A Flight of Marewings

by Kristen S. Walker

  Mkumba bowed his head. “I thank you for your advice, and I’ll continue to follow your counsel in the future.” He straightened up again. “But it’s not right that a woman should lead. If you resign now, I’ll recommend you for my second.”

  Korinna stared at him. “Just because I’m a woman? Why should that make any difference?” She indicated the rest of the unit with a sweep of her hand. “Everyone else follows me just fine.”

  But when she looked around, she saw that a few of the boys were shaking their heads, and so were the two northern girls.

  Mkumba saw them, too. “A woman should be a helpmeet, a partner, who stands in support of her man. But it’s the man’s role to lead, especially in a man’s domain, like war.”

  She stifled a laugh. “Kylara, the Goddess of War, wouldn’t care to hear you say that.”

  Mkumba dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “I don’t care what heathen gods you name here. Where I come from, women are subordinate, and I won’t let you be otherwise.”

  Korinna threw her head back and glared at him. “If you won’t follow my lead, then I’ll tell the sergeant that you resign as my second and choose someone else.”

  Mkumba clenched his fists in anger. “I don’t know how a Khazeem like Mrokin can stand to let women get away with this in his own company, even one who shares his bed.”

  Herokha stepped between them before Korinna could respond. “Then you misjudge Warlord Galenos,” she said, emphasizing his title with contempt. “If you wanted to follow a Khazeem, then you should have joined a Khazeem mercenary company. The Warlord and his brother were raised here in Seirenia.”

  Both of them stopped and stared at Herokha, but as Korinna thought about it, what she said made sense. For all of their foreign appearances, Galenos and Varranor both spoke and acted like Seirenians. They had treated her like their inferior for her age, but never for her sex. Galenos had even told her that he made a point of bringing female officers to their first meeting so she would feel more comfortable.

  Korinna recovered from her surprise and smirked at Mkumba. “See? If you’re jealous, then you’re welcome to try complaining, but I don’t think it will get you anywhere in the Storm Petrels. Maybe you’d better just quit now.”

  She saw anger spread across his face, furrowing his brow, and out of the corner of her eye she saw his hand strike out. Korinna reacted, dodging to the side, away from the blow.

  Herokha reached up and caught his wrist on the outside in a lightning-quick movement. Somehow she used his momentum to twist the arm up and around behind his back with a loud crack of bone.

  Mkumba cried out in pain and his arm went limp. He took a step back from the two girls. “She-demons! You’ll pay for this!” He turned and ran back to the fort’s entrance.

  Korinna let out a sigh of disappointment. Her first day in charge had already turned into a disaster. “I think we had all better head back and report to the sergeant. We may be in trouble now.”

  Herokha slipped into the empty second’s position next to her. “I’ll explain everything to him.”

  The rest of the unit followed without comment, but Korinna caught their wary glances as they went back.

  Herokha made good on her promise to explain everything to the sergeant’s satisfaction, and the other members of their unit corroborated her story. Although Mkumba had come back complaining of an attack by the two girls, everyone else who had been there for the incident made it clear that Mkumba had begun the altercation, and Korinna had never even touched him. The sergeant lectured them all sternly against brawling, but in the end Herokha was let off on account of defending Korinna: she got a slap on the wrist with a few extra chores, and a warning against doing it again, but no permanent repercussions. Meanwhile, Mkumba was put on probation while his arm healed, and Sergeant Yoren promised that he would be transferred to another unit in the future.

  When the whole mess was sorted out, Korinna sat next to Herokha in the mess hall, for the first time of her own volition, and tried to thank the girl for her assistance. Perhaps this was the time to mend the petty arguments between them. “I appreciate you backing me up like that. Mkumba’s very strong, and if he’d hit me, I’m sure it would have hurt.”

  Herokha shook her head. “You don’t owe me any thanks. I paid you back for standing up to him for me that time before, and nothing more. I’m done pretending to be your friend.”

  That shocked her into silence. Up until now, Korinna had suspected that Herokha didn’t really like her, but outwardly the girl had made every overture of friendship that she could. She grabbed at the mention of the last incident. “If you could fight like that, why didn’t you defend yourself against him back then?”

  Herokha shrugged. “Part of knowing how to fight is when to defend yourself and when to take the hit. I certainly didn’t need you to stand up for me, and I won’t need you again.”

  That made no sense whatsoever. Korinna tried another tactic. “Maybe we don’t need to be friends, since I never thought we really had much in common, but I do need a new second. Could you have my back on that?”

  Herokha shook her head and picked up her tray. “I’m not the leadership type.” She stood up and moved to another table.

  Korinna watched her go with regret. Something told her that there was a lot more to the girl, and she wanted to ask her more questions, like how she knew where Galenos grew up. But at least their mutual dislike was finally out in the open.

  A few days after Korinna’s promotion, Warlord Galenos came to visit Fort Ropytos again. This time he called Korinna directly into his private office to meet with him. He sat behind his desk and pointed to a chair.

  “At ease, recruit.” He didn’t waste time getting to the point. “Last time, you refused to speak with me,” he said with a frown. “Is there some reason why you wish to avoid me?”

