A Flight of Marewings

by Kristen S. Walker

  She leaned closer to him and smelled his breath. “You have been drinking too much, and now you’re raving. I shall have my servants escort you home.”

  He shook his head and grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving. “No, no. I may be drunk, but I speak the truth. You’ll want a drink yourself after the news I have to tell you.”

  She pulled away from his grip. “If you have news, then compose yourself. You’re not making any sense.”

  “The bugs!” Eutychon wailed. “Those damned bugs are everywhere! I don’t know how they spread so quickly. We didn’t realize how bad it was, but now it’s too late!”

  Pelagia stared at him. “What bugs?”

  “The crystalbell bugs, the ones who cause the choreomania.” Eutychon shook his head. “Zeno is dead, gods take him! The High District is plagued, and it’s spread to the Temple District. Varula Soma himself was dancing when I found him.”

  She gaped at him, then made the sign to ward off evil. He could hear her mumbling a prayer softly to herself.

  A servant hurried into the room and handed Eutychon a steaming mug. He downed the liquid in several gulps, tasting herbs intended to make him more alert. He grimaced but swallowed anyway. There was always more wine waiting for him at home to drown out the despair.

  Pelagia took the mug away from him and set it on a nearby table. “How do you know what is causing the choreomania? And if you knew, why have you not stopped it?”

  Eutychon hung his head in shame. “We don’t have the cure, and now Petropouli is refusing to sell us any. I was assured that this could not happen.”

  “By whom? By the letter from Petropouli?”

  “By the man I paid to smuggle the bugs into the duke’s home.” He covered his face in his hands.

  Her hand flew to her mouth. “What have you done?”

  “Killed us all,” he moaned. He looked up at her, trying to appear apologetic.

  She slapped him across the face, hard. “You fool! I told you not to do anything rash!”

  He winced and covered his cheeks again to protect them. “The duke could have lived another twenty years! He might have re-married and had another son, or wed his daughter to the warlord and formalized their inheritance!”

  “That doesn’t mean that you should assassinate him!” She yelled so hard that her whole body shook.

  He cringed away from her anger. “I’m sorry! I just didn’t want to let the opportunity slip away from us! And we’ll all pay the price for my mistake—”

  He shuddered at the memory of Zeno, ripped free of his bonds, dancing himself to death. The man had been his political rival, but he hadn’t deserved to die like that.

  Pelagia regained her composure with uncanny self-control. She turned away. “Can the assassin be traced back to you or anyone else?”

  He shook his head, although she could not see it. “I don’t think so. I hired him through an intermediary. I thought the bugs would look like a bizarre coincidence.” He shuddered again. “They weren’t supposed to spread like this.”

  “And it was my decision not to call a quarantine because I didn’t want to cause a panic.” Pelagia clenched her fists at her sides. “Last week you told me that they had not spread across more than a single city block.”

  “It seems that the families were all trying to hide their symptoms for fear of public shame, not realizing that it was caused by a spreading epidemic. We didn’t know how many were actually affected until just now.”

  She turned to face him again, and he flinched even further back in the chair, for fear that she would hit him again. But she just fixed him with an icy stare. “What other news are you not telling me?”

  He blinked through the haze for a moment, but the herbs were already starting to work, and the second message came rushing back to him with sudden clarity. “The mercenaries,” he blurted out. “Galenos is attacking tonight.”

  Pelagia cursed. “Summon the remaining Councilors,” she ordered. “Send guards down to the docks and drag them away if you have to. Bring them to the temple. I want everyone there before dark.”

  Eutychon held up his hands. “What good will that do us?”

  “Just do as I say!” She opened the front door and stood there, glaring.

  He refused the offer of help from a servant and heaved himself to his feet. “We’ll be there.”

  “And no more wine,” she ordered. The door slammed shut behind him.

  41

  Korinna XIII

  Korinna felt excitement mounting in the fort as everyone rushed around making preparations for the coming attack. The attitude was entirely different from her first battle in Aelyzoai: instead of racing to defend against an enemy with greater numbers, now they would have the upper hand in attacking the city. Everyone said the mercenary company hired by Kyratia, the Mauve Dragons, were no match for them, and had even been defeated by the Storm Petrels before when her father had conquered Mezzarion City.

  In the past few weeks, she had worked hard to train Sungold and meet Sergeant Navera’s exacting demands. Now, the sergeant had cleared all of the new riders for combat, and they waited to hear which flight they would be assigned to.

  Yet after Galenos had given a rousing speech to the whole company, the warlord and the other marewing riders had rushed away. Then the air was suddenly filled with marewings, flying south toward the city alone.

  Korinna saw them leave and shouted in surprise. Could they all have left without her?

  She rushed back into the fort and found Orivan with the other new riders, looking just as shocked. “Did you get any orders?” she asked him.

  Orivan shook his head. “No, nothing. I thought we were going to leave before dawn tomorrow.”

  “But all of the other riders are already gone.” Korinna looked up and down the fort. “Even Navera, I think. What are we supposed to do?”

  He shrugged. “Stay here, I guess.”

  Douhyos sputtered. “But we were cleared for combat!” He looked around the group. “And Itychia went with them. It’s not fair.”

