Defiance: Dragonics & Runics Part I

by A. Wrighton

Gage pushed open the curtain and surveyed the palpable scene. He had never seen the room so tense or silent. Paine was apart from the table, away from his chair, completely silent. Gage’s eyes locked onto Vylain’s.

  Vylain nodded.

  Gage’s stomach fell. The silence made sense to him. Gage mumbled an apology and slid into a seat. It was then that Alaister moved, though not to his normal spot in the room. He paced about, his thumb and forefingers stroking his lips and chin. He had to keep moving to calm his blood – he had to channel whatever bit of his father he had in him or else explode, as his mother would have done.

  He inhaled and exhaled twice before facing them. “Whose idea?”

  “Mine,” Vylain said with a straight back.

  “Kalyna said it was hers.”

  “I agreed to it and made the terms. It was my call.”

  “And the others bear no responsibility for their insubordination?”

  “No, Alais—Commander. I eagerly accepted to help Vylain,” Gage said. “She needed the help, sir.”

  “Gage? You too? And you, Lanthar? One of my most trusted and reliable officers… You also thought it was a good idea?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Callon’s mouth dropped at Lanthar’s break in steadfast rule following.

  “Sweet Udlast, I’ve gone and corrupted him!”

  “Enough, Callon.”

  Lanthar leaned forward and called for silence with his stare. “Sir, if I might….”

  “No, Lanthar,” Vylain said, “I’ll explain. It was my doing in the first place.”

  Lanthar nodded.

  Vylain swallowed before standing proudly with square shoulders and tilted chin. “I’d been helping her learn about the Dragons for a while, as you knew, sir. But when she saw them duevaling in the canyon, she realized she would have to fight them alone. We have our Dragons and she has nothing. She wanted to know how to fight them – what she could expect – so I taught her. She has a right to know. She needs to know. I do not regret my actions and I accept any punishment.”

  Alaister’s brow tightened.

  “Commander, we have to understand… we have to realize that what might have worked in the past with the Runics is different now. There isn’t a group of them fighting other Runics. It is one Runic against hundreds of Dragonics and their Beasts. She doesn’t stand a chance without this training.”

  “Hate to say it Al, but they’re on to something… which is why I’ve been training Kaly a bit unorthodoxly in swords.”

  “What?”

  “She can’t fight worth a damn, Al. But, she can fight with what she was born to fight with – her powers. She’s amazing and deadly. A swordsman doesn’t stand a chance.” Callon caught Alaister’s wounded shock and shook his head. “Sorry Al, but it had to be done. Things are different… with her.”

  Alaister paced the length of the table nearly missing a collision with Synge, as he snuck into the room from his eavesdropping perch outside the cavern entrance. The Old Man nodded thoughtfully and sat beside Vylain. Synge rested a hand on Vylain’s shoulder and squeezed. After a long moment, Synge exhaled and cleared his throat. “Commander Paine, may I—”

  Alaister shook his head and waved Synge back to his seat. “You undermined my authority – all of you. You disobeyed a direct order and betrayed my trust. I have half a mind to inflict a thrashing on all of you and set an example for the entire Order.”

  The room winced. Punishment in the Order had always been overtly severe and definitive. It had only needed to be used once to set an example that had endured a generation.

  “You are my officers for a reason. I trust you. You should’ve come to me.”

  “Would you have listened?” Vylain asked, half unaware he had spoken aloud.

  Alaister’s fist hit the table mid-pace. “At the very least.” His face looked eerily calm. In mass, his officers had acted for a cause supplemental to their orders. They had done it for the greater good, or so they hoped. It was over a matter he too was conflicted. Alaister couldn’t help but wonder if his Father had been in charge and he with his men – would he have disobeyed with them? His gut wrenched with an answer.

  “What are your orders, sir?” Gage asked.

  “Extra duty for the lot. No furlough for a cycle. And for Watcher’s sake, if I ever hear of any of you disobeying orders again – I will send you to the cliffs for a public thrashing.”

  “Sir!” The officers echoed with a salute.

  Synge bowed his head with a slow turn and saluted as well.

