Talon (The Astor Chronicles Book 1)

by Greenslade, Amanda

  Sarlice washed clothes in the river while I put together the evening meal.

  ‘It’s tasty,’ Sarlice said. ‘Your cooking is a real treat compared to my usual travel fare.’

  My heart warmed at her compliment. There had been special nuts and herbs from my supplies, but I hadn’t been sure she would appreciate the flavours.

  The tigers had brought down a warthog together and shared their kill, promising to leave us a small portion of meat for our breakfast.

  Partially sated, Rekala curled up behind me, proffering her side as a giant pillow. I leaned against her feeling more relaxed than I had in weeks. My muscles ached slightly from all the recent use but it felt good to stretch my bare feet out in the heat of the flames.

  I smiled faintly at my current situation and mused on how things were changing. The fellowship of an impressive Radan woman, a talking earring and two fine tigers was a far cry from the many years spent roaming the forest alone. What, indeed, was the Lightmaker up to?

  ‘Do you think we’ll be welcome in Tanza?’ Sarlice asked.

  ‘I hope so. In my father’s time Jaria served the king of Telby, which involved them in the exile of both Reltland and Tanza. But in peaceful times, following the Realm Wars, Jaria’s Rada-kin have occasionally communicated with some of Tanza’s Rada-kin.’

  ‘The leaders of Jaria must be confident in their relationship with Tanza or they wouldn’t send all new Anzaii there.’

  ‘True,’ I replied. ‘I believe that had something to do with the skyearl emperor, Ciera. Have you heard of him?’

  ‘Yes,’ my guide responded. ‘He’s said to be hundreds of years old because he has no kin. Skyearls don’t age past their prime until their Sleffion-kin has bonded with them.’

  ‘I heard he is bigger than a house,’ I said. ‘I can’t imagine an animal that big, let alone a flying one.’

  ‘Nor I, but do tell me what Ciera had to do with the practice of sending new Anzaii to Tanza. We do that in Lyth as well, but I don’t recall all of the history behind it.’

  ‘Ten or twelve years ago, an aging Anzaii Rada left Jaria and made the pilgrimage to Tanza. Once there, she discovered a skyearl who was meant for her and so her rank became Anzaii, Sleffion, Rada. Years of potential had been lost and the Jarian died of old age a year later, taking her new skyearl Sleffion-kin with her.

  ‘After that the Emperor Ciera sent word to every Kriite nation inviting all to journey to Tanza and discover if they were destined by the Lightmaker to become Sleffions. He emphasised the importance of Anzaii making the journey for the benefit of all Kriites. We all know an Anzaii is only as powerful as his or her experience with different waves and kin.

  ‘Even the Kriites living in big cities like Telby and Jesath heard from him—he sent word on the waves and by scroll to every place of worship and every gathering place for Kriites.’

  ‘I remember being told about that now,’ Sarlice mused. ‘I was thirteen and my own problems had seemed so overwhelming at the time that I didn’t pay much attention. Some of the adults claimed Tanza was overstepping its bounds and trying to become some kind of Kriite overlords. It was feared many wouldn’t return to a mundane existence in Lyth or Telby City after witnessing the magical kingdom of Tanza.’

  ‘The thinking in Jaria was much the same,’ I replied. ‘That’s why it only became common for Anzaii to be sent on the pilgrimage. Others were neither encouraged nor discouraged from doing so, but the distance, danger and expense associated with the journey was enough to deter most.’

  ‘Jaria risks much by sending you away,’ Sarlice said, ‘but I think the leaders realise there’s a serious Zeika threat now, not only to them, but to all Kriites.’

  I glanced at her.

  ‘They can no longer sit back,’ she added. ‘Peace time is over. War is coming.’

  Chapter Twelve—The Darkening of the Sky

  A thunderous roar echoed across the plains.

  ‘Wake up, Talon!’ Sarlice shouted.

  I groaned and rubbed my eyes. ‘What?’

  Sarlice pointed to the horizon. It was still dark, but the first rays of light from the day-star sprayed through a rising cloud of dust. I placed one hand on the sandy ground and felt the frenzied tremors of a stampede. I shook myself awake and carried my saddle and bridle to the gelding, leaving everything else behind in the tent. The buckles of the tack were cold and stiff and the horses fidgeted as we tried to saddle them—heads flung up, ears erect and nostrils flaring. Sarlice was mounted up first.

