by K J Taylor
His answer didn’t please her. She thrust her beak forward and peered suspiciously at him. ‘What did you have to deal with? Why did you not tell me you were going?’
Kullervo gave up. ‘I went to hide the heart,’ he said. ‘I had to keep it secret, in case someone tried to follow me.’
Senneck relaxed. ‘It is hidden, then?’
‘Yes. Nobody saw me, and I’ll never tell anyone where it is. Not even you.’
‘That is good,’ said Senneck. She nibbled affectionately at his neck feathers. ‘You are not so sad now. I am glad to see it.’
‘So am I,’ said Kullervo. He rubbed his face against hers. ‘I think it was the heart. I didn’t realise it was making me feel so bad until I got rid of it.’
Senneck hissed softly. ‘It is a vile thing. Perhaps that is why I felt uneasy here as well. That feeling is gone now.’
‘Yes.’ Kullervo’s yellow eyes were brighter than they had been. ‘We’re safe from it now.’
‘But not from Shar and her human,’ Senneck said shortly. ‘They have arrived. While you were gone.’
Kullervo tensed again. ‘I didn’t see anything on my way here.’
‘They have not come to the city,’ said Senneck. ‘The griffins have roosted in a place to the west, within sight but not close enough to attack. I think they are waiting for the humans to arrive.’
‘Why hasn’t Laela attacked them?’ asked Kullervo.
‘She would have, but they have sent a message,’ said Senneck. ‘Shar’s human wishes to speak with Laela.’
‘That’s good,’ said Kullervo. ‘Did Laela say yes?’
‘She did. That was today. They will meet tomorrow, outside the city. You and I must go as well.’
‘Oh,’ said Kullervo. ‘I’d better become human again, then.’
‘Yes,’ said Senneck. ‘Do it now, so that you will be strong again tomorrow. We must both be ready in case there is a fight.’
‘You’re right,’ Kullervo said sadly. ‘I wouldn’t trust us if I were Caedmon.’
‘We cannot trust him either,’ said Senneck. ‘Go, make the change. I will tell the Mighty Skandar that you have returned.’
Changing was harder than he had expected, perhaps because he had spent too much time as a griffin, or maybe just because he was already tired. In any case, he managed it after a struggle and finished up more or less human, and too worn out to get up.
He fell asleep on the hearth rug where he had transformed, and only woke up very briefly when Senneck returned and lay down beside him, warming him with her flank.
The meeting between Laela and Caedmon took place at the halfway point between Malvern and the rebel griffiner camp. It was out of range of the giant bows on Malvern’s walls, too far away for any of Caedmon’s followers to attack, and out in an open field so an ambush by anyone would be impossible.
Laela arrived with Skandar. Akhane and Zekh flew on her left side, and Senneck and Kullervo took up the right.
Caedmon was waiting for them when they arrived. Shar sat just behind him, and he had brought only two offsiders: a tough-looking middle-aged woman and her partner, a griffin who looked, if anything, even tougher.
When Laela first saw Caedmon, she could hardly believe he was the same man she had fought in Skenfrith. He was leaner and rougher looking, and though he was well groomed and wore an ordinary griffiner’s flying outfit, there were strange tattoos on his face and down his neck. And on top of the outfit he wore a large and slightly ragged griffin hide with the head hanging down behind him like a hood.
A light wooden pole had been stuck into the ground beside him, with a grubby white flag on it to mark the spot.
Laela climbed off Skandar’s back and took up a position opposite Caedmon. Kullervo and Akhane went to stand on either side of her like guards, with their partners standing behind them.
Laela didn’t waste time with formalities. ‘What do yeh want?’ she asked brusquely.
Caedmon inclined his head toward her. ‘Who are your friends? I don’t think I’ve seen them before.’
‘My husband, Prince Akhane of Amoran,’ said Laela. ‘An’ his partner Zekh. And this is my brother Kullervo, an’ his partner Senneck.’
‘Brother?’ Caedmon eyed Kullervo.
‘Half-brother,’ Kullervo put in. ‘My mother was Skade.’
Caedmon’s forehead wrinkled. ‘So the stories are true. You really do have wings.’
Kullervo lifted one. ‘Yes. Skade was a griffin.’
