Bounty Of Ash (The Phoenix Series Book 2)

by Sarah Rockwood

  He rose from his chair, pulling the sheet from the bed as he moved. He turned me from the glass and wrapped me in the clean white sheet, tucking away the horror of my body. I wept, and he held me gently, careful not to put too much pressure on my frame as his wings engulfed us.

  He whispered in my ear.

  "You will heal."

  I choked through my sobs.

  "I damn well better."

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  MEND THE FLESH - COMING SOON

  THE PHEONIX SERIES - BOOK THREE

  "Where are my blades?"

  Royal was sitting on low stool in the yellow sand of this desert hideaway. He rose stiffly to his feet.

  "Why are you out of bed, girl?"

  "Don't call me 'girl,' it's demeaning." I approached him. "Where are my blades?"

  Royal let out a sound of acquiescence.

  "I put it somewhere safe."

  We were standing almost toe to toe now, like two bedraggled vultures who were both were picked clean. Royal metaphorically and me physically. Okay, and emotionally.

  "You don't look so good, honey. You need to get back inside. The sun will tear you up with you so raw."

  "Take me to my blades."

  "Blade. I found one blade," he grunted. "And it's inside, so you might as well head back in there."

  I turned on my bony heel and shuffled back into the adobe dwelling. It had been two full days since I'd awoken in this home, raw and burnt down to the bone. How am I still alive, you ask? Well, apparently this what my people do. Every once in a while if we get very, very stressed we burst into flames. Our wings, our flesh, everything, burning down to bone and sinew, culminating in a giant blast of power. And God help whoever happens to be standing close by.

  I don't know what happened to those people. I was locked in a battle for my life when I started to burn. Mhyr, my boyfriend's crazy ex, had an arm wrapped around my throat and was trying to drain me of my power. Archer, my boyfriend, Mhyr's ex, you get the idea, and about five hundred minions were trying to save me. Unfortunately, Mhyr had surrounded us with an impenetrable dome of power so they couldn't get in. As Mhyr had pulled on my power, my body had started to freak out and this ability to regenerate, burst into flames, that I hadn't known about, took over. It scared the crap out of me. I was sure I was going to die. Archer was sure too. I could see him on the other side of the dome screaming my name, tears running down his face. So I had burst into flames and woken up here, alone.

  Well, not alone, Royal was here. Royal, another of my kind, not my father, even though he sure tried to act like it, was at my bedside. When I had finally given into the burning, and my power had blasted the dome free and shot out across the land, Royal had heard my call. I had thought I was the only one of my kind, so you can imagine my surprise when I woke up to a grizzled old man with big multi-coloured wings staring down at me. Picture Kris Kristofferson dressed as an angel for Halloween, that pretty much describes Royal.

  "Where is it?" I demanded.

  We were now inside, though in this case inside was a relative term. There were no doors in the doorways or glass in the windows; Royal's home was an adobe hut comprised of arched ceiling rooms that connected to each other by breezy passages. Despite the heat of the sun outside, inside was cool and shady. Night got pretty cold though, so the main rooms and sleeping areas had fire pits.

  "I put it in the kitchen," he said mildly as he crossed to the cooking area, his fading wings dragging ever so slightly on the floor. "Seemed the best place for something that sharp." On the kitchen counter was my untouched bowl of porridge. Royal glanced at it. "You need to eat."

  "I'm not hungry."

  "Yes, you are." He bent down to open a cabinet while he talked. "But it hurts your gut; I get it. But if you don't eat, you won't regenerate. And if you don't regenerate you can't go home to whoever gave you this."

  He placed the blade next to my cold porridge.

  It was the short sword Archer had given me long before my Banishment, the beautiful blade that had called to me in my weapons room in what seemed like a lifetime ago. I stepped up to the counter and moved to touch the hilt, then hesitated. My raw, sinewy fingers held inches above it. I was pretty sure that if I touched the blade, it would call to Archer. Archer. He was probably losing his mind looking for me. Or he assumed I was dead. And right now he'd be right. Sort of. I looked dead. I looked like I had been rotting in a coffin for months and then changed my mind and started walking around again. I was literally bone, sinew and the odd bit of flesh. I had no hair, no lips, half an eyelid on one eye and, although a thin layer of tissue had grown over my chest cavity, in the light you could see my lungs.

  I didn't want Archer to see me like this. I didn't want anyone to see me like this. I looked like a walking horror movie. I tolerated Royal's eyes on me because he'd been through this before and as much as it pissed me off, I needed help. My arms were too stiff to wrap myself up in the light sheets I wore; Royal did that. He also cleaned the last of the dead burnt flesh off my exposed spine and changed the damp sponge I'd had to wear over my eyes those first few days. I couldn't get better without him. I gingerly sat on a stool and began eating my cold porridge.

  "Please put that away." I swallowed. It hurt. I got another spoonful. "Thank you. For everything." A tear rolled from my naked eyeball, the salt stung as it travelled down my cheek.