  The stampede was gaining and I spotted the two tigers trying to herd them away from us. I swung aboard my gelding, and he lurched into motion, just as eager to escape the stampede as I was. Scrabbling with loose reins, I managed to pull him up beside the river. I turned back and, to my surprise, there was a pale, frightened girl running towards me.

  The camels raced for a gap in the trees beside the river, straight towards the girl. Sarlice cursed loudly and readied her Tolite-kin, the large black warbow named Henter. The camels closed, tall and lanky, but with bodies as round and hard as barrels. In the dusty blackness behind them I thought I glimpsed something even blacker bearing up through the sky, but the girl’s plight drew my attention away from it. Her eyes pierced me with such intense need that I felt my body respond with readiness.

  I slackened the reins and shouted to urge the gelding on. He launched into a canter from a standstill and bolted right into the path of the camels.

  For a moment we were amid the mass of stampeding creatures. They jostled and shoved us so hard I nearly lost my balance, but I grabbed a chunk of the gelding’s mane to steady myself.

  As we passed the girl I held out my arm and tried to pull her up behind me. She ended up in front of me on the gelding’s withers, clinging to me in terror. The gelding darted to and fro through the grunting beasts, bucking once to dislodge us, but I clung to him with leg muscles that were strong from mountaineering.

  A particularly large camel charged after us, baring its tusks and growling loudly. The waif watched it over my shoulder and shouted something in my ear. Blinding dust rose and the camel rumbled angrily. The thudding of its steps became louder then suddenly it stopped.

  Turning back, I saw a long arrow shaft sticking out of the back of its head. Another camel nearby jumped out of the way of the falling beast and knocked us off the gelding. We landed in a jumble of limbs, bruising our hands, elbows and knees. The gelding threw his back feet into the air and galloped off like Zei himself was on his tail.

  I huddled over the girl, expecting to be crushed at any moment. More camels rushed past us, the wind of their passage blowing dust into our eyes. The girl was staring at me through the dust, somehow disconnected from the danger assaulting us. The perfection of her features and form captivated me. As the last of the thundering faded away, I was drawn into the girl’s large, mystical eyes, which swirled with watery greens and greys. Her skin was pale and pure as goat’s milk.

  The thundering faded and the dust gradually settled—everything seemed quiet and still after the pandemonium had passed and the girl shivered against me.

  ‘We’re safe now,’ I said breathlessly.

  ‘Are you unscathed, Talon? Are you hale?’ Rekala was shouting in my mind. I realised she’d been calling me for some time, but I’d been too distracted to receive her wave.

  Rekala rushed over, nudged and patted me like I was her cub.

  ‘What happened?’ I demanded. ‘We could have been killed.’

  ‘It wasn’t us that started the stampede,’ Rekala told me defensively.

  I recalled the black shape I thought I had seen in the dusty sky. With Zeikas in the area perhaps it had been one of their ghastly, conjured dragons. I decided not to voice my concern for fear of alarming the girl.

  Sarlice cantered over to us, slid off her horse and helped us to our feet. ‘Are you hurt?’

  ‘Nay,’ I replied.

  ‘My thanks to you,’ the girl said, never taking her eyes off
me.

  ‘Where did you come from?’ Sarlice asked gently.

  The girl seemed bewildered at the question, then gradually sense came into her eyes.

  ‘I was with my family when the wolf pack came,’ she said. ‘They slew and devoured everyone and they would have slain me too if it weren’t for my horse. I’ve been wandering the desert for days. Then those camels came in the night and frightened my horse away.’

  ‘What’s your name?’ I asked.

  ‘Lira,’ she replied, breathless.

  ‘We could turn back,’ Sarlice suggested. ‘Take you back to Tasset where we just came from.’

  ‘We were bound for Jesath,’ Lira said in a daze. ‘My uncle lives there.’

  Still embracing her slight form, I felt a surge of protectiveness. With one glance at Sarlice, I knew she was thinking the same thing I was—Lira could travel with us. Although it would put a strain on our supplies, we were resourceful enough to get by. Kestric’s thoughts confirmed that Sarlice was agreeable.

