The Hungering Flame by Andrew Hunter Page A

alliance! ”
    Garrett latched his arms around Cabre’s waist and held on tightly as Inglefras reared and then charged down the hill at a full gallop. The pounding strides of the big warhorse nearly shoo k the teeth from Garrett’s head. T he wind whipp ed at his cloak as they rode.
    Cabre laughed, digging his heels in, and Inglefras answered with a fresh burst of speed. He looked back over his shoulder, grinning like a madman at Garrett.
    Then, suddenly, the prince’s face went pale.
    A shadow fell over the field, stretched long by the morning sun. Garrett looked back and saw a dark shape against the sun. The dragon was upon them.
    Cabre leaned against Inglefras’s neck, shouting wild encouragement to him, but even the mighty prince of horses could not outrun a dragon in flight.
    Garrett squeezed his eyes shut, memories of flame scattering his thoughts.
    Then the world shook as the dragon passed them, just overhead. The blast of its wings nearly knocked Garrett from the saddle, but he dug his fingers into the prince’s tunic and held tight.
    He looked up, opening his eyes to see the dragon soar upward , rising over the castle of Braedshal. Distant screams arose from the caravans along the road to the city gates. The dragon circled above the city like some great black carrion bird.
    Inglefras thundered onward, coming within shouting distance of the city wall. “ Your prince returns! ” Cabre cried, “ Make way! ”
    Moments later, Inglefras carried them through the city gates. Stunned guardsmen in blue livery shoved the panicked commoners aside to clear a path.
    “ Prince Cabre! ” shouted a broad - shouldered man with short, sandy hair who bore a single silvery pauldron on the left shoulder of his mail armor.
    “ Sir Baelan, ” the Prince said, “ I must speak with my father at once.
    “ Aye, Sire, ” the man answered, shouting to be heard above the cries of the people. He started to speak again when the dragon’s roar silenced them all.
    Hot fear crawled on the back of Garrett’s neck. He looked up to see leathery wings blot out the sky above the high walls. Then the dragon was gone again, its bellows echoing through distant streets as it circled round again.
    “ This way, Sire! ” the knight said.
    Prince Cabre swung down from his saddle and helped Garrett down as well. Passing the reigns to a guardsman, he said, “ Tend him well. He’s carried me through hell. ”
    “ Goodbye, Inglefras, ” Garrett said, stroking the big horse’s mane .
    Inglefras nickered and ducked his head in response.
    Cabre and Garrett rushed after Sir Baelan, as the knight pushed a path for them through the narrow streets leading toward the central keep. The commoners and merchants looked to the prince with faces full of fear and desperate hope. Cabre nodded back, greeting them with a stiff smile as he dragged Garrett along by his sleeve.
    They entered a large courtyard with an enormous fountain, carved of white stone in the shape of a stag, standing atop a rocky cleft from whence cool waters gushed forth into a broad pool below. A crowd of people stood watching the sky above, and the prince and Garrett paused beside the wall of a flower shop to look as well.
    The dragon swept over the rooftops toward the spire of a white tower, high above the city. It dug its claws into the tower walls, wrapping its wings and tail around the spire like a great cavern bat, clinging to a stalagmite. Its mighty foreclaw crumbled the blue slate tiles of the tower’s roof, sending them tumbling down through the dust of powdered mortar.
    Hunching its back, the dragon lifted its rider to the highest point in the city and glared down with eyes of golden flame, daring any to oppose.
    “ People of the Silver Citadel! ” the dragon rider shouted in a hoarse voice, loud enough to be heard to the farthest reaches of the city, “ The hour of reckoning has come! ”
    Garrett looked at Cabre, but the prince’s eyes were locked on the Chadiri dragon