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I HAVE NO RECOLLECTION of the flight back to the Aerie, except that we were not harassed as we fell back.
As soon as we were within sight of the Aerie, my brain came back on line. Knowing you’ve made it to a safe haven will do that. I’d done the right thing for Trey, but leaving him in the hands of the enemy gave the Regent a frightening advantage. We needed Trey back, and we needed to make that rescue as swiftly as possible. The lives of the monks and the Abbot — assuming he still lived — depended on it. The lives and the freedom of the gryphons depended on it.
To say nothing of my conscience.
A faint light seemed to be filling the spaces between the peaks as moonlight filtered through thin spots in the cloud cover. I could actually see the broad landing of the Aerie when we swooped down to it. The moon was well past the zenith; the night was nearly done. This shook me. My sense of time had slipped, and the mission had taken longer than I expected. Ironwing landed first, with Cirrus close behind. In moments, gryphons had settled to the broad expanse of black stone all around us, all of them Sky Guard teams except for Sixtalon, Cirrus, and Ironwing. I hadn’t realized so many had accompanied us. It had been a good call, considering there had been manticores waiting for them. One rider was injured badly enough that he was carried off into the cave complex with great haste. Other injuries, human and gryphon, were being treated inside the main hall. Nothing was said of any losses, and I didn’t have a chance to ask.
Sid strode toward me, clearly furious, fists clenched at her sides. The hilt of her sword was quivering over her shoulder as the blade, sensing her anger, sought her hand. “He would not have left you behind!”
“Sid...”
“He wouldn’t have left you!” She stalked forward as if about to strike me.
The look in her eyes cut right to the heart of me; a physical blow would have been less painful. “No, he wouldn’t have,” I conceded, staying as calm as I could, while refusing to flinch from the naked anger on her face. “Listen to me. Think! Sid, the Alvehn don’t kill other Alvehn. Not even Edren can subvert that instinct, it’s so deep. Since the Regent set the trap, the consequences are on his hands — and he knows it. He’s even now treating Trey’s injury, saving his life. The Alvehn can deal with manticore venom. We can’t!”
Anger was quickly replaced by understanding; we had told her of Alvehn ways, after all. Then a flush of embarrassment colored her face. “Daffyd — I am sorry. I should have...”
I reached out and held her by her shoulders. “It’s okay, Sid. Don’t sweat that part. And believe me, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, which is saying something.”
“You may have saved his life, but he cannot be left there,” said Ironwing.
“No,” I replied. “The Gryphon Stone — well, Trey built the damned thing, and he’s already been used once by the Regent to tweak the Stone.”
“It may have been better to bring him here to die,” a voice hissed. Ironwing’s son Slashtail had joined us, striding out from a crowd of young gryphons gathered on the Aerie’s landing. His younger sibling followed close behind. “If he helps the Regent control the Stone, we are all doomed to madness or slavery.”
Ironwing whirled at him with a hiss, but this time the young gryphon did not back down. He said something in gryphon speech. I understood most of it, and it wasn’t polite. All the gryphons in earshot were now glaring at him, angered by his disrespect.
“I will not respond to you unless you speak so all may understand.” Ironwing’s fore claws made rasping sounds against the stone that sent shivers up my spine.
Slashtail gave vent to a reptilian hiss, then said plainly enough, “You felt it, that night, mother. You know very well of what I speak!”
“She does,” said Sixtalon, coming close and crowding the young gryphon. It was plain the warrior saw a challenge to Ironwing and meant to divert it. “So do we all. It does not justify wishing death upon one who has done you no harm.”
“Has he not?” Slashtail demanded. He pointed his hooked bill at me. “You heard what he said. This Alvehn made the Stone that binds us to these humans. The bond that led to my mate’s death!”
“That bond has made many things possible,” Ironwing replied. “Many long years of peace.”
“And justice,” said Parick, who had joined us but gone unnoticed until he spoke. In the growing light of the new day it was obvious he had hurried out to meet us as soon as news of our return reached him. He was anything but princely, with his hair spiking out and his clothes not fully buttoned. “Working together, we made this land a fair and safe place for both human and gryphon kind.”
“But only because we were coerced!”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I insisted. “All the device does is make it easier for the two species to understand each other, to find common ground. To recognize that some emotions are shared. That’s what created the bond between us, and both sides were willing to embrace it.”
