The Five

by Nhys Glover

  No! No! This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. We had to rescue Landor. Zem was never supposed to be at risk. Landor was not supposed to turn into a monster, holding me down, suffocating me!

  Airshin was there then. It was Airshin laughing and calling me disgusting names. Holding me down. Helpless. I couldn’t fight him. I was helpless. His tongue was choking me. I hurt! Gods, I hurt!

  “Flea! Stop it. I’m not hurting you! But you cannot go back! Zem would not want you to go back!” I heard him say from a long way away.

  But the hair was the same—white hair—but not old man’s hair. It fell around my face as he pressed me down. He was holding me down and smothering me.

  In the next moment, I was flipped onto my back and a face was staring down into mine. I saw the eyes. They looked concerned, not lustful. I knew those black eyes. I’d seen them in a dark room where a man was chained.

  “Flea, it’s all right. Stop fighting, please. We have to be ready to run again. You’re the one who said it. The Goddess needs us.”

  Those words got through the fog in my brain. I had said those words. When had I said those words? Oh, aye, when Landor faltered, thinking to go back. The Goddess needed him. And she needed me. But she needed Zem too, and if he was still in the house he’d be burned up.

  It was laughable. We’d been so worried about Landor burning up in the sun, but really it was Zem who was burning up. I had to get to him!

  But Landor wasn’t going to let go of me while ever I struggled, and he was too big for me to fight from this position. I had moves... but somehow Landor seemed to anticipate and counter each one I tried on him.

  I needed to be smart. I needed to stop fighting and think. If he relaxed, I could get loose and go back. My sword was on the ground somewhere, dropped when Landor threw me down. But I could find it and go back. I had to!

  There was another explosion and more light flared up into the dark night sky. I was crying, the tears blurring my vision, clogging my throat. Gods, I was choking on my own tears.

  But I relaxed, and Landor relaxed, taking his big hand from my mouth. I drew in ragged breaths, trying to ease my over-worked lungs. But the tears wouldn’t stop, and I couldn’t get enough air.

  “He will be all right. He is a warrior, is he not? They will not get him. And he is not the one they want,” Landor said in measured tones that belied the chaos of his mind. He was worried too, but he was determined to keep me safe. That was what Zem would have wanted. It was the right thing to do. In a world where everything he’d viewed as right and wrong was now in question, this one action was clear and right. He must protect me at all costs.

  My mind began to slow, the panic ebb. Zem wouldn’t let himself get caught. He was better than a mob out for blood. A mob led by a crazy servant.

  I calmed a little more. Landor eased off me, and I turned onto my stomach again so I could look back the way we’d come.

  The mansion was ablaze, its dark stone skeleton lit from within. Smaller sparks of light flowed around it, making it seem like they were sparks blown off from the one fire. It was beautiful in its way.

  The air was still, but smelled of burning wood. In the darkness, I saw a lone figure staggering toward us, backlit by the fire. Limping toward us.

  Zem! Gods, he was hurt!

  I made to jump up, but Landor was holding me down again.

  The sparks of fire were beginning to head in Zem’s direction. They were heading for us!

  That’s when I heard it. The oh-so-familiar sound of flapping, leathery wings. I looked up and saw three huge creatures circling—preparing to land.

  Landor drew back in terror. I took the opportunity to get free of him and race back into the field where the first airling was landing. Three airlings! Three!

  I tried to work out who they were. Likely Spot and Storm, drawn by my growing mental connection with Spot. But the other?

  It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting Zem and getting out of here.

  Was Landor following me? He would be terrified of the huge flying creatures. What must they look like to him in the darkness? But my focus was on Zem. I had to get to him before the angry townsfolk did.

  Then Landor was sweeping me up and drawing me along with him, his long strides twice mine. We were heading for the airlings and Zem! He wasn’t trying to stop me anymore.

  The airlings had landed now and sat half way between us and Zem. The distance between my twin goals of airlings and Zem seemed insurmountable. But the slow moments passed, and we grew closer.

