Windswept

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  A loud rumble from Eva’s stomach reminded her she’d been on the ledge for hours since her hurried meal in the kitchens. Tahl waited patiently, watching the moon rise and the stars begin to fade into the sapphire sky as Eva did her best not to wolf down the food all at once. When she’d finished, he pushed the tray back and put his arm around her, pulling her in close.

  Eva shivered, as much from being in Tahl’s arms as the cold. She took a deep breath and relaxed back against him.

  “I missed you,” she said.

  “Me too.”

  Eva twisted her head around and saw him smirking, even though he didn’t take his eyes off the sky.

  For a while they sat in silence, enjoying each other’s warmth and closeness after weeks apart. Eva readjusted herself and rested her head in his lap to stare up at the myriad of stars twinkling overhead. Tahl leaned back on one arm, absentmindedly stroking her hair with his free hand.

  “What’d the lord commander say?” he asked at last.

  “Nobody’s going to see if he’s really out there.” Alone with Tahl, the frustration started melting away but now raged back, full force. “I don’t understand how they can do nothing after he asked for help.”

  She glanced at Tahl and saw him bite back a reply. Instead of speaking, he just nodded and continued to stroke her hair.

  “I know he’s alive, Tahl,” Eva said. “I…I can’t explain. But I just know.”

  “And you’re sure about this feeling?” he asked.

  “It’s the same way I know I love you?”

  “Well,” Tahl said, raising his eyebrows. “In that case, forget about it. It’s definitely not true. No way, no how.”

  They shared a quiet laugh before lapsing back into silence.

  “So you’re going to talk to the king tomorrow?” Tahl asked.

  “I have to,” Eva said. “I can’t just do nothing.”

  “I’d probably do the same thing in your place.”

  Seized by a sudden overwhelming desire, Eva lifted herself up and pulled Tahl close, kissing him long and slow. When she pulled away at last, he hovered over her in the short distance between them, mouth slightly open and eyes closed. She laughed and pushed him back. Tahl made an exaggerated fall onto his back and stared up at her with that goofy grin of his.

  “I’m going to bed, hero,” Eva said, standing. “It’s been a long day.”

  “You sure you’re okay?” Tahl called after her as she walked away.

  “I’m fine.”

  Later that night, Eva realized it was the first time she’d lied to him.

  Chapter Five

  As much as she hated to crawl out of bed early after the past few exhausting days, Eva woke and dressed, careful not to wake Sigrid. Buckling on her sword belt, Eva bit back a laugh looking at Sigrid. Her roommate lay sprawled across her bunk, head lolling off the side, hair a tangled mess, mouth agape, and snoring.

  A few riders were already up — mostly recruits starting their morning exercises before class or Windsworn preparing to leave on missions or patrols. Eva nodded to them as she passed but hurried to the Roost with her head down, to avoid any lengthy conversations. She wagered the news of their patrol had spread like wildfire the night before. The Windsworn kept secrets when necessary, but any news that wasn’t classified found its way throughout the tight-knit community inside the mountain in no time.

  Up at the Roost, several riders were already in various stages of feeding, grooming and saddling their gryphons. Eva stepped out into the middle of the gigantic chamber and scanned the rows of nests along the cliffs to either side of her, looking for Fury’s deep red color that stood out from all the other gryphons. Unable to spot him, she gave a sharp whistle and shouted out his name.

  High in a notch to her left, Eva saw his copper-colored head pop out of the rocks and stare down at her. “Hurry up, sleepyhead!” she shouted through cupped hands. In response, the gryphon shook his head and disappeared from sight.

  “Fury!”

  The gryphon’s head popped out again and Fury gave a reluctant caw before leaping off his alcove and soaring down to Eva. He landed so close that Eva had to leap out of the way to avoid getting bowled over by his wings.

  “You did that on purpose,” she said, frowning.

  Fury blinked back, trying to look innocent.

