A Flight of Marewings

by Kristen S. Walker

  The plant itself was huge, maybe a quarter of the size of the house. The pale pink flowers were as big as her head, hanging from thick stalks the width of a man’s torso. By now, three of the blossoms were open and the perfume was so thick in the air that it was giving her a headache.

  As she watched, Zephyros stood up and lifted his shield so that the metal caught the sunlight. He flashed the ready signal for her. Then he signaled to his group and they rushed forward.

  Korinna passed the signal on to her team. The twenty of them walked forward in four ranks of five, with men in the front with shields up to cover their approach. Behind them, others had arrows nocked and ready on their bows. They moved behind the house so the eastern wall blocked their view.

  They were in position around the corner when they heard screaming.

  Orivan, the closest one to the corner, peeked his head around. When he looked back, he was pale. “They’re just—disappearing,” he said with a shudder. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

  Korinna pushed him out of the way. She looked out across the field just in time to see Zephyros fall into the ground, far away from the plant. Most of the other recruits were already down. Herokha turned and ran the other way.

  “They’re under attack.” She looked at the plant. “And that thing’s opening up more flowers.”

  As she watched, the fourth and fifth blossoms were opening—and their color was darkening to red.

  Korinna coughed and pulled her shirt up to cover her mouth. Then she drew the bowstring back and fired an arrow into the nearest flower.

  The fruit inside burst in a spray of red juice. The plant recoiled, whipping its flowers back and forth. The flowers closed again

  Yulina whispered over her shoulder, “Where are the others? We have to help them.”

  Korinna shook her head. “I don’t know what happened. We have to proceed carefully.” She signaled for the others to follow her. “Move slow and keep your eyes open.”

  They walked around the side of the building, staring at the plant.

  After a few steps, there was a sudden scream. Korinna felt a hand grab her shoulder from behind and then get yanked away.

  She spun around and saw Yulina disappearing into a hole in the ground. Zinoviya screamed and lunged after her.

  Korinna signaled to Orivan. “Grab her!”

  Orivan caught Zinoviya around her waist before she fell. He pulled her back and held her against her struggling.

  She looked down. A sinkhole had opened in the ground. Inside was some kind of plant pod, clamped tightly shut. All along the top, long, tooth-like spines held the pod sealed shut. There was something white struggling inside it—Korinna leaned closer, struggling to keep her balance—Yulina’s hand?

  Korinna held up her hand to stop Zinoviya’s screaming. “Quiet! Let me listen.”

  When Zinoviya stopped, they could all hear the other girl’s muffled cries coming from inside the pod.

  “She’s alive in there. We may be able to get her out.” Korinna dropped her bow and pulled out her sword. She slid into the sinkhole and started hacking at the pod.

  “Be careful!” Zinoviya cried out. “Don’t hurt her!”

  Korinna tried prying the teeth open with her blade, but the pod was too strong. “It’s no use. We have to kill the plant first.”

  One of the other men reached into the sinkhole and helped her climb back up the side. She picked up her bow again, but hung it on her back.

  She turned and faced the plant. “We have to get closer to do real damage. Watch your step.”

  The others were frightened, but they followed her commands. Together they walked forward, testing the ground before them with each step. They found two more sinkholes, but they stepped around them without any more injuries.

  As they walked past the door to the house, Korinna looked inside. The single-room building was empty. The family had already fled, leaving their belongings behind.

  Zinoviya let out a high, piercing shriek and rushed at the plant. She started hacking away at the blossoms with her sword.

  The stems whipped back and forth, away from the girl’s blade. Some pulled up out of reach, while others knocked into her head and legs.

  “Watch out!” Korinna yelled, but it was too late. A thick stalk swept under Zinoviya’s feet and bowled her over.

  The others rushed in to help her, drawing their swords and holding up shields to guard against the monster’s onslaught.

  Korinna took a step back. She felt a rumbling under the ground and feared that there were more of the pods moving into position to capture them. Meanwhile, the recruits’ blows only seemed to anger the plant, and although they chopped off pieces of it, they were no closer to killing it. She had to think fast.

  Then between the waving stalks she saw something in the center of the plant, so low down that it was half dug into the ground. The heart of the plant. That had to be the target they needed to hit.

  Korinna thought about her discarded bow, but there were too many people and stalks in between. She would never get a clean shot.

  She dropped her sword and shield on the ground and drew her dagger from her belt. “Orivan!” she yelled, hoping to get the boy’s attention.

  He turned to look at her.

  She took off at a sprint toward him, holding the dagger close so it wouldn’t cut him. “Throw me!”

  Orivan went pale, but he dropped his equipment just in time and held out his hands. When Korinna reached him and jumped, he caught her around the waist and launched her up into the air.

  She had only the blink of an eye to spot her landing in the center of the plant and angle her body toward it in mid-air. One of the stalks tried to swat her out of the way, but she tucked into a somersault and rolled off of it.

  She landed in the center of the waving stalks. Korinna checked that her dagger was still in her hand, located the center of the mass, and plunged her blade deep into it.

