Arias appeared from behind Dis and slapped his rear. He huffed and shuffled forward, but not before Arias swung herself onto his back, holding her hands out to Dylori and Misti. “We should ride. It’ll be faster. Did you absorb another one?” At Misti’s nod, Arias’ eyes hardened. “Do you think my cage will hold it?”
“No, I think we’re past the cages at this point. The pulses are coming faster now, more often.” Misti accepted the help up. “But if we can find a suncreature, maybe I can expel the energy like I did before.”
Dylori leapt onto Dis’ back, but gave Arias a respectful tilt of her head. “I’m certain we’ll see a few on the way to Praxis.”
The pendant had activated, but Misti allowed herself a small smile. She’d finally decided on what to do about her parents, she’d finally told Dylori everything about her past, and she’d finally confessed to Dylori about how she felt. Even though she felt the anger returning and the weariness setting in, her heart was lighter than it had ever been before.
***
A full night passed before Misti recognized the signs: her friends were weakening again. Last time it had taken three nights to sap their strength, but this time it only took a few hours, and the weakness seemed worse this time. Arias slipped off Dis’ side, falling right into the dirt before anyone could catch her. Dylori had refused their morning meal. Zora slept all day and all night. Even Dis seemed to tread slower, but that might’ve been to keep his passengers from falling off. They hadn’t seen a suncreature yet, and Misti had absorbed two more pulses. Even her confession and kiss with Dylori couldn’t keep her mood up.
Finally, she knew what she had to do. It was because of her that her friends were in danger. They had trekked across half the continent just trying to find someone who could help them, but now their hope seemed gone. So, two crescents after she had drawn in the first pulse, Misti decided to leave the group behind. They had stopped to rest for a little while, and Dylori and Arias had fallen asleep almost immediately. Zora slept on Dis’ back, but Dis stayed awake, and it was under his watchful gaze that Misti gathered her things. She went to Arias and Dylori, patting Arias on the cheek and kissing Dylori on the forehead before turning away because she couldn’t bear to do more.
She nearly changed her mind when Zora stirred awake. Tears streamed down Misti’s face as she felt a gaping wound open up inside her. She gathered up Zora in her arms, nuzzled their heads together, and dipped into her crafting.
“Where are you going, Misti?” Zora eyed Misti’s pack.
“Away. I have to leave, Zora, and you can’t come with me.” She tried to keep her fears from bleeding through their link, but some ebbed into Zora, a natural give and take of emotions.
Zora tilted her head and flicked her ear. Worry flashed hot and bright through their connection. Worry for Misti, worry about the pendant around her neck, worry about being left behind. “I always come with you.”
Misti stroked Zora’s back, trying to comfort her vulnix and herself. Try as she might, she couldn’t keep her sadness from traveling through to Zora. She had to keep her companion safe, no matter how much it hurt to leave her behind. The pendant was unpredictable and she couldn’t bear to lose Zora to it. But Misti’s heart ached at leaving Zora. Her lip quivered. “Not this time, my friend, I have to go. This pendant is affecting everyone, including you, and I can’t allow that to happen anymore. I have to protect you. I have to go alone.”
“I am strong enough to come with you, Misti.” Zora flicked her tails. Her stubbornness almost made Misti smile. Almost.
“No, my little girl, my little Zora, you can’t. I can’t…” Misti’s voice cracked. Why didn’t she understand? It’s not safe anymore. Her sadness tightened its hold, making it hard to breathe. “I can’t let anything happen to you. You have to stay behind and protect our friends.”
Zora headbutted Misti’s chin. Annoyance flickered through their link. “But I—”
“Please, Zora, stay behind. You have to stay.” Misti hugged her vulnix, heart breaking as she whispered her request. She buried her face in Zora’s fur and feathers. “You just have to. Please…for me.”
It took a long moment for Zora to reply. Her eyes filled with concern, clouded with worry. When she finally answered, she bit Misti hard on the arm first, leaving little pinpricks behind. “This is a reckless idea, Misti…but I will honor your request. I will stay.”
