by J. M. Lee
“Naia?” asked a familiar voice from within the flames. Maudra Mera, peering out from the brightness from Sami Thicket, surfaced in the roiling fire even as the faces and voices of the other clans awakened within it. “Naia, is that you?”
“Yes,” Naia replied. “The sixth fire is lit. Here below Great Smerth.”
The fires rippled with color as Gelfling across all of Thra gasped with happiness and relief. Naia saw glimpses of the many places where the fires had been lit, as far as Ha’rar and as near as Sami Thicket. Within the fire, the world suddenly seemed safer. The other clans closer.
“Maudra Ethri?” Naia asked. “Rek’yr and the Dousan? Shadowlings, Silverlings, Menders, all?”
“Yes, we are here,” came a cool voice. Maudra Ethri’s emerald eye glittered through the fire, a streak of green. “Waiting near Ha’rar on the Omerya.”
“And we, too, near the Wellspring,” said another with a splash of gold and indigo, and Naia thought she glimpsed Periss’s and Erimon’s tattooed faces as well. “Waiting for the sign. Of the seventh fire, I presume.”
The seventh fire. Only one left, and everyone knew where it had to be lit. Maudra Mera’s voice broke the murmurs yet again, calling to Naia with an edge of importance.
“Naia. I am glad for the Drenchen fire, but we cannot relax now. My scouts have recovered a number of Stonewood refugees from the border of the Dark Wood. They said they saw—” Her voice was drowned in a wash of heat. The fire was fading. Most of what Maudra Mera had to say was lost, though the final part came through:
“We must finish what we have begun. And quickly. It’s beginning!”
“We will!” Naia called to her. The fire faded, and she wasn’t sure if her promise had gotten through. But it didn’t matter. Maudra Mera would know soon enough. She turned to the Drenchen that circled around them and the hearth that had so recently been blazing with flame.
“We lit the sixth fire here,” she announced, “but there is still a seventh yet to light. A final one to unite the rest, and we know exactly where to go. Anyone who can still fight, prepare to depart. I need half our healers to stay here and try to mend Great Smerth if you can . . . The rest, come with us. We leave immediately for Stone-in-the-Wood.”
Even though the Drenchen burst into movement, it still felt painstakingly slow. Only a few of the muski were large enough to ride, and Chapyora was still too distressed over losing Laesid. They would be going north on foot.
“Maybe we should go without the rest,” Gurjin said lowly as they prepared their things to leave. “We could travel faster.”
Naia disagreed. “I don’t know what Maudra Mera meant when she said it was beginning. But we can only guess she meant our rebellion against the Skeksis. We need to light that seventh fire, and that means finding and helping the Stonewood survivors. Whether it’s Maudra Fara or the refugees or Rian or all three. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
As their party gathered on the edge of the Glenfoot to leave, Naia frowned as her father strode forward. He was dressed in his battle armor, made of fish scales and lake-crab shells. Despite his armor and spear, Naia saw a tremble in his hands, and the places where tears had streaked through the soot and smoke on his cheeks.
“Then off we go,” he said, but Naia didn’t budge. She took in a deep breath and stepped before him.
“No, Father. You’re staying here.”
Drawing in another last taste of sweet Sog air, Naia unclasped her mother’s cloak from her shoulders. With a flourish that caught the afternoon light, she unfurled it until it rested gently across her father’s shoulders, as if Maudra Laesid’s wings embraced him once again.
“But—”
“You will stay here and protect those who stay to keep Sog safe,” Naia said, putting her hands on her father’s where he clenched his long spear. One by one, his fingers relaxed. “That is what Mother would have wanted.”
He let out a gruff, impatient sigh but, other than that, did not protest further. Naia held her breath when he lowered his long spear, holding it out to her. She took it in both hands, feeling its weight as her father turned away from her, addressing the Drenchen who were staying in the glade.
“Our maudra and our healers go to mend the wounds of Thra,” he boomed, his voice echoing through the great apeknots and Great Smerth itself. “Send them off with all your might!”
