Thunder Rattles High (Unweaving Chronicles Book 3)

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  “What choice do I have?” she asked.

  “I’d rather have your loyalty than your indenture.”

  “And I could still use an apology over here.” Kjexx’s voice was hard.

  She ran a hand through her raven black hair. Somehow she looked older than she had before she died.

  “Fine. You have my loyalty,” she told me. She turned to Kjexx as I began to smile in relief. “But there are no apologies. I have no regrets.”

  “None?” His voice was dangerous.

  “Do you regret your sacrifice?” she asked him, taking a step toward him.

  He straightened, placing his hands fist-to-palm in the formal stance of the Black Talon. He glanced at me. “No.”

  “Then don’t ask me to regret mine.” She spun on her heel and faced the metal door as if she thought Catane would walk out from the other side.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Well, if all that is settled, I have a battle to fight. Who’s with me?”

  Kjexx nodded, but his eyes were fixed on Amandera, who remained silent.

  “The two of you need to make your peace – fast. Or everyone you love will suffer.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  I COUGHED MY WAY BACK into the real world. Everything was black. I pawed at my eyes, but nothing covered them.

  “Easy. Easy, Wild Girl.” Rusk’s whisper cut through the night. I felt his hand on my back, his touch reassuring me that he was close.

  “How long was I out?”

  “Just the day. Keep your voice low.”

  I sat up and realized I was in an Eaglekin pannier, and Rusk was in the saddle above. I reached for him and he gripped my forearm, hauling me up into the saddle ahead of him.

  “We’re on Graxx?”

  Graxx was moving slowly, a rarity for an Eaglekin. To one side of us, I heard the lap lap of the Penspray River, but the two moons were missing, whether hidden by clouds or in the New Moon phase, I didn’t know.

  “I’m checking the line. They hit us at sunset. Rocked our lines. Carved a few holes, but we held up. I don’t think Catane is there yet. The attack was pressed by the Veen – and a few Lesser Tazmins – with no sign of him.”

  “Tazmins?” I stifled a yawn.

  “Some have joined Catane. Evanessa and our Tazmin allies are very upset with that news.”

  His voice was confident and clear and there was a new edge about him, like whenever Jakinda had seen battle. It was like he knew he was born for this. Just being near it brought out a glimmer of gold in him.

  “It doesn’t trouble you that they fight against us?” I asked.

  “Not my people. Not my worry. There’s enough to worry us in the battle itself. We’re outnumbered, despite all our alliances. Our ground is better, but Catane has yet to appear and the terrain won’t limit him at all. Plus, until a few moments ago I wasn’t sure if you’d be returning, and while you’re very pretty when you sleep, it’s a bit of a pain to haul you around.”

  I laughed, remembering to keep my voice low. We were moving towards a small fire. They dotted our line, glowing a dull red in the black of night like a string of firebeads.

  “Where did you go, Wild Girl?”

  “Catane dragged me into Ra’shara.”

  He stiffened and I snuggled against his chest, letting the safety of him settle into my heart. He wrapped an arm around me, grasping my opposite shoulder so that the “v” of his elbow was under my chin. I leaned against the strength of his arm.

  “What did they do to you, when they took you, Rusk?”

  “Terrible things.” His voice was raw. “I’d rather not dwell on them. I’d take much worse to keep you safe. And Amandera is dead now. She’s gone from our lives forever.”

  I swallowed.

  “We saw her die,” he said, sensing what I wasn’t telling him. “She remains only as a memory.”

  “And as an ancestor I can see and talk to.”

  He was silent for a long time and we passed a knot of men by a fire, who nodded to him. His eyes drifted across the line, probably checking the readiness of the troops, the repair of the earthworks, and whether the fires were too bright.

  “I wish that wasn’t so,” he said, finally.

  “Rusk, why is it that you can see your ancestor, but none of the others? You have no connection to the Common, and yet you enter Ra’shara enough to see an ancestor, enough to talk to birds – even to fly.”

