Sigrid stepped forward and lunged with her spear at the golem’s helm but the Smelterborn wrenched itself around, knocking the blow aside and sending her flying in the same fell swoop. She landed hard and did not rise.
Eva forced herself not to run to Sigrid — she couldn’t leave Ivan to deal with the golem alone. Rejoining the fray she maneuvered around the golem’s side and struck at the back of the Smelterborn’s knee. Another ball of ice struck it in the head, much smaller than the previous — Ivan was tiring, his rune magic fading.
With one hand, the Smelterborn wrenched its sword free in a cascade of ice. Its free hand swooped down and grabbed Eva around the waist at the same time, before she knew what happened. It lifted her in front of its face and stared at her with burning eyes. Caught up close in the terrible gaze, Eva froze in terror.
For a brief instant, the flames seemed to burst from the Smelterborn’s eyes, encompassing Eva in a ring of fire. A cloud of acrid, metallic smoke engulfed her. Screaming women and wailing children filled her ears, mixed with the clash of metal on metal. An overwhelming terror gripped her harder than the Smelterborn’s iron fist. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision.
All at once, a golden light burst through the smog.
The dark, frozen landscape around them glowed like noonday and the Smelterborn staggered back, shielding its face with its free hand. Eva’s Wonder blazed through her tunic like the sun itself. Still, the golem refused to let go. Eva felt the iron fingers around her waist tighten and knew she would be crushed.
A shriek split the air and for a moment, Eva thought it was her own. In the back of her clouded mind, she realized it wasn’t her at all. An unfamiliar gryphon screamed again, more wild and untamed than any she’d ever heard. With the last of her strength, Eva looked up through the bright light expecting to see Fury’s coppery red body.
Instead, a flash of golden fur and feathers greeted her, illuminated by her Wonder. Eva felt the wind rush past her and a fisted foot struck the Smelterborn. Surprised, the golem dropped Eva and reeled, searching for its new foe. Her entire body numb and tingling, Eva struggled to crawl away as the golden gryphon wheeled past again.
A rider sprang from its back between Eva and the Smelterborn.
The rider drew their sword in one fluid motion. When the weapon pulled free of its scabbard, a series of runes ignited along the blade, burning with the same golden-white light as her Wonder.
The cloaked figure strode toward the flailing Smelterborn without hesitation and swung their sword in a wide arc. The runed blade buried itself deep in the Smelterborn’s leg and it crashed to the ground. Switching their grip on the sword, Eva’s savior swept the blade across the Smelterborn’s neck.
The gigantic grey helmet spun from the golem’s shoulders. Eva fought to keep her vision in focus. Was this all part of the hallucination? Had the Smelterborn crushed her after all?
In a whoosh, the golden gryphon landed a few paces away. Eva gasped. Where one of its forelegs should have been there was only a stump. The gryphon shook and its head feathers splayed out like a great wild mane. For a brief moment, Eva feared it might attack her next.
Instead, its rider crossed between them and stood over Eva. As the light from her Wonder and the sword faded, Eva saw the rider’s wild, gray-blond beard and haggard, weather-lined face. Their piercing blue eyes met one another and Eva recognized her uncles in the stranger’s face.
Eva opened her mouth, but nothing would come out. Her stomach twisted in a knot of fire, heart pounding harder than it hard throughout the entire battle. She swallowed and fought to stay conscious.
She’d never seen it before, but she knew that face.
The man froze in his tracks as if he recognized her as well. His rune-inscribed sword dropped from his hands. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and broken.
“Marien?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Eva shook her head in a daze but somehow found her voice. “Muh — my name’s Ev — Evel — Eva… it’s Eva.”
The man frowned and broke free of whatever spell from his past that made him think Eva was her mother. He bent and retrieved his sword then pointed at Eva’s Wonder, now hanging outside her shirt and flickering.
“Where did you get that?”
Eva’s trembling hand found the white stone around her neck. She felt hot tears run down her face and took a shuddering breath, too overcome with emotion to notice the pain in her sides.
“It was a gift,” she managed. “A gift from my mother.”