  “She had previous experience,” Orivan said, but he looked unhappy, too.

  Douhyos pounded one fist into his other hand. “I’ve been fighting in this company for three years. At the very least, we should go with the infantry in the morning.”

  “No.” Korinna looked around at the preparations, then at the sky, where the other marewings were disappearing. “We’ll follow them. Be ready when it gets dark. Most of the fort will be asleep by then, and it should be easy to get out unchallenged.”

  Douhyos looked down at her. “And what makes you think you should be the one in charge?”

  Orivan sighed and shook his head. “It’s just better not to question her.”

  Korinna held up one finger. “We only have to get to the front lines. I’m sure once we’re in the thick of the fighting, the experienced officers will be happy to give us further orders.” She looked around at the rest of the group. “Does anyone else have an objection?”

  The other riders shook their heads.

  She smiled. “Then it’s settled. I think we can be finished with supper and ready to go by the first bell after sunset. We’ll meet in the northwest training field, since no one on guard duty will be looking in that direction.”

  The others agreed and walked off in their own directions to make final preparations.

  Korinna felt better once things were settled. She was a little annoyed that Galenos had just left her without saying anything, but then she’d barely spoken to him in a long time. Still, she wanted to be there when he took the city. Surely it was her right to participate at least a little in the fight that would decide her future.

  42

  Pelagia V

  Pelagia brought her own contingent of guards with her to the temple, and she was glad of it, because she found the temple crowded with dancers. At her orders, the guards managed to clear the temple: most of them were imitators or only in the early stages of choreomania, because they
were persuaded to snap out of their dancing trance and leave the building. For those who stubbornly refused to move, she decided to ignore them and let them dance on; there was plenty of space inside the temple, and a few dancers wouldn’t get in the way.

  Since the last time she had come, the vines had grown even thicker over the sanctuary. They completely covered the walls, the ground, the trees and everything else until it was blanketed in large leaves. The only things that remained untouched were the wooden staff and the sacrificial altar at the center of the grove, and the people who danced on, led by Varula Soma.

  The other Councilors began to arrive soon after, many of them accompanied by guards or personal men-at-arms. She counted them anxiously. Zeno was dead from the choreomania, and a few had succumbed to the illness and came to join Varula Soma at his dance; others had already fled the city. When Eutychon arrived last, shaking his head, she counted only ten of the sixteen members of the Council still lucid enough to speak.

  Chairs were brought into the sanctuary and the Council were seated in a semi-circle, away from the dancers around the altar. Pelagia gave each one a chance to speak, reporting what they knew of the situation in the city.

  “The populace doesn’t know about the impending attack, but they know that something is wrong, and the ones who aren’t dancing are getting upset,” Rievios finished his report. “At this rate, our guards will be dealing with a riot inside the city before the Storm Petrels attack, and we won’t have any fighters to spare to help the defense.”

  Eutychon quivered in his seat. “We need to get out of the city. It’s not safe for us to stay. Holing up in this jungle isn’t going to protect us.”

  Pelagia silenced him with a look. “The Mauve Dragons are here for our defense, and Varula’s magic will take care of the rest. We don’t need to rely on the city guards. Let them call a curfew and send the people back into their homes.” She nodded at a guard captain nearby, who rushed off to relay the order. “And this temple is the safest place we could be.”

  Another Councilor raised her voice. “We may be safe here, but what of our families? Can we send for them?”

  Pelagia shook her head. She didn’t want another crowd filling up the sanctuary, interfering with her meeting. “No, your families will be fine so long as they stay in their homes. We must maintain an image of control. Without that, we will cause a panic, and then the riot will happen after all.”

  Others raised their voices in protest. “We’re not in control!” one shouted, and others supported him.

  She tried to take control of the situation again, but there were too many different voices to contain, and the tensions ran too high. The Council circle devolved into an incoherent argument, with everyone shouting at once and no one being heard.

  Pelagia sank back in her chair, too tired to deal with them any longer. She buried her face in her hands.

  Varula Soma and the others danced on, heedless of the doom about the descend upon them all. Once, he’d promised that she could always rely on him, but in her moment of greatest need, he abandoned her just like everyone else.

  She was an old woman and she didn’t know how to fight. But there was one weapon left to her. Lifting the corner of her kattar to hide her face as if in fear, she checked inside her dress to make sure the knife was still there in its sheath. She’d refreshed the poison herself that morning, just as she did every day. All she needed was one strike and her enemies would fall before her.

  All there was to do now was wait until they reached her.

  43

  Galenos IX

  Galenos and his flight of marewing riders arrived in the air over Kyratia more than an hour after sunset, cloaked by the full darkness of the night. Though no one could have seen their approach, there were already masses of city guards and mercenary soldiers lining the walls, armed and ready for battle. He wasn’t surprised that their impending attack had been discovered; he’d learned that it was almost impossible to eliminate all of the Council’s spies within his own ranks, and mobilizing his entire force at Fort Ropytos would have been visible even at a distance.

  Though Kyratia knew about the attack coming at dawn, he prayed to Kylara that they were not prepared for the secret marewing strike in the night. He and Varranor had been careful to assure that only their closest officers knew about their plans. Hopefully, no one in the city would see them until it was too late.

