by Matthew Ward
She laughed. "You are audacious. Do you have a name, oh audacious mortal?"
"I do. I am Edric Saran."
"Well, Edric Saran, you should know that the aid of the serathi touches on life, and on death, and on a great many other things besides. But you are correct. The preservation of life must come before the punishment of the sinful. Find your friends, Edric Saran. I shall return shortly with such aid as I am able."
"And do you have a name?"
She smiled wryly. "Indeed I do. I am Adanika of the Second Circle, handmaiden of the Radiant. Find your friends. We shall meet again."
Then, with a single beat of those powerful wings, she was gone, leaving me alone with the bodies of her victims and too many unanswered questions.
Three
I'd surmised it wouldn't take much of a tracker to follow our trail through the forest. I was glad to discover that notion was as true of Jamar and Calda travelling alone as it was of the three of us together. I'd never have found them otherwise.
I wasn't much of a tracker, but even I could follow the broken snow in Jamar's wake. The havildar had covered a great distance since, and it took every dreg of my remaining strength to close the gap. Adanika's promise of help gave me hope, which in turn lent my weary limbs fresh vigour, but to all things there is a limit, and I was fast approaching mine.
After several minutes of half-running, half-staggering through undergrowth determined to trip me at every turn, I emerged from the forest edge and into a wide, snow-laden plain. The temperature had plunged and the wind had picked up, assailing my exposed skin with a thousand chill spikes. Snow fell thick and fast, the flakes swirling madly through the air.
I caught sight of Jamar a minute later; a trudging figure, head bowed against wind. A thin layer of white lay across his head and shoulders, and upon the still – the much too still – burden in his arms.
"Jamar!"
I needn't have bothered shouting. The wind swept away my words as soon as they left my mouth. I pressed on. Each step was a struggle, but I refused to submit to something so mundane as fatigue when so close to my goal.
"Jamar!"
At last, he halted. He'd heard me. I was at his side moments later, too breathless to speak.
"My prince!" Jamar was exultant. "I'd not thought to see you so soon."
Another man might have doubted he'd ever see me again, but not Jamar. The moment he'd discharged his duty to Calda, he'd have been back for me. I'd a suspicion that Scarface was better off in Adanika's mercies – however scant – than he would ever have been had Jamar caught up with him.
"You don't get rid of me that easily."
I took another step, stumbled, and would have fallen had Jamar not steadied me. The big man's stamina never ceased to amaze me. I was on the point of collapse, having shouldered only my own burdens since we'd escaped, yet Jamar seemed hardly the worse for wear for having carried both his and Calda's weight for the better part of a mile.
"You're wounded."
I followed Jamar's gaze down to my left arm. Sure enough, the sleeve was dark with blood. My first thought was that it wasn't my own. Then I became aware of a dull pain, and I knew the foolishness of the notion. It must have happened during the fight beneath the trees, but in the excitement it simply hadn't registered.
"It doesn't matter." I hoped I was right. "How's Calda?"
The big man looked stricken. "Not good. She needs to be warm, and she needs her wounds tended. I'd have sought shelter in the forest, but..."
"Help's on the way." I hoped I was right. Here I was, out in a blizzard, bone-weary and with a wounded friend, and what was my hope for salvation? The beneficence of a serathi.
"Where from?" Jamar asked suspiciously. "How did you escape?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Can you reach those rocks?" I pointed to an outcrop that kept appearing and disappearing through the swirling snows. "That ought to give us a little cover."
"Easily, savir. The question is, can you?"
It transpired that I could, though only at the cost of what little strength I had left. I sank wearily against the frozen stone, grateful for the partial shelter.
"Now would be a good time for this 'help' that you promised."
It would indeed, but had no way of knowing whether or not it would ever arrive. Calda's low, ragged breathing provoked fresh fears. I prayed my latest lesson in the folly of arrogance wouldn't cost my sister her life.