  After brushing the gryphon down — a wide comb for the feathers on his head and front quarters followed by a brush for the fur on his torso and back — Eva went into the cool storeroom cave and unhooked a skinned deer hindquarter swinging from the ceiling. She tossed it on the floor and Fury clacked his beak in delight, ripping through meat and bone alike while Eva retrieved her riding saddle from its stand beside the rest of her wing’s gear.

  In the time it took her to return, Fury devoured his morning snack and his yellow eyes darted around, hunting for more.

  “You’ll get too fat to fly if you keep eating all the time,” Eva chided as she stepped around his left wing and slung the saddle over his back.

  Unlike a horse’s saddle, the gryphon’s amounted to little more than a padded strip of leather with straps down both legs and a foothold in place of a stirrup. Eva wiggled the saddle to settle it into place and then walked around to Fury’s front to secure the two straps of leather that went across his chest. On longer trips, she’d also buckle in additional bags for her weapons, bedroll, and supplies but left such things off on short flights.

  Eva swung into the saddle, grinning as she thought back to her first terrifying ride as a recruit. She’d clung to Andor, waiting to fall to her death as they climbed into the air. Now, as Fury walked toward the open sky ahead, she suppressed a shiver of delight. Although her stomach still twisted and clenched when Fury made his sharpest stoops and dives, Eva couldn’t imagine life without flying.

  Reaching the landing and takeoff point, at the mountain’s edge, Eva reached down and buckled up her leg straps. Fury’s muscles quivered in anticipation and he unfurled his wings in one powerful movement.

  “Alright, boy, let’s go!”

  The gryphon needed no further encouragement. Screaming with delight, he gathered his back feline legs and pounced off the cliff ledge. Eva rolled with the motion, then leaned forward as Fury’s blood red wings sliced through the brisk mountain air.

  Fury climbed higher and higher, circling up toward the peak of the Gyr. When they passed the summit, Eva’s watering eyes spotted a class of recruits below. She returned their wave as they rushed by, soon out of sight. Eva nudged Fury with her left foot and they banked away from the mountain, so high up the merchants looked like ants in the streets.

  Eva shivered as they passed through cloud wisps, the frigid air biting at her riding coat. “Let’s take it down a little, I’m not dressed for this!” she shouted. Without warning, Fury dipped up and then dropped like a speeding arrow down toward Gryfonesse.

  The wind screamed in Eva’s ears, overpowering her own shrill shouting. She leaned forward, hunched over Fury’s muscled neck as they gathered speed. As they plummeted toward the city, Eva felt herself lift out of the saddle, the straps around her legs the only thing keeping her from being ripped off Fury’s back into empty air.

  The towers and domes of Gryfonesse grew with alarming speed. Even so, Fury dropped faster and faster. Eva clenched the gryphon’s neck feathers in a death grip.

  “Fury…”

  The gryphon ignored her, ear tufts pinned against his head, focused on the ground below. Eva’s heart leaped into her mouth. She braced for the inevitable collision.

  “Fury!”

  At the last second, moments before they would have splattered on a street, Fury’s wings burst open and Eva jerked backward as gryphon and rider tilted upward out of their death-defying dive. The people on the busy streets clapped and cheered at the fabled red gryphon as Fury sped between the tall towers and crenelations of the city, displaying his aerial prowess.

  “Show off,” Eva muttered.

  They glided over the
craftsman quarter of the city and Eva fought the urge to stop at the forge of her foster father, Soot. As if he sensed Eva’s longing, Fury pulled at the reins when they neared Eva’s childhood home. With a pang of guilt, Eva directed them toward the palace instead. When they landed in the courtyard, the guards called out in greeting — everyone in Gryfonesse knew the king’s niece rode the only blood-red gryphon born in the last hundred years.

  Eva slid out of the saddle and blinked, face taut from the chilling ride. She did her best to smooth down the loose hair pulled from her braids then stepped in front of Fury.

  “You behave yourself until I’m back, alright?”

  Fury glanced away from her, suddenly interested in a pair of palace officials crossing the open grounds. Eva grabbed his beak in both hands, directing his head back at her. “Alright?” she said, in a firmer voice.

