Eon - 01 Eon by Alison Goodman

Author:Alison Goodman [Goodman, Alison]
Language: it
Format: mobi
Tags: series
Published: 0100-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

'Stay back!' His words collapsed into a gasping moan as he writhed across the path, his head hitting the flags with a dull thud. I scrabbled across the paving, thrusting my hand under the back of his skull before it smashed against the stones again. The weight of his head ground my knuckles into the flags.

'They must have come out of the hill,' he panted. 'Run!'

He was holding his belly, dark blood seeping through his fingers. Had he been stabbed? I looked wildly around. The hill crouched above us, a curved black metal door set into its side like a screaming mouth. No one could have come out — the door had a huge padlock on it.

'Leave me. Get out,' Ryko said. 'Now!'

'No,' I said, a spark of anger burning across my fear. I couldn't leave him to die. At the edge of my sight, something shimmered. I swung around. For a moment, I saw huge opal talons crisscrossing the hill like a cage and an eye above it, as dark as an abyss.

The Rat Dragon.

Across the garden, the archway flickered with light. Torches. They were still in the inner courtyard, but it wouldn't be long before they checked the garden.

'Ryko, they're coming,' I whispered. 'We've got to hide.'

He nodded, his teeth clenched together. 'Trees?' he gasped.

They were too far away. Too evenly spaced for cover. I twisted around, searching for another option. The doorway? Would the Rat Dragon's power force the guards back too? If we hid in the shadow, maybe they wouldn't come close enough to see us.

Against the door,' I said.

I sat behind him and straddled his body with my legs, hooking my arms under his armpits.

'Come on. Help me.'

He dug his feet in and pushed as I hauled backwards. We crept across the paving, his weight grinding my bones into the stone and crushing my chest. Each heave forced a tiny moan from him and pressed my own breath out in rough gasps. Would the guards hear us? The stain on the front of his tunic was getting bigger, wetter, denser. So much blood. I pressed my palm against his stomach, trying to find the source of the bleeding.

The cloth wasn't wet.

I lifted my hand: no blood. No stain.

It wasn't real. None of it was real.

'Ryko, you're not bleeding. The Rat Dragon is doing it.'

I saw his eyes roll back.

'No!' I jabbed my fingers into the muscle behind his collarbone. If he passed out, I'd have no chance of moving him. 'Stay awake. It's not real.'

He grunted in pain, his eyes focusing. 'Leave me,' he breathed. 'Run. You mustn't be found.'

He pushed at my hands.

I hauled us backwards again. He scrabbled weakly, trying to help. Another heave and my shoulders hit something solid. The door. I wriggled out from under Ryko, crawling around to roll him into the shadows. He was still breathing, but in shallow gasps. I rocked back onto my heels. If the guards made it up as far as Ryko had, the shadow cast by the hill wouldn't hide us.

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