Fear jolted her into action. Chloe looked for her staff, but it had drifted a stone’s throw away. The dragon plummeted, soon close enough for her to make out the grass-green color of its narrowed eyes and see the curved teeth in its reptilian jaws, large enough to swallow her in a single mouthful. It reached out with grasping claws, but Chloe ducked under them and it rose back into the sky, preparing to descend for another strike.

Forced to choose, she let go of the plank and used her last reserves of strength to swim. She paddled frantically and reached out for her staff but her hand splashed on nothing. Kicking hard, groaning with effort and exhaustion, she tried again, and this time her fingers closed around it.

She looked for the dragon, scanning the sky in terror. It was turning in a tight circle, screeching as it plunged down to meet her.

Then she remembered.

There were no more wildren.

The dragon flew down to her, but this time slowed its speed, wings beating at the sea while it hovered. Chloe looked into the angular eyes. This time, when she saw their grass-green color, she understood. She gave a short sob. She knew this dragon. She’d flown on its back before.

The dragon lowered itself as much as it could, struggling to keep its wings above the surface. A wave lifted Chloe up as the huge creature leaned one forelimb into the water, and with a surge of effort she grabbed hold, close to the knee, before a second wave carried her still higher, and with a sudden burst that made her weak muscles scream, she pulled herself up.

The dragon tilted further, dangerously close to the water. Grunting, Chloe lunged, reaching out and grabbing hold of one of the knobs behind its head. She cried out as she expended her last energy to pull herself onto the dragon’s back.

Then, with her legs on either side of the creature’s flanks, darkness overcame her and her head fell down onto the leathery skin of its back.

Chloe jolted awake when she felt the dragon make contact with the ground. Blinking as she looked around her, she saw that she was on a tiny, uninhabited island, little more than a rocky hill and a white beach with a few scraggly trees on the far side. The dragon turned its head, and she knew she was being asked to get off. She slipped down from its leathery back, falling to the sand.

She was so weak that she sprawled on the ground. Her lips were as dry as parchment. Nausea made her stomach churn. Her skull was pounding with a regular tempo. Lifting her head, she managed to see mist dispersing as the dragon changed its shape.

The mist revealed Liana in the dragon’s place.