  Rusk chuckled, and his body felt more relaxed. “Took you long enough to ask about that. It’s a boon. Or at least that’s what I was told. We’re descendants of ‘the great flyer.’ I always thought that was a bird, but after we found the Event Alura it made more sense. We must have been descendants of the original pilot of that ship. When he came to this magical world something happened – I don’t know what – some part of him was tapped and he found a connection with the birds here. They gave him the boon – the ability to sense them, see through their eyes, and speak to their minds. I’ve had it all my life – enjoyed it all my life. Do you know how it feels to sit on the side of a mountain and spend all day in the mind of another – just flying and hunting in the mind of a hawk, or fishing all day in the mind of a heron?”

  “But why didn’t he give you the answers you needed?”

  “I don’t know how it is for your ancestors or in the rest of Ra’shara. I have access only to the skies of that place, and only as a bird. And my ancestor has unraveled to where he is mostly distilled to the mind of a bird. It’s hard for him to talk about anything else. The time he gave me that code – well, that was hard for him. And when we flew – he can’t explain that, only that it is. I think I could do it again. But would I dare to try?” His laugh was hoarse but true. “Failure would mean certain death. It would take the boldness of a raven.”

  “A boldness that you’ve always had, Prince of Hawks.”

  We rounded the bend of the river around that strange round hill that looked like a head. Rusk’s embrace felt more easy,like there was a weight lifted off his heart.

  “Is it just me, or does that hill look like someone’s face in the daylight?” I asked.

  “Like faces, you see in the clouds?” He was humoring me.

  “I want to see it up close. I feel like there’s something there…”

  Rusk leaned in over my shoulder, his cheek pressed against mine. For a moment I forgot all about the face in hillsides.

  “Tomorrow they attack again. Will you fight with me, Wild Girl? I need you by my side, not running to the spirit world.”

  I patted his arm with a hand, as reassuringly as I could. “Of course, I will fight beside you. Where you are is the only place I want to be. My life for yours, right? Isn’t that part of the Landers’ wedding vows?”

  I could feel his smile, even though it was too dark for me to see.

  “My life for yours, Wild Girl.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  THE DRUMS BEGAN BEFORE DAWN. Graxx had found a place to rest against the round hill, just behind our lines, Rusk and I had fallen asleep in each other’s arms, leaning against his warm feathers.

  I woke to their pounding, dew heavy on my hair and the blanket we’d wrapped around us. With every exhale Rusk’s breath stirred my hair. I felt a little shiver, not just from the cool of the morning but from the renewed wonder that he was mine – that I got to sleep with my cheek pressed against his chest. He stirred, his hand skimming across my back to rest lightly on my shoulder before he kissed me sleepily.

  “Are those drums I hear?” His words were muddled by sleep.

  “The same as when the Veen fought us in Axum,” I agreed.

  He pushed up to sitting, drawing me up with him, his hands moving down to my waist. His expression was serious and his honey-brown eyes brimmed with emotion.

  “We have to fight this battle, but it’s the last one. After this, it’s just you and me. Be careful, Wild Girl, you hold my heart. I think I’ll be wanting it back when all this is over.”

&nbs
p; I smiled and then he kissed me so suddenly that I gasped. I leaned into his kiss, letting its ferocity overpower any objections. He was right. This could be our very last kiss. If I didn’t win both this physical battle and some nebulous spiritual battle for Ra’shara, it would be. I let all my passion for him bleed into our kiss, trying to show him with the confidence of my lips and the sure touch of my hands that I would be there for him through whatever came. When we broke apart, I was blinking away tears. He wiped them gently away with his thumbs, giving me one more kiss on the forehead and a reluctant half-smile, before standing.

  I stood too, smoothing my travel-worn clothing and pulling my hair back into a loose braid. Rusk handed me a water skin and I drank, reserving some to splash over my face. The last fogginess of sleep washed away. It was time to focus.

  The hill. Look in the hill.

  I started when the voice came so clearly, nearly spilling the water before Rusk took it back with a raised eyebrow. The voice had faded back to its usual barely-heard mutterings. I glanced back at the round hill. Even before I’d been told to go there it had called to me. There was something there that I had to see.

