The Shadowed Throne

by K J Taylor

  Inside the tower, away from the hissing griffins, Kullervo felt even less safe. The walls seemed to press in on him; he felt like he was in a prison whose door had been locked behind him. Down here, he wouldn’t be able to fly away, or to help Senneck. He tried not to think of what they might be doing to her. And ahead was Saeddryn—and he could only guess what she might do when she read Laela’s message.

  Kullervo walked slowly, head low, and tried his best to be brave.

  “Turn here,” Aenae rumbled behind him.

  Kullervo obeyed, entering a large, round room. The two griffins who had come with Aenae used the extra space to close in on him, keeping close and ready to strike if he moved. Aenae glared a warning at them and left.

  Kullervo sat on his haunches and waited. He didn’t even dare groom himself. The two griffins reeked of aggression.

  “Deformed weakling,” one sneered.

  “What pathetic creatures they send to us,” the other said to his companion. “An ugly runt and a dried-up old hen. Humanless outcasts must have no other use.”

  “Perhaps that hatchling at Malvern hoped we would dispose of them for her,” the first griffin suggested.

  Or perhaps we’ll be the ones to dispose of you, Kullervo thought to make himself feel braver.

  Aenae returned. With him was a woman. She was past middle age, lined and greying, and one of her eyes was covered by a round leather patch. Even though Kullervo had never seen her before, he recognised her.

  “Saeddryn.”

  The old woman regarded him, from her griffin’s side. “Who are ye?”

  “Kullervo.”

  “Speak respectfully to my human,” Aenae snapped.

  “I’m Kullervo,” said Kullervo, ignoring him. He stood up. “Queen Laela and Oeka sent me. I have a message for you.”

  Saeddryn looked sharply at him. “Aenae says ye won’t let anyone but me see it.”

  “That’s right. I was given detailed instructions. Only you can read the message. It’s here, on my back, if you can remove it.”

  “That so?” said Saeddryn, instantly suspicious.

  “Do not worry,” Aenae interrupted. “I will help.” He came forward, and shoved Kullervo onto his belly. One of the two griffin guards held his hindquarters, and the other stood on one of his wings while Aenae held his head. Kullervo didn’t resist. He lay as passively as he could and waited.

  Saeddryn came, and, after some fumbling, she cut the straps and took the message-holder. Aenae let Kullervo up once she was at a safe distance, and all four griffins watched her open the tube and unroll the scroll.

  She read it, expressionless.

  “What does the hatchling’s human say?” Aenae asked.

  Saeddryn rolled the scroll up. “Surrender.”

  “Ksha!” Aenae tossed his head. “They think we would do that! They will die for their idiocy.”

  Without even thinking about it, Kullervo made a move forward. Aenae blocked him at once, but he looked past him, to Saeddryn. “Please,” he said. “Consider it. Your family will be safe. Everyone will be safe. No-one would have to die. Laela keeps her word. She’s a good person.”

  Saeddryn’s eye narrowed. “What griffin talks like that? Who are ye?”

  “I was raised by humans,” said Kullervo, which at least was true. “Listen to me, please. Laela doesn’t want war. She doesn’t want to kill anyone. She only wants peace for Tara and for her family. Please, see reason. You fought to make this Kingdom. Why let it be torn apart again?”

  Saeddryn’s face was stone. “This Kingdom was made by Taranisäiis, and it’s our duty and our right to rule it.”

  “Yes, exactly,” said Kullervo.

  “So ye see my point,” said Saeddryn. “The half-breed is not a Taranisäii.” She tore the scroll into pieces and threw the remains onto the floor. “Aenae—I think this one can go back to Malvern with our reply.”

  “A good idea,” the big griffin said. He looked at Kullervo. “Perhaps his companion can help to carry him. I do not think the hatchling and her half-breed will need to see all of him to know our answer. Send back his ugly head.”

  Saeddryn hesitated—then nodded. “They’ve seen too much. Kill them both.”

  Kullervo flattened himself to the floor as Aenae and the two griffins closed in on him. “No! Please, don’t! I haven’t done anything wrong!”

