Page 91 of Wild Bond

Flying low on Skye’s back—Dembe having lent me his dragon’s saddle—we approached a small clearing in the trees below, just before the entrance to a menacing wall of rock that overhung a massive cave opening.

Dembe and Prince Amir were trailing me, and I saw another rider I didn’t recognize. The woman stood beside a pale-yellow dragon; she had to be the rider from Halmar that Dembe had mentioned. There was also another dragon, this one larger, male and grayish-black that sat back on its hind legs, tail curled around it. He stared vacantly at a glowing golden orb that floated before him in the air.

I sensed Skye’s desire to glance at the shining object that illuminated the surroundings in a soft light, but thankfully she resisted. I assumed this was what held the dragons enthralled, and if Skye allowed herself to be entrapped again, I didn’t have any flowers to free her.

I assumed I was only one of two riders left in the trial who hadn’t yet entered The Rift, if the grayish-black dragon was any indication.

“Hurry, Rin!” Dembe called. “You don’t have much time before sunrise, less than an hour.”

I waved back at him. Without letting myself think too hard about it, I pulled the sword from my belt, and as one, Skye and I dove down toward the dark cave mouth and entered The Rift.

Ever since Con had mentioned caves were part of the trial, I had been mentally preparing myself for this moment. Trying to, at least. Still, entering another cave, a cave darker and much more forbidding than the one beneath the temple, where I had panicked so thoroughly, was difficult.

I could feel the familiar panic rising, but I pushed it down. Instead, I focused on Skye’s calming presence and my desire to prove to myself, and everyone else, that we could finish the trial.

The utter darkness was still disconcerting as Skye flew further into the cave, and I was sure it would have been even if I didn’t have a strange phobia. I knew Skye could see just fine in the dark, but a shiver still coursed down my spine. Not only at the darkness, but the complete stillness and absolute quiet around us, broken only by the occasional sound of dripping liquid or the quick skuttle of movement.

I was about to ask Skye to breathe fire, even if only for a moment so I could at least have an idea of what our surroundings looked like, when there came a screeching from above. I gasped as something hard hit me in the shoulder.

With a roar, Skye released a jet of bluish yellow flames upward toward the threat.

Unsure what was attacking us, I looked up, trying not to squint at the sudden burst of light. When I saw what it revealed, I almost wished I hadn’t.

Cave goblins. Dozens of them. Swarming over the stone ceiling of the cave like locusts.

The goblins had huge shining opaque eyes so large they took up the majority of their faces, and a greenish tint to their hairless, wrinkled skin. Knobby shoulders and arms that appeared longer than their bodies hung down so that they used them more like forelegs to climb over and grip the stone with sharp clawed hands.

Several of the creatures shrieked as they burned and fell and were encompassed by the darkness below. The rest of the creatures hissed and shrunk back from the light of the flames.

Still more goblins continued throwing what I now realized were stones at us, moving so quickly along the cave walls and ceiling that I couldn’t keep track of them all as Skye continued flying and breathing fire.

As I ducked to miss the rocks, I saw that the cave narrowed significantly up ahead. The goblins were congregated there, waiting, knowing we had no choice but to pass through.

As we approached, adrenaline raced through me, and I raised my sword. The rock walls jutted out so Skye’s wings only cleared them by inches. As we passed between them, half a dozen goblins leapt onto Skye.

I swung out with my sword, slicing one across the chest. The force of the blow made the goblin lose its balance and fall from where it had latched onto Skye’s side. I turned just in time to duck and block the slash of another’s claws. The goblin screamed in fury as Skye flung another free from her tail, whipping it off like it was no more bothersome than an annoying gnat.

Skye had now cleared the narrow pass, and the cave opened up around us again. As I continued to engage the goblins, it was made all the more difficult by the fact that there were moments between Skye’s breaths that I couldn’t see anything at all and was temporarily blinded. Luckily, goblins were sensitive to light and seemed just as disoriented by the rapid flares of light and darkness as I was, otherwise, I no doubt would have been bludgeoned by now.

One of the goblin’s claws cut through my shoulder, and I grunted in pain before stabbing clean through the creature’s chest and kicking it free of my blade. Another crawled up the back of Skye’s neck. I warned Skye in the bond, and she whipped her head around in time to snap the goblin from her neck and crush it in her large jaws.

Eventually, we managed to get rid of the goblins that were clinging to Skye, but only had a moment of respite before we passed through another narrow section of the cavern and even more of the goblins clambered onto her back.

Skye and I quickly fell into a rhythm. I slashed and swung my sword, kicking and hitting the goblins if they came near, while Skye used teeth and claws to lash and bite, tearing and ripping through our enemies. At one point, Skye was forced to claw her way up the cave wall, with me bent low to her back, just managing to squeeze through a narrow passage that was barely big enough for a dragon her size to pass through.

I realized there must be more than one route to make it out of The Rift. Even though we were one of the last pairs to enter, I had yet to see another dragon or dragon rider since entering the caves. And there was no way most of them would be able to fly through that opening with their much larger dragons.

I quickly dismissed the thought as other creatures joined the goblins, creatures even more grotesque and hideous, with spindly limbs, sharp teeth, and misshapen bodies. I didn’t even know what they were. Skye blasted them with her fire at every opportunity, but the parasites were like a swarming plague that never ended. Even as her breath melted them to the very stone, more appeared, crawling over the dead to take their place.

The experience took every ounce of my training and then some. I heard Rake and Dembe’s voices in my mind constantly, reminding me, instructing me. I kept the bond open, continually communicating with Skye as we flew and spun and fought. I wondered faintly if it was past dawn already. It was impossible to tell in here. It was so dark in the cave that I could only see anything when Skye’s flames lit up the shadows.

Just when I thought this battling and eternal darkness would go on forever, Skye sensed a faint lessening of the darkness ahead. It took only a few minutes until I could see it, too. A weak gray light came into view, growing steadily lighter until I could just make out a break in the cave wall.

A rush of exhilaration zinged through me at the sight. Slashing through a final leathery-skinned creature, I shoved it free of my blade as Skye released a final breath of flame. Her serpentine head whipped from side to side as the fire engulfed the area around and below us. The shrieking cries of the dying creatures were drowned out by the licking crackle of flames and Skye’s roar that echoed off the stone.

Go!I urged Skye, knowing she wouldn’t hear me if I yelled it aloud. Sunrise could only be moments away, if it wasn’t here already.

Feral excitement reached me, and I could almost feel her bloodlust as we shared in the pulsing adrenaline of battle. Gripping the saddle, I leaned low over Skye’s neck as her wings pumped and stretched, and she put on a burst of speed.

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