by Eric Vall
I hopped onto the first one, then the second and third, and continued to shoot a trail all the way up to where the vingehund had taken refuge. Before the beast could react, I made the final leap onto its back as Gawain had before. The canine definitely noticed my presence then, and it shook and ruffled itself violently to try and get me off. I managed to hang on long enough to shoot my hand with the ice blast, and I literally froze my hand to the vingehund to keep from falling off. It hurt, that was for damn sure, and I knew I was going to regret making such a hasty decision later, but it had to be done. I wasn’t in the mood to take the same tumble Gawain had.
I shoved the gun in the hem of my pants and took out my dagger once again. This time, I had the leverage I needed and the position to hit vital spots, so I stabbed the vingehund repeatedly, over and over again, in as many places on its back and neck as I could reach.
The winged canine howled as it continued to try and shake me off, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I stabbed it again, and by then, I was already covered in the monster’s blood. What was a little more?
I did what I didn’t think was possible then. I looked Phi in the eyes, knowing full well this was something she cherished, yanked an empty crystal out of my pouch, and plunged gem into the back of the vingehund’s head. It twitched harshly, then tumbled from the sky like dead weight as I tried to capture it. For good measure, my roosa positioned itself just right so the canine landed directly on the tail that it tried to bite off.
There was a resounding yelp as the stinger pierced the vingehund, and then that was it. It fell to the floor, completely limp and with me still attached to its back as I felt it’s willpower begin to erode against the power of my summoning skill. For a second, it actually fought back, but the creature was too damaged, and the roosa’s poison was too powerful.
Then it was mine.
To my absolute horror, Phi cackled, and if I thought her laugh was creepy before, this was ten times as worse. Her mania was apparent all over her features, from the insane grin that nearly split her face in two, to the widened eyes that no longer held any grip of reality.
As she walked through the magical barrier that blocked us from Nia, it shattered like glass. Her howling laughter echoed against the marble walls, and I felt like she was all around me at once.
A light blue, wing-shaped crystal appeared at my feet, and I plucked it from the ground in triumph.
“I’ve captured your monster, Phi!” I bellowed. “You’ve lost!”
Phi suddenly stopped cackling, and the silence that followed was almost more deafening. Her voice was deadpan as she spoke. “Wrong, summoner. I got what I wanted from our little playtime.”
My stomach lurched as I blanched. “What?”
“You’ll find out soon, Gryff. Ohhhh, so soon, and when we meet next, you’ll be begging me for mercy.” Large white wings emerged from the back of her dress, and she gave the three of us a sly smile before she vanished.
I was stunned as I gripped the crystal in the palm of my hand. What had she meant by that? What could she have possibly gotten out of this? I recalled my roosa so it could properly rest and stuffed the crystal in my pouch before I rushed to the altar where Nia was already on her feet and shaking the cage bars.
“Gryff! Gryff!” she called out to me, and she nearly bounced on her heels in desperation to be set free.
As I reached the cage, it vanished, and Nia Kenefick fell into my arms and wept. I stroked her hair and placed several kisses on her temple as I tried to soothe her.
“It’s okay now, I’ve got you,” I whispered in her ear and clutched her to me. So help me, Maker, I was never going to let this girl out of my sights again. I don’t know what I would have done without her, but now, I didn’t have to think about it. She was safe, and Gawain and I were going to take her home.
I froze, then, and looked over my shoulder to where I’d left Gawain. He’d moved since then, closer, and he watched crestfallen as Nia and I reunited.
“I just came for the gun you borrowed,” he muttered.
I reached between Nia and me and took the gun from where I’d stuffed it in the front of my pants. When I handed it to him, he took it gingerly and then stepped back before he turned away from us completely.
“I didn’t think you’d find me,” Nia huffed into my chest as she caught her breath.
“Hey, no worries,” I assured her as I ran my hand through her hair. “Whenever you need me, I’ll come running. That’s a promise.”
