by Wendy Knight
“Yes, they are,” Ashra said.
“Will you quit that? Can you hear everything I’m thinking?” Scout exploded, out loud.
“Yeah. Will you get that under control? It’s kind of embarrassing.” Even across the valley, Scout could swear Ashra’s eyes landed on Trey.
“I’ll work on it,” she muttered, feeling her neck and face flush.
“In answer to your question, Trey doesn’t talk a lot. So no, we can’t do it. Yet,” Torz said mildly.
“Let’s focus, shall we? The soul stealers will attack soon. Best if we’re ready.” Havik stomped his foot once, gaining their attention.
“Right. Riders, mount up.” Iros made shooing motions with his hands. “Uh, Kylin. You mentioned you had no desire to fight. Is that still true?” They all turned to stare at her.
She put her hands on her hips, “Yes it’s still true. I’m a fashion designer! I have a future! I can’t go running off into some battle with monsters that might kill me.”
Scout shook her head and jogged across the soft valley floor to Ashra’s side. “Let me up,” she said.
The fiery stairs appeared at her feet and she leaped up them and onto Ashra’s back. “Why don’t they burn me?”
“Because it isn’t that kind of fire. It doesn’t burn anything. Except soul stealers.”
“But you just lit the grass on fire.” Scout frowned, motioning toward the charred circle outside her hut.
Ashra heaved a giant sigh, as if Scout’s questions were beyond the realm of intelligence. “Different kind of fire. So, she’s a little ray of sunshine, isn’t she?” Ashra tossed her head in Kylin’s direction.
“Oh yeah. She loves me to pieces, too.”
“Clearly.”
“Scout, you’ll eventually have to learn to climb on without the aid of stairs,” Iros called as Havik loped easily toward them, Torz and Trey right behind.
“So beautiful,” Scout murmured without meaning to. Watching the gigantic unicorns move was awe-inspiring. Again Scout was reminded of the big Clydesdales she had loved to watch at the fair. The unicorns were built similarly, except bigger, and they were all black. Silky hair covered the sharp tips of their hooves, and when they weren’t flaming, their manes and tails looked like very fine hair and less like the mists they actually were.
“I think they prefer handsome,” Ashra said. “How are your jumping skills?” Havik and Torz slowed to a stop a few feet away.
With a sigh, Scout slid off her back, landing with a thud on the ground. Pain shot through her back but not enough that she wanted to curl up and die. “Really, you’re all going to sit here and watch me try to jump onto the back of a horse that’s higher than my hands can even reach?”
“Unicorn. Unicorn, human.”
“Sounds like fun.” Trey winked and she scowled at him, but it lacked the vehemence she should have put behind it. Spending so much time with him made it harder and harder to remember she hated him — to remember what he’d done.
She backed up several paces, only tripping once on a gnarled tree root, and jogged toward Ashra, getting within a foot before she jumped. Her hands hit Ashra’s back, but she didn’t come even close to making it up.
“How about you put a little effort into it?” Ashra asked dryly.
Scout growled under her breath and backed up again, further this time, feeling somewhat like a new bug specimen under observation. “I’m like a foot shorter than you two. Give me a break, would ya?” This time she sprinted and leaped as high as she could. Her arms came around Ashra’s back, but she couldn’t get a grip and fell to the ground, landing hard on her tailbone. She screeched in pain, rolling onto her side.
“Havik!” Iros called and Havik jumped forward, landing hard next to Scout. She felt the warmth from his horn but couldn’t see it; eyes squinched shut as they were. But the pain lessened considerably, until she could take a breath without extreme agony.
“Okay, we’ll just make do with the stairs for now.” Iros nodded as Scout pushed herself to her feet.
“No.” She backed up again, running harder. It hurt to jump, but she put everything she had into it. When she fell this time, she twisted, making sure to keep her feet under her so it didn’t hurt so much when she landed. And then she backed up and did it again. And again. And again.
Havik only had to heal her twice more.
“My back hurts. You’re pulling off all the hair,” Ashra complained when Scout fell for the eight hundredth time, at least. “Maybe you could run up my wing?”
“Your wing will break. I’m not that light,” Scout gasped, rubbing her back.
