Outposts

by Vickie Knestaut

  Nothing, except the three of her own horde following her.

  A vast emptiness spread out before her. Goose flesh erupted along her arms, and a shiver rolled down her spine. Nothing. She’d never realized how much she had been able to sense until she could sense nothing. She felt Elevera and the dragons behind her, but nothing else. It was as if the sound of the Gul River had ceased suddenly. Along with every insect, every bird, all of the villagers; every noise that formed the background bustle of her life had suddenly stopped, and their absence drew a heavy line under what was missing. It felt as if she had flown into a painted world, one as still and lifeless as a mural.

  The emptiness around her stretched out so vast and complete that it ached, and the close presence of Elevera, Sone, Verillium, and Keeruk nearly overwhelmed her. Trysten swallowed, and her throat hitched.

  This was a bad place. How could Rodden come from here? There was something desperate about it. Vacant. Hungry. Hard and lonely. It seemed ridiculous to think that there was anything here that the Originals should object to her seeing. Was the pass even the keyhole they were so worried about?

  Her hand strayed to the pendant around her neck, and she shook her head. Keys fit inside keyholes. There was no reason at all to think that the pass was a keyhole. She was a bit silly to even think so.

  Yallit screeched.

  Trysten looked back to see the little dragon darting off to the right. His face was raised to the peaks behind them. She followed his gaze until she caught sight of two dark dragons, darker than the night itself, dark as the courier that had visited her in the weyr yard on the night before the battle.

  The two dragons bore down on the Aerona hordesmen.

  Trysten waved frantically and signaled for the hordesmen to look back and up, but they were all peering at the dark couriers themselves, having responded to Yallit’s warning as well.

  The dark couriers were Originals. Two of them in dragon form, and it seemed unlikely that running into them out here would be a good thing.

  Trysten’s hand tightened on the lip of the saddle. Elevera banked to her right even before Trysten hitched her heel into the dragon’s shoulder.

  When the hordesmen looked back to Trysten for orders, she signaled for them to return to the launch point, the outpost. As she did, the couriers adjusted their wings slightly. They sailed over the heads of the other hordesmen. One twitched his tail in response to a passing snap from Yallit, and then both came straight for Trysten.

  Her hand dropped to the bow strapped to the side of her saddle and then darted up to the hilt of her sword. It would be that kind of fight.

  “What do you want?” Trysten called across the dwindling gulf of thin air between herself and the couriers.

  “What is your message?” she asked.

  Come with us. Trysten heard loud in her head, a thousand voices so loud and thunderous that her face flinched in pain. Her hand tightened around the hilt of the sword.

  “Where? The end of the world?” she asked.

  To the end of the world.

  Elevera completed her turn. Her great wings flapped and pushed, working to reclaim the altitude needed to clear the pass.

  Kaylar plucked up her bow and notched an arrow from her quiver and took aim at the back of a courier.

  Trysten motioned again for the others to return to the launch point.

  Kaylar reluctantly nodded, then returned her arrow to its quiver. But she then glanced at Paege, who showed no intention of turning his dragon around. Sone continued to brush the air with her deep red wings and sail out toward the gold of Elevera, chasing the shadows between them.

  Kaylar leaned forward and placed her hands on either side of Verillium’s neck, urging her on faster.

  Trysten looked back to the couriers. “Why?” she called. “Why do you want me to go to the end of the world?”

  To begin the world.

  “What?” Trysten yelled at the dragons. “How about you try and be a little less cryptic? Make some sense if you want me to listen.”

  The couriers sailed past Trysten and Elevera, one on either side. The deepness of their color made her eyes slide off as if her mind couldn’t handle looking at such a complete and thorough absence of light.

  Come with us, they called again in their thousands of voices. Each one banked, one to the left and the other to the right so that they crossed Elevera’s wake and came around again, gaining on the golden dragon’s tail.

  “Not until you give me a straight answer,” Trysten called back over her shoulder. “Tell me what you want. Why do you want me to go with you?”

  To begin the world.

