by Ben Wolf
Axel recovered his footing and stumbled toward the spot where he’d stabbed the Jyrak’s gums. He gripped the point of one of the shorter teeth with his free hand to steady himself and peered out across the vast expanse of water hundreds of feet below him, and the first hint of fresh air he’d inhaled in what felt like an eternity hit his lungs.
It was a surreal sight—towering more than a hundred feet over an expanse of perfectly blue water on a beautiful autumn day. The waters glistened under the sunlight, and a few clouds drifted lazily in the blue sky.
And all of it was framed by an enormous set of jagged bronze teeth.
The Jyrak’s jaw began to shut.
Axel had no choice.
Still gripping his sword, he dashed forward and flung himself over the bottom row of teeth, just before the top row slammed down behind him.
Axel fell, and he screamed into the ether.
Lilly’s heart had dropped into her churning stomach when Axel disappeared inside the Jyrak’s mouth. She hovered well out of its reach and hung her head. Axel was gone.
A bloodcurdling cry for help snapped her attention back toward the Jyrak. A dark human form adorned with familiar blue armor on his arms and legs dropped from its mouth.
Axel… was not gone!
She abandoned the bag of food on the shore and exploded toward him at full speed. Based on her trajectory and his, Lilly aimed to reach him by the time he fell about halfway from the Jyrak’s mouth to the water—provided the Jyrak didn’t get him first. It had already locked its vision onto him and began to move its hand to catch him.
Not if I can do something about it.
Lilly swooped in to intercept Axel. He yelled until the moment her hand latched onto his left wrist, and then he stared up at her with astonished eyes.
Beyond him, the Jyrak’s hand whipped toward them.
“Hold on!” Lilly yanked him to her left, and they dropped below the Jyrak’s hand by inches.
“We’re still falling!” Axel shouted as he managed to sheathe his sword.
Lilly ground her teeth and pulled against the air, but they continued to fall anyway. She couldn’t lift him, but that wasn’t the only way to get them both to safety. “You weigh… a lot more than Calum!”
Layers of dark scales passed them by as they plummeted toward the water below. Lilly focused all of her force into Axel, and their trajectory shifted, but not enough. She had to level them out or they’d both die upon impact.
Then the Jyrak’s tail rose from the water and lashed toward them. Lilly couldn’t lift him higher, above it, and if she tried to drop below it, Axel’s weight might throw off any hope of her gliding them to safety.
“When you get close enough, let me go,” Axel yelled amid the wind rushing past them. “I’ll skid right off its tail, and you can pick me up again and redirect my momentum like you did to Calum.”
“It won’t—”
“If it doesn’t, then I’m dead anyway!” Axel shouted. “I trust you.”
When the tail got close enough, Lilly released Axel like he wanted. His body smacked hard against the tail, and his armor scraped the scales for a few seconds, then he dropped off the other side, no longer screaming.
Lilly spun under the tail and caught him by his ankle as he fell. She might as well have been trying to carry Magnus.
“Axel?” she called down to him, but she got no response. “Axel!”
He was either dead or unconscious. Either way, Lilly was on her own.
With all her strength and focus she pushed perpendicular to the shoreline, away from the Jyrak. The blue water jumped up to meet them. They were going to crash, and she couldn’t prevent it. She couldn’t pull Axel up.
When she let him go, Axel’s body flew parallel to the water for just a moment before it crashed into the surf. She angled up as hard as she could, but it was too late.
She hit the water and skipped along the surface until she finally slowed down enough to sink. Water smothered her senses, and then it consumed her completely.
Chapter Eleven
When he saw Lilly hit the water, Calum knew she was in trouble. He’d seen Axel fall from the Jyrak’s mouth—somehow—and then Lilly managed to get him away from it. Calum broke his swim back to shore and doubled back toward her.
She landed in the water about twenty feet to his left and then skidded another ten or so feet toward the shoreline. Thanks to his piece of the lifeboat, Calum made it to her within three seconds of her head disappearing under the water.