‘That’s enough,’ Laela interrupted. ‘Yeh haven’t answered me yet, Caedmon. What do yeh want?’
Caedmon returned his attention to her. ‘That’s simple. I want you to step down.’
Laela stared at him. ‘Yeh wanna run that by me again, cousin?’
‘Step down,’ Caedmon repeated. ‘Surrender the throne to me.’
‘Or?’ said Laela.
‘Or my followers and I will take Malvern by force, and kill you and everyone else in the Eyrie.’ Caedmon sounded quite calm.
‘Is that a threat?’ said Laela.
‘A promise,’ said Caedmon. ‘I’m offering you this chance for the sake of Malvern. Enough of my people have already died because of you. A peaceful transfer of power will be better for everyone. You would be allowed to go back to Amoran with your husband, and raise your child in peace.’
Laela made an exaggerated show of rubbing her chin thoughtfully. ‘Hm, lemme think about that.’ She took her hand away and sneered. ‘Sod off.’
‘Is that your answer?’ said Caedmon.
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Laela, ignoring the nervous looks on Kullervo’s and Akhane’s faces. ‘Yeh think yeh can come here wearin’ a dead griffin an’ tell me what t’do? An’ make threats like yeh had a chance of acting on any of ’em? Well, yeh can bugger off. That’s my answer.’
‘I told you: that wasn’t a threat,’ Caedmon said sharply. ‘I give you my word as a Taranisäii that if you don’t accept my offer, I’ll tear Malvern apart and kill you — pregnancy or no pregnancy. You didn’t spare my child’s life, and I won’t spare yours.’
‘You ain’t a Taranisäii no more,’ said Laela. ‘I cut yeh out of my family tree. You an’ yer sister an’ yer old hag of a mother. Attack Malvern if yeh want, but trust me: when yeh do, it’s gonna be your head on a spike, not mine. Now, get lost.’
‘Is that your final answer?’ Caedmon asked steadily.
‘Yeah, it is.’
‘Fine.’ Caedmon pulled the flagpole out of the ground. ‘Then we’ll do it your way, Shar.’
He stepped aside and Shar came forward. She looked as lean and ragged as her partner, and there were numerous scars on her hindquarters. ‘Mighty Skandar,’ she said.
Hearing his name, Skandar pushed Laela aside and went to confront the other griffin. Shar looked puny compared with the dark griffin, but she showed no fear. She stood tall, rearing up slightly on her hind legs so she could look him in the eye. ‘I challenge you,’ she said. ‘I challenge you for your territory. Fight me, Mighty Skandar.’
Skandar hissed. ‘This my territory!’
‘And soon it will be mine,’ said Shar. ‘Once I have killed you, I will win it.’
Skandar aimed a blow at her head. She dodged it and darted away from the meeting spot. Skandar went after her.
Laela watched him go with horror. ‘Skandar, no! Get back here!’ Skandar didn’t react to her voice at all. She swore. ‘Idiot!’
Caedmon ripped the flag off its pole. ‘There’s nothing you can do,’ he said. ‘They’ll fight to the death. Whoever wins will control the Unpartnered. It’s out of your hands now, half-breed.’
Laela spat at him. ‘You’ve just lost. Nobody’s ever beaten the Mighty Skandar, an’ nobody ever will.’
‘So they say,’ Caedmon shrugged. ‘But they said King Arenadd was unkillable, and you proved them wrong. Now, there was one other thing I wanted to do here … oh yes.’ He hefted the flagpole, and all of a sudden Laela realised th
at its ends were sharp and barbed. Too late. Caedmon hurled the spear, hard and accurate.
It hit Akhane in the throat. The Amorani gave a gurgling yell of surprise and fell to his knees.
‘You killed the one I loved in front of me,’ said Caedmon. ‘Now I’ve returned the favour. Goodbye.’
He retreated hastily with his silent offsider. She helped him onto her partner’s back behind her, and the griffin flew away, pursued by a screaming Zekh.
Kullervo and Senneck ran to Laela. She had thrown herself down by Akhane’s side and was trying to pull the spear out of his throat. Akhane’s eyes had rolled back in his head, and blood had begun to appear around his mouth. He clutched weakly at the spear, but his fingers were clumsy.
