by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
Dawn had just begun to creep through the clouds when I next opened my eyes. The orange rays were gentle on my weary soul, and they slowly roused me awake like the embrace of a gentle lover. Nia Kenefick’s head rested in my lap, and I could feel the steady rise and fall of her chest beneath my hand. I stretched, careful not to wake her, before I blinked the sleep from my eyes.
We were on Almasy’s airship, that much I was able to recognize despite the dim lighting from the bedside lanterns and the dull thrum of the engine reverberating throughout the ship. He and Arwyn had picked up the three of us from Ortych Sands sometime during the night, and we were on course back to Varle to meet with Headmaster Sleet.
My eyes scanned the cabin. Across from us, Gawain had fallen asleep by the window. His head was perched against the wall, and despite the blankets Arwyn had provided him, he had opted to wrap himself solely in his cloak.
My eyes finally landed on Arwyn some feet away. She sat with her legs crossed on one of the beds, and her eyes moved rapidly over the text of a book I couldn’t read the title of. It brought a smile to my face to see that she was still as passionate about being a part of the greater good after everything she had been through these last few months. She’d lost teammates earlier on in the year, and nearly lost all of her current team at various points since I joined the ranks of the monster defense squad. She was resilient, stronger than diamond, and braver than most any man I’d ever met.
I cleared my throat to grab her attention, and her dark eyes were kind as they locked onto mine. She set her book aside with a smile and walked over to Nia and I.
“You should go back to sleep,” she murmured softly, and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure Gawain was asleep before she threaded her fingers through my hair.
“I’m fine,” I sighed as I leaned into the loving touch. “I’m more worried about you.”
Arwyn shook her head. “You needn’t fuss over me.”
“Whether I needn’t or not, I’m going to,” I insisted, though I wasn’t all that convincing with her nails lightly dragging across my scalp and luring me back to sleep.
“We’ll be back in Varle soon enough,” Arwyn whispered. “You can rest a bit more properly once we get you back to the Academy.”
“Don’t change the subject,” I sighed, but it was half-hearted.
Arwyn shook her head, then took my free hand in hers. She trembled as our skin touched, and her breath became staggered as she pressed her forehead to mine. She was careful to move without waking up Nia, but the other woman seemed to be in the deepest of sleep.
“I don’t know how many more times I can sit and watch you sleep like this,” Arwyn whispered. “Every time I see you, you’re hurt, or fighting for your life. It hurts me to always see you in a state of such pain.”
“Shhhh,” I quieted her and placed a soft kiss to her cheek. I didn’t really know what else I could say in this instance. Telling her it wasn’t going to stop me, though true, was probably not a smart thing to say right now, and I wasn’t about to give her any kind of false hope that I would stop fighting.
She remained quiet for a while, and our hands gripped one another’s tightly, as though I were the only thing keeping her grounded in her thoughts. I had the feeling that it wasn’t a far off assumption.
“Two months,” she sighed quietly. “Two months without a word, without any sign you were going to come back through that rift.”
“Arwyn,” I whispered back, and I took my hand and grazed my thumb along her cheek to catch a stray tear. “I’m here. I’m alive. We made it.”
“I know.” Her voice shook, and she turned her face into my palm as she took a deep, steadying breath. “I know.”
“What happens when we get back to Varle?” I asked in the hopes of deterring her from dwelling on such heavy matters.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I suppose that’s something we’ll have to see for ourselves once we land.”
“How much longer until we land?” I questioned with a yawn.
Arwyn peeked out of the small window beside the bed I shared with Nia. I watched her eyes take in the scenery below, and she stifled a sigh as the morning sunlight streaked across her beautiful face. It gave her a sort of an ethereal glow, and I reached out and touched her cheek with the hopes of capturing some of it for myself.
“Not long,” she answered finally, and she kissed my knuckles as they brushed the corner of her lips. “Maybe thirty minutes.”