Whatever her father thought she was going to say, Eva could tell it wasn’t that. Aleron’s eyes went wide and he staggered backward into his three-legged gryphon. Everything: the defeated Smelterborn, Eva’s friends, the bitter cold seemed to disappear around Eva.
“Your… mother?” he whispered. Eva saw his scarred hand clutch at something around his own neck. “You got my message? Is your…Adelar?”
Eva shook her head. She tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t come. After a deep breath, she pointed at her father. Aleron sank to his knees as understanding dawned. Tears sprang from his cold blue eyes and trailed down the weathered wrinkles in his face.
“It can’t be,” he whispered. The golden gryphon dipped its head down and nudged its rider. “I… I didn’t know, I never…”
Aleron’s voice trailed off and he stared at Eva, seemingly unable to believe what he was seeing.
“You look just like your mother,” he said after a long pause. “Except for the hair, got my hair. How…how is she?”
The feeling of joy faded a bit as Eva looked at the ground in front of her, searching for the right words. “She… I never met her. She died giving birth.”
Aleron’s face hardened and he nodded, but she could see the hurt behind the rough mask. “I see.”
Somewhere in the darkness, Sigrid groaned and Ivan hobbled to her side. Fury called out and landed beside Sven, breaking the moment between Eva and her father. Everything came rushing back around Eva.
“It is really you?”
Chel’s voice sounded weak and strained. Aleron’s head shot toward Fury.
“Little Flower, that you?”
Aleron started toward Fury and then stopped in front of Eva. He held out a hand and helped her to her feet. Once she was standing, he turned her palm over in his hand and nodded in satisfaction at the calluses from Eva’s sword hilt. With her father’s help, Eva managed to hobble to Fury’s side.
“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” her father said, leaning over Fury to pull Chel into a one-sided hug. Eva felt a rush of jealousy as the two embraced for a long moment, reminding her of all the years she’d missed with Aleron.
Behind them, the golden gryphon let out a warning call. Aleron pulled away from Chel and his brief show of warmth faded. “Sunflash is right. There’s time for real introduction later — we’ve got to move.”
Eva nodded and turned to find Sigrid and Ivan leaning on one another a few paces away, watching. Both had pronounced circles under their eyes and weariness tugging at their postures.
“Can you fly?” Eva asked.
Sigrid nodded. “Just got knocked around a little — don’t think anything is broken.”
“I’m fine,” Ivan added. “Just drained.”
Aleron’s face flashed surprise at Ivan’s rune markings but didn’t say anything. “Let’s fly.” He pointed to Eva. “Until we can get her fixed up, Little Flow — Chel, should ride alone to keep that arm from getting knocked around more. Get her strapped in and wrapped up as warm as you can. You’ll ride with me and Sunflash.”
In a daze, Eva did as she was told then followed her father toward the golden gryphon. Sunflash turned when Eva reached his side and gave her a long look but held still for Eva to mount. Climbing up, Eva noted the various repairs and random bits of leather and string that held the gryphons worn out tack together. Aleron swung into the saddle in front of Eva and winced. She spotted a blood stain soaking through a ba
ndaged cut in the side of his jerkin.
“You’re hurt!”
“What — oh.” Aleron glanced down as if he noticed the wound for the first time. “It’s nothing new. Got it poking around the coast. Must be losing a step in my old age.”
He nodded toward Sunflash’s wing and Eva saw a ragged cut along the top. Droplets of blood hit Eva in the face as the gryphon flapped his wings for takeoff.
“We got a little banged up, but there’s not a golem out there that me and Sun can’t handle.”
The gryphon clicked his beak in agreement and Aleron let out a whistle. Eva felt the familiar lurch as the gryphon crouched down and the next moment they were in the air, wind whipping by them in the bitter night.
“The clankers have been hunting us,” her father said over his shoulder once they leveled out. His breath misted over his shoulder in the bitter night sky. “Ever since we left the coast — it’s like they’ve been put on to our trail somehow.”
“Clankers?”
Eva hugged herself, trying to hold in what little warmth she could as they sped through the dark sky, the golden gryphon seemingly unaffected by the extra passengers and his wounded wing.
