Silver Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham Page B

side. He spun against gravity, trying to grasp for Belen’s silvery frill as he felt himself sliding into free fall, and managed only to grab the ridge of her back. The chimera swung past overhead, its claws scoring Belen’s shoulder only a few inches above Cerisse’s head—right where Jace had been sitting. The knock of the creature’s strong forelimbs broke Jace’s grip.
    Belen righted herself the instant after the chimera passed. Jace slammed into the dragon’s right foreleg and scrabbled to find a handhold on the slippery scales. Cerisse’s hand swung down, and he grabbed it instinctively. His hand grasped her wrist, her hand clenched around his, and Jace hung there, hundreds of feet above the swirling ground. Staring up, he realized belatedly that she’d done it with her injured hand. Cerisse locked her fingers onto his and pulled with all her might. “I won’t … let … you … fall!” she screamed into the wind, half out of desperation and half out of pain.
    Ebano grabbed Cerisse’s waist and gave her leverage, but it wasn’t enough to allow her to pull Jace aboard again, not with the poison eating away at the strength in her arm.
    Realizing that Jace was in danger, Belen tried to swing the other way, tilting her body so that he would swing forward onto her shoulder, but the chimera had loopedaround again and was plunging down from a high dive. The beast’s dragon head snarled, flames flickering at the corners as it prepared to launch another gout of fire. If Belen stayed at this angle to allow Jace to climb back aboard, the chimera’s fire would burn her stomach. If she turned to protect herself, Jace would face the full brunt of that flame—and almost certainly die.
    Jace steadied himself. The ground below him spun, and the chimera was swinging close, ready to attack, close enough to reach. Gripping the silken frill at the dragon’s neck, Jace planted his feet on the silver scales at Belen’s shoulder. He didn’t have time to count to three as he usually did before stepping out onto a tightrope. He had time only to make sure Belen saw him, and then he jumped.
    Jace ran out onto the dragon’s wing, keeping his weight light against the fore bone. The wing bone under his feet was wider than a tightrope, but slicker and rounded where the rope always felt solid and hard. Nevertheless, walking on shifting slopes was Jace’s forte. He had no moment to balance or prepare himself, but hurtled down the dragon’s wing toward the chimera as if he were racing beneath the big top’s heavy canvas. Step after step, Belen’s wing tensed under his weight. He was nearing the first joint now. After that the bones became much thinner and less capable of carrying his weight. He was going to have to jump.
    Images of his last time on a tightrope flashed through his mind. Faces spun again beneath him, and the sick jolt of the rope as it slid under his foot. Jace pushed it all away. If they were going to have any chance of defeating the chimera, he had to reach it. He had to leap from the dragon’s wing to the chimera’s and be aboard the beast before it knew what was happening.
    Jace looked up into the chimera’s horrible dragon maw, the flames licking around its gums and teeth, and launched himself into the air. Wind rushed past, tugging at his hair, his clothes. Jace tried not to think of the ground swooping past far beneath him. One second. Two. Three, and there was the chimera’s outstretched wing!
    He landed lightly, barely tapping it with his toes before pushing off toward the creature’s back. The chimera screamed, gouting flame where Jace had been and nearly scorched its own wing in the attempt. Jace was already three feet farther in, almost to the creature’s shoulder. Luckily, Jace thought as he reached out to grab the lionlike mane, the creature was almost certainly too stupid to just—
    Roll. The chimera twisted in the air, abandoning its attack on Belen. The wings clamped in close to the body,