The cheers of the Drenchen were like wind in sails as Naia led the way north toward the Spriton Plains.
After a full day of travel, the peat gave way to solid earth, marsh, and reeds. Naia led the Drenchen out of the apeknot canopies, and they continued along the ground. She tried not to worry about how they could cross the vast fields and meadows in time to find the surviving Stonewood before the Skeksis did. Her body and heart ached, but she knew she could not rest. Not when they were so close to completing their task.
Kylan tilted his head, perking an ear as they stepped out from the constant shade of the apeknots. “Do you hear something?”
“Sounds like hooves,” Amri said, stopping beside them. He knelt and put his pale hand against the wet earth, the back of it just covered in clear marsh water. The ground rumbled below Naia’s feet.
“Brace yourselves!” she called back. “Something comes!”
The drumming sound cascaded from a distant tapping to a rolling thunder. Naia stood fast as they waited, though for what, she didn’t know. Skeksis carriages, drawn by troops of armaligs? An army of armored Arathim, crawling across the plains with venom dripping from their sharpened spikes? Or something worse, something darkened, some new invention of the Skeksis that the Gelfling could never dream of?
Galloping figures broke over the rounded hills, and Naia nearly dropped her spear as her muscles relaxed with a wash of relief.
“I guess we’ll be making good time after all,” Amri said with a wide grin.
Dozens of graceful white Landstriders crested the hill, the sun shining off their gauzy fur and lighting the pinks in their wide, pointed ears. Half were mounted, half with saddles bare, all with long, powerful legs that were the swiftest in the Skarith Land. Naia couldn’t help but laugh with relief when she saw Lun and Gereni waving from the shoulders of their Landstriders.
“What are you all waiting for?” Lun called, chest puffed up with pride. “Get on!”
CHAPTER 25
“Maudra Mera sent us to get you. The rest are headed toward Stone-in-the-Wood, to protect the Stonewood hearth until we are able to light the fire.”
Naia had never wanted to hug the little Spriton maudra more than at that moment, so it was good she had sent a messenger instead of coming herself. Instead, she gave Lun a brisk nod.
“Thank you, Lun,” she said. “We’re ready.”
The last time she had been on a Landstrider, she’d been only half-conscious, with Kylan at the reins. The memory was all a blur, and yet when the rest of the Drenchen were paired off on the backs of the majestic beasts, she found herself in the saddle with the reins in her hands, looking down at Gurjin and Amri. Nearby, Kylan was on the shoulders of his own Landstrider, looking more comfortable than she’d seen him in a long time.
“You look like a natural,” he said to Naia, leaning down to pat his mount. She tried the same thing, feeling the big creature’s powerful muscles twitch, shrugging its coat beneath her hand and the saddle. So high up, she couldn’t hear Gurjin and Amri as they exchanged words below. A moment later, Amri grabbed hold of the saddle ladder hanging below her, making quick work of the climb and sliding lightly into the saddle behind her.
“Hi,” he said. “Uh . . . Huh. The saddle is smaller than it looks from down there.”
It was. Naia could feel Amri against her back, though there was a small pommel in the middle of the saddle made to accommodate two riders. The Shadowling was warm, the sure hands that had taken him swiftly up the ladder suddenly unsure.
She grabbed his hand and pulled it around her waist.
“Hi,” she said, smiling back at him. She tried to say it with confidence and nonchalance. Her cheeks warmed as he wrapped his arms carefully around her. “Tighter than that or you’ll fall off,” she warned him.
“Oh.”
She swallowed when he tightened his arms, his embrace firm but not too firm, his hands slender but strong.
“How’s this?” he asked quietly, nearly right into her ear.
“Fine,” she mumbled.
“What, no better now that you’re here?”
“I said it’s fine!”
“Ready?” Lun called, his Landstrider prancing on the hill ahead.
