Wings of Light
Seven at the River Shining: Chapter 10
Read the story of Seven at the River Shining from the beginning.
Results of Last Week’s Poll: After returning from rescuing the chiefs’ families, does former Visionary Antrem recognize Lark’s leadership? (8 votes)
Yes. (63%)
No. (38%)
Black-feathered shafts shot into the sky, but they fell short of the soaring eagle. For a moment, Lark lost sight of the golden bird in the sun, then she dived and let out another screech. In the distance, a wolf’s howl, a puma’s growl, and a bear’s roar sang in harmony.
“The Visionaries!” Lark shouted. “They’ve returned!”
“That’s not possible,” Tynik yelled back. “The mine is at least two days away.”
“They have access to magic neither of us can dream of.”
“Do you think they found the families?”
Lark put his hand on Tynik’s shoulder and steadied himself. “Arrow-10, you and the others delay Malavek as best you can.”
“I obey,” the Spark said. “With what will you occupy yourself during that interval?”
“I’m going flying.”
Lark’s eyes went white as he flung his vision into his friend the cardinal. Rill took off from a blackened branch of a nearby tree. She soared over the river, past the clan being forced into the water, and out across the plains teeming with orcish soldiers. Beyond the ragged rearguard, another group of orcs ran through the foothills, led by the wolf and puma. Behind them, several orcish children rode on the back of a massive grizzly.
“Antrem!” Lark cried. “Kavosa! Farlak!” But he knew he was too far away to be heard. “Rill, find the eagle. Go to her.”
“You want me to get closer to an eagle?” the cardinal said. “Are you crazy?”
“She means you no harm. She’s not really an eagle. Please, find her!”
“If you say so.”
The little bird veered sunward and scanned the plains. The rearguard must have heard the newcomers, for now they faced away from the river, weapons drawn. Rill caught sight of the golden eagle pulling out of her dive at the center of the rearguard. Suddenly, the eagle was gone and in its place stood Visionary Nalya, her regal form rising amidst the orcs, unafraid.
“Kronix Orn! Hold!” Nalya called, and the orcs were so startled that none of them attacked her immediately. “We bring the families of your chiefs whom Malavek took hostage. Go! Find your commanders. Tell them they need not fear Malavek anymore!”
The wolf and puma broke through the trees, followed closely by the fleetest of the former hostages. One of the rearguard shouted something in Orcish, and others took up the cheer. Rill was close enough to see that none of the orcs wore Malavek’s crest. They must have recognized their chiefs’ children and partners, for now several of them dashed off toward the river.
The cardinal landed on Nalya’s shoulder, and her sing-song voice spoke the words Lark gave her to say: “You’ve returned at the moment of our greatest need.”
”Lark, is that you?” Nalya asked. “You’ve learned so much of our magic in such a short period.”
”I’ve had to, Visionary.” The little bird hopped up and down impatiently. “Tell me, are the other clans going to turn on Malavek? Will they fight with us?”
”They will not,” Nalya said, her voice resolute.
“No?” Lark said through the cardinal. “Then why bring their families back?”
“Because no one should ever be held hostage to sate the whims of a tyrant.”
”Then we’re doomed. We can’t fight them all.”
“We don’t have to,” Nalya said. “Those we rescued wanted to fight, but I could not abide an orcish civil war right on our doorstep. I convinced them to take their clans and go. They will not threaten us ever again.”
Lark pulled his senses out of Rill so he could relay this news to his fellow defenders. Instead of six clans, they would face only one. But even that one, Malavek’s Pierced Mountain Clan, still outnumbered the Kindred.
Lark turned to the riverbank to find his brethren firing flight after flight of arrows into a surging mass of orcs crossing beneath a second incarnation of Malavek’s water arch. The warlord had surrounded himself with the biggest orcs at his disposal, rendering Arrow-10’s hand cannons useless. They had no way to break Malavek’s concentration. The arch would remain, and the full weight of the Kronix Orn would crash upon the eastern bank before Nalya’s message could reach the western edge of the river.
Lark looked toward the peak of the Sunmount, the sacred mountain. Where was Tagren? Had he been delayed? Had his mission failed? If only Lark could see him one last time.
A gargantuan roar pulled Lark away from his bleak contemplation of the Sunmount. Turning back to the river, Lark saw the grizzly bear make a terrific leap from the western bank and land amid the orcish soldiers. The Olonkin archers ceased firing as everyone faced the terrifying bear. But Antrem did not start tearing the orcs limb from limb. Rather, he bowed his head and the passel of children slid from his back. They squelched through the mud to a particular orc and leapt into his arms.
Antrem shrank to his still massive Olonkin form and shouted, “We’ve returned your families to you. Now you must go! Flee to the mountains and never come back. We will deal with your tormentor for you!”
