Lance of Earth and Sky (The Chaos Knight Book Two) (31 page)

When it faded, they both were gone.

Vidarian and Rai turned back to Ruby, hardly comprehending what they had just seen, but unable to put aside her very real threat. Her metal arms were uplifted, pointing at the sky, releasing a two-handed strike of water, a hurricane blast that tore into the hull of the
Skyfalcon
.

At first Vidarian couldn't see why she would waste such a huge attack on the smaller skyship while he and the
Viere
remained in the air—and then he saw Ariadel, a dimming halo of fire wreathing her hands, falling from the broken bow.

Rai read his thoughts before he spoke them, bellowing a protest, buffeting the air with his wings in a desperate bid for speed.

They tore after her, and the spiral of water from Ruby caught Rai's side, only a glancing blow, but one that sent him spinning through the air. Vidarian clung to his back as the world spun around them, and Rai shrieked with rage as he finally righted himself and continued the pursuit.

Ariadel was plummeting toward the ground, still hundreds of lengths away—they weren't going to make it—

A plume of fire opened up beneath her, engulfing her, and Vidarian howled, reaching out with water, knowing it was too far—

The fire stretched, formed wings, then a head, a long neck with a slender beak at the end of it, shockingly blue eyes. It beat its wings, stopping their descent, then lifted, turning, five long plumes of a flaming tail streaming out behind it.

The bird was huge, nearly as large as Rai. At first Vidarian thought Ariadel had somehow created it with her own elemental ability, but that didn't seem possible. It was clearly alive, with its own consciousness, and at any rate he had never heard of elemental magic being shaped into a creature and flown.

It saw Rai and flew toward him, whistling a greeting. The two creatures touched noses, and Vidarian jumped in his seat. “Is that…?”

Ariadel was clinging to the bird's neck, gripping its feathers. “I might…” she panted, “…have to change her name!”

The shapechanger, like Rai, had displayed a third and outrageous form: first cat, then spider, and now…firebird?

A bolt of water shot between them, sending both creatures winging backwards, trying to regain control of their motion.

“We have to destroy her!” Ariadel called.

“How?” Vidarian shouted back, holding tight to his harness as Rai dove again to evade another strike of water from Ruby. “She has some kind of defensive enchantment—we can move her, but nothing we have is big enough to do any damage!”

“Then maybe we can move her—somewhere far.” She gripped a pendant around her neck and shouted. “Arikaar! Khellan! I need Chayim, quickly! And Altair! Send them to the dragon!” It took him a moment to realize what she meant by “to the dragon,” and then he saw that, for miles around, he and the skyships were the two most visible objects—with names they would recognize, at any rate, excluding Raven—in the sky.

The gryphons closed quickly, Altair from high above, and the other, a black-plumaged gryphon, from behind the
Argentium
. Below, and spread across the field, fallen foot soldiers and cavalry lay everywhere, and five more of the dozen imperial skyships had been brought down by fire. The air now was thick with smoke, though as Altair arrived, a circle of breathable air arrived with him, a relief.

“We need to open a gate,” Ariadel said to them. Altair looked startled, and the other, which must be Chayim, nodded. He looked something like Arikaree in his long, gawky neck and irregular feathers, but his face was a vulture's, bald to pink skin and complete with a long wattle that draped from his nares. He was, by a significant margin, the most hideous gryphon Vidarian had ever seen.

But he was also the one who knew how to be the primary conduit for a gate-opening.

The magic was similar to what had opened the Great Gate, though without the frame for the energy, it was significantly more difficult. On top of this, they would have to open a very large portal, enough for Ruby's entire massive body. And it required energy from all four elements, as well as one, like Vidarian, that could bridge multiple elements.

Chayim clacked his talons together, creating a rough rhythm. A strange feeling clawed at the pit of Vidarian's stomach, and he realized it was the indirect way he was sensing the manifestation of Chayim's earth. Altair's joined him, detectable only as an increase in the breeze, and Chayim's cluck of approval.

Ariadel pulled fire from herself and from the wreckage of the titan ship, siphoning it over to Chayim. And Vidarian pulled forth his own, forcing his nearly exhausted mind to lock the elements together into a single force. This he passed to the vulture-gryphon, who tipped his beak in thanks.

“Hold it!” Ariadel cried. “Steady!”

Another attack opened from below, and Rai squealed, sidling into its path. He lashed at the arc of water with his tail, disrupting it—taking some of its damage onto himself, and shaking away as much of it as he could. Beneath his knees Vidarian could feel the dragon's torso contorting with pain.

“There!” Ariadel shouted.

And indeed, below, the hole in the world was opening beneath Ruby's feet. She made a terrible, shrieking noise of negation, thrashing in an attempt to escape—but her hands and feet found only air, and she vanished.

The portal remained for several moments, pulling at the base of Vidarian's gut, and then Chayim let it go, snapping it shut and returning the brush and grass to their rightful arrangement.

//
That was very well done,
// Altair said, addressing both Ariadel and Chayim, and Ariadel smiled.

“Where did we send her?” Vidarian asked.

