Chapter 11: Flight

The only thing worse than riding in layers in the heat is riding in layers in the rain.

Chapter 11: Flight

The sun beat down upon the four travellers, promising an early summer. Andra was not dressed for this summer. At Eyrie’s request, they had all layered their clothing so that packing would be easier. Two shirts under a leather jerkin and itchy woollen trousers she wore, and she was glad that Eyrie let her leave her black, fur-lined cloak draped behind her on the saddle. She could feel an uncomfortable prickling sensation on her arms and back, a signal that she would start sweating soon. Midnight whickered as she squirmed, trying to scratch that unreachable spot between her shoulder blades.

     Seeing the young woman fidgeting, Eyrie smirked. “You’ll be glad of it when we get to southern Sholvayl. Any farther south than that and there’s still a ways left until spring is anywhere in sight. The good Solanis looks upon those lands last.”

 

     Well, Andra was not glad of it now, and she doubted that riding south for a few days would change that. Dark clouds hung in the distance, too. The only thing worse than riding under layers in the heat is riding under layers in the rain.

 

     After nudging Midnight next to Eyrie’s chestnut, Andra pitched her voice low so that only Eyrie could hear and asked, “Are you going to tell us where we’re going this time?”

     The older woman’s piercing green eyes made it hard for Andra to maintain eye-contact. Andra swallowed, looked to the road ahead and then back to the woman.

     “And don’t tell me south,” she added sharply, her grimace adding to her irritation.

     Eyrie smirked. “Alright. We go to Emor.”

     Andra yanked sharply on Midnight’s reins and he came up sharp, neighing in annoyance. She didn’t even pat his neck in apology. “The Ruins of Emor?” Her jaw hung slack.

     “Yes,” Eyrie said with a wry chuckle. “My friend, the one who can help you, is there looking for something. So we shall look for him.”

     The Ruins of Emor. The ruins of the greatest empire in the world. Her mother had told stories of Emor, as well. The mighty empire once encompassed near all of Dunuhndier before treachery and greed brought it to its knees. After that, it was all too easy for enemies of the empire to deal the final blow. The ruins were all that remained of the seat of power. The rest had been taken down, recycled for the palaces and castles of the kingdoms that took its place. Almania was one such nation, as were parts of Tor and Sholvayl.

     Andra glanced back to the thief and Gryphon, riding silently, each avoiding looking at the other. “And the elf? The Moonsword?”

     “I think there are certain priorities. We cannot look for the elf if you might kill us all in your sleep.” She chuckled and added, “I’d rather you know enough to do it intentionally. And if you are the Sunbearer...you cannot afford to die.”

     “Why is the Sunbearer so important now? My mother, she...was she a Sunbearer when she was a general?”

     Eyrie hesitated. Her frown deepened the lines around her mouth and her eyebrows were low over her eyes. “The Sunbearer...he is who Solanis sends to save the humans from his brother, Lusifain. That is the lore passed down in my family. That when that time comes, we find the Sunbearer and protect him until he can fulfil his duties.”

     “And Lusifain? What will he do?”

     As she shook her head, her braid swept back and forth across her back. “I don’t know.”

     Andra chewed the inside of her lip, thinking. Of the three Lucifarian gods, Lusifain was the middle one, the God of Darkness where his brother and sister were the gods of the Sun and the Moon and Stars respectively. He was a jealous god, her mother had told her. Jealous of his brother’s and sister’s creations—the humans and the elves. Andra could only imagine the devastation he could create, but had no idea how a Sunbearer would fight him.

     “I see,” the young woman murmured softly. Another soft breeze sent escaped tendrils of hair whipping into the air, but it wasn’t enough to ease Andra’s discomfort.

     The flat plains had turned into hill country by the time the sky was purple and orange with the sunset. Eyrie led them to a spot nestled between two large hills and they set up camp. The horses were more than content with the pasture available, so after making a make-shift picket, their owners left them to graze. Andra was actually quite impressed with the dark brown mare Salthis had found for Kylan. She was tall and beautiful, and had the legs of a runner. She and Midnight would make good foals. But that was unlikely to happen, Andra reminded herself. No time or place for taking care of pregnant mares.