  But so did the torches and the yelling. The chanting! The fire would wash over Zem any time. I knew it!

  But the staggering man was getting closer too. As we reached the airlings, Landor dropped me and yelled, “Stay!” Then he was running the extra strides to Zem, and he did what he’d done with me—wrapped Zem’s arm over his shoulder and propelled them both back toward the waiting beastlings. And me.

  I’d obeyed, for a change, too exhausted to do anything else. But I felt Spot’s loving concern, and I struggled to my feet and went to him, rubbing against his side in gratitude, and for comfort.

  The shouts were getting closer, but so were Landor and Zem. In the next moment, my men reached us. Landor and I pushed Zem up onto Storm’s sturdy back.

  “Now you. All you have to do is throw your leg over just in front of the wings and behind those two horns and then hold on to the horns. Bay will do the rest.” Because it was Bay. I recognised her as soon as I was close enough to make her out. Beautiful Bay, Airsha’s own airling!

  For the first time Landor looked hesitant. It was one thing to approach these unknown creatures, another to take to the skies on one. But what was his choice? Being burned alive or beaten to death by the mob?

  “Landor, you can do this! Please. We have to get away from here now! They’re getting closer. The airlings are our friends. They came to save us! You’ll be riding Airsha’s Bay.”

  Landor’s face lost its fear and settled into determination. He climbed onto Bay’s back with more grace than I could have managed, and I’d been riding for suns. I didn’t wait for him to follow my other instruction to hold onto the horns. I had to get on Spot and be away from here.

  Storm was already taking to the sky, in a loud flapping of wings. I was on Spot when Bay followed, her graceful flapping a sharp contrast to the fevered panic and furious yelling around her. Then Spot was up and hopping, his wings flapping. A torch-carrying townsmen had reached us, but he fell back in shock as the edge of a leathery wing grazed his face.

  We were up! Gods, we were up!

  And this mob were not soldiers with archers among them. This would not be a repeat of that long ago time with Trace. No one would fire on us. But Zem was injured. How badly I couldn’t say.

  We flew away from the black glittering coastline for what felt like a turn. I assumed the airlings were taking us back to Airsha, but I wasn’t sure.

  When we started to descend to the flat expanse of Badlunds, I started to worry. This was not good. The airlings wouldn’t land unless there was something wrong with one of them or one of the riders.

  No, not like Trace! Please, not like Trace!

  But I could plead and cry as much as I wanted, the airlings were going down. All I could do was handle whatever was to come next.

  I scrambled off Spot as soon as his clawed feet hit the ground. I ran to where Storm had landed. Zem was sliding off her back just like Trace had done.

  No! No! Not Zem! Anyone but Zem! I didn’t have four other men to love me like Airsha had when she lost Trace. I only had Zem, my best friend, my lover, the man I wanted as my husband.

  Zem collapsed on the ground, flat on his back, his arms flung wide. Like Trace. Just like Trace. I dropped to the ground beside him and felt for arrows or cuts or burns. I didn’t know what. Landor dropped to his knees on Zem’s other side. He reached out and placed his hands on my lover’s chest.

  Aye! I’d forgotten. Landor’s magic
was healing! He could do this. He’d brought creatures back from the dead, he could save Zem!

  I moved to Zem’s head and rested it on my knees, stroking his curls back from his burning forehead. So hot. He was so hot. And unconscious. He didn’t even know I was there.

  I watched Landor’s hand begin to glow like fire. No, like a lamp. For a moment, I was caught by the beauty and majesty of it. This pale glorious man, poised over his fallen comrade, had light surging out of his fingertips, out of his palms.

  After what felt like a turn, but was likely only a fraction of that time, Landor fell back onto his butt and then onto his back, breathing hard and staring up into the star-filled sky.

  “Zem?” I whimpered.

  “He will be well. A broken leg and some ribs, and burns. His lungs were burned.” Landor’s deep voice sounded tired, incredibly tired.

  “Thank you!”