“Still?” I questioned again. I knew I was tired, but the math didn’t seem right. It was less than a days ride to Tietra by horse, and about just as long to Wildren and Ortych Sands from there, and airships could travel much faster than horses.
“We’ve had to take it slow,” Arwyn informed as she folded her hands in her lap. “The ship suffered some damage while Almasy and I were on our mission, and there wasn’t time to have it repaired before we came to Balvaan and found you had gone missing.”
I nodded. So that was why it was taking longer.
“Why don’t you wake her?” Arwyn suggested as she nodded to Nia. “If we do run into trouble upon our arrival, we’ll need her to be relatively coherent.”
I made a face, but overall, I had to agree. It was best that we were prepared for anything once we arrived back in Varle.
“I’ll stir Gawain,” she offered with a light smile, then kissed my forehead as she stood. She ran her hand down Nia’s back and stopped to squeeze her hand before she left us.
As she gently awoke Gawain, I thought how best to wake Nia. Her chest still rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and her brows were knitted in her sleep. I looked at how we’d fallen asleep on the bed. She was between my legs, and her head rested on my chest, ear pressed to my heart. I wondered if the sound of it beating had helped lure her to sleep. The position, though very unconventional, was the only way we were able to fit two of us on this tiny bed. After all, this ship wasn’t made to accommodate luxury travel.
“Rise and shine,” I whispered as I ran my hands through her long white hair and kissed the top of her head. “We’re going to be landing soon.”
At first she didn’t respond, but I felt her legs stretch and a soft groan slipped past her lips as she started to blink away the sleep. Nia lifted her head, and she smiled at me in a way that made my heart melt.
“Good morning.” I grinned and brushed a stray strand of long ashen hair from her beautiful eyes.
“Is it that time already?” she asked with a languid stretch before she plopped down on top of me once again.
I chuckled and smoothed my hand down her back in circles. I could definitely see myself getting used to waking up with Nia every morning. She had more or less dropped the cold demeanor she had with me when I’d first arrived at the Academy several months prior, and instead it was replaced with a sweetheart with a heart of gold wrapped in a fierce warrior exterior.
I loved it.
“We should make ourselves ready to land,” I told her.
Nia nodded, but she made no indication she was going to move from the bed. If anything, she only nuzzled in closer in an attempt to keep me as her bed prisoner. I would have made the joke aloud to her, but it seemed inappropriate given her circumstances. I wondered how long she’d been trapped by Phi before Gawain and I swooped in to save her. What had Phi done to her? Did she say anything to her? Had she cried? That didn’t seem like Nia, but the possibilities were endless, and I didn’t want to press her. Being trapped in a cage for any amount of time was a scarring experience, and I wasn’t about to force her to relive it anytime soon. When she was ready to talk about it, I would be ready to listen.
“Can we stay like this?” she asked quietly. “Just for a little while longer?”
I couldn�
�t say no. I didn’t have it in me to push her away when she so clearly needed to be grounded and reassured that she was safe. So, I settled back into the bed and wrapped my arms around her tightly. I kissed the top of her head again and buried my nose in her hair. I didn’t care if it was dirty or smelled like salt water. She was still Nia, and if I could do this one simple thing for her, who was I to deny her of it?
We laid in silence as Gawain and Arwyn moved in, out, and about the cabin as they readied to land in the airship bay in Varle.
Nia’s soft breaths hit my skin as her fingers clutched the front of my shirt like I would disappear out from under her.
I frowned. She’d been through so much in what felt like only a few days, but it was really months apart.
“We’re ready to land,” Gawain’s voice interrupted my thoughts. The bags under his pale eyes were heavy and dark from fatigue and lack of sleep, and his blond hair was disheveled, but he still held a noble air about him.
Nia’s fingers uncurled from my shirt as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. Her eyes met Gawain’s, but my rival didn’t frown or narrow his eyes. He just gave us both a half smile and bowed his head slightly.