  “No, sir.” Korinna sat stiffly in the chair and kept her gaze directly ahead, focusing at a point on the wall behind him. Perhaps if she behaved as a proper soldier, then he would treat her as such.

  The Warlord cleared his throat. “Then, is there a problem with your unit? I received a report that one of the recruits was removed from your unit after allegations of brawling. Would you care to explain?”

  Her breath caught in her throat. Why did the report go all the way up to him? “It was a misunderstanding, sir. He was a friend of mine, but he was disappointed by the sergeant’s choice of leadership for our unit.”

  “So it was simple jealousy, then?” Galenos shuffled some papers on his desk. “Your sergeant had something more to say on the matter, I believe.”

  She clenched her jaw again at the memory. “Yes, sir. He—he accused me of gaining the title unfairly.”

  To her surprise, he let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. “These kinds of ugly rumors always circulate, especially around the female recruits. I’m afraid that it takes a while for our new members to adjust to the culture here.”

  Against her will, her eyes went to his face and she saw the disappointment in his furrowed brow. “Sir?”

  He gave her a sad smile and spread his hands wide. “Soldiers aren’t permitted to marry and they’re avoided by most of the populace, so it’s difficult for us to find romantic partners outside of the company. And working in close quarters, feelings naturally arise. Were you ever told that there was an explicit rule against relations with anyone else in the company?”

  Korinna thought back over the code of conduct that was constantly drilled into the recruits during their early days of training, but came up with nothing. She shook her head reluctantly. “But it still wouldn’t be proper for people to get unfair treatment—”

  Galenos coughed. “If you were involved with your own sergeant, then the other officers would watch how he treated you, and you might be moved to another unit if they doubted his integrity. But that would reflect poorly on him, not you.”

  “Mkumba said that I gained special favors from sleeping with you, since we were go
ing to be married.” She looked at the floor, her face growing hot, but she forced herself to speak the words. “Wouldn’t being intimate with the leader of the entire company earn me special treatment?”

  “Why did you tell them about our marriage?” There was a strong note of disapproval in his tone.

  She glared up at him. “I didn’t tell anyone. Someone else already knew.”

  He frowned. “I kept it a secret from the general public. I wonder who leaked the information.” His pen scratched the paper. Then he looked back up at her. “Do you want to cancel our marriage agreement to avoid further speculation?”

  “No,” she said quickly. But looking at him made her hesitate. Mercenary life came easily to her—it was more exciting than overseeing a farm estate, but less complicated than playing politics in the city. She could stay where she was and make a life for herself, and she wouldn’t have to marry anyone.

  She blinked, realized she was staring at him, and looked down at the floor. “How—how are things going in the city? Do you plan to attack them soon?”

  Galenos shuffled more papers on his desk. “Hm. Not really. I have another plan in the works. If we could take the city peacefully, perhaps through a political coup, that would mean no potential damage or loss of life.”

  “Oh.” It sounded like a better choice—no one would get hurt. Even if Korinna couldn’t play a role in a political coup. “That’s great.”

  She pushed back her chair and stood up. “Is there anything else that you need?”

  He shook his head. “That’s all. Dismissed.”

  She saluted and left the room.

  Another recruit from a different unit was transferred into Sergeant Yoren’s class to replace Mkumba, a quiet weaver’s son from Sympaia named Zephyros. Yoren promoted him to Korinna’s second and he performed the role adequately. None of the other recruits raised a complaint about the leadership again.

  Their training became more advanced, and Korinna was grateful that the others didn’t challenge her commands. She had to lead them in complex exercises like setting up camp in several different types of locations, field triage and carrying a wounded soldier, and night missions that often involved working with and against other units. Yoren didn’t give them explicit instructions anymore, just a general objective to the exercise, leaving Korinna to wrestle with difficult decisions when things went wrong.

  The final phase of their training involved hunting monsters, a necessary skill to defend the city and her farms. Korinna anticipated these exercises with excitement: would these hunts prepare her for capturing a marewing and becoming a rider?

  Her hopes seemed to be answered when Sergeant Yoren announced that their training would be handled by a new officer: Commander Varranor. He met them on the field with his marewing, Skyfire.

  The chestnut marewing flashed her red eyes over the recruits and stamped the ground. The commander held up one hand to keep them back. His other hand grasped Skyfire’s halter and kept her steady. Then he turned and spoke to her in low tones for several long moments. Korinna strained to listen, but she couldn’t tell if he said anything special. Eventually, she calmed down.

  “Monsters are more than just your typical beasts,” he began. “They’re animals twisted by wyld magic. Take the marewing, for example. When the Kaldonian Empire ruled these lands, they brought horses with them, a common animal that served as a transport for goods and a mount on the battlefield that gave their soldiers a great advantage. But the magic of Seirenia did something to those horses that changed them forever.”

  Skyfire stood rigid under his touch as Varranor pointed out the features of the marewing: cloven hooves that could cut where they struck, sharp fangs, and their most important feature, the wings that gave them their name. “But most strange of all, they all appear to be female.” Varranor turned Skyfire around so they could see her sex. “We know that in the north, the Kaldonians can still breed horses, giving them a reliable supply. Their horses don’t survive in Seirenia. But no one knows how marewings reproduce or where their offspring come from. That means we must capture and tame each marewing in our company. And because of their demon-like temperament, the only use we have for them is as weapons of war.”

