~*~
"Fly, Hissarlik!" Mary Jane cried.
The arrows came now thick as raindrops in a storm. Though she could see few of them in the black night, she could hear them whistling through the sky around her. The dragon roared and beat his wings furiously, propelling them forward almost twice as fast as they had flown before. Mary Jane could hear hoots and calls coming from the woods below, chasing after them through the forest, but they fell further and further behind as the dragon outpaced them. She could no longer see the ground or sky as anything but a dark blur. Godrick's sharp nails dug into her shoulder as he struggled not to fall.
"I don't mean to distress you, Miss, but you might want to be having a look-see over your shoulder," Godrick said quietly near her ear.
Mary Jane looked back and gasped. Behind them and rapidly catching up flew a giant reptilian, bird-like creature that looked remarkably like the drawings of pterodactyls in the books about dinosaurs she had read as a child. Its wide mouth was open, showing row upon row of gleaming white, dagger-like teeth. It screamed and flapped its wings harder, straining to cut down the distance between them. Mary Jane slapped Hissarlik's neck bones and cried, "Faster, Hissarlik! You must fly faster."
The dragon looked behind him with his burning red eyes and saw the creature pursuing them. Hissarlik was many times larger than their pursuer, but neither as agile nor as fast. Mary Jane was exposed and defenseless upon Hissarlik's back. She could easily be plucked off by the creature's sharp talons, and with every stroke of its wings, the creature drew nearer. Under the full moon, Mary Jane could see the scales on its green skin and its bright yellow eyes. When it reached the tip of Hissarlik's tail, it banked sharply upward, leveling off twenty feet above them. It matched Hissarlik's speed for a moment, then with a scream it dove, using the dive to gain speed. Mary Jane screamed.
"Hold on!" Hissarlik bellowed.
Mary Jane watched in terror as the creature sped towards them, its sharp teeth bared and its leathery wings tucked against its body. She clutched Hissarlik's neck so tightly that she could no longer feel her hands at all. The creature was almost upon them when Hissarlik rolled his body in a tight circle. He did it so quickly that Mary Jane didn't have time to think. Only her grip on the dragon kept her from being thrown off. The creature did not anticipate the move and shot past, having just barely missed Mary Jane.
It screamed with fury when it realized it had missed, but it was diving so quickly that it had traveled several hundred yards before it was able to unfurl its wings and change direction. In that time, Hissarlik continued flying. Mary Jane could now see the thick walls of Tarah looming before them a mile away. She silently urged the dragon to fly faster, but she knew that Hissarlik was flying as quickly as he could.
The creature regained control of its flight and quickly came upon them once more. Mary Jane watched its yellow eyes and snapping jaws coming closer and closer to her. The creature had learned from its mistake and would not be tricked again, for now it came straight at them with its wings out, ready to brake or swerve if Hissarlik tried to maneuver away. Terror froze Mary Jane. She could not move, only watch as the terrible teeth came closer.
There was a flash of movement too quick for her eyes to follow and in an instant the creature was no longer where it had been a moment before. Mary Jane belatedly heard the crash of bodies colliding and a scream of surprise and fury. She looked down in the direction of the sounds and saw two shapes, green and brown, grappling together as they plummeted towards the ground. Hissarlik continued flying and the two creatures became small figures still falling in the distance. Just when they were almost too far to distinguish one from the other, Mary Jane thought that she saw the green creature drop like a stone from the sky, and an eagle larger than any she had ever seen spread its wings and spiraled away from the scene of the deadly fight.
Hissarlik hissed, then spat, "So Aiglon the so-called Lord of the Skies has returned."
"Who?" Mary Jane asked, but Hissarlik would say no more.
Now they flew over the great wall that circled Tarah. The city was so dark and lifeless that Mary wondered whether it had been a mistake to come here. Hissarlik slowed the beating of his wings and flew toward a tall castle that rose up from the center of the city. When he reached it, he slowed until he was almost motionless, then dropped straight down to the ground, his claws making a soft scraping noise as they hit the gray stones of a deserted courtyard.
