“You know, the Sharani Arena didn’t start off as a desert,” Talha continued, not looking up from her book. “According to our histories, that was a result of the genesauri monsters being introduced into the environment.” Talha paused and looked up, glancing at Lhaurel as if to gauge her reaction. Lhaurel kept her face purposefully blank and Talha turned back to her note taking. “The heat created when they generate the electricity to levitate dried out the soil and turned it into the desert you know. One can only postulate on why it ended up red, though.”
“Blood,” Lhaurel said. “The sands were stained red by the blood of generations. That’s what the Roterralar said, anyway.”
“Roterralar?”
“A clan there. They said the sands are stained by blood. I—I think I knew, when I came into my powers. I could feel it, there at the end, when I destroyed the genesauri.” Lhaurel shivered as the memories of the Oasis filled her mind.
“Indeed, that is possible, though I personally doubt it,” Talha mused, sucking on the end of her quill. “No matter, though. We will get to the end of this eventually. For now, let’s get back to your studies, yes?”
Lhaurel groaned, but glanced out the open door. Rain pounded against the barge’s deck. Looking back to Talha, she gave up and nodded in agreement.
“How did the Progressions come to be, and how does following a dictate of an ideal subject to an internal definition create an external result which yields an unending sense of purpose, yet halts forward progression?”
—From the Discourses on Knowledge, Volume 19, Year 1259
Farah was already gone when Gavin awoke just before dawn the next morning. Evrouin and his wife were still in bed and it appeared that Shallee had managed to make it back into her room at some point later that morning. Gavin arched his back, stretching sore muscles, and quickly dressed. He buckled on his greatsword and felt its familiar weight settle against his leg. He didn’t particularly care for the weapon, but he hung onto it for purely sentimental reasons. His parents had died trying to discover the truth of the legends behind this sword. It had supposedly been a weapon that would unite the clans. It had united them, in the end, but Gavin wasn’t sure the cost had been worth it or if the sword itself really had anything to do with it.
Throwing on his cloak, Gavin headed out the door without stopping for a bite to eat. The meal he’d shared with Tadeo the night before still sat in his stomach and he wasn’t hungry. Besides, judging by the thin tendrils of dawn spearing the blackened sky to the east, he was already running late. He broke into a jog, breath puffing into mist around him. The cold air bit at his face and exposed hands. His cloak billowed out behind him like a cape.
Fifteen minutes later, he reached the eyrie, lungs burning and his face so numb he thought he would feel ice crystalizing on it if his fingers had any feeling left. Tadeo stood near where the rockslide started, looking up toward the cavern with expressionless features. He was clad differently than Gavin had ever seen him before. Thick, hardened leather armor covered his chest, which lay over a simple grey-brown tunic beneath, which belted at the waist to hold his short sword at his hip. Leather guards covered each of his forearms, though the sleeves on his tunic were short, leaving his upper arm mostly exposed to the elements. Similar bracers covered his shins though the leg guards were hard leather like the breastplate with straps holding them in place over loose pants of a similar cloth as the undershirt. He wore boots, but no cloak and also had his bow and a quiver of arrows with him, strapped to his back.
“You are late,” Tadeo said without turning to look at him. “This thing is not good for a leader.”
Gavin grunted, unable to catch his breath enough to talk.
“Where is your armor?”
“I—” Gavin gasped. “I don’t have any.”
Tadeo frowned, the lines at the corners of his eyes deepening with the movement. “This thing is not good. Proper warriors should have armor and be properly attired. You must speak to the supply master about this thing. You and your people need armor and proper clothing.”
Gavin nodded, walking up to him now that he had his breathing under control. His face still felt numb.
“I agree. I also think you should teach some of my people how to use that.” Gavin pointed at the bow on Tadeo’s back.
Tadeo turned to regard him. “I can do this thing. The bow is a difficult weapon to master, but I will try.”
Gavin frowned and would have continued, but just then three aevians burst from the eyrie and flew toward them. The lead aevian, Gavin recognized it as Nabil, screamed a fierce cry that was almost deafening. The trio landed in a flurry of wings and dust and Farah leapt from the back of her aevian. She hit the ground in a cloud of dust, cloak flaring out around her. She’d found a sword somewhere, which was belted to her waist. Gavin smiled at her, feeling a wash of several different emotions course through him.
“About time you got here,” she said, freezing the smile on Gavin’s lips. “Nabil was getting hard to contain.”