  "It's my pleasure," Royal said softly. Then he picked up the sword. "I'll put this in your room." As he walked past, he placed a hand ever so lightly on my shoulder. "You'll get better real soon, honey." And then he left me to my porridge.

  - 2 -

  The days are long in the desert; especially when you have no books or television or Netflix. It doesn't seem to bother Travellers, but I grew up in the human world, and in the human world there's a lot of good tv. I tried talking to Royal, but he preferred to spend the day outside sunning himself on a rock, only coming in occasionally to cook me some porridge or go to the bathroom. The only time we actually spent together was at night.

  After dinner, when the sun was down, he would build fires in all the rooms and then we'd sit together in the living room. Him deep in a beanbag chair and me sitting painfully upright on a straight back chair that provided enough support for the skeletal remains on my wings. Tonight was the third night of this routine and I longed for conversation as I watched Royal stare at the flames.

  "Any adventures you'd like to share?" I asked.

  "Hmm?"

  "Adventures. You must have a few," I pressed.

  "Not really."

  "Right." This was going well. "Any bird-person wisdom you'd like to impart to me?"

  He turned from the flame and looked at me, the light
blue of his eyes seemed to spark in the light.

  "Bird-people? Is that what you think we are?"

  There was an edge to his voice that I hadn't heard before. I'd struck a nerve. Which was fine with me because sitting here in silence was making me crazy. If having an argument with him was the only way to get him to talk, then so be it.

  "I don't know what we are. Up until a few days ago, I thought I was the only bird-person around. I meet you and think 'fantastic, now I can learn who we are,' but you don't seem to want to tell me. So until I know different, I'm going with bird-people."

  "Bird is their word. Not ours."

  "Who are 'they’?"

  "Everyone else."

  "Okay." Ah, that familiar Traveller crypticness, how I'd missed you. "So what's our word?"

  "I'm Royal, and you're Phoenix. And that's all we need."

  "So we don't have a name for our species like the sirens or the minions do?"

  "Nope, don't need one."

  "Why not?"

  "Because up until a few days ago, honey, I was pretty sure I was the only one of whatever we are. And I was fine with Royal."

  "Really? You've never met another of our kind?"

  "Nope."

  "Then..." I paused, "then how did you know to come help me?"

  Royal sighed heavily and with a few flaps of his wings was standing. He moved towards the fire and added another log. I stayed silent, waiting.

  "Well, because that explosion of power you let off, and the scream that came with it, they felt just like it did when it happened to me. I was sitting outside on my rock and suddenly this ripping scream goes through me and every feather in my wings stands on end, and I got this image of you, this burnt out thing lying in the dirt, and my heart knew where you were and what had happened to you. So I Travelled to you. Brought you back here." He turned to me, a rough smile on his lips. "Don't go thanking me again. You've done enough of that." He went back to his seat. "And I know you'd do the same thing for me."

  "I would."

  "I know, honey, you're good people. Good bird-people." He winked.

  "Oh, please don't make me laugh." I tried to relax into the shaking of my ribs. "It hurts."

  "You're getting better though, a bit more meat on you today."

  "Yeah, a bit."

  We sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.

  "So how many times has this," I gestured at myself, "happened to you?"

  "Twice."

  "Seriously?" If I'd had eyebrows or even eyelids for that matter, they would have shot up. "You've been through this twice?"

  "Yep, a long time ago now."

  "How did it happen?"

  "Well, the first time was a bit sticky."

  I waited in the light of the fire. How many times had I sat round a fire with a fellow Traveller and learned their secrets? Sid had told me my life story by a fire like this. I heard about the tearing of my wings as red and gold flames danced in the reflection of his eyes.

  And then there were those hours with Benyst, sat there with stew and beer and quiet companionship. I wondered what they were both doing now. Sid had been freed from the City of Caves, I'd made sure of that. And Benyst had gone back to Noiryn, I'd made sure of that too. Sigh. Why did I have to hit on him? He had Noiryn, I had Archer, and yet when Benyst was on top of me, not on top of me on top of me, we'd fallen after Travelling, my body had made the move. Man, that mistake felt so long ago. In human terms it was only maybe a week ago. In Travellers’ terms? Well, they, sorry, we, seem to see everything on a single continuum. It gets a bit confusing.

  "I had decided to go exploring..." Royal had begun his tale. "I did a lot of exploring when I was younger. I couldn't stay in one place for too long, sure I had this place and I loved it here then as much as I do now, but I just needed to fill my eyes with new things. I'd just got back from some time in the Grand Canyon, exploring and riding the rapids, and the sandy landscape back here just seemed too familiar. So I jumped into the air and let Time take me. When I'd spun out of the Time Tunnel, I found myself flying over..."

  "Wait!" I interrupted. He glared at me. "Sorry, very sorry, it's just, well, we can fly through the Time Tunnels? And be in the air when we come out?"

  "Of course we can." He gave me a weird look. "How have you been doing it?"

  "Well, I just kind of get dragged along."

  He sighed.

  "Alright, when you're stronger, we'll work on that."

  "Thank you."

  "Now, if I may continue?"

  "Please."

