We passed over a river and seven other towers before, finally, coming to a halt in mid-air. The shroud floated between two of the towers at one end and over the healer’s ward of Condii at the other. The front gates of the city were visible in the middle-distance, a looming wall of steel, diamond and grey stone. The ten towers formed a circle near the front gate with the four outer towers only just within firing range of the one next to it.
From the air the gate appeared to be located in a depression in the city wall, forming a W at one end of the city. This created a sort of gauntlet with six towers within firing range of each other guarding the gate. Rounded pillars of marble as tall as Ciera had been erected on either side of the gate and a network of steel framing held it all in place. The pillars reached high into the sky with a narrow point at the top capped with steel and flying twin skyearl flags of Tanza.
Archery division skyearls flew in gigantic arcs around the far side of the front gate; their target, a legion of Zeikas outside the firing range of the towers on the south east corner. From this distance I could barely make out what was happening on the ground. A cacophony of emotion in the waves let me know there was plenty of fighting going on, but most of it was in the air. I hummed Halduronlei to myself, trying to close the clamour out of my mind.
Ciera sat on his haunches on the edge of his shroud, eager to engage. The battle-seat had a sturdy back-rest so that when Ciera was sitting up on his hind legs, it still held me in. The great skyearl wrenched one of his spears from the clasp beside me. A low growling emanated from his throat.
‘Easy, Ciera,’ I said.
Dragons harried the circling skyearls and we were ordered to stand and watch as the battle raged on. The Anzaii strike force needed to wait until enough conjurers had revealed themselves—only then would we know where our abilities would be most effective. It seemed to me like there were plenty of Zeikas already. There were at least twenty rows of a hundred men, but they waited outside firing range of our towers. It was as if they were daring the Condiites to leave the safety of their tower-watched city.
Meanwhile, Zeikas on dragons broke through the skyearls above Condii high in the sky every now and then and rained fireballs down upon the soft heart of the city.
There were conjured beasts in the air and on the ground too. Green-winged, long-beaked death hawks, like the one that I’d encountered near the Catacombs of Krii, flapped in angry circles. The rest of the creatures were new to my eyes but I had learned enough about Zeikas, recently, to name them.
White-furred, gorilla-like theros roamed among the ground troops, belching out their roars and beating their chests with grotesquely clawed hands. They were nearly twice the height of a man and had bulging, red muscle tissue beneath their sparse fur.
Wriggling closer and closer to the towers were mobs of firewyrms. The conjurers responsible for these had positioned themselves behind the first line of warders and flamers. With arms outstretched, they guided their green-flamed conjurations closer to the south east tower.
To my surprise, not a single arrow was wasted on the firewyrms. Instead, buckets of water were hoisted from windows high up on the tower and an Anzaii emerged right into the midst of the firewyrms with arms outstretched, entreating Krii to smite them. One by one they fell—but not without burning her and the wooden tower door. The next wave that attacked would probably break through. The wounded Anzaii retreated inside the tower leaving only smoke behind.
And thus went the rest of the day. We stood by, ready and watchful, as the Zeikas made only token efforts to trouble and weaken Condii. I hoped that somewhere, someone was thinking about our enemy’s tactics and taking steps to discover why a full assault had yet to be launched. Were they building catapults or siege engines nearby? Were they concealing other Zeikas within spirit circles, creeping closer and closer to Condii’s tower sentries? The possibilities seemed endless and the odds were all on their side.
After a while, I climbed down from Ciera’s back to stretch my legs.
‘Why don’t we attack?’ a mounted guardian named Aquala asked from behind me.
‘Our orders are to wait for a full scale commitment from the Zeika’s before joining battle,’ Ciera replied. ‘We must trust the Prince, the High Commander and the King and Queen. They have a better idea of the big picture.’
‘It won’t do anyone any good if we rush in and get ourselves killed,’ Jett agreed.
After night had fallen Tyba allowed us to consume a small meal. In the darkness I could hardly see what I was eating and I only managed to eat a few bites. My stomach ached with tension. We couldn’t even look up to see the stars because Ciera’s protective roof-shroud was still there, blocking us from eyes above.