Nia nodded, and for the first time since I met her, she clung to me desperately, as though she needed me to breathe. I took a deep breath myself, and I eyed Gawain as he stared out into the ballroom.
“Can you walk?” I asked Nia.
“Yes, I think I can,” she replied, and the two of us took a few tentative steps side by side until I knew she could balance on her own. Once we made it down the steps, I let her walk at her own pace, but kept a hand firmly on her back, mostly to keep her from falling over if she suddenly felt weak, but also because I was terrified to ever let go of her again.
When the three of us made it back out of the palace, Gawain shot off the flare gun that Drew had given him. A stream of white smoke shot into the sky, and it wasn’t long before I felt the tug of the Shadowscape pull us back through to the real world.
I held Nia closer and closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure what home felt like, but with Nia pressed against me so close, so intimate, I was nearly certain that it was something akin to this.
Chapter 17
As we dropped back into the real world, I found we were on the other side of the mountain again. Sand clung to my skin, and I shivered as I looked up at the sky. Stars. It was a clear night in Ortych Sands.
“Gryff?” Nia’s voice sounded beside me, and I glanced over at her as she searched my pack. “You don’t have a canteen, do you?”
“Can’t say that I do.” I made a concerned face. “Why? Are you thirsty?”
“Well, yes, I am,” Nia confirmed, “but that’s not why I want it.”
I was about to ask her what she would want it for when I noticed the gashes on her arms again from where Phi had tortured her. I frowned deeply and shook my head.
“I have some water.” Gawain’s voice was nearby, only a few feet away, and he held the canteen out for her. When she didn’t take it right away, he faltered. “It’s okay if you don’t--”
“I’d like some if that is okay?” Nia cut him off, and it was odd to see the two of them speaking civilly as opposed to being pompous and berating.
Gawain nodded and moved closer to her. He took one of her arms into his hand and poured the water onto the wound gently. Some of the blood washed away, but much of it was dried on there already, and Nia frowned.
“I supposed that is just how it will have to look for now,” she sighed.
“Here,” Gawain muttered and suddenly stood. He ripped off a piece of his cloak and wrapped it around the wound. “It will at least keep the sand out and help lessen the risk of infection if you keep it covered.”
I took Gawain’s canteen and repeated the same process to Nia’s other arm while he made sure his wrapping was secure. We didn’t know how long we’d be in this desert, or what to do from here, so it was best we kept her wounds as clean as we could with what little we had.
I examined the gash on her arm and frowned deeply. Phi had really done a number on her. Nia would be lucky if these didn’t leave permanent damage to the nerves and vessels under the skin. It was going to scar, that much was certain.
I did as Gawain had done, and I ripped a shred of my cloak to wrap her wounds with and tenderly did so. When I finished up, I sat back and gently rubbed my thumb over the covered wound. I had my own neck wound to deal with, but it was nothing in comparison. A little scrub and tonic, and I would be good as new.
Nia was silent as we repeated the process to the other arm as well. We cleaned the wounds and shredded more of our cloaks into makeshift dressings. When Nia was all bandaged
up, she offered us a small, genuine smile.
“Thank you,” she muttered quietly to me, then looked to Gawain as well, “both of you.”
Nia tilted her head cutely, and I certainly didn’t miss the blush on Gawain’s cheeks. I’d probably tease him about it, but knowing for sure how he felt about Nia and how he was jealous, well, maybe that was a jerk thing to do. I’d keep that detail tucked in my back pocket. For now, I just wanted to find a way back to Balvann, or what was left of it after the jettas attacked.
“What now?” Gawain asked as he sat back on his haunches.
I cradled my head in my chin as I weighed our short list of options. We could either wait for our horses to come to seek us out, they were enchanted to their riders, so they would eventually come to us, but that was assuming no harm befell them in the Balvaan flood. Our other option was to hoof it back to the port town and hope there was still something there to go back to. At the very least, the team that was in the Shadowscape should have been there or near there.
