Page 14 of Son of the Drowned Empire

Chapter Thirteen

G roaning, I opened my eyes, moving my arm over my forehead to block out the light, it was pale but somehow still overwhelming. I caught sight of the silver band around my wrist.

Cold air blanketed my skin. My toes had numbed inside my boots, and a chilly, violent wind rushed over me. The tips of my fingers, exposed through my leather gloves, were nearly frozen. I was outside. And I was moving.

Something wet fell on my forehead. Snowflakes. Cruel laughter surrounded me.

“Shut the fuck up. You nearly rolled to your death before you woke.” It was Garrett.

Squinting, I gingerly pushed myself into a seat. More snowflakes landed against my cloak.

“Finally joining us, Your Grace.” That snide voice was Thorin’s.

Opening my eyes all the way, revealed mountain cliffs. We were flying on some sort of raft. Leather bands crossed beneath my legs, tying us to the gryphon beneath. The Alissedari had started. My rude awakening hours earlier had been my transportation call, and now we were being dropped in one of three locations to retrieve our gryphons.

We could have simply been taken, awake, and undrugged. But something told me my father was delighting in how disorienting this was going to be for everyone. How it’d set everyone on edge, leaving them ready to attack.

I did a quick count and found nearly two dozen soturi surrounded me. Three more gryphons flew nearby, all carrying the same loads on their back.

I inched closer to Garrett, taking better stock of my opponents. Of course, Thorin was on mine and surrounded by his supporters, all members of Ka Oryyan, most of them accomplished apprentices, including his cousin, Sev. He’d been squirreling around Thorin last night, glaring at me. He’d hated me for years simply because I was a faster runner. I’d always ignored him before, but now he was so close, and acting too bold. And, to make things even more exciting, we were seated with several soturi of Ka DeTerria—Dario’s cousins, who all violently detested us, mainly because Dario insisted on picking fights with them every chance he had, leaving us no choice but to back him up.

I searched for Dario’s telltale curly hair, pulled back, and threaded with silver beads. He wasn’t riding on our gryphon, but he didn’t seem to be on any of the others.

“Dario?” I whispered to Garrett.

“They separated us,” Garrett said quietly.

I stared over the horizon trying to figure out which of the three locations we were headed for, but all I could tell was that we were heading west, which, depending on how far we were from the Academy, could have meant any of the three wilds. The Gryphon Pits had been built in the north, in the center of Glemaria’s mountain ranges. The wilds were all south.

“We can contact him when we drop down,” I said. “Figure out where he is, fly together, guard each other’s backs.”

Garrett shook his head again, angling his hip toward me. “We can’t,” he said and pushed open his leather pouch.

My mother’s vadati stone, clear and white, lay in the center.

“Aiden gave it back?” I asked, already annoyed.

“No.” Garrett’s voice darkened. “Dario and I switched before we fell asleep. He was nervous he’d lose it.”

“Fuck!” I stared ahead. Dario alone without a way to reach us could be disastrous.

“He’ll be okay. Here. You need to eat.” Garrett shoved a small bag into my lap. I pulled it open to discover an assortment of nuts. Garrett was always good about keeping snacks on hand, and it was especially good now. Unless we took time to hunt or forage—I had a feeling this was going to be all I’d had to eat all day

“Did you have enough?” I asked.

“Eat. Aiden packed enough nuts for three days.”

Slowly, I began to chew, noting how glacially slow our gryphon was moving thanks to the immense amount of weight he carried.

“What time is it?” I asked Garrett.

“By my count of the last bells, just past noon.”

I frowned. “Was anyone else out for this long?”

“No. But don’t take it personal. No one else was punched twice in the face by the arkturion yesterday either.”

I groaned at the canteen I’d packed, desperately wishing it was coffee instead of water.

“You’re sure that’s it?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to be egotistical. I knew I’d been punched by the arkturion, full force. I knew how hurt I’d been yesterday. But I also knew my strength, my energy levels, my recovery time. I couldn’t imagine any real reason why I’d have been out longer than everyone else, not unless my dosage had been heavier than the others.

Garrett shrugged, staring down at the silver band around his wrist.

The wind picked up in intensity, and my heart lodged into my throat as the gryphon dropped suddenly. It was time.

We’d come to the westernmost of the wilds, to the woodlands beneath the Allurian Pass—the tallest mountains in Glemaria. The Pass cut off the western border at the edge of the Empire, where the humans lived. I’d only been out here a few times, but by my guess, we were pretty close to both the human and Hartavian border.

We’d need to chart a journey going northeast to reach the Pits.

Garrett rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck side to side, a determined look on his face, as our gryphon’s wings spread wider. The wind blew harder against us, the forest floor in sight. Around us were the sounds of over a dozen gryphons squawking and growling.

