The Enemy's Triumph

by Kristen Banet

  He broke through the underbrush, going down to his belly at the same time. Crawling forward, he reached the edge of the cliff and angled his wings, so no one below would see them.

  “Get low,” Nevyn whispered, coming up beside Bryn and looking down at the same place. “Fuck.”

  Bryn was thinking the same thing. Below them in the valley were hundreds of tents and horses. Elvasi and humans walked between them. In the two-and-a-half weeks since they received word this was going to be one of the Elvasi positions, half the damn army had moved in. Toward the south end of the camp, dozens of gryphons fought against their leads, trying to pull from their posts, obviously agitated about something.

  “This ain’t good,” he mumbled. “How is Lothen moving them so quickly?”

  “I don’t know.” Nevyn sighed. “Luykas said he was sent out when Shadra heard about Kerit. So, that’s seven days he didn’t have to get moving, yet he’s already here.”

  Bryn did the math. He liked numbers. Since Kerit, it had been nearly nine weeks. The Prince would have lost one of those weeks. That left nearly eight weeks to make it to the Dragon Spine and set up camp.

  “He sent people ahead,” Bryn whispered. “He had to. Even if he rode hard and had replacement horses, he would have needed every single day to get here from Elliar. What do we know about troop positions in the Empire?”

  “Shadra had already moved most of the north to train and be ready…” Nevyn cursed again. “Meaning moving them just a little further up north without Lothen and letting him catch up would be faster than making them wait on him. They wanted to get here, so Lothen could make use of the good seasons. They would have arranged it.”

  “Yeah…” Bryn growled softly and began trying to get a count, but it was useless. There were so many of them. All he could do was point out places of interest. Some tents seemed much bigger than others, and he knew those would be supplies or priority targets. “He’s down there somewhere right now, I bet.”

  “Likely. The Empire has powerful sorcerers. They might have made portals for him to come up faster. If several sorcerers work together, they can cover some distance. They can’t move an army, but they can move a prince and his entourage.” Nevyn began moving back. “Let’s find a place to make camp so we can keep an eye on them. We need to find good ambush locations while we’re down here.”

  “Aye.” Bryn moved back with him, signaling the rest of the Andinna needed to retreat from the cliffside and get into the woods again. Once he was in the bushes, he stood up and ducked into the darkness, knowing the trees and undergrowth were too thick for others to see them unless they were close.

  “Did you see those gryphons?” a female scout whispered. She was one of two females who really wanted the job and argued like hell to be transferred to him. It wasn’t him who needed convincing, though. They had to convince Alchan, and getting him to relent hadn’t been easy. Others had chimed in and agreed with her.

  Bryn didn’t want to consider how many gryphons there had been, but he looked at Nevyn, knowing his own fear was written on his face.

  “Two hundred,” Nevyn said softly. “Maybe more. Hard to get a count right now.”

  “I’ll come back later and try to get something more official,” Bryn promised, walking deeper into the trees. “Let’s find a place to lie low. He’s probably already sent scouts to figure out the terrain. We need to stay on our guard.”

  Nevyn nodded, then reached out to grab Varon’s hand. They moved further away from the army and climbed a cliff to reach a cave. Bryn checked for signs of wildlife, glad there were no signs of wild bears, gryphons, or wyverns. An angry beast would give away their position if they had to waste valuable time and resources driving it off.

  “Keep fires toward the back,” he ordered. “We’re going to be here for a week. We need to figure out how and where he’s sending people out. Are they going out with the gryphons or are they foot soldiers and scouts? Is he going to patrol the mountains? We need to know it all. Now, we need to stay off the trails but find good perches for watches. Tomorrow, we’ll spread out around their little valley and keep an eye on them. Get some sleep tonight. We’ll do two-man watch rotations, which will let us all get the rest we need.” They had been on the trails since they left and walked the last two days of it. Bryn knew everyone needed to give their legs a break before the sun came back up.

  Small fires were lit far back in the cave, and from the entrance, Bryn couldn’t see or smell them, which was what he was hoping for. Nevyn was unrolling his and Varon’s bedrolls, then grabbed Bryn’s pack from him to do his.

