Aberration

by Kyle West

  “After ten years?” Shara asked, her voice filled with skepticism.

  “Yes,” Captain Dailyn said, meeting her eyes. “Even after ten years.” His brow crinkled as he stared at her intently. “You. Why do you seem familiar?”

  “I used to be a Hunter,” Shara said.

  “You’re a little young for that,” Dailyn said. “But I seem to remember you in their wing of the Bastion. With Valance.”

  “No doubt you have,” Shara said. “But I don’t live that life anymore. I gave it all up to follow Elekim.”

  Nice touch, I thought.

  Captain Dailyn’s expression was thoughtful, but he made no comment concerning this.

  “You’re welcome to stay near the camp,” I said. “There’s plenty of xen for your dragons to eat nearby.”

  “Our dragons eat meat,” Dailyn said.

  “I doubt there’s enough game in the Wild to feed them all,” I said. “The xen will serve them better than any meat.”

  “You seem sure about that.”

  “I am.” I pointed in the direction of camp. “I should introduce you to Lord Harrow, who’s in command of the forces here.”

  “We’ll be fine out here,” Dailyn said. “For now.”

  “This isn’t optional, Captain,” I said. “Your dragons have joined us, whether or not you have. The walk back to Colonia is far. You’re here now, so you and your men might as well be of use. Lord Harrow is a seasoned commander. He can get your men set up with tents and food.”

  For the first time, Dailyn looked at me with a face that seemed to comprehend that I was telling the truth. “You . . . really mean this, don’t you? You want us to fight for you?”

  “To fight with me. We’ll get one chance to turn back the Radaskim, and that chance will come at Haven. I’m gathering everyone I can there for a final battle.”

  Dailyn thought for a moment. In an instant, his entire demeanor changed. “If our dragons are going to be attacked by these Radaskim, then we will fight to the last man. You have my guarantee on that.”

  “So, you’re with us now, Captain?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Like I said, we go where our dragons go. We fight who our dragons fight. No more, no less.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Captain. Let’s go meet Lord Harrow.”

  * * *

  We let the Colonian Dragonguard stay right outside the camp while the rest of us, Captain Dailyn included, made our way to Lord Harrow’s command tent. Once there, the guards outside went inside to fetch their leader. Lord Harrow stepped outside, wearing a breast plate and a verdant green-dyed cape, seeming to take us all in under his gaze.

  “Lord Harrow,” I said. “This is Captain Dailyn, commander of the Colonian Dragonguard. They have promised to lend their lances and their dragons to the coming fight.”

  His eyes seemed to appraise Captain Dailyn, and then he gave a firm nod. “Very good. You place yourself, then, under my command, Captain?”

  “With all due respect, sir, the Dragonguard serves only the Grand Pontifex and Council of Nine of Colonia. We are here to help in our own way, no more and no less.”

  “An army is useless unless it follows the proper chain of command,” Lord Harrow said. “If you are not willing to obey orders, Captain, then why come at all?”

  “The blame for that falls on Elekim here,” he said. “Our dragons were taken from us. We had little choice but to follow them here, with the hope of someday getting them back.”

  Lord Harrow blinked in confusion. “But how . . .?

  I turned to Lord Harrow to explain. “I didn’t take them. I connected their minds to the Xenofold so that they’re no longer Mindless.”

  “But we can no longer command them,” Dailyn said. “We will be powerless to direct their flight paths or work out coordinated maneuvers, such as we are used to. We would be as helpless to work together with them as we were on our flight over here. What good will we be upon their backs?”

  “It’s possible for you to learn to work together with your dragons.”

  “How?” Dailyn asked.

  I looked at him seriously. “Become Elekai.”

  Captain Dailyn seemed absolutely flabbergasted by this suggestion. “This is too much.”

