The Crow Rider

by Kalyn Josephson

  “I take it I’m safe then.”

  I rolled my eyes as Ericen peered uneasily at the edge.

  “This is incredibly high up.”

  A smile pulled at my lips. “Don’t tell me the great Illucian prince is afraid of heights.”

  The pale shade of Ericen’s skin contrasted with the indignant scowl that filled his face. “Of course not.”

  Res snorted, and if ever the crow had made a more mocking sound, I’d never heard it.

  Ericen glowered at him, and I laughed even as my heart stuttered a drumbeat in my chest. It’d been months since I’d flown from one of the landing platforms. Another of the many things I never thought I’d do again, just like I thought I’d never fly out over Aris with my own crow.

  The platform door opened, and Kiva stepped out, Aroch trotting alongside her. “I heard you were jumping off the castle. Has Res flown this high with you before? I prefer you unsquished.”

  I rolled my eyes again. “I’m not going to die.”

  “You can get squished and not die.”

  “She’ll be fine.” Ericen’s words steadied the beat inside me. He crossed his arms, meeting my gaze with a reassuring smile. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Thia, it’s not to underestimate her. She gets too much satisfaction out of proving you wrong.”

  “You would know,” I said.

  “Unless we’re talking about flirting. That she can’t do to save her life.”

  “At least I’m not afraid of heights,” I shot back.

  “Afraid of heights?” Kiva asked, looking delighted. “Did you know we’re over a hundred and fifty feet in the air?”

  “I didn’t,” Ericen replied with an edge. “Shall I push you over to confirm it?”

  “I would say Thia would catch me, but I’m still not convinced she won’t be flattened herself in the next minute.”

  “You two almost sound like friends,” I noted, and Kiva blanched.

  I laughed as I swung onto Res’s back. Leaning down, I whispered, “Let’s show them all what we can do.”

  Rearing back, Res released a piercing call.

  Then he leapt.

  My half scream, half cry of joy was lost to the wind as Res dove. I’d expected him to soar straight out, to take the easy route. I should have known. After all, he had a flair for the dramatic.

  Wind screamed past my ears, my eyes watering against the pressure. On reflex, I counted.

  Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…

  Now! I squeezed my knees, and Res’s wings snapped open, catching an updraft that sent us sailing upward. He screeched, and I felt his joy intermix with wild abandon as the wind carried us higher.

  We rose faster, his wings taut against the draft. In a burst of speed, we shot past the platform to Kiva’s whooping cheer.

  Stay focused, I told Res, even as the desire to lose myself to the feel of the wind coursed wild.

  With the pressure of the thermal sending us upward, Res would have to fight the wind to stay level. Wings down, I reminded him. He pitched them at a downward angle, straining against the current, and we leveled out. A moment later, we’d broken free of the rising air and were gliding back around in a wide circle, a grin on my lips, a call echoing from Res’s throat.

  Caliza had asked me to take Res out above the city, knowing the sight of a full-grown crow and rider would help lift Aris’s falling spirits.

  Even forty feet up, the failing state of the capital was clear. Tents had been pitched in courtyards for refugees fleeing the northern towns, makeshift neighborhoods of their own. The once opulent and lush foliage that blanketed Aris had started to wither and die. We passed more than one closed shop that’d still been open when I left for Sordell.

  With the images of the dying city heavy in my heart, I spent longer than planned out with Res, praying as Caliza did that his presence would give our people hope. When they cheered as we coasted above them, children chasing our shadow through the streets in hopes of catching a stray feather, it was they who gave me hope.

  We returned only to funnel more Trendellan troops through the shrine, then set out again. This was our last day of freedom in the skies, for come tomorrow, we’d set out for Elaris, and war.

  * * *

  That night, I stayed sitting at the patio table long after dinner had ended. I lounged back with my feet up on the railing, surveying the quiet garden beyond and replaying the tactics meeting that’d just ended. We had a solid plan—hit Razel first before she could finish fielding more troops, led by Rhodaire and Trendell from the front and supported by Jindae and the Ambriels from behind.