He reached down and flailed to find her, prepared to dive in if he couldn’t, but his hand found hers before she sank too deep. He grabbed ahold of her wrist and hauled her up and onto the piece of the lifeboat.
A huge form knifed past him in the water, and Calum caught a gleam of iridescent blue under the sunlight—Magnus. He was heading for Axel.
Calum positioned Lilly on the piece of the lifeboat, got in front of it, and pulled it as he swam toward the surface. He had to get her to shore before he could check on her. It didn’t take long for Magnus to catch up with him.
“Save yourself,” Magnus said as he hefted Axel onto the curved piece of wood alongside Lilly. “I will get Axel and Lilly to shore.”
Calum nodded and relinquished the makeshift life raft to him.
“Swim fast. It is still coming.” Magnus cruised forward, hauling Axel and Lilly behind him.
Sure enough, the Jyrak plowed through the surf toward them, still upright, and, if possible, angrier-looking than before.
Calum didn’t dawdle. He dove under the water and kicked his legs with fury until something propelled him up out of the water. The force of it sent him tumbling end-over-end in the surf.
When he finally resurfaced and cleared the water from his nostrils, Calum was facing the Jyrak, which towered over him. It pulled its hand out of the water no more than twenty yards from Calum and raised it to its chest.
Calum turned and dug his arms into the water. His legs launched him forward a few feet when he kicked, but he still wasn’t making much progress. Terror powered every one of his desperate strokes, and he gritted his teeth.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw the Jyrak’s hand plummeting toward him. He kicked harder and screamed.
The hand hit the water just behind Calum’s feet and created a swell that carried Calum toward the shoreline. When the swell finally died down, Calum’s boots scraped against the dirt at bottom of the lake. He sprang off the lake’s floor and continued to claw toward the shore.
Magnus met him there and took hold of his wrist like a father escorting a child, but Calum didn’t resist. Together they ran through the shallows.
Behind them the Jyrak roared, but it didn’t pursue them any farther. Instead, it turned away and receded into the depths of the lake once again.
Calum exhaled a sigh of relief until he noticed Axel and Lilly lying on the shoreline, motionless, surrounded by Jake and his friends. He ignored his waterlogged boots and armor and ran over to them with Magnus close behind.
When he got closer, he noticed a man on top of Lilly. “Hey!”
Jake stepped into his path and stopped Calum before he could bash the guy’s head in. “It’s alright, Calum. He’s helpin’.”
It looked like the man was trying to take advantage of her—sort of. His left palm rested on the back of his right hand, and the heel of his right hand pressed into the center of Lilly’s armored chest. He pumped on her chest five times, then leaned over and put his mouth on hers.
Calum sprang forward, but Jake reeled him back in.
“Let ’im work, Calum.” For as wiry as he was, Jake managed to anchor Calum’s arms in place. “He’s gonna save her life.”
“He’d better.” Calum’s tone surprised even him. It sounded like something Axel would say.
Lilly coughed and sputtered, and the man helped her onto her side. She hacked, and water trickled out of her mouth into the wet, gray sand below.
Calum’s heart fluttered
when her eyes met his. His relief at seeing the Jyrak descend back into the lake was nothing compared to this.
He twisted out of Jake’s grip, ran to Lilly, and skidded to a halt on his knees next to her. He wrapped her in his arms and whispered into her ear. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”
She half-laughed, half-coughed, and returned his embrace for a moment, then she pulled away from him. Her head swiveled, and in a raspy voice, she asked, “Where’s Axel?”
Calum blinked. He’d almost lost her, and she was asking about Axel?
Lilly’s gaze fell on Axel, who lay next to her. The same man who’d helped her now leaned over Axel and pumped his chest the same as he had for her.
She covered her mouth. “Oh, no…”
It seemed like hours elapsed as the man worked on Axel. With every passing moment, Calum worried more and more for his friend, and Lilly clutched his hand in hers.
Then Axel’s eyes finally opened. He coughed his lungs clear of lake water just as Lilly had, and he rolled onto his stomach with a moan.
