Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  He held her gaze for a moment and nodded.

  The blast from Sheesha’s wings blew her off balance and for a terrified moment she thought it might have scrubbed the pattern. But it looked undamaged. Yenteel was working on the final segment, having scratched the marks afresh through the places where they had been obliterated.

  Gally had Jintan ready.

  She wasn’t sure what to do. Gally was no rider. He just sat on the ziri’s back and let it follow the rest.

  “Do Looesa,” she said and hurried to Shingul just as Daybian brought Sheesha down lightly into the pattern. Kantees shook her head. How could they all fit into the space? Daybian was off in a trice and got Sheesha to back up to the edge of the markings, then lie down with his tail circled around him.

  Kantees made the mistake of looking into the shadows. As the sun went down her eyes had adjusted and now she could see what watched them. They looked like men. If men were covered in hair. And they were getting into the ley-circle by climbing over the wall of interconnected trees. Some of them carried clubs and they were heading slowly towards her and the pattern.

  She tore her eyes away from the scene and back to the job in hand.

  There isn’t enough time.

  “Kantees, I’m ready!” shouted Yenteel just as Daybian leapt out of the pattern and ran for Jintan. Gally was tightening the reins on Looesa, but froze as he saw the figures coming slowly towards them. She heard him cry in fear. By then, Daybian was into the saddle and kicking the old zirichak into the air.

  “Gally! Go to Yenteel. Now!” She put everything she had into the command. He looked at her. She pointed forcefully.

  “But Kantees…”

  “Go!” He went, at a run.

  Kantees stared. There was no time to get Shingul’s tack buckled on.

  “Kantees!” shouted Daybian from above. “Leave them. They can fly.”

  But where would they go? They needed to rest somewhere safe. Assuming Yenteel could get his pattern to work. She saw Jintan coming down in the middle of it. She had to admit Daybian was an excellent rider, despite all his other—many—faults.

  “Yenteel, do it.” She forced her voice to calm. “Come on, Shingul.”

  Kantees sprinted across to Looesa and jumped into the saddle. No time to buckle in. The figures were close and the noise of their moans, which seemed to be resolving into some sort of chant, increased.

  Looesa snapped at them. In answer, one of them swung a club but the ziri evaded it easily. But there were more coming.

  “Up, Looesa! Come on, Shingul!”

  Looesa stretched his neck upwards and his wings beat hard and he lifted into the air in spurts that drove them from the ground. She clung to the reins. Gally had done his job right and they were firm. She glanced back. Shingul had lifted from the ground. A club buzzed past her head.

  She almost cried out in anger and frustration. Damn these things! Why weren’t they as stupid as … Daybian. A blue glow flooded the ley-circle. The inscribed pattern lit up. She prayed that either it did not reach as high as her, or that Yenteel’s conjuration was not yet complete.

  With a movement of the reins she guided Looesa over the glowing light and tried to make him drop vertically. There was little enough room below; ziri did not land straight down unless there was no space. As far as Looesa could see he had plenty of room despite the creatures closing in on all sides. He flew beyond the confines of the pattern. She pulled him round.

  They liked to gain height using spirals, so why not land the same way? It would have to be a very tight spiral.

  She pulled the right rein hard in and leaned her weight over to the right, unbalancing Looesa. He turned into it but she kept it tight and he descended, almost turning on his right wingtip. Kantees hoped Shingul was following.

  Below her Yenteel was kneeling on the unmarked dirt just inside the inner circle of the pattern, with his hands palms-down by the final segment he had drawn. She could not imagine how much pain his injured arm must be in. Sheesha and Jintan were standing and snapping aggressively at the incoming figures while Daybian was being jerked between both their reins, held one in each hand, as he kept them from leaving the pattern.

  The glow intensified suddenly and a wall of blue erupted around them. Looesa’s wing caught on it. He lost all forward motion and fell the remaining distance to crash down in front of Sheesha’s head. Another pile of feathers landed directly on top of Daybian.

