Windswept

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  “How do they do it?” she asked no one in particular, punching her fist into her palm. “We’re flying slow, sure, but it’s like they’re moving even faster now!”

  “They’re drawn to the Wonder,” Aleron said, clutching at the stone beneath his tattered, faded furs. “It saps our strength and they feed off it. We’ve got to pick up the pace.”

  Eva stared at her father, alarmed at his ominous words and sudden dark mood. She didn’t see how they could move faster. Between Sunflash’s injury and the other two gryphons carrying double riders, they were overtaxed already. Later in the day they halted again and sent Sven off riderless in search of prey, their food all but gone. He returned carrying a scrawny coyote between his claws. It looked even more starved than the gryphons. Aleron grimaced.

  “I’ve eaten enough ‘yote in my day to know I’m not hungry enough to want any right now.” Sigrid gave Sven a reluctant pat of thanks while the others eyed the mangy animal and agreed with Aleron. The three gryphons made short work of the skinny coyote and they took to the air again, bellies tight with hunger, still freezing even in the pale sunlight.

  Their flight turned into a nightmarish game of cat and mouse. Fatigue took its toll on human and gryphon alike. Each time they stopped, whether to rest or hunt for a meager meal, the Smelterborn gained. Had they been able to fly without stopping, Eva knew they could outdistance the golems. If they just had a day or two to recover and gather their strength, she thought they would be able to escape. But the Smelterborn pursued the stolen Wonder with relentless, inhuman determination.

  “There’s about fifty of the bastards now,” Aleron reported. “Less than half a day behind us.” It’d been three days since they’d met. Eva wished she had more time to speak with her father, but between their brief naps and meals, there hadn’t been a spare moment.

  Eva looked across their little group as each processed the news. The three gryphons hung their heads low, grateful for the break in flight. The humans looked just as weary: faces gaunt, eyes hollow. They were down to just the meat they could hunt now — the dried tack of the traders long gone. In most cases, they barely had time to cook any of it before taking to the skies again, knowing each minute they spent on the ground, the Smelterborn drew closer.

  “By my estimate, we’re about halfway across the plains,” Aleron said, breaking the discouraging silence. “For once I wish we could run into a group of those storming cat riders. We could introduce them to our clanker friends and be on our merry way.”

  Eva thought back to the sabercat in the fighting pit at the Mother of Cities and her brief skirmishes with the Juarag on the frontier. The last thing she wanted to come across right now was a group of their warriors but said nothing.

  Still only halfway home.

  The realization punched Eva in the stomach as hard as a Smelterborn fist. She knew they’d never make it at their current pace and knew just as well they couldn’t travel any faster. Eva watched as the rest of the group came to the same realization and a heavy, oppressive silence settled upon them.

  She looked at Aleron and Sunflash. Her father and his gryphon looked twice as weary. Their wounds hadn’t grown worse, true, but neither had they healed any. Eva saw how it sapped their strength. Ivan had tried a couple more times with no success to heal them but seemed optimistic it could be done back in Rhylance.

  If they ever got back to Rhylance. Eva tried to squash the words as soon as she thought them, but they clung to her mind as dogged as the Smelterborn. To have come so far, suffered and overcome so much, only to be defeated now…

  “Sigrid, why don’t you and Ivan go on Sven and see if you can rustle up something for us to chew on?” Aleron suggested. He nodded to Fury, Eva and Chel. “We’ll do a bit of scouting around and see if there’s anything but sky-forsaken empty land for miles, might be we can find somewhere defensible to rest up or even a Juarag tribe to sic the clankers on.”

  Eva thought back to the Juarag-Vo tribe, and the slaughter left behind from the Smelterborn. She wouldn’t have wished that on anyone, not even the Juarag raiders attacking Rhylance’s frontier towns. As Sven rose and flew away Aleron turned to Eva and Chel.

  “I wanted to talk to the two of you alone,” Aleron said. “I’m not going back to Rhylance.”

  Eva felt her insides turn cold but not from the wind curling past them with flurries of snow in its wake.

  When neither she nor Chel spoke, Aleron nodded his head back toward the east. “We can’t outrun ‘em. Can’t fight ‘em, either. Your only chance is if I hold them off long enough for you to get that Wonder to Rhylance.”

