The Duelist 3, page 27
“Yes, because I am not sure what they are capable of, and that scares me,” I admitted, and my foster-son’s mouth popped open slightly as if he couldn’t believe it was possible for me to be afraid of things.
I shook my head, helped him cinch and buckle the saddle, and then walked around Prosper so I could talk to the kid face-to-face. “I may not know what our enemies can do, but I do know what you are capable of.”
“Me?” He looked up at me with a disbelieving expression. “What can I do?”
“Bud,” I said and clapped a heavy hand down on his shoulder. “Considering you’ve managed to survive alone since you were eight, I’m guessing quite a lot. Do you understand what I’m saying? You’re basically the man of the house when I’m gone, and if you go, who will be here to do what needs to be done?”
Finally, my words hit their mark, and Rylan’s wilted posture straightened as he puffed his chest out a little.
“You trust me that much?” he couldn’t help but add, even though he grinned a proud grin.
“Haven’t you been listening?” I mock-growled and hooked him into a headlock so I could tweak and pinch his ear. “Maybe you need to clean out your head-holes.”
And then I proceeded to give him a giant wet willy.
The shrieking was glorious.
“Hey-- nooooooo!” Rylan struggled, but he couldn’t get out of my hold. “Daaaad! Gross, let me go!”
“Wait, I gotta get the other one!” I said, but I let him twist out of my grasp.
“Ewwww!” he whined and attempted to dry his ear with his shirt collar.
“Your efforts are futile!” I laughed like an evil warlord and then got him in the other ear just because I could.
“Daaaad!” Rylan shoved me back and caused me to accidentally bump into Zoie. “Oh, sorry, Mo-- uh. Zoie. I’m, um…”
Zoie blinked her blue eyes in Rylan’s direction, but before she could get over her shock, the flustered stable-boy threw a thumb over his shoulder.
“I’m gonna go get some ash-roots for the canterflies!” Then he bolted to the back of the carriage house where the ash-roots were most definitely not stored.
“Correct me if I’m wrong…” Zoie said. “Did he almost refer to me as ‘mother?’”
“Yep,” I said and then planted a smacking kiss on her cheek. “Less mad for staying?”
“Surprisingly, yes,” she said with an endearing smile directed toward where Rylan disappeared to. “But I admit, I am not thrilled at staying behind, either.”
“I know you aren’t, kitten, but thank you,” I said and kissed her again, but for real this time. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t want to leave you guys just as much as you don’t want me to go.”
“It does not,” she answered stoically and combed her fingers through my hair. “Just hurry back, my love.”
“Do not fret, Lady Zoie,” Amaya’s very welcome voice entered the carriage house and caused me to whip around. “We will be there to expedite the process.”
The oryx-woman looked as fresh as a daisy despite the fact she was probably out all night gallivanting through the forest playing Sherlock Holmes for clues. She smiled at the cat-woman and then at her sister, Anwaar, on her arm.
“Yes, you must not worry yourselves,” the ibex-woman said. “We are the highest performing augur-mage pair in the Alem Faction.”
“I have no doubt you both are highly skilled,” Shay suddenly interjected as she brought a tacked-up Victory over to stand next to Prosper. “But my father’s estate is riddled with traps both enchanted or otherwise.”
“Now, sis, you do remember it was I who snuck these two ladies in the first time.” Horus joined the party and came over so he could tie his pack to the back of Victory’s saddle.
“Yes, but you can bet Father did something about that,” the phoenix-woman said and walked around to my other side so she could loop her arm through mine.
“True, but I’m hoping he forgot about the cliff-face entrance,” the falcon-man said and waggled his eyebrows.
“Just be careful,” Shay sighed, and Horus grinned as he mounted Victory.
“Of course,” he laughed and helped Anwaar up to sit on the saddle behind him. “My name is practically Careful. Cautious as a little bitty squeep, am I.”
“You are not, now stop!” Shay giggled at her brother’s antics.
“If it pleases the Lady,” he said with a charming tip of his head.
