Chapter 8 #3
The cursor blinked for several seconds before the reply came back.
Possibly, but only for an hour or so longer.
The Mareritt are now aiming for the upper sections of the wall; the tanks are taking longer to refill than we thought they would, so we’ve resorted to using rain to stop it eating into the stone.
Whatever they can do, for however long they can do it, will help.
I’ll divert one, at the very least.
One lone air mage wouldn’t be able to maintain the full ferocity of the storm for long, but it was better than nothing, I supposed. Thanks.
Stay safe, cousin. Don’t do anything dangerous.
That would depend entirely on what your definition of dangerous is.
Don’t do anything I might do.
I could almost hear his amusement in that reply. Well, that’s utterly restrictive, because you, my dear cousin, have a long history of chasing danger. I’ll let you know when we’ve reached the aerie.
Do, he replied, and the cursor blinked out.
I shoved the tablet and quill away and tried to ignore the sliver of disappointment that Damon hadn’t added a comment.
The perfectly logical part of me knew precisely why—he was either still chasing down the end point of that tunnel or in Mareritten itself, trying to get close enough to the fog to see what it hid—but there was nothing logical about my brain when it came to that man.
Who could have guessed that that would ever be the case? Certainly not me. Mom probably had, given she’d said that the marriage would never have gone ahead if she didn’t think we were compatible or that I would be happy.
I tucked the quill and pen away again. Order everyone into the air, Kaia. By the time we get near those peaks again, the air mage should have extended the storm over the rest of the mountains.
How fly?
I hesitated. The usual wide V until we get to the storm, then single file from there, with Yara dropping back to ensure none of the youngsters fall behind us.
She passed that on, then launched into the air, her scales glimmering in the fading remnants of the afternoon sun.
We rose hard and fast, our wing sweeps sending sand and grass pluming into the air.
If the Mareritt were anywhere near, they would see it, but at least by the time they arrived, we’d be well gone.
But if they had a means of contacting the riders up on that plateau...
I thrust the thought away. There was nothing to be gained by worrying over something we couldn’t control. Which wouldn’t stop me from doing so, of course.
Kaia took the lead, and the drakkons swooped in behind us, Yara to our right, Rua to our left, and the other three in formation behind them.
We hit the outer vestiges of the storm about an hour later; we shifted to single file, then swung around to the left as we rose up into the gray, following the shadows of the mountain peaks that dominated this region rather than flying toward the Sheer.
There was no sign of the gilded riders, but the farther away we got from the plateau without any form of attack, the more my tension increased.
I had no idea if they knew where the aerie entrance was, but it didn’t really matter, given Esan was our home and there weren’t all that many different ways we could approach her from the Sheer’s location.
Even if they hadn’t moved all their birds from the barges to the plateau, they’d surely have put at least a couple of scouts in the air by now.
Then, of course, there were the watch stations they’d established along this end of the Black Glass Mountains.
They might have only been a couple, but all it needed was for one to spot us.
If the air mage couldn’t hold the storm over the peaks, we could be in real trouble.
I really needed to stop worrying about the ifs .
The rain increased once again, a gray blanket that washed visibility to almost zero.
It was both a boon and problem, but I refused to chase the latter down worry street.
Everyone was alert, and the senses of the drakkons were far sharper than ours.
If the gilded riders were here, the drakkons would see or, at the very least, hear them long before we did.
We flew on, getting colder, wetter, and more importantly, closer to home as the hours ticked by. As night began to ease over the mountains and the gloom around us deepened, the rain and cloud finally began to ease, becoming less and less of a protective curtain.
See Beak , Kaia said. Bird there.
Given we were still some distance from the Beak, hopefully the bird had not yet noticed us. But if a rider had been located there, despite our destruction of the tunnel behind it, there were likely to be others dotted farther along toward Esan.
But if there were, why wouldn’t their presence have been reported? Garran knew we were flying this way, so surely he would have checked with the watch stations—I stopped. Given how many hours had passed, maybe he had . It wasn’t like I’d looked at the quill tablet recently.