Relief spread through Misti, threading around her sadness. “Thank you, Zora.” She couldn’t take the warring emotions from her companion animal, or within herself, so she gently tugged their connection apart and put Zora down. Dis huffed, so to distract herself from Zora’s mournful gaze, she scratched him on his side. “Thank you for your help, Dis, but I have to go now. Please take care of the others while I’m away.”
Dis huffed once more in return. Misti stepped back, her heart pounding against her chest, fear finally settling in. I have to protect them. She looked at her friends, at Zora, then turned to leave. Misti was only a few paces away when something crashed into her from behind and suddenly Zora was in her arms again, nuzzling her neck and licking her chin. Dipping into her crafting once more, a surge of warm life-energy whipped through their connection, burning some fear away.
“I love you, Misti. Please, stay safe.” Zora headbutted her again and Misti hugged her vulnix tight against her chest, the fur and feathers and familiar scent calming even now.
“I love you, too, Zora. Thank you so much.” Then, after one last kiss on the top of Zora’s furry head, Misti put her vulnix on the ground and walked away, tears cutting through the dirt on her cheeks as she went.
Chapter Thirteen
MISTI HAD ONLY MADE it a night before the pendant made her fall face-forward in the dirt, exhausted. Less than a night, if she read the rising sun correctly in her altered state. It was high overhead when she left the group, and it was way past setting when she fell. She had felt feverish during her walk, sweaty and feeling like she would be sick with each step. But she’d been cautious with her water supply, careful not to drink too much or too little. Now her pack had fallen off her shoulder and landed on the ground by her side, water from her flask spilling out to darken the dirt around it.
Misti didn’t move to stop the flow. She couldn’t. Dirt flew into her mouth with each breath she took, making her teeth and tongue feel gritty and dry, but she didn’t care. Darkness enshrouded her now, darkness of night and spirit. But she enjoyed this darkness, welcomed its cool, calm cloak as it covered her, thankful that suncreatures rarely attacked at night. She could hardly lift her hand from the dirt, much less fight.
Movement caught her attention before she could close her eyes, movement and a strange orange glow. The glow drew closer and closer, and brighter, bright enough to blur her vision. She closed her eyes against it. A rational part of her told her she should be scared, yet exhaustion leeched her fear away. All she wanted to do was sleep. Sounds barraged her, the whooshing of wings, the screech of a massive animal, the thump as whatever it was landed close by. Something hooked onto her boot, dragging her through the dirt, scraping rocks against her skin. The pain kept her awake before something finally lifted her off the ground.
Dangling upside down, she forced her weary eyes open to face a creature so legendary she had only heard of it in her father’s stories. A creature so terrifying she had never wanted to face one. A creature her father had tamed so it wouldn’t kill him and coaxed it to leave. It was a deed so great it garnered him the respect of all of Northtown, inspired the broken pendant his children shared, and twisted his faith to evil. A creature that made Misti’s breath leave her and panic finally shiver down her spine.
A wyvern stared at her, but no normal wyvern: a suncreature. With scales as large as three of Misti’s hands, a thick neck, and a sloping snout opening to reveal sharp teeth, its glowing red eyes seemed to look right through her.
Moon above, it’s going to eat me, she thought, breaking out in a cold sweat. Gripping her tight
with the claws at the end of one of its great wings, the suncreature shook her, and then threw her to the ground. Misti landed hard in the dirt, but her muscles were so loose the fall hadn’t injured her. Pain shuddered through her from the impact and shook another wyvern fact free. Her father had also told her that wyverns liked to play with their food before the kill.
The wyvern suncreature drew back to its full, terrifying height, snapping its wings outward as it did. Higher than a five-story building, with wings wider still, and a tail looping not once but twice around its body, the suncreature screeched. The sound shook her soul. Its entire body glowed white, red, yellow, and orange, shimmering like an aurora in the night sky. It would have been a beautiful sight, had Misti not been so frightened for her life.