I couldn't decide whether each passing minute made it more or less likely Adanika would reach us. More, because every second allowed her to further close the distance. Less, because I wasn't altogether sure she intended to return, a feeling that grew stronger the colder I became.
How would she even find us?
I'd all but given up on Adanika when there was a beating of wings in the skies above and she descended gracefully through flurrying snows.
"You were correct," breathed Jamar, his eyes on the new arrival. "I wouldn't have believed you."
I approached Adanika as steadily as I could.
"You are fortunate I found you, Edric Saran," she said. "The weather has worsened. Let me see your wounded friend."
Jamar brought Calda forward. Adanika closed her eyes, and touched Calda's blood-stained robes. After a moment's silence, the serathi's eyelids flickered open again, her expression troubled. "She is close, so very close. Is this woman important?"
"She is to us," I bit out. "Can you help her?"
Adanika said nothing.
"Can you help her?" I demanded.
She looked sharply at me. "I believe so. It was my intention to take you to the nearest settlement. I do not now believe that such half-measures will suffice. If this woman is indeed important, I will not leave her life at the mercy of mortal ability."
As the serathi spoke, amber light rippled across her fingers and dissipated across Calda's brow. "I have done what I can for now, though alas it is all too little. She will have to come with me."
I didn't like the sound of that. Neither, apparently, did Jamar. "We can't abandon her."
"Even if the alternative is that she dies?" Adanika asked coldly. "I have pledged to help, and so I will. You will all come with me."
"How?" I asked. "You surely can't carry the three of us."
"You underestimate me again so soon, Edric Saran. In need, I could carry many times that burden. But I am also capable of moderate foresight, and so did not return alone."
As she spoke, two more serathi strode out of the swirling snows. Like Adanika, they were alabaster-skinned and clad in simple black garb. One had tightly-curled blonde tresses. The other's hair was as midnight dark as her robes, and fell no lower than the nape of her neck. Both had black-feathered wings, and shared Adanika's majestic poise.
"These are my sisters, Elynna and Myrzanna." Adanika indicated each newcomer in turn. "They have agreed to share our plight."
I hesitated, and saw my doubt reflected in Jamar's eyes.
So, apparently, did Adanika. "You are squandering what little time we have. Either you come with us, and perhaps your friend will live, or you remain here and she will die. Choose quickly, unless you wish the choice to be made for you."
Put like that... "We'll go with you."
Adanika smiled. "You see, sisters? There is some small wisdom to be found in mortals."
Wordlessly, the other serathi stepped forward. Myrzanna eased Calda from Jamar's arms, and with a single beat of her wings vanished into the skies. A moment later, Elynna hooked her forearms under Jamar's armpits and they too were gone, leaving Adanika and I alone.
"I understand your doubts, Edric Saran." She walked behind me. "You will soon overcome them. After all, you are about to be granted sight of something few mortals have seen."
Reaching under my arms, she clasped me in a manner I might have described as an embrace, were it not so cold and impersonal. "Why? Where are we going?"
"Where else?" she whispered in my ear. "To Skyhaven. To the Court of t
he Radiant."
And with that, her wings swept back, and the ground vanished far below us.
*******
For a long time, I saw nothing through the storm. I didn't speak. Indeed, I could barely breathe, so fast did we travel. To her credit, Adanika navigated the turbulent skies with a deftness I wouldn't have believed possible. She read every downdraft and gust with practiced skill.
I was all too aware, however, that Adanika's slender arms were the only things between me and a very messy death far below. Not that she struggled to keep hold of me. Far from it, her grip was like steel. Yet for a man such as I, who hated to ride a horse unless it was strictly necessary, travelling in that manner and at that speed was nothing short of nerve-wracking.
Then we burst through the clouds, and my worry gave way to wonder.
We emerged into bright sunlight, so bright after the chill gloom of the snowstorm that I had to half-close my eyes. To my right, the peaks of mountains speared through the clouds. Otherwise there were only rolling cloud-tops as far as the eye could see. As my eyes adjusted to the sun's glare, I saw Elynna and Jamar flying a short way ahead.
