Chapter 32 #2
The night air was heavy as they climbed to the top of the ruin and Aesira wondered if it would bring rain.
Her heart twitched, thinking about the day only a few weeks ago when she had danced in the rain with Stone.
Had watched as the Strix dropped that boy.
The sound of his body hitting the hard ground.
The memory it tore from her. The memory of Eldrin.
Even if they had not found Desmond, this trip had changed her in so many ways.
It had opened her eyes after years of living in the dark.
Years, she had done nothing outside of the Order.
Years she had spent worshipping a goddess that did not care for her back.
Years she had buried the shame of losing her brother, let the mistakes of her childhood dictate her future. What she thought she deserved.
She didn’t want to think of what lay ahead. Didn’t want to think of Kamari, alone in the Citadel, praying to Celestria. It will devastate her, she thought. Everything they’d found on this trip, everything they’d seen.
At the top of the ruin, they peered through an expansive crater where the dragon had risen. “Do we just call it up?” Bee locked her arm with Stone’s.
“Oh dragon,” Birdie sang, “come out.” She laughed and Bee punched her arm.
"Birdie Odega can you take anything seriously, for once?"
"I was serious the day I told you I loved you." Birdie pecked a quick kiss to Bee's cheek. "And not a day since."
From where they stood, Aesira could see the fields of astra glowing under the moon. The Lunaris moths circled above the flowers, eliciting more ethereal light. “Stone do you have the astra?” He nodded then reached into his bag and pulled a single flower. “Hold it over the edge.”
He gave her a puzzled look but did as she said, dangling the flower over the edge. A few moments passed and nothing rose from the ruins. “Why do you think it wants the astra?” Stone asked, pulling the flower back.
Aesira's brows bunched, watching the endless dark at the bottom of the ruin. “It seems like everything here revolves around it,” she said. “The fields and the moths. The flower we found in the case. The runes. I just thought maybe the dragon was also tied to it somehow.”
Stone smiled and held the astra back over the edge of the opening. “I love the way your mind works.”
Her stomach somersaulted, tripping over a single word, then, he let go.
“Wait!” Bee shot forward. “We need that for the ship.”
“We’ll get another,” he said, eyes pinned on Aesira.
The gleaming glow of the flower faded into the inky black of the pit then, a deep bellow echoed up through the roof.
“Finally,” Birdie said, holding the sword higher. “Here we go.”
The roof shook but Birdie stood firm, her grip around the sword assured.
The ground beneath them quaked and the dark of the pit transformed to white teeth and a flash of orange eyes.
A gasp caught in Aesira’s throat as the massive dragon tore through the roof and that’s when she saw it, a golden chain laced around its neck.
“Bird!” she shouted. “There!” Aesira stepped back into Stone’s arms and Birdie stepped forward just as the dragon spread its enormous maw, spittle flying, coating Birdie’s face and hair. Its scream wretched through the darkness, bleeding into their ears, trembling their ribs in the chest.
A smile slashed across Birdie’s lips as she swung her blade.
One slice.
One sharp, precise slice of the weapon and the chain fell down, down, down until it disappeared into the deep chasm and the dragon soared overhead, dark scales disguising into the night.
Breaths heavy, legs weak, they dropped to their knees. A laugh bubbled in Aesira’s chest until she couldn’t contain it. It rippled out of her in waves until she was clutching her side and then Bee was laughing too and Stone. Then, Birdie.
“We just freed a dragon,” Birdie said and as if on cue the beast roared overhead, sobering their bout of laughter. “Shit, we just freed a fucking dragon.” She pulled herself to her feet, grabbing Bee’s hand and pulling her too. “We need to get the hell out of here.”
They walked straight through the night, found a hidden cave to sleep in during the day and decided it was best to trudge through the Polaris Ridge come nightfall.
It wasn’t worth the risk sleeping there again, not with the Dreamweavers.
They would make the trip through the ridge as quickly as possible, torches lit and wide awake.
The air began to change once over the ridge. Arid and dry. Nothing like the fresh, cool air of Ravki that Aesira found herself missing. She should feel relieved they were almost back to the Aquila but all she felt was sick.
Sick that she’d failed to find Desmond. Sick that the further she walked from Ravki, the more she missed it. She glanced at Stone as he set up camp. A few more days and they would be back to the Aquila, headed back to Vargah, where they would face a hurdle of challenges.
“There has never been a world where you and I feast at the same table.”
His words rang in her mind, over and over again.
Her father would never accept his daughter to be with an Odega and it didn’t matter anyway.
She had her orders. She and the rest of her knights would leave Vargah as soon as she arrived, moving on to their next station for several months.
At first she was content with the time she and Stone had together but now as he slid next to her and pulled her close, kissing her softly on the lips, she wasn’t sure there would ever be enough time with him.
The rest of the trip, save for a bloody run in with a few rogue crawlers, went relatively smooth. Dire came into view as they crested the final hill, desperate for water and ready for sleep on anything other than the ground.
