The dragon did not pause for a moment, turning back to its prey almost before the woman’s body was still. Hudson, who had seemed so massive and hardy, looked like a field mouse at the feet of a mountain lion. A vivid ruby stain spread from the dragon’s lips and down its scaly chin. It spread its jaws wide, and the air was pierced by a screech. The beast raised its head, and the shrill screech grew louder. It took me several seconds to realize that the sound was not coming from the dragon, but from somewhere far above us. I blinked into the amber sky, my mind still reeling. The grating shriek intensified, and before the creature could react, a red-bronze streak exploded out of the clouds.
“Rosie?” I breathed. The bird hammered into the dragon’s head at full speed, spinning the colossus off balance and sending it tumbling sideways. Its leathery wings flapped once as it tried to steady itself, but before it could regain its senses, Rosie drove another blow into its chest, leading with her razor-sharp beak. By the time a handful of shimmering emerald scales had clattered to the rocky ground beneath the dragon, Rosie was already circling a hundred feet above, positioning herself for another dive. She could not possibly outmuscle the tremendous dragon, but still she cried out and struck at the beast, like a finch harassing a hawk. More scales dropped away from the beast’s chest.
The dragon was catching on, ducking away from the worst of her attacks, and making lunges to snap the bird from the air when she flew in close. It was far too slow, though, and she wove around the beast, peppering it with aggravating jabs and screeching into the back of its head. Rosie baited it and dodged the monstrous jaws again and again, and the two gradually began to move away from the trapper.
From beside me came a voice, which at first swept past my senses like a muffled echo. Jackaby shook my shoulder. “Now!” he was saying. “Quickly, Miss Rook!” He climbed out of the furrow, keeping his head low and his eyes on the battling beasts. I followed, scrambling to catch my footing as we hurried over to Hudson’s motionless form.
“Is he . . . ?” I began.
“He’s alive,” Jackaby confirmed. “But only just. He should be dead, by all accounts, but he’s stubborn like that. Help me lift him.”
Jackaby stripped the trapper of his heavy bandolier and the belt of nasty hooks, and we pulled him onto his back. With Jackaby at the man’s feet and me tugging at his arms, we managed to drag Hudson to the edge of the trench.
“In you go,” my employer instructed. I slipped back into the furrow and tried in vain to get a good handle on the trapper’s bulky shoulders from beneath.
“What now?” I called up.
“Catch!” Jackaby gave the body a shove, and I found myself suddenly buried under an enormous pile of Hank Hudson. I pushed and dragged my way out from under him, trying as hard as I could not to abuse the injured man any more than we already had. As I pulled myself free, I found the little climbing axe I had dropped lodged in the dirt beside me. I plucked it up and peeked over the edge of the embankment.
“Jackaby?” I called. “What are you doing?”
“We’ve been given our chance, at great cost,” he said. “Slim though it may be, I intend to take it before it is too late.” He was making his way toward what was left of the little campfire and the pile of Hudson’s weapons. “I hope my aim has improved since the last time I fired a harpoon. That was quite the soiree.”
“Have you got a backup plan in case you miss?” I whispered urgently.
“Have you been paying attention?” he called back to me. “This is our backup plan—or perhaps it is the backup to our backup plan. That harpoon is still our best shot. If I can’t land it, then I’m down to hoping I give the brute indigestion.”
I swallowed, turning my attention back to the clashing creatures. The dragon was enraged and battered, with scoring along its rough hide and multiple patches of broken scales. Rosie had left several tattered rips in the giant’s leathery wings as well. She was still circling and diving, but was not moving as nimbly as she had when the skirmish began.