Keeper of the Flame (36 page)

“Did you not feel the same way? What did you think of the child?” Lera asked the question, and Hugh waited for the answer. They were talking about Miss. The gryphon child he’d found freezing in the rain.

“I loved her. Sshe wass sstrange, but sshe wass mine. He threw her out.”

“Why didn’t you stand up to him? Why didn’t you stand up
for her
?” Lera seemed as angry and confounded by the female gryphon’s actions as Hugh was.

“I could not. He iss my mate.” That seemed to say it all for Xerata, and Hugh couldn’t understand it. He would never understand that kind of blind acceptance of something so very wrong.

“If your mate had not set you on this path, would you have allied yourself with my cousin, Sendra?”

“No.” The answer puffed out of the gryphon’s beak.

“If your mate had not disapproved of your child, would you have thrown her out into the storm to die?”

“No.” This time the word broke in half. In agony. A mother’s agony.

“Would you have kept her, even with her differences?”

“I wanted to keep her, but I could not. He would not allow it with the way sshe hatched,” Xerata admitted brokenly. “I tried my besst to keep her out of hiss way. To teach her how to be resspectful and quiet. But that lasst night, sshe did ssomething to anger him and he forced her out of the nesst. Sshe fell down the cliff to her death.”

The gryphon mother made a sound the likes of which Hugh had never heard from one of her kind. It was of pain. Of soul-deep anguish. Of a mother’s loss. Her desperate hopelessness.

“She’s not dead,” Lera whispered.

The gryphon stirred. Her head rose the few inches she was able to lift it. Her raptor’s eyes blinked in surprise—and something that looked like hope.

“Sshe ssurvived the fall?”

“A prince of Draconia found her in the storm. She was attracted by his magic and he took her in and protected her for days. He gave her the love and magic she needed to survive and he has offered to adopt her.”

“My girl will be raissed by dragon folk? Will sshe be ssafe with them?” The mother’s concern for her baby was genuine and truthful considering she was still under the watchful magic of the eternal flame.

“Safer than she has been with her own kind,” Lera reminded the gryphon.

“I am glad sshe lives. If sshe ever asskss about me, pleasse tell her I tried but I wassn’t sstrong enough to sstand up to her ssire.” The gryphon’s head lowered back to the ground. She was clearly losing what little strength remained. “Tell her I loved her and that I’m ssorry I failed her.”

Lera had heard enough. This gryphon was weak, but neither Lera nor the flame judged her failures worthy of the ultimate penalty. The eternal flame dissipated. It did not want Xerata’s life in payment for her sins. There would be punishment, but the sentence would not be death.

At least not by the flame’s power. If the gryphon died, it would be of her wounds, though Lera didn’t think Xerata’s injuries were fatal. She was in bad shape. There was no doubt of that. She had broken bones and contusions from her fall. And her tail feathers were badly burnt.

She would heal, given time. For now, she was immobilized, which was the safest place for her to be with her mate still on the loose.

Lera looked to the sky, watching the action up there for a moment. The race in the sky looked like a stalemate. The dragons and the emissary were able to keep Ylianthror in the area, but they couldn’t pin him down or run him to ground. Something had to tip the balance and end this standoff.

“Hugh, can you take me up?”

“I’d rather not. I can’t guarantee your safety up there. And what about her?”

“The flame does not want her death this day. She will keep for now.” Lera felt a mixture of anger and sorrow for the female gryphon she would examine in depth later. Now was still the time for action. “You need to be up there, Hugh, and I need to be with you.”

The dragon that was Hugh craned his long neck upward to study the sky for a moment.

“Dammit, you’re right. I don’t like taking you up into that, but I dare not leave you here.”

“You need to be up there, and so do I.”

The dragon nodded.
“Yes. All right.”
He seemed to come to a decision and bent downward so Lera could mount. She moved quickly and a moment later they were airborne.

