CIRCE

viii

Jaedah says; "How can you be Canadian and hate the cold?"

"How can you be British and hate the rain?" Rowan retorts.

"Fair," Jadah mutters.

The purr of an engine is quiet, yet it's a sound so familiar to Jaedah's ears that she recognizes it instantly. Her head darts up as her eyes take to a desperate scouring of the skies, searching for the aircraft that hums nearer. She spots it, faintly at first through the snow, but soon it's hovering before them as it lands slowly, carefully into the bed of snow. One of the shuttles, from Odysseus Outpost.

The doors of the shuttlecraft open to two pilots. The smaller, Kit DeYoung, grins at them from beneath a head of dark brown curls with a beige, angled face. The larger, Seth Alden, gives just a meager nod of hello from a rounder face of a fair complexion and wheat colored scruff. Kit calls out;

"I heard there were some damsels trapped in the top of a tower. Is this the right place?"

"Yes!" Jaedah shouts hurriedly

She ushers Marlowe, Rowan, and Granger ahead of her, gently shoving them forward and onto the shuttle. Rowan rushes for it and practically leaps onto the shuttle as she beelines for the two pilots, heartily hugging them both.

"You boys are a miracle," She says.

"Anything for you, m'lady," Kit quips.

Once aboard, the doors shut behind them. Jaedah steps up to pat both the pilots on the shoulder.

"Well done, the both of you. Now please, get us out of here," She says.

"Right away, Commander," Seth replies.

They turn to their stations with diligence, and in a mere few moments, Jaedah feels them lift off the ground. Her relief is cooling, however, she sees Seth freeze as his eyes fall to the radar and that cooling relief vanishes swiftly.

"Hey, Kit, the hell is that?" He asks.

Kit glances over and his brows furrow. He glances behind his seat, to the windows at the back of the shuttle, where his furrowed brows fall slack in a look of utter shock. His mouth hangs open.

"Holy shit."

Their heads swivel to the windows, and Jaedah freezes. A beast rises above the horizon. A fearsome scaled body with two powerful wings that beat away the wind and a mane so cooly white as though the creature is snow and ice itself. Its mighty roar thunders through the mountains and rattles the shuttle.

A dragon.

"Oh my god!" Rowan cries.

Her face is scrunched as though she is about to start crying while, next to her, Granger is pale in pure shock. Only Marlowe has any sense of function as she whips around to the pilots.

"Fly, DeYoung," She barks out.

Jaedah adds on sternly; "Now."

"Yes, ma'am!"

They lift into the sky promptly as Kit pulls the shuttle into the air. He guides them out of the snow bed quickly, but as they turn to the direction of the Outpost, the shuttle is blown askew from its path by the dragon's wings as it swoops by. Jaedah catches a figure atop it through the window, and though their form is obscured in the swift movements of the dragon, Jaedah recognizes the paleness of their head.

"It's the Baron General," She says.

Their dragon rushes toward the shuttle, its talons outstretched to pierce the aircraft, but Kit dips beneath it. He drives the shuttle forward and up, scraping by the dragon before pushing them swiftly ahead. They accelerate quickly yet the furious beat of wings follows them closely as another mighty cry of rage shudders through the air.