“Who would steal a gryphon egg?” Eva asked. Out of all the people to cross, Eva put the gryphon riders at the very bottom of the list
“Someone real brave or real stupid,” Rose said. “Rumor has it a group of Scrawls was meeting with the king about a border negotiation. One of ’em went missing this morning.”
Eva looked out over the crowd and saw the royal-blue uniforms of several gryphon riders working their way through the crowd as well. By now, everyone in the market seemed aware of the armed soldiers threading through their midst, searching stalls and questioning bystanders. She didn’t know why, but the sight of the famous warriors in armor and mail sent her stomach fluttering, and she turned back to Rose, eager to get the rest of the story and return to the forge.
“Why would the Scrawls steal a gryphon egg?” Eva asked. “We’ve been at peace with them for almost a hundred years!”
Rose tapped a gnarled finger against the side of her head. “Don’t know, but it don’t bode well for the negotiations — the king’s got ’em all locked up while the city’s being searched. “
“I…I better get back to the forge,” Eva said, as a sudden burst of anxiety clutched her. “Come on, Seppo.”
Eva turned as someone shouted and saw a pair of palace guards pushing their way through the crowd at the foot of the fountain steps.
“You there!” the front guard, a man with a shaved head and round face said, pointing to Eva. “Hold up, girl.”
Eva felt her stomach twist as the two guards, the man who’d yelled and a dour-faced woman, approached. She looked behind her, but Rose was nowhere to be seen, no doubt eager to stay out of mind of the guard.
“What’s that thing with you?” the man asked, pointing to Seppo.
“Looks like some kind of Scrawl contraption,” the female guard said, gesturing to Seppo’s breastplate. “Thing’s covered in runes.”
“I beg your pardon,” Seppo said in an irate voice. “I am not a thing. My name is Seppo.”
The pair started and reached for the swords. “By thunder,” the woman swore. “It spoke!”
Eva’s stomach coiled tighter, caught between the spooked guards and Seppo. She opened her mouth to tell them Seppo didn’t mean any harm, but the words wouldn’t come out.
“Hey, what you got in those baskets there?” the male guard said, gesturing toward the items in Seppo’s hands. “Something’s been stolen from the palace. Show us what you got.”
“I most certainly will not,” Seppo said, twisting so the baskets were farther out of reach.
Eva’s heart leapt into her throat, but she finally managed to speak. “Seppo, just let them see —”
“Move aside, girl,” the female guard said, pushing Eva. She tried to back out of the way and tripped on the fountain step, falling on her rear.
“You will not lay a hand on Mistress Evelyn,” Seppo said. Dropping the groceries, the golem stepped between Eva and the guards, fists bunched. The guards fell back, drawing their swords. Eva tried to tell Seppo to stand down, but all that came out was a squeak. At the same time, a woman screamed and the crowd pushed out of the way, leaving the four of them in an open circle.
“Hey!”
A young man around Eva’s age fought through the onlookers, furthering her embarrassment and fright. He wore the silver wings and royal blue of a Windsworn — a full-fledged gryphon rider. He shot Eva a reassuring look that sent her heart pounding even faster before turning to the guard.
“Get out of the way, kid,” the male guard grunted. “Palace business.”
“I didn’t know the palace made a habit of picking on girls shopping at the market,” the young man said. He looped his thumbs through his sword belt, feet spread wide in an easy, confident manner.
“You’re not on your mountain now,” the female guard said. “So, quit strutting around like a rooster putting on a show.”
“Is there going to be a fight?” Seppo asked with genuine curiosity.
The young man jerked his head toward the guards. “I don’t think these two really want to tangle with us, my giant iron friend.”
“Why you little —”
Eva’s breath caught as the male guard stepped forward, swinging his sword overhead. With speed belying his size, Seppo caught the blow across his arm, knocking the blade aside. Before the man could react, the golem grabbed him by his mail shirt, hefting him into the air. Eva stared aghast as the man kicked and squirmed, but Seppo held firm and turned to present the guard to his mistress.
“What shall I do with this offender, Mistress Eva?”
