Chapter 35
Zara
Terror for Shazeera spread through my body with every beat of my heart.
Tempest flew so fast I had to lie flat against his feathers to keep from being torn off by the wind.
It still wasn’t enough. We were only minutes away, but I gripped his strong feathers with an urgent desperation that turned my knuckles white.
And then, at last, I could see the green of the pasture in the distance.
I didn’t even have to point it out to Tempest; our connection allowed him to see it from my memories.
Shazeera! I called the second I thought I might be in range of our connection.
Zara, Shazeera said, even her mental voice strained, but I sagged at the relief of hearing it.
For a moment, I didn’t understand how we could communicate so quickly after my using the wind power, but then I thought of the way my energy had flooded back into me when I bonded with Tempest. He had given me some of his strength somehow, and apparently it had also given me the ability to communicate with Shazeera again despite calling the wind.
We’re coming to get you, I told her.
Don’t come! she mentally yelled at me. They’ve set a trap.
Are you hurt? I demanded. I wanted to urge Tempest on, but Talon needed to know we were flying into a trap.
We need to circle here, I told Tempest. There are men waiting to attack us when we land. I need to tell Talon and Neo.
Tempest immediately did as I asked, without hesitation. Neo and Talon quickly caught up, and Talon shot me a questioning look.
“Shazeera said there’s a trap,” I told him when he flew close enough to hear me, the eagles’ wings slicing through the air as we hovered high above the earth.
His expression tightened. “Find out all the details you can.”
I relayed this to Shazeera.
They have me chained, Shazeera admitted. I tried to break free, but the stake’s been driven into rock. Fifty of the emperor’s guards are stationed around me.
I let out my breath in a rush. Fifty! So many.
Talon’s eyes turned flinty when I told him. “Ask if there are any Eagle Riders.”
I looked at him in stunned silence. Surely they wouldn’t turn against their own commander, but then again, if the emperor himself had ordered it…
Shazeera was quiet for so long, I was afraid something had happened to her.
Falcon tried to stop them, she said haltingly, and the sorrow in her voice made my eyes fill with tears before she even finished.
No, I whispered, recoiling from the thought.
They killed him and his eagle. To my knowledge, there are no other Eagle Riders here.
I met Talon’s gaze through blurry eyes, my throat thick.
He must have known what I would say, because he swallowed hard and bowed his head.
“She said there are no other Eagle Riders, but the guards killed Falcon and his eagle when he tried to defend her.” My voice broke on the last word.
Falcon had been so young—only a year or two older than me.
And he had died trying to save my heart’s sister.
It only made me think of Baz, Zamir, and Kestrel dying such horrible, agonizing deaths, and my vision blurred with unshed tears.
I let the wind dry them from my eyes before they could fall.
“That’s four I have sent to their deaths now,” Talon said, expression anguished.
I couldn’t even say anything to comfort him, because now I felt the same. I had defied the emperor and the treaty by confronting the Devourer and using my wind power, and it had already had very real consequences.
It would destroy me if Shazeera was one of those consequences.
We’re coming—
Don’t! Just leave me. They’ll overpower you, Talon, and Neo.
Just the thought of leaving her to her fate was so abhorrent I recoiled mentally. I will never leave you, and you should know…it’s not just the three of us.
A flutter of nerves filled me. I hadn’t given much thought to how Shazeera would react to this news. I closed my eyes tight as I opened my mind to her, allowing her to see everything that had transpired since we last parted.
The moment Shazeera watched my memories of bonding with Tempest, a stunned silence descended upon her. A deep, pervasive hurt followed rapidly on the heels of her shock, and though she tried to hide it from me, I still felt it reverberate through my heart.
So, you’re an Eagle Rider now, she said, and the tears burned in my throat.
No, I’m a Daughter of Earth, bonded to my horse sister, and now that part of me that has always known the wind has somehow bonded with a wild eagle, too.
I understand now, why it felt different when you came into range and we could talk again, she said. I sensed another presence, and I wondered if it was the wind.
I take that as a compliment, Tempest said, barging in on our conversation. Before I could even respond, he added, But we must focus on the task at hand—introductions and feelings can come later.