  Sticky, blood-red sap gushed out over her hand. She was right—it was bigger than it looked, half-buried in the ground. She plunged her knife deeper, driving it with the rest of her body weight, and sank into the gooey mass up to her shoulder.

  Around her, she felt the plant monster thrashing wildly in what she hoped were its death throes. Then one of the heavy stalks connected with her head and the world went black.

  When Korinna struggled back into consciousness, everything was chaos. She was lying on the ground somewhere. She blinked to clear her vision, but everything still looked blurry, or was it that the sun was too bright? Her head ached. She squeezed her eyes shut again. That left her with ringing in her ears and a vague nauseous feeling.

  Behind the ringing, she started to hear other sounds distantly around her. There were muffled voices, although she couldn’t tell what they were saying. She opened her eyes and looked around. Two faces swam into view directly above her. No—it was only one face. Dark skin, black eyes, a broad, flat nose and wiry hair—he was frowning at her—what was his name again?

  “Galenos,” she gasped. Her stomach heaved at the effort. She coughed.

  “Shh, don’t try to move yet,” he said. “The healer will be here in just a moment. Let her check you first.”

  She blinked as her vision continued to clear and tried to look around. “Where—are they okay?”

  “My unit is cutting them free of the pods now. Don’t worry, they’re going to be fine.”

  Korinna had to lie on the ground until the healer came and cleared her.

  “She had a good knock on the head, but otherwise she’s fine,” the healer told Galenos with a smile. “Watch her closely for the next few hours to be sure that she doesn’t get any worse, but I suspect she’ll be fine in a week or so, as long she gets some rest and doesn’t try to do any more stunts in the meantime.” She gave Korinna a wet rag to wipe the sap off her hands, which she took gratefully.

  Galenos helped her to sit up and take a look around. What he had said earlier was true: soldiers w
orked with practiced efficiency to pry open the plant pods and pull out the recruits trapped inside, and a team of healers circulated through the group, checking each one. Everyone had a few scrapes and bruises, but there were only a few serious injuries: the spines of the pod had pierced Zephyros’s leg, and Yulina’s hand was crushed.

  She recognized the members of Galenos’s unit among those who were helping. She realized with a pang of jealousy that Varranor knelt next to Herokha, and looked away quickly.

  She turned her head slowly and saw what was left of the plant monster lying on the ground, very much dead. Other soldiers were there with shovels, digging it out of the ground.

  She looked up at the warlord again. “What was that thing?”

  “Trapflower,” he said with a shake of his head. “We have to make sure to clear out all of the roots, because they have a nasty habit of coming back. Mages will keep an eye on the area for a few days.”

  She shuddered. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. We had no idea what to do.”

  Galenos nodded. “We have to work with what’s in the area, but we like to test recruits with a type of monster that they haven’t personally encountered before. Fortunately, most recruits don’t have any monster experience, so that makes our job easier. We want to see how you handle unexpected situations.”

  Korinna remembered many other training exercises where things had gone wrong, sometimes seeming to deliberately spoil their plans, but this was something different. She had never been so terrified that one of her companions could be killed—let alone half of her unit. She shook her head, then winced as that set off a new wave of nausea.

  “It’s not fair,” she said when she recovered. “That was too hard. We almost died.”

  Galenos pointed to the herd of marewings waiting in the field. “We were watching you from overhead, both to grade your efforts and to interfere if things got bad enough. Recruits can die in their field tests, but not very often. I don’t want to waste time training recruits who won’t survive their first fight.”

  She glared at him. “How can you say things weren’t that bad? Half of my friends were stuck in plant pods.”

  “But you pulled through all the same.” He patted her on the shoulder. “And my evaluation is that you stayed calm, stuck to your training, and led your troops to victory. Welcome to the Storm Petrels, Private Votsis.”

  She gaped up at him. Did she hear him right? The way he answered seemed smug. So it was true—she had passed the first hurdle. She was officially a mercenary. Somehow, she didn’t feel as happy as she thought she would be at the news.

  On to the next step, then. “What’s the next test? How do I get to be a rider candidate?”

  Galenos held up his hands. “Whoa, slow down a little. That’s not for me to decide.” He looked up and waved over another officer. “Sergeant Navera, what is your assessment?”

  Korinna looked up at the older woman in surprise. She knew that there were female marewing riders, but she hadn’t met the officer who trained them.

  Sergeant Navera looked down on them with her arms folded. “Take four days to recover. Then I’ll expect you to join my training.” She turned and walked away.

  Korinna turned to Galenos with wide eyes. “So that’s it? I already passed? You’re going to let me try catching a marewing?” Her heart was racing. She couldn’t believe how lucky she’d gotten—he had seemed determined to watch her fail before.

  He nodded. “You’ll have to train hard to match the sergeant’s exacting standards, but if she says you’re in, then you have a chance.” He stood up and offered her a hand. “But first, I think you have some gear to recover, private. A soldier doesn’t leave her sword just lying around on the ground.”

  “Yes, sir.” Korinna let him help her to her feet, and noticed without meaning to that his hand had the same balance of hard-worn callouses and gentle warmth that she’d felt in Varranor’s hand.