As I spoke I suddenly experienced a moment of clarity. It shook me so much that I stopped speaking and just stared at the handsome young gryphon before me. Before I could gather my wits and share that realization, he let out a venomous gryphon curse, lofted, and flew off to the north to vanish among the snow-covered peaks looming over the Gryphon Heights. Sixtalon began to loft after him.
“Stay!” Ironwing commanded. “Father, leave him be!”
“He is a fool!” Sixtalon obeyed, but was too furious to stand still, pacing, lashing his long tail, and flicking his wings. “And so are all who follow him!”
“That number grows daily,” said Captain Smathe. “And that is not good!”
“No,” said Ironwing with a sigh that sounded strangely human.
“Whatever,” I said with a sharp wave of my sword hand. “We need to take the Abbey, and we need to do it soon.”
“All-out assault?” Smathe asked.
“I don’t see any other option,” I replied. “And time is working against us.”
“What did you see of their strength there?” Smathe asked.
Sid and I gave them a nutshell account of what we’d seen and heard, and what the Brothers Jeffris and Andri had been able to fill in. It wasn’t an exact count, but we had a general sense that we’d be outnumbered when it came to it.
“We must hit them hard and fast,” I said. “And we must do it soon.”
“We are with you,” declared Tallcrest, Smathe’s gryphon partner. “It will not be blades alone these Moj must face!”
“Good to know,” said Parick. “But what of these manticores? What do we know of their numbers?”
“There were dozens of them in the fight tonight,” I replied. “Which doesn’t tell us much, I’m afraid. There’s room in the Abbey for an army of the things!”
Ironwing raised and lowered her crest. “Ha! We fought them this night. Foul beasts, but they can be killed. Just tell me where they are!”
Few things are as frightening as a gryphon with a taste for blood and battle. I actually shied away from Ironwing. I was trying to quickly recall everything I’d ever known about manticores, how they lived, what suited them. Manticores roosted like bats, jammed together until there was barely room to breathe. “Worst case, considering the size of the Abbey, there could be a thousand of the monsters waiting for us.”
Smathe blanched. “From what I saw of the handful we faced last night, we are too few to face such a foe!”
“All too few,” Harta muttered.
“If only the Sky Guard is mustered, you’re right.” I turned to Ironwing and asked, “How many of your people could we count on?”
“A few hundreds, at best,” she replied, clicking her beak in agitation. “Many who are not Guardians think as my son does. They see the Sky Guard as a form of servitude. They will not fight for us.”
“Madness,” said Parick. “If I am unable to depose the Regent, there will be open war. Thousands will die for no reason.”
“And no few of those deaths would be gryphons,” said Sixtalon. “We would be hunted. Or enslaved.”
“Your eldest son, Slashtail,” I said to Ironwing. “Where did he go, just now?”
“There is a place, some miles from here, where a large number of his followers have chosen to live apart from us,” she replied.
“They will not abide the presence of humans,” Sixtalon added.
“Take me there.”
“Why?” Ironwing demanded, so surprised that she took a step back. The other gryphons glared at me; my demand had been a bit less than respectful.
“Forgive me, I am tired and forget my manners, great lady,” I said, bowing my head.
“It is nothing, my friend. But still, I must know your reasoning.”
“I have something to say to them,” I replied, that moment of clarity still ringing through my mind. “Something they need to know. It may give them the motive they need to fight for us.”
“And you plainly mean not to divulge this matter to the rest of us,” Sid said.
“Sorry, guys, but no. There’s no time! And it’ll just be the two of us making this little side trip.” I put my hand on Ironwing’s broad shoulder. “That is, if you will take my suggestion.”
“We will go together,” she agreed. “Indeed, I must go. With anyone else, you might not come back alive.”
“I also will come,” said Sixtalon.
“Yes,” said Ironwing. “He admires you.”
I think, had she been human, her voice would have carried a note of bitter irony.
“All right, then,” I said, and Ironwing held a foreleg out for me. “The rest of you, prepare for battle. We can’t afford to wait!”
The humans in our ad hoc council all made the sign of the Two, and turned to walk briskly into the Aerie. Smathe suddenly turned, shrugged off his coat and tossed it to me. No words were spoken. It wasn’t the best fit, but it was wearable, and appreciated. A moment later, Ironwing, Sixtalon, and I were on our way.
