Page 93 of Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic

That position didn’t provide her any cover, but she felt safer being close to him. She felt him tense beneath her, as if focusing, then a spear and many swords flew in the direction of the incoming dragons.

Fel was using his ironbringing. Some of the Boundless formed a wall of fire in front of them. When swords met it, they fell back, as if they had reached a shield.

A voice, a real voice, sounded in the sky. “Give us the iron dragon, and you’ll be spared.”

There was no way this city would protect Fel, not when their houses and families were in danger.

Most of the dragons in the arena were stuck to their places, which seemed to be a side effect of Ekateni’s fire blast.

“Hold tight,” Fel said. “I know what to do.”

The ground trembled. Was Fel really going to do what she thought he was going to do?

Soon the entire arena was floating up in the sky, and then moving away from the incoming dragons, towards the edge of the valley.

At some point, the arena stopped moving. “I can’t get it out,” Fel said, “I’ll have to land it.”

Leah felt the floor moving sideways, as they landed at an angle, over some spiky hills. A few of the dragons that were on the corners took flight. Fel’s cousins swapped forms now, and stood by Fel.

“Fly away,” Leah yelled. “It’s him they want. Get help.”

Even then, many of the dragons did not take flight, and she wasn’t sure if it was because they couldn’t. All this time, she’d been thinking about slipping into the hollow in case there was too much fire, in case she was a liability for the dragons, but maybe she wasn’t thinking this right.

“Trust me, Fel.”

“Always.”

That reply warmed her heart, even if she wasn’t sure it was deserved, even if she wasn’t sure her idea was going to work. Could she do it? Technically, going into the hollow with someone else should be hard enough. She had no idea how hard it would be if this someone else was that much bigger. Even then, she tried to go to that other place. Instead of stepping into it, she tried to feel as if she were dissolving in it, bringing Fel with her.

Keeping in mind the danger of getting lost, she kept an eye on her reality, and they got back into the real world not far from the arena, on another part of the mountain.

He said, “This is great, Leah. We can draw them out. Can you yell?”

Draw them out? Her idea had been simply to try to escape, but he had a point. If she didn’t attract their attention, the Boundless would look for Fel in the valley and cause destruction there.

Leah took a deep breath and yelled from the top of her lungs, “Here’s the iron dragon. Come and get him!”

She waited until she heard wings flapping in their direction, then dissolved again in the hollow, but just enough not to get lost. They reappeared a few steps from where they had been at first. “Here!” she yelled again.

This time, she would need to try to go a little further, but carefully so as not to get lost or trapped somewhere where she shouldn’t. They were on the mountains, but there was no sign of the dragon city anywhere. “What—”

“It’s normal,” Fel said. “The city is hidden.”

“Will the Boundless see us?”

“Yell again.”

“Here!” She had barely said the word when a dragon appeared in front of her, as if coming from out of nowhere, then sent a blast of fire in their direction.

Fel met the fire with his own, and Leah let out the most relieved sigh she had ever had. Still, she knew more dragons were coming, so she tried to slip into the hollow again—and couldn’t. It was as if Fel’s fire was keeping them on this level, unable to slip through.

But then, these dragons couldn’t keep blasting fire ceaselessly. She kept a sense of the darkness, the in-between, that other place. It was almost calling to her, but to her alone, and she had to bring Fel with her.

The attacking dragon stopped its fire for a moment, and Fel did the same. Leah took the opportunity to jump away. For a moment, she feared getting lost. It was like slogging through black mud, walking in a thick curtain of smoke. This wasn’t good at all, and if they kept like that, they could end up somewhere where they shouldn’t. Then she recalled her difficulty in going to the hollow a few seconds before. “Fel, I need you to produce fire.”

He did—and then they stood on another mountain ledge. Leah didn’t know if they were near or close to the dragon village. She heard no screeches, no wings flapping, no dragon fire, only now realizing it had a distinctive sound. This was still Fernick, this was the human, normal realm, she could feel it, but that was as far as she knew.

“Are we far from the village?” Fel asked.

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