Sky Lands: The Gift Stones

Satinah stood calmly in the white flames of the hall. “I wondered where my sister had disappeared off to,” she said simply. When Audrey didn’t reply, Satinah continued, “Since you’ve been tirelessly trying to persuade me to release Hallain these past few days, I wondered if, perhaps, you had taken it upon yourself to deliver your brother. Who would notice with everyone’s thoughts on the after-coronation?”

  “Our brother, Satine. You forget –”

  “I forget nothing! It is you who forget. You who’ve forgotten how Hallain betrayed our land, our home, us. Because of Hallain, our people die, and we fight a losing war. Because of what he did, our father died. Because of Hallain, we are orphaned, alone. Can you not remember, Ryloha?”

  “You cannot blame him for Father’s death.”

  “Father went into war because the Stone was gone. And the Stone was gone because of Hallain. I can see no better reason for blame.”

  “Satine, our brother –”

  “Brothers are those who support us. Not those who assist our enemies. Brothers do not drive our father to his death then flee to the land of those who killed him. No. He is not my brother. Your heart is still weak for a little brother who exists no longer.”

  “Think as you will, Satine. But if you have come to keep Hallain, then you are already too late.”

  Satinah smiled. “Eira can run faster than they can fly. So Hallain must be on the shortest route to Moreina. Even considering his head start, do you think your brother can ride his eira faster than my knights can catch him?”

  Audrey’s eyes widened. She sprinted down the corridor towards Hallain’s cell. Satinah’s voice called clearly and her knights rounded the corner at her command, racing after Audrey.

  I was right with Audrey, the knights so close I could feel the huff of their breaths. Audrey sped ahead. I felt my body pierced from behind. Spikes flew through me. “Watch out!” I cried. Before I heard my own cry, she turned. The spikes shattered against her kyrion shield, sending sparks shooting across it. Her blade was out, long and pale beside the dark fabric of her dress.

  The hall was so narrow the knights could only run towards her two at a time. The one at her right reached her first, his blade crashing against her shield. She crouched low, holding her shield above her. He struck at her again, pressing his weight down. In a single motion, she lifted him over and he fell, hard to the ground, as she slashed the legs of the next man, stabbing his shoulder as she rose. He was flung to the side, screaming as he sank to the floor. The next knight swung his sword, but Audrey pressed herself to the wall and his sword pierced into a knight beside him.

  The remaining men ran forward. They nearly reached her when she expanded her shield so it struck them and they stumbled back. She raced down the hall to Hallain’s cell. She punched the bewildered guard outside before entering and closing the door behind her.

  She had left me outside, looking at the blank face of the cell door.

  The knights were soon at the entrance. But when the first one opened the door, there was a swift flash of light and he slumped to the ground. One by one, the knights were felled as they attempted to enter. Finally, the last knight ran in with his sword at the ready. For a moment, he stood confused in an empty cell. He saw the damage to the far wall and I could almost read his thoughts, wondering if Audrey had leapt out. Cautiously, he crept towards the fissure, but then I saw her crouched over him right above the door frame. Her sword flashed and he collapsed, writhing, before he passed out and lay still, his forehead dotted with sweat.

  Audrey leapt down from the door, her dress rustling. She whistled loud and clear. In the night beyond, I heard her creature answer her cry.

  She looked out of the doorway and saw Satinah standing alone at the far end of the corridor. Though I stood behind her, I could feel Audrey grinning. “Only a few knights?” Audrey shouted. “I thought you were known for your intelligence!”

  Satinah was still, at the corner where the hallway turned. Before her, her knights lay wounded and unconscious. She said nothing, her face as smooth as the walls around her. Her translucent cloak pooled in silk folds at her feet. Nothing moved. Then Audrey tensed visibly.

  Slowly, I heard the growing sound of marching footsteps. What seemed an army of kyrion knights rounded the corner behind Satinah, the crest of the eira flaming on their chests. The kyrion charged past Satinah towards Audrey.

  Audrey slammed the cell door shut, whistling loudly. She ran towards the broken wall, leaping out in a fluid motion.

  I was pulled after her as we plummeted towards the city, the lights flying towards us in a terrific array. The landscape rose up, beautiful and horrifying. I cried out, but I knew the night was silent and Audrey was quiet in a long fall beside me.

  As we fell towards the city, streets emerged through the dark and I could discern the silhouettes of pedestrians. The arches of bridges appeared, clear over flowing rivers, the white city lights sparkling on the waters. Boats floated across the rivers with crescent sails. The city details rushed into view. I thought we would crash, smash into the river and drown with the force of our fall.

  Then the beast came, skimming along the surface, and we landed on its back. It glided, its wings stretched just above the water. Gradually, my fear dissolved into a surrender as the terror of the fall drained into peace. On the shores, a man with his child pointed at us, as one might point out deer along a highway.