“It pleases me, thus,” she volleyed with her pert nose in the air. However, the snobby effect was curtailed by the smile she couldn’t quite keep off her face.
“What’s the status?” Jenner bustled into the carriage house a moment later with a small pack of his own slung over his back. “Everyone ready?”
“Looks like it,” I said and walked over to pat Prosper’s shiny black flank. “What do you say, boy? Ready for an adventure?”
The majestic butterfly-pegasus whistled while his girlfriend, Victory, trotted in place due to her own excitement.
“Alright!” I scrubbed Prosper’s side and then jumped up into the extended saddle. “Let’s do this.”
Amaya took my offered hand and situated herself comfortably behind me on the main saddle while Jenner, on the other hand, mounted the extra backward-facing seat under his own steam with only the help of a step-stool, thankyouverymuch.
“Come back to us, husband,” Shay said when we were all out of the carriage house.
“We will be waiting,” Zoie added and tied the bundle of my travel cloak to my pack.
“We’ll be in and out, you’ll see,” I assured and winked at her. “Tell our weird kid I’ll be back soon.”
“Will do,” she said with a smile, and I couldn’t tell if the smile was just for me, or because of the words ‘our’ and ‘kid’ were in the same sentence.
“Asher?” a timid voice spoke up, and my eyebrows went up in surprise at the sight of the cockatoo-woman among the others.
Somehow, she didn’t strike me as the warm-and-fuzzy-bon-voyage type.
“What is it, Vel?” I asked and furtively glanced around for Bodin.
Going off the stunned look on his masked face, the raccoon-man didn’t have a clue what she was up to, either.
The cockatoo-woman’s white crest fluffed just a bit as if she was agitated with herself but didn’t know why.
“Here,” she said and handed me a cloth-wrapped package no wider than my finger and about three times as long. “It is for luck and fortune.”
“Oh,” I said and looked behind me for a place to stash… whatever it was. Eventually, I slipped it into the top of my pack attached to Prosper’s harness. “Thanks.”
Then, without further ado, she turned and walked back into the manor.
With everyone’s last round of blessings and well wishes, we were all ready, and our canterfly caravan took to the sky.
After spending so much time traveling by carriage, being able to soar through the air was a much-needed break.
Amaya seemed to be unfazed by the heights, whereas Shay and Zoie each had their own strong reactions to flight.
My phoenix-wife, for example, took to the skies as if that’s what she was born to do, whereas my cat-wife preferred to keep her feet on solid ground.
Amaya, however, was so serene as we passed the landscape by, I almost thought she’d fallen asleep, especially when her cheek settled against my upper back.
Soon, the lush multi-colored forests of the valley gave way to more rocky terrain the farther east we journeyed until large sheer cliffs began to rise up starkly in front of us.
Horus guided us south as the vista of the ocean grew closer and closer, and just when I thought we would be flying off Nata Isle completely, the falcon-man banked left toward a large outcropping of rock that seemed to sit on the rim of the island’s crater like a sentinel crow. Here, the river seemed to make its appearance again as a stream of water poured through what looked like the closed beak of the giant bird-shaped mountain.
As Horus guided us right up to one of the gaps between the “beak,” we suddenly found ourselves navigating through a narrow cave riddled with stalactites dripping down on us like rain.
Prosper’s flanks twitched as he snorted through his coiled muzzle, and I could tell through our semi-telepathic connection how claustrophobic he was feeling.
“Just a little further, boy,” I said as we started to fly downward like the crow-mountain was actually swallowing us whole.
I would have been worried about the suffocating darkness had it not been for the glowing sconces that lit the way as we passed.
Finally, the cave shaft bottomed out into the belly of the sentinel crow, and Horus guided us to land at the bottom next to a massive underground lake.
“Welcome to my ex-father’s humble abode,” Hours said when he dismounted along with the ibex-woman. “The Aerie.”
Chapter 19
I looked around the giant chamber in the dim greenish light from the sconces as they reflected off the surface of the water. In the center of the lake was a raised platform, and on the platform was some sort of machine that looked as if the sword chair from Game of Thrones had an abomination of a lovechild with a Bowflex.
