The Raiden

by Shelley Cass

  My limbs were shaking erratically and my vision swam as I took deep breaths to steady myself on the platform Kiana had made, which grew out of the mountain so that we could all fit comfortably on it with no risk of toppling.

  I caught Noal as he skidded the last couple of steps down to me, and he slumped joyously down onto his back. Thorin rejoiced loudly as he touched down, lying next to Noal with a million promises to leave tributes to his Gods when he got home for keeping him alive.

  “My hands are numb. My arms will never function properly again,” Purdor gasped next with wide eyes. “Must we really do that again?”

  Gradually everyone except Vulcan laid in moaning heaps on the ledge. But Vulcan had to remain upright because Agrudek had passed out and now hung limply against his back.

  Kiana only joined us after she had continued downward to make the handholds for the next quarter of the descent. When she landed on the ledge beside me, she had a bottle containing an elixir of her own making. It was an energising draught that she had given Noal and I once while we were being chased by the Evexus, and she passed it around the group until everyone was able to sit up once more.

  “One quarter down,” Kiana said then. She held out one hand to pull me to stand.

  “You are ruthless,” I told her ruefully, though I was aware that she looked as strained as the rest of us.

  I lowered my protesting body back down to find the first foot hold and began the dreadful process again. And despite having been bolstered by Kiana’s drink, the next part of the journey was even less pleasant.

  This time Kiana had to steady both Ferron and Phrixus at different points, both of them narrowly missing a fatal fall. Purdor also suffered a finger popping out of its socket under the pressure of his grip, and Kiana had to force it back into place.

  Ignoring her own fatigue, Kiana’s focus seemed total. She was aware of every finger, every slipping foot, every buckling arm, and she was there beside us in a flash with a steadying hand when needed. She was pale and sweating when she sank down beside me at our next stop, collapsing down to rest just as everyone else did.

  She only rose to crawl to the edges of the ledge, forcing them to curve upward so that a sort of basin was formed around us. She created a floating ball of heat that hung over our group like a lantern, and we stayed where we had laid from when the sun finished setting, until it rose the next morning.

  “We are only midway through the descent,” Wolf rasped when Kiana smoothed our ledge once more. His body was shuddering despite the night’s break.

  “Also, I think I can see movement out there,” Vulcan tiredly motioned across the valley below, and I blinked as I noticed a band of dust travelling across the plains towards us.

  “Are we going to have a welcoming party when we get to the ground?” Thale asked in exhaustion.

  “Don’t fear,” Kiana answered, forcing herself to remain upright. “They won’t launch arrows at us because our party is too small to be an attack and too big to not be of interest.”

  “A stroke of good fortune,” Vulcan sighed, rubbing the raw marks left across his shoulders and chest from the ropes once again keeping Agrudek on his back. “So they didn’t shoot at you when you came here last?”

  Kiana used the wall to support herself. “They didn’t see me. I kept hidden to study them, their ways and their land. They don’t get very many visitors from the outside.” She reached for my hand to pull me up again. “Time for the next descent.”

  And, by the time we lowered ourselves, shaking and gasping, onto the last resting platform, we could make out the approaching Jenran horses and their riders in the distance below.

  “We won’t start the last part of the descent until we can hold ourselves together and present a show of strength for the Jenrans,” Kiana informed us, and sprawled between Noal and I while we all battled to breathe regularly once more. It was an effort to even raise a finger without it wobbling erratically.

  I turned my head and found Kiana’s eyes as she settled at my side. I could see her lethargy as she gazed back and I reached out to take her hand in mine once more.

  “Who knew that your hand could warm me just as mine does yours?” she said quietly. Then she smiled her slight smile and closed her eyes.

  Chapter Sixty Four

  Dalin

  “This last stage is going to be tricky,” Kiana told us once we had roused ourselves and struggled to our feet, groaning and pale, but determined nevertheless.

  “The rock slopes at such an angle that you won’t really be climbing from one handhold to the next so much as sliding,” Kiana continued, wiping a sheen of sweat from her face.