Laela wrenched at the spear. Instantly blood spurted around it.
Kullervo grabbed her arm. ‘Laela, stop! You’ll kill him!’
Laela didn’t seem to hear him. She pulled again and the spear came loose, leaving a ghastly wound behind. Blood poured out of it, staining the ground and Laela’s hands.
Akhane’s eyes slid closed. His dark skin had already turned pale.
‘No,’ said Laela. ‘No, no, no …!’ She took her husband’s limp hand in hers, and patted at his face, frantically trying to wake him up. ‘No — !’
‘Laela …’ Kullervo touched her cautiously on the shoulder. ‘Laela, he’s gone.’
Laela jerked slightly at his touch. Then she let go of Akhane and put her arms around her brother. Kullervo held on to her, feeling her sob into his chest. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.
Nearby, Senneck was backing toward them with her wings half open. ‘Kullervo!’ she said harshly. ‘We cannot stay here. Come, quickly.’
Kullervo nodded sharply. He stood up, easily lifting Laela into his arms. She clung onto him, not seeming to care if they might be in danger.
‘Can you carry both of us?’ Kullervo asked Senneck.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Come, now!’
Kullervo hurried back toward Malvern on foot clutching Laela, aware of how vulnerable they were. Senneck brought up the rear, running with an awkward sideways gait as she kept turning to look back and up. Kullervo heard her hiss in alarm, and broke into a sprint without waiting to see what had startled her.
Every moment he expected to be struck from behind, or to hear Senneck being attacked. Ahead, he could see Malvern’s walls getting closer. At the top, guards had loaded the giant bows and were taking aim. Kullervo hoped they knew how to use them.
As the walls came closer, he felt a sudden downdraft. He ducked hastily. Behind him, he half saw Senneck rear up and lash out with her talons.
Up on the wall, one of the bows swivelled on its base. The cord slammed forward.
An instant later, something huge crashed onto the ground off to Kullervo’s left. A griffin, screaming in agony, a huge arrow jammed through its ribs.
If any others had tried to chase him, he didn’t see them. A gate opened up in the wall and guards ran out to help. Kullervo let them take charge of Laela, and waited by the gate until Senneck had gone through before he ducked in after her.
Safe inside the city, Senneck let him onto her back and flew back to the Eyrie. There, she and Kullervo both stood silently on the balcony outside their quarters and looked out over the plain beyond Malvern. They could both see the distant shapes of two griffins locked in mortal combat, though from here it was hard to tell which was which.
‘Now our future will be decided by the Mighty Skandar,’ said Senneck. ‘As it was before. Without him and the Unpartnered, your father would never have taken this territory.’
‘I’m sure he’ll be all right,’ Kullervo said uncertainly. ‘I mean, he’s never lost a fight.’
‘That is true,’ said Senneck. ‘But he is older now, and I have heard rumours that he has been very ill.’
Kullervo went cold. ‘But … but he’s the dark griffin! He can’t lose. Everyone knows he’s the biggest and most powerful griffin in the world.’
‘After he killed his father Kraal, he was,’ Senneck admitted. ‘We will have to hope that his strength does not fail him today.’
‘It won’t,’ said Kullervo, not sure who he was trying to convince. ‘I’m sure it won’t. He’s going to win.’
Skandar chased Shar over the plain, completely unaware of Laela or anything else that happened that day. He was a predator. More than that, he was a warrior, built by nature to fight. The sight of prey was enough to distract him, but the sight of a rival made everything around him disappear. And Shar was a rival who had been taunting him for far too long.
Shar, however, didn’t seem interested in fighting. The red griffin ran away with great bounding strides, heading straight toward Malvern. It was the perfect way to provoke Skandar even further. He thundered after her, beak open, growing angrier with every step.
But it wasn’t just Shar making him angry. He was already angry, and had been that way for days. Not angry with her, or with anything else around him, but with himself.
His sickness had faded eventually, but it had left its mark. Pain burned inside him, in his stomach and further down, radiating into his limbs. It had been with him ever since his illness, and it would not let him sleep. He had been unable to eat or drink without pain, and walking and flying made it flare up as well. He had never been so unwell for this long before, and it had made him savage.