As Lera looked backward, she could see Jenet and Drake standing guard over the fallen gryphon. Drake was doing some preliminary work on immobilizing Xerata’s broken wings and dressing her wounds. Drake of the Five Lands had a big heart and Lera was glad he was there to help Xerata. Perhaps someday the female gryphon could redeem herself. Lera didn’t know how or when, but perhaps in time, there might be some way for her to atone for what she’d done. At least the eternal flame seemed to think so…else it would not have left her alive.

Lera noted the coordinated way in which the dragons flew. No doubt, Hugh was orchestrating their movements with silent discussion. The way they flew as a unit was a thing of beauty.

“Are you all right back there?”
Hugh took a moment to ask. His acrobatic flying continued as he worked his way around into the formation that would force Ylianthror down.

“Fine,” Lera shouted above the wind. She’d flown on gryphons before. She’d even flown with Hugh before. She was an experienced rider, but this kind of flying was something vastly different than anything she’d experienced.

“Hold on tight, Lera. This is going to be tricky.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. She could feel the way his wings sculpted the wind. He was flying fast and making incredibly tight turns as he joined the chase.

The sun was beginning its rise, but it was still dark enough for Hugh to take full advantage of his inky hide. He coordinated with his brothers and managed to tip the scaled in one fell swoop, coming up in front of Ylianthror’s flight path and hitting him with a warning burst of flame that brought the acrobatically talented gryphon up short.

He tried to backwing, but some of his feathers were on fire. He had to land or the feathers would continue to smolder and burn. The only way for him to stop the damage would be to land and brush his feathers through the dirt. Only when the fire was out would it be safe to take to the skies again.

It was a masterful bit of flying that forced the gryphon down. He screeched all the way and Hugh never let the pressure off. He followed Ylianthror down, spiraling and shooting bursts of fire all around him with the help of the other dragons, to make Ylianthror go where they wanted him to go.

Finally.

They had control of the situation. Or, at least
some
control. Which was a lot more than they had before.

The gryphon landed and dragged his wings in the dusty dirt of the courtyard, putting out the fire. He screeched at the dragons that landed around him, hemming him in. Unless he got another lucky shot in at the wing joint, his claws couldn’t do much to dragon scale, which was one of the hardest substances in the world. Only diamond blades could pierce it. Gryphon talons were no match for it unless he knew just where to aim and the dragon was foolish or unlucky enough to let him close enough.

Jenet had been unlucky. Nobody else would suffer that kind of damage, Lera vowed as she jumped off Hugh’s back the moment he set down. It was time to end this.

Lera called the eternal flame. It came to her hand, to her soul, stronger than it had in a long, long time. The flame was ready. And Lera was more than ready.

“Ylianthror! Stand and be judged by the eternal flame,” she ordered as she strode forward. She had no fear. The flame surrounded her with its gossamer tendrils of power.

Lera knew that while it held her in its embrace, she could not be harmed by conventional means. It was the first time the flame had chosen to manifest in this way for her, though the skills to handle it were taught to every Keeper. The flame could not have picked a better time. Silently, she thanked the Lady for helping her stand strong against this threat.

Ylianthror screamed in feathery outrage but didn’t speak. Lera reached for more of her magic, finding the link she shared with Hugh and drawing on their joined power. The eternal flame leapt inside her in answer to her summons.

Lera pointed her fingers, and tendrils of gossamer flame reached out to wrap around each of Ylianthror’s front feet. His claws were tethered to the ground. He could not fly while the flame held him prisoner.

She didn’t know how long this unprecedented ability would last. She hoped she’d at least get to question the gryphon and let the flame make a judgment. That was important. It was her duty as Keeper to dispense the flame’s justice. But every creature of the goddess deserved to be heard before judgment was passed. This was Ylianthror’s chance.

“I do not ansswer to you,” the gryphon finally growled when he’d given up tugging at the bonds of flame around his ankles. As long as he didn’t move his front feet, the fire did not burn. It encircled him, but would not harm him unless he fought it.