  “Won’t that be faster?” Ferron sounded slightly relieved. “It’ll take the constant pressure from our hands and arms.”

  Kiana cocked her head to the side and sighed. “It’ll be faster to descend from one spot to another, but you’ll have to be careful that you don’t accidentally slide too far and lose control. You’ll also have to be careful not to damage your hands or loose a barrage of stones upon the men below you.”

  “At least the wind is weak at this height, so you won’t have to save us from getting plucked off the cliff,” Thorin croaked, trying to flex his stiffened hands.

  “Yes. Which is fortunate,” she answered. “Because I don’t want to hover about too obviously for much longer.” Kiana glanced at the now ever closer Jenran party. “Soon the Jenrans will be able to see us clearly, and I want to keep my identity a surprise for now.”

  Suddenly Thale smiled with chapped lips. “It’ll gain their respect further if they think we conquered their mountains without magical help.”

  “I recommend wrapping your hands with any cloth you can spare,” Kiana suggested tiredly. “Then get started so that we can all reach the ground before the sun sets and with enough time to straighten ourselves out before they reach us.”

  She squared her shoulders and her wings flickered back into a whir of action. “Be cautious,” she told us, and then shot upward, away from the ledge. “I’m going back for our bags.”

  We feebly picked the most ragged cloaks between us, shredding them for hand coverings, and Kiana quickly soared upward out of sight.

  “Alright,” I announced at last. “I’ll go first again.”

  And with curses, rocks raining down on our heads, and flesh scraping away from our raw, scrabbling fingers, we each slid in skidding bursts down the slope of the cliff, catching ourselves on the outward jutting handholds at each interval.

  “Sorry!” Noal called down apologetically when he faltered and a fist sized rock hurtled down to hit my cheek bone. He corrected his course, but a constant stream of loosed pebbles dribbled down the cliff from above and ran past and over me.

  At one stage I saw Kiana lowering our packs to the ground far below, holding onto the ropes we had bundled them together with, straining against the weight, and I longed to get down to the ground with her.

  I was beginning to feel that somehow the ground had fallen away and that I would be sliding down rock forever, until finally I saw the earth rushing towards my feet.

  I quickly propelled to the next handhold, and letting out a whoop of joy I launched myself downward, ignoring the last hold and almost free falling along the angled cliff for the last league until my boots made contact with solid ground.

  My legs gave way with the impact and exhaustion, but I let myself flop to the ground.

  I rolled along the grass, getting out of the way as Noal did the same thing – laughing all the way down to thud into the grass at the base of the mountain.

  Thorin pushed himself away from the rock while he slid so as not to crush Noal, then rolled gleefully to the ground.

  “Grass!” he sang ecstatically. “Not blasted rock! It’s grass! I thought I’d dreamed that green things ever really grew in the world!”

  We all sprang up and moved as Vulcan hurtled into our midst, having slid the entire distance on his front to save Agrudek from being torn to shr
eds and flattened.

  Soon the full band of Krall soldiers were lolling about with exclamations of love and declarations of devotion toward whatever blades of grass happened to be sprouting where they’d landed.

  A faint smile touched Kiana’s lips as she took in the sight of the blubbering pack of warriors before her, until the fast approaching group of Jenrans in glittering mail released a mighty blast from a battle horn – and we all froze.

  “We have little time before they are upon us,” Kiana said then. “There are at least thirty of them. Time to look tough.”

  “We are tough,” Tane demurred, daintily picking pieces of grass and a wild flower out of his hair as we all dragged ourselves up again.

  “Yes. We are already considered worthy of attention,” Kiana whispered triumphantly as the Krall men assembled behind Noal, Kiana and I. “They have sent their Warlord, Aeron.”

  The noise of their approach grew and we made out the solemn, intent expressions of the riders for ourselves before the dust of thundering hooves whirled around our group and the muscular, panting bodies of thirty or so mountain guard horses surrounded us.

  At a fierce cry from their leader, the entire troop reined in and fell silent, ending the confusion of dust and sound.