“Do you need me to heal you again?” Havik asked.
Several minutes ago Trey had slid off Torz’s back and stood in the shade a few feet from Scout. “Come here.” He motioned her over and she came, reluctantly. Turning her away from him, he dug his palms into her back where it hurt the most.
She moaned, half in pain, half in extreme gratefulness, letting her eyes slide shut. When she opened them, Kylin was storming across the valley, shoeless so she wasn’t sinking and wobbling, and angry. Scout yelped and jumped away from Trey.
“What is going on here? You’re supposed to be training!” she screeched. Ashra and Scout flinched simultaneously.
“I am training. For the high jump, apparently,” Scout said.
“Knock it off, Kylin. Her back hurts.”
“Right. Like I believe that.”
Scout turned away from her, “Havik, how can you heal me if you are an Irwarro and not a Leerha?”
“Irwarros, have a touch of all the lineages. We can seek, we can heal, we can bring peace, we can even escort to heaven if we need. But it’s just a touch, not the entire extent of power,” Havik explained. “So I can lessen the pain, but I can’t take it away completely.”
Scout nodded, backing up to try again, but Iros grabbed her arm, wrapping his fingers around her wrist lightly. “Enough, Scout. We’ll find another way.”
She glanced at Ashra and then down at the ground, nodding.
“She’s never been a quitter,” Trey mumbled, and Scout jerked her head up, scanning his face. He looked like he wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said it out loud.
Kylin’s face went red and she whirled on him, crossing her arms over her chest. “What—”
Trey cut her off. “I’ve known her for a long time, Kylin.”
“Let’s move on.” Iros rubbed his hands together briskly, relishing whatever came next. His gleefulness made Scout just a tad nervous. “Scout, you said you want a belt like mine? Learn to use your scepter and I’ll make you one. Not guaranteeing the sparkles though.”
Scout grinned. “I suppose that will do. So there’s more to it than pointing and shooting?”
Trey picked his up from where it lay at his feet. Scout’s lay on the other side of Ashra. The big unicorn nudged her wing under it and flipped it through the air, into Scout’s hands.
“Show-off,” Torz muttered.
Iros chuckled. “There is more than pointing and shooting, Scout. You control it with your mind as much as with your hands, much like the way unicorns talk.”
Trey looked at the staff in his hands dubiously. “You want me to talk to it?”
Scout studied hers, since she hadn’t been able to when Ashra had created it, and she hadn’t seen it since. It was long, delicate. It looked like it was created out of onyx, but twisted like Ashra’s horn. “It is my horn, dummy.” Ashra sighed. Scout smirked but didn’t look up. The ends reached around a glowing fireball, if fire solidified itself into an orb. Absolutely beautiful.
Trey’s was completely different — thicker, heavier, but the same black metal and shining fireball orb. And Iros’ was different still. They were each unique.
“Is every one Ashra creates the same? For every one of her riders?” Scout asked.
Iros’ grin had a touch of pride, “Very good, Scout — noticing the difference. No, they’re different because they’re made for the ride
r, not for the unicorn. Yours is beautiful and looks delicate, but it’s unbreakable and immensely powerful.”
Scout flushed, holding her scepter tight to her chest. This thing was going to help her get Lil Bit back. “Teach me how to use it.” She pointed it at a tree and told it to shoot, but it did nothing. The orb swirled colorfully, but there were no flames, no explosions. She frowned, disappointed. “It worked yesterday.”
“Scepters don’t work unless you’re riding,” Havik said, motioning to Ashra with his head. The fiery stairs appeared and Scout sighed, trudging up them in defeat. Trey and Iros both leaped easily onto the backs of their unicorns.
“Rub it in, why don’t you,” Scout muttered under her breath.
“It’s not your fault you’re small and wimpy,” Ashra said. Havik chuffed, trying unsuccessfully to turn it into a cough. Scout glowered at him before she turned her scepter toward a tree, willing it to shoot. Bright flames leaped from the orb, circling the tree until it burst into flames.
“Nice, Princess. Way to start Paradesos on fire,” Ashra sighed. Her tail flicked, the mist spreading until it smothered the fire in shadows. When the mist cleared, the fire was gone.
