Chapter 9
Zara
“Go now!” General Isa shouted to Mariyah and me before her horse spun around to face the eagle and its rider along with the other guards.
Shazeera carried me toward the canyon, Mariyah’s mare keeping pace beside us.
Over a mile away, the settlement swarmed with frantic activity as people and horses hurried into the gorge.
A line of mounted warriors fanned out around the canyon, protecting the people from the imminent attack.
We just had to make it behind that line.
I dared to look back, and as I did, I let out a cry that was probably exactly what a small, helpless animal sounded like in the face of a stalking predator. Another eagle and rider had joined the first.
“Zara,” Mariyah said, her voice strangled, and I turned to look at her just as Shazeera slid to a jarring halt.
A third eagle and its rider hovered just in front of us.
It was a female rider, thin and leanly muscular, her hair slicked back in a tight bun.
Her face lacked any emotion—no sneer, no dark threat of violence, nothing.
It was like we were so beneath her notice as any sort of threat that she couldn’t even form an emotional response.
I froze, muscles completely paralyzed as goose bumps rose like tiny warnings over my arms.
I couldn’t even articulate this is bad to Shazeera. My mind just sent her various images of fleeing until she could no longer run anymore. One eagle and rider pair was bad enough, but three? There was no hope of escape.
I pushed down that terror and, in one swift movement, drew back my bow.
Mariyah did the same. Before I took another breath, I let the arrow fly, straight at the eagle’s breast. Beside me, Mariyah fired her arrow.
The arrows blurred, and I knew the eagle wouldn’t have time to dodge—they were far too close.
With a resounding thunk, the eagle caught both arrows with its talons.
I cried out, my gaze flying to the rider’s, but she was still cold, emotionless. And then the eagle dove toward us.
Mariyah’s earthquake ability would do nothing against the eagle in the air, but I knew that wasn’t her only offensive power.
Her hands lifted as her face took on an expression of intense concentration.
She may not have had access to the massive boulders we would find west in the scrublands, but there were still plenty of stones to do considerable damage.
The ground around us began to shake as all the rocks within a hundred-foot radius of us rose up.
Fifty rocks the size of horse hooves flew at the eagle at such a high velocity that they struck it from the sky.
It landed in an explosive heap of wings and scattered feathers, pinning its rider beneath it.
“That was incredible, Mariyah!” I told her as the horses continued unimpeded toward the canyon.
She grinned back at me, but then her face quickly took on a mask of terror. “On your left!”
I had only a breath of time to throw myself down low on Shazeera’s back. Mariyah did the same, until we were both nearly hanging off the right sides of our horses. As soon as we had thrown ourselves down, the massive eagle flew over, the wind from its wings ripping at our hair and clothes.
Our horses slid to an abrupt stop, grass and debris flying up beneath their hooves. When we pulled ourselves upright again, I froze in fear as two eagles and their riders cut off our path to the canyon. Mariyah’s face paled, but she raised her hands again, summoning the rock storm.
Now that Mariyah had used her power, the Eagle Rider anticipated it and immediately fired a crossbow at her.
I screamed a warning, and Citrine jumped out of the way at the last moment.
With a cry, Mariyah grabbed hold of her ear, which was now pouring blood.
The arrow had nicked Mariyah’s ear instead of her neck.
With our path to the canyon blocked, the horses were forced back toward General Isa and the guards who were struggling against three other eagles.
Far in the distance, near the lake, I saw Naomi’s battalion facing off against their own Eagle Riders.
I saw a flash of their battle before my attention was dragged back to the enemies threatening us.
Naomi had summoned a wave of hardened earth to hurl against the bird of prey with a guttural yell.
There were so many of the massive creatures—at least ten of them—that they blotted out the sun.
A yawning chasm opened inside me as I thought about how deadly only one eagle with its rider was.
I remembered stories of battle I’d been told before, how the riders let their eagles prey upon the horses. How no one was left alive.
General Isa and her warriors surrounded us, trying to keep us safe within a circle of drawn weapons. Very soon, though, each warrior was locked in a deadly battle with an eagle and its rider.
The eagle closest to General Isa let out a piercing screech and dove, talons outstretched. General Isa struck with swift precision, her spear flashing as her mare pivoted to not only the eagle, but the rider’s spear as well.
General Isa stretched her hands toward the sky, her face contorted with rage as Kamil reared. A terrible screech rent the air, and the eagle closest to the general plummeted from above. The impact shook the earth.
I had never seen it used in battle before, but I knew instantly she had unleashed a wave of agony to knock the bird out of the sky.
It was incredible to witness, though the ability had limits.
She could target only one victim at a time, and it drained a large amount of energy.