  “I need to look at that hill,” I said, turning to stare at it. It really did look like someone’s head, tilted slightly to the side and sticking out of the ground. Sure, it was disguised by spiny shrubs and tufts of grass, but I could almost make out the line of a nose and where an eye would be.

  “Not right now, you don’t,” Rusk said, adjusting the straps on his armor and tightening his sword belt.

  Graxx stood, shaking the dew off and straightening. A sliver of light painted the tree tops. Rusk hauled himself up the lead lines and onto Graxx’s back and I followed.

  “When the fighting starts, we’ll stay atop Graxx,” Rusk said. “I can see better to lead from here, and if you pass out on me again,” he flashed me a grin, “then I can still do my job. Don’t pass out, please.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I agreed. My mouth was dry, despite my recent drink of water. We were about to be in a battle again. Unexpected things happened in battles, and they were usually my fault.

  In the hill.

  How could I look in the hill? You’d do better getting me to obey if you made sense, creepy voice.

  Graxx stalked forward and pulled up beside another Eaglekin I hadn’t met before bearing Astrex. He tossed his black head and rolled an eye at Graxx. It was a pity that they wouldn’t share their voices with me. It would be nice to know what they were saying. The new Eaglekin almost seemed like he was snickering at me.

  “They come,” Astrex said from the Eaglekin’s back.

  Her posture was stiff, and around the feet of her Eaglekin men and women ran, dousing fires, storing supplies, and making last-moment adjustments to their armor and weapons.

  The drumming was louder, it thrummed into the earth, sending vibrations up through our feet and into our spines where fear made its home. Dawn spilled over the hills and crept across the ground, outlining the mass of black bodies marching towards our line. Elephants trumpeted – both ours and those of the Tazmins that rode to destroy us. Calls and orders rang out in our battle line as Clan Leaders arranged our men and our Eaglekin cavalry and our Tazmins reinforced the line with Canderabaian warriors and elephants, each sporting flags with their master’s colors.

  I watched as one man after another glanced toward Rusk, their postures just a little straighter when they looked back towards the coming enemy.

  “Take your places,” Astrex shouted. “Remember your section. Hold the line.”

  Up and down the line there were echoes of her words, “Hold the line. Stand fast.”

  Eaglekin stomped and churned up the earth, eager to be about it. Our line stretched from the Penspray River to the cliffs. The men had built earthworks to the degree they had time to, and small trenches and wooden stake walls added light protection to our defenses. Our ranks were about a dozen thick and looked impressive, but I had seen enough to know that everything would change when the wave of Veen broke across our shores.

  Rusk stood up in the stirrups as the black hordes thundered towards us.

  He raised his spatha over his head and in his deep baritone he yelled, “For Everturn and our future! We honor our dead today and protect the living!”

  “Protect the living!” The cry echoed along the ranks as swords and spears were thrust out defiantly. Even I felt a rush of boldness fill me. Together, we could not be stopped. Together, we would prevail.

  The Hill. Go to the hill.

  I’d better strap into the saddle just in case the voices in my head – and the people in my head – overpowered me again. I cinched the straps tight. Rusk had kept an empty seat between us in Graxx’s saddle. He needed the room to maneuver, but I missed the comfort of his body right next to mine.

  My breath was coming quicker, my heart beating in tune with the pounding drums, and tiny spikes of fear shot through my veins like the lightning I wielded. This was it. No stopping it now. No going back and changing anything … probably.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  THEY BORE DOWN ON US, a storm breaking against a mountain. The yells turned to screams, and I flinched from it, forcing myself to keep my eyes open and my face calm. The first ranks of warriors of Veen crashed against the stakes and earthworks, some impaled themselves on the stakes, but many more wormed their way through, bearing down on the Black Talon warriors before us. Both sides had ko hovering over their heads, and yet I could almost tell the difference between the ko of the Veen and the Ko of my troops. Was that a hint of a birch leaf I saw in the shapes over their heads?