  “Do not thank me. He would not be in this condition if not for me. I should have–”

  “Don’t you dare say given yourself up to that mob! You were an innocent victim in all this. You did nothing wrong!”

  “Tell that to Zem. He nearly died because of me.”

  “He lives because of you!” I snapped back, out of patience with him. “Now shut up and rest. Exhaustion as much as anything else probably had Zem collapsing. The airlings wouldn’t have brought us down in this spot unless it was safe. So we sleep until first light, and then hopefully Zem will be well enough to fly the rest of the way back to the Airshan Capital.”

  “You give orders well, for a woman.” Landor’s tired voice held humour.

  “How would you know? And I give orders well, for a man. I’ve lived as one for long enough. Now sleep!”

  And taking my own advice, I curled up next to Zem and fell instantly into a deep and dreamless sleep, safe in the knowledge that Spot would alert me to any approaching danger.

  Chapter Eleven

  I woke to my pillow coughing. Instantly, I was wide awake and ready to face any foe. What I faced was Zem, clearing the black guck from his lungs in one revolting hack.

  “Really? That’s disgusting, Zem!” I scolded.

  “Better out than in! Urghh my mouth feels like someone lit a fire in it.” He sat up and looked around, probably for water. Unfortunately, we had none.

  I heard Landor groan. By the time I glanced his way, he was bolt upright, staring around him in stunned surprise.

  “It was real! Gods, I thought it was a dream,” he said, his usually smooth baritone scratchy.

  “Nightmare, more like. But no, it was real,” I groused.

  Landor lay back down on the dry grass and stared up at the sky above him. “It is so vast! I had no idea it would be so vast.”

  Looking skyward, I tried to see what he was seeing—an infinite expanse of pale blue sky so far above us that even an airling couldn’t reach it. Aye, it was vast and spectacular, all right.

  “Beautiful isn’t it?” I said admiringly.

  “Yes, but terrifying. If there was a closed-in, tiny space I could crawl into right now, I would.”

  “Terrifying? Why? It’s only sky.”

  Then I saw in his mind his small, dark cell—his sanctuary— and the difference was even too much for me to contemplate. He’d been taught to fear the outside, and this was as outside as anyone could get.

  “When we reach the Airshan Capital we’ll find you a place you can go when you feel... overwhelmed by all this. Because you will be overwhelmed,” I told him gently, wishing he was close enough to touch. But he’d bedded down a good three strides from Zem and me, and even further from the sleeping airlings, who were only now lifting their heads from their backs to greet the new day.

  Zem sat up and stretched, groaning loudly. “I feel like I was run over by a wild beastling. A herd of wild beastlings.”

  I laughed and gave him a shove. “No, you just had a mansion fall down on top of you and an angry mob chase you. What actually did happen? Why weren’t you behind us? I nearly went crazy when I discovered you weren’t there. And then the place went up in flames... Gods, I was never so scared in my life.”

  “I knew the front door wouldn’t hold them for long. I thought that if I kept them occupied trying to get in the front way they’d forget about the back entrance, and that would give you more time to get away. So I piled some furniture in front of the door and took off after you. But someone launched a jar through the glass window. It must have had spirits in it, because there was a flaming rag sticking out of the narrow opening. The next thing I knew the place was on fire and I was across the room with a cabinet on top of me.

  “By the time I pushed it off, there was nothing but a wall of flames surrounding me on three sides. Luckily, the hall that led to the kitchen was the only path left open. I headed for the hall, but realised pretty fast that my leg was broken. It took me longer than I’d have liked to get out of there. From the looks of it, I might have just got out in time.” He was looking down at his burned and ragged clothing.

  “You did. But the mob was almost on you when the airlings landed. Landor helped you reach them. Do you remember that?” I asked.

  “I do.” He turned to Landor for the first time then. Something in the way he looked at the man showed his change of attitude. Before, he’d felt sorry for Landor and a little envious of his ability to survive so well. Now he looked at him like a brother-in-arms. He’d accepted him as one of us. And his thoughts mirrored that impression.

