Now this, this was what she was good at, the dive and strike. She was faster and more manoeuvrable, and the dragon’s drum-taut wings, already ragged and lacy at the edges from the previous battle they’d had, were particularly vulnerable. As long as she could stay away from those teeth and keep the fight in the air, she might even win.

She flapped hard, drawing up behind. Bell put some effort into jinking left and right, and Mary overshot. She angled her wings and rose almost effortlessly up again. The dragon stayed closer to the ground than her. Perhaps she was afraid of the lightning. With good reason, too, but the storm seemed to have blown itself out against the twin mountains and was grumbling away over the plains behind. Having claimed one victim, perhaps it was sated. Mary risked a little more, and a little more than that.

Bell looped the tower and started back towards the lake, earnestly pushing air with great beats of her wings. Mary angled her flight and began her descent.

Dalip, doggedly crawling back towards the castle, was directly in the dragon’s path.

Mary folded her wings and dove down.

There was a moment when she thought she’d be too late, that the dragon would get Dalip because he had nowhere to hide. That moment passed because her approach was both furious and unnoticed. She dipped down with her claws even as Bell did with hers, but it was the bird’s talons that struck first, tightening around the bat-like forelimb, puncturing the leathery membrane and dragging the great beast off-course.

She let go and skimmed the lake to kill her speed. Behind her, the dragon pinwheeled into the ground, bouncing once, twice, and skipping into the water like a spinning stone. The ruined wings spread out over the surface, the sinuous body thrashed, and then it began to sink.

Mary was flying directly at the cliff. She had no room to bank left or right: instead, she flew up, almost to the top, before flipping over and circling back around. Dalip was still struggling over the loose rocks towards the collapsed gatehouse, but he stopped for a moment as she flew overhead and raised his hand to her.

She turned at the tower, taking a good long look at it. The upper floor was burning – all the wood was alight, with fire jetting out of not just the windows, but gaps in the roof where supporting beams had collapsed underneath. The balcony was simply a forest of flame, and nothing in the room beyond was going to survive. Whether Mama, Elena and Luiza had escaped was something to find out soon, but it was going to have to wait for just a moment longer.