Only Blade and Amberdrake knew the answer to that question, and only if they had opened themselves up empathically again.
Just when he was about to give up—when, in fact, he had started to stand, taking himself out of hiding—the third “spark” died.
He crouched back down again, quickly.
They all heard—or rather, felt—the fourth trap go. It was the one that had originally been set with a crude string-trigger that went into the cave. When it went, it would not only take several wyrsa with it—hopefully—but it would have the unfortunate side-effect of spreading rock out into the river, widening the shelf in front of the cave. But that couldn’t be helped…
The rocks under him shook as the wyrsa triggered the last trap—and he didn’t need to be empathic to know that this final trap totally enraged them. Unlike the cries that they had uttered until now, their ear-piercing shrieks of pure rage as the remaining members of the pack poured over the rocks were clearly audible over the pounding water.
More than four—But it was too late to do anything other than follow through on their plan. With a scream of his own, he dove off the cliff, right down on the last one’s back.
The head whipped around and the fangs sank into his shoulder, just below where the wing joined his body. He muffled his own screech of pain by sinking his own beak into the join of the creature’s head and neck.
The thing wouldn’t let go, but neither would he. It tried to dislodge him, but he had all four sets of talons bound firmly into its shoulders and hindquarters. In desperation, it writhed, and rolled, and sank its fangs in up to the gumline. He saw red in his vision again, but clamped his beak down harder, sawing at the thing’s flesh as he did so. He jerked his head toward his own keel, digging the hook of his powerful beak even further through hide, then muscle, then cartilage.
The spine… he had to sever the spine…
* * *
Amberdrake stood up on his tiny shelf of rock and fired off arrow after arrow into the one wyrsa that had been unfortunate enough to cross his blob of foxfire. The arrows themselves had been rubbed with phosphorescent fungus, so once the first one lodged, he had a real target. He’d throttled down any number of emotions as the wyrsa came closer and closer, but—strangely enough, now that he was fighting, he felt a curious, detached calm. His concentration narrowed to the dark shape with an increasing number of glowing sticks in it; his world constricted to placing his next arrow somewhere near the rest of those spots of dim light. Sooner or later, he would hit something fatal.
He knew that he had, when the shape bearing the sticks wobbled to the edge of the water, wavered there for a moment, then tumbled in.
He chose another as it crossed a blob of foxfire, and began again.
* * *
Tad was close enough to his father that he saw the difficulties Skan was in. At that point, it didn’t matter that it was not in the plan—he surged out of hiding and pounced, sinking his beak into the wyrsa’s throat, and his foreclaws into its forelimbs. A gush of something hot and foul-tasting flooded his mouth, and the wyrsa collapsed under Skan’s weight.
He let go, spitting to rid himself of the taste of the wyrsa’s blood, as Skan shook himself free of the creature’s head and staggered off to one side. Tad guarded him as he collected himself, keeping the other wyrsa at bay with slashing talons.
Then he wasn’t alone anymore; his father was fighting beside him. “Good job,” Skan called; “I owe you one.”
“Then take the one on the left!” Tad called back, feeling a surge of pleasure that brought new energy with it.
“Only if you take the one on the right!” Skan called back, and launched himself at his next target.
Tad followed in the same instant, as if they had rehearsed the maneuver a thousand times together.
* * *
Blade’s weapon was not as suited to rapid firing as her father’s, and she had to choose her targets more carefully than he. He had a great many arrows; she had a handful of spears, and not all of them flew cleanly.
But when she did connect, her weapon was highly effective. She sent three wyrsa tumbling into the river, and wounded two more, making them easier targets for Skan and Tad.
Just as she ran out of short spears, she saw—and sensed—the moment that they had all been waiting for. The bitch wyrsa was herding her remaining pups before her into the cave the two humans and two gryphons had abandoned. She obviously intended to reverse the situation on her attackers, by going to ground in what should have been their bolt-hole.
“She’s going in!” Blade shouted. She seized the longer of her two spears and jumped down to the ground. A moment later, her father joined her, and with Tad and Skan they formed a half-circle that cut off the wyrsa from escape.
