Sky City Chronicles

Chapter 4: Freedom

Freedom

I made my way into the corridor at the base of the stairs, dismissing the guards with a command and racing to the cell that belonged to my beloved. Razor was asleep as I came up to the door, but a quick rap on the bars woke him up in a flash.

"We don't have much time." I said as I popped open the door, racing in to take off his chains as fast as I could. I looked up as I worked at a stubborn lock on his left hand, "You were right about everything, the prisoners, the Bloodbane, the guards, everything." The lock popped open and Razor walked out of the chains for the first time since his capture. I used my claws and opened the cuffs covering his hands, and they joined the chains in a pile as I walked him out of the cell.

"So you followed my advice," he said as we worked our way to the next row of cells, "I take it what you saw was not to your liking."

"He turned a young dragoness right in front of me." I said with venom, "If I have to give my life to prevent that from happening again, then it will be a small price to pay for the part I had in poisoning young dragons' minds."

He ran at my side as we reached the next row of cells, "We'll work on getting these ones free, and then worry about the ones who've already been turned." He slid to a stop at my side as we came to the cell block that was closest to Razor's. He drew a quick spell on the ground and all at once the doors and chains of every dragon cell came alive as the locks burst on the chains and the doors opened of their own accord. The other prisoners looked out with caution, but as Razor yelled for them to get moving, they all took off for the stairs, Razor and I hot on their trail. We came screaming out of the stairs like a living rainbow, and the two guards that had been on duty never knew what hit them. As we came out of the building the alarm bell started to sound, and as one all of the prisoners took to the air, while Razor and I sped along on the ground.

"We need to get some distance before we take off." He huffed out as we ran through the main gates, "That way we can avoid detection for a while since the guards will be chasing everyone else in the air."

I nodded, "So where are we going? Do you have a plan?"

He nodded in turn, "We're going to my old master Ironscale so we can get some rest and then come back to finish what we just started." He looked at me with a sideways grin, "After that we can live as we please, given Igneous and his bunch will be history."

I grinned back despite the risks at stake, but it faded quickly as we entered the woods beyond Sky City. I didn't know if Razor's teacher would accept me, and I had a feeling Razor didn't know either. I just hoped that his mentor wouldn't throw me out because of what I had done, but there wasn't any time to find another option. Either he accepted me or he didn't, but right now getting out of range of the search parties was our only concern. Razor flapped his wings and took to the air, flying low to the ground as I took off next to him. We stayed below tree level as much as possible, hugging riverbeds and small canyons as much as we could. As I looked to my right to try and spot any pursuit before they saw us, I noticed that there was what looked like a pile of rubble off to the right of our path.

"We can hide in there for a while until the search parties pass us," I called up to him, pointing towards the rubble with one hand.

He looked at me and then to where I was pointing, but as he caught sight of the pile of rubble his face paled and he shook his head, "No, we can't hide there. We need to get to Ironscale or we'll be caught for sure." He sped off ahead of me, and I paused for a second, wondering what it was about that place that scared him so much. I shook my head and flapped hard to catch up with him, my wings starting to get sore from so much work at one time. As we came into a heavily wooded area that strangely showed no signs of damage, Razor aimed for a clearing that led to a large hole in the face of a granite cliff. He touched down and ran into the hole, disappearing from my sight as I touched down, but when I tried to follow him a wall of golden light flared up to block my path.