04 Silence Read Online Free Page A

“Probably not. Not now. But it is always better to be certain. Especia lly with him. If he were ever to get through…” Since Aunt Sophie still had an arm around her, Briony felt the shudder that ran through her.
    “It would be that bad if he got here?” Briony asked.
    Aunt Sophie nodded. “With a vampire like Pietre in Palisor, he would bring his darkness here and pollute the Hugtandalfers. More than that though, he would find it easy to gain more power here. Power that he could then take back to Wicked in order to kill both werewolves and humans. He has wanted that for years.”
    “So if he had managed to persuade you to take him through…”
    “Things would have been very bad indeed. Falling for him wasn’t exactly my best moment.”
    Just hearing those words, thinking about Pietre still out there, brought Briony’s mood down a little.
    What had happened to Fallon , Jake and Kevin? Were they all right , or was Pietre hurting them even now?
    There was no way to know. No way to help.
    As though sensing her mood, Archer grinned.
    “Come on. You should at least see some of this kingdom before you meet its king.” He looked to Leytham. “If that’s all right?”
    “ You ’ll take her to the castle?”
    Archer nodded, and shifted. On the path, his form took up most of the available space.
    “On you get, Briony,” Aunt Sophie said. “It seems you’re doing this the comfortable way.”
    Briony hesitated, but climbed onto the golden dragon’s back as it knelt to let her up. In place, she looked around. “How do I hold on?”
    Aunt Sophie smiled. “For dear life.”
    Briony grabbed hold of Archer’s neck automatica lly as he took to the air in a bound that let him spread his wings. In just seconds, he was far above the trees. It was tota lly different from flying with Fallon . That had been uncomfortable, and slightly frightening, and more like leaping than truly flying.
    This was a smooth glide, higher than Briony had been outside of an airplane, with the trees rushing away beneath her. Then it was clouds.
    “Archer? Could you maybe go a little lower?”
    The dragon snorted with what Briony was sure was laughter, but he flew lower. Low enough that Briony could rea lly see everything below better. At first glance, it looked a little like the land around Wicked, but there were differences. It was a much brighter land than the world she had left, for one thing, like a painting that had been done purely in primary colors.
    Those colors were subtly different too, almost surreal. The sky had pinks and purples in it as well as blue, like the first glimpse of sunset permanently mixed in with the rest of the sky. The clouds danced with light in rainbows of color that made Briony gasp to see them.
    There were differences in the land below, too.
    Instead of the flat expanse of trees there would have been back home, these ones quickly gave way to rolling hills cut through with streams and deep pools.
    There were creatures on those hills . Briony thought she saw horses, though when she looked closer, she could see the horns rising like cathedral spires from their foreheads. In the pools, Briony saw the flick of great fish tails, only for human heads and torsos to surface moments later to stare up at her.
    By that point, Briony was too busy staring at what lay beyond the first hills to worry about the attention. Towers stood against the skyline, high enough in some cases to pierce the lowest clouds.
    Walls ringed each tower, creating a courtyard around it while separating it from the rest. Or not quite separating it. Slender bridges of white marble stood between the turrets, connecting them in a delicate web that made the castle looked like it had been draped in lacework. To Briony, it was everything that a castle in a fairy tale place like this should have been.
    Archer flew on towards it. As they got closer, Briony saw that there were flat roof areas or balconies on most of the towers, looking a little like helicopter