Skyborn

by Lou Anders

  “I’m serious, Thianna. You can take another bath in your mother’s tub tomorrow. And I can teach you what you need to know to fit in here.”

  “I don’t know. This is a lot.” Thianna shook her head to clear it. “It’s not why I came here.”

  “I know,” said Sirena. “There’s just one more thing.”

  Thianna raised an eyebrow.

  “Something else I want you to see,” said Sirena. “It might help your decision.”

  She led Thianna to a doorway, where two soldiers stood outside. The women stepped aside so that she could enter. As she passed, Thianna caught one of them looking at her askance, but the woman looked away. Like Queen Xalthea, Thianna suspected the soldier frowned on her mixed heritage.

  They stepped into the room.

  A wyvern was chained to the far wall. The creature looked pathetic. Its skin hung loosely on its frame. Its scales were dull, its eyes glassy. There were scars across its left wing. The patagium was ragged and had several nasty holes.

  “What’s happened to it?” Thianna turned to Sirena in horror.

  “It’s being punished,” the girl replied.

  “Punished? For what?”

  The wyvern jolted suddenly. Sirena jumped, but the giantess didn’t flinch. It swung its head as far toward them as it could, staring intently at Thianna.

  Talaria?

  “What? What did you say?”

  Of course not. How could you be? And so much bigger too!

  “You knew my mother?”

  Sirena stared openmouthed at Thianna.

  “You can speak to it?” she said, amazed. “But you’re not touching the horn.”

  Thianna realized that Sirena couldn’t hear the wyvern’s thoughts right now. The soldiers she had met last year could send telepathic instructions to their wyverns, but it seemed the horn was necessary to have such true and open two-way communication.

  “I don’t need the horn anymore,” the giantess explained. “I think it was a side effect of using it for the first time on a dragon. Kind of stretches out your head to touch a mind that large. I can communicate easily with reptiles now.” She turned to the wyvern. “How do you know my mother?”

  Your mother? Now it was the wyvern’s turn to appear shocked.

  “What is it saying?” said Sirena.

  “Quiet,” said Thianna. To the reptile she said, “My mother was Talaria. She fell from the sky over Ymiria. My father caught her.”

  Your father must have been quite tall.

  “He’s a frost giant.”

  The wyvern made a wheezing sound in its long neck. Thianna had enough experience with the reptiles to know it was laughing.

  That girl! I thought she was out of surprises. But I am glad to learn that she survived. As humans go, she had courage. How is she?

  “She died when I was young.”

  The wyvern dipped its head.

  Would that I had died with her. And now they have you here. Is my long ordeal for nothing?

  “What is it saying?” Sirena repeated impatiently.

  “We’re talking about my mother,” said Thianna. “How does it know my mother? Why did you bring me here?”

  “This is the animal that Talaria rode when she escaped,” said Sirena. “I wanted you to see what became of it.”

  “Why?”

  “So you would see how pathetic it is.” She glared at the reptile. “How much better off it would have been if it had never fled. If it had stayed here, with its own kind. Staying with your own kind is the better choice.” For the second time, she touched the frost giant’s arm. “We need you to do the right thing, Thianna. For all of us.”

  Sirena indicated the door. It was time to go.

  Thianna glanced back at the battered creature that had once borne her mother across the world. It had hunkered down into itself. It looked deflated and resigned to its fate.

  “I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t fled,” she said. “I wouldn’t exist at all.”

  The wyvern lifted its head at that.

  The horn is kept in a chamber behind the Sky Queen’s throne, it said. To Thianna’s mind alone.

  —

  Karn and Asterius were both down roughly half their forces. Neither had lost either Queen or Champion. Karn wondered if they were heading toward a stalemate.

  “You could just concede now and get it over with,” said the minotaur.

  “Or you could give up,” said the Norrønur, “and we could start looking for a way out of here. I don’t get it. Why don’t all your parents join forces and oppose them? There are so few Calderans and so many cities.”