“All gryphons of Helios answer to the Lady,” Lera argued.

“Only the weak do not forge their own desstiny,” Ylianthror countered.

“Ssacrilege!” Hyadror’s voice came from behind Lera. She noted that the gryphons with priests led by Hyadror had drawn closer, ringing the scene in the center of the large yard.

“You are weak, Hyadror!” Ylianthror screamed back, irate. “You alwayss were!”

“And am I weak as well, Ylianthror?” The emissary padded silently up to the imprisoned gryphon. “The Lady made me in the image of your daughter. The daughter you kicked out into the storm. For that transgression alone you should be judged. But for plotting against the Keeper…” Jalinar growled in outrage. “That is a killing offense. For only the truly evil would try to subvert the Lady’s will.”

“You are not a gryphon,” Ylianthror screeched. “You are an abomination!”

“Was your daughter an abomination?” Lera asked carefully, trying to control her temper.

“That…
thing
…wass no daughter of mine.”

“Then by my authority as Keeper, I take the child under my protection. From this moment on, you can have no claim on her. She is no longer yours.”

“Good riddance.” He fairly spat the words and it was all Lera could do to hold her anger at bay.

There was more she needed to do here and she had to do it quickly. She didn’t know how much longer the flame would imprison him. She had to work faster.

“What was your deal with Sendra?” Lera changed tactics, invoking the eternal flame’s truth seeking power. Tendrils wrapped around the gryphon, squeezing the truth from his traitorous soul.

“In exchange for my help, sshe would make me king of all gryphonss in Helioss when sshe took the throne.”

“Why?” Lera wanted to know. “Why did you want so much power? What would you do with it?”

“I wanted my kind to be free of human rule. We are bigger, better, sstronger and fasster than you. Why sshould you order uss around? Why sshould the Keeper threaten uss with death by fire if we don’t do what sshe ssayss? We are better than humanss. Ssuperior in every way. You need uss. We do not need you at all.”

Lera begged to differ, but she wouldn’t even try to reason with this creature. His heart was so filled with hate. She could feel the evil of it pulsing at her through the protective flame. The magic of the eternal flame connected them, but it also protected her from his malice. She’d never had it do that before. It had never had to.

Never before had she run up against a creature so intent on defying the rules the Lady had set forth to govern not only gryphons, but humans as well. This was a first. And Lera prayed with all her might it would be the last she ever saw of this kind of hatred directed at her or any other creature of the Lady.

The simple truth was gryphons and humans needed each other. In Helios, the balance had been struck long ago. Both races contributed to the health and welfare of all within the borders of her land. They had a symbiotic relationship. If Ylianthror didn’t understand that very basic tenet, she held out little hope he would ever come around.

“Did you agree with Sendra hiring Eyes to kill me?”

“Agree? I ssuggessted it!” he roared. “It wass I who flew out to make contact with their brotherhood. You needed to die and if sshe would not do it hersself, ssomeone had to be found who would.”

Lera’s heart plummeted. There could be no reconciliation with someone who hated her this much.

“I’m sorry, Ylianthror,” she whispered, unable to say more. The flame was making it hard for her to talk. It was fluctuating with her emotions and becoming more difficult to hold steady as a binding around the gryphon’s front ankles.

Suddenly, he broke free, lunging for her with outstretched claws. She was too close!

Fire erupted from the dragon at her side. Hugh had come to her defense, using his fire to push the gryphon back.

But the gryphon didn’t move back. In fact, he didn’t move at all. And there was something strange about the stream of fire coming from Hugh’s dragonish mouth. It wasn’t the normal orange and yellow of dragon fire.

It resembled something much closer to the magical, eternal flame of the Lady. It was a phosphorescent orange, pink, yellow and purple, billowing out in waves that were almost translucent with the sparkling magic that flowed on every lick of flame.