  She pulled her hand back and involuntarily glanced to where Varranor and Herokha sat in quiet conversation. Would the sergeant tap the other woman, as her friends had said? Suddenly the rumors about their illicit relationship seemed all too true.

  Galenos caught her gaze and walked off, but before he turned, she thought she saw the smile fade from his face.

  Korinna turned and hurried away to hide her face, certain that everyone could read her emotions plainly. Her thoughts spun in a thousand directions, and she couldn’t sort out how she felt. Galenos’s touch burned on her hand, but her mind replayed Varranor’s face smiling down at Herokha. She had to focus on becoming a marewing rider, first. Then she would have time to figure out everything that was going on.

  Korinna had a few days to say good-bye to the other graduates and her commanding officer before she had to move on. She was supposed to rest, but after a good night’s sleep, she felt fine. She went to see what had become of the others.

  Zephyros now walked with a permanent limp from the leg injury he’d received from the trapflower encounter. He could no longer serve as a fighter, but the company made sure he was taken care of, with a posting in the kitchens. He wished her luck without much enthusiasm. Yulina and Zinoviya had made a full recovery and were leaving on their own assignment to another fort up north, and barely said good bye to anyone.

  To her joy, she learned that her friends would be going with her. Orivan and Mkumba had both been selected as candidates. The three of them met at their favorite haunt by the paddock fence near the marewings and shared congratulations.

  Orivan gave her an enthusiastic hug. “Our dreams are finally coming true!”

  Mkumba had an awkward apology for her. “I didn’t act honorably toward you before,” he said, looking at the ground. “I’m learning to adjust to the different customs here. I hope we can be friends again.”

  Korinna hugged him too. She was too happy over her good fortune to be mad anymore. “I guess you’ll have to get used to taking orders from a woman now.”

  Orivan wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, I hear Sergeant Navera is really harsh.”

  The big Khazeem shrugged and grinned. “We’ll deal with that later. For now, we made it!” He let out a hearty whoop, echoed by the others.

  As Sergeant Yoren had once explained, most of the new candidates weren’t chosen from the graduated recruits, but from more experienced soldiers. The only other person that Korinna knew was Herokha—news that she was less than excited to learn. She resolved to ignore the other girl as much as possible and try to avoid future conflicts.

  Sergeant Navera had one meeting with her new candidates the day before they left. “Enjoy your little jaunt through the countryside, because once you’re in my hands, your life will be a lot more difficult.” She looked over the group, thirty total, with a stern gaze. “Some of you are new with us, and some of you are veterans with real combat experience. But with me, that’s not going to make any difference. This is a whole new world and I will personally test each and every one of you to the limits of your abilities. Most of you will fail, and some of you will die. It’s your job to make sure that you go farther than what I believe you’re capable of.”

  Korinna didn’t take the sergeant’s threats very seriously. Yoren had made similar threats at the beginning of his training, but he had eased up on the recruits over time. The hardest part about her basic training had just been the determination not to quit early. No one seemed to believe that it was easy to become a marewing rider, but now Korinna was confident that if she just didn’t give up, she would succeed.

  The candidates weren’t the only ones going to Fort Aelyzoai. Other new graduates were being posted there, and another more experienced unit came along to supervise them. A unit of marewing riders would escort them from the air. A supply train of oxen and their handlers rounded out the ranks, so almost two hundred soldiers were on the road.

  Fortunately, the road was one of the old, broad highways built by the old Kaldonian invaders. Even a thousand years later, the elevated road stood stron
g, with drainage built into the paved surface. Unlike the meandering country dirt roads that Korinna was used to, the highway ran straight and level, cutting through hills and bridging rivers in a marvel of engineering. She wondered at the power of the empire that had built them, before the wyld magic had driven the Kaldonians back north.

  The march to the new fort took them south and west into the mountains. Korinna learned that the speed of the marewings’ flight was limited by their supply train. Although the beasts and their riders could range far and wide in the countryside, they had to return to the camp every evening. They couldn’t carry their food or anything with them. And the supply train crawled along the ground at the pace of oxen pulling heavy carts, because the infantry had to stay to protect them from monsters and brigands even in their own lands.

  Every day brought them closer to the border and farther from the only home she had ever known. Korinna soaked up the sights of the unknown land. Farms lined the coast. Then they turned inland and farms gave way to forests again. The forests grew older as they entered the mountains, until they came to trees so thick and tall that Korinna could not see their tops, and she would have needed her entire unit of recruits to form a circle around their trunks.

  Although they traveled through dangerous territory, they saw no monsters. The marewing riders scouted from the air and occasionally came back with reports of sightings, but the train was large enough that any beasts heard them coming and kept their distance. Korinna was able to relax after a few days. She wasn’t ready to face another fight yet.

  Korinna and the others reached Fort Aelyzoai on the evening of the eighth day. It looked much smaller than Ropytos, more a tower than a full fort, set high on the mountain with a view of the valley. Half of the fortress was built into the rock, a natural defense. The thick walls were built of stones carved from the same mountain, fit so close together that she could scarcely see the mortar that held them in place. Only a few narrow slots for archers penetrated its forbidding face.