Laura Jo Phillips (39 page)

“It’s a common practice on worlds that have different levels of knowledge for different classes of people,” Torl explained.  “They tend to take great pains to hide the highest level of writing and knowledge from the masses.  It increases their mystery.”

Aisling looked back at the writing on the stele.  It took her a few moments to mentally rearrange the letters and the words, but finally she understood what it said. 

“
Ka-Teru, Sacred City of the Kings, founded by King Arth-Mar, the Builder, in the ninth year of the Third Dynasty, in whose honor this marker was erected.  This city is protected by the Gods of Ank-Teru, whose wrath shall be avenged by the glorious Knights of Rathira.”

Tense with excitement, Aisling took out her hand terminal and turned it on.   She transposed the letters of the first few words of the Arkandu oraculum, and though it wasn’t exactly right, she knew she was close. 

“Did it work?” Olaf asked.

“Not quite,” Aisling replied.  “But I think I’m close.  I never thought of reversing the letters.”  She put the terminal back in the protective bag and returned it to her pocket.  She would crack that code, but not right then.

Karma gasped softly and Aisling turned quickly to see what was wrong.  A moment later, she gasped as well. 

The canal opened into a broad marina that was thick with boats, most of them tied to short docks like the one they’d use to board earlier, a few of them drifting casually along the line of docks.  The boats were in a rainbow of colors, some with stripes, some solid, but all of them had stylized figures of some sort depicted along their bows.  Even as colorful and interesting as the boats were, they paled in comparison to the sight of the buildings along the banks.

Aisling’s first impression was that it was a city made of stone, and she wasn’t wrong.  From their position on the boat, the buildings appeared to be either square or rectangular, with flat roofs and tall columns holding up deep overhangs that shaded the doors and windows.  The buildings seemed huge even from a distance, much taller than anything she was used to seeing outside of a modern city.

About half way into the marina the boat turned toward a dock that was much larger than the rest.  There were several boats tied it, with one empty spot near the end.  As their boat floated gently toward the empty spot a procession of people came rushing between two buildings.  A large man with a gray beard wearing a red cloak trimmed in gold led the party onto the dock. 

“That’s the King,” Captain Singer said in surprise.  The Gryphons nudged the women back from the railing, and they all waited respectfully as they watched the group hurry toward them.

“Lo, Captain Singer, I ask for your aid,” the King shouted before he reached them.

“Certainly, Highness,” Captain Singer agreed at once.  “How can I be of assistance, Your Majesty?”

“My daughter was out fishing this morning and her retinue was attacked,” King Rhobar said, stopping beside their boat.  He was close enough now that they could easily see the man’s real distress.  “One maid survived long enough to tell us that Princess Kapia was taken.  We do not know by whom, but we know from the tracks they left behind that they were riding on machines that go very fast.  My Hunters track them, but they cannot hope to catch up to them on foot before they leave our land.  I ask that you use your machines to help us rescue my daughter.”

Olaf studied the King, carefully but quickly.  He did not sound weak or fearful, only anxious for his daughter, which instantly earned him a measure of respect.  Nor did his retinue appear to be the usual group of sycophants Olaf had encountered on many other worlds that had a monarchy as a form of government.  Rather, they were mostly gray haired, holding themselves as aged warriors would, all of them armed.  Olaf scented no fear, but plenty of worry and anxiety from the group.

He bowed to the King.  “Forgive me, Highness, for interrupting,” he said.  “I am Olaf Gryphon.  My brothers and I would offer our assistance in this matter.”

The King looked at Olaf with hope in his faded brown eyes.  “Do you have devices such as Captain Singer?”

“Highness,” Captain Singer said, “I am willing to offer all the help I can, but I believe that the Gryphons would be of far more immediate use to Your Majesty.  They are shifters, and can fly like the birds in the sky.”

“I will take whatever assistance I can get if it will bring my daughter back to me,” the King said. 

“Can you tell us where she was last seen?” Olaf asked.

The King waved another man forward who immediately gave Olaf the information he asked for. 

“What does your daughter look like, please?” Rand asked the King while Olaf listened to the other man.

“Kapia is sixteen years old,” the King said, his voice breaking.  He swallowed hard and squared his shoulders.  “She has long black hair, to her waist, and was wearing a brown and silver day dress.”

When Olaf was certain he had all of the information the man had to give him, he bowed to the King, then turned to face his brothers. 

“I’m coming with you,” Aisling said before Olaf had a chance to say anything.  “This girl is going to be terrified of you three.”

Olaf’s first thought was to say no, but the gleam in Aisling’s eyes caused him to quickly reconsider.  She was a warrior, just as he and his brothers were warriors.  He had to accept her as she was. 

“Very well,” Olaf agreed.  “Karma, if you, Captain Singer and Torl would be so good as to move to one end of the boat, I believe we have enough room to shift here.”

The three immediately did as Olaf asked, moving to the corner where the cat still sat, watching the activities with an air of boredom.  Olaf walked to the center of the boat deck and called his gryphon, leaping into the air before the transformation was complete.  There was a gasp of surprise from the people on the dock, but Aisling ignored it as she hurried to where Olaf had stood and called her gryphon.  It took a moment longer for her transformation, and she had to wait till it was complete before launching herself into the sky, but she was proud of herself for how well it went.  Next Rand, and finally Rudy joined Aisling and Olaf as they circled low over the harbor.  

Karma watched the King as he watched the gryphons circle overhead, then speed off to the north.  When they were out of sight there was a collective sigh from the men on the dock.  The King looked over at Captain Singer, who offered him a reassuring smile.