  Eva shook her head as the tears ran down her face. “No! We’ll find a way! There has to be something else — I’m not losing you now.”

  Chel nodded, tears streaking her cheeks as well. “Do not do this,” she said. “The Smelterborn want the stone, they will only keep coming after us anyway. It is not worth it.”

  Aleron sighed and ran a hand through his gray-blond hair. “Sky damn it,” he said. “I’m not handing it back over to the clankers.”

  “Please,” Eva said reaching out to grab her father’s shoulder. “We still have time. Let’s just think about this. There’s got to be another way.”

  Aleron glanced back to the east, concern creasing his face.

  “One more day,” he said at last. “After that, we go with my plan.”

  Both Eva and Chel nodded and Aleron seemed satisfied. He looked at them both for a long moment and cracked a jaunty smile, shaking his head. “I’m a lucky man to end up with a pair like you two.”

  “We won’t let you down,” Eva said, as much to herself as her father. Chel nodded and the three mounted. They’d just taken off when they saw Sigrid and Ivan winging in, a small wild pig clutched in Sven’s talons.

  Eva’s mouth watered at the thought of hot meat, even though it would be cooked over an open fire with no seasoning or anything to go with it. Her moment of anticipation didn’t last long.

  “We gotta move!” Sigrid yelled as soon as she was close enough to be heard. “More Smelterborn coming from the north!”

  Eva’s insides churned. Throughout the day she searched for any place they could make a stand, anywhere they could rest without fear of the Smelterborn overcoming them. But the Endless Plains, true to their name, yielded nothing but endless, rolling prairie.

  The hours passed by. Yet another cold, lonesome evening set in.

  Night came on quick, leaving them half-frozen and hungry. Just as they were about to land, however, Ivan spotted a dark outline off in the distance. “What’s ahead? It looks like a cliff!”

  Sure enough, the last few streaks of gray light revealed a short ridge jutting out of the prairie. The group made a quick pass around and saw the red rock rose up in narrow butte with steep sides. It was inaccessible by any means except flight — at least Eva hoped. When the gryphons landed on top of the flat rock, Eva let out a long sigh and gave silent thanks for their luck’s change of wind.

  “Not bad.” Aleron walked around the top of the butte examining their makeshift camp. “The clankers won’t have it easy climbing up here, that’s for sure.”

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but has anyone else realized we’ll be sitting ducks up here?” Sigrid said, gesturing around. “Sure, we can fly away, but if we’re surrounded, what’s stopping the Smelterborn from giving chase after us? We lose our half day head start, then what?”

  “Better to make a stand where you’ve got the advantage than get ran down like rabbits,” Aleron said. “Don’t they teach military tactics at the Gyr anymore? Besides, I think we can cook up a few surprises for the clankers with our Scrawl friend here.”

  He looked at Ivan but would say no more, suggesting they get a fire going and the pig cooking. Eva questioned aloud if it was wise — a fire at their height over the plains would light up the surrounding country for miles.

  “The Smelterborn are drawn to the Wonder,” Aleron said. “They don’t need to
see a fire to find us.”

  They set about preparing the animal. After the gryphons had their share there wasn’t much left for the humans but Eva devoured the tough, fire-blackened meat. In their state of starvation, it seemed like the best thing she’d ever eaten. She wondered what Tahl would think of her squatting around a fire like a savage, fingers and face covered in grease as she gnawed at every last sliver of meat on the bone.

  When they finished eating, Aleron walked them around the edge of the butte and outlined his plan.

  “The thing about clankers is they’re not the brightest buckets,” he said. “They might pack a wallop, but they’re too big to do things like climbing. Some of the scouts might be able to make it up here, but the rest won’t be able to do anything but bang their helmets against the rocks at the bottom.”

  “So what good does that do us?” Sigrid asked. “We pick off the few that make it up here to us, then sit here and freeze or starve to death while the rest surround us?”

  “Depends on how many there are between the two groups,” Aleron said. Eva noted how he diverted Sigrid’s challenge with ease. “Our Scrawl should be able to cook up some trouble for the ones stuck at the bottom. We’re getting closer to the western plains now — we thin them out some and we might be able to leapfrog from butte to butte. There’s mesas all over this part of the Endless. I’ll stay behind while one of you scouts ahead — the clankers won’t leave as long as they know the Wonder is still here.”