I tugged it free and quickly checked. Nothing. I hoped it meant there were no rider intrusions closer to our end of the mountains, but the stirring unease sharpened.
Are you able to flame that rider from here, Kaia? We need to stop him contacting his people.
She didn’t answer but she did flame. We remained too far from the Beak for her tide of heat to kill the bird, but it rolled over the tent the rider had dived into and turned it into a river of silver that puddled around the flapping and frantic bird’s feet.
Given the state of the tent, I doubted the rider had survived.
.. but the question was, had he had enough time to send a message back to the encampment?
I hoped not, but Túxn had already been very generous with her favors today, and who knew if that would continue.
I ordered an increase in speed; we were no doubt pushing the drakkons’ strength now, but we needed to get home before anything else happened.
See tower ahead , Kaia said. Look strange .
My stomach twisted, and I hastily dragged the long viewer from my pack. While our speed generally made it useless for ground viewing, we were flying directly toward the tower right now and that should make some difference.
Like all the stations we’d established here or on the Blue Steel Mountains, this one was constructed of stone and built high enough to allow a three-sixty-degree view of the surrounding area through the foot-high gap between the wall and its roof.
Quarters for those who manned them were generally located either within a nearby cave or lava tube, or in a mage-built hut made of stone thick enough to keep the fiercest of winters out.
In the Thumb’s case, it was a lava tube.
There was no sign of the tower being manned, but maybe that was because dusk had given way to night and the men had retreated for the evening, even though orders had been given for a twenty-four-hour watch to be maintained.
I adjusted the eyeglass to refocus as we drew nearer, and that’s when I spotted the odd deformation along one side of the tower—the stone looked to have been melted....
I swore again and swung the viewer right, scanning the mountain for the lava tube’s entrance.
Saw instead the body of a man—or at least, what remained of him after the acid had eaten away most of his torso—midway between the tower and the tube.
Beyond him, where the entrance should have been, was what looked to be a frozen black waterfall of stone that rather incongruously had a booted foot sticking out of its base.
The riders had been here.
The thought had no more than crossed my mind when Yara trumpeted a warning.
Gilded birds, Kaia said, rather unnecessarily. Yara wouldn’t be trumpeting for anything less.
How many?
Three.
Three we could cope with. Unless of course, there were more waiting ahead.
Again, just as I thought that, more riders appeared. Another three, flying directly at us.
Need stop thinking , Kaia grumbled.
I certainly did. Tell Taitia and Rua to help Yara take out the three behind. Order Aarvi and Cansu swing to the left and right of the ones in front of us.
If these riders had the same orders as those on the plateau, then it was likely that they’d attack Kaia and me directly and ignore the two younger drakkons completely.
The two drakkons immediately peeled away and, as I’d hoped, none of the riders ahead altered course to meet the challenge.
The Mareritt also had a rather single-minded approach when it came to attack, but they at least reacted to the situational changes.
These riders did not. Maybe it was against their code.
Or maybe the numbers approaching our shores were so damn large that they believed the loss of a few hundred men and birds was an acceptable price to pay for eventual victory.
Kaia didn’t alter her flight path; she arrowed directly at the oncoming riders, seemingly determined to smash right through them.
But at the last possible moment, she told me to hold, then flicked quick orders to Aarvi and Cansu.
As the riders raised their weapons to fire, she backflipped and swept her tail across the center and right birds, smacking them both off course.
Aarvi dove in from the left, taking out that bird and rider, while Rayka and Beth hit the one on the right with twin blankets of fire.
Kaia barreled down after the still-falling middle bird; the rider had enough time to look up and raise his weapon, but nothing else.
Kaia unleashed a burning river of death and swept right through their ashes.
A pain-filled bellow echoed around the peaks. Yara. She’d been hit.
And Kele had fallen from her neck.
I swore vehemently and ordered Kaia back to them. I wasn’t going to lose Kele or Yara. No matter what instinct had said on the outset of this journey, we were all going to fucking making it home. Alive.