Chapter 28 #2
Something whizzed past, sinking deep into the raphon’s back leg. A rune-marked arrow. The raphon yelped and went silent, pulled into deep sleep. Sacred converged upon her, with ropes and chains.
Just like that, the raphon became a prisoner.
… And inside of her belly, so did six others.
The vision ended.
Six kept walking towards the Gates.
‘What is she doing?’ Kinlear asked. ‘Turn her around.’
Go, said the wind. The whisper had arrived out of nowhere. Go, Ezer.
‘No,’ Ezer said. ‘She needs to see it.’
‘See what?’ Kinlear asked.
Ezer glanced over her shoulder, locking eyes with him. ‘The place where her mother was captured.’
They passed through the wards. The magic was cold on her skin, tickling her cheeks and nose. It felt like a bubble popping. It felt like …
Like Ezer could breathe again, without the weight of magic.
The forest around them was calm, quiet, like there was no war at all.
Six walked a few paces into the small clearing and paused, sniffing the snow.
‘You were here,’ Ezer said gently. She glanced over her shoulder at Kinlear, who looked at her, puzzled.
‘How do you know that?’ he asked.
She shrugged. ‘Six remembers. Sometimes … she shows me things.’
To his credit, he didn’t prod any further. ‘We captured her mother here,’ he said. ‘A perfectly executed trap, with runes and war eagles well placed. We didn’t know she carried the pups until she’d already fallen. A happy accident, I suppose, because it brought us Six.’
The raphon’s tail twitched twice.
Ezer pursed her lips, running her hands down the side of Six’s neck, as if to say, I’m here.
In the distance, a raven cawed.
‘She’s seen the spot. Now we need to go back,’ Kinlear said. ‘This isn’t safe, Ezer.’
But something in Ezer’s belly told her to stay.
And Six seemed to sense it, too.
‘Ezer.’
The wind blew, rushing past her.
She urged Six a few more paces forward, past a grouping of fat evergreens perched in the snow.
And there, just on the other side, was a graveyard.
‘What … is this place?’ Ezer breathed.
Kinlear looked down at the old stones. ‘Many ancients were buried here. The tradition is lost to us. We burn the Sacred now, plunge their swords into the ground around the Sacred Tree.’
Ezer slid down from Six’s back.
‘What are you doing? We need to leave,’ Kinlear said.
‘Just a second,’ Ezer mused.
The sky was darkening. It must have taken them hours to get down the cliffside. It was getting too close to sunset, but she couldn’t stop herself.
And neither, it seemed, could Six.
The raphon walked about, sniffing the ground. The stones were ancient, old enough to be dated several Realmbreaks past.
She read countless names, all of them half-buried by snow. For some reason, she kept going. The wind whispered yes, as if it were urging her on.
Six paused at the same time Ezer did.
Atop a grave that was old and broken. She knelt and swept the snow aside as best she could. The date in the stone had since worn away, but the name …
Ezer’s eyes widened.
‘Wrenwyn,’ she whispered. ‘Wrenwyn … Lavor.’
Six’s paws stopped just at the edge of it. Her wings drooped upon her back, and she inclined her head. Like she knew this stone.
This place.
Ezer glanced up at Kinlear, who still sat on Six’s back.
‘Wrenwyn the Wrong,’ Ezer said. ‘She was buried here?’
Kinlear shrugged. ‘I suppose she was.’
‘She was killed on her wedding day,’ Ezer said. ‘A terrible end.’
The raven cawed again.
Kinlear shook his head. ‘Perhaps in your version of the story. In others, she survived. She was brought back to the temple. That was the Aviary, at the time, where she spent years fading away slowly. She was confined to her rooms for protection from those who wished her ill. One of her siblings became King in her stead.’
‘When did she die?’ Ezer asked. ‘In your version of the story.’
Kinlear shrugged. The wind lifted his curls from his eyes and he shivered and coughed. As if his warming runes weren’t doing enough for him. He quickly reached for the vial on his throat, uncorking it.
There seemed to be only a drop left.
‘We’ll go,’ Ezer said. She grabbed Six’s halter and began leading her back.
‘Some say Wrenwyn escaped,’ Kinlear said. ‘That she had help sneaking out of the castle. She made it far away from here, and when her brother sent his men after her … they made it to the Sawteeth. And were eaten alive by raphons. The first recorded instance of them hunting men.’
Ezer shivered at that.
She couldn’t imagine Six eating anyone alive.
‘Either way, the story is timeworn,’ the prince said.
‘It changes by the year. Wrenwyn is a figure for dark, strange stories, but the real one is probably far less thrilling.’ He sighed and looked down at Wrenwyn’s meager grave.
A princess, buried alone and forgotten beyond the wards.
A sad ending, for a tale Ezer had always loved. ‘We need to go. It’s almost sunset.’
The wind howled again, and Six lifted her beak, letting it roll over her.
Ezer smiled at another caw of a raven, because it was lovely, and it reminded her of her past, when things were simpler, when—
The raven’s sound cut off with a strange, choking sort of screech.
‘What was that?’ Kinlear whispered.
Ezer’s blood roared in her ears.