  “This is insane,” Sigrid said, shaking her head. When she stopped, a familiar, half-crazed smirk spread across her face. “I like it!”

  Aleron cracked a lopsided grin of his own. “Time to get some rest. Ivan, go ahead and build that fire up big as long as it doesn’t take too much out of you. I’d like to warm up these old bones and get a bit of shut-eye before things get wild.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  With nowhere to go in the morning, they slept in late — late being until the sky turned blue, instead of the slate gray of first dawn they’d normally risen to. Filled with an unsettling angst, Eva walked to the edge of the plateau.

  Smelterborn swarmed everywhere.

  They seemed to have sprung out of the frozen ground itself — close to a hundred by the look of things — all clambering over the broken rock at the foot of the butte like giant angry beetles. Aleron joined Eva and she could see the worry on her father’s face, she knew he was thinking about their backup plan.

  “You said yourself we’d be fine as long as we can hold them from getting up here,” Eva said.

  Before Aleron could reply, Sigrid shouted from across the butte, followed by Chel.

  “I’ve got climbers over here!”

  “They are coming up here too!”

  Eva rushed to Sigrid’s side and drew her sword. Just as she looked over the rim, a javelin sped past her face. Eva stumbled backward, wide-eyed.

  “Better be more careful next time,” Sigrid said, retrieving the javelin where it landed on top of the butte. For a human, it was too heavy to cast with any accuracy but Sigrid hefted it in both hands and threw it over the edge. Peeking over, Eva saw the javelin smack one of the scout golems in the head. The Smelterborn lost its grip and fell from the side of the cliff, knocking two of its companions off the rock face with it.

  Eva and Sigrid shared a quick victory shout as the Smelterborn clanged and banged off the rocks, before landing in the loose rock at the bottom. Unfortunately, the golems clambered back to their feet and began climbing again, undeterred.

  “Where’s Ivan?” Sigrid hissed. Eva glanced over her shoulder and saw Chel and Aleron tossing and shoving loose rocks off the edge of the butte, no doubt on the heads of unsuspecting Smelterborn climbers. Ivan stood a ways away from them, body alight with runes as he muttered kennings and hurled shots of ice down upon the golems.

  “Looks like we’re on our own,” Eva said.

  Pacing in the middle of the plateau, the three gryphons let out angry, frustrated screeches, stamping their feet and flashing their wings. It was safer for them to remain on the ground, even if they didn’t like it. If any of the three gryphons were injured there would be no way for all of the riders to make it off the plateau together.

  “I can handle this,” Sigrid said. “Make sure they aren’t sneaking up somewhere else!”

  Eva nodded and ran to the uncovered side of the plateau opposite of Ivan, to the left of her father and Chel. As she neared the edge, a giant dull gray gauntlet clamped down on the rock. Eva swung her sword down on the hand and her blade rebounded in her grasp, the Smelterborn unaffected. A second later the golem’s other hand appeared on the rim followed by its conical helmet and flaring orange eyes.

  Fighting a rising panic, Eva struck again and buried her sword deep in the Smelterborn’s helmet slit. She yanked it free just as a gust of dark wind knocked her off her feet. Whatever foul spirit powered the golem shot free, screaming into the sky. The lifeless suit of armor went limp and slid from the edge of the plateau. Eva looked over in time to see it clatter off another one of its living companions knocking them back to the ground. But there were still three Smelterborn almost to the top, and Eva knew she couldn’t handle all of them alone.

  “I need help over here!”

  Ivan shot off one last blast of wind then joined her. Even in the cold weather, sweat ran down his shaved head and drenched his furs and leathers. Eva knew how much the continuous effort exhausted Ivan but he was their best chance of making it out alive.

  Ivan glanced over the cliff edge, waving a hand to brush aside a passing javelin with another blast of wind. He twisted his hand in complex patterns, muttering, and slammed an open palm down on the rock. Before Eva could ask what he was doing, Ivan grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her backward. A few seconds later, the spot where they’d been standing sluffed away in a small rock slide. Eva heard the clank of rocks on iron plates and when the dust cleared, no climbers remained below.

