The storm that had blown out from the northern mountains finally started to wear out, the wind lessening and the swirling snow finally settling on the bluff and surrounding plains. It was at least five feet deep, but in places smoke curled up from bored-out holes.
In the hive’s main stairwell, Leon dug awkwardly, trying not to fall down the steps as he pushed snow out of the way. He was feeling both annoyed at the need and absurdly grateful that the sylph who’d dug the stairs had put an awning over the top. She just needed to add a door. He’d been forced to dig his way through windblown accumulation that blocked the top half of the stairs.
“Well, that settles it,” he muttered, looking outside at the distant skyline. Blue was starting to peek through holes in the cloud cover, and the sun shining off the sea of white was painful. “We definitely need to move in the spring.” The Community never should have retreated to this place. Doing so showed an enormous lack of foresight on the part of their former leaders. But then, they hadn’t taken charge due to their tactical skills. They’d been idealists, not warriors, and they had never really expected to be driven out of their adopted homes.
Their first location had been much better thought out. Leon hadn’t seen their whole town, but he remembered the valley. It was at the eastern edge of the Shale Plains, sheltered by the mountains that cut the land off from the ocean. Para Dubh sat on the other side, but they didn’t use the Shale Plains any more than Eferem, and were slightly more
reasonable. As a kingdom they had battlers to prevent invasion, but were far less insular than Alcor. Their wealth came from trade with countries on the far side of the world, their ships sailing on both the ocean and the air. King Alcor had always been envious of their wealth, but every skirmish with them had been short-lived, with no one willing to engage in a full-blown war. Leon had participated in more than one formalized fight, pitting Ril against battle sylphs from Para Dubh. Ril had always won, but not all of Eferem’s battlers could say the same. Ultimately, Para Dubh had more battle sylphs than Alcor wanted to risk fighting against. While it was true, had the Community stayed where they were, either Eferem or Para Dubh would eventually have come to crush or absorb them, now that they had battlers of their own. They wouldn’t be so vulnerable when they returned.
Leon glanced over his shoulder at his own battler. Ril hadn’t helped him dig up to the surface, but then, Leon hadn’t asked. He wasn’t sure what his relationship with the sylph was going to be now, but he wanted to be careful that it was a good one. Both of them still had their issues to work through, and Leon didn’t want Ril thinking he was viewed as a slave. So Leon did the work himself while the battler watched.
Finally, he set the shovel aside and turned. “Ready?” he asked, rubbing one sore shoulder. The battler shrugged, not quite looking at him, and moved forward. Ril never looked directly at him, Leon noticed with some regret.
The battler let go of his shape as he put his arms around Leon, lifting him up in a whirl of darkness. Unable to see, Leon felt himself rise, and then they were flying on the winds, heading away from the hive. Even blind as he was, Leon gasped at the feel of it all.
What?
Ril asked sullenly.
“This is magnificent!” Leon exclaimed. “This is flying?”
Yes,
the battler answered, sounding a little mollified.
Leon smiled and settled back, floating in absolute blackness, but warm and comfortable. Even though he knew he was high above the ground, he felt safe.
Ril flew high over the snow-covered plains, Leon held carefully inside his mantle. Time passed and the miles did too, the return trip much faster than the journey to the bluff. What had originally taken nearly a week Ril now guessed would take a little less than a day. Not that he was in any rush. It felt good to fly this way again, to
be
this way. He could change shape, but he wasn’t really designed to inhabit any for long periods of time. Staying as a bird for so long had sometimes made him itch until he’d thought he’d go mad, and he stretched now as he flew.
Leon had fallen asleep, Ril noted eventually, worn out by his labor. Though part of him wanted to dump the man into the snow, he instead cradled him more carefully and continued flying. Leon both was and wasn’t his master anymore. The man had sworn himself to the queen, and he’d proved his loyalty when he saved her life. And for the sake of his own sanity, Ril had needed to let the hate go. He felt lighter as a result, happier.
Either way, in this, both were of the same mind. With Solie’s permission—for Ril couldn’t have forced himself to leave the hive without it—together they were headed to collect Leon’s family.
