by Erin Hoffman
// BRACE YOURSELF! // Altair's voice thundered in Vidarian's mind, uncontrolled, and as they whipped past the first branches of the tall trees, the gryphon let loose a blast of raw air energy, pushing toward the ground, cushioning them.
They crashed into the undergrowth, slowed by the expanding radius of Air, but hardly stopped. Branches whipped past Vidarian's face, tearing at his skin, and then the ground hit them, knocking the wind from his chest and blackening his vision.
All was still.
Distantly, the cries of the battle above them raged on, while Vidarian grasped for consciousness. Some lengths away, something crashed to the ground-a Sky Knight, and a dead one, he hoped. Beside him, Altair was struggling to his feet, and gave a high and piercing scream of pain as he did so.
Vidarian's vision came back slowly, and he moved each of his hands and feet, groaning as he did so, but with relief when they moved as he asked them to. “Altair?” he gasped, his breath still not recovered.
// Right wing, // the gryphon mumbled. // Broken, I think. //
Something else crashed into the forest some distance from them, this time to the left.
They began to realize slowly that there were too many cries in the air. Horses couldn't make those noises-and there were only two gryphons.
Vidarian looked up slowly.
High overhead, framed by the gap they'd made in the brush with their fall, a battle was raging in the air.
The flying craft was angling toward the ground, forgotten. Above it, at least twenty gryphons were diving upon the knights, slashing with beaks and claws, wreaking havoc in the sky.
// Thalnarra's pride, // Altair said in wonder, relief drowning out pain.
They stared at the sky, transfixed, as the gryphons darted in among the knights, falling upon them from above like stooping hawks. It was unlike anything Vidarian had ever seen. The gryphons writhed in the air like fighting cats, but swooped and spiraled like falcons, building momentum with powerful wingstrokes in order to bring their tearing claws down upon the knights. For their part, each horse and rider had the advantage of mass on the gryphons-and their lances and swords here and there found marks in gryphon flesh.
But for each hit the knights scored, the gryphons took three more-and in spite of the lieutenant's bold “death before retreat” claim, the commander evidently thought differently, and called a retreat when a third of her riders had fallen and only two gryphons had been injured. In spite of their violence, Vidarian almost pitied them when the gryphons moved to give chase to the fleeing riders-but one of the gryphons gave a screeching command, and those pursuing fell back with the group.
The gryphons above had moved into a circling perimeter when a rustling thump some distance away drew Vidarian and Altair's attention back to the ground. Altair started to move, then cried out in pain as his wounded wing convulsed. “Stay here,” Vidarian said, and foraged through the brush.
The presence of the gate pulled on his mind. The storm sapphires, since they had crashed into the brush, had been a constant dull roar of activity, pulling the energy of the gate toward them. A rolling susurrus filled his thoughts but he blinked past it, bearing down with his will. But they were close, and the stones yearned to fulfill their function, whatever it might be.
He came upon the Destiny in an open meadow, where it had landed and now tilted to one side. Ruby was outside the craft unharnessing Thalnarra and Arikaree with one hand. Her other hand was at her side, where it staunched blood around the poultice-her wound had reopened in the action. Vidarian leapt over the knee-high grasses and ran toward them, taking Ruby's place in the unharnessing. She gave a gasp of relief when she saw him.
“We saw you go down,” she said, looking him over for damage.
“I'm fine, but Altair is injured,” he said. “He thinks his right wing is broken.” With the gryphons unharnessed, he leaned over the rim of the flight craft, checking Ariadel's safety straps and blankets. Her eyes fluttered open, and his heart leapt, but moments later she closed them again, sound asleep.
// We are watching Ariadel, // Arikaree said. Vidarian turned to him and started forward when he saw the blood seeping sluggishly from a shallow wound at the pelican-gryphon's shoulder, but Arikaree waved him away with a gesture of his long beak. // He be needing you more now. Be taking medical kit from craft. // Vidarian followed his instructions and fished a leather satchel of medical supplies from the Destiny.
