WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) (28 page)

“The dame came to comfort me and we talked a long time until we felt better. Swift was able to see how I healed and Tawny says that made her spirit lighter.”

The groups of women have broken up and they approach Swift alone for the most part. They hold her hand and talk to her. One laughs, telling a one-sided version of an event in their childhood. Shadow’s thoughts go to Talon and images of him with the loud blonde. Then she’s overwhelmed by feelings of futility and a vision of Terry dead on the road. Swift’s frustration she could never really connect with Talon stirs Shadow’s complete hopelessness. She’s aware of the parallel between the pain and emptiness when Terry died and when Talon left Swift only Swift faced the real future of seeing Talon over and over to renew her loss.

“Excuse me,” Shadow kisses Cloud on the head and stands without pain for the first time since the accident. As she approaches Swift’s body her breath hitches then eases.

“Hey,” she takes Swift’s hand. “Maybe you know me better than you think if I have the privilege of standing here now. I’m proud to count you as someone he cared for. He loved you and I think he did the only fair thing he could.”

Something male touches Shadow and she whirls but nobody’s behind her and no male is in the chamber.

“You have a visitor, Shadow,” Tawny approaches. “Don’t question.”

Shadow closes her eyes and rests her lips on Swift’s cheek. The closeness brings her a vision of the accident she’d never seen. The bare arms on leather tasseled grips can only be Terry’s; everything in black and white, grey and grey.

I never thought of his last moments,
Shadow realizes.
Not how they were for him. He knew from the moment the truck appeared I’d be alone.

Her knees buckle as the impact knocks the wind from her lungs and her head turns sharply to the left. She’s blind to the room as Swift’s fingers tighten their hold. The present has her clinging to a dead woman and not broken over the roof of a truck. Shadow sees a blur of sky and paint then nothing but her body broken on the ground as Terry’s vision tunnels to blackness. He knew she survived. He knew everything she went through since and he’s proud.

“Terry?”

But he’s gone.

“Many of us are blessed like this,” Tawny says. Swift’s fingers have relaxed and Shadow should be alarmed by the whole thing but she isn’t. “They travel a long way to connect with the living through a spirit still bound to its body. We are of the sky and the Earth and when we pass our halves are returned.”

“She held my hand.”

“Yes, she is ready now. When your turn comes you will make a wish for her, something your magic can grant.”

Shadow looks away as the drape is removed, leaving Swift’s tall white body naked and exposed. The women rush to wet their hands and place them on Swift.

“Hurry,” Tawny breathes. Shadow follows her to the bowl then places her wet palms on Swift’s left shoulder. “The cloth was soaked in moonwater to keep her spirit from leaving too early, stained with wounds from her life. Now our hands keep it down until the blessing is over.”

Tawny stands at Swift’s other shoulder and Arden cradles her head in her elbows, her hands between Tawny’s and Shadow’s. Cloud is somewhere by Swift’s feet and the women jostle for positions that allow them all to touch her. Some manage both hands but most have to turn sideways just to lay a single hand on her.

“Hear our wish sister!” Arden shouts, bringing silence to the room. “My sister, leave us without fear. Be brave. Your spirit is strong and beautiful.”

“Hear our wish, hear our wish,” the women chant. As the room warms, Shadow has to press on Swift to keep her hands down. “Hear our wish, hear our wish.”

With each twitch of Swift’s body she becomes markedly warmer, the chill of death evaporates with every word of the women. Swift’s body shakes with a deep shudder that vibrates up through Shadow’s sweaty palms.

“Hear our wish sister!” Tawny interrupts and again the room falls silent, even Swift’s weak shaking stills. “My sister, leave us healed. Be loved. Your spirit is whole and beautiful.”

Swift answers with a jolt as her body gets hot and those who can, lean forward to hold her down.

“Hear our wish, hear our wish,” the chanting continues as the struggle to hold Swift escalates. Sweaty arms rub together and beads run inside Shadow’s tunic, soaking the waistband of her trousers. The difference in temperature between Shadow’s front and back is like opening an oven. A hand slips from Swift’s trembling body and Shadow knows it’s her turn.

“Hear our wish sister!” she yells over the mayhem. “My sister, leave us protected. Be safe. Your spirit is treasured and beautiful.”

“Hear our wish, hear our wish,” they chant, voices breaking. Shadow tears so heavily even the blistering inferno before her isn’t enough to dry them. Arden’s shoulder shakes with effort as much as her own and Swift’s necklace slides out of place. A look around shows every face wet with tears.

“Fly!” Arden bellows and together they wipe their hands over their cheeks, soaking them in tears then shoving them under Swift. She’s weightless and with only their fingertips they raise her high above their heads. Swift’s head falls and her back arches as she draws a final breath.

Swift’s piercing screech echoes up through the infinite height of the room. As her lungs empty they scramble to hold on with their tired slippery arms as Swift’s body gets heavier and heavier.

“Fly Swift!” Cloud yells and others whisper good-bye. Shadow sees the youngster through the forest of limbs, an adult now, her eyes wide with joy.

“Fly, my sister,” Shadow whispers.

They hold Swift until the echo of her cry fades completely then lower her to the altar and cover her up. Some linger, others dip scraps of cloth in the moonwater to wipe their hands and cheeks clean before tossing them in the fire.

Several women tend to Swift, wrapping her in soft linen and stitching tight seams to hold her.

“We may depart,” Tawny says and Shadow looks longingly up into the blackness above.