The chief who wore the symbol of the three fangs bowed to Antrem, but the children held no such formality. They ran back to the big Olonkin and hugged his legs. Lark watched Antrem’s severe features soften into an uncharacteristic smile. And for the first time since he arrived back in Morrin with the halfling and the Spark, Lark felt a bubble of hope rise in his chest.
”Hold your fire!” he shouted to the archers. “They’re leaving.”
At a command from their chief, the orcs of the Three Fangs turned westward and ran for the shore, leaving many of their companions dead to the Kindred’s arrows in the exposed mud of the riverbed.
Malavek screamed something in Orcish as the Three Fangs lumbered by his position on the western bank. But the members of the other clan paid him no heed. They cut their way through the Pierced Mountain soldiers and were gone from Lark’s sight.
Antrem clambered up the eastern bank and stood next to Lark. “How many have we lost?” he asked, surveying the ruins of the burned village.
”Too many,” Lark said. “The fire…it was so fast…”
”The buildings may have fallen, but our people still stand tall,” Antrem said. “And we will defeat Malavek. You have done well, Lark.”
”Vimak’s dead. And…and my mother…”
Antrem placed a heavy hand on Lark’s shoulder. ”Then let us honor them by not letting that madman one step closer to our home.”
”What do we do, Honored Elder?”
”The decision is yours, Visionary Lark.”
Lark looked up at Antrem, who nodded solemnly, his dark eyes full of the light of unexpected blessing.
“They are too many, even with the other clans abandoning the siege. Honored Elder, I seek your counsel.”
”Cut off the head and the snake will die,” Antrem said.
“We’ve tried. Malavek is protected by some sort of spirit. No arrow can touch him.”
”How about claw and antler?”
”You and me? Together?”
Antrem grasped Lark’s forearm with his meaty hand. ”You have listened to my counsel and now you must act.”
”Together,” Lark said again.
As one, the bear and the elk charged down the riverbank.
_______
Evie caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. Two enormous animals raced by, and she watched them crash through the ranks of Pierced Mountain orcs, who had replaced the Three Fangs at the front of the assault. None of the orcs seemed to want to tangle with the bear and elk so they leapt out of the way and turned their attention back to the Kindred’s archers. The orcs’ own rifle wielders lay down a barrage of covering fire, which dropped the Olonkin to the ground. Lying on their bellies, the Olonkin could not draw their bowstrings, and the orcs took advantage. Rushing up the bank, Malavek’s clan members clashed with the defenders.
Starr and Cavendish drew their swords. Arrow-10’s armblade sprang into place. Tynik hefted charred chunks of wood in both hands. But neither Milly nor Evie had a weapon. They shrank back behind the others, hand in hand.
“You have some magic, right, Milly?” Evie asked.
“None that’s helpful in our current situation. What about you?”
“I had it, but then I lost it. Really wish I hadn’t right about now.”
“What do you mean, you lost it?”
“It wasn’t really mine. I was…borrowing the magic.”
Milly started backing away, pulling Evie with her. “Can you, uh, borrow more from someone else?”
Before Evie could answer, the battle joined. Orcs bearing the symbol of the pierced mountain, fell upon the Olonkin. Starr and Cavendish stood back to back, hacking and slashing with equal parts grace and determination. Arrow-10 was everywhere at once. His armblade and hand cannon worked in tandem to drive small pockets of orcs back toward the river so that the Olonkin could stand and draw their arrows.
Tynik clubbed a fellow orc about the head. The orc fell, and Tynik bent to retrieve his rifle. But as he straightened up, another orc drove a bayonet between Tynik’s ribs. He fell backwards, and the orc was upon him, stabbing again and again with the bayonet and shouting in Orcish. Evie launched herself at the orc and tackled her to the ground. The orc muscled her off and leapt to her feet. Turning her rifle upon Evie, she rose the blood-slicked bayonet.
Bang!
The orc toppled forward, and Evie had to scramble out of the way to avoid the weight of her fall. She looked back and saw Milly lying on the ground, a rifle as long as she was smoking from the life-saving blast. Evie crawled to her, and together they reached Tynik. The orc who had nobly betrayed his own lay in a pool of his own blood. No less than six stab wounds blossomed red upon his ash-stained tunic.
“Vreskii,” he choked. “You got her?”
Milly nodded grimly. “Was that her name?”
Tynik gasped for breath. “I wanted to…to make a…new…”
But his words failed and his eyes went glassy.
“Stay with us, Tynik,” Evie yelled, tears obscuring her vision.
“We need Lark,” Milly said.
