The Shadow's Heart

by K J Taylor

  ‘What did she do?’ asked Caedmon, very quietly.

  ‘Broke his mind,’ said Saeddryn, grim but steady. ‘Crushed it so bad it killed him. Then she warned everyone that she’d do the same to them. When I was in the city people warned me it’d happen to me next, but I got into the Eyrie fine. I found the half-breed, an’ I was about to kill her, an’ then …’

  ‘Then what?’ said Caedmon.

  Saeddryn spread her hands. ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember anything that happened after that. I just remember pain, in my head, an’ after that I didn’t know what was goin’ on any more. People told me afterwards I jumped out the window an’ fell all the way down the tower. Luckily one of my new friends found me and snuck me out into the city. They did their best t’look after me, until yer friend came along. He cured me.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Thought on his feet,’ said Saeddryn. ‘He built a circle an’ made a ritual to the Night God. Called her up an’ prayed to her t’help me. She woke me up. After that I got us both out of Malvern an’ back here.’

  ‘How did he get hurt like that?’ said Myfina. ‘What happened to his face?’

  ‘I did it,’ said Saeddryn. ‘By accident. When I woke up I got confused an’ thought I was still fightin’. I cut his face without realising I’d done it.’

  ‘I hope he’ll be all right,’ Myfina said sadly.

  ‘Look,’ said Saeddryn, ‘what we need t’be thinkin’ about here is this. I tried my best t’do what ye asked me, Caedmon, but I failed. An’ as long as that griffin is there in Malvern, there’s no way I can do it. It’s only sheer luck I wasn’t caught. The only way we’re gonna kill the half-breed is if she goes somewhere away from her partner, but I don’t think she’s gonna do that. She ain’t stupid; she knows about me now, an’ she must know that griffin is her only protection from me. I’m sorry, Caedmon. But at least I got back here, an’ now I’m ready. So tell me: what are yer orders? What do ye want me t’do next?’

  Caedmon frowned. ‘This is going to be harder than I thought. And don’t worry: I’m not going to send you back there. The half-breed can fester in Malvern while she waits for us to come to her. But things aren’t as bad as they might seem to you. I’ve had some news from Fruitsheart. The Unpartnered are there; they went with Iorwerth to get us, but obviously we’d gone by then. After that they might have come on to here, but they haven’t. Instead they’re staying in Fruitsheart, and Iorwerth and Kaanee have gone back to Malvern without them.’

  Saeddryn’s eye narrowed. ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Caedmon. ‘But I’ve been told that they’re not doing anything in Fruitsheart; just flying around and eating all the food. My guess is they’ve rebelled. It was incredible that they agreed to leave Malvern in the first place; by the looks of it, they’ve changed their minds now. Maybe this Oeka isn’t as powerful as she seems.’

  ‘Obviously,’ Myfina put in, ‘without the Unpartnered, Malvern has lost the advantage. We can march on the city now, and the entire Council has agreed that if the Unpartnered aren’t there to defend the city, we should be able to take it without much trouble.’

  ‘What about Oeka?’ asked Saeddryn. ‘She’s the only real threat left in that case.’

  ‘She can’t kill all of us,’ said Caedmon. ‘Not an entire army of us. All it’ll take is for one person or griffin to get close enough, and she’s dead. No more threat.’

  ‘I say we do it, then,’ said Saeddryn. ‘Is everything ready?’

  ‘Almost,’ said Caedmon. ‘We’re recruiting as many as we can, and some reinforcements are coming over from Fruitsheart. We’re also trying to find a griffin with the power to break open the gates at Malvern. There should be one somewhere; Shar’s interrogating them now. We weren’t going to march until we knew what had happened to you, but that’s not a problem now.’

  ‘When can we leave, then?’ said Saeddryn.

  ‘In a couple of days, if everything goes to plan.’

  ‘Good. That should be soon enough. If that’s everything, I’m gonna go clean up.’

  Caedmon nodded. ‘You can go.’

  ‘I’m going to go and see how Heath is,’ said Myfina.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Caedmon.

