Page 112 of The Shadow Path
Now there were thirty dragons with them and at least two dozen nêr ddraig who had joined them en route to Maen Llia, an abandoned stone fortress in the southern valleys of Cymru.
As they approached the mountains, the clouds grew heavier. The sky was pregnant with mist and fog, and Carys’s teeth chattered from the cold.
She tilted her leather helmet back and peeked out of an arrowslit at the silent flock of dragons who flew with them.
Who are they?
Dragons from Eryri mostly. But a few who heard the call and joined us. There are solitary dragons in Southern Anglia.
The dragons must have been speaking to each other with their mental voices because Carys could hear nothing but Cadell.
I’m scared.
You are scared because you’re not an idiot.His voice was softer.Nothing will happen to you.
Carys blinked back frosty tears from the wind.And I’m scared for the children.
Dragon children are not without their defenses.Cadell’s voice was grim.Not even babies.
She felt when the wing began to descend.
Listen for my command and my direction. You remember your arrow positions?
The arrowslits were built into the war coracle at forty-five-degree intervals, and Carys’s job was to listen for Cadell’s command to fire arrows. He told her which position and what angle from the horizon, and Carys fired. She couldn’t see the ground; she had to depend entirely on Cadell’s targeting.
Fae archers on the hill at two o’clock.
Her heart began to race. “What do I do?”
Don’t speak aloud. They might be able to hear you even from the ground.
Okay fine, what do I do?
Wait.
There was a deep rumbling and a high scream, and then Carys saw the gloaming lit up by a burst of orange-and-red light to her right.
Position six. One fifty degrees. Wait.
Carys’s movements were automatic. She moved to the sixth arrowslit, nocked an arrow, and mentally aligned herself with the center post of the coracle, angling her bow down one hundred and fifty degrees toward the ground.
She called back to Cadell,In position.
Fae archers. Fire on my word.
Ready.
Now.
Carys nocked another arrow from the quiver at her waist, shooting one, then another, then another in rapid succession.
Hold.
As she was shooting, she felt the response under her feet. Rapid thunks against wood as arrows hit the bottom of the coracle, and one sped past the coracle and pierced Cadell’s wing.
Carys felt it in her own body, but she said nothing. Heat filled her chest as she felt Cadell’s magic rush to the wound, but there was nothing she could do in that moment.
Going back for another pass.
