Skyborn

by Lou Anders

  “So long, cousin,” she said triumphantly. But then she added, “Wish we’d had more time.”

  —

  Sirena didn’t waste valuable moments fuming at the actions of her uncouth cousin. She should have known better than to think the barbarian could be tempted by superior Calderan culture. If you didn’t know what you were missing, maybe you couldn’t recognize it even if it was offered to you. She thought of the wyvern’s words: “From a bad crow, a bad egg.”

  The wyverns. That was how Thianna planned to escape. The same way her mother had.

  Sirena ran to the doorway and placed her palm against it to activate the magical ward. The door was limned in a soft glow but failed to swing open. She gave it a push and realized it was blocked by something heavy.

  “Go to the crows, cousin,” she swore.

  But the Horn of Osius wasn’t the only horn her people carried. They couldn’t duplicate the magic that Osius had wielded when he forged the three horns, but the Calderans had been able to fashion other, smaller horns. The wyvern riders all carried them. Small instruments that could convey simple messages over great distances. She pulled one from her pocket now, blew a blast. Her Keras Guards would hear it. Hopefully they would be in time to stop Thianna’s escape.

  —

  Desstra took the lead as the small band made their way onto the streets. She could sneak better than any of them, and her sharp hearing alerted them to signs of trouble before they stumbled upon it. Twice she’d scouted ahead, then returned to steer them in another direction to avoid running into any soldiers.

  “I wish we could have persuaded more of the hostages to come with us,” Karn said as they waited on Desstra to return from her latest foray. “But at least this way it shouldn’t take more than three wyverns to hold us all.”

  “Flying is no way to travel,” snorted Asterius.

  “Flying is fine,” said Karn. “I’ll take a wyvern any day over an ox cart.”

  “Watch it,” said the bull boy. Karn imagined that the treatment of cattle might be a sore point with him.

  Fortunately, Desstra returned to say the way was clear. Together they crept to the wyvern roosts that were located near the sky docks where they had first landed. It was a large building, with a central dome flanked by two wings and second in size only to the palace. The wyverns had all gone to sleep for the night and the guards at the door were minimal.

  But as the team debated their approach, Desstra’s ears twitched. They looked to see a group of women charging through the streets. Thianna spotted Leta and her soldiers just as her enemy spotted them. Something, or someone, had clearly alerted the Keras Guard to their plans.

  “Troll dung!” exclaimed Thianna. “Not you again!”

  “I could say the same,” the Keras captain replied. “Thankfully, this is as far as you go.”

  “Lady, you turn up like a bad coin,” said Desstra.

  “For Neth’s sake,” Karn swore. “This may be a really short-lived escape.”

  “Let’s try not to make it so,” said the elf.

  With that, all the companions turned and fled.

  “After them, fools!” shouted Leta. The Keras Guard shouted and broke into pursuit, with their captain limping along in their wake.

  “Why do we not fight?” complained Asterius, huffing as he ran.

  “Right,” said Desstra. “We’d have the whole Calderan army on top of our heads in no time.”

  “Are you afraid?” asked the minotaur.

  “No,” said the elf. “Not stupid either.”

  “But you fought today in the court?” said Asterius.

  “They expected us to resist,” said Desstra. “But they didn’t anticipate my picking the locks later.”

  “Not working out so well, though, is it?” said the bull boy.

  The group ran as fast as they could. With a steep cliff to one side of them, soldiers to their back, and the palace ahead, their options were limited.

  “We need another way off this rock,” said Thianna to Karn as he ran along beside her.

  “Agreed,” he replied between breaths. “I might know a way, but just for one of us.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Your mother’s wyvern.”

  Thianna immediately shook her head.

  “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “We have the horn. One of us needs to take it.”

  “You take it, then.”

  “I don’t know how it works. If I take it, I’ll have a squadron of wyverns on my tail the whole way and no magical way to order them to land.”

  Thianna started to object, but Karn interjected.

