by Kyle West
“Clearly,” Fiona said. She looked at me. “Surely, you knew about it?”
“Of course. Nothing gets by me.”
Fiona settled back in her chair, looking at Shara with a smug expression. “You really should be more observant.”
Nonplussed, Shara took a bigger bite of her beef. “Sorry. Other things on my mind.”
The Elders looked at us, mostly bemused, but Sage Alan seemed to be trying to stifle a chuckle. Noticing me looking at him, he broke his silence for the first time that night. “As dark as the days become, it gladdens me to see young people still acting like young people.”
“She felt strong,” Cleric Draeus said, looking toward the door where Isa left. “I don’t see how we ever let her slip away from the Sanctum.”
“She didn’t slip away,” I said. “All of you made her leave.”
To this, the Elders had no response.
“Don’t feel too bad,” I said. “It ended up working out for the best. Without her guidance, Isaru and I probably would have never made it to Hyperborea on our first trip there.”
“All of you are strong in the Xenofold,” Judge Lian said, a note of suspicion in his voice. “Uncommonly strong. In fact, I don’t see how any of us failed to notice it to begin with.”
The source of our strength, the baptism of power I had allowed my friends to have in the Sea of Creation after the death of the Hyperfold, wasn’t exactly a conversation I wanted to have, at least not now. Some things were best left mysteries.
So, I just ended up shrugging at Judge Lian’s observation. “I know it’s still early, but I need to rest,” I said. “The journey here was long and cold, and I’ve scarcely recovered from it.”
“I’m sure there are some matters I still need to attend to here,” Fiona said. “The rest of you, feel free to turn in and rest.”
“If you need help with anything . . .” I began.
“Rest,” Fiona said again, firmly. “Get it while you can.”
Shara remained at the table, helping herself to another plate, seeming to miss the entire interchange. Perhaps feeling our collective gaze, she looked up. From her response, she had been listening. “I’ll join you soon, I’m sure. I don’t know where my next meal is coming from.”
“The kitchen,” Fiona said. “Where else would it come from?”
Shara was about to get in her own rejoinder, when Elder Arminius spoke first. “Let us take care of the needs of the kingdom for now. If there’s anything pressing, well, we can wake you.”
“Are you sure?” Fiona asked, unsure.
“Quite sure.”
Shara scooped the rest of the food on her plate into her mouth, and then stood.
I shook my head, but there was nothing to be done about it. The three of us walked out of the inner courtyard to the outer corridor, where the guest bedrooms lay. Shara entered the room next to mine while Fiona bade me goodnight and walked off in the direction of the royal chambers.
When I entered my own room, I got my first bit of privacy in what felt forever. The room was warm and welcoming, a small fire burning in the corner on a brazier, that would serve to keep the air warm throughout the night. I took off my boots and cloak. I flagged down a palace servant in the corridor outside and asked for a bath to be brought to my room. After the circular tub was prepared and I was left in peace, I soaked for a good hour, the heat seeming to melt away all the stiffness and cold that had seeped into my bones. It was as if I had never taken that long, cold flight, both to and from the Sea of Creation. I didn’t even feel pain from the wounds I’d suffered after falling off Flame’s back.
The peaceful feeling didn’t last, however. A sudden chill overcame me, the very air seeming to tense. It felt as if something were watching me. I opened my eyes and glanced around the room, but I was alone.
I knew not to ignore a feeling like this, and as if reinforcing this notion, a voice entered my mind – Anna’s voice, perhaps.
Reach for Silence.
I took hold of it immediately, and at once, my gaze was directed toward the window and its fluttering curtains. I could see two talons standing on the windowsill. A small dragon, perhaps? I saw it, in the calmness of Silence. I could feel panic rising beneath the still surface, held back only by my connection to the Xenofold.
I decided that slowness would serve better than quickness in this case; this dragon, or thing, didn’t seem to know that I knew it was there, and I didn’t want to give the game away. I slowly stood, so slowly that the bathwater hardly made a sound. I reached for the hilt of Katan, which I had left lying beside the tub. I was grateful for that bit of foresight.
As soon as my fingers curved around the hilt, the curtains fluttered, obscuring the talons. When the curtains steadied once more, the talons were gone.
I was now standing, naked and dripping, save for the blade in my hands. I decided there was time to throw on a robe hanging on the wall nearby, doing it all without releasing Silence or taking my eyes off the windowsill. Whatever had been there wasn’t truly gone. Not yet.
I held that position for several minutes, never minding the puddle that was collecting at my feet. If I turned away, even for a second . . .
Suddenly, the curtains were thrust aside and torn from the rod that held them. A high screech accompanied a gray-brown blur that flew right at me, quick as an arrow. I had time enough to see blazing white eyes before Silence directed my blade downward, flashing into the mix of fabric and beast. A hideous squawk rang out as the birdlike thing tangled within the curtain, now broken completely free from the rod. I dealt the killing blow, stabbing quickly before it had the chance to escape. My blade buried itself easily in its flesh, and after a final scream, it went still and silent.
