by A. Wrighton
The twine rubbed and her body ached, but if she could have smiled, she would have. Her contribution would be complete at last. There was no greater cause to die for – not for her, not for a Paine.
At dawn, she would go home.
LIXI PLATEAU
SOUTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS, SOLASTI
Alaister did not have to look far.
He knew he would find her in the middle of the growing storm. He had not expected Jaxin to be the one with her. Jaxin watched Kalyna who stood chest high against the growing snow flurries in her sleeping clothes. The chill did not penetrate her; she stood open and welcoming to the storm as it swept along the sheltered plateau.
Alaister, however, was intimately aware of the cold and knew he would start his scolding with that. She was reckless – that was no surprise to him now – but overt recklessness he could not abide by. Runes could not prevent against sickness and her sleeping robes were useless in bad weather, let alone wet weather. Then there was the matter of her positioning. She stood atop a barely protected plateau on the most patrolled mountain chain in Solera – unguarded and alone.
He pulled himself onto the plateau and rolled onto his back, his arms burning from the climb. He hated Jaxin for not hearing his whistle in the wind or for ignoring it. Either logical reasoning would suffice. Alaister calmed his breath before, but before he could stand and call after her, Jaxin swiveled his head around, roared, and delivered a massive bout of flame at Kalyna. He had never seen a Dragon dueval before – not even from afar. His chest pounded with excitement and rage.
Kalyna's eyes flashed an oceanic blue as she conjured a wall of water that cascaded onto the flames. None got through.
Jaxin bellowed and beckoned more flames. Three torrents of growing size.
She smothered one with water, one air, and one earth.
Jaxin roared unamused and bored. Jaxin rumbled a guttural purr of a challenge that startled Alaister's awestruck figure to action.
“Kal!”
Kalyna faced him, wide-eyed and guilty as Jaxin hurled a wall of acid breath. With a second snarl, Jaxin lit the acid on fire. The smell was noxious though the vision itself was tremendous.
The world seemed to slow down for Alaister as it did in any battle. The blazing sheet of acid raced on its course at normal speed. Alaister ran to Kalyna only to catch sight of lilac-laced eyes. They no longer belonged to the Kalyna that was testing and training with his Beast. Instead, it was the Swamp Witch, who could barely control her introverted temper. This Kalyna’s eyes morphed into a vivid black that steeled his heart from wanting to save her. The Kalyna he knew was long gone – in her place stood a woman who looked otherworldly and terrifying.
Inhuman.
Kalyna looked back to the approaching flaming acid wall. With a gruff yell, she pushed her arms forward and summoned a blast of snowy air as the burning acid crested before crashing down on them. The air screamed in sizzles as the choking smell of acid and smoke.
Alaister dusted the greenish black snow from his clothing and watched Kalyna’s eyes turn an ugly shade of emerald. The plateau trembled until swamp vines burst from the rock surface and wrapped around Jaxin. As if alive, the wrapping vines squeezed angrily.
Jaxin bellowed, first playfully, then angrily. He snapped at the leaves without success. Where he cut one, three more vines grew. Kalyna giggled – at the struggling Beast or the growing vines or both – Alaister’s stomach wrenched. She was as Lanthar warned. Terrifying. She could kill Jaxin like she could've killed Callon…and Nylan… and him.
"Kal, stop!" Alaister lunged at her, but she withstood his tackling embrace. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind her. Her strength was unearthly. Struggling to pull back her arms, he whispered in her ear, “Kal... Kal don't hurt him. Please… For me."
Jaxin struggled to release another bellow that was barely audible above the surging vines. The amassing plants nearly made the orange hide disappear. Alaister felt his hands tighten around Kalyna. He felt her breathing hasten and struggle though she still held fast to her command of the vines.
"Kal…Please. Don't make me do this."
The vines wrapped around Jaxin’s jaw sealing in his last cry. The orange-red eyes latched onto Alaister and he squeezed Kalyna tighter. It was not until she had to gasp, that Kalyna refocused her attention on the man behind her. Her eyes found his. They remained the putrid emerald but twinged red. Her skin warmed rapidly, unbearably, but Alaister would not let go. He could not let go. Alaister had to get her back; he had to get Jaxin back.