  All noise from outside ceased but there were plenty of angry squawks and shouts from the animals and humans inside. Kantees slipped off Looesa’s back onto the hard earth facing the wall of blue light. She could see through it, as if it were blue glass, but it did not distort what was beyond.

  The creatures had stopped a short distance away.

  Then, worried, she got to her feet and went across to where Yenteel knelt. She went down beside him. There was a look of concentration on his face.

  “It’s working, Yenteel.”

  He said nothing.

  “Will it hold?”

  Again he said nothing, almost as if he did not hear her. She reached out and put her hand on his bare forearm. Instantly she felt her essence draining, just as it had done before when he had healed himself.

  They could not survive the night if he had to keep it going. Surely he had said that it would use the power from the ley-circle? But as she thought about it, he had not said that. Did he expect her to be able to provide magic?

  She called out to Sheesha and almost at the same moment his head came down beside her. She put her other hand on his neck and felt his power. So much of it. Like a bottomless well. And she was the conduit. It flowed through her into Yenteel.

  The look of desperation on Yenteel’s face relaxed and the blue light increased in strength. For a moment she felt a greater power even than Sheesha. Then Yenteel pulled his hands from the wall of blue.

  She gasped in fear that it would collapse. But it stayed.

  And then Sheesha was just Sheesha. She let go of Yenteel’s arm and he put his other back in its sling. The creatures beyond the wall did not seem to want to come too close. Perhaps there was just too much light for them here.

  She reached out and touched the blue wall. It was neither hot nor cold and she could not see what she was pressing her finger against. The surface was unyielding but perfectly smooth.

  “We did it,” she said and looked round. They were all here, all the people and all the ziri. “Thank you, Yenteel.”

  He grinned as he touched the wall himself and ran his fingers from side to side across its surface.

  “I’ve never done one this big,” he said as if he was in awe. “I wasn’t even sure it would draw magic from the ley-circle itself.”

  “You knew what to do,” she said. “If it wasn’t for you, we would be dead.”

  “And me,” said Daybian.

  “And Gally,” said Gally.

  Sheesha grunted.

  Twenty

  When dawn crawled into the sky the creatures seem to melt away with it. Although it was easy to see them crawling across the upper branches of the trees and out into the darkness beyond.

  The ziri had slept—and snored—just as Gally, Yenteel, and Daybian had.

  But Kantees only dozed. She would drift off and then come awake as the thought of the horde beyond the insubstantial wall crept into her dreams. As the night wore on it became hot and stuffy in their protected space, as if the air itself were turning stale. That stopped her sleeping too. There had been a time when she had been locked in a box with no air. It was not something she recalled with any clarity but it came into her nightmares.

  The coming of daylight was a relief even if she felt so tired she could drop off again. And the air was such she hardly felt as if she could breathe.

  The ward itself seemed as strong as ever and it went up until it blurred into the sky. If she had not got Looesa and Shingul inside it when she did, they would have been trapped outside, and forced to find somewhere t
o spend the night in that forest.

  She wondered about the manlike things. Were they people who had been distorted by the power of the feeding? She was curious but it was a mystery she was happy to leave unsolved.

  One of the ziri shat and the stench filled the space.

  “Yenteel,” she said, shaking him. “Do you know how to stop it? We need to get out, we need fresh air.”

  It took longer than she expected for him to wake up. At first, he did not seem to remember where he was.

  Finally she got him to the wall.

  “Do what you have to do,” she said. Behind her the ziri were waking and stretching their necks so their heads were up high. That seemed to rouse them. They dipped their heads but every now and then would stretch up to breathe.

  Yenteel had his hands against the wall but nothing was happening.

  “Yenteel!”

  She knew she was panicking but her lungs weren’t taking in air. Daybian was still lying on the ground, not having stirred despite all the activity.

