by Nhys Glover
“He had run from the town Prior saw him in. He knew the troopers would be onto him as soon as Prior informed them. It shocked him to see the mark on Prior’s arm but it wasn’t enough to stop him escaping. He didn’t care what that Soothsayer said, he wasn’t facing down that monstrous creature.
“I think he must have been captured by the Devourers before, because I got the impression of a temple and a mural with a sea monster painted on the wall. Like in your book, Landor. The Devourers called it The Jayger and it will be our end. All of creation goes in cycles, birth and death. Expansion and contraction. Unless there is death there can be no rebirth. I... I don’t know. That was only a snatch. And it came with agony. Torture. Enough to show me that Laric was terrified to face it. And them again.
“But the Devourers wanted him, and they’d kill him this time if they got him. Not easily, either. They liked pain. They believed it made them stronger and cleansed their souls.
“He’d managed to stay out of the hands of the Devourers and the Goddess’ men for a sun, but the mark gave him away. When the mark appeared he knew his fate was sealed. He couldn’t hide. He couldn’t escape.”
I stopped talking to draw more breath into my labouring lungs. I was caught in the grip of his panic. Even though the dream was over, I still felt it and knew it was still happening, even now. They were closing in on him while I wasted time talking. The sun was about to rise, and that might give him a little safety. But they wouldn’t stop. And he was so tired. If he could just get to the promontory. The old man there had been good to him. He’d help him find a ship.
“Flea... aloud,” Zem told me sharply, clearly seeing I was still processing what I’d seen.
I nodded, my shoulders slumping forward in defeat. We couldn’t reach him in time. And without him we were lost. That monstrous thing was too much for us to take on as The Five, we couldn’t possibly do it as four.
“Flea, the Goddess gave you the dream for a reason. Just as she gave you the one that led you to me. You thought it impossible to find me, and yet you did it. We can find this... last champion,” Landor said, brushing my tangle of hair back from my face.
I looked at his handsome face and felt hope blossom in my cold chest. He was right. That was exactly what we’d done before. That time we had no indication where he was, at least this time I had some landmarks to go on.
“Not much of a champion. But you’re right. The Goddess thinks we can save him, so we need to try.” I drew in deep, fortifying breaths before going on. “He is currently in a fishing village some distance up the coast from where he was last seen in Southairshan. I got the impression he was heading north along the east coast. I think we can plot his approximate location based on the time he had to get there after Prior found him. And there’s one more significant pointer. The land extends out from the coast in a long thin strip. He called it a promontory. At the end of that is a lighthouse. He’s making for there because he knows the keeper. He’s hoping the man can help him find a ship to get further north in a hurry.”
I sat back, my mind blank now I’d shared as much as I could with them. Then another piece slipped out. “It’s almost dawn where he is. He thinks light will give him some safety.”
I went to the small window and peered out over the shining lake. The moonlight, what there was of it at the waning quarter phase, had created a glittering road to where it hung just over the horizon. The room faced west, so the first rays of sunlight wouldn’t be visible from this window. But I could hear the featherlings starting their dawn chorus.
“Don’t just stand there, Flea. We have to go,” Zem said with a teasing note in his voice now. He was trying to tease me into a better mood.
I didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, I scrambled around on the floor for my sandals again, grabbing up my sword at the same time.
When we left the room, I saw Prior sitting on a cushion in the living area. He was holding a piece of paper.
“What are you doing up?” I demanded in confusion.
“Couldn’t sleep. Came out for food and found this note. It’s from the Goddess. She says airlings will be waiting. Whatever that means.”
I took the note and read it by the light of the one low burning torch in the sconce. “I hope this means there’s a mount for Landor there when we get to the paddock.”
“Where are you going?” Prior demanded curiously as I grabbed a pastry—a little stale but sweet enough to make up for it—from the resurrected and freshly replenished table.
“Flea dreamed of this Laric. We know where to find him. He’s in danger from the Devourers,” Landor addressed Prior for the first time and I saw his surprise.
“Devourers?”
Zem answered this time. “The ones who’re helping the Godling free The Jayger. They want Laric for some reason.”
Prior rose to accompany us. I put up a hand. “We’re taking airlings. I don’t think there’ll be one for you.”
Prior’s face tightened into rebellious lines. “I’ll borrow one. You need every man you can get.”
“Even if it means setting a blue robe alight?” I threw at him from the door.
That took him back for a moment. Then he nodded resolutely. “If I have to. The Goddess wants me and so she gets me. At least as far as I can go without hurting you.”
I was about to argue further when Zem interrupted. “Airsha would have arranged for enough airlings. Trust her. And we need to find exactly where we’re going before we take to the air.”
“You want to go to the Command Centre?” I asked in amazement. I didn’t have time for his need for details. I’d find the promontory. How hard would it be? A thin strip of land sticking out into the sea, maybe as much as a half day ride from the Southairshan Capital.
“Aye, I do. We’re not going off half-cocked, Flea. A half turn now might save us half a day at the other end.” His tone brooked no argument, and I knew better than to try. This was Zem, the warrior. He would not give ground.