“The Smelterborn,” Aleron said. “That’s what I call ‘em. But they’re too late.” He reached under his jerkin and pulled out a diamond-shaped medallion about the size of Eva’s fist. “I got it!”
Eva stared at the object, a sense of all too familiar unease and dread settling over her. The amulet was made of pitch black metal with deep red specks and irregularities throughout. It reminded Eva of her Wonder but seemed to swallow light instead of emitting it. She reached for her mother’s stone, tucked safely beneath her shirt and felt a small pulse of comfort.
“What is it?” Relief filled her when Aleron tucked the unsettling object away.
“It’s what I went looking for: the secret to destroying the Smelterborn for good,” Aleron said
In spite of herself, Eva was filled with doubt. “How do you know that?”
“Because I saw them using it to create more golems, that’s how!” He sounded impatient like he was explaining the most obvious thing in the world. “Soon as I stole it, all those clankers were on me like flies on a dead buffalo. That’s why we were heading west — I didn’t know if Little Flower ever got my message back to Rhylance. It’ll take someone more learned in rune lore than me to figure out how it works.”
“Why do you keep calling Chel Little Flower?” Eva asked, confused.
"Little Flower was her kid name,” Aleron said. “The Juarag have to earn their adult names — it makes her nuts when I forget to call her the right one.”
“Oh.”
Eva felt the fissure of lost years between them as keen as when Aleron had embraced Chel. For several long moments, they lapsed into a painful silence. The cold night air closed around them. At last, Aleron cleared his throat and spoke.
“How did you end up out here? Did that rotten bastard of a brother of mine send you?”
In spite of herself, Eva smiled at her father’s description of the king. Fighting to keep her teeth from chattering, Eva related the story of how they’d found Chel and their journeys since. Aleron listened in relative silence, only interrupting Eva a couple of times to ask clarifying questions.
“You did good, girl,” Aleron said in a gruff voice. Eva’s heart caught in her throat and a warm swell of pride overcame her. She began to stutter out a reply but her father cut her off. “Never thought I’d have a Windsworn daughter. How’d that come about?”
And so Eva went back to the beginning, to her life growing up with Soot, her first encounter with Ivan and the stolen gryphon egg that became Fury, all the way through her training at the Gyr. Aleron had plenty to say throughout, from his surprise at Soot’s paternal abilities to Celina’s betrayal.
Although he didn’t seem to have relinquished any ill will toward Adelar, he asked plenty of questions about both brothers. When Eva told him about her last conversation with the king and Adelar’s desire to find his younger brother and bring him home, Aleron scoffed. “Finally let a little warmth into that stone cold heart of his, huh?”
Eva didn’t know what to say — it seemed that the fallout between the three brothers was a nasty scar for Aleron, healed over but far from gone. Sensing her father’s mood sour, Eva asked about Aleron’s journeys since he’d left the Juarag-Vo.
“First thing I did was head back to the island — old Palantis,” Aleron said. “I had a hunch that was where all the clankers were coming from — it’s where Soot found Seppo, after all. Took me the better part of a year to make it that far through clanker country. There’s clankers everywhere, especially on the island. Took a lot of sneaking around, but I finally found their secret.”
Aleron patted his chest where the Wonder hung beneath his clothing. “I don’t know much about the Ancients, but I think it’s some kind of corrupted Wonder. Who or what made it or how it’s used I couldn’t find out. The clankers had it in this big altar that looked like some kind of forge. It wasn’t easy snatching it, I’ll tell you that.”
He continued speaking of his life on the plains, how he’d come to live with the Juarag-Vo and the wandering he’d done after leaving Rhylance. Although Eva tried hard to hang on every word, she soon found her eyes drooping. At some point, she fell asleep completely and only came awake when they began to descend. With a start, she jolted awake. She’d been resting her forehead against her father’s back.
When they touched down Eva and Aleron checked on Chel. Although she was cold, she seemed to be holding steady. Sigrid and Ivan joined them and Eva made introductions.
“You look like you know your way around a fight,” Aleron said to Sigrid, who smirked and nodded.
“And you,” her father continued, nodding to Ivan. “Saw your kennings as I flew in. That was some pretty fancy rune work, and I’ve seen some talented Scrawls in my day.”