  Razel thought she’d destroyed the Jin rebels and broken the Ambriels, making their approach from behind key to our plans.

  Two days from now, we’d know if it was enough.

  I adjusted the plate of orange cakes resting in my lap. Already I felt a little sick, my stomach full to bursting, but I ate another.

  Res groaned from beside me. He perched hunkered down, his wings spread, powdered sugar dotting his black feathers.

  “We’re finishing this plate,” I informed him. He groaned again.

  “I can help you with that.” Ericen’s footsteps were light on the patio, the shadows cast by the sona lamps sharpening his features. He dragged a chair over to my other side and dropped down, propping his boots up on the railing. I offered him the plate, and he took a cake.

  The silence between us was comfortable, and for a little while, I simply breathed in the scent of fruit trees and listened to the crickets chirp.

  “Have you ever fought in a war?” I asked when the cakes were gone.

  Ericen dusted the powdered sugar off his hands. “I haven’t.”

  “I…think I’m scared,” I said softly. “I’m afraid of losing more people I love.”

  The prince was quiet for a moment, and I closed my eyes against the rising panic. What if Kiva was hurt? Or Res? I couldn’t go through that again.

  “My mother always said having people you love is a weakness,” Ericen said at last. “She loved people, and they were taken from her, and she was powerless to stop it. She never wanted to be weak again.”

  Was that why Razel had treated him so horribly? Because she hadn’t wanted to love him, lest she lose him too?

  “But she was wrong,” he said, a note of finality in his voice. “Love doesn’t make you weak.” He looked at me, his piercing eyes pinning me to the spot. “It makes you stronger.”

  My breath caught, a gentle chill prickling along my skin despite the warm night. Ericen’s gaze lingered. I took his hand in mine, powdered sugar and all, and held it. He squeezed my fingers gently, his sword calluses rough against those from my bow. When our grips slackened, our fingertips remained intertwined.

  He leaned his head back against the chair, staring up at the clouded sky. Without a word, I tossed him one of the remaining two orange cakes. He caught it with his free hand, and we ate in silence.

  War had broken both our families. Its echoes still haunted us.

  But we could be better than our parents’ legacies. Their mistakes didn’t have to be our own.

  Come tomorrow, we would march to battle. But for tonight, I was content to sit beside a boy who had once been my enemy, cocooned in the sort of silence that sometimes knitted broken things back together.

  Twenty-Nine

  We set out for Elaris in the afternoon.

  After letting the last contingent of Trendellan soldiers through the Sella road, we gathered our supplies and prepared to leave. With Res’s help, Estrel had seen to the creation of several new black gold weapons, including a whole quiver of arrows for me. The refined metal was near impossible for crows to bend, and we were relying on the same being true for the Sellas.

  I refused to say goodbye to Caliza, the action feeling uncomfortably final, and instead simply hug
ged her as hard as I could.

  Then Ericen, Kiva, Estrel, Res, and I left.

  Elaris was less than a day’s ride from Aris, a trip that Res and I could have made even faster. Instead, he napped in the back of an open wagon. Conserving his strength would be key to this fight; as the battle in the wood had proven, his magic was limited. He hadn’t complained.

  The rest of us rode horses as we passed through the Kessel Woods, though we kept pace with the marching army, not wanting to tire the beasts. Many of the horses had come through Trendell from Jindae, but with our reliance on the crows, Rhodaire had never fielded a large cavalry, and many of our recent additions hadn’t been training for more than six months.

  We passed out of the wood’s dense foliage by late afternoon, the trail winding through valleys of long-fingered grass and patches of broad-leafed trees. Only a few weeks ago, I’d made this same trip, a prisoner in Ericen’s carriage, all too aware of what waited for me at the end. This time, I enjoyed the familiar scenery, the feel of the waning afternoon sun and the gentle wind, and the company of my friends, even knowing what we rode toward.

