A Flight of Marewings

by Kristen S. Walker

  She folded her arms and glared back at him. “I can do it if you give me the chance.”

  He turned back to the table and picked up his fork. “You also won’t have the time to go chasing after the source of your father’s curse.”

  Korinna fought to keep down her anger. She should have known Varranor would not keep her visit from the mage a secret. “That was supposed to be private,” she hissed between her teeth.

  “One of the first things that you should know about the Storm Petrels is that we do not keep secrets from each other, least of all between myself and my brother, who is my second in command for more than just family loyalty.” He cut a piece of sausage with his knife and ate it. “There are many rules that I use to maintain discipline in my company. Each new trainee—if they fulfill the requirements of recruitment—must sign a contract agreeing to follow them. Will you follow my command under these conditions?”

  She considered her options a final time. In social terms, becoming a mercenary was a step lower than practically everything else. According to the Temple of Deyos, war should be avoided at all costs, so warriors could hold no titles and win no glory. Mercenaries were required to place half of their salaries into a bank account that they couldn’t touch until they retired. The Goddess of War, Kylara, had a fickle temper, and people invoked her name at peril of facing her wrath. Active youths were encouraged to become athletes instead of fighters.

  It wouldn’t be easy, and there would be no going back from the decision once she committed to it. She had athletic abilities, but her sores were just now healing from her first flight on a marewing, showing her how unprepared she really was.

  But she also recalled that feeling of flying—the wind in her hair, the land stretched out below her, the freedom to go anywhere she wanted with no one to rely on but the beast underneath her. She had won Nightshade’s permission to ride easily. How much harder could it be to tame a monster like that for herself?

  He turned to face her again, and she met his eyes to answer. “I believe that your command will be fair, so yes, I will follow you.”

  “You have only known me for a few days. Do you have that much confidence in your ability to read people?”

  She thrust her chin up. “I’ve never been wrong before.”

  He folded his hands in his lap. “Yet you thought that you could trust my brother with your secret correspondence yesterday, and you see how that turned out.”

  “He didn’t give me a choice.” She pursed her lips.

  Galenos pushed back his chair and stood up, once again towering over her. “Well, we shall see what my recruitment officers think about you. Report to the recruitment office by the gate and dress for rigorous exercise. If they accept you, then we will discuss the rest of the terms of your contract this afternoon.” He left the room.

  Korinna went back to her seat and sat down, quivering with excitement and dread. Either she would succeed in her crazy scheme today or she’d go back to her farm and think of another plan. She wouldn’t sit around to be used as someone else’s pawn.

  The recruitment office stood next to the road that connected the military complex to the rest of the city. Two officers sat behind a desk displaying blue-and-black pennants with the Storm Petrel insignia. Both of them were men that she didn’t recognize, despite being in the military complex for five days. The older one, with a scraggly beard and a scar on his cheek, gave her a bored glance and looked away again. The other, a middle-aged man with a shock of red hair, gave her the briefest of professional smiles and folded his hands before him.

  “Can I help you with something, young one?” he asked.

  Korinna marched up to him and placed her hands flat on the desk. “I am signing up to join Galenos’s company.”

  The two men exchanged a bemused look. “Whoa, slow down there,” said the red-haired one. “Are you sure you know what yer about?”

  She threw her head back. “Galenos told me that if I passed your tests, I could join the Storm Petrels.”

  The officer held up a hand. “Well, Warlord Mrokin may have offered you a place, but we need to ask you a few questions first.” He looked her up and down. “Are you sixteen years of age?”

  “I am nineteen.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “If you claim so.” He pulled out a stack of papers and began to read aloud. “You must also be healthy, able-bodied, strong, able to take orders, tall enough—” He frowned. “Well, sometimes we take shorter girls for scouts and the like. Can you run?”

  Korinna nodded. “For the past two years, I took the women’s title in my district’s Summer Games. I can run, tumble, scale a tree, and swim. I also worked in the fields of my farm every day. I am strong enough.”

  “Does your family know that you want to become a mercenary?”

  She shook her head. “My parents are both dead.”

  He frowned. “Are you in debt or destitute without your family? There are better ways to earn a living than to become a mercenary.”

  “This is what I want to do.” She put her hands down on the booth and leaned forward until she was a mere hand span away from his face. “I plan on becoming a marewing rider.”

  He looked down and smiled to himself. “I see. I am sure that Warlord Mrokin warned you the odds of that are slim.” He read through a list of other requirements in a bored tone. When she had convinced him that she satisfied all of them, he turned to a new page.

  “Very well. We do not tolerate drunkards, brawlers, liars, thieves, or blasphemers. The initial contract is for two years after the six months’ basic training. The pay is low, but you will also receive room, board, gear, and training. If we win a battle, though we have not fought in a while, mind, you also get a share of the plunder. You will also be discharged if you become pregnant. Any questions?”