“Hey, H,” I said as I helped Amaya and Jenner down from Prosper’s saddle. “What is that for?”
I pointed to the odd contraption and watched as Amaya seemed to be immediately drawn in to get as close a look as she could of the machine.
“I don’t actually know, chief,” the falcon-man said as he swung his pack over his shoulders and patted Victory. “My father was obsessed with it at one point, but when he couldn’t get it to perform the way he wanted, he just abandoned it down here. Come on, we can leave the canterflies here.”
“Will the water be safe for them to drink?” Jenner asked as he eyed the dark surface of the underground lake.
“Back when this estate was mostly used for breeding canterflies, this place acted like a nursery, and the water was regularly purified, so Prosper and Victory will be just fine,” he said as he headed toward a set of doors that were at least twelve feet high and went to grab the handles.
“Stop!” Anwaar suddenly shouted, and she yanked Hours back before he could touch the circular metal. “There is a signature surrounding this door.”
“What?” The falcon-man squinted at the offending handle as if it shit on the bed. “You think it’s enchanted for the worst?”
“The signature is long faded but there all the same,” the ibex-woman said, and her opalescent eyes glittered with her mage-like abilities.
“Impossible!” Horus said. “Nothing happened to me last time I was here, and I broke in the same way.”
“When was it you broke in?” Anwaar asked.
“Middle of the night,” the falcon-man answered.
“That explains it,” she said and rubbed her hands together as if she was chafing them for warmth. “It is currently mid-epoch when the sun is highest in the sky and the magic is strongest. Even though these enchantments have begun to fade with the death of Archus, there are still remnants we must be wary of.”
Then the stoic ibex-woman’s hands started to glow faintly, and after a moment of concentration, she placed them on the handle.
A weak red flash illuminated the circular metal, and Anwaar sighed and dropped her hands.
“That should do it,” she said and motioned for Hours to go ahead.
The falcon-man shot her an askance look and carefully hooked his index finger through the handle in order to open it.
All of a sudden, Anwaar gasped sharply as if she forgot about something, and Horus yelped and snatched his hand back.
“What what what?” he chanted and hopped back a few paces as if waiting for a deadly laser beam to zap him off the face of the planet.
“Nothing.” The ibex-woman shrugged, opened the door herself, and tossed the smallest of smirks over her shoulder at the falcon-man.
“You’re going to pay for that!” Horus said and took off after her shiny autumn fall of hair.
“Children,” Jenner scoffed as he entered the yawning corridor at a more sedate pace.
“Amaya?” I questioned when I saw the oryx-woman was still gazing out over the lake at the machine. She didn’t seem to hear me, so I came to stand next to her. “Amaya?”
“There’s something wrong about that machine…” she murmured in a distant voice, and I eyed the thing once more.
Its jagged edges and chains gave it a sinister aura, and I couldn’t help but agree with her.
“Yeah, let’s hurry up so we can get out of here,” I suggested and gently tugged her by the arm.
She hesitated for a moment, and then as if she was breaking out of a trance, she blinked her rain-colored eyes, nodded, and followed me down the eerie corridor.
In a word, Archus Doler’s estate was absolutely huge.
For starters, it took us at least an hour to make our way from the belly of the crow, and most of that was spent walking up a gradual incline until we could see sunlight peering in through the cracks of the cave ceiling above.
“I feel a breeze,” Jenner said and hurried toward where the light was strongest.
“The cave mouth is just around this next bend,” Horus said, and true to his word, all of us were able to leave the darkness behind and walk out into the dazzling afternoon sun.
At first, it hurt to keep my eyes open, but when they finally adjusted, I was able to take a look around at the estate the Council seemed so interested in.
“Woah,” I remarked to myself when I took in the sight of just how much land there was. I thought Icarian was huge with its near two-hundred acres, but The Aerie was at least twice that.
I supposed it was only typical of a place that boasted some of the top animal husbandry on the island. However, if this place still had any of its former glory, it was well hidden under tracks of barren and dusty land, stables and training arenas all in various states of disrepair, and crooked dead trees where a forest used to line the pastures.
