House of Winter

Chapter 19, Part 2

Warrah, Jinni and Sigrún weren't far behind. Warrah dived deep, and within moments the strong young dragon had pushed the silver dragon to the surface. Pythos Savvas was clinging to his dragon's back.

"We need to get into the cover of the forest," Sanna said, "or the fire army will find us."

Sigrún landed on the rocky shore, and Ari jumped from the wolf's back and ran into the lapping waves, as the dragons pulled Pythos from the water.

Ari could see now that both Pythos and his dragon had been badly burned by the fireball attack. She wanted to check their wounds, but she knew the important thing now was to get them under the trees, so that any patrolling fire soldiers in the sky wouldn't see them.

They managed to drag themselves up the rocks and into the dense forest, and finally collapsed in a wet heap in the shadows of the trees.

"Pythos," Ari said, crouching next to him. She could barely see him in the darkness of the forest, but it would be too dangerous to light a fire. Instead, she felt along his body and arms, and up his neck and face, making note of the moments he winced in pain. It seemed that a good part of his face and neck had been burnt, and even some of his hair.

Ari tore off the man's shirt and drenched it in sea water, before bringing it back to him to hold onto the burns. He hissed in pain, but allowed her to do it.

"How's Asyros?" Ari asked. Sanna was crouching over the dragon.

"I think he's ok," Sanna said. "His hide is strong enough to withstand fire. I think the burn on his foot is superficial. Is Savvas okay?"

"Well, I've been better," the man grumbled, and Ari couldn't help but smile.

Jinni pushed past Ari and bent his face to Pythos Savvas, and landed a lick on the man's face, which resulted in a startled yelp from the Water Dancer.

"Jinni's welcoming you to the gravely injured club, I suppose," Ari said.

"Thanks for the warm welcome, boy," Pythos Savvas grumbled.

"I don't think it's safe for us to try to travel more tonight," Sanna whispered. "But surely we can't stay here."

"Where else can we go?" Ari wondered aloud, before realising that they had left their boat tied up on one of these very islands.

The only problem was that the fire army was now searching for them, and she was sure that if they tried to take off again tonight, someone would spot them. They would be looking for two dragons and a wolf.

"The fire soldiers won't be looking for a lone tiger," Ari said. "If they see me in the distance they'll just assume I'm one of them."

"If they see you?" Sanna balked. "You mean you, riding on Jinni?"

"We're friends now, aren't we?" Ari asked.

Jinni gave her a look, and Ari found it remarkable just how much he was able to put into that look. It told her that he still remembered that she was the one who had caused the leg injury that resulted in his amputation, but that she was also the only one determined to get him back to Lumi.

Or maybe she was just reading into it.

"If I can get to that boat, there are more supplies and equipment inside. If we're lucky, no one will have found it. There's medical supplies in the cabin."

"If you're lucky," Sanna said. "The whole fire army will be looking for us."

"The whole fire army is looking for Lumi," Ari said. "Stay here and look after the Water Dancer. I can think of thousands of fans who would be very mad at us if anything bad happened to him."