“This isn’t for you, you know.”
I smirked. “Of course not.”
“Which of these horrible snakes swallows us this time?” She held her chin high like she was trying to keep from shuddering.
“None of them.”
I turned to the plaque and followed a hunch that had been growing as I waited. I touched the symbol on the map that marked the spot where our room was and heard the grinding of stone on stone as the door swung open on its own.
“Did you know it would do that all along?” Zayana asked.
I shook my head. “Sometimes you have to follow a hunch and take a risk.”
She took a big breath and sighed.
“Let’s go out and conquer,” I said.
She snorted a disbelieving laugh, but she followed me out of the door and into the crisp night. The door swung shut behind us with a faint click. In the darkness, it was hard to see much of our surroundings. There were tall rocks arranged around us in a semi-circle and out past them were trees.
Something moved in the trees and I felt a stab of fear in my gut. Was it a tentacle of Forbidding? I swallowed down fear. After all, I couldn’t demand that Zayana be brave if I wasn’t brave myself.
“Let’s spend the night in this stone circle,” I suggested. “We can build a fire here.”
Zayana nodded, her eyes fearful as she peered into the darkness. We built our fire in silence and huddled up against the nearest stone before dropping into a fitful, uncomfortable sleep.
I woke to a sense that something was wrong.
I remained motionless, letting my eyes flick open and trying to study our surroundings without twitching. Was that a ghost of a movement?
I held my breath, listening. There were no more sounds to give me a clue of what I’d heard, but there was still the sense that something was following us. I woke Zayana hurriedly and we kicked out the fire and began to move through the darkness, using our manifestations to light the way.
“I don’t think this is wise,” she’d objected. “We won’t be able to see your Forbidding if it’s here and we don’t know where we’re going.”
But whether it was by luck or the skies favored us, we stumbled onto an old road moments later. It was grown over with long grass and low tree branches, but it was passable. We hurried down the road, sticking close together. By the time dawn lit the sky, we had reached a crossroads where a wide, well-traveled road intersected it. I put the glimmer of gold to our backs and we began the tired march toward Glorious Ingvar in the west.
All day, I felt eyes on my back. I jumped at every snapped stick or shift in the wind until Zayana began to jump with me. We passed two towns before I agreed to stop and purchase a little food. We passed two more before the light began to fade again. The people in the last town had told us it would take another long day to reach Glorious Ingvar, so we found a quiet glen along the road to stay for the night.
“I’m too tired to go farther tonight,” Zayana had said as she persuaded me to build a fire there. “We have shaved days off our travel time. Let’s not waste that advantage by running ourselves into the ground. We won’t want to reach the city exhausted.”
I waited long minutes, watching the road behind us before I agreed to the fire. The road had been busy all day but as night drew near, there was only a lone horse which quickly walked by, its rider too intent on reaching a town to even glance our way.
“Okay, we can camp for half the night,” I agreed. “Then back to the road.”
“Half a night,” Zayana repeated, shaking her head. “We are likely days ahead of Wing Ivo and yet you won’t even sleep a full night!”
But I couldn’t explain this feeling of being hunted. I checked the cuff constantly to feel the feather, but it wasn’t Osprey who was close by. It was someone else. Could he have sent Claws after us, too?
Reluctantly, I settled with Zayana next to the fire and joined her in eating the rest of the food we’d bought in the village. Together, we spoke to our manifestations, and then together we tried to get comfortable by the fire. We took opposite sides to it this time, each of us absorbed in our own thoughts.
“Why do they call the city ‘Glorious Ingvar?’” she asked.
“It was the first place settlers landed when they arrived in the Far Stones,” I said with a yawn. “Conquerors might be a better word. But they found no people here. Just the Forbidding. They fought it back, though it killed half of them and wrecked their ship, seizing it from the waves. They held the rocky piece of coast, battling back the Forbidding until another ship came to help them. By the time it arrived, nine in ten of the men who had arrived on the shores were dead. So, they named the beach after an old story – the story of the Ishanians who were conquered three centuries ago by the Winged Empire. They called their underworld Ingvar.”
“Are you saying that this city’s name translated is ‘Glorious Hell’?”
I nodded. “And that’s all you need to know about the Far Stones.”
She yawned. “I suppose it is.”
I fell asleep dreaming fitfully of blood on a rocky ocean shore. And I awoke just as I had the night before with the sense that there was someone else nearby. I stayed motionless, barely squinting my eyes open.
Chapter Seven
A twig snapped just behind me and before I could sit up, a hand clamped over my mouth. I grabbed at the wrist, my heart pounding, terror clawing up my throat. They were man’s hands. Rough. Hairy. Panic coursed through me. He’d found me. Osprey had found me.
“Shh.” The whisper in my ear was so faint that I could barely hear it. “Easy now, Shrikeling.”
Relief filled me, mixing with a sense of joy so strong it nearly choked me. The hand loosened as I spun, jaw dropping.
My brother Retger’s intense eyes stared back at me as he wrapped me into a hug.
“Retger. I must be dreaming.” It was all I could do to keep from sobbing with relief, but I couldn’t help the suppressed emotions that rippled through me. I pressed my face into his shoulder.
