“I don’t really have a plan,” I began, “but I do have a Rawkyren that is ready to be tested.”
“What can it do?” Huge asked.
“I don’t know, honestly. But we seem to be connected by thought, and I have the very strong sense that it wants to be part of whatever we’re doing.”
Trina stood and pointed to Tenger’s map of Woodcourt. “For that dragon of yours to be useful, we need to draw the Ironhearts outside.”
“How do we know it will attack?” Tenger asked.
Harlyn looked from him to me. “Rawk will protect Simon. Put Simon out there as bait. The Ironhearts will want to capture him alive. And the dragon will attack … probably.”
That caused my heart to skip a beat. I really didn’t know how this would go. “Probably. Thanks for the suggestion, Harlyn.”
She leaned over and kissed my cheek, a gesture I knew the others didn’t miss. “I’ll be right there at your side.”
“It’s as good a plan as we’ll get on such short notice,” Trina said. “When do we leave?”
Tenger reached for a disk bow, one I assumed he had stolen from an Ironheart somewhere. “We go now.”
Until now, my communication with Rawk had been passive. I was always aware of his general location and purpose, as he surely was with me. But I’d never attempted to make a demand of him. I didn’t even know if that was possible. Rawkyrens seemed to be the last of the breeds of dragons. Something in them was fierce enough to survive, and I would not dare to expect his obedience. I could only hope for it, and I was hoping now as never before that he would come. My life literally depended upon it.
Since we seemed to share thoughts, I sent a thought to him for the first and most important step in Basil’s rescue: to draw the Ironhearts out of Woodcourt. Every available Corack was already stationed nearby with disk bows and hopefully would bring down the Ironhearts as they emptied out of the house.
Every available Corack, but two. Trina would lead Tenger into Woodcourt to find Basil and either bring him out, or keep him alive until we had secured the manor.
Harlyn stood near me, and when the last of us were in place, she whispered, “Are you sure Rawk will come?”
Almost as if in answer, Rawk immediately flew overhead, his silvery wings spanning wider than when I had last seen him. He landed on the garden lawn almost directly in front of me, which was a problem. I needed to be in place to defend Rawk as the Ironhearts came outside.
“I think he landed there to protect you,” Harlyn said with a slight smile.
“Well, I know what’s coming. He doesn’t. Follow me.”
I led Harlyn to my left. Huge and Gabe were hiding on the sides of the garden, and I motioned to them where we were headed. But no matter how fast I moved, Rawk shifted his position to stay in front of me.
“I’ll go hide with the others,” Harlyn said. “I’d tell you to stay safe, but it’s obvious Rawk has it under control.”
She had only taken a few steps when the first group of Ironhearts emerged, nearly ten by my count, though I didn’t have as clear a view of the area as I would have liked. Gabe and Huge shot off a few disks, and the Ironhearts ran for cover, shouting into the house for help.
I tried to send thoughts for Rawk to allow me to fight, but when he remained in my way, I ran toward him, even as he widened his wings to protect me. I grabbed the end of one wing and climbed up on his crouched rear leg to see better, but with that wing, he swept me onto his back and, instantly, I detected his thoughts. He was going to fly.
No, we were going to fly. The thought of it sent ripples through my gut, but I’d known this was coming sooner or later. I gritted my teeth and desperately felt around for something to hold on to, but Rawk’s scales were smooth and harder than the metal of my sword.
“I’ll fall!” I warned Rawk, but my words were drowned by his roar as we took flight, escaping a black disk that would have hit him otherwise. Or maybe that wasn’t a problem. From this height, I saw other fallen disks on the ground directly in front of where he had been. None of them pierced his scales.
Rawk angled in a sharp circle over the gardens, which might have made a quick end of me except that my hardened forearm seemed to give me both strength and balance on Rawk’s back. And in the middle of his arc, Rawk let out a fiery breath hot enough that it nearly evaporated the Ironhearts below who were targeting us. Another group emerged and met the same fate, even before they could strike.
“No more!” I shouted at Rawk. So far, I hadn’t seen my sister, but it was possible she was inside.
A single soldier had remained hidden beneath an overhang attached to Woodcourt. Even from here, I could see him shaking. He stood and called up to me, “If we surrender, we are dead anyway. But will you allow us to run? That may be our only chance.”
Tenger was nearby, and I knew what his orders would be. So I quickly replied, “Then get everyone who is inside that home as far from here as possible. You have two minutes. After that, anyone we find will be ours.”
Faster than I thought possible, the man shouted an alarm that became muffled when he raced inside Woodcourt. Within seconds, from my altitude, I saw Ironhearts empty from the manor as if lightning were at their heels.
Huge, Gabe, and Harlyn ran from their hidden positions to begin a cursory inspection of the interior gardens. When Rawk seemed to think the area was safe, he landed on a low wall nearby. I leapt off his back, relieved to be on solid ground again, then ran into the east wing to begin searching rooms.
Lily Dallisor’s room was in the rear, and nothing looked even slightly out of place.