  Laela and Skandar left Malvern the day after his arrival. More than anything else, Laela gloried in simply being able to leave the city after such a long time cooped up. She had grown more frustrated than she realised, forced to stay in her Eyrie while things happened out of her reach. Once she had thought that she would be able to leave when Oeka grew big enough to carry her, but now she knew that would never happen.

  But she gloried even more in having Skandar with her. She had flown on his back a few times in the past, but always with Arenadd there, and Skandar had only carried her under sufferance and because his human had insisted. Now he was carrying just her, willingly, and Laela was as close to being partnered with him as she ever would be. Just knowing that was a thrill. And knowing what they would be able to do together was even more exciting.

  Every time she thought of it, she wanted to laugh the same cold, bloody laugh her father had used the day she saw him slaughter an entire crew of Amorani pirates. He had not done that alone; he had done it with Skandar, and now it was Laela’s turn to take her father’s place by the giant griffin’s side. Now she would be the one to strike terror into her enemies, and with Skandar there even Saeddryn didn’t scare her any more. She revelled in the prospect.

  For now, though, there were the Unpartnered to deal with. Iorwerth and Kaanee had come, and a couple of fighting griffiners served as an escort — more for the look of the thing than for any other reason, since Laela didn’t believe anyone would need an escort when they had Skandar with them. Skandar ate his enemies, for gods’ sakes.

  Fruitsheart, predictably, was a mess. The Unpartnered had spread throughout the city, nesting on rooftops and claiming entire buildings for themselves, forcing the original occupants to put up with them or move. They were eating anything they found: stealing animals from the city, and venturing into the farmlands around it in search of bigger prey. The griffiners living in the Governor’s Tower had made some attempts to bring them under control, but with only a small Hatchery and few other places made for griffins to live in, the Unpartnered were everywhere. And they were done with taking orders.

  Laela, Skandar and the others landed at the tower, where they were told all this. Iorwerth, who had obviously heard it all before, looked grim, and Laela groaned.

  Skandar, however, only blinked and shifted his massive bulk slightly.

  Laela turned to him. ‘Skandar, what should we do?’

  Skandar turned his head toward her, and for a moment it looked like he was going to do what he usually did: stand there looking uninterested and wait for the nearest human to think for him.

  But then he spoke. ‘Easy to do. Unpartnered have stronger griffins in them, dominant griffin. I find them, make them bow heads to me. Then every griffin who bow to them, bow to me also.’

  Laela stared in surprise. ‘An’ where would those griffins be?’

  Skandar clicked his beak. ‘Tower is best place to nest. Higher is better. Strongest Unpartnered will be sleeping there. I go find them now.’

  He loped off. Laela shrugged and grinned at Iorwerth before following. She had to trot; Skandar was surprisingly fast for his size.

  The giant griffin seemed to know his way around, since he didn’t hesitate or wander at all, but went straight into the griffin nesting chamber on the tower’s top level that was supposed to be home to the governor’s partner. Now, though, just as Laela had been told, the proper owner had been driven out by one of the Unpartnered. When she entered she caught a brief glimpse of a great hulking creature dozing in a heap of straw, before Skandar made his move.

  Without even breaking stride Skandar pounced on the other griffin. Caught by surprise, it fell heavily onto its side. Skandar didn’t give it any opportunity to recover, but hu
rled himself on top of it like a dark-feathered avalanche. The other griffin, which was quite large though smaller than Skandar, fought back, and for several tense moments the two huge beasts grappled with each other, hissing and snarling.

  But Skandar was the strongest, and the fight did not last long before he had the other griffin cringing and bowing its head in submission.

  ‘You, griffin!’ he screeched. ‘What you do here? You not do what meant to!’

  ‘I am meant to do nothing!’ the other griffin retorted, apparently not completely cowed after all. ‘I have decided to live here, so I have taken this nest.’

  ‘You not have nest!’ said Skandar. ‘You Unpartnered. Have no human. Griffin with no human not have nest. Not allowed! You nest in Malvern, or in tree. Not in tower.’

  ‘I can do as I please!’ said the other griffin — Laela saw now that she was a female, but she had a hulking, thick-limbed build that made her look a bit like Skandar. ‘And besides that,’ the female went on, ‘who are you to tell me what to do? I do not see your human with you!’