I made out the shadowy form of the moon in the brilliant blue sky. This I took as a good omen. Not only did it mean that Ashana, Goddess of the Evermoon, could see me, but it also suggested that she was not displeased that I'd sought refuge with her sister's servants. Like many siblings, Ashana and Astarra did not always see eye to eye.
A thought struck me. Adanika had described herself as a handmaiden of the 'Radiant' – a name I'd first heard several months ago. Could this Radiant actually be Astarra? That was indeed a humbling thought. The Great Powers I'd so far encountered – though hardly of my choice – had been ominous figures, and I was little inclined to renew those acquaintances. But to be brought before the sister of the goddess whose commandments I'd observed all my life? That gave rise to an altogether different anticipation.
Adanika sensed my worry, but misread it. "Do not concern yourself. Even now our destination draws close."
I peered into the distance, but saw nothing. The serathi's eyes were clearly keener than mine. But little by little, a dark shape resolved itself against the white of the clouds. Closer and closer we sped, and I finally saw what appeared to be a gigantic spired city, built on the very pinnacle of a mountain. Then we flew nearer still, close enough for me to make out individual buildings, and I saw that I was mistaken in one important regard.
Skyhaven was not built atop a mountain, but on a vast flying island. Its buildings were rooted upon a giant hunk of rock, drifting above the clouds, anchorless and without any obvious means of propulsion or flotation. That there was magic involved, I didn't doubt. I'd seen Great Powers perform impossible feats before, and by that coin the concept of Skyhaven was small change. Or it would have been, if not for the incredible scale of the place.
There were hundreds of buildings, all constructed of pale gold stone and neatly ordered along paved roads. The architecture trended to a certain slenderness of design – this was the style that Tressia's pristine townhouses aspired to, but somehow never reached. The buildings soared into the sky with as little regard for the pull of the world as the island on which they were built; willowy steeples and burnished onion domes. The very tallest of the towers lay in the absolute centre of the island, and as we drew closer I saw that it alone had no roof, but housed an amphitheatre of some kind.
The wonder of Skyhaven didn't end with its buildings. I beheld a river coursing its way through the streets before boiling away into the skies. The great gardens lacked the rigid order of the streets, and the vegetation sprawled as naturally as it would in any other land. Winged shapes moved about the trees and, despite everything I'd recently encountered, I took them to be birds. Then I realised that they were other serathi, and I quickly expanded my assumptions concerning scale.
We drew closer still, close enough that I saw tangled vines hanging from Skyhaven's underbelly. It was not a flat disc of rock, as I'd believed, but broadly conical, like to nothing so much as an inverted hill. The tip of the cone pointed directly downwards, often lost in the undulating mass of cloud. There were caves let into the rock, though whether they were of natural origin – if indeed anything of Skyhaven could be said to be truly natural – or wrought by the serathi, I couldn't say.
Adanika banked towards the centre of the city, and other details sang out. There were walls around Skyhaven's edge, and many towers along the perimeter. I recognised other serathi, not at wing but standing at guard along the elegant ramparts. As we dove lower and lower, I saw that these serathi wore metal breastplates, and were armed with long spears and golden shields so brightly polished that to look directly upon them dazzled my eyes. Skyhaven was a paradise, perhaps, but it looked to be one maintained by steel. I found it hard to take issue with such practices, for what paradise could possibly survive if no one looked to its defence? I confess I was swept up in the spectacle of the place. An old legend had come alive.
Adanika's course followed one of the broader roadways, and I took in the giant golden statues that stood at every street corner. The streets themselves were almost empty, with only a handful of serathi passing to and fro. But then why would creatures such as they feel constrained by roadways when the skies were so clear? Hard on the heels of that thought came one which wondered why they would bother building roads at all. I saw no obvious answer for that conundrum and, sensing that Adanika was slowing to make her final descent, shifted my attention to our destination.