  The beast lifted into the air, the tips of its wings brushing the river. I looked down. The city was falling away. On the riverbanks, the child waved us goodbye. Across the waters, the boats’ sails drifted like crescent moons over the starlit reflections of city lights.

  In the skies, we splashed through clouds so thick with moisture I could feel their humidity against my skin. We flew for a time before the moon began to grow smaller and the thickness of the clouds rose above us. The land opened below, broken with ragged trees.

  Almost as before, Hallain was riding on his eira, sprinting across the grounds. But now he was flanked by knights on their own dark eira, hemming him in.

  When they saw us, some knights reined their rides hard to a halt, the birds breathing black flames from their beaks. The knights launched a volley of spikes that hissed through the night, burning the fabric of the air.

  The spikes splintered against the kyrion shield. Audrey had expanded her shield to envelope the entire creature, and the spikes broke against it, shattering in black flames.

  Audrey gave a cry; almost simultaneously, as though expecting Audrey’s command, her creature hurled a ball of fire onto the knights below. The knights yelled and scattered. The flame burst like a bomb in their midst. I heard horrible screams as the beast spewed another sphere of fire. Knights raced away on their eira. Others hid behind their shields and the fire broke against them, dissipating into embers and smoke.

  Beside me, more spikes smashed against the white arcs of the shield. Beyond the dissolving curls of fire, I saw the small figure of Hallain fleeing across the grounds. Audrey turned her beast towards him, flying so low that I could smell the stench of blood and singed earth.

  In moments, we swept across Hallain on his eira, pursued by the black knights. The knights raised their heads, their faces clear right below us. The nearest shot a spike directly at Audrey. She sliced it in half with her blade; the spike broke, crackling with fire. She jumped from her beast onto the knight and threw him to the ground, taking his seat on his eira.

  Another knight rode up next to Audrey, drawing his sword in a terrible flame. The sword crashed against her shield, fire curling over the shield’s arc. At Audrey’s other side, a knight whistled on his reed and his eira shot a jet of black flame at her. She opened her shield so the fire flared over it, nearly singeing the top of her head. Swinging her sword, she sliced the man across his side. He screamed, reining his bird to a halt. As we sprinted on, I looked back and saw the knight slump over his eira and fall to the ground.

  Spikes continued to break against her shield, launched f
rom the knights ahead.

  Above, her beast was white in the dark. Audrey whistled and the beast fell back as a volley of spikes pierced the air where it had hovered a moment before. The creature called out, but at Audrey’s command it flew up and disappeared into the sky.

  As Audrey’s eira ran on, she threw something into the distance. “Hallain!” she cried. She whistled. I saw the white shine of the beast’s wings.

  In an instant, we were engulfed in black flames. The fires bent around us, curving across the kyrion shield. The entire shield was blazing in an overpowering radiance. Audrey reined in her eira, the bird’s eyes rolling in terror.

  I heard screaming beyond the flames. The fires dissolved into embers. Through the dispelling flames, the remaining knights were scattering. Some had fallen and lay motionless in the dirt. A short distance away, the white beast landed on the burnt earth. A few knights rode towards it, their arms out, shooting spikes. The creature blew another ball of flame that engulfed the spikes and sent the knights crouching behind their shields, the fire pushing them back.

  Audrey dismounted and ran towards a cluster of knights; smoke rose from the scorched soil beneath her feet. The grasses still burned, fires curling from the land. The knights turned when they saw her. In a single motion, they pulled out their round shields. The shields collapsed into black sickles that they flung at Audrey, the blades spinning with the hiss of fire. The sickles sliced at her shield in vain, before ricocheting back to their owners.

  The knights ran towards her. She swung her blade to meet the first knight. Hallain was on his knees in the grass, fallen from his eira. He stared, wide-eyed, his hands out. I wondered why he hadn’t mounted his eira and fled, and then I saw his palms were pressed flat against the air. He was inside the kyrion shield, trapped within its safety, looking as I must have looked when Audrey had saved my life in the parking lot. But Audrey clearly had her shield; it was blazing with silver arcs as the knights struck it. She must have had two and she had thrown the other shield over Hallain right before she commanded her beast to spew its fire.

  Audrey started as if she heard a sound. Quickly, she expanded her shield so the knights were thrown back before she ran from them, sprinting towards her brother. Spikes flew after her, smashing against her shield as she ran. She dived at Hallain, reaching out to the shield that encased him.

  “Rylo! You must come with me!” Then he screamed in horror.

  I felt the heat of the spike flare through me before it tore into Audrey’s back. There was a searing pain in my own flesh, as if pierced with a hot iron, the torment of it consuming my body. I collapsed to my knees, fire ripping me inside, my vision blank with a white light. I thought I would black out. An instant brought the wish for oblivion to save me from the pain.

