Page 77 of Ava's Legacy of the Dragons
Suddenly, she thought of the little dragon. He was a miracle, not just for her, but for all the inhabitants of this realm. She thought of the moment when he had hatched and allowed herself to feel those emotions. She felt the deep connection they shared, remembered the moment when they first looked into each other's eyes, recalled the warmth in her heart, his heartbeat, and believed she could sense it again. The feeling gave her power, new energy, so that she had the strength to withstand the coming attacks.
Hold on, he seemed to say, though she might have been imagining it. Still, the words helped her. Maybe that was all this was about. Holding on. Holding on until... She didn't know what could happen, what would help her, but she would hold on.
The thought of seeing the dragon again spurred her on. It felt as if a wall inside her was breaking apart, releasing unimaginable power that she didn't know how to handle at first. After taking a breath with this new energy, she reacted faster, dodged the attacks, and deflected them with the dagger, even though the assaults grew stronger and stronger. The sorcerer's face hardened as he conjured the next magic ball. What she read in his eyes was ice-cold calculation.
The final blow.
While she concentrated on the energy bolt between his hands, he whipped one of the iron chains around. Atthe last second, she dodged before the metal struck her face with full force. And as she ducked underneath it, the sorcerer hurled his energy ball.
She had provoked him. He had only been toying with her, but when she had started to escape his attacks, the game was over for him, and he just wanted to see her on the ground. Defeated. Maybe dead.
As if in slow motion, she saw the magic ball flying towards her. Too close and too big to dodge.
Just before it hit her, the sound of loud wingbeats filled the air. A gigantic shadow spread over the arena, and the wind grew fiercer, like a hurricane. A massive club-like tail swept past her by a hair's breadth and slammed the sorcerer aside.
Everything happened slowly, as if time had slowed down tenfold. Nevertheless, she had to focus on the attack that was racing towards her unimpeded. Surging with new power, she raised her hand and deflected the energy ball with the dagger. She didn't need to look up to know who had come. She did it anyway, just for a millisecond. When she saw the red gleaming scales and the gigantic body, she smiled.
Thalara descended, and a figure appeared on her back, throwing down a rope to her.
Kilian.
"Hold on tight!"
"The dragon fighters!" the spectators screamed in panic. Terror-stricken, they scattered about screaming and tried to leave the arena. "How did they get through our protective barrier?"
Elora quickly raised her hands and formed a protective dome, which she spread over all the spectator stands in record time. It glowed red and seemed indestructible.
"Kill her!" Elora shouted to the sorcerer.
Arthur got up, spat into the sand, and fixed his gaze on Ava. It took him less than a second to conjure a new bolt. His fireball hissed towards her, but she jumped away, grabbed Kilian's rope, and swung to the side. Thalara shot into the sky with a jerk so that her feet didn't touch the ground, and soon she was flying higher than the top of the arena.
But Elora wouldn't let them escape so easily. For a moment, she broke the protection and hurled an attack at Ava.
Quickly, she gained momentum and swung to the side, but the sorceress hadn't aimed directly at Ava. Rather, the bolt shot straight into the rope she was holding onto. It tore, and Ava fell into the depths. A scream escaped her throat as she expected a hard impact any second, not knowing if she could survive a fall from this height.
Just before she hit the sand, two claws grabbed her by the upper arms.
Kilian's dragon.
Immediately, Thalara shot upwards, faster this time, so that Elora's next attack missed Ava, as did the following ones. The arena below her grew smaller and smaller until it looked like a miniature landscape, as did the battlefield, the sorcerer, the spectators, and the castle where the sorceress resided.
But all of this was no miniature landscape. It was deadly serious. And she had just escaped her seemingly certain death sentence as if by a miracle.
Chapter 30
Adrenaline was rushing through her veins, but the further they got from the sorceress's territory, the lower the levels in her blood were. Her hands burned, her body felt battered. She hung limp in the dragon's claws as they flew at dizzying heights over jagged rocks and deep ravines. It was bitterly cold.
"Hold on, Ava! We're landing up ahead," Kilian shouted, as if he knew exactly how exhausted she was. He didn't take his eyes off her for a moment.
Her body was shaking, and surely not just from the icy cold. She was probably in shock. So she closed her eyes and concentrated all her remaining energy on not slipping from the dragon's claws.
She had escaped. The cage, the arena, and the malevolent sorceress. She had made it.
"Heads up, we're landing."
She opened her eyes and saw grass beneath her feet. But the cold and the tension had taken their toll. When Thalara released her, she landed hard and fell to her knees. She would have loved to have simply rolled onto the ground, but there were already two hands grippingher, stopping her fall. They held her upright, while she had no strength left to help in any way.
When she looked up, she found herself staring directly into Kilian's eyes. She read naked fear in them as he helped her to her feet.
