03 Sky Knight by Kevin Outlaw

And glory.’ He grinned maliciously. ‘But now I will have the glory.’
    ‘What glory?’
    ‘Look around you, Nim. I set this whole thing up. I lured you out here. I captured the dragon, clapped it in chains that sap its strength and leaves it as weak as a kitten. And I caught you. The mighty Wing Warrior. You are a great hero, and now I get to be one too.’
    ‘This is not the way to be a hero.’
    ‘This is exactly the way to be a hero. You do something that makes people remember your name. And I will be remembered for destroying you.’
    ‘But you aren’t just destroying me. You’re destroying everything. There’s big trouble on the mainland. If I don’t get back, I don’t know what’s going to happen.’
    ‘There you go again. You just can’t wait to get back to save the day, can you?’
    ‘If you don’t let me go, you could be condemning hundreds of people to death. My family.’
    ‘Why should I care?’
    ‘Crow is getting stronger. Are you prepared to let him win?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter to me. He can rule all the dry land from here to eternity. I am different now. I am beyond his reach.’ Tidal turned his head slightly, and pulled back his hair to reveal a row of pink gills pulsing on the side of his neck. ‘Do you see? I am of the ocean, and what happens to you land dwellers is of little consequence.’
    For a moment, Nimbus was shocked to silence as he tried to comprehend the alien creature that Tidal had become. ‘What about Sky?’ he asked, eventually. ‘If you hold me here, you are putting her in danger.’
    ‘Sky made her choice. I asked her to come with me, and she said no. She’ll have to live with that decision.’
    ‘And if that decision kills her?’
    Tidal looked down at his feet. ‘Then she dies.’
    As shocked as Nimbus was by such harsh words, he did not waste his chance to take advantage of Tidal’s momentary lapse in concentration. He threw himself at Tidal, knocking him down. Caught off guard, Tidal lost his grip on Venom, and the sword flew out of the reach of both boys as they began to wrestle.
    Nimbus’s anger, and the element of surprise, gave him an edge at first; but Tidal was stronger, and he managed to pin Nimbus face down on the shore.
    ‘See, Nim?’ he snarled, as Nimbus struggled to break free. ‘I’m better than you. You should never have been the Wing Warrior. It should have been me all along.’
    ‘Get off me,’ Nimbus screamed, furiously.
    Tidal got back to his feet, and retrieved Venom from where it had fallen.
    ‘This is stupid,’ Nimbus spat, brushing the sand from his face and neck. ‘We should be fighting together, against Crow, not fighting against each other.’
    ‘Fighting together with you just isn’t working for me,’ Tidal said, sheathing Venom. ‘You see, when I was helping you, or trying to look after Sky while you weren’t around, I was risking my skin, and you were still getting all the praise. I may not be bright, but even I can see that’s a fool’s game. I’m much happier this way.’
    ‘How can you be happy living alone on an island in the middle of nowhere? What are you even doing here?’
    Tidal sat near the cave mouth. He completely ignored Cumulo, who was growling menacingly and occasionally heaving on the chain in an effort to break free. ‘I suppose you deserve some kind of explanation,’ he said.
    Nimbus got to his feet. His attention was drawn to the ocean waters, where something was moving among the distant waves, writhing up through the spume and then ducking back out of sight with a silvery flick of an immense tail. ‘You’re working with that thing out there, aren’t you?’
    ‘The Ocean King.’
    ‘What is it? Some kind of snake?’
    ‘More than a snake. More than a dragon. The Ocean King is lord of the seas, a leviathan. He bit me that day back at Landmark, when I was almost drowned by the tidal wave. He agreed to help me, if in turn, I would help him.’
    ‘Help you do what?’
    ‘Are you not