  Encircled, our group stood tall under the scrutiny of every hostile Jenran eye.

  Most fierce of all, the unrelenting gaze of the stern soldier who seemed to be the Warlord peered out from under his heavy helm. In his black beard there was also silver, and lines furrowed his face so that he seemed particularly foreboding as he studied each of us with intensity.

  Kiana boldly stepped forward from her place between Noal and I, but their eyes were all that moved – and they regarded her with interest.

  She gave a slight bow before fearlessly looking up at the leader, who was towering on his steed above her.

  “Larn une Vendara.”

  I started as Kiana spoke, but a flicker in the proud Warlord’s eyes was all that betrayed his own surprise as she spoke what must have been Jenran.

  “Ge rev a Awyalkna ra Krall. Ge ush vo presa vo gesh Maelgon,” she finished, and then bowed slightly again.

  The leader leaned forward, his sharp eyes not leaving her face.

  “Gresha,” he said then, his voice deep. “Gresha os sphita.”

  Then he steered his mighty horse around and the other Jenrans stirred into motion.

  “I introduced us, asking to see the King, and he answered: ‘come. Come be tested’,” Kiana explained in a low voice. “Stay in your formation. They are going to escort us to the gates of the Jenran City. No outsider openly enters Jenra without being tested. And no living Jenran has seen such a test.”

  “A test of arms?” Nikon asked, hand on his sabre hilt.

  Kiana shook her head. “We must answer questions correctly. I will speak for us all. But if in the heart of anyone of our group there is the wrong answer, we will face retribution.”

  “How can they tell what’s in our hearts?” Noal asked.

  Kiana frowned. “I don’t know how, but the Jenrans must have some form of magic.”

  “Magic?” Wolf was perplexed. “As long as it is not Sorcery.”

  “Try not to worry for now,” Kiana told us. “For now we simply march to create distance from the eyries of the Griffins. Tomorrow, when the whole City is awake to witness it, we’ll learn what magic they have.”

  “Oh Gods,” Cadell muttered. “Challenge after challenge.”

  Chapter Sixty Five

  Kiana

  In the isolated Jenran basin, the night sky seemed vast and the world felt untouched.

  Our escort hadn’t lit any fires, for even small campfires, if lit so far from the rest of the civilisation, would serve as beacons to hungry Griffins.

  The Jenrans themselves sat alertly in small groups. They were straight backed, dark silhouettes against the starry night, hemming us in even though I was the only one of our group still awake.

  Dalin slept beside me, his skin like marble in the moonlight, and he truly did look Princely. Ready to be introduced to Jenra, and to re-enter the world as the Raiden – heir of Awyalkna. Untouchable and surrounded in his true identity.

  I turned away with a quick pang of wistfulness and rose to my feet, the wary eyes of the Jenrans following me while I stepped amongst my unstirring soldiers.

  “You do not sleep.” A gruff voice spoke quietly from the darkness.

  “Nor do you,” I returned in Jenran as I discerned that I’d drawn close to Warlord Aeron.

  He inclined his head, the picture of stern grace, and gestured for me to be seated beside him where he had been quietly watching the skies.

  I unobtrusively took my place at his side, dwarfed by his height even as he sat.

  “You are very young,” he spoke in his quiet voice again.

  “In years,” I answered. “But I have seen and lived through much.”

  “You are not afraid,” he asserted, making an evaluation rather than asking a question. “You are surrounded in foreign warriors,” he said. “But you are no captive and you have no fear.”

  I mimicked his perfect posture. “I have no need for fear at this time.”

  “You are in a fierce land, at our mercy,” he reminded me. “Perhaps you should be afraid.” His words were not unkind.

  “Only those who cannot defend themselves, or who are of dishonest intent should be afraid of you,” I replied. “I am neither.”

  Aeron turned to appraise me more directly. “Perhaps it is I who should be afraid,” his stern voice was unwavering, but it still pulled a smile from me.

  “Definitely. But not of us,” I dispelled any threat.

  “I do not feel danger from your group,” he agreed. “I feel only curiosity.”

