The Rocs circled twice, twisting among the trunks until she actually spied Terra at the base of one.
“There!”
Without further command, Dinsa dropped from the air, landing in the undergrowth with an earth moving thud.
***
Arin’s stomach lurched into his throat with the sudden change in altitude. Lanni was already sliding to the ground, dragging the gear bags with her by the time they landed. He unbuckled the harness and followed, ears open to any possible nasties in the immediate area.
Nothing moved but he wasn’t surprised. A Roc was intimidating in the air, even more so on the ground, and he choked the silence up to their presence.
He shouldn’t have.
Lanni fell to her knees next to Terra, fingers going to her twin’s neck first. She sat back almost immediately and her relieved sigh stretched across the air. “She’s alive. Weak, but alive.”
Arin gave the woman a quick once. She was covered in blood, the lower half of her once white shirt now a dark red that didn’t bode well in his mind. “We cannot stay long, Lanni.”
She unzipped one of the bags, digging for the supplies he’d packed. “I know,” she said. “I just need to get her stable.” She cut a look over toward Dinsa and Shada. “Can they carry her?”
Corwin answered. “Should not be—“
The rest of his statement came out as a gurgled, blood filled croak.
Arin spun, drawing Thonu and searching the trees for the bow wielder as Corwin slid out of the saddle, an arrow sticking through his neck.
Dinsa reared back and roared, shaking the ground with enough force to scatter whatever creatures were nearby. Another arrow whizzed by his ear and he dove, covering Lanni and Terra with his body. “Stay down!”
Chapter Fourteen
Draven watched the sun from his office window. As it broke the distant horizon, his earlier thoughts of loss faded away. Instead they re-focused on the tasks ahead. He had much to do this daylight and was wasting time just standing there.
Turning, he barely took notice of the pair of Rocs gliding off to the west for another standard patrol.
The door opened and Cannis strode across the stones. “Good morning, Sire,” he said. “Are you ready for your part in the festivities today?”
He tilted his head in greeting. “I am Magistrate. Are you?”
The Satyr clapped his hands together then reached for the stack of folders he’d left the darkfall before. “Oh indeed. Indeed.”
“Then I shall see you at the Parade.”
Cannis tipped a misshapen finger to his sloped forehead. “Until then.”
He waited for the Satyr to hobble away and turned to his desk. Easing into the chair, he dug into the perpetual pile of paperwork he faced each daylight…
The door opened again just after mid-day and Tane stuck his head around it. “It is time, Your Majesty.”
He stacked the requisitions he’d just signed in the appropriate folder and rose, heading off to his private suite to change into the ceremonial garb he’d wear for the Parade of Suns. At the elevator, he waited for his personal guards to surround him before descending to street level.
“Sire? Will Arin be joining us?”
He thought about it only briefly. “No.”
Tane didn’t comment further, not that he expected him too. It wasn’t the guards place to question, so he didn’t.
On the lobby level, he strode confidently across the stone and glass foyer to the large, front doors. Outside, a crowd had already gathered, waiting for his speech. It was the same every Festival, had been since before his father’s time and he wasn’t about to break with tradition.
***
Cannis watched Draven take the podium, his finger hovering over the trigger stone. “Not yet,” he chided himself as the digit itched to fall onto the correct depression. “Not yet.”
Draven’s booming voice echoed along the buildings lining either side of the street. “Welcome, one and all,” he began. “May the Gods grant your boon and bless the rotations to come. May they grant you…”
He rolled his eyes. He hated this speech, having heard it hundreds of times and his finger inched lower.
No! He had to wait.
The first of the Regent’s vehicles rumbled around the corner as Draven finished talking. The crowd in the distance cheered and the ones closer to him waved their little flags, waiting patiently for their respective leaders to roll past. Griffons, Harpies, Pegasus, Goblins, Ogres, even the Cyclops had a few members in the nearby victims.
His finger inched closer still to the depression but he drew it back. If he messed this up, he was dead for sure! He had to get them all in one flew swoop…
***
Draven nodded respectfully as Krommcare the Ogre came into view. The last of the Regents in the line, he was a massive brute of a thing with pitch-black skin covered in swirls of green. His long green hair twisted down his back and he wore the same outfit others had in Suns past. A battle harness of some animal skin crisscrossed his chest and matching pants covered his legs.
The vehicle rumbled along and he caught Magistrate Cannis slinking away out of the corner of his eye. A strange gleam sparkled in the Satyr’s gaze seconds before a deep rumble swung him back toward the street.
Time slowed to a crawl.
The sound grew intensely loud a bare heartbeat before Ogre and the vehicle passing in front of the podium, evaporated in a massive ball of flame…
***
Dinsa roared and leapt into the air, landing over them a few seconds after Arin. Lanni pushed the Chimera back so she could get to Terra again. “Go!” she hissed, nodding in the direction the arrow seemed to have come from. “We’ll be fine.”
Arin grunted but slid himself out from under Dinsa’s massive wings and headed off into the foliage. Her heart skipped a beat or two for his safety, but she had bigger concerns.