  “You get to rest, too,” Nevyn reminded him. Bryn chuckled softly and went deeper into the cave.

  As they all ate the jerky they packed, the watch rotation was set up. Bryn felt a little bad, but he put the females on the potentially safest time to be on watch, closer to dawn. He put Nevyn and Varon during the middle of the night because he knew they had the experience to handle anything that might happen under a dark night. There would be very little of the red moon helping visibility.

  “Get some sleep,” Nevyn ordered him.

  Bryn reached out with his tail and grabbed Varon’s, needing the physical contact as he laid down. Varon’s body shook with a silent chuckle. Bryn was already missing his wife and family. He could lean on his oldest friends for a few days and knew no one would mind, not even his possessive wife.

  I hope she works things out with Luykas while I’m gone. I just want her to be happy, and she’s not happy when she’s mad at him. He’s not happy either.

  Yawning, he closed his eyes.

  I want my family to be a happy one.

  An ear-splitting screech woke him up. A scream made him scramble to his feet and reach for his sword. The sound of steel clashing had him running to the mouth of the cave.

  “Everyone up!” he roared, seeing the blood on the stone first as he ran to the mouth of the cave. It was so dark, but the blood stood out, catching the minimal light from the red moon.

  One night and it had already gone wrong. How did this happen?

  He found out as his eyes went up, and he saw a gryphon, an Elvasi rider on its back, holding onto a dead Andinna with its talons, then dropping the body down the cliff. Shell shocked, he ground to a halt and took in the rest of the scene. There were more. There were nearly a dozen of the riders, all hovering by the cliff.

  How? How did they know?

  He turned his sword in his hand and moved into a defensive posture, raising it. The Elvasi had spears in their hands and swords at their waists. He was certain they had daggers on them as well. They were there to kill Andinna, and they had already killed the two on guard, probably catching them unaware.

  Footsteps behind him told him that the rest of the unit was coming. Nevyn stopped beside him, snarling. Varon came up next, flanking Bryn protectively, as was his nature. Varon had his bow drawn, ready to fire.

  “Surrender your arms and come peacefully or die like those two,” the center Elvasi said loudly. “Painfully.”

  Bryn took a deep breath and sighed, looking at Nevyn.

  Nevyn nodded. An Elvasi chuckled.

  Turning back to the Elvasi, Bryn raised his chin boldly, trying to mimic the power of his wife, channel it through himself and impress it on the Elvasi in front of him.

  “No,” he growled.

  Varon fired and knocked the Elvasi clean off the gryphon, that screeched as the Elvasi’s boot got caught in the stirrup and hung down, dragging the gryphon awkwardly off the side and down.

  “Stay with me!” Nevyn roared, running forward. Bryn followed, knowing the maneuver his friend was probably about to try. Instead of launching into the air at the edge of the cliff, Nevyn dropped down, getting below the gryphons and their riders, who had positioned themselves to catch Andinna trying to fly upward and away.

  As they dropped, Bryn spread his wings and caught the air, hoping the others knew to do that as well. He skimmed treetops as he flapped his wings hard to ke
ep up his speed. Nevyn was just ahead of him. Bryn looked down his body to see behind him and saw Varon along with four of their Andinna. Another scream, clearly Andinna in nature, echoed through the night.

  Bryn spun, gliding on his back to get a better view. He’d come with ten Andinna, himself included. He, Nevyn, and Varon made three. Two on watch were killed, and he could only see four others. Seven accounted for. They had definitely lost one more.

  He turned around and flapped his wings hard, gaining more altitude. Nevyn and Varon stayed low, and half of the remaining trainees did as well. Two followed up with him. He wanted to be less of a target, and if they split up the Elvasi, they might have a chance to defeat the riders before more from the valley decided to join the fight.

  Five of the Elvasi riders and their gryphons veered upward to follow him. He turned back to the night sky and kept climbing into the air, hoping he could take them up into the cold, then dip under them again. He needed to stop being the chased one, and that meant getting more distance to maneuver.