  “You already have the spark of potential,” I said. “All of your men do. It was the reason the Riders selected you in the first place for training. You could never become a full Elekai on your own, and so you were never a target for the Hunters. Shara was the same way. That spark you have is necessary for Aether to work. If you didn’t have that spark, Aether would have been nothing more to you than a drug.”

  From Dailyn’s face, I could clearly see he wasn’t accepting any of this. “They said we had a talent. A rare one. But they never said it had anything to do with the Elekai.”

  “Likely, you have Elekai ancestry,” I said, while Dailyn’s face went pale. “Not pure enough to give you Inherence, the ability to connect to the Xenofold on your own. If you had Inherence, you would have manifested by now. As I did.”

  “I don’t believe this,” he said. “First you steal my dragon, and to get it back I have to become one of you?”

  “I understand it may be hard to accept,” I said. “You and your men might learn to work with your dragons without having to become Elekai. I’m not sure even I have the strength to give that gift to everyone under your command.”

  “Why don’t you let me speak with Captain Dailyn?” Lord Harrow asked, seeing that maybe this was too much for Captain Dailyn to process.

  I nodded my agreement. “Yes, Lord Harrow. Of course.”

  “My men will need food and tents, if they are to be staying here,” Dailyn said tersely.

  “They will be provided,” Harrow said, and then turned to me. “I’ll be taking breakfast at the same time tomorrow. I’ll have some men bring food to your tent for tonight, if that’s agreeable to you.”

  “Thanks, that works for us.” I was dead tired after today, and any updates to Lord Harrow would have to wait until tomorrow morning. Already, another task was working itself on my mind; finding out what had happened to Pallos, and the Odin. I needed to find out if he’d made it safely back to Shenshi. And with the Radaskim bearing down, I wouldn’t get another chance to check on him.

  Better yet, if the ship was repaired, we could get around faster, which could prove crucial in the coming days.

  * * *

  We woke the next morning, had breakfast with Lord Harrow, and departed on the dragons in the direction of Shenshi, after all had agreed that checking on Pallos would be a good idea, while there was still time to do it. We would leave the dragons behind to help protect the retreating army and refugees.

  It was hard to leave everything in the hands of Lord Harrow once again, including the Dragonguard, whose loyalty was not completely secure. At best, the trip would take two days, assuming we didn’t take much time to rest and sleep.

  The day was sunny and bright, and while the air was cold, it was still warmer than it had been. I dozed on Flame’s back most of the way, fading in and out. The Red Wild ended quickly, to be replaced by the desert which spread itself in every direction.

  The dragons, however, picked a course that took us well south of Colonia. I could barely see the red walls and turrets of the capital. An hour later, the city had completely passed from view.

  We landed around midday to give the dragons a chance to rest. Flame said that there was a xen garden maintained by the dragons on top of one of the mesas, a place where passing dragons could rest and feed. We flew down once we spied this mesa, which was tall and flat, and as Flame said, its top was covered with pink xen and even a few trees, as if a small part of the Red Wild had been brought to this place.

  While the dragons fed, we ate our own lunch. Once done, we mounted them again and set off west, flying over territory we had only passed on Odin. The land crawled by slowly. There were no towns out here; only a seemingly endless expanse of sand, rock, and dune, split at interval
s by dusty mountain ranges. The sun was already halfway down, the light of the afternoon failing. Sunset was no more than three hours away, and there was still no sign of Shenshi.

  I realized then that we likely weren’t going to make it in a single day

  While I was considering whether we should just continue flying or make camp and give the dragons a decent rest, I saw something that didn’t make sense. Thick dust billowed on the horizon, and within that were large, bulbous shadows – hundreds of them. They looked a lot like the vessels the Radaskim had used to land by Dragonspire.

  I signaled for the others to stay close as we flew in closer. It quickly became clear that these weren’t Radaskim vessels, as I had previously thought, but something else entirely. We were close enough now to make out details on the ground, where thousands of people marched in formation, along with some metallic . . . things . . . that weren’t people.