Alaister held fast and grimaced. He refused to yield; he squeezed harder knowing that while he would stop short of harming her, the Runic under his grip would not show him the same courtesy. His skin peeling and sticking to hers, Alaister pinned Kalyna to the ground slamming the air from her chest. Beneath him, Kalyna blinked twice. Then, he saw it – a glimmer of copper – a flush of pink.
"Alaister..." Kalyna coughed, grabbed her ribs, and rolled to her side where she saw the vines smothering Jaxin. Kalyna screamed in Drakanic as she scrambled to her feet and ran to Jaxin, commanding the vines down as she went.
The effects of the Runes – all of them – hit Kalyna at once. She stumbled to the Beast’s side, barely conscious and ripped off the vines that did not fall off themselves. Her lips quivered with hushed words to Jaxin as she grappled with the stubborn vines.
Alaister feared for Kalyna when she snapped free the vine sealing Jaxin's jaw, but his Beast did not move. Jaxin looked at Kalyna with such solidarity and sorrow that Alaister realized, Jaxin not only understood what had happened, but he forgave her.
Kalyna rubbed above Jaxin’s eye ridge until he stirred. She stepped back in time for Jaxin to take wing disappearing into the snowy mountains. With her brace gone, Kalyna collapsed – weightless and unconscious. Her flaxen waves quickly filled with white snow, her superheated skin cooling and steaming in the freezing wind.
Alaister ran to her and checked her forehead. Her skin was a normal temperature and falling. Her breathing was ragged. "Kal, the effects of Earth Runes. What are they?"
She blinked but did not answer.
He knew her mouth would have been sucked dry from the Water Runes and the sudden lack of Fire Runes and their supplemental heat were freezing her. He knew he had to get her water and warmth, but how to fix the cost of Earth Runes evaded and Kalyna could not answer him to tell him what to do.
Alaister lifted Kalyna and cradled her in his arms. He walked to the ledge and scanned for a way down. Anything Kalyna needed, they would find below. The plateau itself was only suited for training or dying, as there was no way down or up that would not take hours. Kalyna shuddered against him as Alaister reluctantly recalled his Beast. For the silence that followed, Alaister was sure Jaxin had refused until the flapping of wings sounded and the orange Giant appeared, a mountain goat dangling from his mouth. Alaister snorted at his Beast's manners and mounted the saddle with Kalyna in his arms.
He directed Jaxin down to the opening of a small cavern he had given to Kalyna to research and sleep in peace, away from the men and their snoring, and carried her inside. Jaxin followed the pair, stopping once the cavern got too small. He circled the area twice and laid down, continuing to happily munch on his goat. His thick-scaled hide blocked much of the wind and snow from entering and kindled a growing warmth to the cavern. Alaister smiled back at Jaxin, wishing he could, just once, thank him. Jaxin met his appreciative gaze with a burp as he took to shredding the hind leg of the goat and sending whatever warming thoughts he championed for the Beast away.
Alaister laid Kalyna down on her makeshift bed full of padding and wrapped his cloak around her. She looked paler than death in his burgundy cloak – worse than death. He hurriedly covered Kalyna in more blankets and her emerald green cloak as well. Convinced of the warmth to the woven cocoon, Alaister tiptoed around his Beast and broke off a small icicle from the exposed rock opening. He gently placed the ice bits in Kalyna’s mouth and
shut her cracked, dry lips.
She should have smiled, but she did not. Her eyes were distant – copper – but distant. Her lips parted and tried to move into words but failed. She blinked then slowly closed her eyes.
Alaister could not hide the panic in his voice as he ran through a connecting passage to the main cavern. "Doc!"
Drystan sprung from his matting, as did four other men, but only the redhead ran to him full sprint and leaping over bodies in his path. Alaister grabbed Drystan without another word and dragged him to Kalyna’s cavern.
Drystan looked from Jaxin to Kalyna and then to Alaister. His freckled cheeks twinged with worry. "Oh, no, no, no! Alaister, what done gone and happened? Sickness?"
"No. Earth Rune effects. I don't know what to do. Help her."
"She must've really been using to—"
"Just help her!"