Before I could respond, however, a large gust of wind kicked up and stirred the desert sands. The three of us watched in awe as an airship peeked over the mountain and sailed slowly over us until they were directly above us. The more I stared at it though, the more I thought I recognized the ship.
In fact, I thought it was Almasy’s ship.
Lights flashed over us and then stopped. Then a flash of red hair peeked over the side of the ship, and I heard Almasy yell from the helm, though I couldn’t make out anything he’d said.
“Gryff!” I heard Arwyn’s voice come from the deck of the ship, and my head perked up. “Nia! Gawain! You’re all okay!”
“Ms. Hamner!” Nia yelled back and waved.
“I’m sending down a ladder!” Arwyn called. “Stay there until I can get it lowered!”
“Of course we’re going to stay here,” Gawain scoffed. “Where else are we going to go?”
Nia shushed him, but I laughed. He had a very fair point. I know I certainly didn’t want to go trekking through the desert in the middle of the night on my own two feet.
It wasn’t long before Arwyn tossed the rope ladder over the side of the ship and anchored it to something heavy.
“Ladies first,” I offered to Nia, and she smiled as she took the first two steps.
“Are you sure that’s safe with your arms in the condition they’re in?” Gawain asked.
“Unless you plan on carrying me up there yourself, then I do not see how there is another way up,” Nia shot at him before she continued to climb. She was a feisty one, especially when it came to Gawain, but I had a hunch that with time she would warm up to him properly as a friend. If I could manage it, she certainly could.
Once Nia was halfway up, I followed after her, and then Gawain brought up the rear. We were on the ship before long, and it was nice to just sit and know we were in good hands without having to whisper or look over our shoulders. The moment we had settled, Arwyn knelt beside Nia and examined her arms.
“What in Mistral happened to you, doll?” she asked worriedly as she shifted into healer mode.
“It’s a long story, ma’am,” Nia half-laughed, but Arwyn looked at her seriously.
“Tell me everything, all of you, from start to finish,” Arwyn commanded. “We have a long ride back to Varle.”
“What about Balvaan, and Orenn and Layla, and the Wild Reds?” I asked one question after another, but Arwyn held up her hands to stop the flow.
“You need to let me explain,” Arwyn breathed. “You’ve been gone for a long time.”
The three of us looked at one another, and simultaneously, our faces fell. My stomach lurched, and I could tell from the stern look in Arwyn’s eyes that whatever she was about to drop on us was going to hurt.
“How long have we been gone?” Nia asked slowly.
Arwyn hesitated, then sighed. “Two months.”
I felt myself blanch as a chill ran through me. “Two months?”
“We didn’t know if you were going to come back,” Arwyn started, and tears started to well in her eyes as she pulled all three of us into a fierce hug. “When Layla and the rest of the Wild Reds popped up, we set out to search for you all immediately.” Arwyn released us then and began to tend to Nia’s wounds. “They are safe, sound, and on a flight back to Varle in the morning.”
I nodded dumbly as I continued to try and process all of this information.
“And Balvaan?” Gawain piped up.
“They will rebuild.” Arwyn nodded without taking her eyes away from her work. “They suffered quite a bit of damage in the floods, but they’ve already made significant progress.”
“That’s good news at least.” I sighed in relief, and I saw Gawain’s shoulders relax a little, too.
“Were you able to find your ciphers?” she asked us.
Nia shook her head, but Gawain and I nodded. We told her the story about the roosa, and then the place that ought not to exist under the sand pools, and the marble palace. Arwyn’s eyes went wide as she stored all of the information away.
“That’s rather impressive,” she gaped, and she poured a bit of sparkling clear liquid onto Nia’s wound. The gash immediately began to close, and new skin started to form so it looked like the marks were never there in the first place.
“What about you?” I asked, but Arwyn shook her head.