“I don't know!” Ariadel replied. “It opened too quickly! She could be anywhere! Malu, Shen Ti, the bottom of the ocean!”

But Ruby's sudden disappearance rippled through the remaining imperial forces, a wave of shock and horror. Bells rang out from the front skyship, and those behind it quickly took up the toll.

The army began to turn around, and the remaining skyships with them. From all around, the victory cries of gryphons filled the sky.

T
he camouflage spell on Gryphonslair came down, and humans, gryphons, and seridi streamed from the tents there toward the Qui-Alorean prison camp. They carried food, blankets, clothing, casks of water—and before them rode Ariadel, Vidarian beside her, Raven's firebird shape revealing long, jewel-taloned legs that made her almost as fast on the ground as in the air.

Prison guards, grizzled mercenaries in Alorean Import Company uniforms, took one look at Rai and Raven and quickly abandoned any heroism they might have been considering. There was no Company official present, and so none to be the wiser when they went so far as to open the gates before them.

Even with the gates open, Rai went one better: he brought his spiked tail around in a punishing lash, crushing the gate to splinters. Behind them, the Gryphonslair resistance raised up a cheer.

The imprisoned Qui-descended—and not just Qui, but those of mixed blood alongside Rikani, pale Ishmanti, and even Maresh unfortunate enough to have been mistaken for Qui by the Aloreans—looked at the gate blankly, thoughts hidden behind masks of suffering. They turned to each other, waiting for someone to emerge; waiting to see if their release was another kind of trap.

Raven crouched, and Ariadel slid down from her back, rubbing the bird's dark beak as she descended. As soon as she had touched down and steadied herself, Raven melted down into her cat shape and leapt into Ariadel's arms, then climbed up to her shoulder, all of which sent murmurs through the gathering Qui. She walked toward them, searching their faces, and Vidarian watched her, his heart in his throat. As quietly as he could, he slid down from Rai's shoulder, dropping to the ground.

“Aloreans,” Ariadel called, stridently calling them by their nationality, not their descent; her voice cracked once, then came through stronger. “You have been imprisoned here by the Alorean Import Company, which acted without the authority of the emperor.” At this another murmur passed through the group, and more than one face was streaked with tears. “There will be justice for your capture! I promise you this!” Her voice rose, shaking but strong. “We will return you to your homes, and bring food and supplies so that you might recover for the journey. Heal, and be free.”

Healers and gryphon-wards bearing water, food, and blankets filtered into the crowd, distributing their goods to first hesitant and then grateful prisoners. Children materialized, brought from hiding places and pushed forward toward the food and water, their faces hollow and smudged with dirt.

It was a familiar voice that turned his head toward faces that at first were unrecognizable. A thin woman was nudging a younger girl before her toward a gryphon-ward laden with baskets of bread, and it wasn't until she spoke again, encouraging the child, that Vidarian recognized her.

“Ellara!” he called, running toward them. When their faces turned, blank and uncomprehending, he thought he'd been mistaken, but then they lit with recognition. Lifan and Ellara ran to meet him, and he knelt so that the young windreader could throw her arms around his neck. He embraced her, his heart sinking as his hands touched protruding shoulder-blades, a prominent spine; his teeth clenched, fury so raw that it misted his eyes with blackness in waves.

Carefully, Vidarian stood, wrapping his arm around Ellara as well, though with more surprise. “Ellara, how…?”

Lifan was half Qui, her heritage written on her black glossy hair and fine cheekbones, but Ellara was not. They were cousins, and, though Ellara was also dark of hair, even the most ignorant Company-man could not have mistaken her blue eyes and faintly freckled skin for Qui. Her jaw firmed, standing out against her cheeks in her thinness. “I told them they could take me with her or they could answer a blade, and we all would die.” She spat, but weakly. “Bloody cowards.”

“Did you know about this place?” A healer shuffled by them, and he touched her arm, then took an herbal tincture from the tray she carried, a health tonic, and gave it to Lifan.

“No,” Ellara said, and her eyebrows contracted with the memory. “I thought we'd be detained in Val Harlon for a day, perhaps two…and then they loaded us all on carts bound for the desert. I would have attempted escape, but we saw them behead a young man who tried.” When Vidarian's eyes widened, she added quietly, “I've seen things, Captain, that'll turn your stomach more than that. We 'scaped the worst of it, but plenty didn't.”

“I've never known a braver soul,” Vidarian said, gripping her shoulder, and meant it. He wanted to stay with her, but Ariadel was weaving through the crowd, searching. A stream of refugees were now being led back toward Gryphonslair, and he pointed in their direction. “Go to the camp, they'll have hot food and more clothing. I'll find you there.” Ellara nodded, first following his glance to Ariadel, then looking back at him with a surprised smile, before pressing her hand to Lifan's back to guide her toward the line.

When he touched Ariadel's arm, she turned quickly, hope in her eyes that dimmed when she saw him, though the swiftness of her embrace took any sting out of it. Once more he carefully drew his arms around her, careful both of her body and Raven, who still curled protectively around her shoulders. She turned again, searching, and he followed her, one hand on her shoulder.

Beneath his fingers, her muscles tensed almost immediately, and she dashed ahead.

