‘Hark!’ she responded and shot higher in the air with a speed that left him gasping. Above all the other dragons, she banked in a tight circle over the Duke’s stronghold. Where? Where? Where? she demanded, ignoring Reyn’s cries of ‘What is it? What is wrong?’

And then she was diving, diving alone on the tallest tower of the keep, ignoring the angry trumpeting from IceFyre that she was ignoring their plans. Reyn could do nothing but hold tight to her harness and bellow his terror as she arrowed straight for the side of the tower.

‘She comes like a blue star falling through the heavens. She is the Empress of Destruction, the Queen of Vengeance, and if I must die, let her deliver my death to me!’

‘That is her? She is like the fire inside a blue opal!’ Chassim stared, her eyes wide in terror and delight. Her body was behind his, holding him pressed against the stone balustrade so he could stand, watching the blue miracle streaking toward them.

Selden lifted his voice and found that not all music had fled from him.

‘She is both wise and terrible. Cleverness beyond cleverness is hers, swift-winged, sharp-taloned, and keen of sight. Tintaglia!’ His voice broke on the last word.

Tintaglia tipped back, giving them a view of her sparkling belly and the glittering claws on her feet.

Chassim held him tightly but her entire body was quivering. ‘Like glittering blue steel is she! Bring my death then, lovely one. We await you.’

But it was not her jaws that came at them, but her clasping front talons. Chassim staggered back from the brink as Tintaglia seized the stone balustrade of the balcony and clung, the wind of her battering wings a hurricane around them. The talons of her front feet scored and slipped on the balustrade; her hind feet were braced on the tower below. Cracks raced through the stone railing.

‘Climb up, climb up now, now, NOW!’ The man on her back was roaring the words, and then, ‘Climb now, now!’ commanded the dragon, the words echoing through Selden’s bones.

He tried hard to do as she commanded, but the weakness of his body betrayed him. He felt Chassim grip the back of his robe and push him forward. He caught at the strap on the dragon’s chest. The man on the dragon clambered down the harness, clamped a grip on his bandaged wrist and dragged him up. He screamed in pain and scrabbled feebly with his feet, then his hands found leather and iron rings to grip. Chunks of the balcony were falling away as the dragon tore them free in her desperate bid to cling to the side of the tower. The rider dragged him up and held him before him on the dragon’s back. Selden sagged forward, and then gripped tight as the dragon pushed off from the tower face. She swooped away from the structure as he screamed, ‘Chassim! No, go back, Tintaglia, fair queen! Chassim!’

‘I … am … here!’ Her voice was weak with terror.

He looked down. Chassim clung grimly to the rings of Tintaglia’s harness, her garments whipping in the wind as the dragon fell suddenly away from the tower. He more saw than heard her wild scream as they plummeted together.

Then, with a sickening lurch, the fall became a glide. With a beat, beat, beat of Tintaglia’s powerful wings, they slowly began to rise. Chassim, her teeth bared in a determined snarl, her hair a wild stream of glory around her face, climbed doggedly, ring by ring, until Selden’s reaching hand closed over her wrist. Wisely, she did not trust his grip, but he could not let her go. Ring by ring, she came closer and then was hugging him as tightly as the man who held onto him. He twisted to see the rider and found himself looking upon an Elderling such as Selden had seen only in old tapestries.

‘Sir, I thank you,’ he gasped. ‘Oh, Tintaglia, blue queen of the skies, most powerful and wisest of all dragons, I give you thanks.’

‘Little brother, I am always doomed to find you in the damnedest places,’ the rider said, and abruptly Selden knew that it was Reyn who clasped him so securely. ‘You look but two heartbeats this side of death,’ Reyn added.

‘If only you knew,’ Selden replied. He was suddenly dizzy and faint with relief. ‘What do you here? Whence come all these dragons?’

‘Don’t you know them?’ asked Reyn. Tintaglia was ignoring her riders, carrying them higher and higher above the city, away from the death and destruction below them. ‘You saw them encased, you saw them hatched! We come from Kelsingra, Selden, and we come to kill the Duke of Chalced for daring to hunt dragons for their blood.’

Selden felt Tintaglia’s assent to Reyn’s words course through him, strong with her anger.

‘But what of you?’ continued Reyn. ‘You sent us no word! Your sister thinks you dead and your mother fears she is right. What happened to you? I do not think you were in that tower willingly, by the look of you. And who is this you have brought with you?’