Darkness Falls ~ Book 1 ~ A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter 12 ~ Battle

~~~Mirage~~~

The stone hallways echoed loudly as the three dragons walked down them. Mirage led the way, her eyes half-shut as she reached out for the minds of the rest of the rebels.

"Do you know where everyone is?" Depth asked, his voice worried.

Without bothering to look back, Mirage answered. "Not yet, but I'm searching. We just need to keep moving."

A long pause, then...

"I found them!" Mirage crowed, speeding up. "This way!" She led them into a side hall, and then into a small out-of-the-way storage space, which was at the moment crammed full of anxious dragons.

"Mirage, Frozenshadow!" Lapwing exclaimed. "Where were you?" He glanced behind them at the dark shadow that was Depth. "And who is that you found?"

"Depth, remember?" the SeaWing said blankly, still hidden in shadows.

"Weren't you with us already?" Lapwing asked, a confused expression on his face. 

Depth shook his head. "No, I as captured by the Shades." His voice took on a hissing quality, like a snake. Mirage wondered what the Shades had done to him to make him so bitter.

"Mirage, Lapwing, Frozenshadow!" a voice exclaimed suddenly. "Run!"

Frozenshadow twisted around from the spot where she'd been standing, and glanced at the doorway, where a dragon stood.

"Leaf-cutter?" she grasped. "What are you talking about?"

Mirage peered at the doorways well, and realized who it was at the same time. "Run, everyone!" she shouted, not taking any chances. "C'mon Depth!"

"No!" Leaf-cutter yelped. "That's not Depth!"

"WHAT?" Lapwing roared, his wings flared as the shrieks of the rebels filled the room. 

With a snarl, Depth shot from the shadows, leaping onto the nearest panicking rebel, which turned out to be Marigold, the adopted daughter of Sundew and Willow. "Don't move, or I will slit her throat," it hissed, and only then did Mirage realize his eyes were as blank as pearls.

"Depth, what's wrong?" she pleaded, reaching towards him hesitantly. 

"Depth?" the SeaWing scoffed. "I'm not Depth. I'm Pantalus! Daughter of Queen Wasp!"

"No..." Lapwing murmured, his eyes wide. 

"Coward!" Frozenshadow shouted. "Why didn't you come and find us yourself, not sneaking through the minds of your enemies!"

"But sneaking through the minds of my enemies, as you so eloquently put it, is a much more effective way of exterminating them." Pantalus/Depth hissed. "And now that I know where you are, nothing can stop me from putting an end to you, once and for all."

"You'll never get us!" Marigold suddenly growled, and threw the startled SeaWing husk off of her. "For one, you already made a fatal mistake!"

Depth's body got up and shook himself off. "And what mistake was that?" it growled, smashing his tail into a nearby dragon, who fell like a stone. Mirage fought back tears as she recognized the victim to be Imperial. Please let him be okay, she hoped.

With a growl, Frozenshadow lunged at him, her teeth bared. Depth easily pushed her away and sent her careening into a shelf. "Pitiful," it hissed. "You've obviously had no combat training at all."

Lapwing copied Frozenshadow, with similar results. That's why his mind was so weird, Mirage realized. Because I was sensing someone controlling him. That explains the echo, I guess.