Blood's Pride (Shattered Kingdoms) (50 page)

Frea’s rage was no longer rational; there was only a savage hunger to taste the blood of those who had wounded her. Isa felt her sister’s madness sucking at her like a whirlpool, and finally she understood that no mercy, no clemency, would be
possible. The part of Frea that had been her sister was already gone.

Isa screamed as Frea finally freed herself of the broken straps and lunged towards him,

Throwing both arms protectively around the boy, Rho kicked back at Frea. His heel caught her leg near the knife-wound and her body jerked in pain, but still she brought the knife back up and slashed at him. He kicked at her again, this time hitting her forearm, and though she kept hold of the knife, Trakkar’s reins went snapping out into the hazy air. The triffon felt the change in the tension on the reins immediately and tossed his head with a worried snort.

Rho fastened the last buckle around Dramash’s waist and yanked the strap tight, then he thrashed around with his foot, trying to find the stirrup again, but he had slipped too far back in the saddle to reach it.

As the unfamiliar weight of Blood’s Pride slid about in her sweat-slicked glove, Isa tried to bring Aeda into battle position, but Trakkar’s flight path was too unpredictable. Finally Aeda found a straight line to him, and she put on a burst of speed and pulled in her wings – but at the last moment, Trakkar jerked around again and suddenly, instead of coming alongside, they were facing him broadside.

Isa warned them all indiscriminately, and stood up in the saddle to give her yank on the reins more force, but Aeda had seen the danger for herself and stretched out her great wings with a snap.

Frea’s dented helmet spun towards them and she thrust out
her open hand towards Blood’s Pride as she howled, mine
!> It was the wail of a broken-hearted child. Mine!
> She tossed aside Rho’s knife as carelessly as if it were a broken toy and reached out with both hands.

Aeda ducked her head to fly under Trakkar’s belly. In one moment, the saddles of the two triffons would be at equal height.

Isa drew in a deep breath and flipped Blood’s Pride around so that her hand was gripping the unsharpened base of the blade. She held the sword out, hilt-first, towards her sister. Time slowed down; each moment had the inevitability of something she had already lived through, many, many times.

The space between the two triffons closed.

Frea leaned out to grab the sword as it came towards her, and Isa held it there steadily for her, knowing that her sister could see or think of nothing else. When Frea’s fingertips brushed the hilt, Isa brought her arm back like a fisherman yanking a line, and Frea lunged for the bait. For a moment she hung there, prone, in the open sky. Then she dropped.

Trakkar’s claws rose up in front of Isa’s face and she threw herself down onto the saddle. A cool wind chilled the sweat beneath her cloak as Trakkar’s shadow passed overhead. And then she and Aeda were diving down, down, following the flash of Frea’s helmet towards the hungry waves.

By the time Frea hit the water, Isa was close enough to feel the spray spatter her face. Aeda dragged her feet through the swells and then opened her wings and soared upwards again. Isa searched among the dipping whitecaps for a gleam of silver or the spread of a white cloak.

Rho called down from above. His words were raw with expectation and dread.

She looked up and saw Trakkar’s black shape against the bright sky.

She had caught a glimpse of the helmet, bobbing far to the east of where Frea had first hit the water; she had been caught in a strong current. Aeda glided towards her. she called out to her sister.

Trakkar’s shadow flicked over the water. Rho asked tensely.

she called out again, ignoring him.

A strange, faint voice answered,

Isa leaned forward and grabbed the reins as close to Aeda’s neck as she could. She played out the slack over Aeda’s side. she told her sister.

she said again, and Isa could feel nothing from her sister except childish simplicity. There was no sign that she had understood anything Isa had just said.

She guided Aeda down as low as she dared and leaned out over her wing.

Frea asked, as if she had just now realised that her sister was speaking to her.

She leaned further out. Now she could see Frea thrashing in the water. She was alternately scrambling with her arms
and legs to stay afloat, and pushing and tugging at her helmet. The contrast between the frantic movements and the still, peevish little voice was terrifying.

Isa told her firmly.

Frea whimpered.

she pleaded.

A wave lapped over Frea’s head and she disappeared.

Isa screamed helplessly.

A moment later she bobbed up again, further out to sea.

Isa cried out.

Frea’s cape fanned out over the water, spreading outwards. The helmet sank first. Then, inch by inch, the cape disappeared beneath the waves.

A curtain of dread came down around Isa, muting everything but her own voice. she whispered.

Rho’s voice held her up like a strong arm around her waist.

A wave slapped up against Aeda’s side and the triffon tossed her head in alarm. Isa gathered up the slippery reins and let her climb back to a comfortable altitude. The ship was far out to sea by now; there would be no chance of any of Frea’s men making it back to the Shadar on the triffons. For the moment at least they posed no threat to the city. Rho and Isa silently turned Trakkar and Aeda back towards the shore.

