hold of the reins as he dismounted.

  Andras excused himself, leaving us so he could find some of the Dark Queen’s scouts so that we could enter her camp unmolested. Ronan accompanied him and Lynnevet, clinging closely to Ronan’s hand, went with them. I was left alone with Kiaran and Rhiannon.

  ‘What’s the point of the reins, anyway?’ I asked, trying to make conversation to banish the darkness that clustered around us. That terrible smell in the air did not make me feel safe.

  Kiaran gave me a direct look that was meant to humiliate. He should know, I’d been on the receiving end of more direct humiliation than could be communicated by a single look, and quite recently, too. ‘They’re to control the dragon, Emer.’

  ‘Yes, but how? I mean, the dragon’s head is the size of a house. If it nodded too fast right now, you’d be a pancake. How could you possibly control a head that size with a piece of rope?’

  ‘It isn’t just rope.’ He showed me the part that he held. It was only a few feet long before it was attached to a narrow strip of leather. The end of it looked like rope, dark and braided in a round shape. ‘And Oisin isn’t an it. Oisin is a male.’ Kiaran grinned. ‘As you will now see.’

  He pulled on the reins and Oisin lowered his head. I worried for a moment that not only Kiaran, but I, was about to become a pancake, but as Oisin lowered his head, his body also lowered, narrowed and changed. The blue scales changed to a pale skin colour and in moments, it was not a dragon that stood before me, but a man. He was tall and rangy, lean and muscular, with flowing red hair tied with blue beads like a Camiri warrior. He gazed at me without speaking, but like he was taking stock of me.

  Suddenly, Kiaran jerked on the reins. The leather of the halter had disappeared and Kiaran now only held the short rope of dark, braided fibre. The halter was now a dark rope, wrapped around Oisin’s neck. When Kiaran pulled on it, Oisin was dragged downwards, until he stumbled. He tried to regain his feet but Kiaran kicked his feet out from under him. Rhiannon gasped at the brutal manoeuvre.

  ‘On your knees before your betters, dog.’

  Oisin snarled and I thought for a moment that he was going to leap to his feet. I wasn’t sure if I’d blame him for ripping Kiaran apart with his bare hands.

  That didn’t mean I didn’t feel a flash of fear. Umbra flashed in my brow, illuminating the scene for the briefest moment, but it stopped Oisin in his tracks. He looked up at me and his scrutiny was more intense than ever. Kiaran had pushed him to his hands and knees. The next thing I knew, Oisin was kneeling, gracefully and willingly, his head bent politely.

  ‘Not to you, but to the one you carry,’ he said. His voice was a rich tenor, every word enunciated carefully like they were part of a ritual. ‘Not for obedience to a captor, but out of reverence for my ancestors, and the blessings they spoke over this world. And so do I offer you my service, Lady.’

  ‘Get up!’ Kiaran jerked the harness again, but Oisin didn’t move. He was very tall, so tall that when he kneeled, we were practically face to face. Kiaran reached forward to grab Oisin’s hair and force him to his feet.

  ‘Stop it!’ I screamed. ‘You’re as bad as any of them, leave him alone!’

  ‘He’s a beast of burden, a thing to be used,’ Kiaran snarled. He let go of Oisin’s hair and brandished the rope in his face. ‘You’ll do what I tell you to, dog, I have your true love’s hair in my hand. Your blood forces you to submit. That’s why we don’t need heavy reins, Emer. While I hold his true love’s hair, I could tell him to slit his own throat and he’d have to obey.’

  I gasped. My eyes went to the rope. Dark, braided fibres. Dark, braided human hair. I nearly threw up on the spot.

  But Oisin was not cowed. His hand shot out and caught Kiaran around the neck. Kiaran was tall but Oisin was taller. When Oisin pushed Kiaran backwards into the trunk of a tree, he lifted Kiaran clear off his feet, pinning him against the tree. Strangling him.

  Rhiannon ducked behind me, grabbing at my arm. I didn’t shake her off. To tell the truth, I really wanted someone to cling to just then, and Rhiannon hanging onto me was the best excuse.

