03 Sky Knight (8 page)

Once he was sure that Onyx was well concealed, Silver dropped into the ditch next to Sky, flashing her a smile before pressing his index finger to his lips to indicate she should remain as quiet as possible. Onyx snorted once, as he moved deeper into the foliage; and then the only sound was the occasional squawk of a bird from the nearby trees, and Sky’s terrified breathing.

After a painfully long wait, Sky heard marching footsteps on the road, getting louder as a troop of soldiers approached.

‘How many?’ she asked, under her breath.

‘I don’t know. I can’t see from here,’ Silver said.

The tramping feet grew louder still, until it seemed to Sky as if the soldiers were going to march right over them. Armour plating clanked, swords and shields clattered; but no–one spoke. The soldiers were driven by unspoken commands, and the absence of any recognisably human noise was more unnerving to Sky than anything else.

‘I’m going to take a look,’ she said.

‘No. Wait. Don’t.’

She was already edging around the stone, aware that her teeth were chattering but unable to do anything about it. She was sure that every sound she made was amplified, and that even the faintest rustle would attract the attention of the soldiers, yet somehow they remained unaware of her presence as they passed by.

She counted twenty soldiers, all in full battle gear, with cloaks that she knew concealed monstrous spider–legs.

This was the second lot of troops they had encountered since leaving Landmark, less than four hours ago. The whole land seemed to be infested with the crawling menaces, and it was becoming all too apparent to Sky how dire their situation had become.

As she watched, there was a brief commotion in the ranks of the enemy, and one of the soldiers crouched over something in the road. He touched the compacted earth with one hand, and then his head snapped up as if he had caught the trace of someone’s scent on the breeze.

Sky clamped one hand over her mouth, flattening herself against the ground. Her heart hammered, and her pulse thudded in her neck.

The soldier was swinging his head this way and that, looking for something. With growing horror, Sky realised he was looking for her.

‘Horse,’ the soldier gurgled. ‘A horse has travelled this way.’

In a flurry of jerky, semi–human movements, the soldiers spread out, stabbing with their cruel blades at the bushes lining the road.

As quietly as she could, Sky returned to the ditch. ‘They know,’ she said. ‘They’ve seen Onyx’s tracks in the dirt. They’re going to find us.’

With ruthless efficiency, the soldiers got nearer and nearer to the hiding place, slicing and hacking through the undergrowth, ripping up roots and vines.

Silver drew his sword. ‘Stay here,’ he said, trying to sound a lot less frightened than he actually was.

‘No, wait.’ Sky grabbed his arm. ‘You can’t leave me.’

‘I am here to protect you, to ensure your mission is a success. Let me do my job.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘We only brought one horse. They will only be expecting one traveller. I will lead them away from you. Take your chance to run.’

‘You can’t be thinking of fighting them. They’ll kill you.’

‘Then make sure you run quickly. And if I were you, I wouldn’t look back.’ He smiled, a defeated grin that made it clear he didn’t expect to survive.

‘I don’t want you to die for me,’ she said, choking on her sobs.

‘Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to die at all. But if I have to die here, at least I will know my death meant something.’

He didn’t wait to argue any longer, but launched himself out onto the road with a roar. Sky’s whole body trembled, every muscle screaming at her to run; but instead she moved around so she could see what was happening to Silver.

She pulled aside some brambles to get a better look, and it was while she was doing this that a cold sensation, like the breath of a ghost, prickled the skin on her neck.

There was something behind her.

Slowly, she turned, reaching for the small knife she had started carrying in the sash of her dress ever since the night Tidal had come to visit her. Standing there, growling deep in its throat, was the biggest white wolf she had ever seen.

Her hand hovered over the knife handle. The wolf’s eyes were black, but they sparkled with the kind of energy she had seen Glass use during the attack on Landmark.

‘Are you magical?’ she whispered.

The wolf took a pace nearer, baring its massive fangs.

***

A lot of thoughts went through Silver’s mind as he propelled himself out of the ditch and into the arms of fate.

His first thought was quite what a stupid thing this was to do, and how the great travelling bards never wrote ballads about the idiots that got themselves killed doing stupid things.