  “It’s the only way. You know that. We’ll cover you. If we fight our way free, we’ll take the hostage princes and sneak down the hill. The lower city will be easy to hide in, and we can get a boat and slip away. And if we get captured, once the horn is destroyed you can come back for us.”

  “I don’t like it,” she said.

  “Remember what you told me in Gordasha? ‘If you really care about me, then you have to care about what’s important to me.’ You don’t like bullies, Thianna. This is the only way to destroy the horn.”

  She didn’t answer, but she knew he was right.

  Karn dropped out of his run. Behind him, Desstra, Asterius, and Jasius did the same.

  Reluctantly Thianna nodded. She turned to the elf. “Just make sure Karn gets out of here safely.”

  “Go,” said Karn. “We’ll stay and buy you time.” Then he turned to face the approaching soldiers.

  Thianna raced into the night in the direction of the captured wyvern.

  Karn looked at his companions. He didn’t know how the two hostage princes would perform in combat; Desstra was without her weapons, and he didn’t have the benefit of Whitestorm’s dragon-touched magic either. But he could do something about that.

  “Here,” said Karn, handing Desstra his sword.

  “What are you going to use?” the elf asked.

  Karn grinned. He cupped his hand to his mouth, drew a lungful of air, and shouted as loud as he could, “Whitestorm!”

  The sword of Korlundr hauld Kolason came flying through the air, its reddish-gold blade shining. Ever since the dragon Orm had gifted it a magical charge, Whitestorm came when Karn summoned it. Karn held out a hand and his father’s weapon settled comfortably in his grip. He grinned at Desstra.

  Then the Keras Guard was on them.

  —

  The pitiable reptile looked up as Thianna entered the room.

  The guards outside my door?

  “Are having a nice lie-down,” said the giantess.

  What are you doing here?

  “Getting us out,” she said. Then she tapped the horn on her belt.

  That got the wyvern’s attention.

  You have it? it asked. Then it slumped down again. But I am chained.

  “Chains aren’t really a problem,” said Thianna. She slipped her sword into her belt alongside the horn and placed her palms on the shackles. “I should warn you, though, this is going to be a little cold.”

  I’ve felt the cold before, replied the wyvern.

  Thianna nodded. This was the creature that had carried her mother all the way to the Ymirian mountain range. It had suffered a lot since those days, but this time it didn’t have to fly so far.

  “Skapa kaldr, skapa kaldr, skapa kaldr,” she chanted as loudly as she dared. The hoarfrost formed and grew on the metal. The wyvern shifted uncomfortably as its bindings chilled to well below freezing, but it didn’t cry out. When the iron links were a nice shade of blue-white, Thianna closed her fingers around them and pulled.

  Made brittle by the drop in temperature, the metal shattered like ice. The wyvern lurched to its feet and threw its wings wide for the first time in years. Together the girl and the reptile walked out into the moonslit night.

  “Think you can handle it?” Thianna asked.

  Freedom will not be difficult to handle,
it replied. But when Thianna climbed on its back, its legs shook.

  I could lift an ox easier than you. Is that what you had for lunch—a whole ox?

  “Hey, you just do your part to get us out of here and watch the snarky comments about my weight.”

  Hissing in either annoyance or pain, the wyvern flapped its wings. They lifted off the ground, hovered for a moment, then crashed back to earth.

  “Come on, quit fooling around!” said Thianna.

  It has been over a decade since I did this, the wyvern responded. If you don’t understand that, then how about you flap your arms and I climb on your back instead?

  “Ymir’s beard,” swore Thianna. “Why is every wyvern I meet such a jester?”

  For an answer, the reptile snarled and beat its wings again. This time they managed to stay aloft. Slowly they rose into the air. Together reptile and girl turned toward the edge of the cliff and the yawning depths beyond.

  —

  Sirena burst from the door the instant her guards removed the obstruction. Xalthea wouldn’t be happy about her throne being upended, but that was nearly the least of her worries.

  “You have Thianna?” she asked the women.