We reached for our swords, prepared to battle our way off the gryphon as it swooped below the treetops, taking us into the dark of the woods. The cliffs of the Allurian Pass were no longer visible.

The moment we touched down, a mage stepped out from behind the trees, his stave pointed at the rope around our gryphon’s leg. The other gryphons in our cohort tapped down, and he repeated the same gesture before pointing his stave at his throat.

“Welcome to the first part of the Alissedari, ” he said, his voice amplified through the trees. Snow began to fall more forcefully, and the sky darkened. Gryphons snarled and growled beyond him, play wrestling and jumping onto each other, their yells turning to squawks that drowned out the mage. He amplified his voice a second time. “We all fight in honor of His Highness, Imperator Hart, to celebrate his birthday today, and his long and successful rule. May you find your own honor today.”

I scowled as everyone cheered.

Then, he continued, “You all entered last night with your oaths and your bindings. Now, the tournament truly begins when I blow the horn. At that moment, you will find a gryphon to ride. It is your job to claim your gryphon, to tame it enough to let you ride it, to ensure another soturion doesn’t take your beast, and to have a sense of fucking direction and arrive at the Gryphon Pits.”

A few soturi snickered at this, but I was watching the gryphons, counting the few present amongst the trees, and looking for signs of others beyond the small clearing. A shadow of a bronze tail swung in and out of view.

“Once you arrive at the Pits, you will enter the physical bindings of the tournament, unable to leave until it ends. If you fall from your gryphon, you lose it but remain in the tournament on foot. When victory is claimed, your wrist bindings will vanish. There are not enough gryphons. More than half of you will fail to compete today but you will remain bound to the Alissedari .”

Garrett flashed me a look, as several soturi shifted their weight, their knuckles cracking in anticipation.

“When the horn blows, you will fight to claim and conquer your ride. Fail and you’re disqualified. No gryphon may carry two riders to the Pits. Only one victor may win today. Good luck.”

Everyone got into position, either settling into low crouches with one hand on the floor as they prepared to run or standing tall, hands on their blades, ready to lunge.

The horn sounded.

Immediately, the soturi were pushing at each other, trying to knock down their fellow fighters as they scrambled off the gryphon’s back. Though he was low, we still had a rather large jump. I locked eyes with Garrett as the DeTerria soturi banded together and Thorin gathered those loyal to him, including Sev.

Most of the soturi were heading for the sides, trying to descend down the gryphon’s wings. But no one was heading for the tail.

I jerked my chin at it, and Garrett furrowed his eyebrows.

“Off the back,” I said quickly.

“It's a bigger jump,” he said. “We'll be behind everyone if we go off there.”

“Not if we do it right,” I said.

“You mean…?”

I gave a small nod. We could use our vorakh there to control the landing. It was a risk, but so was every other option.

I slipped my hood over my head. Garrett did the same. Our outlines blurred as the material settled around our faces, thanks to Aiden's glamour.

We took off, running for the edge and leaping. Halfway through the fall, I did it. I saw myself on the ground, my stomach tugged. My boots touched down, and Garrett was right beside me.

“Go!” I yelled, and we raced around the front of the gryphon, past the soturi still fighting their way down the wings.

Those from the other two gryphons had been faster getting off. Already, dozens of them were battling it out in the fields or running off into the trees, trying to track down the rogue creatures. At least three soturi already lay sprawled in the snow, knocked unconscious.

These gryphons were wild. Some had already decided they wanted nothing to do with the Alissedari and were flying off, cutting the already slim pickings down further.

A pissed-off gryphon, far too wild for a ride, threw his silvery wings out, knocking five soturi from Ka Oryyan to the ground.

One soturion from Ka DeTerria had managed to jump onto a gryphon’s nearly black wings, but three others had jumped on with him, and all four were battling it out while the gryphon bucked, threatening to throw them off.

“We need to go deeper into the woods,” I said. “We don’t want any of these—they’ll be too agitated. And I know there’s more back there.” The possibility of the gryphons refusing to let us ride or follow directions was a little too real—they were untrained, untested. Forcing a ride on a gryphon who didn’t want you was one way to die.

Garrett and I moved behind a cluster of moon trees. Their leaves canopied together, leaving us in near darkness. We swerved through another growth, seeking out the place where I’d seen the tail. A low growl sounded from a few feet away, combined with the rustling leaves—a good sign. The ground was hard with cold as we ran, making it easier to hear our boots. I stopped, hoping not to give us away, and leaned back against a trunk, motioning for Garrett to follow.

Behind us came the sounds of soturi punching against leathered armor, blades clanging. A gryphon snarled. Someone screamed, and a gust of wind blew leaves and sticks in our direction as the shadow of gryphon wings rose over the trees.

More shouts filled the air, and another gryphon lifted off. The less gryphons available, the more desperate the soturi would become: the more violent. But what concerned me most were the ones who’d had the same idea as me. Sure enough, I could hear boots coming our way, crunching through fallen leaves.