  Korinna raised her hand to ask a question and Varranor nodded at her. Skyfire also turned her head at the sound of her voice, and she thought that the marewing looked at her with vague curiosity. “Can other monsters be captured and tamed?”

  Varranor grinned and shook his head. “Many have tried, and some rich men may have a collection of small monsters that they keep in gilded cages. But though you may capture one, most can’t be tamed. I suspect that it’s because horses were domesticated animals before the wyld warped them, and some of their old nature still remains. Most other monsters seem to have come from wild beasts, although some are so strange that their origins are unknown.”

  “So we just kill all of the other monsters because they aren’t useful?” Korinna asked with a frown. She saw the red eyes following her again.

  “Because they’re dangerous.” Varranor let go of Skyfire and stepped back. Free again, she reared back on her haunches and let out a piercing shriek. He quickly grabbed her halter and pulled her back down. “Make no mistake, if a herd of marewings came to attack a settlement, we would kill them too. Human existence in Seirenia can be a fragile thing. Monsters would kill us and destroy our livelihood to take back the small pieces of land that we manage to hold back from the wyld. We have to do what we need to survive.”

  “But if they can be tamed—” Korinna reached out her hand and took a step toward Skyfire. She remembered what she had done with Galenos’s Nightshade before, projecting a feeling of calm friendship.

  The marewing screamed and lashed out with terrifying speed.

  “No!” Varranor launched himself in front of her, shoving Korinna back with one hand and holding up his other arm to block the marewing’s strike. He caught her teeth on his arm.

  Skyfire tore savagely into his flesh before she realized her mistake. She screamed again and struggled to get around Varranor.

  Sergeant Yoren grabbed Korinna by the back of her tunic and dragged her away. “Recruits, fall back! Retreat to the barracks, now!”

  Korinna looked back at Varranor, struggling to contain Skyfire. Blood dripped from his arm unheeded. She went limp under the sergeant’s firm grip, suddenly struck with guilt. She hadn’t meant for this to happen.

  The other recruits scrambled to obey, all training forgotten in their rush to get inside. Yoren hauled Korinna in after them.

  When the door was closed and the sounds of the angry marewing were muffled outside, Yoren shoved her against the wall and glowered down at her. “Are you trying to get us all killed, recruit? Did you not hear the commander’s explicit description that these monsters are dangerous and not to be approached lightly?”

  Korinna shook from the shock of the encounter. She fought to keep her knees from folding under her and dumping her on the floor. “I—I’m sorry, sir, I just thought—I’ve ridden on one before, and I thought if you were friendly enough—”

  Yoren cuffed her ear hard enough to make her see double for a moment. “You stupid girl! You don’t befriend a monster! Never approach a marewing without the express permission of their rider, is that clear?”

  She blinked back tears before the others could see her cry. “Yes, sir.”

  “To be sure that you don’t forget again, I’m stripping you of your rank. I won’t risk the lives of your fellow recruits by letting you make foolish decisions for them.” He tore the leader’s insignia off of her uniform and handed it to Zephyros. “You’ll learn caution as the lowest recruit in your unit. And when the commander has been seen to by the physick, you’ll go to him with a formal apology.”

  Korinna looked down at the floor, remembering the way that Varranor had been savaged by his own marewing to defend her. Through the door, she could hear that the commotion had died down outside, but she had no idea what condit
ion he was in now. She prayed to Tryphaestos, the god of healing, that his wounds were only superficial.

  21

  Varranor III

  Varranor gritted his teeth and flexed his left arm. The muscle responded with a twinge of soreness, but the pain was gone. He poked at the pale scar tissue: it felt stiffer than the surrounding flesh. The wound was gone, but he would bear the marks of Skyfire’s teeth for the rest of his life.

  The physick watched him move and nodded at her handiwork. “You’ll have to resume your exercises slowly, but the healing was successful. I have every confidence that you will return to full strength by the end of the month.”

  Varranor looked up at her with a smile. “You’ve done a miracle in only a day. Thank you.”

  She smiled back with a wink. “It’s no trouble at all. After all, it’s my job.” She ran her hand up his arm. “Is it true that you have taken some little country girl for a lover?”

  He stiffened under her touch. “I was hoping to keep people from finding out.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll keep your little secret.” She winked again and handed him back his shirt. “I’m just glad that you finally found someone. You and your brother always kept yourselves apart from everyone else. I say that life is too short to deny yourself happiness.”

  Varranor put on the shirt and thanked her again. The less that he said about the matter, the less likely he would ruin Herokha’s cover.

  The physick started to leave the examination room, but turned back in the doorway. “Speaking of young ladies, there’s another one here to see you. She’s been asking ever since you were brought in yesterday, but I told her to come back once you’d had a chance to recover. Would you like me to send her in now?”

  Varranor couldn’t think of who besides Herokha would be coming to see him, but he nodded. “I can give her a few moments of my time. I have duties waiting for me.”