The Fire Mages' Daughter (19 page)

Afterwards, in a glow of sated contentment, we lay with limbs tangled up together, his face buried in my neck.

“Sweet Drina,” he whispered into my hair. “Sweet love, my beloved. I love you so much, my darling princess. Sweet Drina…”

Poor Ly, only able to express his feelings in his own language. He knew I would be scornful of any open declaration. Or perhaps he was ashamed of what he felt. He wasn’t supposed to sleep with me, so undoubtedly any show of affection would be frowned upon too.

I let him talk, for I was waiting for my moment.

As always after our couplings, exhaustion soon caught up with him. One moment he was wide awake and chattering into my ear, the next he muttered something unintelligible, and a heartbeat later he was deeply asleep.

There was no danger of me falling asleep. My whole body still glowed from Ly’s caresses. Then I had all his magic swirling through me, and it was as much as I could do to keep still. I willed myself to breathe deeply, to be motionless, to make no sound that might disturb him.

I waited an hour, to be sure he was soundly asleep. Then I crept from the bed and gathered up my scattered clothes. My warm clothes for flying had gone, but there was nothing I could do about that. Perhaps the magic in me would keep me warm.

Then I went down to the shore, well away from the house, and summoned the eagle. She came at once, happy to see me. I supposed she must be missing Ly’s mother, if they had been bonded for years. But she responded eagerly to my call.

I climbed onto her back, and gave her a clear image of the Keep at Kingswell.

“Take me home,” I whispered.

For answer, she launched herself into the sky, and turned to the south.

I had escaped.

I felt as if all the demons of the earth were on my tail. Perhaps they were, at that. I crouched low on the eagle’s back, urging her onwards. “Faster, faster!” I called to her, and, bless her, she understood. The great wings moved in steady rhythm, and I felt her muscles straining beneath me. On she flew, arrow straight, and still my stomach lurched with fear.

What if Ly woke before I had reached safety? With every hour that passed, that was more likely. He would wake to find me gone, would reach for the eagle, find her gone too…

He’d lost his magic, though. Perhaps he’d also lost the ability to connect with the eagle, so he wouldn’t know what had happened. But that was only temporary. Sooner or later, his magic would return. It might happen as soon as he woke, and then he would call the eagle back to him and I would be well and truly sunk. I had to get to safety before he woke, it was imperative. But below me, the country was dark. No lights, no fires, no glimmer of river or lake… Even as the sky lightened with the rising sun, it revealed no landmarks.

But then something I recognised – a line of rocky hills with a single cleft cutting through them. Now I knew where we were, for beyond the hills was the Bennamorian army camp. Safety at last. All I had to do was to land there, and they would get me back to Kingswell.

We flew over the hills and there in all its glory was the camp, with fires and torches burning and, despite the early hour, cloaked figures moving about. Even in the first hour of the morning, there were tasks to be done, meals to prepare, watches to be kept.

“Down!” I shrieked, giving the eagle a mental image of the camp. I wasn’t quite sure how I directed her movements, because she seemed more attuned to my emotions than to specific instructions. However, if I threw several types of communication at her, something seemed to work. Obediently she began to glide down in lazy spirals.

As we descended, I looked for a landing place and adjusted the images I sent her accordingly. There was a big, open space in the middle of the camp – a parade ground, most likely – so I directed her there, where she would have the space to land. She began to circle more tightly.

Faces turned up to watch us. Arms pointed, people ran about.
My
people. I was close enough now to see the familiar uniform, the colours on the tents, the emblems on flags and wagons. Relief welled up in me, and I was close to weeping. Finally, I would be out of harm’s way, and I would never need to see Ly-haam or his dreadful mother again.

Something whooshed past my head. The eagle squawked in anger, and veered off so sharply that if I hadn’t been holding tight to the straps, I’d have been flung off. Something else zinged by. Arrows. They were shooting at us! Surely they could see me on her back, would know better than to shoot me out of the sky?

The eagle powered her way upwards, out of range, but I felt the anger in her. I was angry too. My own army had just tried to kill me. The rational part of my brain told me that they didn’t know it was me. Presumably they thought I was a Blood Clan rider, an enemy. But still I was outraged.

The eagle circled around, waiting for my instructions. I peered past her shoulder, looking for a place to land, somewhere open enough to accommodate her vast wingspan, but also out of range of bows. And not too near any trees, either, for from this height, I couldn’t tell what threats lurked beneath the canopy of leaves.

