Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

space behind them. Tessa turned to see a ball of orange flame fill the doorway and blast toward them like a cannon shot.
    She dove to the side just as the fireball roared past. The whole tower shook, and the walls were blackened where the fire had licked stone.
    "Up!" Will's hand reached for Tessa's as she clutched the crossbow in the other and raced on, up the spiraling steps.
    They came to the top of the castle's tower, emerging onto a walkway that was girded by a chest-high wall with narrow chinks in it. Below them Gray Lily looked tiny, but Tessa sensed the repulsive dark eyes locked on them with hatred.
    The dragon wheeled in the sky and approached again. It plummeted toward Tessa and Will, seeming to watch them like a raptor would its prey. At the last second it veered away, firing another blast of flames from a fanged, gaping mouth. Will and Tessa ducked and flattened their backs to the outer wall as fire shot over their heads and blasted the tower wall facing them. Will held the bronze shield over them. Tessa closed her eyes against the heat, but when she opened them she saw Will drop the red-hot shield with a curse. He shook his blistered left hand as the molten center of the metal sagged.
    "Jesu," Will breathed.
    A burst of twittering erupted overhead as a flock of doves flapped out of one of the tower windows, driven from their perches. A few unlucky ones fluttered across the dragon's path. A moment later, roasted carcasses, looking like black frizzled lumps, dropped to the ground at Will's and Tessa's feet.
    The poor things , Tessa thought, but there was no time for more because she saw Will stand up, draw his bow and fire a shot at the dragon, all in one fluid, lethal motion.
    The air split with the dragon's scream as the arrow struck the underside of one spread wing. The dragon hurtled toward them, its wounded wing folded.
    "Get down!" Tessa hissed.
    The dragon slammed against the tower and one of the huge, heat-cracked stones snapped free from the top of the wall and tumbled downward, planting itself deep in the ground below with a reverberating thud.
    Meanwhile, Will and Tessa watched as the dragon coiled its long body and tail around the tower, clinging to the walls like a lizard with its clawed feet.
    "Maybe it's too hurt to fly," said Tessa.
    "Maybe it just wants to eat us," retorted Will.
    He pulled Tessa inside the turret and ducked down beneath one of the windows in the circular room. Outside, the dragon's head hovered like a giant parade balloon as it passed the window opposite them. They straightened up and circled to get out of its line of fire as puffs of black breath from slitted nostrils blew ash and charred feathers into the room.
    "How do you kill a dragon?" gasped Tessa. "Don't they teach that stuff in medieval school?"
    "Truth be told, mistress," panted Will, "this would be my first." He readied another arrow in the bow and aimed it at the far window, holding himself as taut as the bowstring itself while he waited for his target.
    Slam! The room shook as the dragon heaved itself against the tower. Tessa and Will were both thrown to the floor. Another slab of stone plummeted past the window. "He's going to knock the tower down," Tessa said in disbelief.
    Then an idea occurred to her, and before she could talk herself out of it she hefted up the crossbow and dashed down the stairs, yelling instructions to Will as she ran.
    At the bottom of the tower Tessa braced herself in the open doorway. Above her hung the dragon's pale green belly. She aimed the crossbow and released the latch, then held her breath. She fired. Ffft! The recoil of the crossbow bit into her shoulder as twelve inches of sharpened iron flew into the beast's scaly armor and was buried to the hilt.
    The dragon shuddered and let out another scream. It twisted down, its huge reptilian head dropping to Tessa's level. It didn't let go of the tower. It wasn't mortally wounded. Only really pissed off.
    Tessa froze in the archway of the tower, facing the dragon, and for a moment she thought she could not carry out her plan. It was something she saw in the dragon's leering eyes. Something almost human.
    But then the dragon drew in a slithering breath, and Tessa knew she would be incinerated on the exhale.
    "Now!" she screamed.
    A handful of tiny stones and dust pattered onto the dragon's head. The creature blinked and almost seemed to sneer at her with a triumphant flare of its nostrils. It opened its jaws just as a massive wedge