     She was also impressed with how careful and gentle Kylan had been with her horse, solicitously rubbing the girl down and talking softly to her. It was...unexpected, the gentleness.

     Pushing all thoughts of the thief girl and her horse, Andra walked to the other side of the hill so that she could practice her Weaving. After stripping off the extra layers, she unsheathed her sword. The hilt was warm against her palm, as always. As she began the sweeping movements and ducked and jumped, a peace came over her, the peace of concentration. The future cold as they travelled south did not bother her. By the time it was full dark, Andra was so absorbed that even Lusifain’s jealousy didn’t disturb her.

     When Andra heard a noise behind her, she reversed the next step in the Weaving pattern to attack an opponent at her back instead of her front. She spun to one knee and was surprised to find her sword pointed at Kylan, who had caught the blade on the quillons of a plain silver dagger.

     They glared at each other, their blades still locked. Andra’s breath came deeply, but not laboured.

     “You’re good,” the thief said.

     “You’re fast,” Andra replied. They stared each other down until Andra’s stomach growled. Kylan’s lip curled. With an answering snarl, Andra sheathed her sword without ceremony and brushed past the girl to the campsite.

 

#

 

Andra woke to a sharp digging in her shoulder. She rolled over, blinking the sleep from her eyes, and mentally prepared herself to take her turn at watch. The digging became more insistent.

     “Andra,” Gryphon whispered. At the urgency in his tone, Andra snapped fully awake. “Eyrie wants us to get ready to leave. Quietly.”

     Andra flicked her eyes to Eyrie, who was waking up Kylan, and to the horses, already loaded. “What is it?” she whispered, crouching like Eyrie and Gryphon. She rolled up her bedroll and buckled the Sunsword to her waist.

     “Eyrie didn’t say. It can’t be draken, or she would have doused the fire.”

     Andra’s eyes flicked back across the campsite in alarm. There Eyrie was at the fire, with two large sticks in her hands. She felt the blood drain from her face as she realised—“It is draken, Gryph. Winged draken.”

     “Andra, they don’t exist,” he said dismissively. “Just the regular ones. It’s bad enough that they exist.”

     “Just because you slept through it, doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” she hissed testily. “Fire scares the ones with wings. I...Casted to fight one. That was when I learned I could.”

     Gryphon’s frown was even fiercer in the shadows cast by firelight. Andra gripped his forearm and nodded. Then she grinned. “Try and stay awake this time, won’t you?”

     He rolled his eyes and swatted her knee. She winked back and ducked over to Midnight. He pawed the ground restively as lightning struck. A few moments later, thunder. Midnight whickered again. Was it the draken, or just the weather?

     “Shh,” Andra soothed him.

     Kylan was unsurprisingly good at sneaking about quietly. She slithered to her horse and slung her bedroll over its withers. She only acknowledged Andra far enough to bare her teeth in what was nowhere near a smile.

Eyrie walked into the tension, still low to the ground, carrying two burning branches. With a scornful look at both Andra and Kylan, she said, “Winged draken are just beyond the rise of the next hill. They flew in under cover of the storm clouds.” She handed a torch to each of the girls and murmured, “Don’t try—”

An ungodly cry rent the air and mingled with another peal of thunder. Andra had never heard anything so...grating. By Solanis, she thought, swallowing down a lump of fear. It rested very solidly in her belly and she suppressed the urge to vomit.

Eyrie cursed. “Go!” she urged, as she ran back to the fire to collect another stick and guard Gryphon’s back as draken came around the north hill of their campsite.

Kylan was already mounted, and Andra quickly followed suit. Her stomach clenched as rain began to fall and her torch sputtered. Unsheathing her sword, she charged forward to where Eyrie fought two draken with sword and torch. Another bolt of lightning, the thunder right after the flash.

     She was no expert on swordfighting from horseback, but she had done well enough against the bannis the night she and Gryphon had left home. She stabbed at one of the draken Eyrie fought and it growled through its fangs, turning its attention to Andra. Its dark scales gleamed death in the next flash of lightning.