The pups had clearly had enough; now that they were all in the cave, they were silhouetted clearly against the fire at the rear. The pups, about three of them, milled about their mother. They didn’t like the fire, but they didn’t want to face the humans and gryphons either.
The wyrsa-bitch, however, was not ready to quit yet. She surged from side to side in the cave, never presenting a clear target, and snarled at her pups. It looked to Blade as if she were trying to herd them into something. She and Amberdrake edged up farther into the cave, following the plan. In theory, with the two weakest members of the party in plain sight, the bitch should do what they wanted her to.
“She’s trying to goad them into a charge!” Amberdrake shouted. “Get ready!”
Blade grounded the butt of her spear against the rock, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t have to use it—
“Now!” Drake shouted, as the bitch herded her pups up onto the brush and rock barrier.
And at that signal, Skan and Tad used the last of their mage-energy, and ignited the oil-soaked wood of the barricade with a simple, small fire-spell.
With the fire already going at the back of the cave, there was a good draft going up the chimney. The flames swept back, and merged with the second fire at the rear. The cave was an oven, and the wyrsa were trapped inside.
The wyrsa-bitch turned and heaved herself at the barricade nearest Blade. Her dead-white eyes blazed rage as she stared at the human, and Blade felt her hatred burning, even without being open empathically.
Amberdrake dropped his spear; it clattered to the ground as he seized his head in both hands. His knees buckled and he fell in a convulsing heap.
Without hesitation, Blade picked up her own spear, aimed, and threw.
The bitch-wyrsa took it full in the chest and continued forward, screaming defiance. She heaved up into the air, towering above all of them for a moment—and Blade was certain she was going to come over the barricade anyway. Blade’s heart pounded in her ears—only that sound, and the sound of the wyrsa’s scream, louder than anything she had felt before.
The wyrsa fell forward, but didn’t leap. The spear jutted from her chest, only a quarter of its length in. She stumbled forward in shock. Her forelegs crumpled—and the butt of the crude spear struck the ground and drove itself in deeper.
Blade fell into a crouch without hesitation and groped for her fighting-knife, but she could not take her eyes off the vision of the black wyrsa pitching backwards, to be consumed in flame.
* * *
“We won,” Tad said, for the hundredth time. As the rain washed wyrsa blood from the rocks, he locked his talons into another body and dragged it to the river, to roll it in. Blade hoped that something in there would eat wyrsa, and that the blasted things wouldn’t poison the fish.
After the flames had died down, they had all moved back into the cave to see what was left. Not much was recognizable compared to the bodies outside the cave, but the skulls of the charred wyrsa were easily broken off for later cleaning. The families of those people the creatures had killed were entitled to them, perhaps for a revenge ceremony during mourning, so the grisly task was done with solemn efficiency. Inside, the rock was nicely warmed, and the two exhausted fathe
rs, had a good, comfortable place to lie down and get some rest.
Meanwhile she and Tad dragged their own weary bodies out into the rain again, to clean up the mess.
“This is the last one, thank the gods,” Blade said, as she hauled the last of the beheaded bodies to the river’s edge. Together, she and Tad shoved it in, and together they turned and walked back to the cave.
“Drake is burning some fish for you, Blade,” Skan greeted them as they climbed over the rock barricade. “Zhaneel would not approve. By the way, both the other rescue-parties are near enough for Mindspeech with me, so we won’t have to eat fish much longer.”
Blade’s heart surged with joy—and then her throat tightened, as she realized just how close the others must have been last night.
They could have walked right into the same kind of trap that my father did, she thought soberly. She had been wondering ever since yesterday evening if they were doing the right thing by trying an all-or-nothing last-stand. Now she knew they had been.
“When will they get here?” Tad asked eagerly, as Blade accepted fish from her father with a smile of thanks.
“Tomorrow, probably. Your mother is thrilled, Blade. Tad, your mother and brother would be flying in here now if it weren’t raining.” Skan gryph-grinned at all of them. “I promised them that we would do our best not to melt before they got here.”
“That was probably safe,” Blade agreed. “Did you tell them anything other than that we were all safe?”
Skan ground his beak and dropped his head. “I confess, I told them everything while they were still far enough away that your mothers couldn’t flay us alive for risking all our necks last night.” He coughed. “I know my Zhaneel, and I suspect Winterhart will react the same. Weary by the time they reach us, they will be so grateful that we are all right that they will probably have forgotten that we took on all those wyrsa by ourselves.”