Everyone — especially the young gryphon rider — turned to Eva, whose face burned. “Just put…put him down,” she muttered, dropping her eyes to the golem’s feet.
The guard collapsed in a pile, struggling to his feet as the onlookers continued to stare. When Eva looked up, the gryphon rider stood over her, hand extended, a crooked smile on his face. “May I?”
Speechless and wishing she could melt into the fountain, Eva held up her hand and allowed the young man to pull her to her feet.
“May I have your name, fair maiden?” he said in such a way that Eva wasn’t sure if he was making fun of her or not.
“It’s uh…Ev-Eva.”
The young rider smiled again, dark brown eyes shining. A whirl of butterflies flitted through Eva’s stomach as he spoke, still holding her hand. “A pleasure to —”
“What’s going on here?”
Almost as Eva didn’t exist, the rider dropped her hand and turned around as a golden-haired man stepped through the crowd. A small frown sat on his face as his piercing blue eyes surveyed the scene.
“Lord Commander Andor,” the female guard stuttered. “We were just performing a search of this young woman when your rider —”
“They seemed to believe we were harboring something sinister in the squash,” Seppo chimed in. “Greetings, Andor. It has been far too long.”
The golden-haired man nodded to Seppo, his cold gaze falling on Eva. For a brief moment, Eva thought she saw his eyes widen in recognition, but the look disappeared as soon as it came.
“What’s your name, girl?” the lord commander asked.
“E-Evelyn, sir,” Eva managed to spit out a second time. Her legs felt like a pair of green willows, apt to fold beneath her at any second.
The lord commander nodded and turned back to the guards. “I can assure you, Seppo and…Evelyn here had nothing to do with the stolen egg. I think it best we let them go on their way after this debacle.”
Lord Commander Andor looked at the young rider as he finished, and the easy smile dropped from the boy’s face faster than a hawk making a stoop. With one last dirty look at Seppo and the young man, the guards left, shouting for the onlookers to disperse.
“You should try and stay home the next few days,” the lord commander told Eva. Once again, he stared at her for a long moment before shaking his head and slapping Seppo on his breastplate. “Tell Soot hello for me.”
With a final nod, the golden-haired man turned with a swish of his cloak, beckoning the young rider to follow.
“It was good to meet you, Eva,” the confident Windsworn said with a wink. “Stay out of trouble.”
Chapter Three
“I’m sorry to have upset you, Mistress Evelyn,” Seppo said for the dozenth time.
“It’s fine,” Eva mumbled. She felt a wave of relief as Soot’s forge appeared. The exchange in the market had left her as drained as a morning working the forge, and she looked forward to the somewhat solitary work ahead of her. Unbidden, the thought of the cocky young gryphon rider rose to her mind again, and another flutter of butterflies rose inside her. She hadn’t even been able to untie her tongue long enough to get his name.
After storing their morning’s groceries away in the cottage, Eva joined Soot and Seppo in the forge. The wave of thick, hot air smelling of hot metal and the clangor of Soot’s hammer welcomed her back, pushing all thought of the market and the gryphon riders from
her mind.
Eva buried herself in her work throughout the rest of the day. Although she could help out with the hard labor when necessary, most of her time was spent doing finish work — grinding, polishing, and any other final touches required. By the time they finished for the day, the strands of golden hair fallen from her ponytail hung lank with sweat, and ash and smoke marks streaked her face.
The evening sun painted amber streaks across the white stone of Gryfonesse’s Craftsman District. A cool spring breeze washed over Eva as she stepped out into the yard, and she shivered a little washing away the forge grime at the water pump. Before going into the cottage, she paused and let out a long breath. A good day to be over.
“Seppo said you had a run-in with the guard at the market,” Soot said while Eva cleaned up after dinner.
Eva’s chest tightened at the mention of the ordeal, but she told him about her conversation with Rose on the fountain steps and the ensuing conflict.
“Bah,” Soot said, waving his good hand, dismissing Rose’s news. “That beggar woman loves to tell a good story.”
