“!”

Tem had never seen men move so fast as they poured out the door back into the hallway, almost falling over each other to gain their escape from the fire breathing dragon.

Any other time he’d be laughing, but the after effects of the grenade rumbled in his gut. He wasn’t supposed to eat incendiaries and because the explosives in them weren’t sulphur, he was sure he’d suffer some heartburn for this. But it was a small price to pay if they could escape.

Cover your faces!

Tem not only shared this thought with Astrid but he thrummed it to Evan and Calvin as well.

Flame spewed from his mouth, pouring on and stressing the glass. It cracked, then shattered, shards flying in all directions. Glass struck his hide, but he couldn’t worry about that now. His sharp ears had caught the sounds of additional boots filling the hallways. They didn’t have long.

Hang on! Keep your faces covered.

He fervently hoped his passengers could keep their seats. He found to his relief that Astrid was burying her face into his neck. The last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt.

Tem hopped to the ledge of the ruined window and looked out onto the land and airscape. It didn’t look good. Troops massed on the ground, a helicopter spilled a searchlight on the ground. But they had few options and just this one chance. They were doomed men anyway, and it was better to die in flight, than at the end of an executioner’s blow.

He pulled on his muscled hind legs and sprung and spread his wings, hoping for an updraft. If there wasn’t one, things would be grim.

Tem was a powerful dragon at anytime, but the three others weighed him down. He struggled to keep airborne, and to do this he drew his wings in powerful but exhausting sweeps, looking to gain an air current that would carry them away.

Above them, the helicopter trained the light on Tem and he knew they were in trouble.

He banked to avoid it, to keep alight, to find an airstream that would save them. All his concentration was on this task. He could not think about the dragons he bore, or the woman he had met a day before who would now play a pivotal role in his life until his end.

Gritting his teeth, he beat the air with his wings, banked left and circled but with no luck.  His heart pumped furiously in his chest as he pressed his wings into the recalcitrant atmosphere that seem determined to ground him.

Astrid caught his distress and pressed her face into his shoulder.

You can do this.

How did these five simple words fill his heart with hope? Or was it her total trust that he could not betray? He pumped harder, even as his heart felt it would burst, every wing tendon and bone straining to push against the still night air.

He was greeted with a rush of slightly warmer air and climbed. Tem rose beyond the helicopter, beyond the search lights from the ground, and gained an even warmer thermal current.

A roar filled his ears and he looked over his shoulder and swore. A military jet was on their tail and gaining fast.

We’ve got a problem, thrummed Calvin. Got any more fire left in you?

Tem’s stomach rumbled emptily.

Don’t think so.

Damn. Then you know what you have to do.

Prepare the boy, signaled Tem.

Tem had to trust that Calvin would give the necessary instructions to Evan. He had to concentrate on Astrid. He and Calvin would come through this okay, and probably Evan too, but Astrid, being human, would have the roughest time.

Astrid. When I say ‘when’ you need to take the deepest breath you can, filling your lungs and hold it, no matter what. And grip me so tight that your nails pierce my skin. And pray very, very hard that I don’t bugger this up.

Tem? He felt her fear and regretted it.

I don’t have time to explain. But trust me, first chance, I will.

Do it.

He didn’t know whether she meant his ill-defined course of action or his forthcoming explanation but the jet was getting uncomfortably close. All it would take to send them tumbling to their deaths was for the jet to edge into and disturb his airstream.

‘When!’

He heard Astrid, Evan and Calvin suck in deep breaths, and he did the same. In his mind’s eye, he called up the dimension where all things, all time, all thought existed at a single endless and all-encompassing microsecond of time.

It had been a quarter of century since he did this and dicey at the best of times. Entering the place between dimensions required utmost concentration and singular strength of will. The harrowing flight from Hawthorne tired him and if it wasn’t for Astrid on his back he might not have tried. But he wanted, no needed, her safe and this was the only way he could do so.

The entry to the place dragons called “between” was brutally sharp and heartlessly cold, and he felt Astrid shiver. But it was only a microsecond. As long as she didn’t try to breath, as long as she didn’t move, she’d be okay. He prayed for that.

Tem so needed her to be okay.

Tem!

She was beginning to panic. And he had no time to steady her. The next thing he had to do required his utmost concentration or they were all dead.

He focused on a single place, the broken spires and crumbled walls of the one safe place on Earth for Tem. If there was any real magic for dragons it was this, the ability to always center on and find this spot.

Home.

The next fall jarred all of them as they fell into the atmosphere. Dawn streaked pinks and golds at the horizon as the sun rose up from below a tall mountain range. It took him a few minutes to get his bearings, but soon he knew exactly where he was.

Here? thrummed Calvin. You sure that is wise? With these two in tow? She won’t like it.

Where are we? hummed Evan.

You’ll see, Tem offered unhelpfully. He was exhausted and didn’t have it in him to offer explanations.

Tem found the ruins that served as his homing beacon and circled around them. He sensed Astrid’s curiosity, but also her unease. And he didn’t blame her. Where they were going, a human hadn’t set foot for two thousand years.

Who is that? thrummed another, more strident voice.

It is I, Tem. May I enter?

There was a long pause as if the recipient of his message was considering his request.

You may enter.

He braked and descended to a large courtyard. Like the surrounding battlements, the ground was broken. Weeds grew between crumbling flagstones as if no one lived there.

That was wrong.

As Astrid, Evan and Calvin descended from Tem’s back, a cloaked woman emerged from the shadows. She approached slowly as if contemplating every second she lived and walked the Earth. Eventually she stopped in front of Tem.

“Shift,” she ordered. She regarded Tem coldly as if he was an inconvenience, but he was used to that.

Tem shifted to his human body and she looked him up and down.

“The years have not been kind,” she said simply.

“Hello,” said Astrid with annoyance. “And who are you?”

“Did you have to bring your pet?” the woman said caustically.

“Yes, I did. This is Astrid. And Astrid, this is her majesty Rhea Gentrix, Queen of the Dragons—and my Aunt.”