Long ago we’d had to argue our way into the Command Post at the rebel stronghold, now we were given entrance without a qualm. We were with the Airluds, which was all that seemed to matter these days.
The room was lit by low-burning torches in four sconces around the walls. I immediately went to the huge map that lay atop the massive table in the centre of the room. I felt like I’d stepped back in time. In that long ago past Zem had been a mumbling idiot that few took seriously. But he’d stubbornly pointed out how the connections were made. How the wagon, which we’d seen leaving the stronghold when Airsha went missing, connected to the Godling’s men or the Godling’s palace. He’d drawn an imaginary line through the thickest part of the forest that surrounded the stronghold and said that was the connection. And it had been. That was the path Trace had followed when he kidnapped Airsha after taking her memories.
By then she’d won him over, of course, and he was bringing her home, but it was unlikely they would have made it, given their state when we’d found them.
Zem looked as much like that mad lad now as to be another person. But he was no less hard to follow at times. At least his insane counting was largely a thing of the past.
We quickly ranged around the east coast of the known world. Zem studied the key and then used his thumb to plot the distance from the Southairshan Capital.
“It was the capital, right?” Zem checked with Prior before starting his measurements.
“Actually, one of the towns around it. Here,” he pointed to one just to the north of the capital and away from the coast.”
“And you saw him there yesterday about midday?”
“Yes. I was looking for a midday meal.”
“So my thumb represents the distance a fast beastling can travel in two turns. If he found a mount immediately and rode fast he could have got as far as here by sunset.” He’d been placing one thumb after another over the map, like a weird child’s hand game, until he came to a stop up the coast. He’d had to take a step to keep up with his ha
nds. Then he ran an imaginary circle around the coastline ahead and behind that spot.
“This is approximately how far he reached by dark. He may have ridden further, but he’d have attracted attention. And Laric has stayed free all this time by not attracting attention. I would even say he’d be closer to the lowest estimate of distance because he wouldn’t have ridden hard. That would attract attention too.” So he backtracked a little and began studying the coastal terrain there.
I could see it immediately. The fishing village on the coast and the long spit of land that ran out into the sea like a pointing finger.
“There!” I cried a little too loudly. But my need to move was pressing hard on me, and I was almost dancing on the spot to be gone.
For another interminable moment more, Zem studied the spot I pointed to, before nodding his agreement. “The village here is called Wellhead. When we reach the coast we can ask for it if we have trouble locating the spit.” He drew another imaginary line between the Airshan Capital in the centre of the map and Wellhead on the eastern coast.
“If we fly directly into the sun as it rises at this time of the suncycle we should be pretty close to the location. In three turns and a little more. Not long Flea, I promise.”
I shrugged, unwilling to waste more time arguing. I was out the door and running down the shadowed hall before I’d drawn another breath.
The sky was brightening on the eastern horizon as we reached the airling paddock. I’d called up Spot through our mental connection and was amazed to see five airlings hopping toward us out of the gloom. I shook my head and gave a little laugh.
“What?” Landor asked, seeing my expression of amazement and humour.
“The Goddess provides. I hope these lads remember how to carry a rider.”
“I doubt it would be easy to forget. It was a life-altering time in their lives,” Zem answered, walking out to greet Storm whose grey fur looked ghostly in the soft light of the dawn.
“What do you mean?” Prior asked nervously. “What is there to remember?”
I laughed softly, unwilling to disturb the quiet of the time. “If you’d had to spend countless turns taming them, getting them comfortable with weight on their backs, and then to take direction from a rider on their backs, you wouldn’t ask a stupid question like that.”
Prior bristled but said no more. The others filed out the gate to join me. When Landor and Prior made to head for two of the airlings, I put up my hand.
“No, it doesn’t work that way. Let them come to you. They have to choose you, even for this short a time.”
“Is that why you said that odd thing the first day? About Airsha being Bay’s?” Landor asked with interest.
“Aye. Unlike with grounded beastlings, airlings do not belong to their riders, the riders belong to them. It is a fundamental aspect of the relationship every rider needs to learn. If you can’t accept that you can’t fly.”
“But I flew here on Bay,” he pointed out, not in argument but in curiosity.
“Aye, but that was as a favour to Airsha. We can’t take Bay on a regular basis. She prefers to stay close to the Goddess and her pod: the Airluds airlings. They’ve been together all their lives. All but the one who claimed Calun after he asked Bay to accept Airsha.”
Prior shook his head as if dumbfounded by this intricate pattern of relationships. “I thought it was like beastlings. You just buy or hire one and get on. Mayhap a few lessons on how to handle a mount, but after that it’s just using them like Highlunders use their tools.”
“Most people don’t understand,” Zem said, letting Storm rub against him as he pressed his head to her shoulder. “It caused a lot of contention during the war because we couldn’t enter it immediately. Airsha and the Airluds had to explain over and over again that taming airlings wasn’t easy, and selecting and training riders was even harder.”