  “Fire in the sky,” said the minotaur. “Once we resisted, and they burned our grasslands.” In response to Karn’s befuddled look, he explained. “We supply the wheat for Thica. We had no food.”

  “Don’t they need bread too?”

  “They feed on other things as well. Things like fish.” Asterius spat on the ground in disgust. “A minotaur can’t eat such nasty, slimy gunk.”

  “Hey, I like fish,” said Karn. “Anyway, it seems like there must be a better way to do things. If only you’d cooperate with each other.”

  “Too bad you will never get to show me, human. Since you aren’t going to beat me.”

  The minotaur advanced his Champion toward Karn’s Queen. Remarkably, Karn didn’t attempt to flee. Rather, he sent one of his soldiers in pursuit of Asterius’s Queen.

  Play continued for a few tense turns. Karn was able to reach Asterius’s Queen first. As he knew that he would, the minotaur used the move called a Prerogative to switch his Queen and Champion on the board.

  They rolled the dice. Despite the Champion’s advantage, it was a tie. On his next move, Karn immediately retreated.

  Asterius laughed and pursued. Karn kept up the retreat for two moves. Then he stopped. Instead, he threatened the Queen in its new location. Again Asterius executed the Prerogative. After the switch, his Champion faced Karn’s Soldier.

  “Soldier verses Champion,” said Talos. “An uneven match.”

  Karn looked at Desstra.

  “You might want to invest in a helmet,” she said with a meaningful glance at the minotaur’s enormous horned head.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  Dice were rolled. Karn scored a six, but even with the benefit of two dice Asterius only received a four. Asterius had lost the challenge and his Champion was forfeited.

  Worse, he saw that in exchanging his Queen for his Champion he had brought his Queen in range of Karn’s Champion. As the Queen was at the edge of the board, with other pieces blocking possible routes, escape from Karn wasn’t possible.

  Karn wasted no time moving in for the challenge. This time his Champion won against Asterius’s Queen.

  “That’s the game, then,” said Karn.

  “You retreated on purpose,” said Asterius. “To make me chase you and not pay attention to my Queen. You hornless—”

  Karn smiled.

  “We drink out of horns where I’m from,” he said.

  Asterius huffed angrily through his nostrils.

  “Play me again,” the minotaur demanded.

  “I think that’s enough for now,” said Karn. “We have other business.” He left the game table and walked to the door, where he tried the handle. As he expected, it was locked. Then he turned to the dark elf. “Desstra, I think it’s your turn.”

  “Just give me a minute,” she replied. Then she bent at the knees and stuck a finger down her throat.

  Sirena and Thianna arrived at the door to the royal hostage suite. Two guards stood on duty in the corridor outside. Only one of the wall torches was lit, so the lighting was dim, but she saw these weren’t the same two who had been posted earlier. Sirena thought it was soon for a shift change, but such routine matters weren’t her concern.

  She turned to her larger cousin.

  “You’ll think about the Land Queen’s words?”

  “Long and hard,” said Th
ianna. “I can promise you that.”

  Sirena nodded. She seemed satisfied with Thianna’s answer.

  “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

  Sirena turned to go. Then she paused. The soldiers were both young, short. One was sickly pale. And the other—the other wasn’t even female!

  “What are you doing in that armor?” she demanded, even as the obvious explanation occurred to her.

  “Escaping,” replied Karn Korlundsson with a grin.

  Sirena drew in a breath to raise the alarm.

  And the door burst open. Out came the minotaur boy at full charge, bellowing like the bull he was. Sirena was knocked backward, slammed against the opposite wall. As she struggled to rise, the barbarian boy and the sickly pale girl pinned her down.

  “I guess that’s one way to do it,” said Thianna.

  “Not the smart way,” said Desstra. “Not even the sane way. But one way.”

  “I said we’d do this ‘quietly,’ ” Karn admonished the minotaur.

  “That was quietly,” replied Asterius. “You want to hear a really loud bellow?”

  “No,” Karn replied sternly. “Everyone back inside.”

  Karn and Desstra dragged the struggling Calderan into the hostage suite. Thianna followed them in.

