Phoenix by Finley Aaron Page B

Something is killing them with us, from the direction of the door.
    I kill two more, four more, Ram kills more, and then we kick aside the bodies. The path to the door is clear, and Nia is there, blades swinging.
    “There you are!” She doesn’t look at all impressed with our yagi-killing prowess or our skills at protecting her. “What are you doing out here?”
    “Killing yagi.” I behead two more. We’re finally pushing them back. Nia’s arrival has tipped the scales—but for how long? We’re all growing tired of fighting. My arms are tingling from the impact of blade against exoskeleton, and the splatter of yagi blood that burns like singing nettles. “Did you wake up?”
    I’ve no sooner asked the question, then I realize it’s a stupid question. Obviously, she woke up, or she wouldn’t be out here, awake.
    “They’re after me,” she reminds us, blades swinging, wisely ignoring my question. “If I hadn’t come up here, they would have broken through the window. I got all of our stuff. It’s there in the bundle, right inside the door. Can we just go?”
    “Let’s go!” Ram shoves back the yagi and grabs the bearskin bundle, changing into a dragon as he does so.
    I leap into the air and do the same as Nia rises into the sky beside me.
    Without a word, we fly past the sleeping village toward the blue expanse of the sea.
    Tired as I was from fighting, it was only fighting tired. After sleeping a day and a night and then some, I’m more rested and therefore better prepared to fly than I’ve been this whole trip. The sea air swells beneath us, providing lift, and we fly quickly. All three of us understand the need for haste—we must outrun the yagi while we have the strength to do so.
    The yagi obviously aren’t going to give us time to rest. Ram’s theory about the village was only partially correct. Why? Is it because the fishing village is so much smaller than Prague, where our parents hid out more than two decades ago? Are the yagi not intimidated by the town?
    Or is there more to it than that? Nia said the yagi were baited with her scent, whereas twenty-odd years ago, when the yagi were going after our parents, they didn’t know what my mom smelled like. I don’t even know if they knew for sure she existed, thanks to my grandfather’s insistence on keeping everything about her a secret. And who knows if they knew what my dad smelled like, or whether this scent-training thing is a new development Eudora invented in the last twenty years?
    So is that it, then? They’re swarming us so thickly, ignoring the risks of getting caught, because they can follow Nia’s scent and Eudora set them on it?
    What’s Eudora up to, anyway? From Nia’s stories, it sounded like, always before, Eudora just wanted the yagi to chase Nia back to them. Are they really out to kill her?
    And why?
    I don’t have the answer. I don’t entirely understand Eudora’s motivation. I mean, I know she wants to destroy the dragons, but I’m not even clear on what prompted her to be so hateful and vengeful in the first place.
    Here’s what I do know: we were nearly felled back there.
    I mean, if Nia had come to the roof thirty seconds, maybe even a minute later, it would have been too late for me and Ram. We were being overpowered.
    We’re not up to this. Not only did we not impress Nia with our yagi-killing prowess, but we were very nearly killed, and she had to come save us.
    So I’m really not making progress toward my goal of trying not to die.
    And then there’s the wooing Nia thing. Ugh, I am such a fool. Let’s forget, for just a moment, that she had to rescue me and Ram on the roof.
    On a purely interpersonal level, I have done more to repel the woman than attract her. I have. Seriously. Could I have looked more like a dope when I asked her if she woke up?
    This is my problem: I say things without thinking. Like when she asked me and Ram if we were from China. Ram had the presence of mind to tell her we’re