The way he growled it out made Eva think Aleron didn’t give praise lightly, but she was pleased her father found her friends up to snuff.
After a short rest to recover some of his spent energy, Ivan set about tending to the group’s injuries. He started with Chel, using the broken shaft of Sigrid’s spear to form a brace before healing it as best he could. Eva watched as he ran his palm over the crooked appendage, muttering the words under his breath. The kenning poured out of the Scrawl’s mouth like a mountain stream cascading over river rock and a green light engulfed Chel’s arm.
When Ivan finished Eva was relieved to see some color and energy come back into Chel’s previously drawn face. Chel thanked the Scrawl before rising to greet Sunflash. The golden gryphon gave a chirp of recognition and pressed the top of his head against her when Chel wrapped her good arm around the gryphon in a half hug. Seeing her look at the other gryphon, Fury nudged Eva until she turned around and scratched him beneath the beak on his chin feathers.
“You’ve been amazing,” she whispered into the gryphon’s tufted ear as a low purr rolled in his chest. “We’re heading home now — you can have a long rest in the Gyr, I promise. Fury let out a small chirp and Eva tossed him a chunk of meat, before moving on to the others.
Ivan had just finished a kenning over Sigrid’s ribs and turned to Aleron and Sunflash, hands raised. Eva’s father waved a dismissive hand. “Save your strength.”
“But your wounds!” Eva protested.
Aleron shrugged. “Been that way since we got ‘em. Won’t heal up.”
“At least let me take a look,” Ivan said.
Aleron gave a reluctant nod toward Sunflash. “See what you can do for Sun, then. He’s the one that needs it most.”
Ivan approached the golden gryphon, who watched him with apprehension until Aleron placed a calming hand between Sunflash’s shoulder blades. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, the Scrawl held his hands over the center of the ragged cut and began his kenning, spreading his hands in either direction.
For a moment, green light flared a
nd sank into the wound, and Eva thought the rune magic had worked. A moment later, however, the healing light turned into a wisp of smoke and blew away, leaving the wound the same as before. Ivan frowned, and repeated the kenning, louder this time. The same thing happened. He prepared to try a third time but Aleron shook his head and grabbed the Scrawl’s wrist before he could begin again.
“Like I said, nothing doing for now. Save your strength, kid.”
“Sorry I’m not more help,” Ivan said, brow furrowed as he studied the wound. Eva could tell his inability to help Sunflash troubled him. “When we get back to Rhylance, I’m sure the Skraeling elders will be able to do something for you, though.”
Eva’s father paused before answering, staring off behind them in the direction of the Smelterborn. “Sure…” He shook his head and seemed to come back to the present. “It’ll take the clankers awhile to catch up. Try to get some rest — we’ll head out at first light.”
The way he said it left Eva with no doubt that Aleron was used to being in charge. She admired the way her father naturally assumed a leadership role in a way she doubted she ever could. The constant doubt and second-guessing that plagued her didn’t seem to effect Aleron at all.
They spent the last few hours taking short naps and rotating watch. Between the cold and the apprehension of the Smelterborn tracking them, Eva didn’t think she’d be able to fall asleep when she finished her turn, but moments later she drifted into a sound, dreamless sleep. It seemed only a moment later when her father woke her with a shake.
“Time to get moving.”
Eva cracked her eyes open and sat up. A thin strip of grey on the eastern horizon outlined Aleron. As the others roused, Eva re-saddled Fury, brushing the frost from his back. The gryphon curled his head around to watch her as she did up the straps.
“I know — it wasn’t much of a rest,” she said, trying to avoid his guilt-giving look. “But the Smelterborn didn’t rest at all. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like fighting any more of them anytime soon.”
By the time they took to the sky, an orange blotch shone in the east, spreading pale rays across the dead, frosted grass. The sight of dawn gave Eva hope, even if they continued shivering in their saddles long after sunrise. Throughout the morning they took turns flying back to watch out for the Smelterborn. Just after noon, Sigrid returned from her scouting flight and let them know their luck had run out.
Windswept: Gryphon Riders Book Two (Gryphon Riders Trilogy 2) Page 17
