Chapter 12.5 The Mistake
Without so much as a twitch of warning, the battle explodes around us.
Besana and Edyth drop into a dive at the same time, spearing towards Cherry.
Vakhrin wraps both of his front legs around the princess and launches into the air.
He's out of my line of sight in an instant, and Edythe and Besana give chase.
I need to help my friends, to protect my princess, but. ..
Behind me, Marton draws his sword, his face pale as he gazes about him at the monsters he cannot possibly fend off. I twist around to roar at him. To tell him to get out of here.
Inobar uses the moment of my distraction to fling himself, jaws first, at my neck.
His teeth close around my throat with breathless, crushing power, and my roar of warning becomes a cry of pain. I struggle with everything that I have, clawing at the ground to pull myself out of his bite, tail lashing pointlessly in the dirt.
In a haze of panic, I see Marton still grasping his sword, feet frozen where he stands. Leave, I try to bellow.
Marton flinches at the sound. But instead of leaving, he swallows a gulp, and inches forward a step. Then he is running. Running towards the wyvern with his jaws around my throat.
I struggle with renewed energy, cursing myself and all my friends for a pack of fools.
Marton draws near enough for a strike, but instead of swinging his sword like the unbelievable imbecile I'm beginning to think he is, he draws the dagger from his belt, takes aim, and sends it flying towards Inobar's head.
Inobar's protective eyelids are not down, and the blade takes him in the white of his eye.
I'm almost too stunned to move as the crushing jaws release me, and bluish black blood spouts from Inobar's wound as he falls back with a disbelieving snarl.
But I do move.
I throw myself forward, grasping Marton around the waist with one clawed foreleg and launching us into the air in the same move.
I take to the skies, gaining altitude with frantic beats of my wings.
I fly towards the edge of the valley, scanning around us for signs of our other friends as I go.
I can just barely make out a few large shapes weaving through the skies at the far northern edge of the clearing.
I cannot tell who's winning—if anyone is—or if Cherry is safe.
I reach the western edge of the clearing and, not deeming it safe to leave Marton on the ground with possible Lycan in these woods, I deposit him in a high branch of a massive redwood tree.
I bark at him to stay, and Marton wraps his arms around the trunk of the redwood with wide eyes and a bloodless face.
It occurs to me only belatedly that he could not get down even if he wanted to.
The branches are too widely spaced for a human to climb.
He could certainly plummet to his death, though.
I don't have time to worry about that.
As long as he's still and silent, there's no reason for the wyverns to be interested in him.
Especially not if I put enough distance between us, keeping Inobar's focus on me.
Back at our broken camp, Inobar is shaking his head like a dog, still lashing out blindly at the pain in his eye.
I turn my attention to the northern end of the clearing, and pour on as much furious speed as I can.
I coast on the wind, beating my wings quickly, and the shapes fighting at this end of the clearing resolve themselves into a picture.
Vakhrin is playing a desperate game of evasion, Cherry still in his arms. He's making up for what he lacks in wingspan and soaring strength with quick, deft dodges of his smaller form.
His maneuverability in the skies is greater than my own, and much greater than the wyverns'.
But there are two of them.
As I watch, he angles one wing and banks away from a grab by Besana's jaws.
And tumbles right into a blow from Edythe's hind legs.
The force of it knocks him unsteady in the skies, and Cherry slips an inch out of his grip as they spiral.
Vakhrin manages to right himself fifty yards above the ground, and spreads his wings wide to shoot away from the charging wyverns.
Edythe's snaps at his tail...and just as quickly realizes the error of her ways, yanking her head back at the last moment before she would have chomped down on a mouthful of poison.
Besana hovers high in the sky, waiting as Edythe leads their prey on a circular chase.
She's faster than Vakhrin, and he'll never outrun her with head-on flying.
As I watch, still barreling closer with every breath, Edythe gains on Vakhrin from above.
But instead of making a lunge for him, she shoots out ahead of him and forces him to bank to one side.
This happens again, and again, as Edythe tries to heard him back towards where Besana waits.
And Besana edges closer with every pass.
I roar a warning as Vakhrin makes a last desperate bank away from Edythe .
. . and tumbles unknowingly into Besana's claws.
She grabs hold of Vakhrin with her back legs, talons grasping at his impenetrable fur.
Her grip stops him from flying away, his smaller wings beating uselessly, and he can't use all his limbs to struggle out of her hold.