  Aenae’s talons came for him, but Kullervo’s small size saved him again. He ducked under the bigger griffin and ran, bolting blindly for the door. Too slow. The two griffins came up behind him, tearing at his hindquarters. He leapt, and fell hard onto his belly, rolling over to thrust his talons at his attackers.

  The two griffins had backed off slightly to avoid his flailing tail, and he took advantage of it and used his momentum to roll forward, straight at them. His talons hooked into a flesh, making deep gashes. He pulled himself forward, dragging at the screeching griffin’s skin, and aimed his beak for the throat.

  He had forgotten Aenae. The huge griffin darted in, and a kick sent Kullervo tumbling into a wall.

  Pain juddered in his bones. But he was not done yet. He reared up, rising onto his hind legs. Wings open wide for balance, he screamed. “Then damn you! Damn you all!”

  The three griffins ran at him. This time, Kullervo didn’t try to fight back. He turned toward them, holding out his forelegs to embrace his end.

  Something cracked inside him. No, he thought. Not now. Not now!

  Aenae and his two friends stopped in bewilderment, as Kullervo’s feathers fell like autumn leaves. Sickening noises came from inside him, and his eyes rolled back into his head.

  Saeddryn, sheltering behind a row of benches, pulled a horrified face. “What the—?”

  Aenae had backed off, tail swishing. “Do not touch him! This is not natural!”

  The other two griffins didn’t need any warnings. They moved away, hissing, as Kullervo dropped onto his side and began to convulse.

  Kullervo was unaware of them, or anything else. The pain had closed its jaws around him again, and there was nothing he could do. This time, he didn’t struggle to make himself stay awake.

  19

  Death Comes

  Outside, the wind had grown icy and taken on a tang of ice. Winter wasn’t over yet, and Senneck guessed that snow was on its way.

  She might have put on a passive performance while Kullervo was being led away, but she had no intention of staying where she was, especially if it might snow and make flying more difficult, if not impossible.

  So she waited. She waited until the griffins around her grew bored and began to drift away, sensing the excitement was over. She lay on her belly and did nothing, knowing how easily griffins lost interest in something that didn’t move. Sure enough, more of them left, taking off to resume their endless circling or returning to their nests. A few still stayed on the tower-top, some dozing in the sun, but others walked around her, keeping watch.

  Soon, they, too, grew bored. But they began to look for ways to amuse themselves.

  “Why have you not chosen a human?” one asked. “A magnificent young female like you would have only the finest, surely. A dung-scrubber, perhaps, or a cripple?”

  Senneck ignored the insults.

  “Mate with me!” one of the males said. “I must have you! You are so sleek and beautiful, I am hot in my loins!”

  “You shall not have her!” another male mock-hissed. “She is mine!”

  “Oh, so you shall fight me for her?” the first one said. “Then so be it!”

  The two males reared up and batted at each other, dancing about like kittens.

  Senneck yawned widely and looked away. Young fools, hardly more than chicks. They thought they were invincible because they still had their strength. Probably they both had humans as well, or thought they were above choosing them.
/>   One of them hopped closer to her. “Come!” he said. “I have fought for you and won! Let us mate!”

  Senneck stood up. “I do not mate with chicks,” she said.

  He lost his playfulness at once. “I am no chick! I am fifteen summers old!”

  “And I am too old to listen to your stupidity,” she said, and smashed her talons into his face. He fell, and while the others reacted angrily Senneck took off. She flew hard, thrusting herself straight upward, and before they could reach her, she rolled, turned, and flew away as fast as she could.

  More than a dozen griffins chased her. But even in her old age, Senneck was fast, and she had a head start. She flew out of Warwick, dodging the spears that were launched at her, and didn’t stop until her pursuers gave up and went back. When she felt safe enough she came in to land by the riverbank, not far from where she and Kullervo had camped the previous night. She waited there a while before she crept back toward Warwick.