She wanted to move away, but the pendant had taken its toll on her. She had absorbed too much of its searing power and couldn’t move. Couldn’t even scream. Panic choked her, bile rising in her throat. Fear grasped tight onto her limbs, paralyzing her. And really, what could I do, even at full strength? Kill it? Certainly not by herself, but perhaps with the pendant. Would it even work on something this powerful? Well, she told herself, it worked on Dis. She tried to call on the pendant’s power, tried to force the crafting outward, tried to do anything, but it lay dormant around her neck like a stone.
The suncreature reared back to deliver a killing blow and time seemed to slow down as memories flooded her mind. Of how her father used to hold her when she was young. She had never felt so protected than when in his arms as a child. How he used to read to her before bed and create his own stories for her when they ran out of books. She used to laugh at the silly voices he’d make and cry when he had to go to work. He toiled such long hours in the bakery, sometimes for nights at a stretch, and he would come home smelling like flour and honey and fire.
She remembered her mother, how she would come home after a long night of singing in the town square, her voice hoarse but her smile infectious. She would hum to Misti during the long winter days. They would play in the snow, when her father returned, even during the day, just to have some fun together. It only dawned on her now that those playtimes might have been in honor of the sun goddess, their way of slowly making her see the light. While she couldn’t break apart the image of them as her parents and as worshippers, she’d try to remember them the loving way anyway. If only for the moments that remained to her. Misti’s throat tightened.
The wyvern grew closer, but more memories came to her, of the long winter nights braiding Char’s thin blonde hair back behind her ears and helping care for Danill when their parents were away. Staying up long into the daytime when they were supposed to be asleep, sneaking vegetables from the kitchen. How they would play together and later learn together. How they taught their vulnixes tricks they could perform in tandem, and Danill’s as well, when he came of age to learn. How Danill broke the wyvern pendant their father had given him into three pieces and begged Char and Misti to wear the other two so they would always carry a piece of each other with them, no matter how far they traveled.
Misti tore her gaze from the wyvern suncreature lunging toward her and stared at the wyvern wing jewelry on her wrist. How it glinted on her brown skin, reflecting the suncreature’s glow. And suddenly, Misti knew in a twisted way, her death would only help her siblings. When she died, her body would have to be taken back to her family. Knowing Dylori, she’d be the one to deliver it and she’d also deliver her parents’ judgement.
At that realization, she looked back up at the wyvern suncreature with its massive jaws and rows of teeth as long as her leg, and sighed. At the very least, she would die with some semblance of peace. Time sped up once more. But then the suncreature’s jaws snapped not into her body, but next to it. She was being dragged again, by hands gripping her wrists. She blinked up and saw Dylori.
Dylori shouted something at her, dropped her wrists, and pulled out her sword, hurtling out of Misti’s view once more. Always the hero. Misti lolled her head down, trying to follow where Dylori went but only saw shadows and a pure red glow. Dis and Zora moved in front of her, their fur and feathers blocking the fight, and nudging up against her. Zora pushed her head against Misti’s neck and she felt a surge of warm, calm life-energy flow to her, enough to get her standing and clear her vision.
I have to help. She pushed Zora and Dis out of the way and prepared to join the fight, weak as she was. Dylori’s sword was flashing against the teeth and claws, Arias protecting Dylori against an attack with her Moon shield and pushing the suncreature away with shimmering blue walls, one after the other.
Misti pulled the dagger from her belt with trembling hands, looked at the tiny thing against the giant suncreature before slipping it back into her belt once more. She couldn’t slay this creature with a dagger. Yelling to the others to move behind her, Misti drew to the front, Arias’ shield protecting her as she called upon the pendant once more. Called upon it to do something, to protect her. No, not to protect her. Kill it, she thought. Kill the wyvern. Kill it now!
And, with a brilliant white flash and searing bliss, the pendant did. Misti hardly saw the suncreature shattering apart, the pieces turning to ash and burning away. But she did notice when two sets of hands caught her when she fell, too weak to stand on her own. She also managed to catch three words before sleep pulled her away from her friends, three words in Dylori’s voice.