“Do not worry, Highness, the Gryphons are honorable warriors.  They will find and return your daughter.”

“I thank you, Captain Singer,” the King said as he eyed the remaining people on the boat.  “Are you also able to transform yourselves into beasts such as those?”

“No, we are not,” Captain Singer replied.  “I am human, as is Torl and Karma.  The Gryphons are Clan Jasani, all of whom are shifters.”

If Karma hadn’t been watching for it, she would have missed the tiny sigh of relief from the king.  She didn’t really blame him.  It wasn’t every day you saw four perfectly human looking people turn into impossibly huge half lion, half eagle beasts and fly away before your eyes.

“Come,” the King said after one last glance into the northern sky, “let us return to the palace and await the Gryphons’ return with Princess Kapia.”

Chapter
35

Olaf flew north along the river, past the point where the two forks rejoined.  He dropped down until he was nearly skimming the water, looking for the small cove of reeds that the King’s man had described.  Moments later he spotted the cove and flew in a slow circle above it, searching for tracks and scents. 

“I smell Urwin,”
Aisling said in surprise. 
“That’s just weird.”

“Why is it weird?”
Rand asked.

“I don’t know,”
Aisling replied. 
“I’ve never identified anyone by smell before.”

“There are the tracks,”
Olaf said, flying lower to the ground where the sand was disturbed near the shore.

“Those are speeder trails,”
Rand said as he followed several long strips of smooth sand leading away from the river.  Speeders glided just above the ground on a cushion of air, which left no sign on rocky or graveled terrain.  On this terrain, the wind of their passage left trails of smoothed sand beneath them.  There were perhaps a dozen trails, but it was difficult to tell as they overlapped.

Olaf turned east and followed the trail away from the river and into the desert, realizing the speeders were heading toward the energy signature.  The scent of a young female was faint among the heavier scents of the males that were with her, but the scent of her fear stood out strongly among the others   Olaf flew faster.

“We’re getting closer,”
Rudy said a little while later. 
“The scents are getting stronger and I hear the sound of the speeders.”

Olaf scented the air and immediately increased their altitude.  He wanted to get a good look at their quarry without being spotted.  People didn’t often look into the sky without cause, so if they flew high enough, they probably wouldn’t be noticed.

Before long, they were so high up that their breath froze in clouds of tiny ice crystals.  In the distance, they saw a group of people so far away they seemed tiny dark specks. 

Olaf flew faster, studying the landscape ahead of the speeders.  His gryphon eyes had no trouble seeing that the speeders were going to have to travel around a large area of scattered rocks and shallow trenches bordered by a row of low hills.  He quickly formulated a plan, told the others, and then cut west, aiming for the far side of the hills the speeders would have to go around.

Moments later, the gryphons were circling high above the area they expected the speeders to reach in only a few minutes. 

“The Princess is tied to the man driving the speeder in the center of that group,”
Rand said. 

“If we use Earth magic to create a pit, I’m afraid that the Princess will be harmed,”
Olaf said. 
“Nor can we risk killing Urwin until we have the memory crystal.”

“Then we need to make them stop,”
Aisling said.
  “We need a diversion so shocking that they stop before they even think about it.”

“Such as?”
Olaf asked warily.  There was something in Aisling’s tone that made him cautious.

“Such as a woman appearing out of nowhere,”
Aisling said. 

“And what if they do not stop when they see this woman, but continue on, perhaps running over her in the process?”
Olaf asked.

“If they don’t stop, I’ll just shift and get out of their way,”
she replied.

Olaf didn’t like Aisling’s plan, but he couldn’t think of another that wouldn’t risk the Princess.  He reminded himself once again that Aisling was a skilled warrior.  A skilled warrior who was also now a true Clan Jasani, and therefore far faster than any human.  And much more difficult to kill.

“Very well,”
Olaf said finally, keeping that last point firmly in mind. 
“But keep your distance, and at the first sign that they do not mean to stop, you must promise to shift and get out of the way.”

“No problem,”
Aisling replied.

“While you distract them from the front, we will come up behind them and begin dropping them into pits, one by one,”
Olaf said. 

“Don’t trust Urwin,”
Aisling cautioned. 
“Not for a moment.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,”
Olaf promised. 
“They’re coming now.  Ready?”

Rand, Rudy and Aisling all indicated that they were not only ready, but impatient to get started.  Olaf gave Aisling the signal, then watched as she flew away from them. 

“Don’t you let yourself get so much as a scratch, Aisling,”
Olaf warned.  The sound of Aisling’s laughter in his mind eased some of his tension as he turned to the west, his brothers right behind him. 

As the gryphons came up behind the speeders they reduced their altitude so that they were only twenty feet off the ground, the sound of their wings drowned beneath the roar of the speeders below them.  Just as they reached the position Olaf wanted, they saw Aisling flying low along the ground directly toward the speeders.  The riders in front of the pack swerved in surprise when they saw the strange creature flying straight at them, then braked as the creature transformed before their eyes into the figure of a beautiful woman with flame red hair dressed in a very snug, green outfit. 

The speeders behind those in front, some carrying two riders, had no choice but to brake, bringing the entire pack of ten speeders to an abrupt stop in a cloud of dust and sand. 

Beginning with the speeders at the back of the pack, Olaf, Rand and Rudy began opening deep pits in the earth just wide enough to swallow each speeder and it’s riders, and deep enough to prevent them from climbing out easily.  They managed to drop half of the speeders before those in front realized what was happening.  They were too intent upon the woman walking toward them from the front to pay much attention to their yelling companions behind them.