However, this was only a fleeting thought before his mind became preoccupied with much more important thoughts, like how he was going to survive.

‘Looking for me?’ he bellowed, as the soldiers scuttled to surround him.

Twenty spider–soldiers. All armed. All merciless.

Silver swallowed.

‘Drop your weapons,’ he shouted, which even he thought was a bit optimistic.

The soldiers moved as one, a shimmering line of sharp metal and flapping cloaks that closed around Silver like a noose. The private had just enough time to cast a backwards glance at where he had left Sky; just enough time to hope she had made her escape.

A sword swept towards him, and as he turned the blade aside, one of the soldiers slammed into him. He staggered under the weight of the assault, used his shoulder to drive himself away from the body of his enemy, and then brought his own sword up hard, smashing the soldier’s visor and revealing the pale, swollen face beneath. The soldier leered with dead eyes, and a purple tongue lolled between his yellow teeth.

Silver took a step back, readied himself, and then swiftly blocked a flurry of blows directed at his head and body. There seemed to be soldiers everywhere; the air was filled with the zing and spark of metal clashing on metal, and Silver’s desperate cries.

Another barrage of blows hammered him to the ground, and the spider–soldiers swarmed around him. Suddenly, there was an explosion of movement from the undergrowth and Onyx emerged, barrelling through the soldiers. With an angry bray, he reared up, clubbing two soldiers in the back, and crushing the helmet of a third. Silver made the most of the chaos Onyx was causing, stabbing the closest spider–warrior and then cutting the legs out from underneath a second. A moment more, and the fighting was over.

The soldiers retreated, scurrying off into the wilderness. They left behind only some nasty smears and a pile of bloodied armour where one of their colleagues had fallen, never to rise again.

As relief surged through his body, and his brain finally caught up with what he was doing, Silver dropped to his knees. The battle had lasted only a few moments, yet he was tired beyond anything he had ever endured. Tired, but alive. Against all odds.

Alive.

A grin fluttered around the edges of his bleeding lips. The grin turned into a laugh, and before he knew it, he was laughing and crying at the same time. The tears were still streaming down his face when Onyx cantered over and snorted in his ear.

‘You did good, Boy,’ he said, patting the horse’s flank. ‘I’m sorry I called you stupid.’

Onyx showed his teeth, and flicked his mane proudly. He had been badly treated by spider–soldiers at Flint Lock Fort; he was more than happy to get some payback.

‘I’m impressed, Private Silver,’ said an unfamiliar voice.

Silver sprang to his feet, swinging his sword around to point in the direction the voice had come from. Just a short distance from the tip of the blade stood a smiling woman with golden hair that spilled down over her pale shoulders. She was dressed all in white, but this was not any kind of normal white; this was the kind of white to which dirt could not cling: A pure white, that seemed to suggest her travelling cloak and the dress beneath had been woven from the pale luminescence of the moon. Her delicate hands were clasped together, and on each of her fingers she wore simple bands of gold.

‘Who are you?’ Silver demanded.

The woman blinked. Her eyes were dark and mysterious, and when Silver looked into them, he felt a pain in his heart that was like being stabbed with a rose thorn. His eyes filled with tears, as he realised that what he felt was the loss of a loved one.

‘What are you?’

‘I am sadness,’ the woman said, bowing her head.

Sky appeared at the side of the road, reaching Silver in just three strides and throwing her arms around his neck. ‘You were incredible,’ she said. ‘Just incredible. Nimbus couldn’t have done better.’

Silver barely had time to acknowledge the compliment, before a gigantic wolf crawled out of the bushes and paced towards them.

‘Get behind me,’ he whispered, shoving Sky to one side. ‘I’ll deal with this.’

The wolf stopped beside the mysterious woman, who crouched and stroked its thick pelt. ‘You don’t need to fear us,’ she said to Silver. ‘We are here to help you.’

Onyx sniffed in a way that suggested he didn’t particularly believe the woman’s story.

‘I agree with the horse,’ Silver muttered.

‘He won’t hurt us,’ Sky said, running over to the wolf and petting his head. The wolf lay down, his tongue hanging out as he panted happily. He looked no more threatening than a big dog. ‘See? He’s friendly.’

‘Sky. Come away from there.’