I parted the fabric, revealing something that wasn’t at all a bird, or even a dragon. It had no feathers, as a bird would, and no scales, like a dragon. Its leathery, sickly gray skin was stained with ugly purple spots. The creature had a long, sleek form with wide wings, leathern and webbed like a bat’s. It had the longest, sharpest beak I had ever seen, longer than my arm, and as sharp as any sword point. It wasn’t hard to see the purpose behind the creature’s design: stabbing at great speed. The thing must have flown away as soon as I detected it, only to come back at greater speed with the intent to run me through. The only thing that had given me the chance to respond in time was it getting tangled up in the curtain.
I washed my blade off in the bath water and ran to check on the others. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who had received an unwelcome visitor.
* * *
I ran from the room, never minding my bare feet or wetness, or even the fact I was still only wearing a robe. I opened Shara’s room without knocking, only to find the lights were out. I could see nothing.
“Shara? You okay?”
Something turned on the bed, and I saw one of Shara’s eyes showing above the covers, while her blonde hair was a tangle nearly reaching the floor. The one eye did not look happy.
“What the . . .? It can’t be morning yet . . .”
She sat up groggily, blinking her eyes at the light from the outer corridor. She still hadn’t registered that I was standing before her, in a robe with my sword out. When she finally noticed that, she became alert very quickly. “What are you doing? Did something happen?”
I nodded. Shara was up in an instant, fumbling for her own sword.
“No need for that,” I said. “The thing is dead. I was worried there was another one in here.”
“Thing? What thing?” Shara picked up her blade, and drew it, despite me having told her it was pointless, now.
Well, maybe not entirely pointless. It was possible more of those things had entered the palace, but for some reason, I didn’t feel that was the case.
“Follow me,” I said.
She followed, after quickly throwing on the previous day’s clothes lying in a pile on the floor. I could hear voices coming from the direction of my room. Apparently, the disturbance had already dr
awn others.
When we entered, it was to the sight of Fiona and Isaru looking down at the dead beast. They looked up as we both entered.
“That was quick,” I said.
“We heard it,” Fiona said, her face a mask of relief. “Isa went off to look for you.”
“I was in Shara’s room,” I said.
At that very moment, Isa returned, seeming relieved to see me as well. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I guess all of you heard it, huh?”
Heads nodded all around while Shara awkwardly shifted her feet.
For a moment, all of us just stared at the dead monster. There was no other way to describe this thing; it was a monster, clearly a part of Odium’s forces.
“I don’t think I’ve ever read about anything like this,” Fiona finally said.
“It looks designed to kill,” Isaru said. “That beak . . .”
I could imagine it diving in the night straight for my window. With its wings folded back, this bird, if it could be so called, would be shaped like a missile, no doubt reaching incredible speeds.
Obviously, going as fast as that, it had no will for its own survival. It had only one purpose; to kill me.
I explained what had happened. How I had felt something was off while taking my bath, and how I had waited until this thing dove through my open window. Fiona’s face paled as I related everything, while Isaru’s expression was grim.
Once I was finished, Isaru took the obvious step of closing the window entirely, walking toward it and shutting it firmly. Outside the glass I could see the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, and below, the spreading limbs of Haventree. Up here, there were no branches to obstruct a potential attack from the sky.
“Probably best for you to sleep in an interior room,” Fiona said. “I’m afraid most of the beds here are on the outer corridor, including my own.”
“We should all sleep in the interior,” Isa said. “There’s no telling how many of these things Odium has in his army. If the army is as large as we think it is, just imagine what a group of these could do to our forces!”
Isa had a good point. This thing didn’t necessarily have to be just an assassination tool. In mass, it would be devastating, and unlike a dragon, it was small and lightning fast.
“So, what do we do about it?” I said.
Fiona knelt and covered the monster with the curtain, to hide it from view. It had started to stink in a surprisingly small amount of time.
“I’ll need to take this to the Elders,” Fiona said. “They’ll need to know about this. They can warn the city and army to be on the lookout for more.”
“How would you defend yourself against one of these?” Isa asked. “Shanti said she felt like something was off, and it was lucky she did, otherwise . . .” She shook her head, unable to bring herself to say the unthinkable. “Not everyone will be able to detect them.”
“Large shields, maybe,” I said. “So far, we’ve only seen the one. It’s possible that they don’t make up much of Odium’s forces. A tool for assassination, and no more.”
“I hope not,” Isa said, with a shudder.
“I like to see my enemy,” Shara said. “This just makes me wonder when it’ll be my turn.”
“We can’t jump to conclusions,” I said. “This is what Odium wants; for us to be terrorized before the battle has even begun. We can’t let that happen. That’s as good as letting him win.”
Isaru nodded. “I agree with Fiona. Let’s bring this to the Elders and show them what we’re dealing with. Who knows? Maybe they’ll know something.”
Isaru and Shara were the ones who ended up carrying the curtain. I got everyone out of my room for a moment so I could get changed. Fiona insisted on staying in the room with me, facing the window. I changed quickly, re-holstered my sword, and together, we went to the inner courtyard, where hopefully the Elders were still to be found.