“Make yourselves ready. We’re likely to have company,” he informed us before he did an about face out of the cabin.
“Think he’s come to terms with the fact that we are together,” I muttered to Nia.
“Could be,” she sighed as she pressed her head into my chest once more. “Seems like you two are friends now.”
“Kinda,” I replied. “He’s definitely less annoying now.”
“Well, I still think he’s annoying,” she laughed.
“I’m not saying you have to love the guy,” I said, “but I don’t hate him anymore.” I no longer thought Gawain was any kind of competition for Nia’s favor, since she had made it clear from day one she harbored ill emotions toward the Madox family, Gawain specifically.
But as it turned out, he and I made a pretty good team, and though he still had moments when I wanted to shove his face in a pile of dung, he’d grown on me.
He’d grown as a person, and I guessed we were kinda friends now.
“Come on then, farm boy,” Nia said to me in a flat tone completely different from the girl that was in my arms only moments ago. “We wouldn’t want to keep our company waiting.”
“Uh, right … ” I trailed off and watched as she righted her clothes and stood from the bed.
I got up and trailed behind Nia as we took the stairs down to the bridge. I winced at the pain of working my legs, which were still incredibly sore and stiff from the fight against the vingehund in the Shadowscape, but I managed through gritted teeth and made it down without keeling over. That was a success in my book.
“Good morning!” Almasy’s voice boomed from the doorway to the cockpit. He gave us a fake grin full of sarcasm and sleep deprivation, but he seemed otherwise to be in good spirits. His ginger blond hair hung in his eyes, and he swiped it back nonchalantly.
“You’re awfully chipper,” I teased, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Arwyn smirk.
“Ah, I’m very, very, very pleased to be dealing with council nimrods first thing in the morning, you know?” he continued to jest, and I couldn’t help but snort with laughter.
“So they are waiting for us down there?” Nia asked.
“Almost certainly,” Almasy replied. “I’ll be surprised if there isn’t at least one member of the council eagerly awaiting our return.”
“What’s the protocol for avoiding political figures?” Gawain half joked, but he knew running into the council was nothing to scoff at. They didn’t make it a point to wait for just any old ship that came into the bay.
“If it were up to me, I’d say go hog wild,” Almasy answered, though I had a feeling he wasn’t joking as much as Gawain had been. “We should keep our heads low, though. We don’t want to cause a scene and make more trouble for Sleet.”
I nodded with a sigh and crossed my arms over my chest. I had a few choice words for one Miriam Sharpay, the woman who oversaw all dealings to do with summoner laws and rights, but I couldn’t say I had the pleasure of meeting with anyone else thus far.
“Hold on tight, kids,” Almasy said as he slid back into the cockpit. “It’s gonna be a bumpy landing.”
“How bumpy of a landing could it be?” Gawain asked as he took hold of one of the railings by the door. “It’s just a landing bay.”
“I think he means that once we do land, the situation is going to get a little rocky,” Arwyn explained as she took a seat and strapped herself in.
Nia and I did the same, and I braced myself for what I knew to be standard landing procedures. There were the bumps I had come to know as typical turbulence as Almasy steered the ship into the designated docking station, and I waited with bated breath as the ship’s engine slowly came to a halt.
From where I was seated, I could only see out from a small window next to the door. The usual hustle and bustle of the terminal was dulled down due to how early it was. A few passengers who were waiting to board their ship lingered, but aside from them, the only people who were in the bay were exactly the people we had expected to be there.
Several soldiers flanked the people of the council as they waited for the aerodrome’s crew to finish their check of the vessel before we could get off. One of them, sure enough, was Miriam Sharpay, who looked as beaky and withered as I remembered, if not more so than when I’d last seen her. Two others stood with her. One of them was rail thin, older, and tall, with no hair to speak of and murky green eyes. He donned a yellow robe, though I wasn’t sure what that meant.