I could see the Imperial Road some distance away, and a newly made wagon track connecting it to the camp. I directed the eagle there and she descended with great sweeps of her wings, stirring up a cloud of choking dust. At the last minute, she strained upwards again. Too many bushes nearby, I guessed. She didn’t want to get her wings tangled in the branches.

In the end, I brought her down just beyond the camp’s perimeter ditch. It was risky to be so close, but nowhere else had enough space. Even as we thumped to the ground, the camp gates were thrown open and lines of soldiers emerged at a run. Swords, bows, crossbows, axes – more than enough to tackle one unarmed woman and a bird.

But I wasn’t going to allow them to harm my eagle. I scrambled clear of the straps on her back and jumped away from her.

“Go, go, go!” I yelled, and she didn’t argue the point. I could feel the terror rolling off her. With a spring, she was airborne, and fighting for height, stirring up a storm of dust.

Gods, those wings, powerful as they were, moved so slowly. My heart was in my mouth. One, two, three bows were primed, arrows nocked…

“No!” I shrieked. “Don’t shoot!”

An arrow launched, and missed. Another, closer. But soon she was enfolded in dust and barely visible as she gained height. The bows drooped. But then their owners turned to me, and raised their bows again.

I raised my hands above my head. “Don’t shoot! I am Highness Axandrina, the Drashona’s daughter. Please don’t shoot me.”

Bows dropped a fraction, uncertainly. From behind the uniformed line strode another figure, a captain. He was young, not much older than I was, and clearly quite junior, since he’d been left in charge of the dawn watch, the least favoured chore. But he was hard-faced, his expression all determined hostility.

He looked me up and down, and I swear he sneered. “By the powers vested in me by the—”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I said hastily, before he could formally make me a prisoner. “But you don’t want to do that, Captain. Very embarrassing for you. I am Highness Axandrina. Please take me to the High Commander.”

This time he definitely sneered. “The High Commander is asleep.
I
am in charge here, and you are my prisoner, by the powers vested—”

Oh dear. Not a man capable of reason. Nor could I use charm or engage his sympathies. No, I had to make him doubt his own judgement. I summoned all the aristocratic scorn I’d learned from Yannassia.

“What are you going to do, drag me in chains through my mother’s own army camp? She will be very pleased to hear about that. Look, I have no weapons. I am more than happy for you to search me to verify that. Well, maybe not you precisely, but one of your female soldiers. Then you can escort me into the camp and take me to the High Commander’s tent. Whichever of her senior commanders is on watch duty will be able to identify me.”

For the first time, doubt crept into his eyes. If he’d imagined I was from the Blood Clans, I hoped I’d demonstrated enough knowledge of Bennamorian ways to convince him otherwise.

He licked his lips, and I could almost see the thoughts chasing each other through his brain. Trouble was, he really was in charge, with no one to offer advice. The soldiers around him were as young and untried as he was. Now they watched him, waiting to see which way he would jump. Would he take me prisoner anyway and risk the Drashona’s displeasure if I really was who I said? Or would he be circumspect, and take me to someone who could identify me?

He grunted. “You, there – search her.”

I heaved a breath in relief. Caution had won out. The female soldier so summoned patted me down quite thoroughly, then the troop formed a tight ring around me and marched me into the camp. The few people up and about turned and stared as we passed by, pausing as they shaved or tended the horses or headed for the latrines. Two women sparring with pikes stopped, whispering behind their hands. Some of them must have recognised me, for I’d been paraded through the streets of Kingswell and at every ceremony for years, and my looks were distinctive enough. Yet no one spoke.

The High Commander’s tent was right at the heart of the camp, not especially bigger than any other, but made of stronger material and boasting the largest flag I’d seen, drooping on its pole in the still air. A troop of Elite Guards protected the perimeter, and the entrance was secured by two more and – praise all the gods! – a commander.

He jumped up as we approached, but as soon as he saw me his concerned expression changed to exultation.

“Highness! By the Moon God! What are you doing out here?”

Of course, word would not yet have reached them of my kidnap. I’d been gone for several suns, but somewhere along the road from Kingswell to the border, or on the unswerving Imperial Road, a rider still galloped her labouring horse, a message tucked into the saddle-bag warning the army to watch for me.

“I was kidnapped by the Blood Clans, but I managed to escape.”