The sun was warm on her back. She had no memory of having
fallen asleep, but when she opened her eyes, her head was resting on Aeda’s bristly neck and the beach was right in front of her. Trakkar was lying in the sand just below the tide line, with the water splashing over his feet and belly. From his exhausted attitude, she guessed that he had refused to fly any further. Rho and Dramash were making their way up the beach on foot. Rho was walking with a pained, lurching motion, and just as Aeda touched down next to Trakkar, she saw him double over and fall heavily onto the sand.

she cried out, tugging at the straps of the harness. By the time she’d undone them and clambered down from Aeda’s back, he had hauled himself back up again. Dramash stood a little way in front of him, watching silently. she called again, running up the beach, the sand pulling heavily at her boots.

he called out to her, and then, just as she reached him, gasped out,

She caught him with her right arm as he fell, but she couldn’t hold him. She dropped to her knees in the sand, cradling his quaking body against her chest. Using her own body to shield him from the sun, she pulled open the clasps of his cloak and pulled up his shirt.

he pleaded weakly, trying to push her hand away, but it was too late. The wound was like nothing she could have imagined. The blood was not the worst of it; it was the swollen, discoloured flesh oozing pus that turned her stomach. He was in tremendous pain, convulsing helplessly against her. he begged.

she said rapidly, covering him up again.

His tortured silver eyes looked up into hers entreatingly.

He was right: she couldn’t possibly lift Rho into the saddle by herself, not one-handed. But she couldn’t just leave him lying on the beach, burning in the sun. Squinting against the glare, she saw a cluster of rocks not far to her right. she warned him, and began dragging him over the sand. Every pull and bump increased his agony, but there was nothing else she could do. By the time she had him safely in the shadow of the rocks, his eyes were closed and she couldn’t tell if he was still conscious.

she said, making him as comfortable as she could, adjusting his cape and cowl so that they covered him completely, She felt no response from him, but when she touched his cheek his eyelids fluttered. – she had to pause as a pulse of pain raced down her missing left arm – She was looking at his face, his beautiful face, and hardly knowing what she was doing, she leaned towards him and pressed her lips tenderly against his. she pleaded. She didn’t realise that she was crying until she saw her tears glistening on his pale skin.

His lips moved against hers and his eyes opened again. he asked faintly.

She ran back to Aeda, slid Fortune’s Blight from the saddle, and ran back, but by the time she reached him, he was
unconscious again. She laid the sword vertically across his body with the hilt on his chest. Then she took his limp hands and closed his fingers around the hilt.

<
You wait
> she whispered to him again.

She picked her way over the flaming sands to Dramash. She had no idea what to say to him, how she would convince him to come with her, but he came forward to meet her and followed her without a word, as if he already understood. She helped him clamber up into Aeda’s saddle, and he buckled the straps of the harness himself, all the time as silent as a Norlander.

A few moments later they were setting down in the middle of the ruined palace, where a small crowd had reformed around Daryan and Omir. Most of them scuttled back against the walls as Isa landed, but Daryan ran forward to meet them.

‘Thank the gods,’ he called out in a strained voice as he ran up to Aeda. ‘You got him back— You just took off after Frea, and I didn’t know— What happened? Are you all right?’

Dramash undid the harness and slipped down off Aeda’s back into Daryan’s arms. The hush in the ruined hall was so intense that the clinking of the buckles rang out like claxons. Then the boy walked to Aeda’s huge head and began stroking the fur between her ears. Aeda lowered her head and narrowed her eyes with pleasure.

Isa stayed in the saddle, looking down from beneath the shadows of her cowl at the reins twisted around her fingers.

‘My sister is dead.’

‘Isa,’ Daryan breathed quietly. He stepped closer to Aeda’s neck so that she could see his face as he looked up at her. His
dark eyes looked softly into hers. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sure you had no other choice.’

‘I must go. I must find a healer for Rho. I had to leave him on the beach. He’s hurt very badly.’

‘No, don’t go!’ he cried, very softly, but turned at the sound of someone running towards them.

‘Daimon!’ the breathless man called out as he neared them. The messenger caught sight of Dramash and decided to stop a good ten paces away. ‘Daimon, your wife is in need of you,’ he said more formally. ‘They sent me to fetch you – they say you should come at once.’

‘All right,’ Daryan said. The messenger quickly moved away from them, but stood waiting for Daryan to follow. ‘I have to go too,’ he told her, staring straight ahead at Aeda’s bristly hide.

‘Rho wants you to take Dramash. You and Harotha.’

‘Harotha will know what to do with him,’ he agreed. He glanced around at the crowd, at the messenger waiting for him, and then at Dramash, still standing by Aeda’s head. ‘They’re all afraid of him now.’ He swallowed, and then looked up at her again. ‘Are you all right?’

She twisted the reins in her hand. ‘No.’

‘Isa,’ he said, miserably. He made the slightest of movements towards her, and then checked himself. ‘I have to go.’ He held his hand out to Dramash and together they walked after the messenger.