“Cool,” Trey said.
Kylin dusted off a thick tree root rising out of the ground, grimacing at the moss before she sat, watching them expectantly. One eyebrow quirked and Scout could practically hear her saying, Here’s your chance. Impress me.
“There are different forms of attack. If you’ve bonded, as Trey and Torz have, they can feel what the other is going to attack with. Smothering, as Ashra just showed us when she put out Scout’s fire, is one form.” Iros pointed his scepter at the same poor tree, and thick flames burst from its tip. Havik’s horn lit up as well, the magic joining with Iros’ before hitting the tree and exploding it on impact. “That’s another.”
“Do we always have to attack the same thing? Yesterday Ashra and I were hitting different targets.” Scout tried not to think about the soul stealers. They distracted her, made her afraid. She didn’t want to be afraid. She wanted to feel big and tough and invincible.
“No, but together you are much more powerful. You could kill five soul stealers in the time it would take you to kill one on your own,” Iros said.
“He’s implying we should work together. Teamwork, and all that,” Ashra said dryly. Scout tried not to giggle.
“Ashra, you aren’t helping.” Iros raised an eyebrow at them, but one side of his mouth quirked, just a bit. “There are basically five different ways to kill a soul stealer.”
“Do any of them involve tackling it and beating it into the ground? I would like to do that one.” Trey raised his hand like they were in class.
Iros grinned. “A boy after my own heart. Unfortunately, no. You can’t touch them, but they can touch you.” He sent an uneasy glance at Ashra and Scout, and although her wounds had healed, Scout still felt phantom claws ripping her soul away.
“They all have big, complicated names. But we’ll give you the simple version.” Havik flicked an ear toward Scout and Trey, inclining his head. His black hair shimmered like onyx caught in the sun. Scout wondered how offended Havik would be if she petted him like a pony.
“Thanks. Short and simple works well for me,” Trey quipped. Iros chuckled. Scout got the impression that Iros liked to laugh, despite the pain that never left his eyes.
“Shall we do this in the air, then?” Iros leaned over, patting Havik’s neck.
Well sure. Iros gets the unicorn that doesn’t try to bite him if he pets him. I get the one that would snap off my fingers.
“Why not.” Havik unfolded his huge wings, stretching them against the light breeze. They burst into flames and he pumped them down, launching himself into the air.
“Are the flames really necessary?” Scout asked, but too late. Ashra’s wings exploded into fiery brilliance and she shot after Havik, Torz right behind her.
From Scout’s vantage point a hundred feet in the air, Kylin didn’t look starving or angry. She just looked teeny tiny. Scout almost waved before she remembered that Kylin would likely shoot her with death-stares if she even attempted it.
“So,” Iros yelled to get their attention, “the first one you’ve got the hang of. We’ll call it smothering, for your benefit.” He winked at Scout. She grinned. “Incidentally, soul stealers also have another long, hard-to-pronounce name. But soul stealers is fitting. Lil Bit named them well.”
“The flames will seek the soul stealers. If they’re near, you don’t even have to aim. Just will your scepter to fight, and it will respond.” Havik’s big wings kept him in the air easily. They beat almost lazily against the clouds.
“But some tactics work better in different situations. Smothering can take out several soul stealers at once, if you’re bonded. Or even whatever the weird thing is Ashra and Scout have going on.” Iros waved his hand in their general direction with a grimace.
Scout almost leaned forward to pat Ashra’s neck but again thought better of it at the last second. Ashra didn’t really seem to be the pat-my-neck type of unicorn.
“Another is just the general blast of magical unicorn fire, which hits whatever’s in its path. Like this.” Iros swung his scepter around and pointed at empty air. A flat sheet of colorful fire shot out, widening like a triangle the further away from him it got.
“Should we spread out so we don’t accidentally blast each other?” Trey frowned, looking from his scepter to Scout and Ashra, who flew only a few wingspans from him.
“Our own magic can’t be used against us,” Torz said.
For some inexplicable reason, his words made Scout wonder how, exactly, Iros’ brother had taken his unicorn’s horn, if not by magic. It wasn’t something she was going to ask, though, but just the thought brought up gruesome images that were bound to give her nightmares. Add it to the list, she thought.
