Enchantingly Different

Chapter 19

Hector must have seen the sun too, for he rides up next to me and pushes his visor up with a clang.

“Sir, the sun.”

I nod at him in return. My voice seems to have left me, my body almost in shock from losing the other half of me, but I clear my throat and force the words out of me.

“Then I suppose we better make haste,” I respond, pushing Taric forward with more urgency. The rest of the men follow suit and speed up with me. I spot Juliette curled on one of the men’s lap, frail and sickly looking. Her thin had clutches at the cloak wrapped around her and she smiles weakly at me when she catches my eye.

I see the familiar grey snow falling from the sky as we get further from the castle. I think back on what Shae had told me about the volcano and have an awful premonition of it showering us in lava instead of ash. That’s all we would need right now, I think grumpily to myself. Mustn’t jinx ourselves after all.

We move into the valley of rocks and I see a small rock falling down the slope to our left, the sound reverberating around us and magnified by the emptiness of the land. I hold up my hand to have everyone stop behind me. Everyone comes a halt and all I can hear is the breathing of the men and the restless sounds of hooves.

Another rock slides down the slope, bouncing off larger ones as it falls.

“There’s something up there,” I mutter to Hector, who is by my side.

“Perhaps the small creature we saw here before?”

Right, I’d forgotten about him. “You’re probably right, but we should check it out just in case.”

I signal to three of the men to go investigate and they nod obediently before riding off to the left side of the valley. The slope is steep, but the horses navigate it easily and they are soon fanned out across the rocky terrain and slowly pushing up to find the source of the disruption.

“Robert, your father will be very pleased that you’ve retrieved Juliette. I’m sure the Queen also-“

“The Queen will be the same as she’s always been. She will find some kind of fault in what I’ve done and exploit it to try and poison my father’s mind against me,” I snap back, my voice full of bitterness. “It’s been no secret that she wishes for me to not return from this crusade. Who knows, maybe she will get her wish, depending on what this land has in store for us on the way home,” I add, eyeing the men’s progress on the slope.

The ground starts to shake and I see even more rubble falling down from the crest of the valley, spreading a cloud of dust into the air. Smoke bellows into the air and there’s an audible rumble from the mountainside.

“Oh my…is it…is it a volcano?” Hector’s voice has a shake in it and I can hear his hands tighten on the leather reigns.

“No, it’s a dragon,” I reply, pointing to the top of the slope where a large head is coming into view through the dust and smoke.

The eyes glow a fiery red through the grey plumes rising from its flared nostrils. Its long neck extends and its chest rumbles, making the ground shake as it did before. From between the enormous scales covering it like armour, I can see an intensifying orange light as if lava were flowing through its veins.

“We have to move!” Hector yells out as he grabs my reigns and pulls me to the side. Taric must have sensed danger too because his powerful hind legs spring into action and he leaps away just in time as a giant shower of fire rains over the area we were just a moment ago.

I can feel the heat from the flames singing the back of my neck and I can smell a vile stench of burning hair. I pat the back of my head to extinguish the non-existent fire. It’s not me, I think thankfully. As I sigh in relief, Taric suddenly rears up on his back legs and throws me from the saddle. I crash to the ground, landing on a pile of rock with a loud thud. The sharp rocks jam into my spine, making me cry out in pain, and I see Taric streaking off in a panic, his tail aflame.