  Skandar hit her in the head with his talons. ‘Am Mighty Skandar! Am master of this land, master of griffin. You do as I say, not what you want, or I tear off head!’

  ‘You are not mighty any more,’ said the female. ‘You have lost your human.’

  This time, Skandar hit her hard enough to draw blood. ‘Have human! Only human not here now. Have brought this one instead.’

  ‘You cannot do that,’ the female persisted. ‘A griffin can only have one human. It is the law — ’

  Skandar’s beak snapped shut on the joint of her wing. He pulled and began to shake it violently, wrenching it in its socket. The female screamed in pain, but he kept going mercilessly. ‘What say now?’ he screeched. ‘You say what I do now? You argue with no wing? Argue now?’

  ‘No!’ She tried to free herself, and Skandar stopped shaking the wing, though he didn’t let go.

  The female slumped, her flank trembling. ‘I will not argue any more. You are right. Please, do not hurt my wing … Mighty Skandar.’

  That seemed enough to satisfy him. He gave her wing one last agonising wrench, then let her go. ‘You strong,’ he admitted. ‘But not strong enough to fight Mighty Skandar.’

  The female wisely stayed lying on her side. Her wing remained outstretched, the joint wet with blood. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I am not strong enough, Father.’

  Skandar snorted. ‘Knew you come from Mighty Skandar egg. You big! But none of Skandar’s chicks are bigger than him. Now, you come. You bow head to me. Other Unpartnered do same.’

  ‘Yes, Father,’ said the female. ‘None of them will dare to fight you. I am the strongest of them, and they know it. I fought many of them for this nest. When they see that you have beaten me, they will remember their respect for you.’

  ‘Is good!’ said Skandar. ‘We leave before dark. Go fight enemy.’

  The female stood up and managed to loosely fold her wing. ‘Where shall we fight them?’

  Skandar grunted, and looked toward Laela.

  ‘Skenfrith,’ she said quickly. ‘They’re in Skenfrith.’

  The big female tossed her head. ‘You are the Mighty Skandar’s new human?’

  ‘Er … yeah,’ said Laela. ‘Yeah, I’m his human now.’ When Skandar didn’t disagree with her, she felt her chest swell a little with pride.

  ‘Then you are the lead human of the North?’

  Laela nodded. ‘I’m the Queen. Laela’s my name. What’s yours?’

  The female seemed bored already, but she paused long enough to reply. ‘I am Seeak.’

  Skandar had already made for the door. Seeak followed — limping slightly — and Laela went behind her. Iorwerth and Kaanee, who had waited back in the Governor’s Audience Chamber, rushed up the stairs to join them. Skandar, ignoring them, went straight up the ramp to the roof.

  There he went to stand at the very edge, overlooking the city. Kaanee came and stood beside him, a little further back, and Seeak took up a place on the opposite side. Laela and Iorwerth stood and watched, both knowing that neither of them had a part to play here. This was a griffin thing.

  Skandar braced himself and sent out a call. It was different from the usual griffin screech. It sounded like a mixture of eagle scream and lion roar, as every griffin’s cry did, but this was a territorial call, modulated to include words.

  ‘Mighty Skandar! Mighty Skandar! Mighty Skandaaaar!’

  He called again and again, announcing himself to the world and claiming Fruitsheart as his territory, where every other griffin must submit to him, or prepare to fight. It was a challenge, then, but Laela didn’t realise it until she saw several griffins flying toward the tower. At first she thought they were just coming to investigate, but as they landed she took one look at them and their demeanours and felt her heart begin to flutter. Big griffins. Rough, tough-looking griffins, mostly males, and all advancing aggressively toward Skandar. Beside him, Kaanee and Seeak quietly moved out of the way.

  Kaanee went straight to his human. ‘Come,’ he said. ‘We should not be in the way.’

  ‘They’re going to fight?’ asked Iorwerth.

  ‘Yes, and Skandar must defeat all of them to be master of the Unpartnered again. Laela, you should come with us.’

  Laela was more than happy to obey. Kaanee herded her and Iorwerth back into the opening they had first come through, and together the three of them took shelter there and waited.