  The gryphon clacked his beak and rolled his head in reluctant adolescent agreement. Before Eva could say anything else, he pulled away and ambled toward a large oak just starting to golden with the season and plopped down beneath the tree. After sparing one last parting look, Eva turned toward the palace.

  Both of the guards saluted as Eva drew near and opened the large gilded doors to the court of King Adelar. Inside, she found the hall empty of the usual assortment of nobles and courtiers. A lone servant scurried over to greet her, abandoning the feather duster he’d been waving across a suit of armor situated against the wall.

  “Mistress Evelyn! How good to see you! My apologies — had we been aware of your visit this morning, I would have made certain that —”

  “Where is everyone?” Eva asked, gazing around the deserted hall.

  “His majesty is reviewing the winter stores and tallies but has not yet left today,” the servant said. “I will notify the king of your arrival, Mistress Evelyn.”

  After thanking the servant, Eva wandered around while she waited. Statues of men, women, and gryphons lined the space between columns on both sides of the halls: Eva’s ancestors and the gryphons who’d helped them establish and protect Rhylance after the kingdom’s founding. Her wanderings took her down the length of the hall up the steps to the throne itself.

  Off to one side of the winged chair hung a large tapestry marking the ruling line. Eva followed the list of names all the way down to Adelar, Andor and a repaired piece of cloth stitched with Aleron. It was patched over the place where the king had originally cut out the name, following his brother’s betrayal. Eva was surprised to find her name added to the tapestry below her father’s repaired portion.

  “Mistresses Evelyn.” The servant’s voice made Eva jump. “His majesty will see you in his private study.”

  “Thank you.”

  Eva passed through the doors and found King Adelar much like his brother had been the day before, bent over a table, studying maps. When she entered the room, he looked up and smiled, but it did little to mask the look of concern on his face.

  “Eva!” Adelar said leaving the table to give her a hug. “How good of you to visit.”

  The king wrapped his arms around her and Eva did her best to give a warm embrace in return, even though she stiffened. When they parted, Adelar held her at arm's length and looked her over.

  “None the worse for wear from your patrol, I see.”

  Eva nodded. “It’s been…an interesting couple of days.”

  “Indeed it has,” the king said, his smile falling from his lined face altogether. “Which explains why you’re here.”

  Without further encouragement, Eva launched into the argument she’d been preparing over the past day. To his credit, her uncle didn’t interrupt.

  “I don’t mean to open old wounds,” Eva finished. “But I can’t just stand by and do nothing, knowing that he might be out there. And I don’t think you or Uncle Andor can either.”

  Adelar returned to his table of maps and smoothed one out before tapping it with his finger. Eva looked closer and saw it was the eastern side of the Windswept mountains, Rhylance’s frontier.

  “We’ve dealt with occasional Juarag raids as long as I can remember,” the king said. “Back in the days of my father, and his father before him — ever since we began settling the far side of the mountains. But this, as you say, is different. They’re coming in numbers, no one can deny that.”

  Eva wasn’t sure what to say and wanted to be careful not to snuff out any budding opportunity that might be flickering to life. “So…?”

  The king gave her a grim smile. “Andor brought me your report yesterday evening after the council met…and your little meltdown in his quarters.” Eva winced, but Adelar continued. “It makes sense that something is driving the Juarag west. I have never traveled farther than the eastern edge of the Endless Plains, but from what Andor tells me, it is wild country on the other side. Ancient ruins, forgotten remnants of the civilization that ruled Altaris long before the Sorondarans sailed here. I know my brother — if Aleron is alive, he’d be right in the middle of whatever trouble is going on over there.”

  Eva fought to control her impatience. “Do you think he is?” she asked cautiously.

  “I want to believe he is,” Adelar said. He sagged over the table, and Eva thought she saw a tear drip onto the parchment beneath his hands. “I want to think I could see him, even one last time and tell him I forgive him and ask for his forgiveness in turn.”

  The king gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles turned white. After a moment, he heaved a shuddering sigh and looked at Eva. “But what I want to hope and believe isn’t all that matters here. As the king, I have to put the welfare of all of the people of Rhylance before my own, the greater good before one man, even if he is my own flesh and blood.”