  At some point I realized that it was an army kicking up all that dust. Shen’s army.

  Chapter 15

  The dragons angled toward the dusty earth below. The sun was nearly setting, and either due to the late hour or our presence, the troops below came to a halt.

  We landed our dragons at the head of the formation of troops, maybe a hundred feet away. Despite the short distance, most of them were hidden by the dust kicked up by a cold wind blowing from the north. Above us, the ovoid shadows could now be clearly discerned, and most of them were lowering to the ground.

  Airships, I realized. There must be over a hundred of them.

  We waited there for a while as the airborne vessels began landing all around us on the rocky earth. Directly in front of us, a particularly large airship settled down, maneuvering itself broadside to reveal its bulging, wooden hull lined with three rows of fifteen portholes, for a total of forty-five. Out of these portholes protruded long cannons. The bulbous part of the airship that provided the lift was at least twice as large as the hull. From bow to stern, it must have been at least five hundred feet long, while the vessel itself was maybe a third of that length. This airship dwarfed all others I had ever seen, and it was clearly the flagship of this fleet.

  Men disembarked this colossal ship and began mooring it to the ground. Scrawled in cursive script near the bow, in gold lettering, was the name Proudwing.

  A large boarding ramp was then extended from the ship in the middle. As soon as it touched the dusty earth, a line of white-robed men exited and walked in our direction.

  “Guardians,” Shara said.

  That meant that the man walking at the head of this column could only be High Guardian Mian. As he got closer, my guess proved to be true. I slid off my dragon and approached him.

  “High Guardian Mian,” I said, as the column came to a stop. “It’s good to see you.”

  He didn’t seem to hear me above the wind, which had picked up in intensity. He motioned for me and my friends to follow him onto the ship.

  Find a safe spot to weather the storm, I said to Flame. We’ll be back soon.

  Flame snorted, and turned to fly for a rocky outcrop nearby, tailed by the other dragons. As for the rest of us, we followed High Guardian Mian aboard Proudwing.

  * * *

  Proudwing opened into a large wardroom filled with tables and benches riveted to the deck, where some of the crew were eating. They were dressed in matching maroon uniforms, pants and shirt, and each wore a long rapier sheathed on one side with a long-barreled pistol on the other. They stood at our entrance, placing their hands behind their back.

  As we followed Mian toward the bow, I tried to take in as much as I could. To my immediate left and right were stairs leading to the cannons, with the second and third rows accessible by ladders. Though the weapons technology was far ahead of the rest of the continent, and not to mention the Red Wild, it still seemed to be behind the splendor of Shenshi and its architecture. For whatever reason, despite Shen’s advanced knowledge, Shen’s people had not been able to recreate the awesome weapons of the Old World – planes, tanks, machine guns, though it did seem the army below had a few mechanical soldiers, similar to the ones I had seen on my first trip to Shenshi. The clash of technology, both future and past, was a bit jarring. I found myself wondering what a fleet of these things working in tandem could do to a swarm of hostile dragons.

  Mian led us straight past the wardroom and up a central corridor, on either side of which were cabins jam-packed with bunks, at least twenty to a cabin. I had thought Odin’s quarters were tight; these cabins were on another level entirely.

  The corridor opened into the bridge. Its entire front was made from glass that would give a wide view of the landscape below. Those windows also looked as if they could be opened to the air. Given the storm outside, however, the windows were now closed. Besides a centrally located steering wheel, there were no obvious controls of any kind. There were, however, several seats situated at the front of the bridge, which would provide a good view of the battlefield below, while large side windows also gave a vantage to starboard and port, where the cannons would be facing.

  Once we were all on the bridge, High Guardian Mian nodded to another Guardian, who closed the door to the bridge, while some others drew up chairs for us to sit in.

  “It is a surprise to see you here,” Mian said, proffering the seats while taking one himself. “It is a good surprise. My forces would be pressing on for Colonia even now if not for this storm.”