None of the Drenchen replied with confidence. In earlier times, Drenchen Gelfling would never have found their way on the backs of the Spriton Landstriders, just as a Spriton would never have climbed on the back of a flying eel. But these were not earlier times. Naia clucked her tongue as she might have if she were on Chapyora’s back. To her relief, the Landstrider turned, though lazily. Maybe she’d get the hang of it after all. And if she could, they could.
“Don’t let a silly thing like this stop you,” she called to the Drenchen. “Let’s ride!”
The soft, endless-seeming hills of the plains were like waves as the Landstriders raced across them. Though their long legs made them awkward and jarring to ride at slower speeds, once they reached a full gallop, their gait was even and smooth and impossibly fast.
Within what felt like moments, they passed the small forest in which Sami Thicket was enshrouded. The clouds overhead were arcs of white, streaming north as if even the winds in the sky were guiding them toward the Dark Wood where Stone-in-the-Wood and the final Gelfling fire waited. Sog rushed away, veiled again in fog, and Naia hoped there it would remain. Safe, she wished with all her heart. In the care of her father, Great Smerth, and the other Drenchen who had stayed behind.
“Naia?”
Though the others called out in whoops and cheers, Amri’s were the only words she could hear against the wind that rushed across their ears and off the Landstrider’s mane. Now that the Landstrider had found its stride, Amri’s arms remained looped gently around her waist. In case of unsteady ground, or maybe for some other reason.
Either way, Naia didn’t mind.
“What?”
“Do you think it’d be a bad idea if I were to have a turn at the reins?”
Naia laughed. “A bad idea? Ha! I don’t know what I’m doing at all—the Landstrider is making all the calls. Aren’t you, big guy?” The Landstrider grumbled deep in its throat, and Naia grinned. “Come on, Amri. Take your turn.”
The Landstrider slowed enough that they could switch spots, holding on to the leather straps of the saddle and harness until Amri was perched up front with the reins in hand, Naia in the rear seat with her arms around him.
“This is amazing!” he exclaimed. “I never thought I’d ever have the chance!”
He bounced the reins, and the Landstrider picked up its speed, suddenly leaping over a tuft of earth so high and fast that Naia’s wings instinctively sprang out from beneath her cloak. They caught the wind and filled, lifting Naia up off the saddle. She yelped and grabbed Amri’s shoulders, holding him tightly to keep from blowing away.
“Whoops!” he cried. He tugged on the reins to slow the Landstrider.
“No—it’s all right!”
“Are you sure?”
With the wind rushing below her wings, arms linked under Amri’s, Naia’s heart filled with a burst of exhilaration. Amri’s ankles were tucked tightly in the saddle stirrups, wiry body firmly attached to the harness. As long as she held on, she wasn’t going anywhere. She grinned.
“I’m sure! Keep going!”
Naia had always envied Tavra and Tae’s flight-worthy wings. Though her Drenchen wings doubled as fins underwater, she couldn’t fly like they could, only glide. But she had watched Tavra’s skill in the air a hundred times, and could watch her a hundred times more, every time overwhelmed with envy and amazement.
Now, hands wrapped in Amri’s cloak, buoyed by the Landstrider’s tireless pace, she knew how it must feel. As if the top of the world had opened up, beckoning her into a new, boundless realm in the sky. Up among the clouds, where the light blue of the sky turned to purple and black and filled with stars . . .
Naia folded her wings slightly. The stars, from where the urSkeks had come. Space, which held infinite worlds, of which Thra was just a speck. Amri felt her land back into the saddle and looked at her over his shoulder.
“Something wrong? I haven’t seen you smile like that in . . . maybe ever.”
She alit on the saddle, kneeling behind him and sighing.
“It doesn’t seem right,” she said. “Having fun at a time like this. Even as we try to stop what might be unstoppable.”
Amri put his hand on hers, where she wrapped it around his chest.
“Or maybe,” he replied softly, “it’s the best time. Because we might not have a chance later. And anyway, what else is resistance if not loving in the face of danger?”
Naia looked over her shoulder. The Spriton and the Drenchen Gelfling shared the saddles of the Landstriders, each helping the other, all facing ahead toward their common destination. Stone-in-the-Wood. The final fire.