A low growl sounded in Six’s throat.
Ezer looked to the treeline, but she saw nothing. Six stamped her paws, her tail twitching twice. ‘Ezer,’ Kinlear breathed. ‘Let’s go.’
The wind had gone still. It was utterly quiet, until another gust came. It kicked up the snow, and with it …
Something rotten.
The scent of death.
Ezer had just turned around, just climbed upon Six’s back in front of Kinlear, when the wind whispered ‘Run.’
And she saw the two dark figures that had landed behind them. Blocking the way to the ward Gates. Trapping them outside.
Shadow wolves.
Dark ichor dripped from their shadowy snouts. A low growl came from each of their throats as Ezer’s body went cold.
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear breathed.
His hand went to the dagger on his hip. It was all they had to defend themselves. All they had …
Besides Six.
‘Fly,’ Ezer whispered. ‘Six. You have to fly.’
She prayed the raphon would be faster than the wolves.
They closed in.
Six growled – Ezer felt it rumble through her body – and twitched her wings.
The wolves growled back and the scars on Ezer’s face seemed to squirm with memory, as those long black claws carved up the snow with each step.
Help, she thought to the wind. Send the ravens.
But nothing came.
‘Fly,’ Ezer hissed. ‘Six. Use your wings. You have to fly!’
The raphon shook her head, skittering and prancing backwards. A feeling of terror rose in Ezer’s gut, and she knew it came from Six.
She was scared of the wolves, an enemy that was once an ally.
It was an effort to stay on her back. Ezer dug her hands into her fur and feathers, as if she could make the raphon feel her own terror. Please. Fly!
‘Ezer,’ Kinlear said. ‘Get her airborne or we die.’
‘I can’t,’ Ezer breathed.
The trees were at their back now, too thick for the raphon to make it through. To their left...the distant edge of the cliff.
‘Six,’ Ezer said. ‘Fly.’
The raphon nearly stumbled over the gravestones as she backed away.
Please, she begged the wind. Help us, Avane.
She tried, desperately, to invocate.
But the wind did not answer.
So Ezer held onto Six as desperation moved through her. As she felt something shift in her mind. An ember, come to life.
Six could send visions.
Perhaps she could too.
In her mind, she imagined herself dying. She imagined her body flayed open on crimson snow while the shadow wolves feasted upon her.
She imagined Kinlear, dead beside her, and Six …
Six standing alone in the snow.
Alone forever, without Ezer in this world.
She felt the moment that vision whooshed away from her. Like something had plucked it from her skull and sent it soaring.
Six inhaled beneath her.
Like she saw the vision.
The wolves stepped closer, and their wings snapped out.
They were going to lunge.
She was going to die.
‘Fly.’
Six turned towards the cliffside, her paws rooted deep against the snowy ground.
‘Yes,’ whispered the wind. ‘Fly.’
Ezer had no choice but to hold tight as Six pushed off, taking three bounding steps …
Before she leapt into the open sky.
They fell.
Into the coming night, they fell.
At first, Ezer thought they would rise. But they began to spin slowly, as Six screeched beneath them, helpless. Lost, like a stone tossed out over the cliffside, falling too fast.
With each second, they picked up speed.
They weren’t as high as the Aviary; they didn’t have enough time to rise …
‘Six!’ Ezer screamed. ‘Fly!’
The terror in her veins made her arms and legs strong enough to hold on. She was falling, her hair ripped from its braid, the wind tearing at her skin, her cloak, the snow blurring everything in front of her eyes. Kinlear’s grip was a vice around her middle, but she felt him sliding away.
Oh gods, oh gods.
‘Pull up!’ Ezer screamed.
They kept falling.
She could see the ground now. She could see the stones they would crash against, could imagine the way they would all be shredded.
‘Six!’ Ezer screamed. ‘Your wings!’
At the last second, the raphon snapped her wings out.
And caught the wind.
Ezer’s stomach shot into her throat as they soared upwards. Kinlear was howling with laughter in her ear, and Ezer shouted, ‘Yes, Six!’
They soared higher and higher, rising into the sky. The fear rose like bile in Ezer’s throat. She was going to throw up, she was going to pass out—
No.
She forced herself to stay present for Six.
‘You’re doing it!’ she shouted. ‘That’s it!’
The wolves chased after them, but Six snarled, and pressed faster into flight. The wind followed, whispering yes, as the wolves fell behind.
Ezer glanced back to see them banking, turning back towards the Expanse where easier prey awaited.
And for a moment, it all felt right.
Until the shadows erupted. Until the boom split the night, and in the distance, the war began.
A gust of wind crashed against them, and Six dipped in the wrong direction, like she hadn’t a clue how to feel and understand the drafts. How to glide with them instead of against.
They soared over the treetops, too fast.
‘Higher,’ Kinlear said in Ezer’s ear. ‘She’s got to go higher, or she’ll clip the trees!’
Ezer tried.
But the panic had taken over her, just as it had taken over Six. The raphon dipped too far to the left, and she yelped a warning too late as Six’s wing clipped a tall tree.
They spun sideways.
Everything blurred. The last thing Ezer heard was Six’s screech before they crashed against the snow.