Ren leaped out now, hissing angrily at Noah and Della. She looked so fragile and small, but she did her best to protect him.

Noah burst out laughing. ‘Is she yours? Ha, what a runt! What’s wrong with her?’

Joe watched Ren spread her wings defensively and nearly choked on the injustice of it – she’d never even learned to fly.

‘Lanys, over to you,’ Noah was saying, with puffed-up pride. ‘This is my cousin Lanys, who had to put up with your Milla always grabbing the best for herself. Lanys? Can Ravenna flame them all at once?’

Joe started shaking then, remembering Hatching Day and the pain of his burns. Fear mixed with fury, but he could only stand there, powerless, as the black dragon loomed over them.

‘But she’s Maric’s mother!’ Amina wailed, bending protectively over her lilac-coloured dragon. Tears glinted silver on her cheeks.

‘She won’t hurt her own hatchlings,’ Conor said bravely, but there was a wobble in his voice.

‘She will if I command it,’ Lanys insisted. ‘They left her nest months ago.’

But Joe caught a flicker of doubt. ‘Don’t!’ The Brotherhood had got to Noah, and force-fed his cruelty, but he spotted a chance with Lanys. ‘Please,’ he begged her now. ‘Let the dragons live! Don’t ask Ravenna to kill her own brood.’

Did the black dragon have any protective instinct left now her hatchlings had grown? 260

Lanys hesitated.

That was when the world exploded in a bloom of orange flame.

Joe went flying forwards, one hand protecting his face, the other reaching for his dragon. ‘REN! Are you all right?!’

For a moment, there was only silence. Then horrible screams filled the air, along with fire and smoke.

‘Ren!’

Mrrrt. She squirmed close, nudging at Joe with her long nose.

Joe felt the warm quiver of her body, safe and alive. He patted her up and down, but found no blood. He knelt, his head ringing from the blast, and then stood, trying to see what was happening in the swirling smoke, darkness and confusion. ‘Winter? Amina? Conor?’

‘Here,’ Winter coughed. ‘Fidell’s all right.’

All noise was oddly muffled, as if coming from a great distance away.

‘What was that?’ Amina choked out.

‘Firepowder: must’ve been!’ That was Conor.

The smoke cleared, showing him Noah and Lanys crouching low, but they weren’t looking at him. They gazed, horrified, beyond him, and Joe couldn’t resist a quick glance over his shoulder.

Three enormous dragons had landed on the roofs of the first two bunkhouses, spitting flame in massive jets at anyone who dared challenge them.

In the livid orange light, he recognised Isak astride Belara; while the other two were riderless. It was Heral, Tarya’s red 261dragon, and Petra, Duke Vigo’s green one, come to reclaim their people. Simeon had found them! And there, in the air, were more dragons and their riders – all those whom Joe had freed from the dragonhall.

The ruined armoury and several trees were burning, utterly consumed by fire. They must have used firepowder in that first wave of attack.