Next to Calum, Lilly released her grip on his hand, sighed, and lay on her back. Just when Calum decided to get up, Lilly grabbed his hand again and smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Calum couldn’t restrain a smile of his own. He nodded and squeezed her hand in return.
Jake and Magnus stood over them. Magnus set the bag of food Lilly had rescued next to Calum and nodded toward the Jyrak, which had now fully disappeared into the Lake. “It does not appear the Jyrak means to follow us on land. After some rest, we should be safe to return to Sharkville.”
Calum nodded.
Axel moaned again. Lilly gave a weak giggle, then she sighed. They had made it.
They reached Sharkville within a few hours of walking, and by that evening they made it back to Trader’s Pass. It was there that Jake and his friends elected to part ways with Calum’s group.
“We’re headin’ for Kanarah City,” Jake had said. “My father had lots of friends in the fishin’ industry there. They’ll help me out with a new ship. We’re gonna rebuild our crew and start fishin’ again in the lake as soon as we can get the ship out there.
“Now that Brink is gone, the waters will be a lot safer, so thank you for that,” he continued. “You ever need anythin’, you let me know. We owe you our lives.”
Calum nodded. “None of us would be here if it weren’t for your father.”
Jake gave a solemn nod. “I regret his death, but I understand why he did it. Your words honor ’im. Thank you.”
Jake motioned toward one of the men standing behind him, and the man brought forward a sack bulging with food.
“I know it’s not much, but our journey’s far shorter than yours. Please take this.” He offered the bag to Calum, who took it. “It’s mostly dried or smoked fish. Nothin’ fancy, but it should keep you goin’.”
“Much appreciated,” Calum said. “Thank you, and stay safe out there.”
Calum extended his hand, and Jake shook it.
The two groups parted ways near where Calum and Lilly had killed the Dactyls and headed in opposite directions.
Several days and nights later, Calum, Axel, Lilly, and Magnus arrived at the western end of Trader’s Pass hungry but alive. With the additional food given to them by Jake and his friends, they’d run out of rations only two days earlier. Thus far, the worst part about it had been Axel’s complaining.
The moment they stepped into Western Kanarah, Lilly’s smile widened. “It’s good to be home.”
Calum glanced at Magnus, whose face showed only quiet anger. Unlike Lilly, Magnus didn’t seem happy to be back.
“So how do we find Riley?” Axel asked.
Calum turned to Magnus. “I’ve never been here before. Are we in the right place?”
“The dead tree is over there.” Magnus pointed to a tall leafless tree to the south. Its body had turned a weatherworn charcoal gray. “We will wait for Riley there, as we discussed.”
“If he doesn’t show up within a few hours, then we should move on.” Lilly scanned the skies. “We’re near Raven’s Brood territory.”
Axel sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I take it that’s a bad thing?”
Lilly nodded. “They’re Windgale insurgents. They want to overthrow the Premier of the Sky Realm and establish their own alternate government. If they catch us in an open space like this, we’re in trouble, so we shouldn’t stay long.”
They sat under the dead tree for an hour. In that time Calum took in the terrain around them. All in all, it didn’t seem too different from the eastern half of Kanarah: both had trees and forests, dirt and rocks, and mountains in the distance.
Yet something about the western half set him at ease, even in spite of the potential threat of the Raven’s Brood. Perhaps it was the lack of humans in this half—or more precisely, the lack of the King’s influence and his soldiers. With no one in the King’s employ chasing them, Calum felt free in an all-new way.
Lilly pointed along a road that headed southwest. “If you follow that road, you’ll end up at the base of Aeropolis, where I live.”
Calum nodded. “What about the one that heads north?”
“That leads to the Desert of the Forgotten, and then to the Blood Mountains and Reptilius, where Magnus is from.” Lilly nodded toward Magnus.
Magnus’s face hardened into a scowl.
“How far is it from here to Aeropolis?” Axel asked.
“I usually fly there, so I’m not sure how long it takes on foot. From the air it takes about a day at a steady pace, with a couple of stops for rest.” Lilly leaned forward, shifted her quiver onto her lap, then leaned back against the tree again. She brushed her fingers through the fletching on her arrows.