‘Don’t be silly, Silver. The wolf saved me. While you were fighting, one of those soldiers found me. If this wolf hadn’t scared him off, I’d be dead by now.’

The woman rose to her full height to meet Silver’s gaze, and once again he felt a twinge of pain, somewhere deep inside his chest. He had no idea how she was doing it, but somehow this woman was looking inside him, opening him up and revealing all the hurt he kept locked away. For the first time in almost a year, he thought about the girl he had refused to marry when he was still young.

‘Stop it,’ he said.

‘I’m sorry,’ the woman said. ‘I cannot.’

‘What are you doing to me?’

‘I am sorry if my presence hurts you. You must have really loved her.’

‘Shut up,’ Silver snapped. ‘And get out of my head.’

‘I’m not in your head.’ She pressed her hands to her chest. ‘These things we lock somewhere else.’

Silver sheathed his sword. ‘Well, stop it. You can’t know about her. I haven’t spoken her name out loud in a long time. What are you, some kind of witch?’

‘I am a fairie.’ The woman smiled, and the expression had all the fragility of the first winter frost. ‘I am the only fairie. The last of my kind.’

Silver took a step nearer, but his mind was almost immediately filled with images of picnics, boating trips, angry parents, bloody swords, and a world of tears. He backed away again, and the images faded, although they did not vanish completely.

‘Do not come near me,’ the fairie said. ‘Too close, and the pain of what you gave up may kill you.’

‘How come these things do not harm Sky?’ Silver asked.

Sky was playfully rubbing the wolf’s tummy, giggling as he pawed the air and made little yelping noises like a puppy. ‘Perhaps it is the innocence of youth,’ the fairie said. ‘Or perhaps she has better dealt with the sadness in her life. Children have a great capacity for dealing with grief. They are stronger than any adult would care to admit.’

‘I dealt with my grief. I made a decision, I lived with it.’

‘You chose to stay, while the woman you loved left with her family. You locked away your feelings for her, deep inside where you thought they would suffocate. But feelings do not die as humans die. Your sadness is like a sore on your spirit forever. I know this, because I am Moon. Nobody understands sadness as I do.’

‘What’s your wolf called?’ Sky asked.

‘My companion is called Light.’

Sky stood, brushing the dust from her knees. ‘Can you help us? We need to get into the palace, and there are so many of those things on the road, I don’t think we can make it.’

‘You underestimate yourself.’

‘But the enemy is so powerful. Please, can’t you travel with us? You are a legend, I am just a girl. And if I fail, Cloud will die at Crystal Shine. How will I ever be able to look Nimbus in the face again, knowing that I could have stopped it?’

‘Cloud?’ Moon’s eyes widened. ‘You go to rescue Cloud, of the Wing Warriors?’

‘He is the father of my best friend.’

‘He is a father now? Of course. I suppose I always realised that when I left him...’

‘Left him? You mean you know him?’

‘I... knew him. A long time ago. In a different world, when unicorns were not so uncommon as they are now. We were not destined to be together. We were very different. Is his son the one who rides the dragon?’

‘Nimbus, that’s right. He’s my...’ Sky paused. Suddenly, “friend” just didn’t seem a big enough word to describe what Nimbus was to her. ‘He’s Nim,’ she said, vaguely.

‘I know well what he is,’ Moon said, glancing at Private Silver, who had taken a seat on a rotting tree trunk and was now gazing at some fixed point in the distance. ‘But all these things become clear with the passage of the years. Does Cloud have... other family?’

‘A wife. Strata. And a daughter called Glass.’

Moon nodded, as if this came as no great surprise. ‘I cried once,’ she said. ‘I cried until the light of my eyes drained away, and I was left as empty as the space between the stars. I have not cried that way since, but for Cloud, I believe I could.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I have spent too long in the mountains. I am glad I found you today, but I will not be able to come with you to Crystal Shine. I do not believe it would be wise for me to see Cloud again, be he alive or dead, and I have other more pressing matters to attend. But perhaps there is another way in which I can help.’

She untied a small leather pouch from around her waist and handed it to Sky.

‘What is it?’ Sky asked.

‘Something that fell to earth many moons ago. I have been keeping it for just such an occasion.’