“We know it’s there, but we can’t find it,” she growled, clearly frustrated with that situation. She finished healing one of Nia’s arms and moved onto the next. “I have another question for you all. You haven’t happened to have heard from Braden or Varleth, have you?”
I shook my head. “Not since before Gawain and I left.”
Arwyn frowned deeper, and she continued to work on Nia’s wound in silence.
“Why?” I prodded, but she didn’t answer. Her lips only pressed together to make a thin line across her face, and she kept focused on the task at hand.
“Ar-- Ms. Hamner,” I tried again. “Why do you ask?”
Arwyn sighed as she finished with Nia’s other arm. She looked me dead in the eyes, and it was only then that I noticed how tired she looked, as though she hadn’t slept in days, maybe weeks. Knowing her, I had a hunch I wasn’t so far off from the truth.
“They haven’t checked in since before you went missing in the Shadowscape,” she replied flatly. “We’ve done everything short of sending a rescue team after them to find out where they are or what happened. We hoped maybe they’d met up with you lot and ended up stuck in the Shadowscape as well.”
I frowned and hung my head. This wasn’t happening. This mission had gone completely wrong from the start, and now we had been missing for two months, and Braden and Varleth even longer? I shook my head and cradled it in my hands. I was dizzy, though I wasn’t sure if that was motion sickness or shock. Either way, my stomach churned at the thought of something having happened to my friends.
“We have to go find them,” I blurted out. I couldn’t sit idly by and wait for something to happen to them if they were okay, and even then, I needed to know for sure. If something had happened, I needed to see it with my own eyes. I refused to believe two mages as smart and capable as those two went anywhere without any kind of fight.
“Not so fast.” Arwyn put her hand up. “We are going back to Varle to check in with Headmaster Sleet. We are to give him updated reports on the situation, and then we will take it from there.”
“Forgive me, Ms. Hamner,” Nia started, “but you said it’s been two months. Does that mean school is already back in session?”
“That’s another point I need to bring to the three of you.” Arwyn sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “Yes, the school year has started, but as Gryff demonstrated last year, you are more than able to catch up even if you didn’t start with the rest of the class. That said, you have some thinking to do.”
“What about?” Gawain inquired quietly as he idly played with a small fireball he’d conjured in his palm.
/>
“It is likely Sleet will want to keep us on these missions as they arise,” Arwyn explained. “Due to the nature of these quests, there is a large probability you’ll have to miss a sufficient amount of class.”
“Are we going to have to choose between classes and this?” I asked incredulously. As much as school was important, we might very well be saving the world here, so that there would be a choice involved at all was somewhat staggering.
“There are options,” Arwyn interjected before any of us could argue. “For example, since I am your teacher, I can tutor you on all of your studies in between missions. There is also the option to drop one or the other.”
“Are there repercussions to either of those?” Nia asked, concerned.
“I’m uncertain of that,” Arwyn answered honestly. “I am merely repeating what little the Headmaster and I have discussed which is very little indeed given the council presence there as of late.”
I sagged back and leaned against the wall. “You mean they’re still pestering him?”
Arwyn nodded. “And they now have a special interest in all of you because you didn’t start classes on time.”
“Great.” I drawled and looked at Gawain, who seemed mildly amused by my lack of enthusiasm to have more dealings with Miriam Sharpay.
“There is some good news, though!” Nia chimed in.
“There is?” I asked with a sarcastic grin.
“You and Gawain were successful. You both completed your mission, faced off against Phi, and saved my life,” Nia explained. “It doesn’t seem like much with everything else going on, but it’s a big deal, and it’s a step in the right direction.”
I took a moment to stare at Nia Kenefick as she smiled at Gawain and me. There was something about her radiant positivity in that sentiment that tickled me, and I couldn’t help but crack a small smile myself. She was right. Even if a lot of bad things happened, we made progress, rescued Nia, recovered more of the ciphers we needed to end this whole mess, and metaphorically bloodied Phi’s nose in the process.