  She shook her head.

  The officer got up from the desk and led her outside, then gave her a series of physical tests. He watched her run, do push-ups, tumble, and a number of other challenges. She was sweaty and out of breath by the time he let her back inside.

  He sat down at the desk and pulled out a chair of her. “With your acrobatic skills, I think you would do better in a circus or something of that nature. The Theater Guild would take you in a heartbeat.” He sighed and pulled out a heavy leather bound book. It landed on the booth with an audible thump. “But if this is what you really want, then you sign your name in here and you will be an official member of the Company.”

  She took the pen he offered and dipped it into the well of ink. When he opened the book to an empty page, she wrote her name with a clear hand.

  The officer turned the book around and looked down. “Welcome to the Company—Korinna Votsis?” He looked up at her in surprise, and his partner gasped. “You’re the duke’s daughter?”

  She smiled and bobbed a shallow curtsy. “Yes, I am.”

  “You—” He cleared his throat and stared at her. “Forgive me, my lady, but you know that the law says you cannot hold any lands once you join.”

  The older officer growled, “This is not a life for a rich duke’s daughter. Many fighters end up killed or maimed, and those of us who survive our contract are changed by what we see. Best call the warlord to cross her name out.”

  Korinna shook her head. “I know what I am doing, and so does the warlord. I will have to seek legal council later to arrange my estates. What do I do now?”

  The red-haired officer just kept staring and gawping at her. The scarred officer frowned. “Do you want to stay in the city another week first? You will miss the New Year’s festival. They say it’s going to be a big one this year.”

  She shook her head again. “If I have that much work to do, then I want to get started right away.”

  He turned and pointed to one of the plainer buildings. “Report to Sergeant Yoren, the head of your new unit, and follow orders. From now on, you do what you are told without arguing, and you say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’. You treat your betters with respect
, and that means anyone but another recruit, got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Carry on, recruit.”

  She turned and headed for the building he had pointed to.

  Korinna was surprised to learn that the main body of the Storm Petrel company didn’t stay inside Kyratia City at all. The military complex seemed large to her and full of people, but Sergeant Yoren told her that it could only a few hundred soldiers at most. He was only one of many training officers, assembling the most recent unit. Their unit would hold forty recruits when they were full, but they hadn’t reached that number yet, so they would stay in the city for a few more days while they waited.

  “Recruiting lasts through the Summer to build up our numbers,” Yoren explained. “More people travel during these months, when there’s less work on the farms. We haven’t had a costly battle in a while, so we don’t need many, but we lose about a tenth of our soldiers each year to retirement, so we need to recruit at least three hundred to sustain our numbers.”

  Korinna did the math in her head and her eyes widened. “You mean there are three thousand soldiers in the Storm Petrels?”

  Yoren shrugged. “It changes. We aim for halfway between two and three thousand, most of the time. Kyratia won’t pay for many more in peacetime.”

  For the first time, she wondered at her chances of becoming a rider. “How many marewings?”

  Yoren smirked, as if he could read her thoughts. “About two hundred and fifty. But they don’t retire at the same rate as regular soldiers—their riders are contracted to the company for life. In a good year, maybe ten new riders.”

  She swallowed hard, feeling a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. Those odds were not good. “Ten out of three hundred?”

  Yoren shook his head. “Ten out of more than two thousand. Less than half of those will come from new recruits, the ones with the strongest potential. The others are chosen from more experienced soldiers who have proven their skills to the officers.”

  Korinna decided to stop asking questions before she got even more discouraged.

  Getting ready to leave was simple because she had nothing to pack: she would be leaving the city with what she brought into it, the clothes on her back. The expensive frippery Galenos had bought her over the past several days wouldn’t serve her in training, so she would leave it behind.

  The only things to take care of were the dispensation of her father’s estate and the new contract with Galenos. The first part was tedious but straightforward. She sat down with a lawyer who drafted a paper stating the rights to the lands would revert to the people living on them, holding them as a communal lease. She made sure to include a generous retirement bonus for Myron and the other servants of her household, who would now be out of work. For her father’s mansion in the city, she put down instructions for the house and contents to be sold at auction, and the proceeds donated to the local Temple of Deyos.

  The lawyer hesitated when she heard the last part. “I think Varula might be gaining a little more in popularity now,” she said in a neutral tone.

  Korinna bit back her opinion of the new Republic’s religious upheaval. “Deyonismos is still the faith that serves the poor and gives education to the people who do not live in the city. I will donate my father’s money for their charitable works.”

  The lawyer hid a smile and finished writing the document. She turned it around and held out a pen. “Sign here.”

  Korinna signed away her father’s estates, her childhood home, and everything that had belonged to both of her parents before their deaths. There was no turning back now.