Ashra tucked her wings, dropping several feet before she let them out again, and their free fall turned into a gentle glide. “What was that?” Scout screeched.
“I was bored.”
“Don’t. Do. That. Again.”
Above them, Torz was antsy too, dipping from side to side. “Dude, you’re making me seasick,” Trey muttered.
“We’re losing them, Iros. Tell a joke. Do something interesting,” Havik tossed his head.
“Funny, guys. Way to be professional.” Iros sighed. “Next is… let’s call it the rope.” Again he swept his scepter toward the empty sky and bright flames escaped from the orb, shooting through the clouds in a thin, rope-like strand.
“Apt description,” Trey quipped.
“Yeah. Well, the rope lassos the soul stealer and basically squeezes until it breaks them in two. Quite gruesome, really,” Iros said cheerfully.
Scout tried it out, but since Iros’ example had only spun through the air, it was hard to visualize. It took a few tries and some pointers from Ashra before she got it right, although Ashra’s constant diving and soaring wasn’t helping at all.
Trey and Torz, with their bonded magic, seemed to have no problem with any of this, but then Trey had been conscious for more of the battle than Scout had. Maybe he’d seen it in action and that’s why he could do it so easily. Scout refused to believe that he was better at this than she was. It wasn’t an option.
Ashra and Torz both swooped low, where Iros and Havik waited. Kylin sat nearby, picking at her nails. “Next we’ve got… what shall I call this one, Havik?” Iros glanced down at Havik, who pawed at the air with his sharp hoof, snorting and tossing his head in mock anger. “Ah yes, in a pinch, your unicorn can attack with feet and horn. They seem to enjoy that.” He quirked an eyebrow at Torz, giving Scout the impression that it was something Torz might be fond of doing. “But it’s dangerous to get that close. Use magic when you can.”
“Oh, so we can’t tackle them and beat them into the ground but you guys can? How is that fair?” Trey asked. Torz chuffed. Ashra tossed her head in what Scout was going to pretend wa
s annoyance and not amusement.
“The last two attacks are much more tricky, and only bonded unicorns are able to do them, because it requires a rider and the unicorn both, and they must be of the same mind,” Iros said. Scout frowned, her eyebrows clashing. Iros caught her confusion and explained, “Bonded. That’s what bonded means.”
“Oh.” “So we can’t do this one?” Scout asked Ashra.
“Don’t know. Might as well try,” Ashra whispered back.
“The soul stealer’s greatest, and only, fear is unicorn fire. There’s nothing else that stops them. But they can’t see in the darkness, and our unicorns can.” Iros said, as Havik seemed to pace through the air, giant wings brushing gracefully against the trees as his feet stepped lightly across clouds. “So our next attack is… smothering.”
“We already have a smothering,” Scout called. Ashra flicked an ear her way and back to Iros, swishing her wispy tail so it slapped Scout’s leg.
Iros sent her a frustrated scowl before sitting back, considering. Scout ran through her own internal thesaurus, but she was tired and stressed. Her brain wasn’t working as well as she would have liked.
“How about conceal, oh mighty leader?” Ashra finally sighed. “Because it… conceals?”
Iros frowned. “Well fine. If you want to be clear about things this one is conceal. You’ve seen how the unicorns use their mane or tail to put out their own fires? Using their magic, they can hide the soul stealers. They become lost in the darkness and are easy to kill. They can’t fight back. But if you’re concealing them, you can’t attack because your magic is occupied holding the cloud of concealment.”
“This only works if you have another Irwarro with you to help fight or if you’re trying to escape,” Torz said, in that deceptively mild way of his that belied his giant size.
“Ah. That’s where we come in, Princess. We’ll be the Irwarro who fights while they conceal.” Ashra tossed her head and Iros smirked, rolling his eyes.
“Must you always be the one to throw yourself in front of danger?” he asked her with an undeniable fondness.
“Why don’t you just do that every time? Wouldn’t it keep you from getting attacked and covered in blood like she is?” Kylin called. Scout had forgotten all about her.