  "So I was in the air after the Time Tunnel and I come out to see this massive mountain range below me. Everywhere I looked there were mountains, but green, not snowy white like you usually see. And the air was warm and moist, it was really easy to catch a headwind and glide. I did that for a while above the scene, just taking in the mountains. There were no humans around, which made exploring a bit easier, but I knew to always keep an eye out for the big animals."

  "Why? I thought they couldn't see us?"

  "Who told you that?"

  "A friend, they said they could sometimes feel our presence, but it's hard for them to see us."

  "Well, your friend is wrong. The bigger the animal, the better it can spot you. And the further back in time you go, the easier they can spot you. Take it from me, don't go trying to see the dinosaurs, you'll be attacked before you can get your feet on the ground. Look at this."

  He sat forward and pulled up his shirt exposing the right side of his body. There were three long ragged gashes, healed over and shiny, they stretched from his armpit down his body and around to his low back.

  "Holy crap!"

  "Yep, nearly ripped me in half. I managed to get out of there and back home before I bled out."

  "I didn't know we could be injured like that."

  "Of course we can!" Royal pulled his shirt down. "You cut a minion's head off, and you still think we can't be injured!" He laughed. "Bird, you've got a lot of learning to do."

  Yes, I'd cut off a minion's head. Ganaraj is what those who feared him called him, me, I called him Big G. He was a tyrant and sadist and generally terrible being and I'd killed him. At the time I thought he was responsible for the Bounty on my life, but he wasn't, he was just trying to capture me so he could claim the reward. I didn't feel bad about killing him. I'd thought long and hard about it those first few days I laid on my bed here in Royal's home. Ganaraj needed to die. So I killed him. I could live with that and still sleep at night. Which honestly scared me more than the actual killing.

  Even though I wasn't human, I still wanted to retain my humanity.

  "Right, I just thought when we were outside our world we were safe."

  "Phoenix, you've got a lot more to learn."

  "I know." I looked down at my sinewy fingers; they looked like shrivelled pepperoni in the firelight. I shuddered, sliding my hands into the folds of my robes. "Sorry, I'll stop interrupting. You were gliding over the mountains?"

  "Right." Royal had watched my little finger moment but said nothing. "I was gliding around and keeping an eye out for anything big. The coast looked clear, so I started to make my way to the ground.

  I was doing it in wide circles, only a few flaps here and there, just slowly floating my way down. The sun was behind me, and I could see my shadow on the ground. The outline of my wings, the shape of my body, it was kind of hypnotic, and I lost myself in the graceful swirl of me and my shadow.

  I was about halfway down when a dark shape flitted across the ground below me. At first I thought it was some big mammal down there waiting to pounce on me, so I widened my circle and stopped my descent. But as I circled, clouds closed in behind me, blocking the sun and destroying my shadow for a moment. When the clouds moved, I could make out my shadow below, but it wasn't alone. A little ways away was another shadow, a gigantic shadow, pacing me.

  The shadow that followed me was huge, the wingspan easily double my own and the body of the bird, it had to be a b
ird, twice my size. It was hunting me. I knew it in my bones. If I didn't get out of there quick I was going to be a meal for this monstrous thing.

  I had to get back to the portal. You do know about portals right?" He paused and looked at me.

  "Yes! Please, continue!" I said back in a hushed tone.

  "Had to ask. Right, we can fly through the tunnels and find portals in the air, but you still gotta find a portal in the first place. And the portal I needed was up much higher than where I was now. So I went into a dive hoping to draw the bird out and then lose it on the rise. I figured anything that big would have a pretty hard time making altitude quickly. So I took a deep breath and moved to dive.

  The bird was on to me though, and much closer than I had realised. I went into the dive and looked back over my shoulder to see if the bird was following. It was enormous. Just bloody huge, the body of the bird was taller than me and twice as wide. It had these thick stubby legs with giant clawed feet, and when I turned to look at it, it dropped into attack mode. It stretched its wings back and stuck out its talons. It was dropping fast, and it was ready to catch me.

  I had no time to think; I went on instinct. I pulled out of the decent and flapped my wings, I think I was trying to get out of the way of the bird, but I'd underestimated its wingspan. I moved left and was struck by the bird's wing. It was like being hit by a feather covered tree. It knocked the wind out of me, and I struggled to breathe as I dropped like a stone towards the ground.

  As I tumbled, I felt the great bird's talons pierce the flesh of my arm as it gripped my bicep. It let out a sharp cry, sure it had caught me. But we were too close to the ground for the great beast to stop itself and we crashed through the trees, tangled together. I have no idea how I managed to get my lungs working again, but I did and it brought the sense back to me. As we crashed through the trees I reached up with my free hand and drove my fist into the belly of the beast. I knew the punch alone wouldn't hurt the bird. So I grabbed onto the short feathers that covered its gut and pulled myself in closer. I heard a tearing sound as I did this and looked down to see the flesh of my caught arm splayed open. I ignored that as best I could and called on my power. A blast of white lightning shot from heart down my arm and into the bird.