  She found a spot not too far from the walls and hid herself behind a heap of rubbish that had been dumped outside. From here, she had a good view of anyone coming or going.

  She lay down to rest.

  There had been very little point in staying in Warwick. Clearly, Kullervo would only leave if the traitors allowed him to. Under such close watch, Senneck would have had no chance of doing anything. Freed, she would be far more useful. All she had to do was wait, and when she saw him flying out of Warwick, she could rejoin him. Or, if need be, cover his escape.

  If he ever did escape.

  Kullervo came out of his stupor and found himself surrounded by bright light. The ground beneath him felt cold and rough, and there was no fur to shield him from it. His wings flopped nakedly at his sides.

  Human.

  He struggled to get up and found his vestigial talons scraping on stone. His palms were filthy. Pain wrapped around his wrists, weighing his arms down, and he heard a clinking when he moved.

  Kullervo realised that he was in chains. Feeling weirdly calm, he kept his eyes open until they focused and took in the solid walls around him. There were iron lamps up near the ceiling, plenty of them, casting harsh yellow light on his bare body.

  “Awake?”

  Kullervo looked up to see a face looking through the bars. Human, female. He said nothing.

  “There’s a blanket for you,” the voice said. “Wrap yerself up. I’ll have some clothes brought.”

  Kullervo spotted it and dragged his chains toward it. Pulling himself into a sitting position with the blanket over his shoulders, he looked at the woman. “Who are you? Why am I here?”

  The woman blinked. “By the Night God, you do know how to speak.”

  “Your name,” Kullervo repeated.

  “I’m Lady Morvudd. They tell me your name is Kullervo, yes?”

  “Yes.” Kullervo tugged pointlessly at the shackles on his wrists. “Why am I here? Why have you chained me?”

  “What are you?” Morvudd asked.

  “Take these chains off me,” said Kullervo.

  “Answer me,” she said sharply. “What are you? Man, or griffin?”

  “Both. Let me go!”

  “You’re going nowhere, whatever you are,” Morvudd said. “Whether you’re man or griffin, you’re on the half-breed’s side, and that makes you an enemy. We might have killed you already, but after what you did, Lady Saeddryn decided to keep you a while. See what you had to say. As for me, I came to see you out of interest. I’ve never seen anything like you in all my life.”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” said Kullervo. Anger began to bubble inside him, and he wrenched the chains. They were looped through a metal ring in the wall and wouldn’t budge. “Let me go! I came here on a peaceful mission, just to carry a message. I’m not a fighter, I—”

  “But the half-breed trusted you enough to send you here,” said Morvudd. “And from what I hear, you talked about her like you knew her well. We’re interested to hear more.”

  Kullervo tried to relax. “Like what?”

  “Like what she’s planning. Like how many griffiners are helping her. Like whether the unpartnered are on her side or ours. Like whether she’s going to come here to attack, or if she’ll lead the army somewhere else.”

  “I don’t know!” Kullervo yelled. “I don’t know anything, I’m just a messenger!”

  “Makes no difference to me.” Morvudd shrugged. “It’s not my business to find out. I just want to know about you. Where’d you come from? Are you a griffin that changes shape or something else?”

  Kullervo opened his mouth wide and hissed at her.

  She took a step back from the door. “All right, then.” She rubbed her forehead, evidently embarrassed. “I’ll leave you. Most likely they’ll find out those answers anyway.” She turned away, throwing one last remark over her shoulder. “My advice is to give in quickly. Save yourself some pain.”

  Left alone, Kullervo pulled at the chains again. The walls around him seemed to press inward, closing like the jaws of a trap. He felt about to suffocate.

  Panic thickened the air. Shedding the blanket, he lunged forward toward the door. The chains pulled him up short. Scrabbling at the floor, digging his talons in until they broke, he screamed. “Let me out! Let me out! Don’t leave me here, please, please let me out, I have to get out! Please!”

  Nobody came, and the chains would not give. But Kullervo fought them anyway.

  Fought them until his wrists bled.

  Another day in Malvern. Four days since Kullervo and Senneck’s departure, and another day of sick uncertainty and loneliness for Laela.