// Show me, // Thalnarra said, shaking out her feathers. Vidarian looked at Ruby, who nodded agreement, and Vidarian foraged back through the grass toward Altair, following the trail of flattened foliage he'd left moments before.
When Thalnarra caught sight of where Altair crouched, his wing crumpled at his side, she surged ahead of Vidarian and began inspecting the other gryphon. She crouched at each of his sides and moved her talons over him, looking but not touching. Both of their eyes pinned and flared in silent conversation.
// Now who's crazy? // Thalnarra said, probably for Vidarian's benefit, and for a second Vidarian was swallowed in the traumatic memory of their fall from the sky. He gave a shake of his head and opened the medical satchel.
Under Thalnarra's guidance, Vidarian gave Altair a dried pod of some vegetable from the satchel that within moments had the gryphon disoriented and relaxed. They maneuvered his broken wing into a proper fold with only the occasional yelp of pain-loudest when they moved the large bone between his wrist and shoulder back into alignment. As painful as it was to have broken that bone, Thalnarra seemed relieved-the more delicate pair of bones at the leading edge of his wing, she said, would have created a much more serious break.
At length they splinted the now-straightened broken bone with a cut sapling, then folded Altair's wing against his body and bound it there with lengths of silk bandage. When they were done, he hadn't yet recovered from the dried pod medicine, so Thalnarra waited with him in the forest while Vidarian returned to the downed craft.
When he came upon the meadow, he found not just one pelican-gryphon waiting there, but a goodly portion of Thalnarra's pride-including Kaltak and Ishrak. The rest of the gryphons were goshawk-type-it was startlingly like seeing a dozen Thalnarras until their minute differences became clear-and so the brothers stuck out with their brown feathers and long feathered legs.
The two young gryphons bounded up to Vidarian as soon as he crossed into the meadow. They clearly had been cleaning themselves up, but the remnants of blood shone red-black on their talons and beaks. Vidarian had seen them with fresh-killed prey before, but never with the heightened blood of battle, their ruffs puffed out, their eyes flashing. He wondered how much of the blood on their talons was human, and decided he'd rather not know.
// Greetings, brother! // Kaltak chirped, his tufted ears flicked forward in happy excitement.
“Good to see you, my friend,” Vidarian said, holding out his hand for Kaltak to press his beak to in greeting. The smooth, curved killing instrument felt familiar now, and Vidarian realized how much his life had changed. His gaze drifted to the other gryphons, shocked again at how very much like Thalnarra they looked-though, if it was possible to be sure at this distance, none of them seemed to have her red eyes. But in form and size they were as similar to her as the brothers were to each other.
They weren't always like that, the Starhunter whispered. Everything has come so far apart. Separated. Boxes, little boxes… She started humming an extremely annoying tune, and Vidarian tried to block her out.
// Ishrak has had his first battle! // Kaltak said, and the younger brother dipped his head in acknowledgment. // We aren't Thalnarra's pride, but she allowed us to join them for Ishrak's sake, and on account of us knowing you. // The young gryphon was practically garrulous, his energy clearly excited by the action they'd seen.
“Congratulations,” Vidarian told Ishrak, not sure what else to say.
The smaller brother's cheek-feathers puffed out in shy pleasure. // We should return to our duties, // he said. // They're clea
ring the field and setting up a camp. // Kaltak looked disappointed but couldn't argue, and the brothers turned back to their tasks.
It was no mean thing, it turned out, to support an entire pride of gryphons, even for a largely under-hunted wild area that had known no gryphons for some time, perhaps even centuries. To Vidarian's horror, they proceeded to eat the slain horses, though mercifully not within sight of the camp. The riders they buried, those that they could find-after a quick calculation Vidarian was quite sure that more still lay fallen. He wasn't much for prayer, but considering that she'd been instrumental in saving his life, he said a brief blessing for the knights to their air goddess, Siane.
Much good she did them, the Starhunter chuckled.
As if you're doing better, he thought viciously at her, even as he berated himself for letting her get to him.