  “Thank you, brother. I might not have reached the airlings in time, if not for you.”

  Landor blushed an ugly red, which pleased me immensely. I blushed like that, and I loved it when others suffered the same fate. Determined to make it last longer, I added.

  “And he probably saved your life with his healing. You’d been ready to fall off Storm when she brought you down. I was so scared you were going to be like Trace. But Landor healed your broken leg and ribs and whatever else was ailing you.”

  Zem looked from me to Landor in surprise. But instead of increasing his bond with the man, this latest revelation seemed to build barriers again. I tried to see inside his mind for the answer. But he’d locked his thoughts down.

  “I owe you my life a second time, then,” he said stiffly to the uncomfortable Landor.

  I didn’t understand what was happening. Surely Zem should be doubly grateful to the man, not less so.

  “Flea exaggerates. You were not dying. You had lost consciousness, that is all. A few broken bones would likely not have killed you. All I did was ease your pain.”

  Zem seemed to relax a little. What was with him?

  “All the same, I am doubly grateful. Your magic will be useful to us on our quest.”

  “It will be my only use,” Landor said humbly.

  It was as if he felt the need to belittle himself for Zem’s benefit. Was this one of those male pecking order things? Was Zem feeling as if his position as—what? leader?—was being challenged by this very capable older man? And, sensing that, was Landor assuming a submissive role to show he was no threat?

  I’d seen these antics with packs on the street; wadjas and men alike. There was a distinct way a man or beastling behaved when he was trying to show dominance or submission.

  But Landor’s body was showing none of those signs, even if his words were. Yet it was enough. Whatever was going on between the two men, Landor had said the right thing to ease the situation. Gods, I found men infuriating!

  “We need to get in the air immediately. The sun is about to come up and the longer you’re beneath its rays the more you’ll suffer. Maybe you could wrap this around your head,” Zem said as he pulled off what was left of his tunic and offered it up to the other man.

  Landor looked startled and confused. I edged closer so I could read his mind. I should have been close enough already, but I wasn’t picking anything up. Maybe we were further apart than I’d thought.

  But even moving closer didn’t help. He’d locked his thoughts do
wn. How had he done that? Why had he done that? He didn’t even know about my magic. Or did he? Had I told him and forgotten? It had been a long and busy day yesterday, and we’d shared so much information between us. But no, I would have sworn I hadn’t told him.

  So why would he feel the need to consciously lock down his thoughts?

  “I cannot take your clothing,” Landor declared, scrambling to his feet and backing away as if there were horreybugs all over the material.

  “Why not?” Zem demanded with obvious vexation.

  “You will burn. Your skin will be unprotected.”

  Zem sighed with frustration. “My skin doesn’t burn. I’ve gone days working in the sun without my tunic and all I got was a reddening of the skin. A few turns won’t hurt me. Just take the cloth, Landor. You don’t have to be the only one saving the day.”

  My mouth dropped open. There it was then, the reason for his attitude. I hastened to mend the bridge that was about to collapse between them. A great yawning chasm lurked beneath us if I didn’t succeed.

  “Zem gets mad when other people play hero. He sees that as his job. He nearly throttled me when I tried to save him during the war. He’d fallen off Storm into the middle of the battlefield, and I was sure he’d be killed before he could recover. So I went in after him. But was he grateful? Oh, no. He blamed me for nearly getting us both killed! Ungrateful bastard!

  “So just let him have his way. He’s right. You need the covering more than he does.”

  Zem shot daggers at me with his eyes, and I pulled a rude face. It was all I could think to do.

  “Flea has a tendency to jump in where she’s not needed. She really did nearly get us both killed with that little stunt,” he fumed, scowling at me but addressing his words to Landor.

  “Like last night. I had to hold her down to stop her running back into the fire when she discovered you weren’t following us,” Landor said with amusement.

  I huffed and turned to scowl at him.

  “That’s our Flea. Impulsive and hot-headed. Get used to it.” Zem spoke with amusement this time, sharing a very male moment with Landor.