  “Gage – Report,” Alaister said.

  “The Council is out in force stopping at any house with any form of lanterns displayed – even when they aren’t ours. It’s bad. We’ll have to think of something else to grab them or risk being caught. And then, damage control needs to be considered.”

  “Gavasti.”

  “They’re scared of her – they know she’s alive,” Synge said distantly.

  “How?”

  “When people are scared they’ll tell anyone who can offer protection anything they want to hear. You’ve seen the posters,” Synge said. His voice shook with anger. “They’ve made spies out of neighbors. What are the chances that someone saw three strangers, looking suspiciously like Dragonics, disappear with a young woman unlike any Creitalli and then reported it to a Council Guard?”

  “I’d say good,” Callon scoffed.

  Alaister swallowed his doubt and gave in to his gut instinct. “Kal needs to remain unexposed. She will continue to train with the Beasts, but it must be done at the canyon base before sunrise with a mounted patrol standing guard.”

  “Yes, sir.” Vylain answered. He fought to control his triumphant smile.

  “I know not what else—”

  The knock outside the curtains was soft and odd. No one had ever knocked before. Alaister nodded to Gage who rose and opened the curtain. There stood Brother Feynt, rubbing his hands red and raw.

  “Brother Feynt?” Vylain asked, offering him his chair.

  Feynt shook his head in dismissal. “I request an audience with you, Commander, and your officers.”

  “Granted.”

  “I respectfully request that you allow Kalyna to try to find the Ruins of Solasti Palace. It is the place where all of the scrolls regarding any sort of powerful fighting spells are. We left them there, you see…. We didn’t think anyone would need them, let alone go looking for them. Not there at least.”

  “Did Kal…”

  “No, Commander. She doesn’t know I am asking, but I must. She needs to defend herself. She needs to know the limits of what she can do.” Feynt paused and looked at the room. The men were unusually tense from what he normally saw of them and Alaister remained standing at the head of the table. He winced with the realization he had interrupted something imperative. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb.”

  “You’re not, Brother,” Lanthar said coolly.

  Alaister nodded and took his seat. “Please, Brother. You are free to speak your mind here.”

  Feynt nodded and straightened his robes before continuing with his plea. “Commander, Solasti holds the key to the height of Runics in battle and their powers. That is where she must go to learn. Whatever is left there is more than anything we have here. That is what you must do to prepare her. She needs to have a better chance than my wife and—”

  “Your wife?” Synge asked.

  “I was joined once, it is true. Before I entered the Monastery, I was a loving husband to the most brilliantly stunning woman. A Runic, only a Dual, but I loved her like the sun loves the sky. She’d never even learned any spells that caused harm. She couldn’t hurt a fly, let alone repel a bee. She just knew how to do simple things with her powers. She used to make our wind chimes sing with her to the baby…” Feynt paused and wiped at his eyes with large balled hands. He cleared his throat and exhaled.

  “When they took her, I was at the market. She had no way to protect herself. They strangled my child and then
took my wife. They raped and beat her before throwing her in Fornax during the Collection. When I got home, all that was left of my family was blood and hair. If she had been able to defend herself, she might’ve gotten a chance to run, to live. Preserve life for our child…if only for a little while.

  “You have to give Kalyna the weapons she can use to fight. Don’t leave her like I did my wife, Commander. She deserves a chance. Do not kill her.”

  Alaister looked away from Feynt’s exposed pain. He had only been a child during the Collection. It was one thing even he couldn’t relate to. Synge was quick to extend a comforting hand to Feynt. The Brother accepted the kind gesture, the moisture on his cheeks glowing in the firelight.

  The room had stopped breathing. Stopped moving. Alaister felt a half dozen eyes shift from staring at Feynt to staring at him, through him. Protection through anticipation of what to expect was one thing. Learning defenses against Beasts was easily achievable. But to arm Kalyna – to go on the offensive – was a different course entirely. Alaister knew what his father would say – women Runics were not meant to fight. Women were not meant to fight. They should be protected.

  But Kalyna was different. Hiding her would not protect her. Defending her might not either and Alaister knew that he would die to protect her.