The commander looked at my dishevelled appearance and made an instant decision. The right one, this time. “Guard, fetch the High Commander. Are you well, Highness? Uninjured?”

My escort circle drew away from me, instinctively settling at the distance due to my rank, pretending they had been an honour guard all along instead of prisoner escort. The captain, his cheeks burning, said nothing, melting into his troops as if hoping to pass unnoticed. I wasn’t going to let him get away with that.

“Quite uninjured, I thank you. Commander, perhaps you would be good enough to vouch for my identity to the captain here. He was about to take me prisoner until I persuaded him otherwise.”

The captain’s cheeks flamed even more. He made me a deep bow. “Your pardon, Highness, but in war, we are taught to be cautious.”

“There is a difference between caution and discourtesy,” I said coolly.

He bowed again, but he was saved from any further embarrassment by the emergence from the tent of the High Commander herself, remarkably fully attired, considering she must have been abed. She needed only boots, sword, coat and helmet to be ready for the battlefield.

“Highness! This is a surprise. But how you getting here?” Her dialect was oddly soothing to me, for I’d grown up amongst riverside folk.

“On the back of an eagle, High Commander.”

“An eagle?”

I pointed upwards, to where the bird still circled. I’d given her no other instructions, of course. Time to let her go. I sent her a clear mental image of the castle and Ly-haam – I couldn’t quite bring myself to visualise his mother – and muttered, “Go,” under my breath. She wavered for a moment and then resumed her circling. Well, if I was the only connected mind she could detect, perhaps she would stay with me until Ly woke up.

“An eagle,” the High Commander repeated, in a disbelieving tone. “Right. The guard saying you being kidnapped? And you not being injured? You not being ill-treated?”

How to answer that? Was I ill-treated? Bound, dragged about, and then – how could I describe what Ly-haam did to me?

“I am not injured,” I said neutrally.

The High Commander gave me a penetrating look, but let it pass. “And are you being pursued?”

Good question. “Not yet.”

“Very good. Villor, be sending a couple of your fastest riders to Kingswell with a message for the Most Powerful Lady Yannassia. She will be wanting to know at the first opportunity that her daughter is safe. Now, Highness, come inside. How may we serve you? Food and drink? Or shall I organise a horse for you at once?”

“A hot bath, if you can manage it, and clean clothes.”

She could indeed manage it. Within a very short time, I was soaking in hot water, while the High Commander herself sat beside me feeding me summer fruits and asking simple questions that I found hard to answer. How did I come to be kidnapped in the first place? What strength could the enemy muster? Were they about to respond to our invasion?

In the end, I decided that she, at least, deserved to know everything I could tell her. She was so vulnerable out here, the camp isolated and many suns from the Bennamorian border. So I explained about the mental connection to the eagle, and I even told her something of my problem with Ly-haam, although I daresay she knew of it already. She wouldn’t be very good at her job if she hadn’t kept a very close watch on him when he was in Kingswell.

She listened intently, absentmindedly nibbling the fruits herself, occasionally asking for clarification in her rolling river cadences that reminded me of home. She came from very humble stock, shopkeepers or some such, but she’d worked hard and learned well, better than the noble sons and daughters she now commanded. We had a habit of losing High Commanders more frequently than we should, but this one was young and keen, and likely to last for a few years yet.

“Will they be sending more eagles after you?” she asked.

Another good question. “Possibly. Probably. They have more, I know that.”

“What about the one you came on? Can you be flying home on that?”

“No. No, not at all. If the
byan shar
takes control of her…”

She nodded. “That be making your journey difficult. You have to be taking the Imperial Road, since the forest being impassable, but then you being visible from the air. I be sending plenty of archers with you, then. How about land pursuit? They be having horses?”

“Not that I ever saw, no. I never saw them riding anything, but then I wasn’t mingling with them. They are reputed to have lions and wolves.”

She grunted. “I be worrying about that when it be before my eyes. Besides, we be dealing with that, no problem. Eagles – trickier. They can swoop down, snatch you up and be off. But my archers be taking care of it.”

When I could drag myself out of the water, and was dressed again, the High Commander said, “I very glad you be safe, Highness. Your mother will be relieved.”

“I’m glad you were here. If I’d had to fly all the way to Kingswell, I’m not sure I would have made it. But luckily we have this little outpost of Bennamore right here, just where I needed it.”