  “It should stop,” panted Yenteel. “I put my sigil into the pattern.”

  “What are you saying?” said Kantees and realised she was clenching and relaxing her hands over and over. The panic made her icy inside even though she was sweating.

  “I can’t stop it.”

  Kantees looked over at Daybian’s body. He must have succumbed already. Gally was sitting up but looked confused. Sheesha was stretching up and breathing deeply. Whatever was in the air must be down here and not up there. If they had something to make the air move, it might help.

  “Sheesha!” she called and when he looked at her, she flapped her arms. It must have looked ridiculous. Yenteel probably thought she had lost her mind.

  “Sheesha!” she called again, more insistently. And beat her arms. He looked at her with an infuriating lack of understanding. The other ziri looked too. It was Shingul who stood up on her back legs and, despite the lack of space beat her wings. A breeze of fresher air wafted down to Kantees and with it her panic faded.

  “Yes! Shingul, that’s right!” Like a maniac Kantees flapped her arms harder and faster. Shingul copied her and air began to circulate. As if he was not to be outdone by some female, Sheesha did the same. Soon the space inside the walls was filled with beating wings and the air freshened noticeably. Kantees’ tiredness left her and Gally started to laugh. Yenteel seemed to pull himself together and tried the wall again.

  This time it flickered but still did not fall.

  He shook his head. “I don’t have the strength to reach the pattern.”

  On the floor, Daybian coughed and breathed deeply. Kantees knew this was temporary; eventually even this new air would be used up.

  “Have you ever heard of something like this before?” she said.

  “Never but I did not study in the halls of the patterners.”

  Of course not, he was Kadralin. If only she had been willing to stretch Sheesha instead of waiting. If only she had not been persuaded by the assurances of a man who knew nothing of the place they were in. If only she had trusted her own judgement. And now they would be killed by their own protection.

  It was the milk of the Mother itself. It was not evil but so powerful it could destroy without intention.

  Daybian was standing now and seemed to have understood their predicament. He pulled out his sword and struck the wall. It did nothing except hurt his hand, but he did it again anyway. And again. Kantees ducked beneath Shingul’s beating wings and laid her hand on his.

  “Stop.”

  She could see the depth of fear in his eyes. She looked at the flat blade of the sword and the end, blunted and scratched from its use yesterday as a writing tool.

  She grabbed Daybian by the wrist. “Come with me.”

  She dragged him across the circle to Yenteel. “Can you cast the same ward on the sword?”

  Yenteel frowned. “I don’t …”

  “This pattern.” She gestured around them. “Can you put it on the sword and do whatever you do to trigger it?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “Do it,” she said. “Now.”

  “Charcoal will not write on steel.”

  She hesitated for only a moment and then went to Yenteel’s bag and fetched his eating bowl, then took out her knife. Kneeling beside the bowl, and after only a moment’s contemplation of the pain to come, she sliced the blade across her palm. Both the men made a noise of surprise, and then Daybian knelt beside her.

  As her blood dripped into the bowl, he cut himself too.

  Then Yenteel joined them and his blood flowed, too. After he judged they had enough, Yenteel crumbled one of his charcoal sticks into the pot and stirred it up with the knife, pummelling the lumps as he found them. The mixture thickened. Using the knife as his stylus, Yenteel inscribed the pattern around and along the sword blade.

  The air was getting hotter again, and the ziri had given up beating their wings. They were all tired.

  The process of inscription did not take very long and when Yenteel took hold of the sword hilt, Kantees put her hand on his. “Activate the ward and perhaps we can push the sword into the wall. Then you can do what you need to stop it.”

  Yenteel did not argue. Moments later a blue fire licked across the length of the blade. This time, it was powered by only the strength of Yenteel himself.

  Together they pressed the point against the wall but still it did not want to move.

  “This is my sword,” said Daybian and added his hand to theirs. He pushed and the steel slid into the blue.