He let me stay there a moment before tugging me away from where Zayana slept. I followed him into the moonlit shadows.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“I’ve been tracking you since a few days after they took you,” he whispered. “I lost you at Vlaren but I thought I’d found you again in Karkatua. I swore I saw you on the city walls during the fighting.”
“You did!” I gasped. “I thought I saw Oska!”
“He was with me as far as Karkatua. I had to leave him there. He’s gathering supplies for the family. But let me tell the story!” He laughed softly. He had a satchel at his side and as he spoke, he drew out a flask and handed it to me. I drank as he spoke – apple cider. A rare treat for us. “I followed a Wing to a large house and thought I saw a glimpse of you escaping through the window, but I wasn’t fast enough and by the time I turned the corner, you were gone. I had to dig deep after that – dig into contacts I have in the area.”
“The Single Wing?” I asked and his eyebrows shot up.
“Did the old man tell you about that?” He looked eager.
“Not the details, just the name.” I bit my lip. “Retger, he ... I watched him die.”
My brother cursed, leaning back from me to rub a hand over his face as he cursed again. “We’d hoped ... I’d thought...” He shook his head as if dismissing his thoughts. “I’ll get you out of here, Shrikeling. Before they kill you, too. Here. Eat something. You’re wasting away.”
He took the flask and handed me an oil-cloth wrapped cake. I unwrapped the cloth and dug in hungrily. The smell and taste of honey nearly made me shut my eyes in joy, but I tried to stay focused as I chewed.
“How are the others? Are they safe?”
He shrugged. “They were when I left. Abghar was leading them into the Forbidding. They will carve out a safe space there and we will join them as soon as we can get back. Are you ready to ride now? Skies, it’s good to see you alive! I brought a spa
re horse. Let me tell you, that was tricky through those snake mouths.”
“How ... how did you know which path I took?” I licked the crumbs from my fingers, wishing I had another cake. It had been like a taste of home.
He grinned proudly. “Followed your tracks into that underground room. Had to convince the horses to duck and crawl into it. I’m not as good with horses as Oska is but you’d be surprised by what little tricks we pick up as blacksmiths. Someone has to shoe these beasts. I used every trick I knew to get them in there. Then, I followed the scuffs of your boots on the floor through the right snake mouth twice. The last door had me tricked, but I figured it out after a minute.”
I shook my head. “You’re amazing.”
He nudged me playfully with an elbow, digging into his bag again.
“We aren’t going back that way, Shrikeling. We’ll ride. That thing shook me up inside and I don’t want to do that again. Now, come on. Your minder will miss you if we don’t leave soon.”
I shot a look back to Zayana sleeping in the moonlight and then back to Retger again. All I ever wanted was for my family to be safe. It was like fruit on top of cake that I might be able to go with them. For a moment, I let myself believe I could go. I let myself hope for just a minute that I could leave all this behind and just be Aella of House Shrike again.
But I knew better than that. Too much had changed. I was Aella of House Apidae now.
“I can’t, Retger,” I whispered. “I wish I could, but I can’t.”
“Do you realize what it took to find you?” He didn’t sound angry, just surprised. “I don’t know how easy it will be to do it again.”
“I still can’t believe that you managed it at all.”
“We all would have come, Shrikeling.” His eyes were earnest. What he drew out of the bag now was a scarf – warm but light in the finest spun white wool. I knew the craftsmanship. This was one of Helissa’s scarves. She sold them at the larger markets in the autumn. “We would have fought through all of the Forbidding to get to you. You have to know that. They sent me because they knew I could do it myself, but if it needed all of us, we all would have come.”
“Are they all ... is everyone in the family still alive? No one died when the Claws took Far Reach?”
He nodded. “Alect walks with a limp now and Helissa’s pretty face has a scar to give it some character. But we all survived. Except the old man, I guess. We’ll erect a monument for him with a shrike totem. He’ll like that. Here,” he said as he handed me the scarf, “Helissa sent this for you.”
“And you can survive out there? In the Forbidding?”
“We’re House Shrike, Aella. We’re relentless. You know that.”
I nodded along with him, winding the warm scarf around my neck. “That’s why I can’t go back. I’m being hunted by more than just you, Retger. I’m being hunted by one of the Winged Empire’s top Wings and he will drag me back to the crown prince one way or another.”
No need to say why was there? I wasn’t going to marry Juste. I’d rather slash my own throat. He would torture me in every way he could think of – both mentally and physically. I knew enough to know that.
“I’d like to see him try,” Retger said, flexing his powerful blacksmith-arms almost unconsciously. “I can outride any man there is and outfight at least half of them. I’ll watch your back Shrikeling, have no fear!”
It was so tempting. I could see us riding like the wind – maybe even taking the undertrails again – and leaving Osprey confused and lost. We could be free. We could join the rest of the family and I could be with my siblings and their children. We could carve a life for ourselves. And then what? What happened when the Winged Empire found us again? What happened when we ran out of necessary supplies? What happened when someone was injured or hurt or if the Forbidding got too strong for us? What then? Just running away wouldn’t change things. It couldn’t.