Talon must have been of the same mind because he said, “Neo and I will fly in first, draw them away, and then you can rescue Shazeera.”
I nodded. “We’ll give you a head start.”
Neo took off then like an arrow, wings in an M shape to cut through the wind like knives. I watched them go, an ill feeling of dread gripping me.
Moments later, I watched him dive toward a swarm of guards, talons extended.
Shazeera transferred everything she saw to Tempest and me through our bond.
Ten guards circled Shazeera, spears pointed outward.
The others engaged in battle with Talon and Neo, being led slowly away from Shazeera.
Talon and Neo seemed reluctant to kill the guards, only swooping down on them threateningly and drawing them away from Shazeera as promised.
Let’s go, I told Tempest when I saw they had moved all the way across the pasture and away from Shazeera.
I’ll grab hold of her and break the chains, Tempest said.
How will you avoid all the spears?
I’ll kill the guards holding them, he said matter-of-factly.
No! We should avoid killing if possible. These men and women are just following orders.
That complicates things, Tempest said, but I’ll do my best.
He took off like a lightning bolt, the wind forcing me flat against his feathers again. We arrived in less than a minute.
Tempest’s enormous wings blotted out the sun, casting a shadow over the entirety of the guards attacking Neo and Talon.
The guards looked up in stunned silence.
But as we soared past them to rescue Shazeera, they quickly regrouped.
Half split away from the battle with Neo and Talon, launching spears at Tempest as he shot toward Shazeera.
Tempest knocked them aside with his powerful claws like they were toothpicks.
Shazeera reared, lashing out with her hooves at the guards surrounding her.
At the same time, she pulled powerfully at the chains wrapped around the base of her neck and staked into the ground.
A red rage ignited through my body at the sight of her abused in such a way.
I almost told Tempest he could kill them all.
You may get your wish if they keep launching spears at me, he said darkly.
A screech echoed across the pasture, followed by the thunderous beating of wings. I jerked my head toward Talon and Neo, but they still hovered above the other guards.
And then Tempest shrieked a warning, the sound so painfully high-pitched that I covered my ears.
Twenty Eagle Riders flew above the pasture, fully dressed for battle with burnished gold armor, spears, and bows and arrows. I couldn’t see Talon’s face from this distance, but I could only imagine how he felt now that his own aerial cavalry threatened us.
Talon and Neo flew to our side. Talon didn’t say a word, but his actions made it clear. He had sided with us.
Lead them away from Shazeera, I told Tempest, an edge of fear to my voice. I was terrified she would be hurt in the cross fire.
Tempest banked left, and Neo followed. With a shout, the Eagle Riders pursued until we were clear across the pasture.
They shot a torrent of arrows at us, but Tempest flew like he had eyes in the back of his head, easily avoiding them.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neo perform the same maneuvers he had used when I tried to fire arrows at him all those weeks ago.
He spiraled through the air, feathers knocking the arrows aside.
The line of Eagle Riders split, half surrounding Neo and Talon, and the other half attempting to do the same with Tempest. He outmaneuvered them easily.
Am I allowed to kill these eagles and their riders? Tempest asked.
No, I said quickly. I don’t want anyone else to die.
Then if you won’t let me fight back, what is the plan? Get Shazeera and fly out of here?
That would be ideal, I said.
A female Eagle Rider launched a spear at us, but Tempest caught it and snapped it in half like a twig. Would you be open to maiming them? he asked, irritation making his tone sharp.
Another Eagle Rider caught my attention as he hauled a metal cylinder up until it rested on his shoulder.
He attempted to point it right at Tempest, but my bonded eagle was too fast. Ice-cold fear ran through my veins at the sight of it.
I didn’t know what kind of weapon it was, but neither did I want to find out.
I reached inside me for the power that waited like a vast ocean just beneath my subconscious.
Just before calling it forth, I hesitated.
The shimmering bond with Shazeera, like a chain of light connecting us, glowed brightly.
Beside it, Tempest’s was just as strong.
Mistral had said that I needed to find Tempest to be able to truly control my wind power.
But more importantly, bonding with Tempest had made it so I could communicate with Shazeera again right away—even after calling the wind in the west wing.
I will lend you whatever strength you need, Tempest promised.