I kept watch on the small amount of sky that was visible around us. Because of the intensity of my vigil, I was the first to spot the dragon. It flew in a backwards and forwards pattern as if scanning systematically. Our shroud was safely within the boundary of the 30 towers, but if the dragon got on the right angle, it might be able to see us between the sandwiching shrouds. It zigzagged east to west, moving ever northward, closer and closer to our position.
‘Tyba, we have a Zeika scout closing in,’ I said, never taking my eyes off the barely-visible shape.
‘I don’t see anything. Jigm, can your Rada-kin confirm?’
S.R. Jigm, who was sitting nearby, immediately stood up. His Rada-kin, Kotor, gave a warning growl. I climbed back into the battle-seat, daring to hope it might be Ciera and I who got to chase down the enemy. Such danger would be preferable to this mind-numbing waiting.
‘Right,’ Tyba said, ‘Aerilaya, Mnason, Assos: kill that scout.’
‘Yes sire,’ Aerilaya responded. The three Anzaii and their three guardians ran to their Sleffion-kin and mounted up. Within moments all six skyearls and their riders had leapt from the side of the shroud and winged in a big circle to intercept the Zeika conjuration. As soon as they made themselves visible, the scout dived towards the ground and we lost sight of them all.
Tyba began pacing restlessly. He hadn’t eaten anything either, and I sensed that he wouldn’t take his eyes off the battle right now, even if someone put a sizzling hot salmon right in front of him.
The chilled night air poked its cold fingers down the back of my neck. Sweat broke out on my face and back, causing me to shiver. Ciera’s lurch of alarm reached me before my eyes picked out the shape of a dragon and rider descending through the clouds. As soon as it came level with the shroud it would see us.
Ciera acted first, with me barely having time to gather my wits before he was diving off the shroud. The dragon wheeled at the sight of him. Has the Zeika seen the strike force?
We pursued arrow-straight, but the much smaller dragon was more agile in the air. I reached for one of the bronze knives, but in this darkness and at this speed I doubted I could do anything useful with it. Ciera drew one of his spears from the case and pitched it ineffectually at the dragon.
The dragon fled north, avoiding the archery and spear range of the seven towers we passed. I barely spared a thought for the strike force we’d left behind—Ciera and I could handle one tyrak. When it crossed the river and reached the trees, it dived for cover, knowing Ciera could not follow. Thanks to the imprinting I’d received, I knew that forest well, so I knew it was too dense even for a dragon to fly. We landed so suddenly that the ground shook and whirls of dust rose into the air. Ciera was puffing and enraged. His mental command to destroy the Zeika propelled me forwards.
Tiaro’s thoughts were with me as I ran into the cover of the trees. My heart thundered in my ears. Broken branches revealed the path of the fleeing Zeika. He knew he had seen something important but, without wave communication, he must get back to his fellows to share his information. In the darkness, my only chance of finding him was by scent. I crouched to all fours, keeping my head up and reaching for my black wolf form. Gradually my senses became clearer. The night seemed brighter and the smells of the forest came alive around me.
I pursued the Zeika, buoyed on by Ciera’s restless pacing behind me. The Zeika had climbed into a tree not far from the end of the trail of broken branches. My hackles prickled at the smell of Zeika magic in the air. A dragon rider was no less than level four in Zeika initiation, a conjurer, scryer and expert warder and flamer. At any moment another of his bestial conjurations could burst from the darkness to slice me open.
I opened my mind to Krii’s power, petitioning Krii to give me discernment. A crackling bolt of green fire lanced towards me. The leaves sizzled and popped behind me, the flames catching despite the moist, green interior of the branches.
I circled the tree, watching the Zeika become more uncertain. If he vacated his own senses to conjure a creature now, his own body would be left vulnerable for just enough time for me to kill him. He gripped the branch he was sitting on with both hands and shimmied higher.
I growled, finding that it soon became the snarling, guttural challenge of a full-grown icetiger. I was not as big as Rekala in this form, but the muscles of my legs and jaws were primed and strong. Better, I could climb. The Zeika flamed in my direction.
I was already moving. With thick claws sinking into the dry bark I hauled my weight up in three lurches. My jaws clamped over the Zeika’s leg as he tried to climb higher. Flames scorched my ears and whiskers, but I climbed a little higher and savaged the man’s face with long, razor-sharp claws. Distracted, his flaming ceased. Getting my teeth around his neck, I snuffed my enemy’s life with a single bite.