“I want you all to be safe. But more than that, I want you to be free. To have weapons to defend yourselves,” I said.
“We had a hidden stash.”
“To be able to get more when those are broken or old. To be able to get supplies as needed without being in hiding. To say what you want without fear of retribution. To raise the little ones to love freedom and our way of living.”
“We can have that.” He was trying to convince me. He put his hands on my upper arms as if he wished he could physically lift me and fly me away with him. Like Osprey could.
“We can’t. Not while the Empire has Far Stones. Not while all our trade goes through them. Not while they rule with an iron fist.”
“That’s why there’s a Single Wing, Aella. To fight for that.” His earnestness was almost pleading now.
“And who is going to fight with them?”
He clenched his jaw in agreement, looking away.
“You know that, Retger. And you probably think it isn’t worth talking about because I’m too young.”
“Exactly.” He met my eyes again. His fire raging against my fire. We were both too stubborn to back down.
“But I’ve met the Single Wing. I know they’re out there. We can fight together.”
“Having a few passionate people on your side doesn’t fix things. And even if it did, that would be a talk for grown men to have, Aella, not teen girls.” His brown eyes were pleading now.
I crossed my arms over my chest. My whispers growing louder with my frustration.
“It’s a discussion for me to have because I’m part of this now.” My bees buzzed louder within my chest. One of them slipped out of my control, buzzing frantically around us, bumping into shoulders and ears in its enthusiasm. “I’m a symbol to them because of the bees. A spark to ignite the flame.”
“They want to use you?” He sounded appalled. His hands dropped from my arms and one ran through his tangled curls.
“They want to fight with me! And we need a general, Retger. And I know exactly where to find one. Well, maybe not exactly, but I know there is one stashed in a tower around here. And we are going to Glorious Ingvar to read the old records and find out where the tower is.”
“You sound crazy,” he said, running his hand over his face as if he could make me see sense just by looking all angst-filled and haunted. “Are you even listening to yourself?”
“Yes. I am.” I was getting frustrated now. “I’ve been telling myself this while I fled forest fires and snake manifestations and the original residents of this land.”
“What?”
Three more bees poured out of my hands and flew dizzying rings around us.
“I’ve been telling myself this while I was tortured and mocked and pledged in marriage against my will to Juste Montpetit.”
“What?” This time, his word sounded furious. The hands came down and his brown eyes burned bright in the moonlight.
“I might sound crazy, but only because I know things most people don’t know and I’ve seen things they can’t see and that means I have a different way of looking at all the rest. It’s not crazy, Retger. It’s accurate. Which is why I have to keep going. Even though I want to come home with you. Even though I want to see everyone again. Even though it might seem like there’s nothing more that I could possibly want, I do want something more – I want to give my family freedom, and to do that, I have to fight this fight and I have to win, Retger. It’s me against the Winged Empire and it will never stop until one of us wins and the other dies.”
He blew a long breath out, shaking his head, but I kept talking.
“That’s why I can’t go with you. Because it would be selfish. It could spell the end of our family, and even if the Wing didn’t hunt me down and kill our family trying to get me, I would still know that I could have helped to give you all a future, but I was too scared to try. I can’t do that, Retger. I have to stay and fight. Even if I seem too young to you. I’m not. I’m growing up fast.”
He was quiet for long moments as my bees hummed and danced around him.
“Fine,” he said, eventually, and when he looked up his jaw was clenched with determination. “But at least tell me we can do it on horseback. I don’t want to let this pair go free when I’ve fought so hard to bring them here.”
I hugged him suddenly and fiercely and he grunted hard.
“Thank you, Retger!” I said.
“At least let me get some sleep before dawn,” he grumbled. He was always grumbly when he was trying to hide strong emotions.
“You were the one who was going to drag me out of bed!” I laughed.
“What bed?” he muttered, following me back to the low-burning fire. He unsaddled the horses while I stoked the fire but my heart was light and happy. Retger was here and he was going to help me get to Glorious Ingvar and free the general. What could be better than that?
I fell asleep happier than I’d been since I’d been taken from my home. My dreams were full of my family, sweet and fleeting. I melted into them, savoring every dream moment and feeling happy and at peace, knowing I would wake to family and an ally.
Instead, I woke to my leather cuff burning.
Chapter Eight
“He’s here!” I cried, scrambling up to my feet and making sure the cloak was wrapped around me and the hood was over my head. “Zayana, wake up! Wake up! He’s here!”
Her eyes popped open and she was on her feet before I could take a breath. I nodded gratefully.
“Who is he?” Zayana asked, her eyes widening at the sight of Retger.
“No time to explain,” I said at the same time that Retger said, “Her brother.”
He was already untethering the horses. “Who is here?”
“Wing Osprey,” Zayana said. “He hunts us at the behest of Le Majest. He wants Aella.”
Retger nodded sharply. “He won’t be expecting three of us. Mount up. You can both ride Sesara.”
I mounted the snorting black horse. He felt powerful beneath me, his muscles bunching and head tossing as Zayana climbed up behind me, wrapping her arms around me. Her breath came out in little nervous gusts.
Wing Magic Page 5