“You sunbaked idiot!”
***
Misti awoke sometime later, feeling better than she had in a long time. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sunshine glinting off Dylori’s armor and Arias’ bow. I slept the night away. A familiar weight rested on her chest and when she looked down, Zora’s blue-and-orange eyes stared back. On instinct, Misti dipped into her Animal crafting.
“Hello, my friend,” Zora said.
“Hello, Zora. Thank you for giving me your strength before,” Misti whispered, gratitude rushing over their connection.
Zora tilted her head, cocking one ear to the side. “I was happy to be able to help you again, and technically I was aiding the others when I did so.” She flicked her tails, swatting Misti’s cheek in jest.
Misti chuckled, ever the clever one. She ran her hand down Zora’s soft feathers. “The pendant would’ve killed you had I stayed. I’m sure of it. And I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“I understand.” Zora licked her chin.
Misti tilted her face away. “I’m glad you—”
Zora interrupted her with a bite to her chin, tugging her face around to stare into her eyes. “But know that however bad it gets with this pendant or otherwise, I will never let you leave me again. Never again.”
“I know.” Misti hugged Zora tight, giving her a kiss on her furry muzzle. Love surged through their connection, warm and calm and constant. “Thank you for staying by my side.”
“Always, my friend. Always. You get off easy with me and most likely with Arias, from what I have seen of your friendship. But Dylori won’t be so…forgiving.” Zora swung her gaze to where Dylori sat, sharpening her blade. “She was quite angry when she awoke.”
Sniffing, Misti looked at Dylori. “Thanks for the warning.”
Zora gently severed their link, and then stretched and padded over to Dis’ side. Misti sat up. She scratched her head and grinned sheepishly at the others.
“So, thanks for distracting that wyvern back there.”
Arias nodded. “That pendant did all the work.”
Dylori glared at her, the look in her eyes stopping Misti from responding. “Thanks? That’s all you have to say after leaving us in the middle of nowhere?”
“I had to leave but Dis and Zora were awake to watch over you.” Misti pointed to Dis, who had settled down beside Dylori and munched on a large pile of multicolored leaves. Zora stole a few yellow ones from his pile.
“What did you think you were doing, running off like that? You were in no shape to be doing something that stupid.” Dylori’s voice rose.
“I had to protect you from the pendant.”
“You just told me you liked me,” Dylori huffed, throwing out her hands, her sword swinging. “And then not even a night later you leave. Without saying goodbye. Without a word why. You get up in the middle of your watch and leave.” She pointed the curved blade at Misti. “Even barring the fact that it was your watch and we could’ve been injured even with Dis and Zora awake, that’s some messed-up way to start a relationship. Or…whatever this is. I don’t even know yet. Anyway, we could’ve died, and you nearly did!”
But not even Dylori’s outburst could stave off the tickling of happiness in Misti’s chest at the mention of a relationship and that Dylori had even thought to bring it up, even now. She scooted over to Dylori’s side and guided the sword away.
“You two were fading fast, and I knew you wouldn’t make it much longer.” Misti gave them a curious look. They were nearly dead when she left them, so weak they couldn’t walk straight. “And apparently my leaving worked. You regained enough strength to come save me!”
Dylori shook her head. “It wasn’t that…some yellow jaho saved us. Luckily I had enough sense when you were unconscious in Ingo to head back to the Myceli offshoot and get some more. I figured it might help you wake up, but then you didn’t need it.”
Surprise sparked through Misti. “You got more of the herb?” She looked to Arias for confirmation.
Arias nodded again, slipping her bow onto her back. Misti noticed the gently glowing cuts traveling up her arms now, from keeping the wyvern at bay. Instead of being guilty, gratefulness filled Misti’s being. Arias shrugged. “You leaving might have woken us up, but the jaho helped us regain our strength. Enough to send Zora to find you, and then follow her to your side, at least. And to distract that wyvern.”
Misti gave Arias a hug, one she returned. “Thank you, Arias.”
Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties Page 25