  Their force met ours, swords flashing in the sun and yells filling the air. It felt strange, violent, sudden, and so unreal at the same time. What made men and women decide to stand in a field and slash the life out of each other? Even knowing the stakes it felt like an abomination. In the front lines, I watched the head of a woman in the ranks of the Black Talon spin from her body. The man beside her plunged his sword through a crack in the segmented armor of the Veen who killed her.

  A loud bugling drew my attention towards the river, where one of the Lesser Tazmins had driven his elephant into the stakes. It bugled and thrashed, trampling two Veen warriors to paste under his heavy feet. Warriors rappelled off his back, leaping into our ranks, their curves swords hewing a path before them.

  Should I be fighting with the Common? What if using it began a new cataclysm into the world?

  And then I saw him – Catane – further down the line, his golden tattoos sparkling in the sun. The area around him was clear and his lightnings danced and spun into our ranks. One of the Eaglekin leapt over the earthworks, snapping at Catane, the four Black Talon on his back firing arrows into the ranks of attackers. Catane lifted his arms above his head and then the Eaglekin stumbled, lightning ripping out from him in every direction, burning up two of his riders at once. The other two, fell, arms flailing, to the ground. The Eaglekin’s rigid body crashed down on them, pinning them to the earth.

  “Get me to him!” I called to Rusk.

  I was already preparing my lightnings when Graxx wove through our defenders, preparing to leap over the barricade himself. We were just behind the earthworks when Catane disappeared. I hadn’t seen him unweave anything. Where did he go? I let the pent up lighting fly into the ranks of the Veen. It spiraled through their packed ranks, flinging men in the air as a dog flings a rag. Their companions drew back, leaving an area clear, and Rusk spun Graxx into a sliding stop.

  “Hold the line!” he yelled, as Graxx snapped a Veen warrior up, tossing him back over the stake barrier.

  I let another ripple of lightning fly across the enemy’s side of the battlefield.

  The hill. Get the scintellex to the hill.

  Not now, voice. Right now we have a battle to fight!

  Our elephants had run past our line at the anchor point against the cliff. They were over-extended, strung from the line to the Tazmin leading the charge too deep in
to the enemy field. Warriors leapt off the sides of the elephants, hanging on ropes to tear into the Veen. Some slashed through the ranks, hot pokers through lard, others were caught, dragged into the mass of black bodies and hacked apart like livestock in a butcher’s yard.

  I struggled to watch. It was too immediate. It was right over there – so close I could hear the desperate cries, smell the offal and fear.

  Rusk tilted his head and Graxx leapt into action, shuffling through our ranks and then stepping over the earthworks, launching himself with a muscle-bunching thrust up and over the spike wall and into the Veen ranks. He landed, skidding and then recovering his balance. I didn’t want to think of what made his footing so slippery. There hadn’t been a clear space when I looked before we leapt. He swiped at a man standing frozen with fear in his way, and then picked up another, tossing him backward into the ranks of the men behind him.

  We arrived at the elephants, their Tazmin still driving the battle forward, despite the fact that he was now surrounded by Veen, his escape path cut off as he ran too far ahead. Behind him, the ranks of the Veen bulged into our own.

  “Cadram! Pull back, you fool!” Rusk’s baritone cut through the chaos of the battle.

  Cadram spun, met his eye and then looked back over his trail, horror filling his face.

  “Can you punch a way back for us?” Rusk called to me. The clang of sword on sword, the grunts and shrieks and trumpeting made it hard to catch his words, but I stood in my stirrups, focussed, and let my lightnings loose to rip through the enemy behind us. The smell of burned flesh and the shrieks of those who did not die sent a shiver of horror through me, but the way was almost clear.

  “Back! Back through the way the Tazminera carved for us!” Rusk held his spatha out, pointing the way back.

  I focused my thoughts again, planning where to unweave, and then suddenly I was somewhere else.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  BRIGHT COLORS SWIRLED ON THE same battlefield I’d just left, only the people on it were the ones who seemed ghost-like and Catane, huge and gleaming, was the one who looked real. He spun to face me as soon as I materialized.