  “You have knees,” Karn said smiling, indicating Thianna’s Calderan clothing.

  “So do you,” she replied, poking him affectionately. Then she asked, “I assume Long Ears didn’t have any trouble getting the door unlocked?”

  “What do you think?” Karn replied.

  “It was amazing,” volunteered a young satyr. “She had a set of lockpicks hidden in her throat! She gagged them up and…I don’t know how she carried them there without choking!”

  “Practice,” said the elf with a smile. “Also, lots of lost meals before I got the hang of it.”

  Karn laid a concerned hand on Thianna’s shoulder.

  “You all right?” he asked the giantess. “What was she talking about, ‘the Land Queen’s words’? And who is she?”

  “Slow down on the questions,” said Thianna, taking charge of guarding Sirena so that her companions could change back to their regular attire—Karn into his Gordashan tunic and Norrønian trousers and boots, and Desstra into her customary black and orange leathers. “I’m fine. They’re trying to recruit me. And she’s my cousin.”

  “Your cousin!” Karn looked at Sirena anew. Beyond the typical Thican features, he thought he could see a family resemblance. Of course, it made sense that his friend might have relatives here. He wondered what knowing she had family in Caldera would do to Thianna. “She didn’t convince you, did she?”

  “She overplayed her hand,” said the giantess. “She showed me my mother’s wyvern.”

  “Oh my gods,” said Karn. “It’s here? It’s alive?”

  “They’ve had it chained up all these years. Punishment for helping my mother escape with the horn. It told me where the horn is kept.” Then something occurred to her. “What happened to the guards?”

  For an answer, Karn pointed into the room. Thianna saw that several of the wall hangings had been taken down and used to bind the two unfortunate soldiers.

  “Good idea,” said the frost giant. She grabbed a tapestry and tore it down in one yank. “Let’s bind her with these.”

  As the heavy material was wrapped around Sirena, Thianna knelt to meet her cousin’s angry gaze. “I realize this hasn’t been the best family reunion,” she said, “but you have to understand that I don’t tolerate bullies.”

  “Bullies?” replied the girl, confused.

  “The way the Calderans treat the rest of Thica.”

  “Weren’t you listening? Didn’t we teach you anything? The Calderans saved Thica. You are a Calderan.”

  Before Thianna could respond, Desstra interrupted.

  “We need to move,” said the dark elf. “Here, take this.” She offered Thianna the sword she had relieved from a guard. The frost giant hesitated.

  “I haven’t poisoned the hilt or anything—take it!” snapped the elf.

  Thianna accepted the equipment.

  “We stick to the plan?” asked Karn. Although happily back in his own clothes, he had kept the Calderan sword and shield.

  “Yes,” Thianna replied. “We’re going after the horn.”

  “And them?” Karn pointed at the hostage princes and princesses.

  “What about them?”

  “Maybe they want to escape too.”

  Thianna looked at the odd assortment of boys and girls. Spoiled brats, mostly. Few of them looked like they would be of any use in a fight.

  “That’s not our problem,” the giantess said, even as the sinking feeling in her stomach told her that it was. Over the past half year, she had become someone who didn’t turn away those in need. She looked at Karn. “Can they stop bickering, work together, and stay quiet?”

  “Maybe two of the three,” he said. “I wouldn’t guarantee it.”

  Thianna sighed. “So who’s going with us?” she asked.

  As it happened, only Asterius and Jasius wanted to leave. As for the rest of the hostages, they were either frightened or worried about what their escape would mean for their cities. Karn didn’t waste more words trying to convince them, though he was surprised that the bronze automaton counted among their number.

  “You aren’t coming?” he asked.

  “The time is not right for it,” Talos replied cryptically. “But I will be here if you return.”

  “If things go well, I won’t be back,” he said, but he added, “Good luck to you, though.”

  Talos regarded him strangely.

  “Luck is not always enough,” the metal creature said. Then Talos placed the Charioteer’s die with which Karn had won all his games into Karn’s palm. There wasn’t time to ponder this, as Desstra and Thianna were herding their small band into the corridors.

