“Sunniva!” I scream. “Run!”
The pegasus breaks away, blood flecking from her wound. She doesn’t run, though. She wheels and batters the wyvern with her hooves. Another arrow passes, this one missing its target. A dark shape blocks the sun. The male wyvern. He shoots straight up into the air. Then he hovers there, and I know what’s coming. I know exactly what’s coming.
“Sunniva!”
I run so hard I can’t breathe. Can’t see either, the world tinged with red. In that red, I make out Sunniva, rearing, her hooves slashing as she fights the female wyvern, unaware of the male plummeting toward her. I reach her and…
I don’t think about what I’m doing. I react as I have been trained, my aunt Jannah’s voice sounding in my head.
Protect your mount, Rowan. Always remember that it’s a prey animal. If your mare is attacked, don’t fight alongside her—you risk being trampled. Get onto her back. Fight together.
I shove my sword into its scabbard, and when Sunniva comes down, front legs on the ground, I grab her and swing onto her back. That’s when I realize my mistake. This isn’t my mare. It’s an unbroken pegasus filly.
Sunniva screams as if this is a fresh attack. She rears, and I wrap my hands in her mane, clinging for dear life.
“Sunniva!” I shout. “Hold on! I’ll get off!”
She doesn’t seem to hear me. I clutch her neck and keep talking, babbling, my mouth by her ear as she writhes and bucks.
Get off. Just get off her.
I can’t. I see the ground below and those flashing hooves, and I know I cannot jump off. Before I found her, she’d struck my trainer, Wilmot, with one of those hooves, and it addled his mind. He’s slowly recovering, but he’s said many times that he’s lucky to be alive.
If I drop from Sunniva’s back, she’ll trample me.
“Run!” I shout, knocking my heels into her sides. “Just run!”
Please run. We can do this. Run, and I’ll keep you safe.
Instead, something bumps my leg, and I twist to see her wings extending.
“No!” I shout.
She can’t take off with me on her back. Her wings won’t support the two of us.
Teeth flash beside me. It’s the male wyvern, with his huge jaws and triple rows of teeth. Leaping onto Sunniva caused enough commotion to thwart his dive, but now he’s trying to grab me as Sunniva writhes.
Sunniva flaps those beautiful white-feathered wings. One smacks the wyvern, and he drops. Then the filly lifts off. She manages to get a few feet from the ground only to falter, wings beating madly.
I need to get off her back, let her fly. I have no idea how high we are, but I roll to the side and drop. I hit the ground hard, pain rocking through me.
Something catches my leg. I look to see the female wyvern’s jaws clamped around my boot. She swings me into the air. As I dangle aloft by one leg, the ground thunders and a voice screams, “Rowan!”
I catch a glimpse of Courtois charging across the grassland. Then my sword starts to slip from its scabbard. I yank it out as I hang there, the wyvern hovering with me in her jaws. She whips her head, and I sail upward, but I keep my hand on my sword and I slash. The tip catches her in the throat.
The wyvern drops me. As I hit the ground, I clamp tight on my weapon. It stays in my hand, and I manage not to land on the blade. I leap to my feet and slash at the wyvern as she dives. She sees the blade, lets out a terrible shriek and tries to divert course. I follow, twisting around as my blade whirls. It strikes her neck again. She screams. Then she hits the ground with an earth-quaking thud.
My gaze shoots to the sky. Sunniva is in flight, hovering as she watches us. To my left, Courtois swings toward me with surprising grace for a creature the size of a draft horse.
The unicorn charges at the fallen wyvern. On his back, Rhydd has his sword out, ready to strike the killing blow. Instead, at the last second, Courtois ducks, nearly sending Rhydd flying over his head. The unicorn’s horn impales the wyvern. Still galloping, Courtois lifts the beast aloft and throws it aside. Then he wheels and slows, snorting, his front hooves pounding the ground, ready to trample the wyvern if it stirs.
It does not stir.
“Prince Rhydd!” Dain shouts.
Rhydd and I look up just as a shadow passes over. The male wyvern hovers above my brother. Then he dives.
Rhydd doesn’t need to command the unicorn. This was my aunt’s steed. Courtois hears Dain’s shout, and he moves even before he can see the reason for it. He plows forward…and almost mows me down.
As I scramble away, Malric charges, snarling at Courtois. Malric turns that snarl on the wyvern as he veers my way. Seeing the massive warg, the wyvern feints to the side.
I swing at the wyvern. My sword slices into his leg. He screams. An arrow hits his wing, then another in the same spot, tearing the leathery skin. The beast lands and rears up. He only has two legs—back ones. I’ve injured one of those, and he teeters before finding his balance.
The wyvern’s tail whips, its arrowhead slicing through the air. Malric stands beside me, growling. We face off against the male wyvern. We’re close enough for me to see his fox-like head covered in fine red hair. His eyes are reptilian, slitted pupils fixed on me. When his jaws open, I get far too close a look at those triple rows of razor teeth.
A thump sounds behind me, with a quick, “It’s me,” from Rhydd, so I’m not startled.
My brother moves up beside me. Malric growls, telling Rhydd that we have this under control and he is interfering. I shoot Rhydd a glare, but only because he should stay mounted and protect his leg, still healing from the gryphon attack.
“Courtois stole my quarry,” Rhydd murmurs with a smile. “I can’t let you take down two wyverns.”
The wyvern snaps at us but stays back, facing us as his head bobs, surveying the situation.
From behind us comes a whinny and the thomp-thomp of hooves over hard ground.
“Took you long enough,” Rhydd yells without turning. “You missed all the fun.”
“Looks like you’re still having it,” Alianor says. “If your idea of fun is facing off against a wyvern the size of a small house.”
The wyvern rears and unfurls his wings.
“He is kinda big,” Rhydd says, as the shadow of those wings plunges us into darkness.
“Not quite the size of a small house, though,” I say.
“Still, really big.” His voice quavers so slightly that no one else would notice.
“I’d like to drive it off if we can,” I say, raising my voice as the wyvern shrieks. “They were only looking for dinner.”