03 Sky Knight Read Free

and the stone it had been sprawled across erupted. In the shower of rubble, Cumulo rose up: A gigantic white phantom with blazing eyes. He bellowed, generating a powerful blast of air that carried Obsidian halfway across the courtyard, leaving the attacking wyvern to snatch angrily at the space where the captain had been standing only moments before.
    ‘I thought I asked you to deal with those things?’ Nimbus said.
    ‘I’m working on it,’ Cumulo said, shaking the last of the stone splinters off his wings.
    ‘Well, don’t let me stop you.’
    Cumulo leapt at the wyvern, smashing it into the ground with his massive claws and then grabbing it by the throat. The poor thing scrabbled and pecked, and its eyes rolled insanely, as Cumulo violently shook and ripped it until it was horribly unrecognisable.
    A wave of unsettling nausea swept over Nimbus, and he slumped among the rubble. ‘Cumulo,’ he gasped, listening to the wyvern’s last grim breaths being smashed out of it. ‘Cumulo, I think you’ve won.’
    Cumulo spat out a piece of tattered wing. ‘You are wounded,’ he said, nuzzling Nimbus with his snout.
    ‘I was hoping you might be able to help me with that.’
    Cumulo took a close look at Nimbus’s arm, then drew a deep breath. His white scales turned brownish–green, and his eyes shone like emeralds. ‘Am I going to have to keep saving you?’ he asked, before breathing on the wound.
    Almost immediately, the skin around the bloody cut knitted together, and Nimbus felt the strength flowing back into his body. ‘Would you go and check if Captain Obsidian is okay?’ he asked, flexing his newly repaired arm.
    ‘Don’t worry, I’m fine,’ Obsidian said, emerging from the darkness. A black horse was cantering along beside him, shaking its sleek mane and snorting happily. ‘And look who I found. I think Cumulo must have smashed open some of the stable blocks when he took a dive.’
    ‘Onyx!’ Nimbus said, jumping to his feet and throwing his arms around the horse’s neck. ‘Onyx is here, that means my father must be here too.’
    ‘That seems logical,’ Cumulo said.
    Nimbus looked around the courtyard, at the crumbling walls, tottering towers, and broken scaffolding. Some of the children from the archery class could be seen darting in and out of doorways, but other than that the fort was gloomy and lifeless as a crypt.
    The last few drops of rain came spiralling out of the grumbling purple sky, shattering on the sleek black surfaces of the fortress in tiny, shimmering explosions.
    ‘So where is he?’ Nimbus said.
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    Nimbus was sitting on the ramparts of the fort. It was impossible to see more than a few feet beyond the walls, and for all he knew the darkness was teeming with the limitless masses of Crow’s undead army.
    A wry smile twitched the corner of his mouth as he realised he did not fear whatever was waiting for him out there in the wilderness. He was no longer so different to the enemies he faced. He was a zombie now, after all.
    He drew Venom, examining his reflection in the blade.
    ‘Lord Nimbus,’ Obsidian said, approaching along the partially collapsed wall.
    ‘He’s not here, is he?’ Nimbus said, his gaze remaining fixed on the shadowy mirror image of himself trapped within Venom’s sharp edges.
    ‘We’ve searched everywhere.’
    ‘They must have moved him.’
    Obsidian rested a hand on Nimbus’s shoulder. ‘Perhaps we should consider the possibility that Private Clay was lying. Maybe your father was never held here.’
    ‘What about Onyx?’
    ‘A distraction? Something to mislead you, perhaps?’
    ‘No. He was here.’
    ‘Lord Nimbus, I just think...’
    ‘Thank you, Captain. That will be all.’ Nimbus rose, sheathing his sword. ‘Would you please make sure Hawk and the children get back to Landmark safely?’
    ‘Of course. But then what?’
    ‘There’s something funny going on. There was only a handful of troops posted here, nothing