“So... So what do we do?” Prior dubiously eyed the airling who had approached him.
I was pleased to see Landor was already rubbing himself against the big, black airling that had approached him. A fast study in all things was Landor.
“Rub your body against his. And let him rub his head against you. It’s a greeting. Only in emergencies would you ever consider mounting without that greeting first,” I said, falling back into teaching mode. I’d been Calun’s assistant back when we’d moved to the second training centre and had more riders and airlings than we could comfortably handle.
Prior saw that Landor had already done what I’d said, so he reluctantly let the brown airling rub against him. He stood as stiff as a post, clearly nervous about the whole prospect of flight.
“You don’t have to come. You can stay here,” I offered, reading his desire to step away from this challenge. Flight had never interested him. His feet needed to be firmly affixed to the ground. Even riding beastlings was a challenge for him. It had something to do with control, but I couldn’t quite work out what.
Prior stiffened, as if I’d insulted him, and made more of an effort to rub himself against the airling who’d selected him. The one remaining airling was covered in black and white patches and had a comical look to her. I knew her gender by the soft energy she gave off, just like I knew Prior’s and Landor’s mounts were male.
In what felt like a full turn—but couldn’t have been anywhere near that long because the sky had not lightened any more since we arrived at the paddock—we were all mounted, Prior had been given instructions on where to hang on, and we’d taken to the air.
I felt the usual exhilaration, and glanced over to see how Landor was handling his latest flight. The last two times he’d been escaping a nightmare and every new sensation was overwhelming. He’d closed down at times, trying to protect his over-stimulated senses. It was likely how he handled that first midnight flight. Back then he’d never even read about airlings, no less seen one in the flesh.
That night felt like suns ago. He’d become a fixture in my life so quickly it stunned me when I stopped to think about it. Yet it was only just over a quarter moon ago. No time at all.
Landor saw me watching him and he let go his stranglehold on the horns to wave at me. I laughed and waved back. Even perched on the back of a new airling, he looked elegant and at home. Only his grip on the horns had given him away.
I turned to Prior as our airlings banked toward the rising sun. I expected to see a terrified man clinging for his life to the double horns in front of him. Instead, I saw a man overcome with wonder and awe. He was watching the great leathery wings flap on either side of him, and then up over his head and then down at the ground that was fast shrinking to look like a rumpled green sheet on a bed. The massive lake, on which the old palace of the Godling sat, looked like a silvery mirror lying in the folds of that bedding.
Prior’s exploration brought his gaze to mine, and I saw his white teeth clearly as they split his black face. Oh, we had a convert. How devastated he’d be when his airling returned to his flock.
As we flew, I took in the world as I knew it. The old Godslund, now Airshan, sat in the very middle of the known world. The capital hugged one side of the mighty lake that was fed from the north by the rivers flowing off the mountains there. Highairshan was located on the plateau of those mountains, the Cliffling marauders below it. To the east, west and south of Airshan lay the coastal provinces of Eastairshan, Westairshan and Southairshan. People still called them by their old names, but eventually the new names would stick. Separating each province was the Badlunds, territory that was so sparsely settled as to make any form of large scale governance impossible.
Each province had a capital from which the original royals of that kinglund had ruled. That hadn’t changed when the rebels took control. And though the representatives on the council and the governors of the new provinces had to be elected, most posts were still held by the original royals of those kinglunds. It would take time for the lower classes to begin to feel confident enough to stand for positions in the government. It was still
a radical change just to have the right to elect their representatives.
As the sun rose languidly ahead of us, I hoped Landor’s eyes would handle it. I’d noted he’d grabbed up a hooded short cape and gloves on our way out, so he was prepared for the ferocity of the sun when it rose higher in the sky. At least we’d arrive before it grew too hot.
What we’d do once we reached our destination I wasn’t sure. Save Laric. That was all I knew. Save him from the blue-robed Devourers.
A task I wished I felt more committed to.
Chapter Nineteen
The time passed fast and before I realised it I was looking at the glittering expanse of the sea ahead of us. Zem was leading the way, and the rest of the airlings were following him. That made it easier for our new recruits. All they had to do was hang on.
Once we reached the coastline, Zem banked and began following it. From here we could see where the sea met the land as clearly as we had on the map in the Command Centre. It amazed me how accurate those maps were, given none of their makers had ever seen the land from the sky.
Zem pointed ahead and I followed his arm, seeing the jut of land reaching out into the dark blue sea. The sun was now half way to its zenith and beating down on us brutally. Landor kept pulling the hood of the cape down over his face. If he was to join us on our quest, we’d have to find some better means of protection for him.
Prior was the first to spot them. I heard him cry out and point down at the spit of land where a sandy road led out to the lighthouse at the end. On that road maybe a dozen dark-robed riders were riding hard toward the lighthouse.
My heart turned over in my chest. The pack had caught the scent of their quarry and were hard on Laric’s heels. Had he reached the lighthouse? Had he found a boat there? Why hadn’t he tried to find one in the fishing village? Surely there would be more chance of that than on this rocky point.