The crowd parted before her, giving way to a grey-haired woman whose eyes and oval face were nearly a mirror for Ariadel's. Like her companions, she was also terribly thin, her skin darkened to leather by the desert sun, but it dissolved into a welcome smile and no few tears as she caught sight of Ariadel.

The two women embraced, the elder exclaiming over Ariadel's condition, and Ariadel in turn interrogated her mother over her own health, stopping a passing healer for a restorative draught and pressing it into her hands. The older woman tried to wave it off, but Ariadel would not be deterred, and demanded she drink the entire vial then and there. She did so stubbornly, and as Ariadel explained what they had done, turned to Vidarian with an expression full of welcome.

“Lady Whitehammer,” Vidarian said, offering his hand to her. He'd learned her proper name this time, aiming not to repeat the embarrassing assumption with which he'd introduced himself to Ariadel's father assuming he bore Ariadel's surname.

“Len Tsai was my family's name,” the woman smiled, and Vidarian's heart sunk at the correction. “I called myself Whitehammer in Alorea in deference to Alorean culture. I will be using my Qui name from today.”

“It's a great honor to meet you,” Vidarian said. “Your daughter has moved heaven and earth to find you.”

She smiled even more widely, her eyes disappearing into wrinkles. “I am unsurprised.”

Back beyond the gate, Rai's head was peeking into the camp as he craned his long neck. He caught sight of Vidarian and gave a tiny yip of greeting that turned heads in his direction.
Brother
, he said, and Vidarian jumped, surprised he could hear the dragon's voice from so far away.
There is a man here looking for you.

Vidarian turned back to Ariadel, who shooed him. “We'll manage,” she said. He thought of insisting on staying with her, but Rai yipped again, and she pushed at him. “Go! Don't be ridiculous!”

Reluctantly, he bowed over both of their hands, then turned to slip back through the crowd and to the gate. Rai's ears were down with apology, and he reminded himself not to be annoyed; the shapechanger could be terribly sensitive.

“I'm sorry to ask for you, Captain,” the messenger who awaited him said—a lean man, one of Marielle's sailors. “But we've captured an officer of the Alorean Import Company. Queen Marielle thought you should be present.”

Rai became his wolf self and followed, padding along at Vidarian's heels. And halfway to the
Luminous
, his tail started to wag.

It's over now, right?
the Starhunter said.
You're ready to help me?

“Still a bit busy,” Vidarian murmured, trying to avoid the attention of the messenger. Eventually, they reached the ship, and the sailor saluted and took his leave. Vidarian climbed down the main ladder and deliberately took a wrong turn, then two more, navigating to a remote part of the ship.

“All right,” he said, sighing. “I said I would help you.”

Great! It's about the other goddesses.

Vidarian's stomach sank. Chances were even she was about to ask for something proximate to a high mortality rate. “The other goddesses?” he asked. “They don't much like you. The two I've met, anyway.”

We-ell, that's the thing. I think the others might be gone.

“Siane?”

And Anake.

Of all of the elemental artifacts, the fire and water ones had been the easiest to recover. In fact, he wasn't even sure he'd
seen
a single earth artifact. It was distressing, now that he thought about it, in fact it made the skin on the back of his neck squirm, but he was hardly the one to investigate such a thing. “Why are you asking me this now?”

Because you can find them now, silly.

“What? How?”

Because of him, duh!
She manifested a shadowy hand and waved it at Rai.

“Rai? How is he supposed to find the goddesses?”

You're impossible.
She filled his head with another sigh, then twirled in a circle. When she stopped, her head was a pelican-gryphon's, specifically Arikaree's. ‘
Being a lance of earth and sky
,’ she said in the gryphon's voice.

Vidarian stared.

Oops, gotta go,
she said.
Those icy bastards never know when to quit.

And before he could ask what
that
meant, she was gone.

The relay room of the
Luminous
was full to bursting again, this time with two gryphons—Thalnarra and Meleaar—in addition to Marielle, Iridan, Khalesh, Isri, and Endera. It was an unlikely council, gryphons and fire priestess and sea queen and miraculous machine—but Vidarian was surprised at the swelling of pride and gratitude he felt upon seeing them there around the glowing relay sphere. The captured officer sat bound in an ornate chair at the front of the room, an empty wall behind him. Despite the expensive scented oil in his hair and the fine weave of his white shirt and black coat, he was naturally young, not one of the merchant princes who extended their lives with healing magic. With a spark of disgust Vidarian realized that no one even close to the directors would have risked themselves on the front line—save Justinian, who had trusted his safety to the automaton Veda and escaped.

Meleaar, however, was an unexpected addition, and when Vidarian took his seat and looked between the eagle-gryphon and Thalnarra, the latter explained:

//
Meleaar is one of seven currently known gryphons in the world to be possessed of what our ancestors called a ‘mindlink.’ He is an exceptionally powerful telepath, but beyond that, mindlinks can speak with any other gryphon bearing the mindlink no matter where they are located. Through our mindlinks, gryphon societies have been able to keep a single connected mother culture for thousands of years. Gryphonslair is deeply fortunate to have him.
//