“Someone did this for my brother, didn’t they?”

“Yes,” she answers. “His spirit flew free.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Do you all have, um, treasure?” Shadow whispers at Talon’s side. She picks at her food like she doesn’t understand how much demand the next day’s travel will put on her.

“Only males,” he pushes her plate a little closer but she ignores it. She emerged from the tunnel with Cloud. An adult now. A gryphon. Both are for that matter. The strength he previously felt masked by pain is clear in her like it’s been brought up from the bottom of a swimming pool. It’s balanced with her grief, which while still present, is integrated and under control.

Finally she picks up some lightly cooked meat and sniffs it.

“Do you buy things like my brother did?”

“Your brother’s sports memorabilia was a hobby. A gryphon’s hoard is gathered on the wing. Precious stones, metals: all hidden in secret.”

She nods like she understands but then asks the same question as her hand absently strokes her adornment.

“So you don’t buy things at a jewelry store?”

“No.”

“But this—”

“Our bond gave your adornment its form. There’s nothing like it in my hoard. Dragons acquire finished pieces through trade or conquest. A gryphon scavenges his hoard from the Earth.”

“There’s really dragons?” Shadow sits up straighter to get her feet underneath her butt.

“Not supposed to talk about dragons,” Talon mutters and she snaps her mouth shut. At least she’s stopped talking about his hoard.

Let her wonder if dragons are real or not, he shrugs. Gryphons aren’t supposed to tell stories.

“You need to eat,
Arlette
,” he says around a mouthful of very rare venison. “I can, of course carry you but I’m sure you would rather fly to your eyrie yourself.”

Shadow snorts, indignant at the slight snub. In spite of spending thirty years as a human she’s still a gryphon and any challenge to her pride pisses her off.

Good.

They eat silently until a pair of small children shrieks. Mist and Echo’s dame has returned along with a few other female stragglers. She looks as the others did: tired and content. It’s infectious and the mood in the chamber levels out a little further. Shadow watches the children and gives him a smile he can’t read.

“Seconds?” he offers.

“No thanks,” Shadow answers so he takes her bowl back to the kitchen with his.

Lev and Soar find her before Talon so he slows as Shadow stands, using her left leg like it was never hurt. Tawny he suspects.

Talon greets Soar with a clasp of elbows. Soar gives him a nod and runs his tongue over the cut on his lip. It’s not as spectacular as other injuries they’ve exchanged so it doesn’t warrant comment. Talon’s intent hadn’t been to harm Soar anyway. A good gryphon will always stop a friend from getting out of hand.

“Hello, gryphon,” Lev says to Shadow. “You are the very image of your dame.”

“Really?”

“Our friends are honoured you chose to join them today. I missed you this morning.” Shadow searches his face for something intangible. From what Talon remembers of Condor, other than years there isn’t much to differentiate sire and son. “There were arrangements to be made for our return so I was by the entrance where my satellite phone works. Additional gryphons will join us by morning.

“Master Talon?”

“Sire?” Talon accepts Lev’s invitation and kneels before joining Shadow, surrounding her with one giant wing as her tail coils around his. Then his hand finds her stomach, low over her womb like the day they met. It’s not Lev he feels possessive around; it’s Soar even though Soar’s service to Lev precludes anything other than professionalism. The rules are different however between males. Soar is big and dangerous and if the looks of the unmated females around the room are any indication he’s very desirable mating material.

“There are several gryphons arriving with whom you will meet.”

Talon nods. They must be the remnants of Dame Treasure’s guard.

“I wish to share something with you, Shadow,” Lev pulls a small pouch from his pocket. “Don’t open it quite yet. I want you to understand what it is and what it has been through to find its way to you.”

Shadow holds it in her palm, not even probing the deerskin with her thumb to find out what the object is. Her curiosity fills Talon and he’s tempted to do it himself.

“First, a small history of our eyrie. My sister was meant to take our dame’s seat however she was impatient and mated to another royal. When Master Sky, our greatest warrior and Dame to his eyrie removed herself to teach combat full-time my sister took over. Soar is her son, your cousin if there were a gryphon word for such a relationship.”

Talon interrupts with a loud laugh. Grandson of Master Sky he knew but his own kin as well? Soar’s grin says he’s as amused by the idea as Talon. Lev however looks like he isn’t. Neither is Shadow, whose pointy elbow makes a brief visit to Talon’s bare ribs.

“So I came to be heir,” Lev continues. “And in need of a mate to fill my dame’s seat. I’d learned of an eyrie in northern Europe blessed with four pairs of royal offspring and hoped one might find me interesting. I made the journey alone, on the wing as is tradition, and when I arrived the eldest was spoken for, already Dame of the eyrie, and the next two were gone.

“I was three hundred years old and they told me the remaining female was young and small and in spite of the best care had failed to grow or take wing. I’d come a long way and wished to meet her anyway.

“As I waited for her to be brought to the royal chamber the Dame explained about her dame’s dame who legend said, was a small white winged gryphon who made outlandish claims regarding her parentage to excuse the fact she hadn’t taken wing until she was nearly forty. The Dame dismissed the tale as nonsense but there was nothing I wasn’t willing to take on including teaching a small gryphon to fly.

“She stopped my heart, Shadow, when I saw her,” Lev strokes Shadow’s chin and she tenderly returns the gesture. “Treasure was no bigger than you. From that very moment I could read her feelings, she was very scared, lonely. Even surrounded by gryphons who loved her she knew she was out of place but she was brave nonetheless.