Free Longfang by Mark Robson Page B

longer than perhaps he deserved.
He had gambled time and again during combat, but somehow he had always managed to return home in one piece. He had begun to feel almost invincible – a dangerous illusion that had claimed the
lives of all too many of the flying aces.
    ‘Oh no you don’t,’ he snarled at his machine, his teeth gritted and his lips pulled tight in a determined grimace. ‘I’m not ready to die just yet.’
    He could see the lines of the trenches ahead. If he could just flatten the dive sufficiently, he would at least impact the ground on friendly soil. Many pilots had miraculously walked away from
crashes before. He just needed to give himself the best chance of survival. At least if he crashed on the right side of the lines and lived, he would not have to worry about being dragged off as a
prisoner of war.
    He suddenly realised that in the shock of the moment, he had not touched the throttle control, which was still in a cruise setting. He throttled it back to idle and instantly began to feel the
slowing propeller act like an airbrake. The airspeed stabilised, still dangerously high, but no longer increasing.
    ‘JUST A LITTLE HIGHER!’ he yelled, releasing his frustration in a great shout. The muscles in his arms started to twitch with the effort of sustaining the pull force, but little by
little the nose of the aeroplane began to climb, as the earth loomed closer and closer.
    ‘How long have we got, Ra?’ Elian called aloud.
    ‘Not as long as I’d like,’
she replied.
‘It’s not quite dawn yet. The barrier between worlds isn’t weak enough to form a gateway. Besides, I
don’t want to use all my strength getting us there. I must be able to get us back again at the next opportunity.’
    ‘What are you going to do?’
    ‘Climb,’
Aurora said bluntly.
‘The higher we can get, the closer to dawn we will be. Segun will expect us to run, but I’m hoping he doesn’t know about the
gateways.’
    ‘Surely Widewing will be able to out-climb us even if we get above her,’
Elian pointed out, searching the sky above for signs of the incoming night dragons.
    ‘Yes, but if we’re quick, she won’t reach us in time to prevent our escape.’
    Elian clung tightly to the pommel grips as Aurora pounded the air with her wings, converting every possible scrap of energy into height. Shadow powered past them and climbed away at a seemingly
impossible angle. If it had not been for the reported proximity of Segun and his lieutenants, Elian felt sure that Pell would have enjoyed showing off his dragon’s superior strength.
    ‘He’s probably enjoying the moment regardless,’ Elian muttered, grinding his teeth at the thought.
‘Where are Segun and his cronies?’
he asked Aurora
silently, trying to shift his focus back to more practical thoughts.
‘I can’t see them anywhere.’
    ‘Closing from our right,’
she answered.
    ‘Shouldn’t we turn left to give them more of a chase?’
    ‘If we were looking to drag out a long chase, then yes that would be logical,’
Aurora admitted.
‘But at the moment, Segun and his men are being very casual about the
interception. They think they have us outmanoeuvred. If we turn away, they will almost certainly accelerate to curtail the chase. I don’t think we would gain anything other than to increase
their focus. I want to keep them over-confident.’
    As they climbed higher the sky around them continued to brighten. The line of mountains towered to their right and Elian’s excitement rose as he saw them catch the first direct rays of the
sun. Dawn was close – really close. Almost at the same moment he noticed the movement in the corner of his eye. Four black dragons were closing fast from slightly above and to their right.
Even as he looked, they began to turn and descend on a rapid intercept course. By Elian’s best estimate, he and Pell had less than a minute before Segun and his men caught up with them.
    ‘I’ve made contact with