  Trysten gritted her teeth against the noise of them, the racket in her head. Trying to talk to them was stupid. She had to get out of here. The great whooshes of air around Elevera gave the sky itself a slow, beating heart between the ripples of high, thin wind.

  Come with us, the couriers repeated as they closed in on Elevera’s flanks. Come to the end of the world.

  Each courier dipped slightly, flipped over onto his back, then latched onto one of Elevera’s hind legs.

  Trysten screamed as Elevera roared. The two couriers folded their wings against their backs, and Elevera lurched with the sudden weight. Her wings flapped frantically, grabbing at the air. She whipped her head around and roared again at the couriers.

  Elevera’s shoulders rumbled, and then she let loose with a blast of firebreath. The stream of fire washed over the courier.

  “Let go!” Trysten screamed back at them.

  A flicker of confusion passed over Trysten. Distant and faint, unsettling at first and then nearly forgotten a second later. The couriers grew still, and then spread their wings and began to beat them while still clutching Elevera’s flanks. They were shoving the air of Elevera’s wake upward and pulling her down even more.

  Trysten began to draw her sword but then paused. It would do no good. There was no way she could even come close to the couriers, which was precisely why they had grasped Elevera’s hindquarters.

  “Let go!” she yelled again, and again, there was a brief flicker of confusion. The flapping of the courier dragons slowed, nearly stopped, and then started again in earnest. It was as if she was almost able to make them obey her, but not quite. Enough to cause them to stumble though.

  Trysten turned around. The others were coming for her. Paege and Kaylar already had arrows notched, bowstrings taught. But there was no way that the arrows would hurt these creatures. Brand’s arrow to the Original at the outpost had already demonstrated that.

  There was only one weapon that they would respond to.

  Trysten shoved the dragonslayer sword back into its scabbard, then motioned for Kaylar to bring Verillium close. As Kaylar and Verillium worked to follow her orders, Trysten whipped off the restraints at her waist. She glanced back at the couriers, then looked ahead at the approaching wall of rock. Elevera continued to lose altitude. There’d be no way she’d clear the wall of rock, and there was no suitable place to land.

  As Verillium approached, Trysten wished for the dragon to take up position below and to Elevera’s right.

  “Hang tight, Lady,” Trysten said as she swung her leg over the saddle and patted the dragon on the back of her neck. She pushed off, flattening herself into a spread-eagle position as she fell.

  In the second before she landed upon Verillium’s back, Trysten felt Elevera lift up slightly before the couriers redoubled their efforts. They were focused on keeping Elevera on this side of the pass. But did they really expect Trysten to leave without her dragon?

  Trysten landed with an oof on the back of the magenta dragon. Verillium rocked slightly, back and forth to help steady Trysten as she righted herself and scooted forward until she was behind Kaylar.

  “Up!” Trysten shouted as she drew her sword. “And watch the wall.”

  “What are they doing?” Kaylar called back.

  “They’re asking for it, that’s what they’re doing,” Trysten yelled
back. “Up!”

  With that, she wished for Elevera to bank to the right, to start turning rather than collide with the side of the mountain. Verillium lurched upward, scrambling to gain altitude and close the distance between the couriers and the reach of Trysten’s sword.

  As Verillium came almost within arm’s reach of one of the couriers, Trysten yelled, “Stop!”

  The mad undulation of the courier’s wings slowed nearly to a stop as a slight wave of confusion passed over Trysten. She could tell that the couriers had to struggle to disobey her. It was not their natural instinct.

  She lifted the sword and swiped at a dark wing.

  As the curved blade reached the Original, its wing disappeared. It vanished and left Trysten with the impression of an arm being drawn close to the chest.

  The sword swept through empty air beneath Elevera’s flank.

  Trysten struggled to keep the blade from crashing into Verillium. As she struggled, her elbow dug into Kaylar’s shoulder and sent the hordesman lurching to the side with a pained gasp.

  The danger brought about by the absence of saddle restraints became frighteningly clear as Trysten shifted behind Kaylar. Handling the sword threw off her center.