  “Turn!” he roared to the two with him. “Down!” They spun in the air with him, and he dipped down as the gryphons drew closer. One of his men dropped with him. The other didn’t go fast enough, hesitating. A gryphon slammed into him, and a spear went through him.

  Bryn knew a lost cause. He had hoped to fight, but as the Elvasi realized they were above their quarry, the five riders turned and descended.

  “Get into the trees,” he ordered, then went for a dive. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the last male with him beside him. A spear flew between them, and Bryn growled as a second cut one of his wings, making his coordinated dive wobble. When he opened his wings, one didn’t catch the air right, and he couldn’t slow down as much as he needed to.

  He hit the trees too hard and collided with several branches before hitting the forest floor. Groaning, he tried to push himself up, wondering what was broken. Something had to be broken. Pain in his side nearly took him back to the earth.

  Ribs. My ribs are broken. I can work with that.

  “Sir!” someone called out. Bryn heard someone scrambling through the underbrush and saw Cydrev, last Andinna with him.

  Brought ten. Four stayed low and hopefully found cover. I just got one more killed.

  The deaths would haunt him. He was going to think about the astounding failure of this mission for the rest of his life…if he survived it.

  Bryn accepted the help to get on his feet.

  “We need to move,” he growled, pushing the other Andinna to start walking. “We have to keep movin’. If we stop now, we’re dead.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Together, they jogged down a game trail, Bryn silently praying they were going north. At least if they were going north, they could possibly find the others again.

  Shouldn’t have split up. Shouldn’t have done it. I thought we could fight, but…

  The riders were better than the ones in Ellantia. Maybe it was because they had finally met Andinna in battle and were better prepared. Maybe it was the surprise of their assault. Bryn knew there were a number of things that could have played into the mission’s failure, the Elvasi success at killing them off one by one.

  “Let’s find them, boy,” someone said distantly in the trees. “You can get them.”

  Bryn felt a cold shiver go down his spine. He pushed harder on the back of the other Andinna.

  “Faster,” he ordered. “We need to move faster.”

  They broke out into a sprint. Bryn heard a shrill call, and a handful more followed it. A horn blew.

  A hunting horn.

  Bryn looked around, wondering if there was anywhere they could go to ground, but he had a suspicion it wouldn’t work. A gryphon was gaining on them, so Bryn grabbed Cydrev and pushed him to the side, turning on the beast following them. He growled as the Elvasi grinned, charging forward. Bryn readied his sword and jumped to the side as the Elvasi passed, trying to stab down with his spear. Bryn was able to get a thin cut to the gryphon’s wing, causing it to shriek. Before he could plan his next move, Cydrev jumped out and tackled the Elvasi from the side, knocking the Elvasi off his mount. Bryn threw his sword and hit the gryphon in the chest, listening to the keening noise it made as it fell and died. Cydrev was stabbing the Elvasi furiously. Bryn, knowing they couldn’t waste time, grabbed his sword and yanked Cydrev off the dead body.

  “We can’t stop—”

  A few screeches drowned out what he was thinking.

  “Hide,” he snapped. He ducked behind a tree.

  “Find them, girl! Sniff those barbarians out!” an Elvasi pressed. “Fuck. They got Captain. Let’s go check it out.”

  Bryn heard the walking beast but didn’t dare look. He heard the huffing and sniffing of the beast. This was confirming his dark fear, but he couldn’t do anything about it, not yet.

  “Where are they?” the Elvasi asked softly.

  Bryn headed a couple more steps, drawing closer to him.

  He ducked as a bird-like foot flew to his side of the tree and sank deep into the wood. Bits of bark flew everywhere as the gryphon made an obnoxious angry noise. He lifted and brought down his sword before the gryphon could pull back the vulnerable leg. His morok went through flesh and bone without effort, and the gryphon’s pain screech was enough to know he had done it. Blood sprayed everywhere. He followed the injured beast and stabbed out again, hitting it in the eye. A roar grabbed his attention for only a moment, and he saw Cydrev jumping up and killing the Elvasi on top. It was a good move for the young, inexperienced scout. He had no experience with the gryphons as Bryn did.