  ‘We are going in that direction, too,’ I said. ‘Would you like to go with us?’

  She looked frightened for a moment, peering from Sarlice’s face to mine. She couldn’t be more than seventeen years old.

  ‘Who are you?’ she wondered. ‘Appearing like spirits out of nowhere.’

  ‘We are Kriites,’ Sarlice replied. ‘My name is Sarlice and I’m an Ambassador for Lyth and also a Tolite, Rada.’

  ‘And I’m Ambassador Talon,’ I said, enjoying the use of my new title. ‘Anzaii, Rada.’

  She blinked and nodded slowly.

  ‘How much will your services cost me?’ she asked incredulously.

  I spread my hands apart. ‘Nothing. Unless there’s a hidden bag of gold in that dress of yours.’

  A small smile lit up her face.

  ‘Nay, but I will find some way to repay your kindness,’ she said.

  Lira’s horse was gone but, we located her packs a league away. It would burden our horses a lot more to be carrying Lira and her packs, but Sarlice and I agreed we could sacrifice some speed in order to help out the poor girl.

  We spent the rest of the day skinning the camel that Sarlice had slain, smoking meat over the fire inside a makeshift tent with a wooden hanging frame I knocked together, and packing it in salt. Sarlice gave one of the tusks to me, kept the other for herself, and relinquished the carcass to the Rada-kin.

  I slept outside the tent with the tigers so Sarlice and Lira could have more space. I could hear their somewhat awkward conversation as I drifted off to sleep. A warrior woman from Lyth and a noble girl from the city had little in common, I supposed.

  Instead of taking animal form, I rode with Lira for our first day of travel. Each time we stopped I could see the fear in her eyes as she dismounted. I tried to reassure her that our Rada-kin would keep us safe, but she remained sensitive to any noise. The tracks in the dust beneath her eyes told me she still grieved for her family, so I did what I could to make her more comfortable.

  Before the daylight faded, we stopped to set up camp in a copse of trees not far from the river. The sandy ground was covered with grassvines and small, grey rocks, some of which the tigers upturned to catch the lizards hiding beneath them. The day-star was setting to the east, casting a mauve glow over the desert hills and lighting the underside of the few clouds that draped the sky.

  Lira sat with her back against a tree, while I strung up our shelter in a three-sided design between the trees, got a fire going, and prepared the evening meal. Sarlice brushed and fed the horses, collected water, unpacked her bedroll for Lira and created a makeshift one from blankets and clothing for herself.

  ‘Would you like me to set up your bed, Talon?’ she asked.

  I finished licking my fingers and wiped them on my tunic. ‘All is well, I’ll do it later. Come over here and tell me if this curry is edible.’

  I offered her the wooden ladle and watched with anticipation as she tried the food. Her eyebrows shot up.

  ‘Talon, that’s delicious. How do you do it?’

  ‘Ha ha. You’ve been away from civilisation too long,’ I replied. ‘Living on travel rations is not fun.’

  ‘Living on your travel rations is something else,’ she said. ‘Lira, you’re from a noble family. Tell Talon he’s as fine a cook as any.’

  Lira smiled coyly at my guide and ran her fingers daintily through her black hair. In the waning light the girl’s green eyes seemed filled with shadows, but as she came closer to the fire the light danced in them. She accepted the ladle from Sarlice and scraped a bit of sauce off with her finger, sliding it slowly into her mouth.

  ‘It is a fine curry,’ she agreed. ‘Is that garlic and ginger I can taste?’

  ‘Very good,’ I responded, accepting the ladle back and stirring the contents of the pot.

  Sarlice chortled in the background and patted her stomach. ‘I’m hungry now, which is a little bit unusual for me. All these years of simple food have left me with a neglected appetite.’

  ‘How long has it been since you first left home?’ I asked, stirring the curry to prevent it from scorching on the bottom.

  ‘I went to Watercrag almost four years ago,’ she replied. ‘Two years later I returned to Lyth for nine months then set out again as Lyth’s ambassador.’

  Lira crouched beside me on a rock with her back to the Lythian ambassador.