Magnus squinted at the tree line. “Perhaps Riley ran into the Raven’s Brood and had to take cover. That forest would be a good place to avoid them, and it is a type of terrain he is already familiar with.”
“Makes sense,” Axel said. “Maybe someone should go and—”
Lilly collided with him at nearly full speed and tackled him backward onto the ground.
Before Calum could question her action, a dark form slammed a sword into the earth where Axel had been sitting, then it zipped away just as fast.
Axel shoved Lilly away. “What in the—”
“Get down!” Magnus roared.
Calum dropped low and watched as three Windgales in dark armor flew at Magnus.
The first one lashed at Magnus with his sword, but the blow just bounced off Magnus’s scaly shoulder. Magnus grabbed the attacker’s ankle with his opposing hand and swung him at the second Windgale as if he weighed nothing. They smacked together and dropped to the dirt at Magnus’s feet.
The third swung his sword at Magnus’s head, but he ducked under the blow, latched onto the Windgale’s cape with his hand, and slammed him against the dead tree face-first. He too fell to the ground, motionless.
Calum jumped to his feet and drew his sword, along with Axel. Lilly nocked an arrow in her bow and stepped up beside them.
At least fifty Windgales, all clad in dark armor, landed all around them. A black bird outlined in red emblazoned their breastplates, and each of them wore a black-and-red cape with the same image embroidered on the back.
The Raven’s Brood.
Chapter Twelve
The last of the Raven’s Brood landed in front of Lilly, and she immediately recognized him as their leader, Condor. He wore charcoal armor with the same raven on his chest, only it was all black. Instead of red accents on his armor like that of the rest of the Raven’s Brood, they were black, and he wore no cape.
She remembered seeing him at the Sky Fortress several times before but hadn’t remembered how handsome he was—tall and trim with black hair and sharp cheekbones. A pronounced scar ran from the outer edge of his left eyebrow to the top of his cheek. If anything, the scar intensified his cunning blue eyes and gave him an ominous appearance.
Too bad he chose t
he betrayer’s path.
“Welcome to Western Kanarah. I am Condor, leader of the Raven’s Brood.” Condor focused on Lilly for a long moment, scrutinizing her and her armor. Then he placed his hands on his chest with his thumbs up, wrists crossed, and fingers extended over the wings of the raven on his breastplate, and he gave a slight nod.
“We’re just passing through.” Calum stepped forward without lowering his sword. “We don’t want any trouble.”
Condor smirked. His voice took on a casual tone. “Nor do we. But you’ve already harmed three of my men. And, unfortunately, that means there’s a price to be paid.”
“We just want to go our own way,” Calum said. “We have nothing to give you anyway, even if we wanted to.”
Condor nodded at Magnus. “That’s quite a bulge in that pouch hanging from the side of your belt. You’re certain you don’t have anything of value?”
Magnus drew his hulking broadsword from its sheath. “Nothing I intend to hand over to you.”
“Well then, it seems we’re in a predicament, aren’t we?” Condor eyed Lilly again, and another smirk formed on his lips. “I’ll take her.”
Axel pushed between Condor and Calum. “I’ll die before that happens.”
“What are you, a farm boy with a sword?” Condor chuckled and sighed. “Look, I’m happy to oblige you, but—”
Axel sprang forward and lashed his sword, but Condor took to the air the instant Axel began his advance.
Axel stared up at him, bewildered. “How is he flying without a cape?”
Magnus grabbed Axel’s shoulder and yanked him back toward the group. “He’s a Wisp. A promoted Windgale. He no longer needs a cape to fly.”
Axel twisted free from Magnus’s grip and glared at Condor, who hovered about ten feet off the ground with a grin on his face.
“He’s also faster than any of us,” Lilly said. “Significantly faster.”
“We’ll see about that.” Axel shifted his sword and stepped forward.
“No.” Magnus pulled him back again. “We must proceed with caution, not the reckless abandon you subscribe to. If you wish to get out of here, we must fight intelligently.”