  Verillium bucked slightly to the right, enough to compensate and allow Trysten to sit back and flex her elbows, bring the sword back to her. Then the magenta dragon banked hard to keep from colliding with the side of the mountain. Trysten threw her right arm around Kaylar’s midsection and leaned heavily away from the tilt to keep from falling off the back of the dragon.

  “What was that?” Kaylar asked. She looked up to the couriers under Elevera. “I swear that one...”

  Her words faded away.

  “Bring us up,” Trysten called into Kaylar’s ear. “Close. Get right under them.”

  Elevera had turned completely around and was once again heading deeper into the Western kingdom, her altitude still bleeding away with the courier dragons latched to her flanks. She was headed for the flat, wide strip at the end of the horizon, the dark blue and gray plain that stretched beyond the mountains. It was the only path left to her by the couriers.

  Beneath Verillium, Sone and Keeruk flew in tight circles, Paege and Deslan both looked confused and concerned.

  With coaxing from Trysten, Verillium put on a burst of speed and altitude. She closed the gap again, this time coming right up underneath Elevera.

  Trysten jabbed upward with the point of her sword. The Original shifted, and Trysten’s mind fought with the sight of the courier being a man and a dragon at the same time, limbs and wings, head and tail.

  And then he was but a man dangling from Elevera’s foot, and out of reach of Trysten’s sword.

  “Up!” Trysten barked.

  The Original swung himself back and forth, and then released Elevera’s foot. He flipped several somersaults through the air before Trysten’s mind had to deal with the sight of flesh folding, tucking, shrinking and expanding and the man became the impossibly dark courier again. His wings snapped open, and he banked hard across the sky bound with peaks and stones.

  Above, Elevera lifted, slowly, taking what she could get in the decreased weight despite the increasing burn and burden of fatigue in her muscles.

  Trysten’s shoulders and back ached in sympathy with wings she didn’t have.

  “Up!”

  Verillium began to lift. A thought bolted into Trysten’s head, and she suddenly saw herself through Elevera’s eyes.

  “Duck!” she screamed at Kaylar as she brought the sword down to her left and braced herself. She looked to the tip of the sword just in time to see the face of a courier.

  Its claws were extended, ready to snatch her off the back of Verillium. He struggled to lift upward, to clear Verillium now. But the air was just too thin, and Elevera too close.

  The courier dragon collided with the tip of Trysten’s blade.

  The force of the collision impaled the dragon through the chest, just above the belly.

  Kaylar yelped as a wing batted her head. Trysten flew backward, shoved off of Verillium by the courier’s momentum.

  Sky and stone switched places back and forth, swirling madly as Trysten twisted through the air, clutching the hilt of her sword. On the other end, the courier twisted and folded, writhed and collapsed back into the odd shape of a man, like the Original she had seen in her den, but different. He reached out and grasped the blade with his hands as he threw his head back in a silent scream that echoed a thousand times through Trysten’s head and bones.

  Arrows floated around them, and she realized they were hers, flung from the quiver upon her back. Then the strap of the quiver jerked tight across her chest as if she were snagged on a hook in the sky. She started to slide out of it as the Original gripped the blade with his hands.

  The quiver strap caught Trysten’s right elbow as she started to fall free. She jerked with the shift in her weight, and then the Original slid off of her blade as easily as a raindrop sliding from the tip of a leaf. He fell away along with all of Trysten’s lost arrows.

  Trysten gripped her right wrist with her left hand, and dangled in the air. She felt the gentle wash of wind over her back from the wings of a dragon. Sone, if her senses were right, but she couldn’t take her eyes from the falling Original.

  Just before he crashed to the stones, the Original began to unravel and fell apart into a man and a dragon.

  A cloud of dust erupted around each of them when they struck the rocky ground. The man began to bounce and bound down the steep slope, and the dragon, a formidable battle dragon, rolled after him, sending rocks scattering before her. Lifeless wings flapped and slapped soundlessly at the fleeing stone.