  ‘What have your experiences as an ambassador been like?’ I asked. ‘Perhaps I can learn a thing or two from you.’

  ‘I journeyed to Duuryn City and the Barh Oasis seeking to form an alliance against our enemies, namely Reltland and Telby,’ she began.

  ‘Isn’t Lyth a part of Telby?’ I asked.

  Sarlice clenched her teeth and glared at the fire for a moment. ‘On any map you find in Telby, yes, Lyth is incorporated within its bounds, however we never acceded to their territorial demands, nor have we submitted to the maquis sent by King Flale. On our maps Telby ends at the Sister River.’

  ‘So how did you go with the alliances?’

  ‘The people of Duuryn and Barh took some convincing, not because they lack hatred for Reltland and Telby, but because Lyth is so small and its warriors are so few.’

  ‘It’s a wonder Duuryn even admitted you to their court,’ Lira commented.

  We both stared at her for a moment, before I gestured for Sarlice to go on.

  ‘Eventually Duuryn accepted our trade agreement and a treaty of protection for travellers,’ Sarlice said. ‘They deemed it wise to ally with us, due to our proximity to their old enemy, Irin, a neighbour to both of us. I continued on to the Barh Oasis, where I sought an alliance with the exotic nomads of the desert.’

  ‘The savages,’ Lira said. ‘I heard nobody has been able to talk sense with them in decades.’

  ‘Well, I seem to have managed it,’ Sarlice replied, raising her eyebrow at Lira.

  ‘The king of Telby would have them wiped out if it weren’t for sympathisers in Ubu,’ Lira said. ‘There is little of value in that desert save some unique spices and a type of camel that can outstrip most other breeds. Certain merchants in Ubu have a degree of influence over my… over my king.’

  ‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ Sarlice remarked. ‘Who are you, exactly?’

  I shot a look at Sarlice, surprised by the sharpness of the question.

  Lira turned to face her, a subtle frown on her brow. ‘I’m from a noble family that worked for its wealth for three generations.

  My father’s speciality was diplomatic advice to other nobles. My grandfather was an adviser to King Aabyn of Telby.’

  ‘He might have known my father, Mandus,’ I commented.

  ‘And your uncle lives in Jesath?’ Sarlice pressed.

  ‘Yes, our ancestors come from there,’ she replied. ‘My father, mother, brothers, sisters and I were on our way to Jesath to escape social pressure from more ancient noble families when the wolves struck. I am now the sole surviving heir.’

 
‘You said “my king” before. Do you consider yourself Telbion or Jesathian?’

  ‘I was born in Telby,’ Lira said. ‘So I guess I have the benefit of claiming both realms as my own.’

  ‘What is your family name?’ Sarlice asked. ‘Perhaps I will have heard of it.’

  ‘Doubtful,’ Lira replied looking Sarlice up and down. Perhaps to reduce the potential for interpreting her remark as snobbery she added, ‘As I said, we are relatively new to noble circles.’

  Sarlice kept looking at her, waiting for an answer.

  ‘Very well,’ the girl huffed, ‘but please don’t tell anyone my identity without my leave. The situation for the Demaeda family is delicate.’

  ‘Demaeda….’ Sarlice repeated, casting her eyes upwards in thought. ‘Never heard of them.’

  ‘I didn’t think you would have.’

  Sarlice shrugged and turned away.

  ‘Your feast is ready, ladies,’ I announced, scooping curry out of the pot and serving it in wooden bowls. We only had two, so I handed one each to the girls and ate my own dinner straight out of the cooking pot.

  ‘What about the nomads,’ I asked Sarlice between mouthfuls. ‘How did you—’

  ‘They are different from other people,’ she answered brusquely, ‘but not as different from Lyth and Jaria as you might imagine.’

  ‘They don’t speak Telbion?’

  ‘Nay, it is a unique language born in the chaos that followed the Crash of the Waves. But I found ways to communicate with them, for which they respected me. We came to agree that Barh and Lyth should be allies, although it is not their custom to write things down.’

  ‘You really believe in that old tale about the Crashing of the Waves?’ Lira mumbled. ‘My mother told me it was just a myth.’

  ‘We believe it as surely as we believe the Lightmaker created Chryne in an unmarred state,’ Sarlice replied.