The man was a Warrior, he could take care of himself! Couldn’t he?
He’s injured…
And so is Terra!
Turning back to her twin, she dug into the bag with one hand and kept the other over the wound. Pulling out this world’s version of a gauze pad, she ripped it open with her teeth and pressed it over the oozing hole.
Terra’s eyes snapped open and she bolted upright, knocking her back. “Draven!”
She grabbed Terra’s shoulders and pressed her down again. “Easy sis,” she soothed. “Easy now. I’m here. I’ll have you fixed up in no time.”
Terra’s breathing labored in her chest and she clasped her arm. “Draven!” she said again. “He’s, he’s…help him!”
Lanni smiled down into the mirror image of her own face and brushed the matted, sweaty hair off Terra’s forehead. “Easy, easy now. I’m here. What happened?”
But her sister’s eyes were unfocused, roaming around wildly. “Draven!” she whispered a third time. “Help him!”
“Shhhh,” she soothed. “It’s ok, sis, I’m here. Draven’s fine.”
Which was an all-out lie, to her way of thinking, as the man she’d seen the day before was nothing like the one they’d initially met. When he’d tried to kill her, for no apparent reason, there had been a wicked gleam of madness in his orange eyes, not the cool, regal leader.
Had he done this to her sister?
No, that didn’t fit. Why try to kill her if he already knew Terra was injured. And for that matter, why hadn’t he come for Terra himself?
Wait, Arin had said he didn’t remember the last two days. So, he clearly wasn’t aware that her sister had been stabbed in the gut.
These were all things for later. She’d worked it out, hopefully with Arin’s help, when they weren’t being fired on with arrows and her twin wasn’t knocking on death’s door.
Recalling the med text she’d read, she wrapped the wound with strips of cloth she’d also dug out of the supplies and tied it off. And not a moment too soon either. Pain lanced across her shoulder and the tell-tale zing of a
n arrow getting too close echoed in her ear. Ignoring it as best she could, she rolled Terra to the ground and stretched her out near Dinsa’s large claws.
Flattening her palm to the Roc’s underbelly, she thought what she wanted and the animal responded. Lifting the foot, he tenderly scooped Terra between his talons and with a bellow, lifted into the air.
She waved toward Shada and his rider. “Go! Go!”
The other Roc roared and lifted off to follow his brother, despite the concerned look on his rider’s face.
A second arrow whizzed by her ear and she ducked instinctively. Forgetting most of the gear, she scrambled over to Corwin’s lifeless body and unhooked the crossbow she’d seen on his hip. Snatching the quiver off his other side, she ducked a third bolt and scampered around the tree for cover…
***
Arin twisted between two of the Satyr’s, taking the first’s head clean off his shoulders and sinking Thonu halfway through the neck of the other. Both bodies fell and he left them where they lay.
Moving, he found four more, all of them aiming crude bows and handmade arrows in Lanni’s direction. His hearts knocked together, seizing over one another for a brief moment before Suns of battle tested reflexes kicked into play.
Slicing the strap of the sling, he took Thonu’s hilt in both hands and charged forward, letting out his customary battle cry when he was only a step away. Launching into the air, he landed among them, ripping the first two apart before they could react to his presence.
The two remaining twirled toward him, arrows still firm against the bowstrings and let fly. He dodged the first, dancing back from the one who’d fired it, but the second sunk into his back, lodging just under a rib. Tucking Thonu under his arm, he shoved the Rustac blade behind him, slamming the razor sharp metal deep into the beasties ugly chest.
Yanking it free, he charged a second time and before the last of them could reload, sent his head flying off into the undergrowth with one powerful stroke.
Stepping into the open again, he called out. “Lanni?”
She peaked out from her cover. “I’m here. You ok?”
He moaned.
She moved carefully around the tree’s roots, holding a loaded crossbow up and ready to fire. “You ok?”
He moaned a second time, the metal of the arrowhead scraping on bone whenever he drew in a breath. “Fine.”
She snorted. “Sure you are. Get over here.”
Despite the command in her tone, he followed the request, allowing her to help him ease down the trunk into almost the exact spot her sister had been. “Where is Terra? And the Roc’s?”
“I sent them ahead.” She rolled him onto the side without the wound and shook her head. “Did you forget to duck? Again?”
***
“Is it done?”
Cannis didn’t raise his eyes from the floor. “Yes Master. They are dead.”
“All of them?” Golix asked.
Cannis knew better than to lie. “Draven survived,” he admitted. “Barely, or so I heard.”
There was a warning in Golix’s next statement. “Then I would suggest you find out.”
“And if he lives?”
Golix snorted. “Then I expect you to take care of it.”
“Yes Master,” he said, but the stone had already gone dark.
Releasing the security spell, he tucked everything away and left his office. The halls outside teemed with rescue personnel, most of them running here and there as they worked to free those still trapped under the rubble.
Barely able to mask a smile of triumph, he took charge, as would be expected of him in such a crisis situation.
“Commander!” He beckoned one of the head guards over. “What is the situation?”