  “We are a curious group,” I affirmed. “But for tonight I will answer only questions you have for me personally. All other questions will be answered in your King’s test.”

  “Of course,” he acquiesced sombrely.

  “What would you ask of me?” I questioned.

  He considered for a moment, before he slowly asked: “what kind of life have you led?”

  I kept my eyes on him as I answered. “I am a hunter and a healer. I have both ended and saved lives in my time.”

  Even in the dark I could see that the answer surprised him, though I was sure his keen eyes had already picked out my bow and arrows, the dagger hilts protruding from the sheathes in my boots, and my very apparent sword.

  “I have experience in such a way of life,” he commented. “What do you hunt?”

  I made an effort to loosen my shoulders as I felt tension seep into my stance. “The Sorcerer King of Krall has long sent unnatural beasts to torment not only Awyalknians, but those of Krall too, and any innocent person who has happened to cross such a beast’s path. I made it my focus to end such creatures.”

  “Where are your family?” he asked. “Why hunt?”

  “They were ended by the war,” I answered simply, looking out across the plains to where the figures of the Jenran horses grazed.

  I felt a moment of yearning for Ila and Amala, but my mind cleared when Aeron held his bunched fist out and then unfurled his fingers gracefully. I nodded my gratitude, recognising a gesture of condolence.

  “Where are your family?” I asked him, realising that I had only ever learned of Aeron’s professional prowess rather than his personal life when I had secretly visited the City before.

  He gestured to the men around us. “They are my family when I am on hunts of my own.”

  I nodded again. “Will you share your knowledge of hunting?” I asked.

  The shadowy face of Aeron looked as if a slight smile was forming beneath his beard then. “You must first share with me,” he answered.

  I felt my brow rise. “I am a novice compared to you. But I can see that the test starts before I even reach the City.”

  Any stories I told would allow him to easily judge the truth in my claims
to be a hunter. And beyond that he might evaluate my history, my strengths, my attitudes, possibly my role and my ambitions in his country. “Let me think.”

  I recalled a number of memorable hunts out of the many blurred and savage ones I had experienced and Aeron waited while I gathered my thoughts.

  “The villagers I helped in Krall always stand out in my memory,” I began reflectively. “Their own ruler creates the beasts that threaten them, and they know that no help will ever come from their Sorcerer King or his army.” My mind was stung by images of haggard peasants begging for help.

  “I remember finding one obliterated village on the outskirts of Krall,” I went on. “I came across structural and human remains. Thrown about in the dirt, broken into pieces, gnawed at and played with by what could only have been a massive beast. A beast that would be sure to get hungry and come back. There was only one barn left standing in the whole area, and I found four people still alive and hiding in it.”

  “They had stayed in the village?” Aeron asked.

  “With no protection for miles, and certainly no welcome from neighbouring villages, they could only wait and hope the danger had gone,” I replied. “And the family could not have survived fleeing through the border lands – a worn grandmother, a desperate couple and a young man who had been ripped open across his middle.”

  I inwardly winced at the memory of the stench coming from their hiding place, and how their desperate, skeletal fingers had clutched at my clothes when I’d first walked into the barn.

  “Their dirty faces were gaunt and wasted. And they had such hungry eyes as they clung to me for help,” I recounted grimly.

  “Yet you would have had little time for comforting or soothing them,” Aeron reflected.

  I inclined my head. “They probably found me to be distant and cruel. But the heat of the afternoon was waning, and with the cool night, the mysterious beast and its appetite would awaken and crawl out of hiding. So I did my best to futilely bind the wounds of the young man, and ordered the others to make a bonfire outside with the wrecked wood, away from the barn that could be brought down on top of them, or that would be needed by them for shelter if they survived.” I sighed, thinking back over the hollow cries of fear that had escaped the grandmother’s lips as I had gestured for the group to huddle near the flames. “Admittedly, I believed a fire as well as the people around it would attract the beast’s attention and draw it out. But I was also sure that the creature wouldn’t wish to be too near the flames, and I knew I could keep the beast’s focus on myself.”