  Not that she was truly alone. Oeka was still there. Only now she was . . . different.

  The small griffin’s condition, if it could be called that, had only grown worse. Her eyes had gone from merely glassy to physically deteriorating; little by little, their surfaces lost their smoothness, becoming nubbly and lustreless. Soon afterward, the colour faded as well, and what had been deep green and jet-black whitened and turned cloudy. Oeka didn’t eat any more, or sleep, or speak. Laela was certain that she had lost her sense of hearing, too, but it wasn’t easy to tell. The small griffin seemed able to sense more or less everything around her, one way or another. If she didn’t hear you speak she would reach into your mind and sense what you were saying. If she couldn’t speak, she would pass her words to you through her own mind. As for the lack of food and sleep, neither one seemed to have much effect on her.

  Laela didn’t want to talk to her partner any more. There was no point. Oeka knew what she was thinking, often before she herself knew. There was nothing you could say to her that she didn’t already know. She must already have known that Laela couldn’t bear the sight of her any more, but she never said anything. Maybe she had changed almost beyond recognition, but she still had no interest or care for her partner’s feelings.

  The only people Laela had now were Iorwerth and Inva. Iorwerth had his own duties to worry about, but at least with Inva, there was an excuse to talk to her.

  Now that she had been chosen, Laela’s attendant had been forced to start learning things even she hadn’t known. In the end, Laela had decided to teach her.

  Today, they were practising with weapons.

  Laela had a wooden sickle in her hand, and she darted around Inva with it, fending her off. The secret with sickle fighting was to use the curving blade to hook your opponent’s own sickle out of her grip, but it was much harder than it looked. Inva was faster than she looked.

  Laela dodged her arm and aimed a blow for Inva’s armpit. Done properly, in a real fight, it could slice through an enemy’s tendon and cripple her arm. Inva turned fast, bringing her own sickle around in an arc, and hit Laela in the back of the head with the blunted point.

  “Ow!”

  Immediately, Inva dropped her sickle and folded her hands together. “M
y apologies, my lady.”

  Rubbing her head, Laela pushed the sickle toward her with her boot. “Knock it off and pick that up. We ain’t playin’ masters and slaves today.”

  Inva obeyed. “My apologies—”

  “Shut up an’ hit me.” Laela meant to perform a quick blocking manoeuvre immediately after saying this, but Inva took her at her word and made a powerful, slashing blow across her throat.

  “Damn!” By now thoroughly aggravated, Laela shoved forward. Not for the first time, she forgot her father’s lessons and remembered what she had been taught by another father long ago. Someone tries t’start somethin’, don’t take it. Thump the bastard.

  Laela grabbed Inva by the elbow, pulling the sickle away, and head-butted her full in the face.

  Inva yelped and fell onto her backside. She clutched at her nose as it started to bleed.

  “Shit!” Laela hurried to help her up. “Gods damn it, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.”

  Inva got up and dusted herself down, very dignified. “Do not apologise, my lady. You defeated me.”

  “Yeah, by cheatin’.”

  “There is no cheating in a fight,” said Inva. “It is not a contest. You win, or you die.”

  Laela grinned for the first time in days. “That’s what ole Bran always said.”

  “He did?”

  “Actually, he said, ‘Get the bastards before they get you,’ but it was the same thing.”

  And he was right, Oeka’s icy whisper broke in. All is fair in war.

  “Unfair, yeh mean,” said Laela, losing her grin.

  Laela, I have sensed Senneck returning. She is not far.

  “An’ Kullervo?”

  I cannot sense him.

  “Doesn’t mean he ain’t there. Where’s Senneck?”

  Flying into the city. I will instruct her to come to you when she is close enough.

  Inva had felt Oeka’s mental speech. She had an odd, rigid look on her face. “I will go to find Skarok,” she said, referring to her own partner. Skarok normally kept close to his partner’s side, but if Oeka was about, he would disappear. Not one griffin in the Eyrie was prepared to go near her any more.