  The dragon was familiar. A deep orange like the autumn flowers that dotted the plains around Aerona. She had watched as her hordesmen buried that dragon. They buried it along with her rider as they buried all of the Second Hordesmen.

  Along with their dragon-tooth pendants.

  Below, the red and gold of Keeruk slid into place beneath Trysten’s feet. As the sight of the Original was interrupted, Trysten inhaled sharply and realized that her elbow throbbed, her shoulder ached, and the sword was threatening to slide from her grip.

  Deslan motioned for Trysten to come closer, then she realized he was motioning for Paege to lower Sone. Trysten began to drop down. As her heels touched Keeruk’s back, her left hand took the sword from her right, and she let her right arm go limp and slide through the quiver’s strap. She landed hard upon the dragon’s back, and through the dragon’s senses, she felt the punch of her own weight. But it didn’t phase Keeruk in the slightest. She adjusted her wings and immediately responded to Trysten’s wish for her to intercept Elevera.

  “Whoah!” Deslan shouted, and his hands lifted away from the lip of the saddle.

  “It’s all right,” Trysten called. She placed her hand upon his shoulder. “I have her. Thank you for catching me.”

  “Any time,” Deslan said with a nod like it was just another day.

  Above, Paege peered over Sone’s shoulder. The crushed remains of Trysten’s quiver hung tight in Sone’s jaw.

  “Be careful with this next one,” Paege called from above. “We got nothing to catch you with but your braids should you fall off again.”

  “He won’t catch me off guard again,” Trysten growled into the sky as Keeruk rose to meet the dark courier still hanging from Elevera’s left flank. Yallit zipped back and forth around him, colliding with the dragon and bouncing off before attacking again. His efforts were largely ignored by the courier.

  “Hang on, Lady,” Trysten called. She shook some feeling back into her tingling right arm and then transferred the hilt of the sword back to her right hand.

  As Keeruk drew near, Deslan called back for Trysten to thread an arm through his quiver and steady herself. She ignored his offer as she focused all of her attention on the remaining courier. She couldn’t risk getting tangled in Deslan’s quiver. And should she get knocked fr
om the back of Keeruk, she knew there would be a dragon to catch her. It was their wisdom.

  “Closer!” Trysten shouted and urged Keeruk on.

  Just as the dragon drew within striking range of the remaining courier, the dark dragon released Elevera. He dropped away, snapped his wings open, and took off, descending at a sharp angle. The gravity and thin air granted him speed.

  Trysten grunted in frustration as she watched the dragon escape. She nearly called for Keeruk to give chase, but then checked herself. Elevera was free, rising up quickly now that she was no longer weighed down.

  She looked around. There were no signs of other Originals. Once again, there was no sign of anything at all. The best thing to do would be to get back to Cadwaller before the remaining courier called for help.

  Trysten ordered retreat, then wished Elevera to turn and head for the pass. As she did so, Keeruk turned to follow and took up position behind Elevera, even though she bore the Dragoneer.

  As she sheathed her sword, Trysten looked up and her breath caught at the sight of the golden alpha flying ahead of them. For a moment, she was envious of the other hordesmen who got to watch such a magnificent creature own the sky.

  Chapter 35

  Trysten shivered as Keeruk slipped into the shadow of the southern peak. Her ears popped as if they had changed elevation suddenly, and she shook her head to clear it. Ahead, Elevera exited the pass, soaring into Cadwaller’s territory again as sunlight danced over her wings and back once more. Keeruk then cleared the pass, and beneath them, the side of the mountain dropped away into the familiar spray of pine dotted with groves of aspen and scars of stone. The foothills rolled into the inviting, unending plain of her home, the Gul River threading through it like a silver path offering to show her the way back to where she belonged.

  Trysten took a deep breath, then peered back at the others, grateful to see each rider, each dragon, and even little Yallit trailing behind.

  “Set down at the outpost,” Trysten called to Deslan and then signaled for the horde to follow as she wished the same for Elevera, who swung out over the worksite, banked around, and set down once again in the pool.