  “Good job,” Bryn commended. “Now we have to move. They’ll notice their men dyin’ and join up together, instead of riskin’ more fatalities.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Bryn started running, glad Cydrev was with him and focused, instead of losing himself in rage again. They ran deeper into the woods, and Bryn found a stream, testing its depth before deciding they could walk in it.

  “This will help lose our scents,” he explained to the young Andinna. “Have ya ever hunted?”

  “Not yet, sir. I’ve spent all of my freedom with the rebellion, training with you.”

  “We’ll have to take you huntin’ then. It has good techniques for ya to use,” Bryn said, feeling the ache of loss. He should have taken all of them hunting more than once before trying this mission, but Kerit had kept him busy, and hunting was generally prohibited in the winter.

  There wasn’t enough time, and there was no one to blame. I should have come on this mission alone and risked none of them.

  “Bryn!” someone called out. He turned to see Nevyn, Varon, and one of the females standing further downstream. They were washing blood off their armor, looking beaten up, but nothing seemed devastating or fatal from Bryn’s view.

  His heart didn’t stop pounding, though, as he voiced his suspicions.

  “We can’t stop moving,” he said, trudging further down the stream and getting out beside them. “I think they’ve trained the gryphons to track our scents like huntin’ hounds.”

  The female paled. Nevyn only cursed, but Varon looked into the distance, frowning.

  “Are you sure?” Nevyn asked softly as they started moving together.

  Bryn didn’t look at him, watching Varon. Varon could say thousands of things with a look. He could tell the world how he felt with his body language. One just had to know the mute well enough to pick up on the signs. Bryn didn’t like what he saw.

  “Varon?” Bryn gestured to the mute’s left arm, hanging limp and covered in blood. “Ya were hit.”

  Varon nodded and with one hand, made the symbol for spear.

  “It sliced open the back,” Nevyn said softly, “as we decided to try to dive for the trees.”

  “I thought splittin’ up for a moment would give us better odds, but…” Bryn growled softly. He’d made a mistake, and he knew it.

  “It wasn’t the wrong idea. We killed three Elvasi s
oldiers and two of those gryphons,” the female said gently.

  Bryn looked back at her, annoyed she was trying to say he had been right in his course of action. Tyvria had no experience, no real-life training. Losing one for three wasn’t bad for their side, but they had already been down in numbers, and now, only five of them were walking through the forest instead of ten. He looked at the other Andinna, the male with him. Cydrev was the same, a strong warrior, lean enough to move fast as a scout, but he had no real experience.

  “Bryn, she’s right,” Nevyn snapped. Bryn forced himself to stop growling. “It was a good move and could have worked well. If we had tried to handle the entire group, maneuvering would have been difficult, and we could have been overrun. How did you fare?”

  “We lost Justys,” Cydrev said softly. “And killed two of them before meeting up with you.”

  Bryn’s mind was working the math again as they walked through the forest. He felt safer with everyone together again, hoping they had been able to outrun the Elvasi further back.

  “They arrived with a twelve-man unit. We killed one leavin’ the cave. Thank ya, Varon. Yer group killed three. We killed two. That leaves six. We have five. Can we manage that?”

  “Maybe,” Nevyn said, frowning. “Just maybe, but I think we’re better off just retreating back home.”

  “If they can track us, we need to get into the air,” Bryn pointed out. “We can’t be leaving trails.”

  “I know. Can we all fly?” Nevyn turned and walked backward as he talked.

  Everyone nodded. Bryn took a deep breath.

  Another hunting horn blew in the distance. They were making ground, but that horn worried him. A couple of screeches could be heard.

  “Do you think…” Tyvria spoke in a hushed, scared voice.

  “They must have gotten stopped at the stream and picked up our trail again,” Bryn growled. “Let’s move.” He started running. He knew how to lose trackers. It was one of his best skills, honed over centuries of doing the sneaky, risky work for the Company. Everyone followed him.