The manor itself was carved high up in the rock of the crater’s rim, similar to the conical shape of a swiftlet’s nest, and it gave new meaning to the estate’s name, The Aerie.
Below the Aerie was a drawbridge leading into the entrance, and as we got closer I could also see there was a dried-up moat under the stone bridge that had turned to dust some time ago.
“How do we get in?” I asked the falcon-man as we all walked toward the bridge’s end and gazed up at the drawbridge still in its fully retracted state.
“Well, last time I had to squeeze through the bars of the dungeon that used to drain into the moat,” Horus explained.
“I’m not sure that’s going to quite work for my sister and me,” Anwaar pointed out, and she gestured to her large ibex-like horns that sprouted from the crown of her head and would definitely make things like squeezing through a set of bars mighty challenging.
“Horus and I can go and then let you all in once we make it around from the inside,” I suggested.
“Or, we can let this little one help us,” Amaya said in her dreamy voice, and she shielded her eyes from the sun so she could fix her eyes on the sky.
Or rather, on a familiar flapping creature in the sky.
“Skra!”
“Roofus!” I cheered when the dusty yellow crow-moth spiraled down from his excited flight and then barreled into my chest like a cuddly cannonball.
“Skra! Skra! Skra!” the gold-seeker cawed happily and nuzzled his dusty feathered head under my chin like a Labrador retriever.
“I missed you, too, buddy!” I laughed as I let the crow-moth perch on my head. “Is Tovish here?”
“Skra!” he said and launched off my head.
“I guess that means yes,” I chuckled and watched as he flew across the dusty moat, up the crumbling slope, and landed on the stone wall at the base of The Aerie’s manor.
“Maybe there is a hole in the wall somewhere,” Amaya suggested and jumped down from the bridge so she could head across the dry ground.
“As long as there’s no ‘squeezing’ involved,” Anwaar said and followed after her sister.
Horus, Jenner, and I all exchanged looks and then followed the ladies.
“Skra!” Roofus cawed when he saw us climbing up the rocky slope. “Kkrrt!”
“You’re right, Amaya, there must be a break in the wall,” I mentioned, and we all followed the crow-moth as he hopped along the ridge of the wall and clicked his beak like a little metal detector.
“Krt-- krt-- krt!” The gold-seeker clicked three times in a row, fluttered down from his perch, and pecked at a pile of rubble that had crumbled away from the top.
“It looks low enough for us to climb over if we work together,” I said as I eyed the damaged top section of the wall.
“But the question is, how ever did Tovish manage to get over by himself?” Horus asked.
“He didn’t,” came that familiar craggy voice in a tone as dry as the moat bed, and all of us turned simultaneously as a big pair of wizened koala-ears rounded the corner with a peg-legged thunk thunk.
“Tobias Tovish, is that you?” Jenner questioned with a grin.
“Ah, Cornelius, my studious pupil, it has been an age,” Tovish said and clasped Jenner on the shoulder. “And young Alex and Horus, it is good to see you both again.”
“Great to see you, too, Tovish,” I said and clasped the koala-elder’s outstretched hand. “How is Gatetown and Gella Vane treating you?”
“Curmudgeonly as always,” he grunted, and in his hand was a walking stick he stabbed into the ground. “Lately, he has been more deranged than usual, so it is good to be away.”
“Have you discovered anything else about Vane we should know?” I asked as I swung my pack around, and I pulled out some rope and a device that operated similarly to a grappling hook and tied them together.
“Only that he has been especially interested in crafting objects that can explode,” the elder sighed as he shook his white-eared head. “Aside from this new hobby, Vane has been more erratic and especially paranoid ever since the Tithing Ceremony. He’s started ridding himself of his staff, and has Traded all of his concubines. The only reason he hasn’t gotten rid of me yet is a mystery. I’ve already cataloged the old fool’s library, as pithy as it was. To be honest, I think he’s forgotten about me due to the fact something much bigger is on his mind.”