“Naia, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
She had the feeling she knew what he was going to ask, but that didn’t stop her heart from pounding. From the thrill of flying or from the anticipation of the question he was about to ask, she didn’t know. She was surprised he couldn’t feel it through his shoulder where she leaned against him.
“All right?”
His hand tightened on hers, briefly, then let go.
“If we make it through, and light the seventh fire. And beat the Skeksis. And all that stuff, you know. I was wondering . . .” He hesitated, fidgeting awkwardly, finally coughing out the rest of it: “Wondering if I could go with you.”
“Go with me?” It wasn’t exactly the question she’d been expecting, but her heart fluttered all the same. “Go with me where?”
He shrugged. As he spoke, he gained confidence, as if realizing there was no turning back now. “Wherever you go afterward. Back to Sog, to somewhere brand-new. I don’t care where. I just want to be by your side.”
Naia opened her mouth, but all that came out was a strange, unsteady gasp. She forced a laugh to cover the flustered warmth in her chest.
“Oh, Amri. Are you finally saying you have feelings for me?” she asked, ribbing him with a hand, but he didn’t laugh or squirm. Instead, he straightened, nodding once with the most serious expression she’d ever seen on his usually laughing face.
“Yep. That is what I’m saying. And don’t feel like you have to say anything or return my feelings. That’s not why I’m telling you. It’s expected, maybe, or boring to do it now and this way. But there it is. I guess I just wanted to tell you in case something happens in Stone-in-the-Wood.”
Naia nodded against his back. Ahead, a dark line was growing on the horizon. The Dark Wood was fast approaching, inside the course of the afternoon thanks to the relentless speed of the Landstrider cavalry.
“Amri, I have never met someone as adventurous and funny as you,” she began. She felt him tense in her arms, ears angling out to the side. “And you’ve been a most wonderful friend.”
“I see . . . ,” he murmured, volume falling.
She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him more tightly and warmly. She had never held someone that way before, knowing he had feelings for her and that it meant something to him. Realizing, as his warmth spread into her own body and lit her nerves with a thousand tiny blue fires, that it meant something to her, too.
The Dark Wood loomed just ahead of them, tangled with thorny brambles and impenetrable sentin
el trees.
“And,” she said, whispering into his ear, “if we come out of this alive, I think we should continue this soft-talk and see where it leads us.”
The Dark Wood fell over them like night. The Landstriders were just as unstoppable within the forest as they were on the open plains, breezing between the trees on their long legs that never seemed to trip. Naia didn’t know how to prepare for what lay ahead when they reached the Stonewood village. She didn’t know what they would find.
“Whoa, whoa!”
Lun and Gereni pulled on their reins, braking at the head of the herd until all the Landstriders slowed. In a small clearing of the wood, gathered around a crop of dark blue boulders, were more Landstriders and Gelfling in tattered clothes and smoldering armor. Naia leaped down from the saddle when she recognized Maudra Fara and Maudra Mera, rising to meet them from among the mottled group of Spriton and Stonewood.
“Naia!” Maudra Mera exclaimed. “Thank Thra. I see Lun and Gereni got to you after all.”
“Yes, and just in time. Maudra Fara! I’d heard you were taken captive by the Skeksis.”
Maudra Fara, tall and proud though she had seen brighter days, nodded solemnly.
“I was.” On that topic, she had nothing else to say, gesturing instead to Maudra Mera. “I have been searching for my Stonewood since then. They have been hiding in the woods since we lost Stone-in-the-Wood. Alone and cold and afraid. And yet here came Maudra Mera, marching back to the place we had to leave behind.”
The Stonewood maudra’s brow was hard and unimpressed. Whatever Maudra Mera had said to her had not been persuasive, and Naia was not surprised. The Stonewood in the clearing were injured, malnourished, and weak. The battle with the Skeksis had taken a toll on their bodies, and their minds were still reliving the nightmare of losing their ancestral home. If Naia had been in Fara’s place, she was not sure she would have listened to Mera, either.