“There she is.” Stone squeezed Aesira’s shoulders. “Home.” He nodded toward the Aquila where it sat still docked and the idea of home roused something deep in her middle.
Nightfall was beginning to settle, turning the sky shades of deep purple. The four of them wove through the remains of Dire, careful not to step on any of the broken fragments left behind from the Strix. When they got to the dock, Aesira dropped her bag.
“Stone…” It was dark. Too dark.
All of the torches on the ship were out.
“Patch!” Stone thundered through the ship, not pausing long enough to notice how disheveled it was. Crates and barrels thrown about. Cut ropes and broken bottles. Aesira’s stomach roiled as she approached the hull where a deep, crimson stain smeared across the planks.
“Nora!”
Eerie silence, then, “He’s in here!” Aesira, Bee, and Birdie followed Stone’s voice until they were in the crew mess.
The entire ship had been overturned. Every room in tatters.
Their maps torn to bits, their stocks of food and drink completely empty.
“He’s okay,” Stone said, pressing his fingers to Patch’s pulse. “Breathing, albeit barely.”
Aesira scanned the room again. “Where is Nora?” Stone was at her side, breathing heavy. “Nora!” Aesira tore through the room, her legs bumping into the emptied cargo containers. “Nora!”
No answer.
“I’ll check the other cabins,” Birdie said.
“I’ll find some supplies,” Bee said.
“I’ll get the astra filled.” Stone’s eyes burned through Aesira, like he was waiting for her permission to go.
To leave. She nodded, only once, and the team broke up, doing their assigned jobs with efficiency and ease.
All the while Aesira stood there. Her heart slamming in her chest, her breaths coming out short and fast. If she lost Nora–
“Aesira!” She followed Stone’s voice until she was on deck and there she was, red hair matted and tangled, body leaning into Stone’s.
“Nora.” She peeled her from Stone’s arms and wrapped her in her own. “Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But Patch, he’s hurt. He needs–”
“We’re on it,” Stone said, then disappeared below deck.
“What happened?” Aesira led Nora to a crate where they sat together. Dried blood lined her nose, under her nails.
“Crawlers, I think,” she said. “It was hard to tell but they came out of nowhere. Wrecked the ship. Almost took me over.” She closed her eyes, a few tears sliding down her cheeks. “Almost got Patch.”
“They didn’t, though,” Aesira said. “You’re okay. We’re here.”
“We’re okay,” Nora whispered. “We’re okay.”
Beneath the ship, Stone crouched beside Patch, examining the wound at his side, the bruising along his jaw.
Patch groaned, his eye struggling to open.
His arm was wrapped poorly in a tight make-shift tourniquet.
His skin was too pale, his lips dry and cracked.
“He needs water.” Aesira snagged a canteen from the table and tipped it to his lips and poured.
Slowly, he swallowed. Stone unwrapped the bandage on his arm and got to work cleaning the festering wound.
“Where is she?” Patch grumbled. “Nora?”
“I’m here.” Nora slid next to him, gently pushing his hair away from a gaping wound on his face. “We’re not alone anymore,” she said. “We made it.”
“We made it.” Patch’s eye rolled back, head slumping behind him.
Stone gripped either side of his face, giving him a light tap. “You need to wake back up.”
“I’m awake, boss.” He cracked his eye open.
“Glad to see you made it back.” His eye quickly fell shut again.
Patch hissed as Stone poured something sterile smelling onto his wound.
“There was a hive,” he said. “More crawlers than I’ve ever seen.
” He struggled to sit up then relented when Nora urged him back down. “They were different too.”
“Different how?” Aesira’s body grew impatient, fingers curling, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. They needed to get out of Dire before whatever tore through here came back.
“Smarter. More alive.” Patch closed his eye, his brows knitting together. “We fought them off the best we could, used all of Bird’s weapons but they got my arm and Nora–” His eye met Nora’s. “We’re lucky you showed up before they came back.”
“How did you get them to leave?” Stone’s voice was rough, his nostrils flaring.
Patch rested his head back against the wall. “Fire,” he said. “Whatever the fuck machine Birdie made was our only chance at survival, but even then it was close.”
“Let’s get you two some food and into bed.” Stone and Aesira helped him up and forced him and Nora to eat one of the ration packs they had left.
With the reservoirs filled, the ship fired up with ease and Stone led them away from Dire.
Aesira sat alone at the stern, watching as the mountains and the decrepit dock faded from view.
She tucked her knees tightly to her chest, the memories of the last few weeks flipping through her mind.
The Strix. The Lunaris moths. The Dreamweavers.
Stone.
Ravki and water and the dragon.
She let out a shaky exhale and stretched her legs.
Something stabbed her thigh. She pulled out of her pocket the small knife from the abandoned camp she and Bee found in Ravki.
She studied it under the light of the moon.
The ancient blade, worn and dull. The handle, ornate.
Bee thought Desmond brought the weapon, thought it was the only explanation for a Vargahian weapon to be in Ravki.
She wasn’t so convinced, considering the age of the weapon and all the other pieces of the camp. Which only begged more questions. If Desmond didn’t bring the weapon, who did?