The castle loomed over them black and menacing. Two unblinking sets of round eyes, one blue, one amber, appeared in the dark. Mary Jane held her breath, afraid. The eyes moved closer, two dark forms in the night. Hissarlik snorted and glowered at them, his red eyes blazing. Mary Jane could feel his hatred for whatever they were.
"The snow cat Alcide and the golden stag Aldair," Hissarlik sneered. "I should have known when I saw Aiglon that you, too, would be near."
"Hissarlik," the leopard said coldly, inclining her head towards the dragon in subtle gesture of recognition.
Her companion, the deer, said, "Mary Jane, you are welcome. We have been waiting for you."
"How do you know who I am?" Mary Jane asked.
"All will be explained tomorrow, after you have rested," the deer replied evenly. "You have had a long journey. Know that your brother and sister are here as well, safe, and have no fear for them."
"Jack and Maude, here?" Mary Jane asked.
Hope rose inside her.
"Yes. Now come, and let this wretched creature slink away to its dark cave," the leopard said.
Hissarlik hissed angrily in response. Mary Jane half slid, half jumped off of the dragon, wincing as her feet hit the ground. She had been riding for so long that now it hurt to stand, like burning pinpricks on the bottom of her feet.
"Why do you help these humans?" Hissarlik asked the leopard. "They are nothing to you, just as they are nothing to me."
"We all choose our path in life," the leopard replied stiffly. "You have chosen to do evil, and we have chosen to do good. Your time has passed, dragon Hissarlik; gone with the last of the humans. Do not return to the skies of Devorian, for you are no longer a part of this world."
Hissarlik breathed a long plume of fire. He turned his great white head to Mary Jane and his red eyes burned through her. She knew what he wanted. Fear turned her to stone, but her fingers closed protectively around the pouch that held the dragon's heartstone unbidden. She knew that she must relinquish the gem, but tendrils of greed like suffocating vines of ivy curled around her mind and heart and squeezed tightly. Like a dog with a butcher's bone, she refused to give it up. She could feel it pulsing, alive, just beneath her fingers.
The evil stone's enchantment was broken by a sharp squeak of protest. Mary Jane frowned, and suddenly remembered that Godrick, too, was in the bag. She hurriedly released her grip, then plunged her hand in and withdrew the stone. It glowed like a bright red beacon in the darkness, brighter even than Hissarlik's fiery eyes.
"Give it to me!" Hissarlik demanded in an excited, high-pitched voice.
His entire body strained towards the stone, quivering with anticipation and desire. Mary Jane held it out on her palm timidly, extending her arm towards him. Then, before he could snatch it from her with his razor sharp claws, she wound her arm in a fast circle and threw the stone as high in the air as she could. The stone flew straight up first ten, then twenty, then thirty feet and Mary Jane marveled that she could have thrown the stone so high. Hissarlik screamed and leaped, flapping his wings and racing after it. When he caught it, he continued flying, away from Tarah. He did not look back. Mary Jane felt her knees buckle and would have collapse to the ground, but at that moment she felt the deer's body behind her supporting her, and she leaned against it to remain standing. Godrick climbed out of the pouch and onto her shoulder.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," he said seriously, watching the dragon become one with the night.
"Come, it is late and surely you require rest," the deer said.
> "Food's more like it," Godrick said. "I haven't had a bite to eat in ages."
The leopard made a laughing sound and said, "Then you shall have it."
The two beasts led them to a secret door on the side of the castle hidden by shadows. Godrick rode on Mary Jane's shoulder, talking excitedly about finally getting to eat real food. Mary Jane wanted to ask about Jack and Maude, but she was too tired to think. As the door closed behind them, Godrick exclaimed, "Safe at last!".
The two stag and leopard looked at each other, and said nothing.