Drawing my hood closer, I sprinted forward, Garrett on my heels. Someone screamed back in the clearing. I didn’t have to look to know what sort of pain had caused a scream like that. He’d been bitten. And if he didn’t get away fast, he’d be mauled.

I tried to clear my mind of the sound and all other thoughts but that of the task at hand. Garrett crept through a small opening. It led into a rounded clearing; two gryphons in its center, snapping at each other’s necks, rearing back and pouncing. They both growled fiercely, clawing and wrestling, then shrieked with delight as fresh snow fell on their wings.

Motioning to Garrett, I stepped forward. “Shhhhh.” I was loud enough to make my presence known, but quiet enough to show I didn’t pose a threat. “Tovayah.” I held up my hands, taking slow steps as the sounds of battle grew in the distance. More winged shadows filled the sky.

The gryphons immediately stopped fighting. One rolled onto his back, his gray wings flopping lazily on the field, sopping up the fallen snowflakes. His beak opened in question, his black eyes tracking us. But the other gryphon, majestic and bronzed, was on edge, snarling and snapping her beak, her tail frozen behind her.

“Easy,” I said.

Garrett tiptoed beside me. “Good girl.”

The bronze gryphon growled in response, her wings erect, feathers standing in irritation.

“Stand back,” I said. “They’re nervous with both of us approaching at once. You take the gray.” That one at least seemed unthreatened, more curious.

“Got it,” Garrett said, changing direction.

I inched closer, keeping my palms up, my fingers loose and unthreatening. “Good girl. Tovayah. Tovayah, ” I said softly. Her hackles were raised, but her feathers were beginning to soften, and with another word of encouragement, she lowered her wings, stamping her talons as she tilted her head.

She didn’t trust me. Not yet. She was still agitated by my presence. But she no longer feared me. It was a start.

I used the opportunity to check Garrett’s progress. He was smiling, looking more easy-going than he had in days, giving his gryphon a belly rub. Figures. My gryphon looked over, too, her head snapping quickly at her companion. She growled low in her throat. Then, she looked back to me, an expression in her eyes that seemed to say, Can you believe them?

I almost laughed and was able to get close enough to press my palm to her beak. She lowered her head, letting me stroke up toward her eyes, the heel of my hand running through her soft mix of feathers and fur. Bits of silver and gold gleamed through the bronze, a happy purring in her throat. Looking me up and down, she lowered herself to her belly, allowing me to climb on her back.

“Garrett!” I hissed. He was still offering belly rubs, and his gryphon’s legs were waggling in the air almost as much as his tail. “Let’s go.”

Sighing, Garrett stepped back. “Volara?” he asked then flapped his arms like wings.

After all the stress and tension of getting here, I couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing. “Auriel’s fucking bane, Garrett! You don’t have to mime it. The High Lumerian for ‘fly’ is more than enough.”

Garrett scoffed. “Shut up. My gryphon likes it. Look, he’s laughing.”

In Garrett’s defense, his gryphon’s beak was wide open. I supposed if gryphons could laugh, this was it. But I was starting to notice how quiet it was beyond the clearing. We’d already lingered long enough.

Ears straining for any other hints of movement, I nodded. “How about we take your comedy show to the skies. Now?”

“Well, sure,” he grunted. “I need a larger audience.”

Luckily, his gryphon was already rolling onto his belly, subservient and ready for Garrett to climb on.

“Dorscha,” I said, urging mine to lay down. Her eyes thinned into slits. I tried again, noting Garrett was nearly on his gryphon from my periphery. “Come on, don’t make me look bad,” I urged. “Dorscha.”

Her legs bent, her head lowering, and suddenly her beak opened, and she released a shrieking growl into the clearing.

“Hey!” I said, stepping back as her feathers stood on end, her wings stiff and ready for battle.

“Hart!”

My stomach dropped, and I turned. Thorin stood behind me.

“You’re too late. This one’s mine.” I backed up, closing in on my gryphon. She was clearly on edge, and I didn’t need my pretentious asshole of an apprentice spooking her.

“Rhyan,” Garrett said, a warning in his voice. “Rhyan!” he yelled.

Both of my arms were grabbed from behind. A soturion stood on either side of me, both apprentices from Ka Orryan. Of course, one was Thorin’s cousin Sev, and the other, a non-noble who followed his every whim.

Two more came from behind the trees, rushing for Garrett, but his gryphon sprang into action, clawing the first in the face, his wings pushing aside the second.

I eyed my gryphon, trying to send calm waves of energy through my aura. She’d just warmed up to me and I didn’t want to have to start over. And if she attacked them, she might accidentally maim me.

Thorin approached me, a victorious look in his eyes, his aura intensifying. My gryphon’s wings flapped, as she stomped her talons again, this time in anger.