“But they were searching the marketplace,” Eva insisted. “And the guards stopped us because they thought Seppo had something to do with the Scrawls.”
“Well, whatever it is, the lord commander was right to tell you to stay at home the next few days,” Soot said. “You don’t want to get mixed up in any business with the Gyr.”
“How do you know him?” Eva asked. “Isn’t he the king’s brother?”
Soot fell silent for a long moment and cleared his throat. Eva already knew what was coming — her foster father did the same thing whenever Eva asked about Soot’s past, her parents, or any other subjects he didn’t like to discuss.
“We’ve met once or twice,” Soot said. “When I was an apprentice and journeyman, my master was a smith at the Gyr.”
Eva’s head jerked up as she put their last bowl away in the shelf. “You’ve been in the Gyr? You never told me that!”
Soot mumbled something under his breath and rubbed his bald head. “For a short time.”
“What’s it like?” Eva asked, rushing to his side. Hardly anyone other than the gryphon riders ever set foot in the mysterious mountain fortress. As a child, Eva often imagined what the halls of the Gyr must look like — according to the stories it was a stronghold of the Ancients, abandoned for hundreds of years until the Sorondarans and their gryphons settled the valley of Rhylance.
The smith shrugged. “I didn’t see much other than the forge. It was a fine workshop but nothing out of the ordinary to speak of.
Eva’s hopes fell, and she gritted her teeth in frustration. Getting anything out of Soot was like trying to wring water from a stone: in the end, your well of information was as dry as when you started.
“But the lord commander knew you and Seppo,” Eva said. “And I know you didn’t have Seppo around while you were a journeyman.”
“Right,” Soot said. “Well, how many other golems have you heard of in the capital?”
“But —”
“Gryphon riders aren’t folk you want to get mixed up with,” the smith said in a tone conveying the conversation was over. “They’re… trouble — whether they mean it or not.”
Eva’s mind flashed back to the dashing young rider who’d come to her rescue that morning. “They can’t be that bad,” she said. “If they get into trouble, I’m sure it’s just because they’re protecting Rhylance.”
“You’d be surprised,” Soot muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing!” Flustered, her foster father rose from his chair. “We’ve got a full day ahead; you won’t get the morning off to get into trouble at the market tomorrow. Time for bed!”
Agitated but knowing she wouldn’t get any more out of Soot, Eva retired to her small room and flopped down on her straw mattress. No sooner had she closed her eyes than she opened them again, restless and tired but unable to sleep. She listened to Seppo’s heavy footfalls outside as he wandered around the yard, no doubt tempted to pick up work in the forge again, in spite of Soot’s nightly reminders. They’d tried locking him in the cottage before, but the golem’s size meant he could hardly move with knocking over chairs or breaking something.
Eva replayed her run-in with the gryphon riders and Soot’s begrudging conversation over and over. Frustrated, she rolled on her side and slid a hand beneath her mattress. When she pulled it free, a soft white light glowed through the cracks in her fist.
As Eva opened her fingers, the opaque stone’s glow lit up her room like a full moon. Twisting the stone’s silver chain around her fingers, Eva held it above her face, watching the lights fade and change from white to gold, pink, and sky blue. Eva felt a familiar calm settle over her, just like every time she held the necklace.
Soot called it a Wonder, an artifact from the days of the Ancients. They came in all shapes and sizes and did all sorts of things — crystal lanterns with endless light, weapons and tools that never lost their edges, and more. Although some were rarer than others (Eva once heard a customer at the forge talking about a cauldron that boiled water without a fire), few even among the nobility could claim to own such a treasure. As such, Soot had kept a close eye on Eva whenever she played with the Wonder as a child. He’d also made her promise not to tell her friends or anyone else about the stone.
To Eva, it was more than just a peculiar shining stone and pretty necklace. It was the only thing she owned that had belonged to her parents and almost the only thing Soot had ever told Eva about them. Her father had given it to her mother before he died in battle. Not long after, Eva’s mother had died, too, giving birth to her.