The other was also tall, but he was heavyset, with slicked back salt and pepper hair and a goatee that did nothing to hide his double chin. Black and white robes hung from his slanted shoulders, and his bright blue eyes shined with an arrogance I was all too familiar with from someone else I knew.
My eyes flicked to Gawain, who looked even more pale than usual. I had a hunch this wasn’t the first time he’d ever met some of these people, given his father’s reputation as a Madox. I was sure he was thinking about how he was going to explain this to his dear old father.
“That’s Captain Prestonniel Parker,” Nia whispered to me as she gestured to the man in the yellow robe. “He used to be a mage of great power, but his mana dwindled quickly once he aged. Now he’s a politician that’s stuck in his ways and uses his name to manipulate others.”
“That’s all politicians, Kenefick,” I heard Gawain snigger from the other side of the bridge.
Nia considered his statement, then nodded. “I can’t argue with that.”
“Agreed,” Arwyn laughed dryly.
“Who is that strapping young man?” I pointed to the heavyset gentleman, and they all looked out the window.
“Grand Mage Simone Avery Capricorn,” Gawain answered with a sneer.
“That’s the Grand Mage?” I balked as my jaw hit the floor.
“Yes,” Nia answered, though her face was furrowed in confusion. “Why do you ask?”
“I guess I just expected him to look old, and more … grand?” I shook my head, at a loss for words.
“Yes, there isn’t very much grand about him other than his size, is there?” Gawain jabbed, and I couldn’t help but notice the animosity in his tone.
“We … don’t like him?” I asked cautiously. I wasn’t about to pretend I knew the ins and outs of the politics in the world of mages, but I figured he was someone who should have been well liked, maybe.
“I can only speak from my own experiences,” Arwyn started, “but he’s an easy man to manipulate. He is a good person at heart, but he’s soft and easy to sway in matters.”
“He’s a pushover,” Gawain clarified, “completely unfit for a leader.”
“Gawain, that is too harsh,” Nia argued, but it had no effect.
“Oh please, Nia.” He shot her a bored look. “You mean to tell me that oaf is fit for anything oth
er than an easy gambling tool?”
“Even if he’s gullible, he’s still a person,” Nia retorted.
Gawain dropped the argument, probably for the best. From experience, riled up Nia Kenefick was nothing to mess with, and we had bigger things to worry about than small nit-picking bickering within our little group.
“So, what do we do?” Almasy popped his head back out from the cockpit.
“We face whatever is waiting for us on the other side of that door,” Arwyn replied simply.
“Not for nothing, but I don’t intend on getting shot at today,” I blurted out.
Gawain looked back out the window, then turned back to us again.
“He’s right, they’re armed,” he informed.
“Just a precaution, I’m sure,” Arwyn reasoned as she unbuckled herself from the seat and stood. “Come now, and remember, we’re all in this together. We went into these missions knowing full well what we were doing.”
Nia and I stood from our seats as well, and Gawain nodded. We were all in agreement.
The door to the ship was released with a hiss, and Arwyn stood in front of the pack with Almasy not far behind her as if they were shielding their children from harm. Almasy was maybe only a handful of years older than I was, but I thought the gesture itself was endearing.
I heard rather than saw Miriam Sharpay over the ruckus of soldiers clambering over one another to apprehend Arwyn.
“Arwyn Hamner, Sleet’s little pet,” she cooed sickeningly. “Of course you’d be here.”
“Madam Sharpay,” Arwyn greeted in an overly sweet tone as she was dragged from the doorway.
“Who else is in there?” she demanded, but Arwyn refused to respond. Surely, she knew they would just drag us out one by one anyway.
As they dragged out Almasy, who struggled against the hold of two built soldiers, I stepped in front of Nia and Gawain. I knew offering myself up before them wouldn’t change anything, but at the very least I thought I should do what I could to protect them.
One of the soldiers grabbed me by the arm and yanked me out forcefully, and I winced as my legs tried to keep up. I had just enough sense to turn around and yell over my shoulder.