  Until we rose from a deep valley and reached the crest of a hill, Elaris spread out before us in the next basin, and my heart stopped.

  The city was already under attack.

  * * *

  The clang of distant metal merged with the screams of the dying.

  Row upon row of Illucian soldiers stretched out toward the northern border, pinning Elaris between Lesiar Lake and a tide of soldiers in blue. Arrows flew at the wall from a small force that had broken off from the larger army, protected from easy return fire by a small, broad-topped tower on wheels.

  Ericen had spoken of the top towers. Larger versions of them reached up from the Illucian ranks every few yards, providing canopy-like protection from the skies. The top towers were a favorite defense of Illucia against the crows, allowing them to create pockets of archers that could fire and then quickly retreat below protection. They were incredibly effective against battle crows, and while less so against Res, it would take a lot of magic for him to destroy all of them, and it would make him an easy target.

  A narrow stone bridge connected the shore and the back entrance to the city, and it was for it that we rode with all haste.

  Res shot awake in the back of his wagon, but I warned him to keep down and lifted the hood of my cloak to hide my face. Estrel, Ericen, and Kiva did the same. Razel likely had scouts looking to report when the crow arrived, and I’d rather them think we were just another contingent of ground reinforcements.

  The soldiers at the back gate let us through, and we rode through ranks of Trendellan and Rhodairen forces to the front of the city.

  Our horse’s hooves clattered across the cobblestones as we entered a broad courtyard. Lady Kerova met us at the base of the wall. A lithe, graceful warrior, she had Auma’s calm bearing and Kiva’s fierce gaze, and it showed as she dealt out orders to passing soldiers.

  I dismounted, making for her. “Status report?” I asked.

  “Your Highness,” she greeted with a swift bob of her head. “This is the third strike Razel’s forces have made in as many hours. So far, they’ve only been testing our defenses, but based on your intelligence regarding the Sellas in her employ, I fear they may only be a distraction to lull us into a sense of security with a false pattern. When their true attack comes, it won’t be led by archers.”

  A Rhodairen soldier descended a nearby set of steps and saluted Lady Kerova. “The enemy has retreated. We have two wounded to report and seven confirmed dead on the Illucian side. Also, there’s a disturbance in the Illucian forces. It appears someone is making their way to the front lines from the command tents.”

  “Show us,” Estrel ordered.

  We followed the soldier to the top of the wall. I stilled at the edge of the battlement as the true scope of the army’s size unfurled before me. Hearing troop numbers from Caliza was one thing. Facing them spread along the basin, knowing each of them was here to kill Res, to kill my friends and my family, was something else entirely.

  The rows broke about two-thirds of the way back to make room for a line of royal-blue tents. It was from there that a ripple of motion rolled through the army, soldiers separating to allow through a group of four hooded figures on foot.

  The Sellas had come.

  “Razel must have decided against waiting for additional troops,” Ericen said. “She probably thinks the Sellas are enough to turn the tide.”

  “I only see four,” I said. “There were six in the glade.” Where were the other two?

  “What do we do with these ones?” Kiva’s hand curled around Sinvarra.

  Lady Kerova looked suddenly uneasy. “The Ambriellan and Jin reinforcements aren’t set to reach us until near nightfall. Somehow, we must last until then.”

  Ericen stepped up to the wall, surveying the ranks below. A dark swath of earth cut a line between the wall and the soldiers beyond, the ground uneven and loose to impede the cavalry’s approach. “They’ll start by trying to create an opening in this wall, probably hoping to draw Res out into those archers in the meantime,” the prince said. “Then they’ll use cavalry to overpower your infantry that rushes to plug the gaps.”

  “And they have an earth Sella that can tear holes in it like paper.” I watched the approaching group with rising dread. Questioning beats pulsed down the line from Res.

  Not yet, I sent back.

  “If this wall falls, the city will fall,” Lady Kerova said. “We don’t have the numbers to match them without the Jin and Ambriellan forces for long.”