“They were good friends,” Soot would say whenever Eva persuaded him to share what little he would about her parents. “And they loved in each other like you wouldn’t believe.”
Eva stared at the stone for a few more minutes, thinking of the gryphon rider once again. For all the stress and embarrassment she’d been through, he’d almost made it worth it. Once more, she berated herself for being so shy and awkward. Chances were they’d never meet again.
Trying not to think about it, Eva curled her hand around the Wonder stone and rolled onto her side. She pulled her blanket up and soon drifted to sleep.
It felt like only moments later when a ruckus from the chickens pulled Eva from her slumber. Silently cursing the dumb birds, Eva readjusted herself on the mattress and started to doze again.
The chickens squawked and fussed again. This time, Eva sat up in bed. As she did, her blanket slid down, and the light from her mother’s stone spilled across the room once more. Eva grabbed the Wonder, stuffing it under her mattress, and peeked out the window.
Outside, the yard was empty and silent. Eva held her breath, listening for the sound of Seppo going to investigate. He often whiled away the night on the lookout for foxes or raccoons brazen enough to steal one of the chickens or raid the nests. It couldn’t be him upsetting the birds — they’d grown so accustomed to the big golem that Eva had to constantly shoo them off his shoulders or spend the next few hours scrubbing their white droppings from his iron plates.
The chickens set up a third distress call, and Eva rose out of her bed, wide awake. Where was Seppo? She’d just thrown a cloak over her nightgown when the golem’s clanking footsteps and shadowed figure passed her window, heading for the coop. Eva relaxed as he passed out of sight then listened for the sound of Seppo chasing off whatever kept harassing the chickens.
Her senses spiked again when the golem spoke. “Who are you?”
A flash of light illuminated Eva’s window, followed by the crash of iron plates.
“Seppo?” she whispered out the window. Although the chickens remained silent, the golem didn’t answer.
Heart pounding in her chest, Eva crossed her room and made to wake Soot, still snoring in the room next to hers. She paused, hand poised over his door, and for reasons she couldn’t explain, slid out the cottage toward the chicken coop.
>
In her bare feet, Eva crossed the yard in silence, footsteps muffled by the short grass. Something squished under her foot, and Eva bit back a hiss when she lifted it up and found chicken dropping smeared across her heel.
Eva paused at the corner of the forge. Over the nervous clucks of the chickens a voice whispered something in a strange language. She risked a peek around the side of the building and stifled a gasp of surprise.
Seppo lay stock still on his back, arms and legs clasped to his sides. A small, hooded figure bent over him, one hand hovering a few inches from his chest plate, still muttering in an indiscernible tongue. At first, Eva thought the golem was dead — until she saw the glow of his sapphire-colored orbs.
Eva froze as the person paused, pressing herself against the wall, hoping they hadn’t seen her. She held back a sigh of relief as the mumbling continued. Looking down, she spotted a rock the size of a crab apple at her feet and squatted to pick it up with a shaking hand.
Eva peered around the corner, saw the figure still crouched over Seppo, and let the rock fly.
The stone hit the person in the hood, and they toppled over sideways with a grunt before struggling to rise. At the same time, Seppo’s limbs came back to life, and the golem rolled over with surprising speed, grabbing the mysterious assailant around the ankle.
With a firm grip on his attacker, Seppo rose, the hooded person dangling upside down from the golem’s outstretched hand. As they kicked and squirmed, the hood fell away, revealing a boy no more than a dozen years old. Eva knew at once he was a Scrawl from the dark blue rune tattoos covering his shaved head and exposed arms.
“Lemme go!” he hissed before dropping back into the same strange tongue he’d been speaking before. Eva jumped back. The boy’s rune markings started to glow.
Surprised, Seppo dropped the boy on his head, and the intruder crashed to the ground. The Scrawl moaned and sat up, shaking his head. As soon as his chanting stopped, the glowing script on his body faded and a satchel at his side fell open. Eva gasped as a large, rounded object rolled out of it, stopping at her feet.
Windsworn: Gryphon Riders Book One (Gryphon Riders Trilogy 1) Page 2