Nabil made a soft, chirping sound and ambled forward, looking awkward as always on the ground. Gavin reached up and scratched the feathers under his beak.
“Sorry,” Gavin mumbled.
Farah smiled at him.
“Stars above,” Tadeo said, looking up at Nabil, who stood only a few feet away from him now. “Great glory to the Paths! These are magnificent beasts.”
Farah laughed and pulled a rather battered looking harness down from Talyshan’s back, then tossed it to Tadeo. “Put this on. I’ll show you how to attach it to the saddle so you won’t fall off.”
Tadeo looked down at the harness in his hands. “How will we do this thing? I must lead you to where the army is hidden and I have never before ridden one of these great birds.”
“Your aevian is trained to follow me,” Farah said. “But just shout when we need to turn. Your hands will be free. When it is time to land, do this and point.” She made a gesture of a raised fist, arm bent horizontal to the ground.
“This thing will work.”
Gavin put on his own harness over his cloak. He noticed Farah watching him and stumbled on the buckle of one of the straps at his chest. She smiled and her eyes seemed to dance, though she didn’t say anything. At least she wasn’t upset with him. Gavin had worried she would be after his conversation with Shallee.
Nabil seemed eager to be off, shifting his footing as Gavin tried to leap up into the saddle. Gavin almost fell, but caught himself and hauled his body back up into the saddle. Nabil ruffled his feathers and bobbed his head a few times.
“Easy, easy,” Gavin said, patting him on the neck as he snapped in the leads.
After some small instruction from Farah and an initial direction from Tadeo, they launched. Gavin had expected Tadeo to protest Farah’s accompanying them, but he said nothing. Gavin glanced back at him as the icy wind bit into his exposed flesh and stung at his eyes. Tadeo gripped the pommel of his saddle with one hand, the other resting against his knee. He seemed far calmer than he’d initially appeared, a lot less nervous than Gavin had ever been. Pulling his gaze back to ahead of him, Gavin hunched down in his cloak, trying to ignore the cold.
They flew southeast for almost an hour, leaving the valley far behind. Gavin felt as if his entire body had turned to ice and wondered more than once how Tadeo could stand the cold without the protection of a cloak. The mountains reared up around them as they flew, though Tadeo directed them back to the southeast each time they diverted around a particularly large peak. They passed over a river at one point, though it was completely frozen over and reflected the early morning light dully back up at them. Gavin had never seen so much ice in one place and marveled at what that meant for the approaching winter. The cold was already unbearable and Tadeo had implied it would get far worse yet.
After another hour, Tadeo signaled them to shift southward and they flew that direction for several more hours, hugging the edge of the mountain range. The sun was getting close to its peak by the time Tadeo signaled them to land. Gavin leaned forward, following Farah and Talyshan toward a sheltered outcropping of rock. Nabil protested, flapping his wings a few more times and refusing to descend.
“Come on, curse you,” Gavin said, leaning further forward and trying to keep his teeth from chattering. “Dive.”
Nabil made a small noise of protest, but folded his wings and turned downward into a dive. Gavin’s eyes watered from the sting of the wind rushing passed him, almost forgetting to brace himself when Nabil landed among the trees, pulling out of the dive at the last possible moment. He heard Tadeo land behind him and unhooked the leads from Nabil’s saddle. Nabil stretched his wings and leaned back, nearly knocking Gavin from his saddle.
“What’s gotten into you?” Gavin asked, clutching the pommel of the saddle with one hand. Nabil folded his wings and leaned back down, making a small, unapologetic noise.
“He gets restless when you don’t fly with him much,” Farah said, walking up to him as Gavin slid from the saddle. “He’s just letting you know how he feels.”
“I got the message.”
Farah raised an eyebrow at him, then shook her head, a small smile on her lips as she walked by to help Tadeo.
“You must not be talking loudly,” Tadeo said, hopping down from his aevian on his own before Farah could reach him. “The army is close. Their scouts could be near.”
“Why did we land so close, then?” Farah whispered.
“Here is the only place where birds can hide,” Tadeo answered, taking out his bow and stringing it in a few quick movements. “Now be quiet. Follow me and do only what I do. Will these birds stay here and silent?”
Farah nodded and whistled two low, quiet notes. The aevians all looked over at her in clear acknowledgement.
“Follow,” Tadeo said, and they followed him out.