Lizzy! All of the girls were precious to him, but Lizzy…Ril ached to see her again. She wouldn’t be his queen now, and Ril had mourned that even as he gave himself over to Solie. There was only one queen of a hive. But Lizzy could be his master, like Leon. Or more precisely, like the widow, for Mace. Once Lizzy was old enough to share her energy with him, that is. Her energy and her heart.
Below him the plains passed smoothly, eventually replaced
by the white snow-covered shapes of the forests they’d traversed before. Finding a ribbon of road, he followed it, flying over the town they’d spent the night in. Awake again, Leon lay patiently inside him, occasionally shifting position but not saying anything. Eventually, he dozed off again.
They flew on, farmlands replacing the forests below and the snow vanishing, the more southern air still a little too warm. Tiny hamlets dotted the fields, with larger keeps on top of bluffs, and finally the great capital of Eferem.
Ril dropped down well clear of the city’s outer walls, studying the black flags that hung from the ramparts. The city was in mourning—he supposed for the dead prince—but no one felt upset. Ril could feel their emotions easily as he swept by unseen, finally landing in a copse of trees, where he set Leon on his feet.
“How long did it take us to get here?” the man asked in amazement.
Ril shrugged. “Most of a day.” They’d left in midmorning. It was now morning of the next day.
“That’s incredible. You’re faster than an air ship’s sylph.”
“That’s because I don’t have something as heavy to carry,” the battler retorted, storming out of the bush. Leon shook his head and followed.
They found a side road that led through a secondary gate into the city and eventually to the keep. Ril walked in the human form he’d adopted, keeping his aura tightly concealed, and Leon put up his hood and hunched his shoulders. He walked a few feet behind the battler, as though he were a servant, following him through the gate. He knew the men who guarded it, and they’d have questions if they recognized him, but they had no reason to stop two ordinary men walking into the city on their own. Depending on what Jasar had reported, the king would probably think of him as an enemy now. Of course, Alcor would expect
Leon to send Ril for any attack, and he’d still expect the battler to be a bird.
Ril strode ahead, ignoring the men around him with a haughtiness only the most potent lord would affect. He did notice the women, but he didn’t go after any. Leon had heard rumors about Mace before the sylph ended up with that widow in charge of the youngsters, and he’d seen Heyou with Solie, but Ril didn’t show any of the same tendencies. Leon wasn’t sure if that was normal or not. Heyou certainly was devoted to Solie. Ril had never done more than look at females, and never for long.
It didn’t really matter. Whatever Ril wanted, Leon wasn’t going to get in his way. He was just happy that the battler didn’t hate him, and more, that he was still willing to work together. That was a gift.
They moved through the city, the residents going about their normal business and their sylphs mostly out of sight, just as usual. Knowing what he did now, Leon regretted them being bound. They had come expecting freedom, but all they got was another type of servitude. The ones within the Community had the right to speak and take whatever shape they wanted, but these others were as trapped as the battlers.
Leon shot a glance at Ril, who walked blithely on. Ril, he figured, didn’t ponder overmuch about the plight of others. Free battlers didn’t seem predisposed to this. It must have been a simple life for them in their natural dimension—though if it had been that good, Ril would never have crossed over.
Quietly the two of them traversed the city, walking roads that Leon had never taken Ril to as a bird, not wanting to frighten anyone. The battler dropped back beside him as a result, matching Leon’s pace. Whenever Leon had business in the city, he’d left the battler with his wife and daughters. Ril therefore knew the way to the castle and the main route
from it or Leon’s manor to the city’s front gate, but that was all. Other battler masters had thought him mad for leaving himself so vulnerable, but Leon was no slouch at defending himself, and crowds made Ril too unhappy to inflict that on him. Or on the crowds.
Or so Leon had thought. Ril didn’t react at all to the crowds now, his aura so neatly contained that no one even looked at him. Until Heyou, Leon hadn’t even realized the battlers
could
hide their auras. He looked sideways at the blond man. There was a lot he hadn’t realized.
Ril’s eye darted toward him and his brow furrowed. “What?” he demanded.
“Nothing. Just thinking about what a shit I’ve been to you.”
Ril snorted. “Keep thinking that. Just keep it to yourself. I don’t want to feel it.”
Leon smiled faintly. “Whatever you say.”