That's hardly my fault, she said, and the hurt in her voice seemed oddly genuine, if-as all things seemed to be with her-fleeting. They locked me back here. How am I supposed to do anyone any good? I can hardly think with these irksome bird-people everywhere.
Though she'd been given to exaggeration, such a specific fabrication tugged at his mind as unlikely. There are gryphons back there? But surely Thalnarra would not oppose the gate opening if she knew there were gryphons trapped…
Not gryphons! she snapped. Then I might have had some conversation. Just…well, look!
She seized his mind, and Vidarian abruptly found himself somewhere else.
It was dark, and the darkness receded into infinity, a shadow that came from nowhere. Surrounding them, just out of reach, were glimmering presences, fascinating little lights. He found himself reaching toward them, stretching himself, expanding.
No, no, a voice said crossly. This!
And there they were, thousands of them, millions! Uncountable faces, bodies, almost human-but covered with feathers.
See! Bird-people! What are you calling them now…
Their faces were haunted, tortured. Some of them seemed to see him, others did not. A collective murmur rose up from them, and when those nearest caught sight of him, the murmur increased into a roar.
Oh, great, the Starhunter sighed. You'd better go back.
And then he was back, the sounds of the meadow sudden in his ears, the smell of the earth, the warmth of the sun on his skin, chased by a moist forest breeze.
Back in his own mind, he also realized what he'd seen, if indeed it was real. Statues of winged humans littered Val Harlon, beaks on their faces where noses and mouths should be, their hair wrought in fanciful plumes that stood up from their foreheads like crests. Could the world have forgotten an entire people?
Thalnarra stepped into the meadow, holding back a branch with her beak so that Altair could gingerly follow. He winced as he stepped into the sunlit meadow, his eyes still wide from the pain medicine.
The world hadn't forgotten, Vidarian realized. Humans had.
He reached out with his Sense as easily as he would have with his hand, but this reached much farther, brushed up against Thalnarra's presence at the meadow's edge. She flared up instinctively, a shield of fire energy lifting around her, ready for attack. Vidarian was already walking toward her, but stopped a stone's throw away.
“Tell me about the bird-people, Thalnarra,” he said. “Tell me what else the gryphons know and have kept from us.”
Her aura dimmed as she took in his question, then dropped entirely, metaphysical arms falling to her sides.
// They made a decision, // she said, and Vidarian already disliked where this was going. // Centuries ago. When the gate was closed, they went in before the Starhunter-all of them. It was the only way to trick her inside. //
“And they're still there.”
// Presumably they would be. Though what would be left… //
“How many, Thalnarra?”
// Two million, we believe, // she said, the words pulled from her.
Sounds about right. Though some of them aren't right in the head, the Starhunter giggled. Maybe they count for halves? In that case it's only one million.
“And they suffer.”
// No one knows that. //
“I can hear them, Thalnarra!”
The gryphoness bridled, undaunted. // Would you undo their sacrifice? All that they gave to win peace in our world? //
“A peace in which the strong prey upon the weak, and power is relegated to a chosen few.”
// She fills your head with lies! //
“So far,” Vidarian said, “I don't think she's lied to me yet.”
“Vidarian,” Ruby was calling-and the edge in her voice quickened Vidarian's pulse. He ran toward the Destiny, where Ruby bent over the rim of the craft. Within, Ariadel was trembling, her skin sickeningly pale. “She's fading,” Ruby said, pain lacing her voice. “It takes them so fast. I'm sorry, Vidarian.”
His jaw tightened. “I need to get to the gate.” He looked up at Ruby, and she nodded, wordless.
They emptied the craft of all its contents save Ariadel and her blankets, lightening it enough to lift between them like a large gurney. Vidarian buckled his sword at his side, stowed in the craft for flight. While they worked, the gryphons were circled in intense conference of some kind, a passionate one punctuated often by clacking beaks and flared wings. When Ruby and Vidarian lifted the craft, Vidarian pointed them toward the east, where the sapphires told him the gate waited. He expected Thalnarra to follow, expected the burst of renewed fury that was sure to come with her-but the gryphons only watched him, and when they did follow, it was at a distance, peaceful but ominous.