Chapter 25
As I had hoped, the Elders hadn’t gone to bed yet, and we found them in the courtyard, still deliberating the safety of the city. They went quiet as we approached, as Isaru and Shara dumped the curtain on the floor, which opened on its own to reveal the monstrosity within.
Their faces paled as they stared at the creature in mute shock.
“What is this . . . thing?” Elder Lian asked, breaking the silence.
“We don’t know,” I said. “It dove through my window and almost killed me. Luckily, I was able to kill it instead.”
All the Elders looked at me. All of them must have been wondering the same thing, and the same what if. It had been a close call.
“You are not passing the night in that room,” Sage Alan said. “You can sleep here, in the grove. I’d like to see one of those birds dive through the branches above.”
While the grove didn’t have a proper roof, it was probably the closest thing to a roof that all Haventree had. The branches grew so thickly, interlocking with one another, that not even rain could pass through.
“Have any of you ever seen one of these things before?” I asked.
Every Elder turned to Sage Alan, who was apparently the expert on such things.
“There is nothing in the literature concerning this,” Alan said. “Certainly, there is no animal in this world quite like that, so we can only assume it came with Odium aboard his vessels. The crawlers we’ve known about, of course, and there are writings of other monsters from older times that have yet to be seen in this age. But I cannot ever recall having read about one of these.”
“It seems they work by diving and sacrificing themselves to kill a single target,” I said.
Alan stood close to the bird, far too close for my comfort. I was half-afraid it was going to wake up and stab him. “Those eyes are like an eagle’s, perfect for seeing its target at a distance.”
“My curtains were closed,” I said. “How could it have seen me?” But then, I remembered. “Wait. I noticed it on the sill. Just the talons, I mean. I don’t know how long it was there, but it flew off once I noticed it.”
Isa shuddered. “That’s so creepy.”
“It was gone, I don’t know for how long. Ten minutes? Then, out of nowhere, there was a crash. If I hadn’t been ready . . .”
“That curtain might’ve saved you, too,” Shara said. “I had mine open to the night.”
“Whatever the case,” Arminius said, “Odium failed in his goal. We will have to be on the lookout for these birds.” He looked at me seriously. “From now on, you must travel with guards.”
Before I could put up an argument, Fiona nodded her agreement.
“I can be a guard,” Shara offered.
“None of this is necessary,” I said. “As I told you already, I felt this thing coming. I don’t need bodyguards following me around. They would just get in the way.”
“All it takes is one slip,” Arminius said. “One moment where your guard is down. And try as you might, you can’t defend yourself all the time. If not for the curtain covering your window, you might not have been able to react in time.”
I knew that was true, but I simply didn’t want a contingent of guards following me around. “If I’m not fast enough to stop a bird like that, no one is.”
From Arminius’ silence, I saw that he couldn’t find a response to that.
“We’ll be her bodyguards,” Isaru said. “As we always have been. All of us plan on sleeping here in the courtyard tonight, anyway.”
After what had happened tonight, I wasn’t sure I could sleep at all. But the mere mention of sleep made my eyelids go heavy.
The Elders rose from their seats. “We can take our conference elsewhere, and we will have guards posted at all the entrances. None will enter without our leave.”
“Then where will we actually sleep?” Shara asked.
“The palace servants can bring some beds here, as comfortable as any you’ll find in the guest wing,” Arminius said.
Indeed, that was what happened, faster than I would have believ
ed possible. Within ten minutes all of us were in bed, and the lanterns that had been providing their light to the courtyard had been dimmed. Soon enough, it was just the five of us, our beds arranged in a circle in the very center of the courtyard, with the sound of the circulating stream providing a calming ambiance.
It was strange to sleep out here, but also relaxing. It was as if we were outside. Even with everything that had happened, I couldn’t keep awake for long.
* * *
The coming days became a succession of preparation and mounting fear. News of the birds had spread, and many times I spied people glancing up at the sky as they went about their daily business, or while they set up the artillery in Haven’s tree limbs. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without my friends watching my back, and I wasn’t even allowed to ride Flame, the risk being deemed too great.
But there was nowhere left to go until the battle started. Day by day, Odium’s swarm crawled ever closer, always at the same, relentless pace of a few miles a day. More and more refugees flooded the Southern Pass, many of whom were injured. Some had even brought their dead family members, not wanting to leave them behind for the swarm.
Isa, after visiting with her mother, who had come with her aunt, urged them onward toward Mongar, despite their protests. Isa was a shell of her former self, sick with worry and unknowing of whether her family would make it there alive. I had the same worries myself, but there was nothing I could do about it. Not when my parents wanted to contribute, my mom lending her services in the city itself while my dad planned to fight with his old regiment, the Colonian First Cohort, once they finally arrived.
The refugees that couldn’t be used in the cities or given a pike to join the defense were sent north of the Grand Canyon, with instructions to only use the camp on the North Rim as a waypoint on their way to safer lands. Few, if any, listened to this advice, probably because the only food that could be found was in the camp. We couldn’t stand by and let people go hungry, as thin as our own rations were. Fiona made sure there was always large pots of stew over the fires, which were always kept full.