Gavin walked close behind Tadeo, matching his steps as best he could. The man moved with a grace and surety of step that made Gavin feel clumsy and foolish. Gavin kept having to hold his cloak tight to keep it from snagging on branches or getting caught on rocks. Farah followed along behind Gavin. Once, Gavin signaled for her to move ahead of him and let him take the rear, but she’d leveled such a look of absolute disgust at him that he’d given up and let her stay where she was.
They picked their way through the trees carefully, Tadeo ahead with an arrow set to the string of his bow. Every now and then he would signal for them to stop. As Gavin and Farah froze, Tadeo would cast his gaze about or else simply close his eyes and listen intently to the distant, indistinct noises. Every time he eventually motioned for them to move on again. At one point, they clambered up the side of a cliff face, coming to rest on a small rise half covered in some short, thick plants that grew like a small wall at one end of the ridge. The space was just big enough for the three of them to squeeze into. Tadeo held a finger to his lips and then pointed to a small gap in the undergrowth.
Gavin crept forward, giving Farah space to approach with him. Together, they peered out through the gap in the brush. The ridge they were on lay high along the side of a mountain and offered them a perfect view of the massive flat plain before them. Grasses grew in long brown swaths across the plains, interrupted by spaces of brown earth completely bare of life. On the far southwestern horizon Gavin saw something glinting, like light reflecting off metal, but it was too far away to make out. However, the ridge gave them a perfect view of the camp erected right in the middle of plains.
Hundreds of tents were pitched in neat rows ten deep and fifteen wide per section. Soldiers in red armor scurried about like insects over food, carrying out the business of the army camp. Fires blazed in multiple areas and the glint of light off metal weaponry flashed like the stars at night. Gavin sucked in a sharp breath. They were right there, less than a mile away. Gavin had secretly hoped Tadeo and Samsin had been lying, or mistaken at the very least, but the truth was looking back at him across the plains.
At one end of the camp, a group of at least two hundred archers practiced their coordinated attacks. Though it was too far away to hear the sound, Gavin watched as all two hundred put arrows to string and then launched one massive volley. Arrows darkened the sky in that region. Another volley was in the air, all two hundred again, before the first arrows struck ground. Gavin pulled back from the edge, though the image of their scarlet uniforms and coordinated, devastating attack lingered in his mind.
“How many?” Gavin whispered, his voice barely more than the sound of the breeze.
Tadeo held up three fingers and gestured as if to say a great many.
Three thousand
. That was over half as many soldiers alone as the entire estimated population of the valley
Tadeo gestured that they should leave and Gavin tapped Farah’s leg. She scooted back and got up, following them back down the way they had come. Going back seemed faster than coming in, though it was likely more the fact that Gavin’s mind was busy working on what to do about the army than paying attention to where he was going.
They were far enough away from the army itself that he figured they were safe. When they reached the aevians again, Gavin still hadn’t managed to come to any sort of a decision. Nabil made a soft noise of greeting as they approached.
“This thing,” Tadeo said. “The army. You are convinced now?”
Gavin nodded.
“They’re only sending out patrols in our direction,” Farah said, expression grim. “And rather frequently too, I’d imagine.”
“How do you know?” Gavin asked.
“The grass. It was bent down in long paths, but only heading toward the mountains.”
“This thing is true. You are most observant, Farah of the skies.” Tadeo said.
“How far do their patrols go out? Do they get close to the valley?”
“They go far. Sometimes, they come close as two hours’ quick march from the valley.” Tadeo said. “I do not know how they have not found us yet. This thing is not hard. Brisson’s patrols are not hiding their movements well.”
Gavin ran a hand through his hair, for a moment even forgetting the cold. “We can discuss this back in the valley. Cobb and Evrouin should be a part of this discussion. Let’s go.”
Farah and Tadeo both nodded. Gavin kept his expression even, but was sure the grim acceptance in Farah and Tadeo’s eyes was also mirrored in his own.
***
Gavin strode through the valley trying hard not to ignore the people around him. When he’d set out for the valley, he’d intended to meet with Cobb and Evrouin as his first course of action, but as he’d flown back, the sun slowly sinking in the sky to their left, he’d realized he didn’t have a plan. So when they landed back in the eyrie, Gavin had excused himself and started walking, allowing his mind to mull over the problem at hand. Neither Farah nor Tadeo tried to stop him, though Farah had given him a quick kiss on the cheek before he left the eyrie. That spot on his jaw still felt warm.