  “No,” a soldier replied. “She ran, but at least she won’t be taking a wyvern.”

  Sirena started to reply, but then an alternative occurred to her.

  “With me,” she called, leaping from the dais and heading for the door.

  “Where are we going?” a soldier asked.

  She didn’t bother to reply, all her efforts concentrating on moving as fast as she could toward the chamber where the renegade wyvern was kept.

  Sirena skidded to a halt when she saw Thianna atop the beast. “Stop her!” she shouted to the guards trailing in her wake. They were too slow, gaping stupidly as the ungainly creature rose and fell in the air. This was ridiculous. Before she was Keras Keeper, she was a better warrior than either of these two older women.

  Sirena grabbed a sword from one of the guards lying stunned on the ground before the wyvern’s prison. Then she gauged the rise and fall of the animal in the air. Her feet pounded across the earth and she leapt.

  She caught the tail of the wyvern, upward of its dangerous barbs. Then she worked her way rapidly onto its back and leapt at her traitorous cousin. Thianna began to turn, but Sirena crashed into the giantess.

  Heavy, heavy, heavy! shrieked the wyvern. Sirena was surprised to find that while she was touching Thianna, who carried the horn, she could hear its thoughts as well.

  “Just stay in the air!” her cousin yelled.

  Too much weight! the creature roared back in their minds. Air whistled through the holes in its damaged left wing.

  “I’m doing what I can about that,” said Thianna, struggling to shove Sirena off. Below them, the fight between the Keras Guards and Thianna’s companions was bringing others. Lights flared on throughout the grounds. They heard the sound of running feet.

  “Just get us off this hill!” the frost giant yelled.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Sirena spat back.

  Yes we are! Down! We’re all going down!

  They hit the ground and the cousins were thrown to the earth. Sirena tumbled over and over, but she came up in a crouch, clutching a sword in one hand. And something else in the other.

  Thianna was on her feet just as fast. She saw what Sirena carried and her eyes widened. Then her hand fell to her belt and they narrowed.

  “Give that back,” Thianna demanded.

  Sirena waved the horn in triumph.

  “Make me, cousin,” she said.

  —

  Karn’s team was holding its own—he’d put Desstra up against anyone and he had the magical advantage of Whitestorm, but he had seen Thianna and Sirena crash. The Keras Guard had as well, and so both groups were disengaging from each other to attempt to work their way toward the frost giant.

  “Thianna’s in trouble again,” he said. “We’ve got to help her.”

  “Why?” said the minotaur. “She has bought us a chance to escape.”

  Karn looked at the bull boy. He was brash and noisy, but he was brave and strong too. He had come to appreciate those qualities in someone else.

  “You have to help me escape,” Karn said. “Those were the terms of the bet. So you have to help me however I choose to go about it. And I chose to help Thianna.”

  Asterius blew out an angry blast of hot air. He didn’t like that at all. But Karn knew the minotaur would stick to his word.

  “Jasius, you haven’t made any promises,” said Karn, glancing down toward the young dwarf. “You don’t have to come if you don’t…” His voice trailed off. The dactyl had vanished. Karn looked around, but there was no sight of him. “Where’s Jasius?” he asked.

  “What’s it matter?” said the minotaur. “He isn’t any good in a fight. Remember, he hid under a table, and that was only a food fight.”

  “It matters,” said Karn, though he wasn’t sure he could say why. But the dwarf was well and truly gone. And the fighting had intensified. “But Thianna needs us now,” he said.

  —

  Thianna swung at Sirena, but the smaller girl was an even far better warrior than she had suspected. The Calderan blocked blow after blow.

  “Just give me the horn,” the giantess said, scowling. “Then I promise I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

  “If only it were that easy,” Sirena answered. “But the die is cast.”

  The wyvern hovered in the air above them, flapping awkwardly and trying to find a way to descend so Thianna could mount. But the soldiers harried the reptile at every attempt it made to land. And more were racing to join the fight. It wasn’t looking good. Regardless of Thianna’s size advantage, they would soon overwhelm her with numbers. She was dodging a spear when the tenor of the guards’ shouts changed. Thianna gasped in surprise as a woman went hurling through the air, tossed aloft by the horns of a minotaur.