“I’m not afraid of you, Thorin.” I tried to relax my arms against my captors. I waited for the right moment to fight. I wanted this to be over fast.

He sneered. “You should be.”

My mother’s warning returned to me. Watch out for Thorin in particular. He gives me a bad feeling…

Another step, and he was before me, his fists raised.

“Really?” I taunted. “You can only get a hit in when my arms are tied?”

“I’ll get a hit in however I want. You’re done.”

“You’re pathetic,” I said.

“I don’t think so. It’s been ordered,” Sev said gleefully.

“Ordered?” I asked without thinking. “Ordered by who?”

Thorin glared at Sev before turning his ire back on me. “Who do you think?” His fist thrust out, and I sank down to my knees, forcing the soturi holding me captive to fall with me.

They’re just rope. They’re nothing.

I sucked in a breath, using all I had to snap my arms from their hold. Freed, I punched right, snapping Sev’s head to the side. Then, I spun back, kicking my other captor. Sev was recovering, but I grabbed his neck, slamming his face into the dirt. My elbow thrust back, knocking down the second soturion.

Jumping to my feet, I came face to face with Thorin, already preparing for another punch. I raised my arms, prepared to block. I knew his moves inside and out after two years of training. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, I was stronger. There was a reason he’d stuck his lackeys on me first. He wasn’t strong enough to win fairly.

But he moved too fast for me to see, to process. He punched, and my head snapped back, my hood flying off. I screamed as his knuckles connected to my nose.

“Fuck!” I roared, seeing spots in my vision. I’d been slow. I was still healing from Kane’s attack. Aiden had mended the bones, treated the swelling, but the internal healing couldn’t be accelerated. Magic wasn’t a true match for the power deep inside a soturion’s body.

I stumbled, bumping into my gryphon, whose wings had tightened. With a snarled squawk, she pushed me forward.

I was dizzy, seeing double of everything.

Thorin punched me again. And again.

His hits were fast. Too fast, too strong, like they were powered by something unnatural.

Something I couldn’t keep up with. It didn’t make sense. Even injured, I knew I could take him. I knew I was stronger.

Then, it hit me. The asshole had called on kashonim . He was powered by our entire lineage going back to every soturion still alive, every soturion whose blood ran through our veins.

He’d chosen this moment to call on it to use it against me. This wasn’t what we did— kashonim was meant for life and death scenarios. Not to attack our own.

“Rhyan!” Garrett screamed. He was on the back of his gryphon, both of the soturi who’d attacked him were unconscious. “Climb!”

My head rolled to the side before I realized what Garrett was saying. His gryphon was standing, and mine was on her belly, waiting.

Sev and Thorin’s other lackey were stirring, their eyes fixed on my gryphon.

I ran, zigzagging in my unsteadiness, my head throbbing, my nose probably broken again, but I was getting on that gryphon, and I was leaving Thorin and his idiot followers behind.

I reached for the bronze feathers, my fingers digging in until I found fur thick and long enough to hold onto. I pulled myself up and straddled her back.

Something grabbed hold of my boot, and with everything I had left, I kicked. Thorin stumbled.

“The fuck?” he said. He looked genuinely startled.

“Not even with kashonim could you take me,” I growled, sick of everyone coming at me, always forgetting what I possessed on my own. Always trying to take it from me. Had I not been injured, I’d have taken him and his men down within seconds.

Thorin jumped to his feet, his legs moving so quickly that with enough power in his jump, he’d be up here with me. Fucking kashonim.

“Volara!” I roared. “Volara! Vra! Vramahar!”

My gryphon reared back, her beak open, her talons lifted as her back haunches sank into the earth.

Thorin jumped, his sword coming for me.

“Mahara!” I screamed.

Her front claws hit the grass, launching me forward. Blood dripped from my nose, and spots appeared in my vision while my face throbbed.

Thorin’s blade swung behind me as we took off, my gryphon running through the edge of the clearing before her wings pulled back and her hind legs bent, and then we soared, flying higher and higher, swerving through the clusters of branches until we were above the trees.

Beside me, gray wings flapped.

Garrett yelled out, his aura full of enough adrenaline and excitement that it reached me.

My heart was still racing from Thorin’s attack, my vision blurry after getting punched in the nose again. He’d had a sword ready. A sword and fucking kashonim . He hadn’t just come to fight me or take my gryphon. He’d come to kill me.

I slid to the side, trying to get a better hold of the feathers, but I couldn’t seem to grasp the right ones. My grip slackened, and a wave of dizziness descended over me. I couldn’t find purchase, couldn’t hold on. I was slipping as my gryphon angled up, flying higher and faster.

Something flashed in the distance. My gryphon screeched in fear, swerving before I could grab hold. Her entire body jerked.

“Garrett!” I screamed.

And then I fell.