Amberdrake winced. “Maybe Zhaneel will—but Winterhart won’t,” he said guiltily. “And she’ll never forgive me for acting like a hotheaded young fighter and standing on a ledge in the dark, firing arrows into the damned things! And if I actually admit that I—well—I was good at it—”
Blade patted his knee, and smiled as a rush of love filled her heart.
“Don’t worry, Father,” she said fondly. “I’ll protect you.”
* * *
For the first time in days, if not weeks, Tad lay on a ledge in the open, sunning himself. Finally, finally, the rains had lessened last night, and although the fog had appeared on schedule, the rain had not chased it away. It looked as if the weather was getting back to “normal.”
Tad whooped, and leaped off his ledge to gallop toward his brother. Keeth arrowed in for a landing down on the recently-added stretch of rock-and-gravel beach in front of the cave. A moment later, as Tad and his brother closed on each other for the gryphonic equivalent of a backslapping reunion, the “mothers’ party” appeared around the curve of the trail.
Now it was Blade’s turn to launch herself off her ledge and run straight into the arms of her mother, while Amberdrake brought up the rear. Tad grinned to his twin as they watched his Silver partner hugging her mother and even shedding a few tears. She was acting just as any normal human would in the same situation, and about time, too!
Things settled down a little, and Winterhart paused to wipe a couple of happy tears, as the second party rounded the bend. With a gasp, Blade broke off her conversation with her mother to run straight for the leader of the party.
Ikala looked surprised, but extremely pleased, when she threw her arms around him—and it would have taken an expert to determine if she kissed him first, or he kissed her.
Tad took a quick look at Amberdrake and Winterhart; they looked stunned, but gradually the surprise was being replaced by—glee?
Probably. Now they’re finally going to get their wish, after all!
“What is that all about?” Keeth gurgled. “She’s never done that before!”
Tad laughed. “Oh, it has been a complicated mess, but I think I can explain it. Drake sees her as a real person now—not just as his daughter, his child. They’ve fought alongside each other. Now she’s—well, now she knows who she is; that she’s not a reflection of Drake or her mother, and that she doesn’t have to work so hard at being their opposite. It’s—well, she’s free, free to be herself.”
“And you?” Keeth asked shrewdly.
Tad laughed. “After seeing Father in action, I can’t say I mind being the son of the Black Gryphon anymore: And now he has fought beside me, and he knows there is more to me than obstacle courses and fatherly pride. Word will get around, and then he will have to cope with being referred to as ‘the father of that brave Silver.’ I guess that’s justice.”
Keeth grinned and leaned against his brother. “That should give us all some rest and freedom.”
Freedom, he thought with content. That’s what it is all right. Freedom.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Mercedes Lackey is a full-time writer and has published numerous novels and works of short fiction, including the bestselling Heralds of Valdemar series. She is also a professional lyricist and licensed wild bird rehabilitator. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.
www.mercedeslackey.com
Larry Dixon is a writer and fantasy illustrator. Dixon has contributed work to Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons source books, including Oriental Adventures, Epic Level Handbook and Fiend Folio. He has collaborated with his wife, Mercedes Lackey, on a number of books, including The Mage War trilogy, The SERRAted Edge novels and The Owl trilogy.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS AND MERCEDES LACKEY
THE ELEMENTAL MASTERS
The Serpent’s Shadow
The Gates of Sleep
Phoenix and Ashes
The Wizard of London
Reserved for the Cat
Unnatural Issue
Home from the Sea
Steadfast
Blood Red
From a High Tower
A Study in Sable
THE COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES
Foundation
Intrigues
Changes
Redoubt
Bastion
THE HERALD SPY
Closer to Home
Closer to the Heart
Closer to the Chest (October 2016)
VALDEMAR OMNIBUSES
The Heralds of Valdemar
The Mage Winds
The Mage Storms
The Last Herald Mage (March 2017)
Vows & Honor (September 2017)
Exiles of Valdemar (March 2018)
TITANBOOKS.COM
The Mage Wars Page 103