  Eva felt like she’d been struck in the chest by a giant hammer. But in place of the white-hot anger she’d felt the day before, her remaining hope drained from her.

  “However,” Adelar continued. Eva swallowed the knot in her throat, unsure if she wanted to hear what was coming. “In place of an army, a small number of people, moving fast around the Endless Plains to the north might be able to pass by the Juarag unseen.”

  Not believing her ears, Eva gaped. She opened her mouth to say something, but Adelar held up a hand to stop her.

  “Of course, I would never suggest someone, especially a Windsworn do something like that,” he said, face a blank slate. “For one, it would be extremely reckless — something Aleron himself would have done. And second, an act like that would probably be viewed by the Lord Commander as desertion. I wouldn’t want to place myself in a position to have to grant that person or people a pardon, even if what they did could turn out to be for the greater good of all Rhylance.”

  When he finished speaking, Adelar pushed a rolled up parchment across the table to Eva. She peeled back one side and saw it was a rough map of eastern Altaris beginning on the far side of the Windswept mountains.

  “Are you —”

  Her uncle cut her off again. “I’m afraid I have much work to do today, niece, but as always, I am glad for your company. Please take that as a gift, for your studies.”

  Eva felt her mouth drop open a little bit. She was about to say something else, then thought better of it and decided to leave before the king changed his mind. “Thank you, uncle,” she said, giving a slight bow. “It’s always good to see you.”

  Adelar smiled again and this time it melted through his stern exterior. “After studying that map, you may want to visit Soot. He might have something to say about it.”

  Heart racing, Eva nodded and rushed out of the study without looking back. When the doors swung shut, she burst into a run, ignoring the hails of the guards and servants as she raced toward the courtyard.

  “Fury!”

  Startled from his nap, the gryphon’s head shot up, searching for his rider. Before the gryphon could stand, Eva tucked the map inside her uniform, and swung into the saddle, eager to get back to the Gyr.

  Chapter Six

  “What
ever this is, I can tell it’s trouble,” Ivan said.

  Sigrid grinned. “I sure hope so.”

  The three of them were gathered in Eva and Sigrid’s quarters. As soon as Eva returned to the Gyr, she’d tracked down Ivan (in the library, as usual) and Sigrid (in the training circle, as usual) and brought them straight back to their room.

  A pang of guilt crossed her, thinking how angry Wynn would be for not being involved. Too young to come, the less Wynn knew about their venture, the better. Eva knew she couldn’t risk the talkative girl accidentally slipping and mentioning the plan to someone else before they got away. When she told Ivan as much, he looked even more bothered than Eva felt about keeping the secret.

  “If Tahl gets to know, then why can’t Wynn?” Ivan asked. “I know you’re not going keep anything from lover boy.”

  Eva coughed and her eyes fell to the floor. “Well…”

  Tahl. Eva knew it was wrong to leave him in the dark and still wondered if she’d done the wrong thing by not including him. She’d reasoned with herself it was as much for his protection as her own. No matter what feelings were there, Tahl was a Wing Captain, responsible for his own riders. He’d never leave the Gyr against the Lord Commander’s wishes, and Eva doubted if he’d let her go either if he knew about what she was planning.

  The joking air in the room vanished like a wisp of smoke. “Eva,” Ivan said in a quiet voice. “What are we doing here?”

  Eva glanced at the closed door and pushed her guilty feelings aside. There’d be plenty of time for regrets on the journey. “This doesn’t leave the room, got it?”

  Ivan and Sigrid nodded, eager to hear what had pulled them from their studies. Eva took a deep breath. “We’re going to free the Juarag prisoner and have her lead us to my father.”

  Ivan’s eyes grew wide and Sigrid sat back on her bunk, a stunned look on her face.

  “You’re crazy,” Ivan said. “We’ll be hunted down before we even get out of Rhylance. Not to mention the part where we commit an act of treason. Sigrid, tell her she’s crazy.”