Authors: Kevin Outlaw
03 Sky Knight (34 page)
‘There’s still one thing I don’t understand,’ Sky said. ‘You saw Crow’s glamour spell, didn’t you? The one he wrote into a poem?’
‘I saw it.’
‘He told Nim the spell was written so that it would fool everyone in the world except for Crow himself. But when I was flying over the woods, I saw Nim disguised as the vampyr, and I knew who it really was. How is that possible?’
Glass grinned impishly. ‘Crow got the spell wrong. He wanted to write it so that he could recognise anybody who was using the spell, but it was more than that. Whoever he gave that glamour to, he must have really loved her. He wrote the spell so that it could not blind true love. Anyone who truly loves the user of that glamour, and I mean loves them with all their heart, will be able to see through the disguise. If they really want to.’
Sky flushed a brilliant red. ‘Don’t you dare tell him,’ she muttered.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Glass giggled, kicking her bare toes in the sand.
‘I’m serious.’
‘And I seriously don’t know what you mean.’
There was the sound of heavy wings beating against the wind, and Cumulo’s familiar shadow fell across them. A moment later, the dragon landed; and Nimbus, now dressed in a simple brown tunic rather than the banged up Wing Warrior armour, clumsily dismounted. He may have been a hero, but he still didn’t look like one.
‘Where have you been?’ Sky asked, wondering if she was still blushing.
‘Just around. Crow’s got a lot to answer for. The lands are full of crazy creatures running amok, thinking that Crow’s about to seize control so they get to do whatever they like.’
‘We’ve been re–educating them,’ Cumulo said, through a puff of white smoke.
‘There was a minotaur eating sheep right out of a farmer’s field, and an ogre sitting in the pig trough,’ Nimbus went on. ‘That’s not the worst of it though. Most of the villages have been abandoned, and the towns have been ransacked. It’s going to take months to round up all the refugees and tell them it’s safe for them to return home. It will be even longer until we’ve been able to repair all the damage that’s been caused.’
‘The people will manage,’ Sky said.
‘The people are strong,’ Glass added, knowingly.
‘You might as well sit down for a second,’ Sky said. ‘All the problems will wait for you, I’m sure.’
Nimbus squeezed in between her and Glass, and for a long time they just sat quietly, staring at the ocean. After all they had been through together, none of them seemed to be able to find the right words to say.
It was Nimbus who eventually broke the silence.
‘Sky...’
‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘I know what you’re going to say, and it doesn’t matter. You couldn’t have done anything about it. You don’t need to be sorry.’
‘It was my fault.’
‘My dad did what he wanted to do. And he can rest now. He couldn’t in life, he wouldn’t in death. But this is something else. I’m actually okay with it.’
‘But you’ll never see him again. Not ever.’
Sky smiled, and tears brimmed at the corners of her beautiful eyes. ‘But I will remember him. And I can remember how he helped us win this war.’ She paused. ‘And I’m sorry too. About your dad, I mean.’
Nimbus had flown out to Crystal Shine as soon as he and Cumulo had finished reviving the fallen warriors at the ruins. The palace had been choked with the bodies of spider–soldiers, but there had been no sign of Cloud or Captain Spectre. Nimbus couldn’t bring himself to imagine what might have happened to them.
‘My dad’s a legend,’ he said. ‘Legends don’t die. Not as long as there is someone to remember them. And me... I’m going to be around for a long time, and I’ll never forget.’
Another awkward silence descended upon the group, and they all let their gazes drift out to a speck on the horizon. At first they didn’t know what they were looking at, but eventually they realised it was Serpent’s Coil. They were all thinking exactly the same thing: there should have been four friends sitting on that beach, not three.
‘I just don’t know if I’m big enough to do this job on my own,’ Nimbus said.
‘But you’re not on your own,’ Sky said.
‘My dad is gone. I’m the only Wing Warrior left.’
‘I’m going to help, though,’ Glass said. ‘I’m a unicorn rider, I can help you. I've got sunlight in my eyes and everything.’
‘And I’ve got a pegasus,’ Sky added. ‘Sometimes, anyway. I can help to. I’ll be... I’ll be the Sky Knight.’
'You aren't a knight,' Nimbus said.
'It sounds good though, doesn’t it?’
The three friends laughed, and Nimbus was filled with gratitude; but he masked it all under a typically boyish shrug of the shoulders. ‘Well, I suppose if I have to hang out with a couple of Bog Breaths, it might as well be you two.’
They both thumped him in the arm.
‘Troll King,’ Sky said, and for just a second her gleaming eyes locked with his. They both blushed violently.
‘So what are we going to call ourselves?’ Nimbus said, looking away and trying to ignore his little sister’s giggles.
‘What do you mean?’ Sky asked.
‘We have to have a name. For us. We can’t be called Wing Warriors, because that’s not what we are.’
‘Well then, what are we?’ Glass asked.
Sky smiled as Reflection galloped along the water’s edge: A blaze of white against the ocean haze. ‘We’re legend riders,’ she said.
‘I like that,’ Glass said.