Nodding, Drystan dropped open his satchel on the floor. He muttered as he sifted through the contents half speaking in Creipan, half discernible by Alaister. "Glad she gone and told me t'em side effects now. Didn't want to know at first, ya know? But now? Let me see here t'en. Earth drains her of earth inside. T'em things that help sustain our blood. She gonna need to eat. I got some dried frillic berries. T'at should do the trick."
Drystan placed the dried berries in a small bowl, smashed them with the hilt of his dagger and added water from his canteen. He swirled the concoction around and paused before adding some dust with a broad smile. "Dirt ain't gonna hurt."
With a final grinding swirl, Drystan shoved the bowl to Kalyna's lips and coaxed her to drink. She obeyed, slowly then steadily. Once the bowl was drained, Kalyna set her head back with a sigh. Her color started to return and her lips, though cracked and dry, had a pink wash to them again.
"Thank you, Doc. That's all."
Drystan eyed Alaister suspiciously and then pointed to his arm.
Alaister looked down at his forearm. He had not noticed the blistering burn that covered the skin Kalyna's hand had touched. Alaister waved Drystan off, knowing he could not explain anything else to him. If he did, then all the Riders would know just how little control Kalyna actually had. Drystan was definitively the best medic in the Order, but he was also beyond a doubt the worst keeper of secrets.
Drystan’s stare lingered. It cut the same way Alaister’s mother’s look did when she caught him fibbing, but the gleam inside the Creipan’s eyes promised Alaister dismissal. Drystan considered it a moment longer and then tossed Alaister a small vial of salve. "Go'on let me know if she need more... or you, for t'at matter."
"Thank you." Alaister stood watching Drystan’s departure propped against the rock wall. Minutes of agonizing silence passed without Kalyna stirring. Alaister blamed himself. Kalyna. Jaxin. His father. The Chancellor. Himself. His mind shifted the blame back and forth in a complex game of mouse, missing any real conclusion. For all of his thinking, he failed to notice when Kalyna finally started to stir.
She propped herself up onto her elbows and stared after his distant mind. "You shouldn't have come looking for me,” she said.
Alaister did not move or startle. "I should’ve let you kill Jaxin then?"
His words were harsh. Too harsh.
Kalyna squirmed inside the covers and sighed. “I would've stopped... I think." She ruffled her hair and rolled onto her side. "I'm sorry. He's all right, though."
"And you?"
"I told you I couldn't do this. I keep trying, but I cannot do this. You just don't want to listen."
"You can."
"Can I? You saw what happened. I just get so – Alaister your arm! What—" Kalyna clutched her hand to her lips and winced. She inched closer to Alaister until she could hold her hand over the burn. She recoiled gagging when her hand matched the marred skin. "Watcher be...What have I done?"
"Could be worse."
"How? That – that'll stay that way..."
"Dragonics love scars," Alaister said smiling. His grin found Kalyna’s face too hurt to return the expression.
"I'm so sorry, Alaister."
"Don't be, Kal. Just learn to control it. Find whatever it is that pulls you back."
Kalyna’s eyes left Alaister and settled past Jaxin’s body, out into the growing storm.
"Kal?" he asked after too much silence.
"Hmm?"
"You do have something that pulls you back, right?"
She laughed, her eyes returning to his burn. “Sure,” she said. "You."
LEOSAN CAVERN
SOUTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS, SOLASTI
The snow fell from the sky in waves, like white lace spilling onto the earth. Beyond her, Kalyna could only see specks of gray and blue marking the rest of the Solasti Mountain chain. She had never seen snow like this before. It was angry snow, battering into the mountains and relentlessly trying to freeze anything exposed to its wrath. But, was also a wind – a wind that rustled with a streak of warmth Kalyna had not felt since she left Creitall. The warm wind brushed her cheeks and kissed her ears.
There hasn’t been a storm like this in generations, the wind whispered. Good will follow; it always does. Just wait, Nali. It is coming. It will be all right. Be safe. Live.