  Karn and Desstra were right behind Asterius, racing to her aid. Thianna felt a flash of pride, but also regret. She had hoped that Karn was on his way to safety. There was no way they’d all get away now. And even if the wyvern managed to fly her out, it could never carry the Norrønur as well. She wasn’t sure how she felt about leaving the elf, but she knew she wasn’t deserting Karn now that he was in the thick of it.

  She risked a glance upward to where the wyvern teetered uncertainly.

  Get out of here, she thought at it.

  What about you?

  No sense in us both being captured. You can’t help me.

  But maybe that wasn’t true. Maybe there was something it could do.

  Wait, maybe you can.

  She leapt into the air, catching the wyvern about the neck. Unbalanced, it teetered and began to fall earthward.

  Let go! it cried in her mind, beating its wings furiously but losing height. I can’t carry you!

  “I don’t want you to,” Thianna whispered to it. “I just need you to carry a message.”

  The wyvern fought to stay aloft as the giantess spoke rapidly in what she hoped was an ear hole. She couldn’t risk their mind-to-mind communication. Sirena held the horn, which meant she would overhear if Thianna traded thoughts with the reptile. But good old-fashioned speech was another matter. When Thianna had packed as much information into as few words as she could manage, she let go. Freed of her weight, the wyvern shot into the sky, and the frost giant fell to earth.

  Thianna watched the wyvern soar into the night sky. Then angry Calderan forces moved to encircle her. But as they approached, the roar of an angry bull filled the air.

  Asterius charged. Head down and bellowing exactly like Thianna would have expected a bullheaded person to behave, the minotaur plowed into an unwary soldier, catching her from behind. The boy lifted his head, tossing the poor woman high in the air. Then he swung his horns to drive back another.

  Thianna shook off the surprised soldiers and ran to meet Karn and Desstra.
/>   “I didn’t make it,” she said.

  “Yes, we already know that,” said Desstra. “So not very helpful.”

  “But what do we do now?” Karn asked. “We need a new plan to get out of the city.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Thianna replied. “Follow me.”

  Together they fought their way free of the soldiers. They ran through the streets, Asterius emitting a deep, loud roar every so often.

  “Can’t you shut him up?” the giantess asked.

  “Not so far,” Karn replied. “Where are we going?”

  “New plan,” she said. “Something I spotted from the tower. Do you remember the ride we took into Gordasha?”

  Karn did. They had blasted in on an ice sled through the pipes of an aqueduct.

  “Fastest, wildest ride of my life,” he said.

  “Well,” Thianna continued, “this will be even more fun.”

  “That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” said Karn, but he was smiling.

  Thianna steered them toward an open square where a large fountain spouted water into the air. The water fell into a pool, then flowed out in a stone-carved channel that wound through the city. Karn instantly knew what she had in mind. His stomach twisted in anticipation.

  “Who’s first?” said the frost giant. Then Thianna reached into the fast-moving stream and muttered the hoarfrost chant. A block of ice quickly formed atop the water, like a single-occupancy fishing skiff. Beside her the minotaur watched her magic in amazement.

  “Ah, our first volunteer,” Thianna said.

  “What? No!” protested Asterius, but the giantess had already hoisted him onto the block.

  “Hang on tight,” she said, letting go.

  “But my bottom’s cold!” the bull boy objected. Then the impromptu little boat shot away, carrying the minotaur swiftly down the stream. His shout of alarm rang loudly in the night.

  “You’re next,” said Thianna, with the second ice boat already fashioned. “I’m not going to enjoy this, am I?” said Karn.

  “This ride is open-air,” she said with a grin. “Much more exciting than shooting through a brick pipe. See you on the other side, Norrønboy.” She gave Karn a slap on the back to send him off, then turned to Desstra. “Guess that leaves you, Long Ears.”