The taste of the blood shocked me; like warm metal, but sweet and refreshing. I let the body drop from the tree before following it to the ground. It was tempting to fall upon it and feed, but something about that made me hesitate.
‘Enough, Talon,’ Tiaro advised.
Halduronlei whispered through the waves, as if borne on the wind that murmured in the trees around us. The sadness of its melody immediately recalled me to my human self and the tragedy of the lost soul I had slain. I hunkered low to the ground in my natural form retching and trying to scrape the Zeika’s blood from my mouth. My stomach cramped horribly and pain burned inside me.
Finally I vomited.
I lay there for some time, trying to recover.
Tiaro led me out of the forest to the stream we had crossed in pursuit of the Zeika. Ciera watched silently, listening to the chimes and strings of Halduronlei that Tiaro now brought to our memory. It made me so mournful, as if reminding me of the bigger picture of the world we lived in. Jaria destroyed. Tanza in a serious war. Zeikas swelling in numbers and ranks, flooding into the rest of Chryne like a torrent of poisoned water. I tried to clean the blood from my hands and clothing, but it had already dried red and waxy. My stomach clenched again, even though my nerves had calmed.
Poison! The blood-red tips of the poison-dipped arrows floated to the surface of my mind. Ciera and Tiaro immediately saw the connection I had made. Mildew was white, not red. The mildew that had been found on those food barrels had been poison; a failed attempt to wipe out the strike force! And they’d tried it again. The stomach pain and sweating I’d experienced wasn’t nervousness at all. It was poison. Thankfully the little I had consumed had been regurgitated already, but what about the others?
‘Amadeus,’ I called out so suddenly through the waves that I didn’t stop to question whether I could reach someone else’s Sleffion-kin or not.
Amadeus’ soul-strong presence reared up in the waves. His solidarity with Tyba was incredible; so tightly were they linked that Tyba’s emotions blurred with the skyearl’s. Despair!
‘Talon, the strike force has been poisoned!’
‘I know,’ I cried out. Ciera and Tiaro were with me in the waves, talking all at once.
How could this happen? Who poisoned the strike force? Are you well? Were the Zeikas behind it? How many have been affected? What are the Zeikas doing now? Were the guardians for the lead squadron sickening as well?
‘Those that still can are forcing themselves to throw up. Others have been carried to the healer already. Some have already died, very soon after you left us.’ Amadeus’ words carried the weight of a sobbing heart with them.
Viserion! I thought. I paced back and forth, muddying my boots on the shore of the river.
‘Where is Corypha?’ I asked.
Amadeus did not reply for a long time. I chewed water-reeds from the side of the river to clean the bile and blood taste from my mouth. When Amadeus finally contacted me it was only to say that nobody had seen Corypha for some time.
‘He’s a Wavekeeper,’ I realised, shocked by my own thoughts, even as conviction of their truth struck home. ‘He’s trying to kill all the Anzaii.’
‘Why?’ Amadeus demanded—and I almost heard Tyba’s exasperated tones. ‘We may be the only hope Tanza has for winning this war.’
‘They don’t believe that,’ Ciera replied. ‘The Wavekeeper cult believes that Anzaii magic is from Zei, not Krii. They believe it corrupts the Anzaii even though we embrace them as heroes.’
‘Yes, yes, we have heard their wild claims,’ Amadeus replied angrily. ‘But would they really use them to justify poison and murder?’
‘Perhaps they see it as sacrificing a few for the greater good,’ Ciera replied, though he sent with it a clear impression of his disapproval of such an attitude.
‘Find Corypha,’ I ordered. ‘Do not kill him! We need to know exactly what he has set in motion before it’s too late.’
I was aware that Tyba reserved judgment against Corypha. No matter how convinced I was, he needed more time to consider the evidence. Still, he was impressed with my quick thinking.
‘What are you going to do?’ Amadeus asked.
The question surprised me; I had expected them to order me back at once. For the very first time, I became aware of the taste of my own authority.
‘Let’s find out what Krii is capable of doing through us,’ I suggested privately to Ciera and Tiaro.