‘Well that’s it then,’ Nimbus said. ‘That’s what we are. Legend Riders.’
Cumulo snorted, suggesting he did not necessarily approve. But times were changing, and he was just going to have to change with them. Even if he thought the name was stupid.
‘Lord Nimbus,’ came a shout from behind them, and they turned to see Obsidian and Silver strolling down the beach with Onyx between them.
‘They nearly died,’ Sky said. ‘But look at them. You’d think nothing had happened. I reckon there are a lot more heroes in the world than we think there are.’
‘How are you, Captain?’ Nimbus said, getting to his feet.
‘I’m fine,’ both the soldiers said, in unison. Then they glanced at each other, and laughed.
‘That’s going to take some getting used to,’ Obsidian grinned.
‘What is?’ Nimbus asked. ‘Being a Guardian of the Realm?’
‘No. Silver being a Captain.’
Onyx snorted happily, as Glass and Sky stroked his mane.
‘It’s going to be strange not having you around,’ Nimbus said to Obsidian.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll never be far away. Now, come on. I would like to say goodbye to your mother before I leave for Crystal Shine.’
As everyone left, Cumulo padded across the beach to where Reflection was splashing in the surf. As he approached, the unicorn stopped playing, and turned to watch him.
‘Hello,’ Cumulo said.
‘Hello.’ He heard the response in his head.
‘It can be pretty lonely being a dragon,’ he said.
‘Or a unicorn,’ Reflection thought.
‘We are the last of our kind.’
Refection considered this for a moment. ‘Then we must be the best,’ she concluded.
The two legends followed after the children, walking side by side. Only a few short months ago, people didn’t even believe in legends; but now they cheered and applauded as the unicorn and the dragon wandered through the village streets. Cumulo puffed out his chest proudly, and as he walked he cast his gaze towards the distant mill where Cloud had worked, and the large burial mound there on which golden flowers bloomed.
At Nimbus’s house, Nimbus hesitated with his hand on the door. It was the first time he had returned home since the night Flint Lock had burned, and being here felt alien to him. Now his father was dead, his mother was a magic user, his sister could command the sun to do her bidding, and he was a Wing Warrior. Suddenly this little house seemed too small, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that too much had changed for him to ever be comfortable here again. He just didn’t belong here any more.
‘Are you okay?’ Sky asked.
Nimbus looked at her, and then at his little sister. ‘I’m fine,’ he lied easily, and then he opened the door.
Strata was fussing around in the kitchen, boiling water, unrolling bandages, and gently chastising the pixie that flickered around her hands and continually got in her way. Sitting at the table was a wounded warrior. His head was slumped forwards, and his old clothes were blackened with blood and mud.
Nimbus stopped, and all the colour drained from his face. He felt Sky grip one of his arms, and Glass grip the other; and he gripped the doorframe. They all stood that way, gripping furiously, as if letting go would send them all spiralling off the edge of the world.
Cloud looked up at his son, a wide smile etched into his bruised and battered features. ‘There’s no need to look quite so surprised,’ he said.
***
Up in the mountains, far from human eyes, an ugly black crow flapped across the face of the sun before fluttering down to perch on a spike of sun–bleached stone.
It cawed, fluttering its wings as it looked around for something – some movement – in the bleak landscape.
There it was: Bouncing along the dusty track. A rabbit.
Lunch.
Of course, normally a crow would not hunt a live rabbit, and would instead find some leftover, half–chewed carcass to peck at instead. But this was no ordinary crow.
The rabbit stopped, sniffing the air, its little nose twitching.
The crow stretched its wings. Its black, strangely intelligent eyes glittered hungrily.
Suddenly the rabbit looked up, startled, and dashed into cover. There was a soldier staggering around the bend of the mountain path. He looked badly wounded.
Really badly wounded.
There was an arrow sticking out of his forehead.
The crow cawed to get the soldier’s attention, and then fluttered across to land on his shoulder.
‘I’ve been looking for you,’ the soldier said, and as soon as he spoke the crow realised something was wrong. But by then it was already too late.
The soldier grabbed the crow unceremoniously. The panicking bird squawked, trying to flap and peck its way free.
The soldier felt a dark presence reaching into his mind, and he laughed. ‘It won’t work, Crow. You can’t control me. My spirit never crossed over to the world of the dead.’
The bird redoubled its efforts to break free, but already the soldier had a hand around its neck. In one swift motion, the crow was killed, and its body discarded on the mountainside.
Captain Spectre smiled. ‘I’ve been waiting a really long time for that,’ he said.
Slowly now, he sat in the path with his back to a stone, and he glanced up at the endless sky.
‘At last,’ he whispered, and the light in his eyes went out.
Eventually, the rabbit emerged from hiding. He cautiously sniffed at the dead bird, and the dead soldier, and then continued along his way back home. He could hardly believe that he was the only living thing in all the world that had seen how Crow the necromancer had finally died.
If anybody ever asked him, he would have an interesting story to tell.
But nobody would ask.
Nobody ever asked rabbits anything.
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