  “I—”

  “The only answer is yes, Alaister Paine.”

  The room turned to find Kalyna perched just inside the entrance. Freshly kempt in a brown dress, Kalyna stood in the curtainway with her hands on her hips. She smiled briefly at Feynt, before returning her gaze to the table of Dragonics. Her eyes glowed a fierce orange that unnerved all, especially Synge.

  “Kal—”

  “I am done being dictated to. I understand that you must protect me, but I will go search for the ruins of the Solasti Palace, find it, and learn those Runes. Everything counts on me, right? So what good am I defenseless and dead?”

  The room swelled with a warm wind and heat. Her eyes crackled between black and reddish orange. Alaister watched her face, swallowed in pain, anger, and fear. She seemed older. Tired. The wind whipped at the men’s skin until they needed to bury their faces to protect themselves.

  “Kal, stop!” Alaister barked with a fist against the table.

  The wind died and the room fell still again. The heat fizzled until the coolness of the cavern presided. Alaister waited until the copper of her eyes returned and the darkness was gone.

  They locked gazes.

  A frown.

  A nod.

  “We leave in two days’ time.”

  “I have some scrolls with possible locations of the ruins, Kalyna,” Feynt offered with a fatherly, gentle smile.

  Kalyna’s mouth parted to speak but Lanthar quickly nudged her. She looked to Alaister who had approached her other side. His gray-blue eyes seemed clearer. “Bring them here, Brother. We’ll figure this out,” Alaister said, “together.”

  GREAT HALL KITCHEN

  THE DEN, NORTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS

  Kalyna whisked open the doors and pounced into the organized workspace with a gust of air. She would have taken the time to notice the expansive goods within, had it not been for the whimper and thunk her entrance made against a rather small person.

  “I am so sorry!” Kalyna said, ushering the small girl back to her feet and dusting her off. The girl was more wide-eyed and shocked than hurt or upset, but Kalyna took to her like she was wounded and in dire need of help. She spun her about checking for major injury.

  “It’s… You’re a…”

  “It’s just that no one is ever in here,” Kalyna said.

  “I couldn’t sleep… so I came to start early on my taskings. You…. You’re an Air Runic?”

  Kalyna smirked. “Partly.”

  She did not gasp as Kalyna expected. Her petite mouth formed a drawn, tight smirk. “My brother Seban was right. The Rogues would find a way… I knew it had to be true, too! I just… I wish he could’ve seen…” Her voice trailed off as she smothered her face in her apron. She would not let herself cry; her brothers would not have approved.

  Kalyna watched from an arm’s length away. She wanted to comfort her but could not be compulsed to do so. She had no idea where to start. It just was not in her nature. She had never known that sort of comfort and did not know how to divulge it upon another soul. But, Kalyna did know the art of distraction as a means to recovery. Kalyna cleared her throat and greeted the inquisitive brown eyes with a soft smile.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Neeva Grayn.”

  “Kal.”

  They shook hands and after a moment, the girl relaxed.

  “So,” Neeva spoke as she rubbed her palms against her apron, once more. “What else can you do?”

  Kalyna grinned and commanded a small blue flame in the cup of her hand. It sizzled and remained until Kalyna’s lips parted in a controlled smile. Tiny snowflakes descended from the ceiling onto the flame, dousing it and forming a mound of snow in Kalyna’s cupped palm.

  “Lots.”

  Neeva gasped, smiling. “A Tri?”

  “Quad.”

  Neeva crumpled against the kitchen table and fumbled for a chair. She sat and fiddled with her apron seam until the words came to her. Her face was reserved, her eyes smiling but her lips drawn tight. She turned her attention to the sky and softly spoke as though none could hear.

  “Well, Seban, you win. You were right.” Neeva choked on her words. “Always right.” In her pause, Neeva freely sobbed. Kalyna looked about flittingly, searching for an easy out. She could not deal with crying; she had never been good with that sort of emotional display. Lucky for her, the door was near enough.