  “Will we run out of rock to stand on or Smelterborn first?” Eva asked. It was an effective tactic, but she also thought if they weakened the narrow butte too much the whole thing might collapse beneath them.

  Ivan shrugged but before he could answer they saw Sigrid beating on the head of a Smelterborn with her ax, to little effect. A blast of ice shot from the Scrawl’s hand, missing Sigrid’s elbow by a finger’s width before it caught the Smelterborn in the face and knocked it off the butte.

  And so it continued. The humans ran themselves ragged around the edges of the plateau to keep the Smelterborn from reaching them on top of the rock formation. Aside from Ivan’s rune magic and Aleron’s sword, there was little the rest could do to actually kill any of the Smelterborn.

  As large and glowing as the menacing eye of the golems appeared, stabbing one through the helmet proved to be harder than it sounded. A few minutes into the fight, sweat ran down Eva’s back beneath her robes and leathers. She soon found herself gasping for air, sprinting from one edge of the butte to the other.

  The Smelterborn continued. The ragged group of humans continued to repel them.

  Despite their valiant effort, the moment came when all of them were distracted in other spots and three Smelterborn made it onto the butte top. Eva turned around just in time to see the scout golems rushing toward Sigrid, who was leaning over the edge of the plateau screaming and shaking her sword at the Smelterborn down below, completely unaware of the danger behind her.

  “Sigrid!”

  Knowing she couldn’t reach the Smelterborn in time, Eva drew back her arm and threw her short sword with all her strength. Right away she knew it was a foolish mistake. The short blade struck the lead Smelterborn in the side of the helmet, and it skidded to a halt, to look at her. Eva stood rooted to the spot, weaponless aside from a long knife. Two of the Smelterborn turned toward her and she knew with their stride they would be on her in moments.

  Eva bounded forward as the gryphons charged as well, eager for an opponent at last. As the first gol
em swept its long sword overhead, Eva ducked and rolled. She came to her feet a few paces away just as all three gryphons bulled into the Smelterborn, burying the golem beneath a tide of fur and feathers. Eva shouted to her father as the gryphons and Smelterborn grappled with one another.

  Once more, Eva witnessed her father’s skill with the blade in awe. He moved like water between attacks. After decapitating the first Smelterborn he pivoted and drove his blade through the chest of the second while the gryphons held it down. Pulling the sword free he sliced through the other’s head.

  But in saving Eva and the gryphons, more Smelterborn had climbed the ledge near Chel. She backed away, waving her spear in front of her as two Smelterborn advanced on her. Eva retrieved her sword to aid Chel but before her or her father could move a shout and a ball of flame shot between them. It caught both Smelterborn and hurtled them backward over the edge.

  And then there was silence. Ivan bent in half and threw up his meager breakfast, wiping his face with a shaky hand. Everyone else rushed around to the edges of the plateau but saw only the larger Smelterborn pounding at the rock, unable to climb. Their smaller counterparts were either empty lifeless shells or struggling to right themselves, some smoking, frozen or half-buried in rock.

  “Well old man it was a crazy idea but it looks like it’s working so far,” Sigrid said between breaths.

  “When you’ve been around as long as me, you learn a thing or two, even if you are hard-headed,” Eva’s father laughed.

  “This is a battle that will be read in the Records for ages to come,” Ivan said, wiping sweat from his brow. “We’re actually going to —”

  A shrill, piercing scream cut through the bitter air. All of them turned and looked to the east. A large black shadow approached, winging its way through the sky. Even at the distance, Eva knew it was no gryphon and knew as well that it had to be twice the size at least of Sunflash, who was one of the largest gryphons she’d ever seen.

  “What new horror is this?” Aleron’s voice was tired and low. Even the three gryphons seemed cowed by the same sense of dread filling Eva, the same sense of hopelessness that had dogged them the past weeks now threatened to overwhelm the group. Another piercing scream split the sky and Eva covered her ears, squinting her eyes shut and gritting her teeth. The sound was terrible, not only to the ears but deafening to her courage as well. With every beat of its wings, the thing grew larger.