  And then it was gone. I was standing over Audrey as she knelt on the ground, a black spike protruding from her, crippled by the pain I had felt.

  “Rylo!” Hallain cried.

  A sickle flew through the flames, rebounding off the kyrion shield just over Hallain’s head. She had enveloped them both in the shield again.

  She gasped, and for the first time, I saw the silver arcs of the shield quiver, wavering like liquid as spikes shattered against it. A spike split through the shield, piercing the dirt right beside her. She drew breath and the silver arcs strengthened again. She whistled loudly.

  “I’m going to take down the shield and let you out,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Rylo, you must come. You can’t stay here.”

  “Listen to me.” It was a rasp that was frightening to hear. Not far away, her beast landed. “Take Ly. She flies fast. They can’t catch you on her. Do it! Now!”

  “But she’s yours!”

  Before her brother could speak further, the arcs of the shield disappeared. Supporting herself on one knee, Audrey expanded her shield in a concave curve behind her, sustaining it against an onslaught of spikes. “Go!” she cried.

  With a single look back over his shoulder, Hallain ran across the grounds, heading for Audrey’s white beast. In moments, he had mounted Ly and flew off, disappearing into the dark sky.

  Audrey’s silver eyes looked hollow, drained of their color. She stared vacantly, the arch of her shield curving over her body. Her face had a pallor that shone sickly in the bursts of light shooting across her shield. I touched her shoulder; even through the sleeve of her dress, she felt cold, like a slab of stone.

  The constant volley of spikes ceased and three knights advanced, their boots sizzling as they ran across the scorched terrain. They bent over Audrey’s fallen form, their faces charred, and I wondered if these were the only knights left fit enough to walk. One knight knelt to have a better look at Audrey; she had closed her shield and was lying prone on the grass. The others scanned the sky, searching for signs of Hallain. But the sky was only stars and darkness. For the first time, I seemed to hear silence; it was cold and stellar, a sudden deafness.

  In the distance came the sound of more knights approaching, and moments later, Satinah emerged, surrounded by kyrion. Satinah’s was the only eira with a white plumage. As she coaxed it forward, a slight wind stirred the argent sheet draped over the bird’s feathers. The cloth extended over its head in a pallor of silk, and through slits in the fabric, the creature’s pale eyes looked down regally at Audrey lying in the dirt.

  When Satinah spoke, her voice was smooth and soft, like a night wind. Though her words were only a whisper, I shivered at their sound. “Sister, a knight’s vow is to the monarch.”

  Audrey shifted, the spike protruding from her back. She attempted to lift herself and succeeded in propping herself onto an elbow. But her head remained lowered, as though the effort to raise it would be too much.

  “I know you’re in pain,” Satinah said, in a way that should have been gentle, but became odd and cold. “But this isn’t the first time you’ve had to heal from such a wound.” She paused. “Your punishment is exile. Consider it a mercy that I spare your life.”

  Audrey tilted her head back, revealing her face. The whiteness of her features was frightening, a blankness against the black of her hair. “Thank you for your mercy, sister,” she managed. A chill seemed to spread from the words, embittering the night.

  Satinah drew a silver ring from her finger and held it up for Audrey to see. “You know what this is.” Satinah regarded the ring, reading the intricacies carved across it, “Gate of the Dark Plains.” She turned back to Audrey. “Do you know how many knights I’ve had to send through this gate because of Hallain? How many knights I’ve wasted looking for the Stone when they could have been on the war front? Because Hallain stole this key from Jesath –” She stopped and composed herself. “It’s fitting that we’re here, sister,” she said quietly, “because of what Hallain did here. And because you aided Hallain tonight, you must go through this gate and search for the Stone, and not return until you find it.”

  Satinah released her hold on the ring. It hovered in the moonlit air, small and delicate, suspended on nothing. It revolved slowly. Then it shot away from us, and where it disappeared at a short distance, a silver oval expanded across the grass, filled with metallic winds.

  All eyes dwelled on it save for Audrey’s, who remained motionless. “There’s the gate,” Satinah said. She pulled on her eira’s reins. “Bring her!” she cried to her knights. She put a reed to her lips; with a clear whistle, she rode towards the gate in the grass.

  Audrey made an agonizing sound when the knights lifted her. They rolled her onto her back in their arms, and I saw the spike had pierced through her, the tip of it protruding from beneath her ribs. Curls of smoke rose from her wound; the stench of burnt flesh sent a sick feeling through me. Audrey gave no resistance as they carried her, but lay as though she were dead.

  The gate stretched through the grass, the size of a doorway, the metallic winds swirling within it. I should have felt the stir of its wind, but the air was strangely still around us.

  At a nod from the
ir queen, the knights brought Audrey to the edge of the gate. With an unceremonious heave, they tossed her into its silver winds.

  Chapter 16