Evie whipped her head around, blinking back her tears, and found the elk on the far side of the river, which had returned to its normal course. Lark and the bear must have distracted Malavek long enough to disrupt his magic. Now a small portion of the Pierced Mountain clan was trapped on this side of the river, outnumbered by the Olonkin. But none of that would help Tynik.
“Evie,” Milly called, bringing her back to the dying orc. “Help me put pressure on his wounds. We need to stop the bleeding.”
The Heronshon and halfling ripped up Tynik’s tunic and pushed pieces of it into the wounds, which they then pressed hard with tired hands. Evie found herself lifting up a prayer to the Soul of Light in the distant plane of Valokun.
No. Not distant, a voice said in her mind, calm yet impassioned. Within you. You are a child of Valokun no matter on which plane your feet tread.
“Who are you?” Evie asked herself, even as she concentrated on keeping Tynik’s blood inside his body.
I am you, just as I was beneath the willow. You have a brilliance that Naraleth’s shadow could never touch. Let it out now. Let the light flood out.
“How? How do I let the light out?”
Evie waited, but the voice did not respond. A dismal sense of abandonment began to creep in. She looked up from Tynik’s mortally wounded body and saw Starr and Cavendish moving as one, putting their lives on the line for the Kindred they had never even met a few days before. Evie couldn’t believe that Annaliese Cavendish was doing something selfless, but there she was. Starr had wrought a change in her. Something inside Starr – a light that could never be extinguished – called out to something inside the pirate, a yearning for someone to shine upon her, to see her as more than the pirate she had always been. Starr had let her inner light flood out.
And that meant Evie could too.
She just had to believe the light was there, waiting to emerge from beneath the horizon of her heart. Evie closed her eyes and felt the sun rise within, felt the Soul of Light blessing her from across the planes. Radiant magic surged through her, warming her from the inside out. When she opened her eyes, she saw golden light pouring from her hands and enveloping Tynik’s body.
“You found it!” Milly said. “You found your magic!”
Evie pulled her hands away, expecting the drain that had always come from tapping Naraleth’s power, the black tendrils seeking each other from the corners of her vision. But they never came. Indeed, Evie felt better than she ever had, stronger, more herself than she thought possible. The healing light surrounding Tynik persisted after Evie let go. The orc opened his eyes and breathed.
Milly waved Evie off. “Go, help the others. I’ll stay with him!”
Evie jumped to her feet and ran towards Starr and Cavendish. They saw her coming and jogged her way, their swords at their sides. For the moment, no orcs assaulted them, and they took the respite to catch their breath. Arrow-10, who surely would have said he had no breath to catch, kept his back to them, warding off any potential attackers.
“Evie!” Starr said. “You’re glowing!”
“Am I?” Evie looked down at her hands again and saw her whole being was suffused in golden light. “I am!”
“What happened?”
“I let my light flood out!”
“You can fill us in later,” Cavendish said. “Where’s Lark?”
“He ran across the river to face Malavek.”
“By himself?”
“There was a bear with him.”
Arrow-10 pointed to the opposite bank. “Is that the bear in question?”
Evie followed his metal finger and saw the elk and bear harrying the warlord and his guards. The defenders watched the battle, helpless to offer aid from so far away. Suddenly, the elk and bear were lifted off their feet, as if invisible nooses were yanking them skyward. They pumped their legs to no avail.
“It’s Naraleth,” Evie wailed. “It’s strangling them!”
Arrow-10 shot his hand cannon, but the beam of deadly light streaked wide. “That was my final shot,” he said. “I have run out of power to divert to my cannons.”
Cavendish checked her pistols. “And I’m out of ammunition.”
“We need to get over there!” Starr yelled.
Evie felt the light growing inside her, seeking another way out. “I need to save Lark,” she whispered to herself. “Help me get to him!”
Warmth built in Evie’s shoulderblades, like she had spent too long sitting with her back to a fire. The heat grew and grew until she was sure her clothes would catch flame. All at once, luminous wings sprouted from her back, lustrous like liquid gold, and she rose into the air, her arms spread wide.
Evie glanced down at her sister and saw the same golden light roiling along Starr’s shoulders. “You have them too!” she called. “Let your wings free!”
Starr touched the back of her own neck and pulled her hand away, as if she had been burned.
“You can do wonders, Starr,” Cavendish said. “Fly! Fly!”
Evie reached out her hand and took Starr’s. Starr’s wings of light unfurled, and the two sisters soared across the river.
Come back on Friday to see what happens next in the story Seven at the River Shining. You can also listen to this chapter on the podcast side of the Trail Blaze Fiction Substack or your favored podcast app. While you’re waiting for the next installment, head over to AdamThomas.net and sample Adam’s fantasy novels.