Page 35 of Guardian's Dilemma

I rushed forward and grabbed Glimmer round the waist, dragging him along with me. This time, I didn’t mind where I put my hands. I already had his blood on me so it wouldn’t do any good to avoid it now.

I could freak out about that later.

Glimmer was surprisingly heavy but maybe I hadn’t expected a dragon to lean his full weight on me like that. He was in a bad way if he was relying on aridireto get him out.

The passageway was dark and I was swallowed by the blackness as soon as I set foot in it.

“How far is it?”

“Quite far.”

That wasn’t good.

Another series of explosions rumbled along the floor and I heard the shattering sounds of walls beginning to crumble and the cascading of rubble. We left Leonard’s body where he’d fallen and we stumbled and slipped and tripped our way along the passage.

“You couldn’t have fitted a light down here or something?”

“It’s only me who uses it normally.”

I grunted, not sure what I made of that. A part of me wanted to know why he was using it at all if his vault was so secure.

Tremors ran through my feet as another crash sounded behind us. There was a rumbling behind us, getting nearer, and I could already taste the brick dust in the air as it billowed along the passage.

With a burst of energy, I ran and Glimmer managed somehow to keep up as we pulled each other along.

“Here,” he said suddenly, and pushed open a hatch above our heads and a square of light shone down on us, making me blink.

I was going to try and hoist him up but he proved once again that dragons were stronger than they looked, because he slipped out of my grasp, grabbed me and threw me up through the hatch. I scrambled out instinctively and, as soon as I was on solid ground, I twisted round and reached back through.

“Glimmer,” I called.

He looked me in the eyes and there was a moment when I thought he might turn away from me and head back, but he reached up his hand and I grabbed it. He jumped and I pulled and then he was through the hatch after me.

We lay on the ground, panting, but we needed to keep moving. The ground was very likely to cave in at any moment.

I got to my feet, feeling the vibrations deep in the earth, and reached down to help Glimmer up.

He stood and looked up into my eyes.

“You called me by my name.”

Had I? I guess I had. And it was weird, to think of a dragon as a person and not a target, but hewasa person.

“Come on,” I said, and looked around us. We were in a wooded area which, if I was remembering correctly, was about a mile from where I’d broken into the territory. I couldn’t see any dragons nearby – or anyridire– but my hubris was well and truly squashed right then and I didn’t assume I’d see everything.

My recent track-record of knowing what was going on was, quite frankly, shit.

“Which way?”

Glimmer pointed. “Over there. I have a way to get you out without being seen.”

Chapter 15: Glimmer

If I’d been on my own down there, instead of with my mate, things would have gone very differently. For a start, I wouldn’t have revealed myself to the ridire in order to draw their fire. I’d have slid around the edges of the room and slit their throats one at a time, and then maybe I wouldn’t have had to blow the vaults up.

Yeah, Lord Somerville was going to be really, really pissed off about that. I was not looking forward to telling him.

That wasn’t my first priority, though.

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