She likely wouldn’t be able to cause that level of pain again right away.
I lost track of her battle when an eagle to my left attacked. Two guards came to my defense, and the sound of their swords making contact with talons and the Eagle Rider’s spear rang out over the hillside. Across from me, the third Eagle Rider attacked the guards trying to protect Mariyah.
My eyes darted from battle to battle as I tried in vain to find an opening. There was too much chaos, too much movement. And I wasn’t skilled enough. I was just as likely to hit an ally as an enemy.
And then the most terrible sound cut through the cacophony of blades and talons and beaks.
The scream of an injured horse. A gray stallion crashed to the ground, blood pouring from his throat where it had been torn open by a powerful beak.
Before the other guards could come to the daughter’s aid, the Eagle Rider speared her through the heart. She fell dead upon her horse.
They will kill us all, I thought as a cold trickle of horror washed over me.
You’ve encountered a skilled Eagle Rider before, Shazeera said. You brought it down with a force not even the eagles could withstand.
I tightened my grip on her mane. I won’t use that power again. We don’t know what the consequences of it might be.
Well, we do know the consequences if you do nothing. We will all be picked off by the eagles one by one. There are too many of them.
Before I could argue, the eagle closest to us dove again, talons outstretched.
A mare screamed, and a terrible clang of metal on metal sounded as a daughter’s sword met an Eagle Rider’s.
General Isa shouted at the rest of us to hold our formation as she tried to lend aid to the daughter, and I continued to fire arrows, useless though I knew it to be, just to keep the other Eagle Riders distracted.
The eagle’s talons rent the flesh of the mare until she collapsed in a heap. General Isa lunged with her spear, piercing the rider’s side. The rider let out a ragged cry, and the eagle she rode immediately shot into the sky, carrying its rider out of the range of our weapons.
The other Eagle Riders took that moment to launch a full-scale attack, dodging our arrows and swords, and tearing into horses and daughters alike.
The smell of blood and the sharp tang of fear and sweat filled the air.
Many fell around us. It seemed like everyone was dying—like none of us would be left standing.
Zara, you must, Shazeera said as I reached for my last arrow.
The wind picked up, snatching at my hair and clothes like an insistent child. I wanted to push it away.
And then Mariyah’s voice pierced the chaos—a raw, desperate cry that cut through me like a blade.
My head snapped in her direction, only to watch her barely fending off a rider with another wave of rocks—the effort much weaker than before as she lost strength.
Call upon me, the wind whispered.
A sob escaped my mouth, and my tears were blown away by the wind. Shazeera, I said.
Do it, she replied. Our bond is stronger than this.
The wind swirled still stronger around me, buffeting my ears, and I knew I only had to reach deep inside myself and access that power.
Mariyah’s mare reared, her flinty hooves striking out against the eagle, but she was knocked easily to the ground. She and Mariyah struggled to get up.
The eagle reached for Mariyah, and I raised my eyes to the heavens.
“No!” I shouted, my arms outstretched. I sank deep inside my own mind, searching for that colossal power that hid itself within me. Faster than it had before, the wind answered my call. I begged it to save my cousin, to destroy my enemies.
One moment, the wind filled my ears, threatening to burst my eardrums, and the next, eagles and their riders were caught in a dark cyclone of power.
The sun shone brightly, not a cloud in the sky, but the cyclone as black as a thunderstorm swallowed them up. The howls of the wind were so loud that if the riders shrieked in terror, no one could hear them.
I held my arms high as the power drained away my energy.
My heart beat so hard in my chest it felt like it would burst. Every muscle in my body shook with fatigue.
But I didn’t dare break the connection—not until the Zephyrians had been defeated.
I watched as riders were torn from eagles, as wings were forcibly bent at terrible angles, and as bodies were slammed into one another until they were as broken as rag dolls.
I shifted my attention to Naomi’s battle, and the cyclones blew toward the east. Two of the eagles streaked away before the cyclones arrived, their wings pumping powerfully as they retreated. But the others were caught up just as the ones who threatened us had been.
At last, the cyclone released them, and they crashed toward the earth.
They fell in a heap, eagles on top of eagles and riders, every limb and wing facing unnatural directions.
At least ten Zephyrian Eagle Rider pairs were dead.
A silence descended, and not a single chest of our enemy rose to draw breath.
Slowly, I let my arms drop to my sides and released the power.
If I hadn’t been mounted, I would have collapsed in a heap on the ground.
As it was, I slumped forward over Shazeera’s neck, breathing hard.
Something soft and light fell on my shoulder, and I glanced over at it before looking back at the sky. It was raining golden feathers.