Not with Cherry in his grip, her arms clinging to his neck.
I am almost close enough to help, just a few seconds away, when Edythe wheels about in the sky, fixing her slitted blue gaze on me.
She launches herself at me with jaws and hind legs, and we go lurching through the skies together, plummeting towards the ground.
I roll out of her grip a breath above the earth, and spread my wings to slow my landing.
I still end of half-tumbling through the grass, moving into a lumbering run to keep from faceplanting.
Edythe bellows behind me, leaping from the ground the moment she touches down.
I see her shadow rise over me.
I tuck my wings and roll out of the way, and her teeth snap closed in the weeds where I have been not a moment before.
She turns her eyes on me, and I release a rushing stream of flame at her.
She lurches back in surprise, but the flames dance about her without doing any harm.
She bares her teeth, advancing a step. And a human shout of terror sounds in the skies behind me.
Cherry.
I fling myself around, and I see a delicate human form, with a streak of pinkish hair, freefalling through the sky.
Above her, the wyvern has her jaws around the manticore's throat and is shaking him like a ragdoll.
I launch into the sky, extending my forelegs and flapping my wings harder than I ever have in my life.
My muscles burn in exertion, but I can reach her.
I can—
A streak of blue barrels in from the south, and Cherry is snatched from the air by a massive shape that is a hundred yards away in the next breath.
I wheel about, confused.
Besana is still in the skies with Vakhrin, and Edythe is just now rising from the ground behind me.
So that is...Inobar.
Inobar gives a roar of triumph as he banks in the sky, circling back towards me like he means to show off the terrified human girl in his arms. Cherry's eyes are wide with horror, streaked with tears as she clings to the wyvern's scales.
My heart sinks so low I cannot even find it.
Inobar has one eye squeezed closed, black blood caking to the scales of his face and neck.
But he is fine. He is flying. And he is angry.
He rears his head back for a bellow, and the sound rattles the treetops and sends birds lurching from their perches in fright, fluttering desperately away.
The sound also seems to mean something to Besana and Edythe.
Besana pauses in her pummeling of the manticore, and Edythe launches into the skies, spearing in Besana and Vakhrin's direction.
I hurry in that direction, too, not knowing what is about to happen, but fearing for my friend.
Edythe reaches them before I do, and while Besana holds the dazedly struggling manticore in her grip, Edythe brings her hind legs up for another charging blow to his head.
With a resounding thud, Vakhrin goes limp as a puppet with cut strings, and Besana now beats her wings twice as hard to hold up his deadweight.
I pause, flapping my wings backwards, trying to reverse directions.
Edythe wheels about in the sky and heads straight for me.
Behind her, Besana lowers Vakhrin's limp form to the dirt, and then she's coming this way, too.
I have but a second to think, and what I have to think about is not good.
Because I cannot beat them. I know that I cannot.
Not alone, and not all three of them. My flame, my best weapon, is useless against them.
Even defeating one would probably be beyond me.
Two seems impossible. And if Inobar sits Cherry down so he can join the fray.
..
But how can I give up?
How can I not fight for the life of my dearest friend.
..?
Except it may not be her life.
Not really. Not yet.
Whatever they want her for, they want her alive.
A treasure to hoard.
Swallowing down this last little speck of hope, I tuck my wings and drop to the ground on all four legs.
When Besana and Edythe land in the grass before me with reverberating force, I bow my head in defeat.
It is a wordless language I have never used before, but the wyverns understand it perfectly.
Edythe lifts her head for a roar of victory, and Besana huffs and bares her teeth.
I keep my head low, only peeking up with my eyes to view their reactions.
So I'll know if they go for my throat.
In the sky above us, Inobar draws closer, looking down on me with his fathomless dark gaze.
In his arms, Cherry stares down at me, too.
In shock. Disbelief. Betrayal.
No, I try to tell her with my eyes.
It isn't real. I would never abandon you.
But if she can read those words, she doesn't show it.
She squeezes her eyes shut, chest heaving frantically, as if she's having a panic attack.
As if she's fighting not to burst into tears.
I cannot imagine the pain and fear she must experience in this moment.
I am glad I cannot imagine it, because I think that it might kill me.
Inobar gives another sharp bellowing sound to his companions, and they once more spring into action.
Not at me. They swoop over the meadow grass and come to a stop next to Vakhrin's prone form.