  Kiaran’s hands scrabbled at Oisin’s. They couldn’t gain purchase. The rope of hair slipped between them. Oisin held Kiaran pinned to the tree with a single hand.

  ‘While you held Niamh’s hair you could command me, you piece of shit. Our laws are written in our blood. But we Draceni have more than one law. Even though you hold Niamh’s hair, I still serve Umbra and I still honour the sacrifices of my ancestors.’

  Oisin grabbed at the rope of hair as it slithered over the hand that held Kiaran fast against the tree. Kiaran was turning purple, his heels banging against the tree trunk. Oisin glanced over his shoulder at me. ‘Command me, Lady!’ he called. ‘You who bear Umbra, command me and I shall obey.’

  ‘Let go of him!’ The words came out broken, like I was the one being strangled. ‘Please, let go of him.’

  Oisin let go. Kiaran fell into a heap at the base of the tree. Ignoring him, Oisin walked back towards me. I moved the hand Rhiannon grasped so that it was curved around her, keeping her behind me. Oisin stopped suddenly. ‘Command me, Lady,’ he said, his voice gentler all of a sudden.

  ‘Go away!’ I begged. ‘Please, just leave us alone!’

  Oisin’s face twisted. ‘Perhaps one day you will learn why the Draceni will obey the one who bears Umbra, no matter what the cost. I could have helped you.’

  ‘Please go away!’

  He turned and ran a few steps towards the edge of the woods. Before he even reached the trees, he was changing shape, his skin turning blue, his form shifting, until it was a dragon and not a man who flew from us.

  Kiaran was still sprawled at the base of the tree, clutching his neck and coughing. ‘You nasty son of a bitch,’ I began. I let go of Rhiannon and advanced on Kiaran.

  Behind me, Rhiannon cried out. I ignored her first cry, determined to give Kiaran a piece of my mind. She cried out again a second later. This time I was muffled. I turned. A soldier had grabbed her and held her, with a hand over her mouth. I took a step towards her.

  And I was grabbed from behind.

  I had a little… moment. I suspected that no matter how long I lived, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate someone touching me from behind without warning.

  At least I didn’t use magic. All I did was spin to slap the man in the face and shove another one away from me. Another one grabbed me ‒ again, from behind ‒ and wrapped both arms around me, pinning both my arms down.
/>   There were too many dark places for my mind to go to. There was the year when I was thirteen and Maldwyn was the quintessential creepy Guardian. And then again, when the Librarians in the past captured me the moment I tumbled through the Portal and they clothed me in a featherskin. And the last, the night that left me weeping into Gwydion’s jacket when I thought he was just another dead body like I wished I was ‒ when Aine and I were travelling alone at night and the Camiri guard caught us, raped us and threw us in a cage so we could be used again at their leisure.

  To be held, especially from behind, was too much. I screamed. Umbra flared like the sun.

  Andras pelted back into the clearing, closely followed by Ronan and Lynnevet. The whole clearing was illuminated by Umbra, shining yellow and bright like a summer sunrise. Despite the clear, glowing light, Andras’s blood spattered face was grey with fear. He knew why I was frightened. That had been the day we met, the day after I was assaulted by the soldiers. He had healed us from the wounds inflicted by the soldiers, but he hadn’t been able to heal our minds. And I’d come to think that maybe I had meant something to him.

  Two of the soldiers ran to capture him, but he shook them off with ease. A moment later, he grabbed the guard holding me and threw me clear.

  ‘Look at her, you fools!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t you recognise the Bach Chwaer? Don’t you recognise the face of our own Queen? She’s shining like the goddamned sun! How can you not notice that she is obviously Umbra’s Heir?’

  They drew up short. The name was like magic. Even Kiaran, slung between two soldiers, looked up at me and muttered in shock, ‘You’re the Bach Chwaer?’

  I was barely coherent, but pride is second nature to me, so when they stared at me, I just lifted my chin and stared right back. Andras was still raging. He shoved a guard so hard he stumbled. ‘Don’t you even recognise me, Marevas? You didn’t stop to look at our faces?’