  At his signal, Varranor and another commander broke away from the formation, each leading a contingent of riders in a different direction. They would circle around the city and strike at three points simultaneously.

  Galenos held his own riders back in the darkness, out of the range of the soldiers’ torches on the wall. They hovered in place, waiting for the others to get into position.

  Kyratia was too large for him to see from one end to the other, even from the air. But they had agreed upon a signal ahead of time that all of them would still be able to follow.

  Towers across the city suddenly came to life. Bells pealed twice in the darkness, marking the second hour after sunset.

  Galenos waved his hand to his flights of riders, then nudged Nightshade with his knees, sending her into a dive.

  The broad tower’s roof was full of soldiers, but the marewings barreled into their ranks with sharp hooves flying and teeth bared. Galenos and the other riders leapt from the monsters’ backs quickly with swords out in the panic that ensued, and the soldiers were taken by surprise. Within moments, all of them had thrown up their hands and surrendered.

  Galenos sheathed his sword again and smiled. They had taken one of the great guns that protected Kyratia’s walls, the city’s only protection from aerial assault. He knew that Varranor and his other commander would have easily succeeded in capturing the other two guns; with all three in their possession, they had eliminated one of the greatest threats to the infantry in the morning.

  When the city guards had been tied up and secured to one side, Galenos nodded to his riders. “Load up the gun, black powder only, no shot.”

  At his signal, the gun fired once, sending an echoing boom reverberating through the night. He strode to the edge of the tower and listened.

  Two more shots answered, one from the south and another in the west. All three guns had been captured. Perfect.

  Galenos turned back with a grin. “Good work, everyone. We’ll wait up here for the dawn—”

  “Not so fast, Bluebird,” a gravelly woman’s voice came out of the darkness.

  Mercenaries wearing dark pink uniforms, the symbol of a dragon at their breast, rushed up out of the stairwell and onto the roof of the tower. A mage’s spell flashed out, causing iron chains to spring up around the marewings’ feet. The marewings cried out and struggled to free themselves, but they were caught fast.

  Seeing their marewings captured, the riders threw down their weapons without a struggle. The rival mercenaries were there in a flash to bind their hands and take them prisoner.

  The woman, Warlord of the Mauve Dragons, stepped forward through the crowd and smiled up at Galenos, her good eye sparkling in the torch-light. “I’ve seen you use this move before when you took Mezzarion.” She drew the sword from his belt and waved it under his nose. “I’ve waited a long time to repay you for that night.”

  He forced his own lips to curl back into a smile and winked at her. “You’re looking good, Syn. The eyepatch is very striking.”

  “Would you rather see what’s underneath?” Syntyche snatched the patch off her head, revealing the ugly scar where his arrow had pierced her right eye. She handed his sword to one of her men, who held it to Nightshade’s throat. “I told you that I would kill your marewing as payment for what you did to me. My revenge has been a long time coming.”

  He shrugged as best he could with his hands tied behind in front of him. “I haven’t seen you in so long, I just thought you gave up. The Republic of Kyratia must be desperate if they hired your washed-up company.”

  Syntyche snarled and her
hands flew up to clutch his neck. She was too small to hold his entire throat, but she knew just where to grasp in order to constrict his windpipe. “I have to keep your precious monster alive for now in order to ensure your cooperation, but there’s nothing keeping me from hurting the both of you. Now, are you going to come quietly, or are we going to play a game?”

  Galenos opened his mouth to answer her, but he didn’t have enough air to speak. She shifted her hand just enough to let him gasp, “We will surrender.”

  She released him and stepped back. “Very well.” Syntyche turned back to her soldiers. “We don’t need to take all of the riders, just the officers. Secure them away from the monsters and keep a close eye on the lot.”

  Two men, almost as large as him, came forward and took Galenos by his arms. They pushed him past Nightshade, allowing him one last glimpse at the marewing before they took him down the stairs.

  “Don’t worry, love,” he murmured, trying to calm her down. If Nightshade struggled too hard against the shackles that held her delicate legs, she could injure herself permanently.

  The marewing stopped fighting the bonds and threw her head back. Her red eyes flashed at him, full of anger and pain. A wild monster, she couldn’t understand the concept of surrender, but she saw her rider being handled roughly by the soldiers and she feared for his safety just as much as he worried about her.

  Her piercing cries echoed after him as Galenos stumbled down the stairs in the grip of his captors.

  Galenos, his second, and the two officers from the other flight all stumbled out into the street below the tower. The soldiers pushed them roughly, egged on by the cruel jibes of Warlord Syntyche. She made no secret that she was taking them to face the Council and hoped that the angry Councilors would order all of their immediate executions.

  He ignored her boasts and concentrated on his footing on the uneven paving, hoping to avoid the embarrassment of falling. His eyes roved back and forth across the street, which was oddly deserted. Kyratia’s well-lit thoroughfares usually boasted a popular nightlife, but tonight everyone was locked up indoors. Music drifted out a few windows, but he saw no signs of parties or revelries. City guards patrolled every corner, enforcing a curfew.