  “Colonia?” I asked. “Why are you going there?”

  “Shen ordered us to take it, after marshalling all of our Continental Forces and any airship large enough to bear even a single cannon. Altogether, our fleet carries over seven thousand cannons, and Proudwing itself carries ninety. If Odium’s dragons dare assault us directly, they shall be torn asunder.”

  “After Colonia, you’re coming to help us, I hope?” I asked.

  Guardian Mian nodded. “Yes.”

  I didn’t dare to hope, and had been preparing to make my case on why he should. I was relieved that I didn’t have to.

  “Thank you,” I said. “We’re grateful.”

  Mian shrugged. “It is nothing. If we don’t work together, then all of us shall surely perish. Shen is aware of Odium’s threat, and seeks to end that threat early, while there is still a chance.”

  “We expect Odium’s forces to reach Haven in as little as a week,” I said. “It depends on how fast he brings the Xenoplain under his control.”

  “A week,” Mian said, frowning. “My air forces can certainly get there in time, but the ground army may be a bit late in coming. Especially as we are under orders to secure Colonia first.” He looked at me more closely. “I want a gauge of the enemy’s forces. What exactly are we dealing with?”

  “They sent about two hundred dragons on a mission to destroy Kalear, one of our southern fortresses,” I said. “There are thousands of dragons, and tens of thousands of crawlers, if reports are to be believed.”

  “They destroyed Sylva as if it were nothing,” Fiona said.

  “We received word of King Arius’ passing,” Mian said solemnly. “May he rest in peace, and long may you reign, Queen Fiona.”

  Fiona nodded her head regally. “I hope so, though that doesn’t appear to be likely.”

  “If that’s the case, I will fight all the more.”

  I liked the sound of that. “About Colonia. Do you know what’s happened there yet?”

  “Some,” Mian said. “Shen has deemed the situation there too unstable, and will brook no further delay. He believes the chaos of that city may undo it before Odium can. I don’t relish the thought of turning my ships upon their Dragonguard, but I suppose that cannot be avoided.”

  “Actually,” I said, “the Dragonguard have come with me, and are going to be helping with the defense of Haven.”

  “Really?” Mian said. “That’s very good news. Good news indeed. Being able to secure Colonia should be no trouble, then.”

  I nodded. “It’s important that order be restor
ed there. We need their men, High Guardian. We need every man we can get for Haven’s defense.”

  “It will be done,” he said. Mian motioned for another Guardian, a younger one of about thirty years, to come closer. “Hot tea for our guests, Guardian Reus.”

  “At once, High Guardian,” the Guardian said, placing a fist over his heart.

  As the tea was brought out, along with sandwiches, Mian updated us on everything that had happened in Shenshi while we were gone to Ragnarok Crater.

  “There was a skirmish outside Shenshi itself last week,” Mian said. “About fifty Radaskim dragons came. A scouting party, most likely. But one of our outposts had caught sight of them, giving us time to set up an ambush behind the mountains. As they passed overhead, we rose quickly and unleashed a volley that brought down well over half of them.”

  “In a single shot?” Shara asked, incredulous.

  Mian nodded solemnly. “We were in perfect position. A bit of luck, there, but it goes to show how devastating the Shen Air Force can be, given the right conditions. Several more were shot down as they tried to escape.”

  “Odium knows you’re a threat, now,” I said. “He was testing you, Guardian Mian. Now he knows what your ships are capable of.”

  “Alas, that is very true,” he said. “They will know to hang back a good distance when the ships are deployed in mass. Our ships are slower than dragons, but suffice it to say, as long as the ships are firing together, not a single dragon will touch us.”

  That was a bold statement, and I would only believe it when I saw it.

  “This attack, more than the fall of Colonia, stirred Shen more than anything else,” Mian said. “He had already been gathering an army, but the attack caused him to do so with even more speed. The Shen army is on the march for the first time on this side of the world since the days of Hyperborea.”