Kalyna clenched shut a tear. She willed herself inside Vee’s tiny cottage, where a fire churning deep Runic blue blazed, as Vee hummed songs and rocked back and forth – as if she were an old woman of seventy cycles. A cauldron of stew cooked over the fire and smelled of winter squash and Fertlouxian spices. Kalyna willed Vee to rise from her blanket cocoon to churn the green liquid and gather a taste from the back of the birchwood spoon.
Vee was alive now, but for how much longer she could not know. Kalyna’s will did not last. Her vision faded with the numbing reminder that Vee was far from well – far from safe. But for now, at least, she knew she was alive.
The warmth Kalyna generated in her core seared and for a brief moment, she burned on the inside as she tilted her lips to a growing ribbon of warm air.
With you, always…
Kalyna stopped her whisper as the storm’s power overwhelmed and left her message entirely, or at least partially, lost. Kalyna frowned. If Vee was able to deliver such a long message, she was near, and since she refused to provide any locating advice, she was in dire trouble. Now, Kalyna would have to rely on fate.
Alaister peered around Jaxin’s massive orange wings and watched Kalyna stare down the snow. Her lips were pursed in a frown, her arms uncharacteristically crossed beneath her chest. He shivered as the wind whipped through the opening and around him. How Kalyna stood there bare-armed baffled him, but he lent it to her usual explanation for oddity. She was a Runic.
The Runic.
Alaister approached, silent in his steps until he found his usual position, behind Kalyna. She did not turn to acknowledge his appearance; her face remained entranced on the falling snow.
“She’s alive.”
“Where?”
She shrugged. “I don’t… she didn’t… the storm.”
“We will find her. It will end well – on our terms.”
Kalyna nodded, doubt lingered on the taste of Vee’s windborne goodbye. She laughed, tired. “Fitting isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“It all started here.”
Kalyna tried to face the warmth of Alaister’s gray-blue eyes but found his grip on her shoulders too strong. Resistant at first but slowly more giving, Alaister allowed Kalyna to meet his eyes. His throat quivered as he swallowed the look of dangerous acceptance Kalyna coveted. Slowly, his eyes moved to the sheets of snow. “What did?”
“My Kind.” Kalyna pulled a snowflake from Alaister’s black hair and smiled at its perfect complexity. He returned her gaze, sinking into her copper eyes. “It’s all too peculiar, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“There’s a weird feeling here. The Dragons feel it, too.”
“That’s Runes for you, I suppose.” Alaister’s smirk twitched with a shiver.
“You should go inside, Alaister.”
“I was going to tell you the same thing.”
Kalyna took his hands into her own and grinned. Her hands contained a raging warmth that transferred readily from her to him. The stinging red of his cheeks melted into a healthy pink glow. Alaister’s expression twisted from uncomfortable calmness to serene malcontent.
“You really don’t like me using Runes, do you?”
“It’s just… different.”
She nodded. “I am fine, Alaister.”
“Just come inside. Please, Kalyna.”
Kalyna paused at the sound of her full name on Alaister’s tongue. He never did that. He had not called her that since the second day they had known each other. His soft urgency commanded obedience. Kalyna took one last glance at the snow before turning inside.
Jaxin crooned at her approach, his orange eyes transfixed on her figure.
Kalyna bowed to him before wrapping her hands as far around his muscular neck as she could. “Good night, great Jaxin,” she whispered in Drakanic. With a pat, Kalyna ducked around Jaxin and his curved tail and headed for the far corner of her unshielded cocoon of cloak and blankets.
“Kal, you can’t keep your powers up when you’re sleeping.”
“I’ll stay close enough to Jaxin…”
Alaister shook his head as he ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I know this is untoward – and any joke or Callon-driven calamity aside – but, it is probably best if you stay with me.”
She paused. “Well, at least with you I know I am safe.” She smiled brightly as she gathered her blankets and cloak. “Callon on the other hand…”
Laughter on his lips, Alaister ordered Jaxin to open his wings. The Beast complied, revealing a makeshift pad with Alaister’s burgundy cloak as a blanket. Alaister ushered Kalyna inside and allowed her to settle with her linens. She looked up at him, once situated, and fought a laugh. He was baffled and silent, or at least confused. Kalyna patted the ground and waited, but he did not join her. Alaister stared at the burgundy fabric next to her pale skin before setting down on the cold, bare stone ground.