Closer to the walls of Malvern, Shar turned suddenly and leapt at him. Caught by surprise, Skandar lurched into her attack. Her talons came down on his shoulders, and her beak smashed into his head. She hooked it into the base of his neck, and as he wrenched away from her she twisted her head and tore open a deep wound.
Skandar jerked back toward her, and his own beak caught her in the shoulder. She managed to shy away before he could do any serious damage, leaving him snorting and shaking his head as blood ran down into his ears.
Shar reared onto her hind legs and brought her talons down on him with all her might. But Skandar was quicker than he looked. He sprang forward with a thrust of his back paws and hit her full in the belly. She thudded onto her flank, and he pinned her down, talons ripping into her vulnerable underside.
Shar’s back paws came up and kicked him in the face. Her claws glanced off his beak, but her front talons found their mark in the dark griffin’s side. They went in deep, and she ripped them downward in one ruthless blow.
Skandar screamed and backed away, blood streaming down his left foreleg. Shar took the opportunity to regain her paws, and struck him hard in the face with her beak.
Skandar screamed again. He backed away, lurching alarmingly to one side. Under his wing, a flap of flesh had come loose and hung down his side, showing a glint of white ribs. But his face was just as bad. Shar’s beak had torn it open down the side, and his eye had turned into an open wound.
Shuddering in pain, unable to see properly, Skandar made a sudden leap at her. He took her by surprise, and his talons ripped through her chest.
Shar darted away from him and leapt clumsily into the air. Skandar followed, rolling slightly to one side, and chased her up and over the city.
Now Shar stopped trying to attack. She only flew, looping and diving in the air over Malvern, and let Skandar waste his strength trying to catch her. She was faster and more agile in the sky than he was, even more so now that he was badly wounded and could barely see her. She led him toward the Eyrie and around it, and as they flew she began to screech out her name to taunt him.
It also brought the Unpartnered out. Griffins started to appear around the Eyrie and in the city. None of them tried to interfere, but many of them took to the air and circled overhead to watch more closely. All of them must have known what they were seeing.
Half blinded, trailing blood from his wounds, Skandar beat his wings harder and harder, trying with all his might to catch up with Shar. She circled around and let him come to her. Her talons opened.
Skandar came at her with his beak wide open. ‘Am Mighty S
kandar!’ he screeched.
Shar’s talons struck him across the face. His beak snapped shut around her left forepaw, and as he fell he tore one of her toes clean off. It fell out of his beak and tumbled down into the city, and Shar’s blood splattered over the dark griffin’s black head feathers.
But Shar’s blow had done its work. Stunned, dizzy from blood loss, Skandar started to lose control of his wings. He flew lower, struggling to stop himself from falling.
Shar did not give him that luxury. She came after him, despite her bleeding forepaw, and rained blow after blow down on him.
‘You are not mighty now!’ she screeched at him, again and again, for all the griffins in Malvern to hear. ‘You are not mighty! I am mighty! Shar! Shar is mighty!’
Skandar did not try to fight her any more. He could barely even fly. But he did fly, away from her, away from Malvern. Shar went after him, driving him away with mocking calls and cruel blows, and everywhere in the city other griffins rose up, screeching with her, chasing away what had once been the most powerful griffin of them all.
The Mighty Skandar, now no longer mighty.
He flew away from Malvern, heading northward, one eye blinded, leaving the territory he had ruled for more than twenty glorious years. The territory that belonged to Shar now.
Shar chased him until he was nearly out of sight, before she returned to Malvern. She flew over the city in a wide circle, and screeched out her message. ‘Who is the mightiest griffin?’
And the Unpartnered screeched back. ‘Shar! Shar! Mighty Shar!’
‘Then come with me!’ Shar called to them. ‘Come to me and my human, and together we will capture this city!’
The Unpartnered came to her, and when she flew back to Caedmon’s camp, they went too, abandoning Malvern.
But they would be back soon enough.
Laela saw it all from the Eyrie. Kullervo and Senneck stood beside her, and the three of them watched Skandar’s defeat in silence. After that they saw the Unpartnered leave, and all of them knew what it meant.
‘We’ve lost,’ Kullervo mumbled.
Laela’s eyes were red. ‘Shit.’ She said it in a flat kind of way, as if nothing could truly upset her any more. Quite possibly, it couldn’t.