  “So we hold the wall,” I said. “No matter what.”

  * * *

  The waiting was torture.

  We had no choice but to watch as a solitary top tower trundled toward us at an agonizingly slow pace, pushed by soldiers from behind. Our goal had gone from initiating this battle ourselves to prolonging its start for as long as possible, leaving us all but immobile until Razel’s forces made their first move. But every second we waited was a second closer our reinforcements came to reaching us.

  I searched the command tent line, looking for a flash of gold, but if Razel was here, she was safely sequestered inside.

  The top tower paused at the edge of the strip of overturned earth outside our archer’s range. One of the hooded figures lifted a hand. With a wave of their fingers, a wide swath of dirt flattened into solid earth. Immediately, the Illucian cavalry began lining up behind the swath, the loose ground no longer an impediment to their massive horses.

  “He’s going to start tearing down pieces of the wall,” I said. My fingers curled anxiously around the string of my bow. At our backs, our soldiers readjusted into ranks accordingly, trying to position for where the Illucians would enter. “Res and I can re-form them, but only for so long. His magic isn’t endless.”

  “All right. So then we need to take that earth creep down first,” Kiva said. Then a smile curled across her lips. “I have an idea.”

  No one disagreed as she laid out her plan, though I wanted to more than anything. Everyone here had come to fight for Rhodaire, for their family and friends and people. It wasn’t my place to ask Kiva not to do this. But that didn’t stop me from wrapping her in a stranglehold of a hug before rushing off to my position.

  As I swung onto Res’s back, the ground shook.

  Stone cracked, a piece of the wall shifting. Smaller pieces started to crumble from it, sending soldiers scrambling left and right to escape the deteriorating section.

  Power surged along the bond, and Res’s eyes glowed silver. The shaking stopped, the wall’s cracks sealing, leaving it slightly sunken but still whole. A moment of heavy silence fell with the settling dust. Then another crack rent the air, and another, and another. The wall splintered, and Res struggled to keep pace, sealing piece after piece.

 
We wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. Eventually, part of the wall would crumble. Sealing the cracks was one thing, but re-forming a wall out of stone might be beyond Res’s earth crow skills, and it would drain his power.

  We darted left and right along the flight path that lined the base of the wall, enabling crows to travel at the speed of flight while still benefiting from the protection of the wall.

  I hated this. Battling an unseen enemy, being put in a reactive position. We’d just begun, and yet already this fight was out of our control.

  A shout went up, then a hail of arrows rained down from above.

  Res’s magic flared, deflecting the wooden bolts with ease and sending them careening into the stone wall.

  “Saints, pull back!” I yelled. Res circled around just as another wave of arrows fell where he’d been flying.

  They’d been tracking his movements based on where the wall resealed. Had the Sella even been trying to take down the wall, or had that all just been a trap for Res?

  The Sella’s attack changed directions, striking along the wall back the way we’d come. Res and I held back, taking signals from the wall guards. They laid down cover fire, pinning the Illucian archers while Res and I fixed the wall, but our timing wasn’t perfect. We could only begin to seal a crack before another one opened, forcing us to leave imperfect fixes behind.

  We reached the central courtyard just as Kiva bounded down the stairs.

  “Caylus’s horns are in place,” she said. “I’m ready.”

  The urge to argue rose, but I swallowed it down. We couldn’t spend the rest of Res’s strength playing tug-of-war over the wall. Still, my stomach turned as I gave Res the order.

  A perfect replica of him formed from the shadows of a nearby building. Kiva threw up her hood and leapt onto the shadow crow’s back.

  “Send me toward where the forest meets the lake!” she called.

  The fake crow lifted into the air and shot out along the wall under Res’s control. Immediately, Rhodairen soldiers started cranking the horns, emitting a high-pitched keening sound, and just in time too. A wave of glass arrows shattered midflight, the Illucian archers having switched ammunition upon confirmation of a crow.