Ahead, the road curved toward his manor, the wall high enough to block most of the building from view, and both sped up toward it. The time was past lunch, but not so late that the girls would be down for their naps. They’d probably still be playing in the big back room with the old tapestries on the wall, or finishing their lessons with their mother.
There was a man in a cloak loitering at the front gate, a well-used sword on his hip. Leon didn’t need to hear Ril’s growl to recognize him as a threat. It seemed Alcor was acting against him, and Leon hoped the presence of the soldier was simply to watch for him, using his family as bait, and did not mean that Betha and the girls had been arrested or harmed. Leading Ril around unseen to another part of the manor’s surrounding wall, he pulled a wrought-iron key from his bag, unlocked a small secondary gate that was almost completely hidden by blackberry bushes, and let both himself and Ril in. They found the windows of the manor open to the fresh air, and they both heard female laughter.
The battler behind him, Leon opened the door. “I’m home!” he shouted.
For a moment there was silence, and then he heard the rapid footsteps and squeals of excited girls. Lizzy skidded around the corner first, her knees skinned and dirt on her cheeks, and Leon heard Ril’s breath catch behind him as the girl threw herself forward.
“Daddy!” she shrieked. “Welcome home!” A moment later, the two younger girls ran after her around the corner. Betha followed with the baby. Leon grinned, trying to hug all of them at once.
Lizzy pulled away, looking around. “Where’s Ril?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Cara echoed. “Where Ril?” Nali stuck her thumb in her mouth.
“And who’s your friend?” Betha asked.
Leon took a deep breath and straightened, stepping back against the wall so they could all see the battler clearly. “All right, no one be afraid. This is Ril.”
Lizzy frowned. “But he’s a man.”
The other girls stared. Betha looked at the battler, and then at her husband in confusion.
“He can be anything he wants to be,” Leon told them. “Right now, he wants to be a man.”
“I like him as a bird!” Cara wailed. “Be a bird! Be a bird!” Nali started crying, as did Ralad.
Lizzy walked toward the battler, inspecting him intently. As she neared, he dropped down into a crouch, so she had to look down at him instead. Her brow furrowed with concentration, she reached out a hand and he closed his eyes as she poked the tip of his nose, pushing it in. Then she giggled. “I like it!”
“Thank you,” Ril said.
“You can talk!” she shrieked. “When did you start talking?”
Ril looked past her at Leon. “When I was allowed to.”
She spun and glared at her father. “You didn’t let him talk?”
Leon shook his head. This was not an argument he wanted to get into. “Not now, Lizzy. We have to go.”
“Go?” Betha asked, startled. “Go where?”
This was not going to be easy. “Away from here,” Leon told his wife. “Right now, and all of us. There are things I’ve learned since I left, about Ril and myself. We can’t stay here anymore. I know it’s dangerous for me, and I suspect it’s going to become dangerous for you. There’s already a guard watching the front gate. I’m surprised he doesn’t have a battler.” He took a deep breath. “Ril and I have betrayed the king.”
Betha’s eyes saucered, her skin white. The other girls didn’t understand, but Lizzy glanced at him with fright in her eyes, and reached fumblingly to take Ril’s hand. He held it gently, still crouching at her side. Leon had never seen his expression so soft.
“You…how could you?” Betha wailed, clutching the crying baby to her breast. “What are you saying?” She shook her head frantically, backing away from him.
“He ordered us to kill a girl,” Leon told her bluntly, stepping forward to lay his hands on her shoulders. “A girl hardly older than Lizzy. She was supposed to be sacrificed to bind a battler, but instead she bound him instead. The king wanted her killed for that. We failed. But Betha, the things we learned…Ril is free now. There are more battlers where we’re going, and they’re all free. All the sylphs are. Here they’re no more than property, and I can’t be a part of Ril’s slavery anymore. The king will never accept that.” He surveyed his wife, his daughters, and finally the battler himself. “None of us are safe.”
He let go of his wife and stepped back. “Gather together whatever you can carry, but no more. We can’t take much.”
Betha’s bottom lip trembled, her eyes filling with tears, but a moment later she turned and hurried away, taking the baby with her. Nali waddled in pursuit, still crying.