  Kalyna winced, ashamed. She could never forgive herself if she left the girl. Neeva reminded Kalyna of herself – left alone without a family, in the presence of strangers, not knowing whether to trust or hate because she lacked the capacity to know them at all or to even know the depth of what trusting someone meant. Kalyna refused to be yet another person to leave Neeva alone.

  Kalyna exhaled deeply and knelt beside the girl. “Come, Neeva. Let’s get some of your taskings done with.”

  The warm golden-brown sphere barely fit in her palm. Inside, warm pockets of steam permeated the dough and hid a stash of warm frillic berry jelly. The taste had a hint of warmth and spice to it, but it was sweet and filling. The pastry warmed the insides and no one could ever just stop at one.

  No one quite knew how or why the Fertlouxians first started making the bleskis and no one seemed to mind that lack of knowledge, so long as they got to enjoy the fruits of their mysterious labors. Kalyna had always been partial to the historic Fruturi Clan recipe known for its calming spices and fragrant berry center, and so she had imparted the popular recipe to Neeva happily after seeing that she was a far more adept cook than she was or Vee could ever be.

  They tasted like freed joy. Warm and moist.

  Smiling, Kalyna and Neeva sat in the corner by the fire, munching on bleskis and sipping hot tavi. For a moment, nothing was different. Nothing was special. It was just a morning like any other. A morning of kindness and warmth – a moment of commonplace.

  The clicking of boots against the floor cracked the façade of normalcy. Kalyna and Neeva looked up and found Lanthar, strangely grim and dark. “A word, Kaly?”

  “Of course.” Kalyna rose and turned to Neeva, stooping to hug the girl. “I’ll see you when I return. I can show you Vee’s recipe for Creipan cookies.”

  “I’d like that,” Neeva said with a smile.

  THE HALLS

  THE DEN, NORTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS

  Kalyna thought of discarding her half-eaten bleski but quickly shoved the remnants in her mouth as she ran to keep pace with Lanthar. She did not meet Lanthar’s eyes as they walked in silence until he stopped outside the hallway leading to the Dormitory Row.

  “Kaly—”

  “I am sorry about—”

  “Don’t be,” Lanthar said.<
br />
  “Are you in—”

  “Trouble? Yes, but Alaister has always been one for logic – even if he takes a while to arrive at that decision. We’ll be fine, Kalyna.”

  She exhaled and managed a weak corner smile. “Good.”

  “Are you packed, yet?”

  “No… I got tangled up and… It won’t take long.”

  “Make sure you bring nothing that will make you stand out. Pack light. The Dragons can’t bear too much extra—”

  His sudden parental tone rubbed wrong. Kalyna wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms. “I don’t have much to pack, Lanthar. I understand.”

  “Good. We fly at dawn. I’ll see you at the ‘Lets cavern.”

  Kalyna blinked, unsure of Lanthar’s commanding behavior and his implications. “Am I riding with you?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Lanthar caught a slight of disappointment cross her face. “Blythet can carry far more weight than Floxen or Jaxin.” At Kalyna’s telling flush, Lanthar concealed an aware smile. “Lanthar? Will there be room for some of my scrolls?”

  “Some.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lanthar saluted and then bowed a grace-filled bow that Kalyna had never seen before. He jerked up, startling himself. He blinked and nodded. “Watcher keep you until tomorrow.”

  “Wind with you, Lanthar.”

  Kalyna watched Lanthar depart before starting for her dormitory. She wove about the hallways noticing the bustle and movement within the dormitory rows. Everyone was afoot, which meant that the Rogues were not just sending a small party with her. The entire Order was going. Kalyna’s nose wrinkled with anticipation. Something else was at play. Something she would ask one of the officers the moment she saw them. Kalyna smiled, remembering Vylain’s room came before the others’ and knowing her rapport with him was strong, she eagerly rushed to his quarters.

  But, she was not the first to seek his attention. Kalyna paused outside Vylain’s quarters hearing strange movement and voices inside. There was a murmuring of exchanged words, though to whom Vylain spoke baffled. The other voice was indiscernible and unbearably soft for the curious ear. Dismayed, Kalyna moved on without making her presence known.