  Dealing with Galenos was a trickier business. She pushed him to make her some kind of promise.

  He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “I can’t put it down in a contract that I will marry you if we take control of the city, because I can’t leave any written evidence that I have plans to conquer it. Those kinds of things tend to be discovered by the wrong people.”

  Korinna folded her arms. “It’s the lack of spelling things out in a legal document that got us into trouble in the first place. I am not going to trust your word alone.”

  Galenos straightened the stacks of papers on his desk. “I can’t promise you that we will ever even attempt to take the city. I have to evaluate all of our plans based on the current political climate of the city, and that’s in flux right now.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to get rid of me with weak excuses. I believe if you do ever rule the city, you will need my link to the previous ruling family in order to make people approve of you.”

  He looked at her and tapped a finger on his chin. “That’s a rather large assumption, considering most people currently seem to approve of a Republic instead of any monarch.”

  “You seem to think that the Republic will fail.”

  He shot her a piercing look. “When did I say that?”

  She tossed her hair back over her shoulders. “It’s in your voice every time you talk about it.”

  He looked down at his hands and smiled. “I did not think I was that easy to read, but you can see right through me.” He picked up a pen and hovered over the blank page. “What if we put something in very general terms, such as, both parties agree that if one or both of them experience a significant change in fortunes, then they shall marry and share in that fortune together.”

  “So if one of us discovers a silver mine, then we have to get married?”

  He laughed. “If you discover a profitable silver mine, then we can bribe enough of the Councilors to gain control of the city again.”

  “We understand what it really means, though.” She nodded. “I think that will work.”

  The warlord’s legal counsel approved the contract he drafted, and they both signed.

  Galenos wished her luck with her training. “From here on out, you are just like any other recruit. This contract between us will be sealed in private and will not get you any special treatment from the rest of the company. The only place you will get is the one you earn. I won’t be there to help you if you run into trouble, and I won’t always be around to give you updates on our progress.”

  Korinna shook his hand. At last she felt satisfied that she was in control of her own destiny again. “Thank you. You can be sure I won’t waste the opportunity.”

  8

  Galenos III

  After the girl had left his study, Galenos skimmed the documents from the legal counsel a final time and set them aside with a satisfied smile.

  “What are you smiling about?” Varranor picked up one of the contracts and scanned it. “This doesn’t really say what you told her, does it?”

  “Of course not.” Galenos gestured to the legal counsel, who snatched up both papers and left the room. “The girl may be educated to a point, but those were written in dense legal terms to hide what they really meant. Her estates are being held by her steward as regent, so when she quits in frustration in a day or a month, the title will revert back to her.”

  Varranor frowned. “Then won’t that be, ah, how did you put it? A change in fortune that will require her to marry you?”

  He shook his head. “She technically never lost the lands, so gaining them back won’t be a change. And that so-called marriage agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It won’t be filed.”

  “So you lied to her.”

  “Well, I humored her little fantasy for the time being.” He stood up from behind his desk and stretched, stiff from sitting inactive for so long. “But later when she realizes what I’ve done, she will thank me.”

  Varranor folded his arms. “Why bother with this charade? You could have just refused to cooperate at all.”

  Galenos started to pace back and forth across the narrow room to stretch his legs. “Yes, that was one option I considered. But I know the girl is stubborn, and everyone wants to do something reckless in their youth. Better to let her get it out of her system. Once she’s had a taste of the mercenary life,
she’ll appreciate what she has all the more.”

  Varranor cocked his head to one side. “Just like Father told us that trying to catch a marewing was reckless? We wouldn’t be where we are today without them.”

  Galenos stopped short and turned to face his brother. “No, but we never had another choice. The girl does, and I won’t let her throw it away. I’m only trying to protect her. I swore an oath to her father that I would keep her safe. Besides, I still need to marry her to become duke, because the city would never accept the son of an immigrant. Her noble blood will make me a full citizen at last.”

  “You think she’ll just give up and be happy when you give her the lands back?”

  “You’ve seen the girl. Do you think that she can become a hardened warrior over night? Even if she makes it through basic training, what hope does she have of becoming a rider?” Galenos shook his head. “Few women are strong enough to even make the climb, let alone catch a marewing. When things don’t work out, she’ll come back to complain, and then she can have her farms.”

  Varranor tapped a finger on his chin. “The recruiter did say that there was potential for her to become a scout or a message runner.”

  “She’ll never be satisfied with that.” Galenos looked over at the pile of papers on his desk. “This whole thing has been such a headache. I can’t take any more surprises.”

  “You should give Korinna a chance. She may prove us all wrong.”

  Galenos frowned. “I think that you’ve grown fond of the girl already.” He pointed to the door. “But if you want to help her, go. Sergeant Yoren is always asking me for extra officers to help train new recruits.”