The man panted, his usually pristine uniform covered in soot, blood, dirt and other bits of gore. “We have rescued most at this stage, First Magistrate. But some are still trapped under the debris.”
“Have you found all the Regents then?”
The guardsmen gulped and nodded slowly. “Yes Magistrate. They are all dead. I have sent word to their respective Kingdoms.”
“And his Majesty? What is his condition?”
The guard shifted from one foot to the other. “Unknown Magistrate,” he said quickly. “He was taken by the Harpies to the Shi-so Complex and we have not received further word.”
Cannis gave the guard’s shoulder a squeeze. “Then I shall be there. You are in charge. Send communication if anything changes.”
The guard bowed at the waist, backing away. “Yes Magistrate.”
Turning, he headed for the elevators at the end of the hall. Containing a joyful whistle in his thoughts, he waited patiently for the car to arrive and descended to the buildings other, unaffected exit. Sliding under the wheel of his personal vehicle, he gazed around the underground parking area and seeing himself alone, gave into the moment and let out a howl of joy…
Composing himself, he started the sedan and headed across the city to the Shi-so. It was an uneventful trip, the streets clear of traffic and almost barren save for the occasional rescue truck or van that whizzed toward the disaster with lights and sirens blazing. Reaching for the communications panel, he tapped the center of the inset stone to turn up the sound and listened to the report being given on one of the news channels.
“The Parade of Suns was interrupted today by what some are calling a preemptive attack. For more information we go to Bylin Longsmall on scene at the King’s Court Tower…”
Static crackled across the air then another voice filled it.
“Thank you, Lierling. I’m live just down the street from the King’s Court where earlier today an explosion rocked the beginning of the Parade. Rescuers are working frantically to dig for any survivors at this time but little is known about who or what might have done this…”
The reporter’s voice droned on but he was only half-listening. He had been there after all and watched with glee as the street buckled then rocketed into the mid-day light with enough force to flatten the building across the street.
Which had been his intent when he’d set the device. His heart swelled with pride as ten levels of glass, stone and Rustac metal shattered and rained down on the Parade goers…
He’d almost danced a little dance when the Ogre evaporated right before his eyes, but managed to keep his hooves on the ground. Even better still was the news that all the respective Regents, who’d come to the Festival at Draven’s invitation, had been found and were quite dead. He should have asked for more details from the Commander, but he didn’t want to appear macabre in the aftermath of a national disaster, now did he.
He’d just have to read the report later.
Turning off Broadtown, he swung his car into a spot next to the Complex’s main entrance and got out. Rescue vehicles lined the emergency entrance on the side of the twelve level medical building, and personnel rushed here and there. Harpies of every shape, size and feather color shouted orders, all manner of creature were rushed inside and again, a sense of pride for his accomplishment rolled over his twisted body.
Holding it in check, he straightened his shoulders, plastered a distraught look on his face and headed through the sliding doors.
He had a King to kill today but to get close, he’d need to play the part of worried Magistrate, something he could do with one arm tied behind his back…
Chapter Fifteen
“Seriously, you are going to have to learn to duck, Arin.”
He snorted but couldn’t argue.
She made a soft tisking sound. “This is going to hurt.”
Arin ground his teeth together and wrapped both hands around a nearby root. “Just do it.”
Lanni sighed, snapped the shaft off near his body and with a twist and a push, sent the arrow the rest of the way through. He’d have thought after all his Suns of combat, he’d be prepared for the pain, but he wasn’t and let out a bellow that would make his Pack proud.
Sweat beaded across his
face and Lanni solicitously wiped it away with the sleeve of her shirt. “All done,” she whispered. “I just need to patch it up until we can get you back to the city.”
He nodded, doing his best not to scream again as she poured the liquid he’d packed in the supplies over the two holes. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to keep the sound to a low growl in his chest.
“I know, I know, almost done,” she said quietly. “Just need to cover it.”
“Is it bad?”
She chuckled. “You’ll have another scar. We really don’t have time to stitch it up.”
He nodded, not trusting himself to say more.
She finished within a few moments and lowered his shirt again. “That’ll have to do. Can you walk?”
He drew in a long breath and let it out slowly, burying the pain like he’d been taught. At least most of it. “I can.”
Lanni rose and gathered the gear again, slinging the two bags cross ways over her shoulders. “Dinsa should return shortly. I only asked him to go as far as the beach to get Terra to safety and then come back for us.”
He pushed himself up using the tree and staggered a step. She was right there to catch him and levered herself under his arm, wrapping it over her shoulders. “Come on you, we shouldn’t have to go far before he returns.”
And they didn’t. Less than a length later, the foliage above rattled and Dinsa dropped from the air right in their path. He let out a bellowing squawk and shook his head, rattling the bit and reins of his bridle.
Lanni reached out as soon as they were close and stroked his neck. “Thank you my friend.”
To his shock, Dinsa purred at her praise, almost as if he understood every word. With an effort, she helped him up into the rear seat and balancing on one of the animal’s wings, locked the harness over his shoulders. “Have you ever ridden, a Roc before?” he managed to ask over the pain radiating from the wound.
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