round it makes sense,’ said Sheth, speaking for what seemed to be the first time since Draco had seen him. The dragon had expected his voice to be deep or harsh, but it wasn’t all that different from a human’s. Perhaps it was just a little higher-pitched than average. ‘If there’s someone sitting up there, we run the risk of them spotting us as we pass by on the other side.’ He pointed to the tops of the soaring pine trees protruding above the hill. ‘Lying here and staring in the hope that someone will lean out won’t get us very far either. Wasting time isn’t really a good idea.’
‘We’d need to get up the hill fairly quickly and get into the ramparts before anyone has time to react.’ Zane rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. ‘Six hundred metres isn’t exactly a short distance.’
‘Noah, can you sneak all the way up to the trenches?’ Cedric kept his eyes fixed on the palisade at the top of the hill.
‘I’m no Adam,’ replied the parthir, not looking too pleased. ‘I can make the bushes part a bit to clear a path, but I can’t work any miracles on open ground with short grass.’
‘Don’t look to me,’ Sheth shook his head and crawled a little way down their ravine. ‘It’s too far.’
‘Am I supposed to run?’ Zane didn’t look too pleased. He looked across the open space once more, gauging the distance. ‘If no one hits me in the meantime, it should be fine.’
‘Maybe I’ll run?’ Draco piped up. ‘I’m quite fast, the distance isn’t that far for me, and even if there’s someone there, I should be able to hold out until someone helps me,’ he blurted out in one breath.
Cedric looked at him with a certain amount of reluctance, then at Zane, who nodded enthusiastically. Retfield sighed heavily and rested his forehead on the ground.
‘Can you sprint all the way there?’ the commander asked the ground, but the dragon pretended not to notice.
‘No problem.’ Draco, as befits a