  Laela couldn’t see past Kaanee’s wing, but she heard enough to make her cringe. Screeches and snapping beaks, and the thud and slap of massive bodies smacking into the ground and each other. Talons on stone — and once an ugly, wet, tearing sound that could only be a serious wound opening up. And, during a brief silence, she heard the worst sound of all: the low, wheezing, whimpering voice of a dying griffin.

  But a moment later the sounds of fighting resumed, and Laela breathed easily again.

  After a long, tense wait, Kaanee decided it was safe to emerge. Laela ran out with him, and found a nasty sight.

  Skandar was there, his sides heaving as he stood bleeding. The Unpartnered who had fought him were now only three; the rest must have flown away. Two lay on their bellies beneath Skandar’s talons, and a third was on his back a short distance away, breathing slowly and painfully as his life flowed out through an appalling wound in his throat. Seeak was still there, at a safe distance, having apparently stayed away from the fight.

  Skandar turned his head toward Laela. ‘Have fought well,’ he panted. ‘Have won. Am now leader of Unpartnered again. These here will tell them, and we leave today!’

  Laela bowed to him, with complete sincerity. ‘Yer everything the stories say yeh are an’ more, Skandar, an’ now I’ve seen it for myself. When this is over, I’ll make a statue of you, right in Malvern.’

  ‘We leave now,’ said Skandar, as if he hadn’t heard her. ‘Come now, on Skandar’s back.’

  ‘Are yeh sure?’ said Laela. ‘Don’t yeh need some healin’ or somethin’?’

  ‘No,’ Iorwerth interrupted. ‘Don’t ask questions, my Lady. The Unpartnered will come now or never. Do as Skandar says.’

  ‘Right.’ Laela went straight to Skandar, and climbed onto his shoulders as he bent down to let her on. He straightened up at once, and she quickly wrapped her hands around the harness he wore and held on tight.

  Skandar walked to the edge of the tower again. The two defeated griffins had already flown off, and he waited a short while to let them fly over the city and call their message. Then he added his own voice to theirs, making his territorial cry as he had done before. This time, nobody challenged him.

  Laela watched, astonished, as griffins rose into the air. Everywhere the city disgorged them — from the walls, the houses, the civic buildings and even the lakeshore beyond the walls. Skandar continued to call them, and more came, adding themselves to a great flock now forming over the city.

  When the flood of emerging griffins had slo
wed, and most of the Unpartnered were on the wing, Skandar took off from the tower. Kaanee and Seeak followed closely behind him, riding on his slipstream, and the Unpartnered left the city under the leadership of the only griffin in the country who could ever be powerful enough to be their master.

  They flew straight for Skenfrith, and Laela flew with them. And now she finally did give in to the urge she had had, and laughed with the same savage glee her father would have done, seeing bloodshed ahead and delighting in it. All her frustration and anger had been building up to this, and there would be no more waiting, no more negotiating, no more trying to be clever. She would show them she was a true Taranisäii.

  In other words, she wouldn’t spare a single one of them.

  FOUR

  UNLEASHED

  Heath was dangerously ill.

  Just as Caedmon had guessed, the infected wound on his face had spread poison into his blood, and the doctors now taking care of him said there was a chance he might not survive. For once Heath had nothing to say; he stayed in his sickbed, delirious with fever, his face bandaged after the doctors had reopened the wound to drain it.

  Myfina was the very image of concern, and in between her duties she spent a lot of time by his side, trying to comfort him when he became distressed and started to ramble in his half-conscious state. Caedmon visited too when he could, but he knew there was nothing to do, and despite all he had done for them Heath was only one man. No matter how much Caedmon cared about him, he had too much else to do in those days.

  He was glad to have Saeddryn back at his side. She was a great help, inspiring his followers and using all her old fighting experience to help refine the plan for the assault on Malvern. Shar was another great ally, of course, and it was she who had found the griffin they needed: a deceptively slight male, one of the few unpartnered griffins living in Skenfrith, who had the power to break down Malvern’s gates. She had made him give a demonstration to her and Caedmon, and it had satisfied them both. They had promised him whatever reward he wanted in return. The griffin had replied that he wanted the best human partner available, and nobody was unhappy with that.