  Moments later the wall evaporated as if it had never been, and they fell forwards across the pattern inscribed into the dusty ground.

  The fresh air revived them and even though no one said anything, Kantees knew they all wanted to be away from this place. After some water and the last of the meat, having ensured the zirichasa were properly buckled for the journey, they took to the skies, heading west again where clouds were piling up from their grey undersides to the brilliant white tops.

  Kantees was not happy. She had nearly killed them all twice over. First, with the bad decision about staying at the ley-circle, and then nearly suffocating them with the pattern she helped Yenteel create. One side of her said she could not have known that either choice was a bad one. But that was the point: She had no idea. How could she make any decisions if she did not know all the facts?

  The forest streamed below them. An unending carpet of green. Then the sky filled with the clouds and a strong wind buffeted the ziri. They were being knocked backwards and forwards, and occasionally they would fall. As if the air was gone from under the wings.

  And finally, to add insult to injury, the rain came. Not a drizzle but a downpour that soaked her through in a moment. Sheesha slowed down. Kantees knew from experience that the water just rolled off the ziris’ feathers, but it could not be easy flying through this. The air grew cold and she shivered.

  The intensity of the rain increased and the world became a cocoon of grey around them. She could see neither the clouds above nor the forest below, nor anything to either side. She urged Sheesha to descend and he obeyed. A glance behind showed the others following in formation. Peering through the rain, she got the idea that Jintan was labouring. He was the oldest, after all. Would he give up or would he keep flying until his strength gave out and he simply fell from the sky?

  She could not allow that to happen.

  She pushed Sheesha into a sharper dive. They had been flying at the height the zirichasa seemed to like, which meant they were not too far from the ground—but high enough that a fall would be deadly. Still, it would not do to come down so fast that they ran into something.

  She eased Sheesha back a little so the dive was less steep. The buffeting from the wind decreased as they came down.

  The rain was a constant hiss in her ears but now she thought she heard something else: a rhythmic roar, not a perfect regular pattern, but one that came and went. There was a shout from Yente
el. She could not make out the words but instinctively she pulled up Sheesha’s head.

  The roar seemed to be behind them now.

  Below them, she could see the darker grey she took for the top of the trees. And the speed with which it was moving surprised her. From the feel of the wind—and rain—on her face she had assumed they were travelling quite slowly, but the ground was rushing past.

  “Too far!”

  That’s what Yenteel’s new shout sound like. Too far? What did that mean?

  She looked over her shoulder at him. He was making a big gesture with his good arm, as if he wanted her to turn round. She would have to find somewhere to land so they could talk. Had he seen such a place back there?

  Pulling back on the reins again, she tried to slow Sheesha even more but he did not respond. Instead he just descended.

  The tops of the trees looked wrong as they grew closer. They did not resolve into leaves and branches. The grey was a moving mass of water. The sea! And barely a ziri’s wingspan below them. Fear gripped her again. The Isle of Esternes bordered a sea that was so huge they might travel for days across it before encountering an island or any other land.

  Yenteel had known. The sound she had heard must have been waves crashing onto the shore. The good news was that it meant they had not travelled far beyond the coastline, but she could see nothing. How could she be sure they were heading in the right direction?

  The waves—more correctly, the swell—were running in towards the land. That was why she thought their speed was higher than it was. Sheesha had refused to go any slower because he would have fallen out of the sky if he had. But that meant they could follow the swell back to land. It might not be the most direct line but it should work.

  She pulled Sheesha up until they were at a more comfortable height and started the turn. Not too abrupt, because the others had to follow. Yenteel had ceased to shout at her which was a relief. Once Sheesha was moving with the swell beneath, she let him have his head and he made strong strokes for the shore.

  The rain continued to pour down and it was still impossible to see anything ahead. Yenteel had said the whole coastline was cliffs, which meant they would either have to climb fast or land on the beach. As long as she was prepared, that would be fine.