     “Child!” Eyrie yelled angrily as she parried the other draken’s sword and shoved the torch in its face. It shrieked and spread its wings, trying to cover its face. Taking advantage, she stabbed it through the heart and kicked it to the ground. “You’re what they want!” she growled.

     Before Andra realised it, Eyrie had yanked Midnight’s reins away. She kicked the Andra’s draken solidly and swatted Midnight’s rump with the flat of her sword. “Go!” The anger and exasperation in that growl was such that Andra decided to obey her.

     Gryphon galloped up, beckoning Andra to follow him, but Andra shook her head.

     “Help her!” Andra said. Gryphon balked as if he couldn’t imagine something so preposterous as Eyrie needing help. “I can ride, Gryph. But we need Eyrie.”

     His lips were a thin line, but he nodded. “Stay south. We’ll find you.”

     “Certain as the Sun rises, Gryph.” They nodded once more and Andra galloped south, Kylan’s mare neck and neck with Midnight. Their hooves churned clods of soggy earth, and Andra could feel mud splattering her breeches.

     The rain fell down in walls. Andra felt like she was riding through bricks of water, the drops like arrows on her face as they manoeuvred through the hills. Her branch was more than useless, the flame guttered out and the stick sodden.

     “Hoy!” Kylan yelled when they rode around one hill only to find another winged draken. Its wings unfurled, they spanned four paces easily.

     “Keep going!” Andra yelled. The Sunsword was slick in her grasp despite the leather around the hilt, but it was there. And still warm. Andra charged the draken, slashing at it as Midnight danced around it. It tried buffeting them with a flap of its wings and Andra couldn’t make out anything but rustling blackness. When it suddenly hissed and jerked away, Andra saw the dagger sticking in the thin wing membrane. Kylan had another poised to throw as the draken turned away from Andra.

     She took her chance. When it turned its back, Andra lopped its scaly, horned head off at the neck.

Thunder pealed again, now a little farther away. When the draken’s death throes had ceased, Kylan swung down to retrieve her dagger. All the while, she eyed Andra warily, her mouth twisted in the same way it had been when she had woken up to find Andra Casting the room on fire in her sleep.

Tucking her knife back into her sleeve, she said, “Let’s go.” She had to raise her voice for Andra to hear her over the wind and rain, but the message was clear enough when she heeled her horse back into a gallop.

They rode uninterrupted long enough for Andra to call them down to a walk to let the horses recover. Kylan hissed through her teeth at this, but Andra wouldn’t relent. She wasn’t going to leave Midnight lame here at the mercy of who knew what just because of an impatient thief.

They walked and trotted, over and over. Though Andra looked back often, she saw no sign of Gryphon’s gray mare or Eyrie’s fiery red braid. Andra was not sure when Gryphon had woken her, but the sky began to lighten after the third set of recovery.

The lighter the sky got, the less immediate danger Andra felt. The sky was still gray, but it wasn’t the black of a stormy night. This levity allowed her to feel the discomfort of her chafing wet layers of clothing. The blood pumping through her veins left her feeling exhilarated, though, even as the rain slowed. She couldn’t help but grin. The race for their lives had left her feeling invincible.

Which means you’re even more vulnerable, a voice in her head said. She frowned at it as if it could see her, but looked about her warily. Kylan was hunched over in her saddle, her hazel eyes glaring from underneath her sodden headband.

Another gust of wind and Andra knew why Eyrie had warned them with double layers. It didn’t help that everything was scorching sodden.

“We n-n-need t-t-o make c-c-camp,” Andra said through her chattering teeth. “Dry our th-things.”

“Not here.” The thief managed to make solid words, but, this close, Andra could see how violently the girl’s body shook over her saddle-horn. “Let’s get to the flat lands, at least. Mayhap find shelter.”

Taking a deep breath, Andra controlled her shivering just long enough to say, “Alright.” 

Reviews

[Chris]

The story is still going along greatly. A couple things though. First, you fail to remain consistent with the name of Andra's sword. At the beginning, it was Sun sword, then it was Sun Sword, and now it's Sunsword. You need to get the name of it right because otherwise it's going to annoy the reader if the name keeps changing every few chapters. Also:

"She kicked the Andra's draken solidly..."

Get rid of the "the;" it's not neccesary.