Besana grabs his front legs in her hind claws, and Edythe takes his back legs.
They begin to lift into the air.
No.
I lurch forward, roaring in outrage. Not him.
I did not agree to that.
Inobar turns his head in my direction, a warning growl slipping out of him.
As if in threat, one of his claws inches up towards Cherry's throat and hovers there.
She cringes away from it, and my gut clenches.
I do not really think he would hurt her—not if she is valuable to him—but I am not willing to risk it.
Edythe and Besana's attention is on Inobar, and they half-lower the manticore back to the ground, their eyes flitting to me as they wait for the command to attack.
Seething with venomous rage, I dig my claws hard and fast into the dirt, imagining what it will feel like when it's Inobar's throat.
At the same time, I bow my head in submission once more. In defeat.
Inobar gives a barking noise that might be a laugh, and Edythe and Besana echo it.
It might be a cry of conquest.
The three of the them climb higher into the sky, Inobar with Cherry in his arms, and Besana and Edythe with Vakhrin slung between them.
They fly awkwardly, at different heights, as they try to accommodate each other's wingspans.
But they manage it.
As I watch, defeated and sick at the sight, the three wyverns spear off towards the north.
They are out of the meadow and over the redwood forest in no time.
And in a few more moments, they are specks in my vision.
I watch until they completely disappear, and then it takes all of my might to keep from collapsing in the dirt.
If I could weep in this form, I think I would be weeping.
Cherry.
Cherry.
My Cherry.
My princess.
My friend and reason for existing.
And Vakhrin. Newer to my heart but precious too me all the same.
For a moment, what Inobar said about Dragomir coveting and hoarding things of value makes perfect sense.
Because I feel as if someone has stolen all that I had in the world.
Everything I cared about. Everything except.
..
Marton.
It is that thought alone that keeps me standing.
That singular, remembered thing that I have.
That I care about.
That I left all alone in a tree.
I turn about with renewed energy and leap into the skies, flapping hard in his direction.
I feel nearly mad with a sudden, rising instinct to protect him.
Feel nearly murderous with rage at the thought of something happening to him.
Mine, mine, mine. The one thing that I have.
Reaching Marton in a blur of panicked thoughts, I snatch him from the treetop and soar back towards the ground, hardly slowing to ensure that he's alright.
He stumbles away from me on unsteady legs the moment I release him.
He looks around the clearing in a bleary panic of his own, seeming confused and horrified when he does not spot either of our friends or any of the wyverns in the valley with us.
And that is when my legs give out.
Because he's alright, and in one piece, and about to be just as disappointed in me as I am in myself.
All four of my legs go weak, and my body crumples to the ground with a boom muffled by the crunching meadow grass.
My chin lies flat upon the earth, and Marton turns to me in surprise.
He says something quick, face distorted with worry as he takes several steps nearer to me.
He seems to check me over, walking all around me as he searches for wounds that aren't there.
For wounds that aren't visible.
He stops again in front of me, concern pinching his brows together.
"Tarah." I recognize my name when he speaks, but nothing else.
He touches a light hand to my snout, then he's crouching to look me seriously in the eyes.
"Tarah, are you alright?
Why don't you change back?" He speaks slowly and calmly enough to be understood, and his eyes stare worriedly at my face.
I just squeeze my eyes shut, trying to shut out his concern.
Trying to shut out everything.
Marton sits quietly with me in the meadow for a long time, his hand stroking my scales in comfort.
If I had the energy for it, I would make him stop.
I don't deserve comfort. Not when I failed.
And I'm still failing.
I should be in the skies right now, giving chase, watching where the wyverns take my friends.
But they would see me, I don't doubt, and then they would kill me to make things simpler for themselves.
I should be on my feet, then. I should be making a plan with Marton to get Vakhrin and Cherry back.
And I will.
I will make a plan. I will get them back. I will protect her. I will. I will. I will.
Just...not right this second.
This second is for wallowing in my failure.
Replaying the confrontation in my head and thinking of all the things I should have done differently, all the ways I could have been better.
My mind returns again and again to the moment when Cherry was falling, and Inobar swooped in and caught her.
It should have been me. I should have been faster.
This second is for thinking on what I've lost. Cherry's smiles and Cherry's trust and Vakh's gruff friendship.
This second is for hating myself more than I've ever hated anything. The second stretches on and on and on . . .