  Thianna turned back to the room. Several of the children were looking uncertainly at Sirena and the guards, rolled up like fish in pita bread in the wall tapestries. Thianna could see they were debating how much trouble they’d be in if they let them go now versus later.

  “Take your time with those,” the giantess said. “If I find myself in this chamber again I’ll be very unhappy. And you don’t want to be locked up with an unhappy frost giant.” She indicated her cousin. “Don’t bother with her, though,” the giantess said. She lifted Sirena, wall hangings and all, and hoisted her over her shoulder. “She’s coming with us.” Then she left them to contemplate her warning.

  Thianna led the way through the Twin Palaces. They were heading for the Court of Land and Sky, where the captured wyvern had told her the horn was. Sirena grumbled at being carried like a sack of potatoes.

  “If I shout,” she said, “I’ll bring the entire palace guard down on you.”

  The frost giant waved the point of her stolen sword threateningly.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “I’m a desperate barbarian,” said Thianna. “You don’t know what I’ll do.”

  The bluff must have worked, because Sirena didn’t shout. Karn gave Thianna a look of relief. He knew it had been a hollow threat, but fortunately, Thianna’s cousin didn’t know the giantess well enough to realize that. Sometimes being viewed as an uncivilized ruffian had its advantages.

  The throne room was empty when they reached it.

  “Stay here and keep watch,” Thianna said to the group.

  “Take Desstra with you,” suggested Karn.

  “What for?” said Thianna, unhappy with the idea.

  “She’s good at finding hidden things.”

  “So am I,” said the giantess, but she didn’t object when Desstra followed her into the courtroom. Karn, Asterius, and Jasius remained outside the doorway as lookouts.

  Thianna walked up the stairs to the dais, still carrying her cousin. There was no chamber behind either throne. She turned to the second set of stairs, leading to the balcony.
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br />   Sirena shifted in her grip. Had she missed something? The wyvern had said that the horn was in a chamber behind the Sky Queen’s throne. Not above it or beside it.

  Thianna walked to the wall behind Xalthea’s throne. Desstra stepped beside her.

  “I don’t need your help on this,” the larger girl said.

  “I think you do,” said the elf. Then the once-Underhand student ran her hand across the wall.

  “Found it,” she said, pointing to the faint outlines of a doorway that were visible like a thin seam running through the marble.

  Both giantess and elf turned to Sirena when they heard her swear.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter,” said the Calderan. “It only opens for the Keras Keeper. And I won’t help you open it.”

  Thianna thought about this a moment. Then she shifted her sword to her belt and laid her empty palm flat against the wall. A faint light glowed around the seam, then the marble swung outward.

  “You were saying?” the giantess said with a smile.

  “How did you do that?” Sirena asked.

  “Talaria was just your aunt. She was my mother, after all. I figured if it works for you, then it sure should work for me.”

  Thianna set the bound girl down, then, grabbing ahold of the cloth, she gave it a yank. Sirena spilled onto the floor and Thianna hoisted her to her feet and clamped her arms behind her back before she could catch her bearings. Then she gave Sirena an encouraging shove and together they went into the room, leaving Desstra outside. The chamber was small, barely ten-by-ten feet. The Horn of Osius lay on a stone altar at the other end. Thianna snatched it up and slipped it into her belt.

  Sirena stared at her, in shock over her irreverent handling of the relic.

  “What?” said the giantess. “These things have been nothing but trouble since I blew the first one.”

  “What will you do now?” her cousin replied. “You’ll never leave this island.”

  “That’s where you are wrong,” Thianna replied.

  “How?”

  “Love to show you, but I’m afraid this is where you get off. But thanks for teaching me about bathing.”

  Before Sirena could stop her, Thianna bolted from the chamber and slammed the marble door closed. She only had seconds before Sirena opened it from the other side, so she moved to Xalthea’s throne and put her shoulder against it. Shoving with all her strength, the giantess toppled the heavy marble seat, which fell against the doorway, preventing it from opening outward.