At the forest's edge the trees thinned and disappeared entirely into a golden plain that ran in undulating hills to the horizon. This stand of trees was deceptively small, large for a small human standing inside it, but a pocket seen from the air-one that had grown up around the ancient stones of the Great Gate.
The wild land that had grown up here in centuries of civilization's absence had consumed almost everything save the gate. Stacked sandstone originally shaped flat and precise had been worn down by wind and rain at all its edges, and dry sun-loving creepers wrapped its base to the height of Vidarian's eye. The gate itself-an empty thing, a frame only-extended thrice the height of a gryphon, and was twice as wide. The remnants of stone foundations littered the ground a respectful distance away, and the ground at their feet was once paved with clay bricks, but few remained to fight the invading grasses.
Vidarian and Ruby carried Ariadel to the gate's threshold, and as they drew closer to it the sapphires increased their constant rumble of satisfaction and anticipation. By the strain written across Ruby's face Vidarian knew the red gems treated her similarly. When they gently lowered the Destiny to the ground, Ariadel's eyes fluttered open, focusing clearly for the first time in days. Vidarian's fledgling fire sense felt hers questing outward, awakened by the sudden flash and rumble of the rubies and sapphires. He knelt at her side immediately, taking one of her hands in both of his. From behind them, he heard Thalnarra's hiss of indrawn breath.
When Ariadel's own fire sense touched his, she flared up in his awareness, for a split second bright and strong as she had been the day they first met. But it was a flash, momentary only, collapsing even as it reached the edges of her faltering attention. “Where are we?” With their senses entwined, he could feel the plague raging within her, the elements that made her at war with each other. He knew how much each word cost her.
“We're at the gate,” he said softly, and felt the jump in her awareness as she comprehended his words. She tried to lift her head, but only for a moment-as her strength fled, so too did her sense, and she dropped away from his mind. He recklessly threw himself after her, nearly reaching out with the water magic that longed to break free inside him. With a grasp of will that darkened his vision for a split second, he held it back, to the fury of the still growling sapphires. He closed his eyes, mastering them, snarling inside his mind, then brushed his thumbs across her fingers and said,
“I'm going to open it.”
With a force that would have thrown her to her feet had she the strength, Ariadel writhed in the flight craft, every fiber of her being shouting resistance. When her energy fled again, she collapsed back, again winking out of his awareness-then slowly flickering, fighting back up again. “The gate…” she trembled as she fought to get the words out, “…must…not…be opened!” Her body had nothing left, had burned through its reserves in their passage to the gate, yet in the depths of her soul's urgency was the strength to fight.
Vidarian was quiet for a long moment, consumed by the sound of her breathing-knowing as he had never known any other truth that he was not capable of hearing it cease. “Ariadel,” he said finally, “you'll die.”
“If I die, I die in a world I understand, by the teachings that have shaped my entire life. You don't know what you're asking me for,” she said. Even as the strength had welled up within her, now it fled, leaving her a swiftly collapsing shell.
“I'm asking you to live,” he said.
“Not at this price,” she whispered. “No one life is worth this price.”
“You don't…!” He stopped himself and breathed, swallowing the flash of sudden anger, warned by the renewed pulsation of the storm sapphires. “You don't know the price,” he said. “We only know what we've been told. I know that this is right.”
Her eyes were fading, exhaustion settling across her features. She shook her head as her eyes drooped. “I can't be this,” she said, her eyes pleading for understanding he couldn't find in himself. “You have to let me go.” And then her eyes shut, her consciousness pouring through his Sense's grasp, flowing down into darkness.
“How can you ask me to let you die?” he whispered. And a whisper in his mind answered-
What are gods for, Vidarian, if not for cruel choices?
Her spitefulness bounced harmlessly off of the wall of his grief. “It wasn't the Quest,” he choked, seizing Ariadel's hands in his, “it was you.” He looked up and into Ruby's ashen face. “I'm losing her!” He lifted her in his arms and stood, turning toward the gate.