We reached a wide, scarlet-carpeted balcony. Adanika came to a stop and let me drop the rest of the way. It wasn't far, maybe a foot or so, and I preserved a little of my dignity by staggering, rather than falling. It was warm, pleasantly so. At this altitude I'd expected the air to be even colder than the plains we'd just left, but it was balmy by comparison.
Lacking any instructions from Adanika, I pushed open one of the large, leaded doors and went inside.
The fluted columns set evenly around the wall were easily ten times my height. Indeed, the space from floor to ceiling could easily have swallowed a three-storey Tressian townhouse. Light poured in from windows set high in the walls. At the very top was some kind of fresco, though its details evaded me at such a distance. Those cabinets and chairs present were of a dark and lustrous wood, and upholstered with the same rich velvet as the thick carpet. Wherever there was metal, it was a deep and burnished brass, save for the traceries on the furniture, which were picked out in pure gold. The statues too were gold. They were not so large as those I'd seen in the street – these were merely a little taller than I – but were, like them, immaculate renditions of serathi, some clad for war, others dressed more akin to Adanika and her sisters.
Jamar and Elynna waited in the centre of the room. Of Myrzanna and Calda, there was no sign. I turned to ask Adanika where they had gone, only to discover she hadn't followed me in.
"Adanika has to see to other matters." Elynna's voice was richer than Adanika's, sweet as music, or fine wine. "Your presence here has created... complications... to which she must now attend."
I exchanged a glance with Jamar.
"Should we be concerned?" Jamar asked politely.
Elynna smiled. It was a truly beautiful sight, remarkable even in that splendid room. "Not in the least. It is more a matter of timing, and of protocol. We are not so accustomed to visitors, and your presence must be announced to the serathiel."
"The serathiel?" I asked.
"She is the voice of the Radiant." Elynna spoke kindly, as if talking to a dim-witted child. "All will be made clear later. First, Adanika said you should rest. Mortal life can be exhausting. It is fascinating."
"Not before we've seen Calda," I said firmly.
Elynna arched an eyebrow, seemed to think for a moment, then laughed. "Yes, my sister also said you would insist upon that, and arrangements have been made. If you will perhaps follow me?"
She led us out through labyrinthine corridors, each as
gloriously appointed as the room in which we had arrived. All, sadly, were very similar to one another, and I was soon quite lost.
"Myrzanna is one of our swiftest sisters, so your friend has been here for some time already," Elynna explained. "I understand both projectiles have been removed, and her wounds treated."
I said nothing, but was inwardly impressed. Were I to take Elynna's words at face value – and I found little justification not to – the serathi had worked commendably fast. On the other hand, if Skyhaven was any indicator, they presumably had access to techniques and knowledge that far outstripped the Empire's surgeons.
Every wall was adorned by a gloriously detailed mural. Jamar examined them all. I was confused at first – Jamar had never displayed an eye for art before – then I realised that if each mural was different, it gave Jamar a method of navigating the building. I should have thought of that.
Elynna eased open a small, unprepossessing door. Jamar and I followed her inside to find Calda asleep in a four-poster bed of generous proportions. This was another tall-ceilinged room, but it lay in near darkness, for someone had drawn the drapes across the high windows. An unfamiliar serathi stood to one side of the bed, her eyes lowered in silent contemplation.
Calda lay all but invisible under the scarlet sheets, save for her head and one hand that rested on the pillow beside her tangled hair. Her skin was a few shades paler than I'd have liked, and I wondered just how close a call she'd had. I took her hand in mine. "Will she recover?"
"I cannot say." It was the other serathi who spoke. "I have made what restoration I can. One of the arrows was lodged deep, and I fear it may have inflicted harms not so easily mended."
I smiled sadly. "She'll pull through. She's too stubborn to do anything else."
"Irina will remain with her," said Elynna. "Everything that can be done, will be done."