The cheers settled.
And then all around her, whispers sounded.
Prayers,Arawn said into her mind.For safety, for strength, for swords to strike true and invocations to be granted.
She didn’t even know they could be denied, throttled, until she met him. And he was about as Sacred as one could get.
What did he do,she wondered,to earn their wrath?
Beside her, she heard a child pray for an aerie by name, each rider within it, as the eagles fell past the window, then snapped out their wings and rose to the sky.
They headed straight towards the distant Sawteeth, where she could just barely see the flickering blue torchlights beneath the layer of frozen fog. Ground soldiers, heading to clash against the darksouls.
There.Arawn’s voice sighed into her mind.It’s what I wanted you to see.
She looked all the way to the black mountains, where the shadows had already begun to strike, rattling the glass, rumbling the very floor beneath her feet. And a cloud of winged darkness rose from between the peaks.
Dark wings.
Lithe, catlike bodies.
Raphons.
Raphons, and their darksoul riders.
They’re slower than the war eagles, in a straight flight, Arawn thought to her.But watch when close combat occurs. There, on the right flank.
Where the first eagle aerie had clashed with a pack of raphons.
She saw a blaze of fire erupting from a Sacred firemage’s hands. It was coupled by a beam of blue ice from a watermage, sent spiraling into the raphon pack. Power that great … it was no wonder it sucked the life from the Sacred after too many years of battle.
Ezer held her breath.
They would not miss.
But at the last second, the raphons split, and dipped, smaller and shiftier than the war eagles.
And before she knew it, they were rising from beneath the war eagles, attacking from below, where the giant birds’ bellies were soft and unprotected. The eagles banked and split up, and the raphons gave chase.
The war in the sky is a dance, Arawn explained softly as she clutched the speaking stone.A rider must always be ready to pay attention to which partner, which step, will come next. From all angles.
They grew closer, enough that she could make out the sheer size of the raphon in front.
Its wings were enormous, easily three times the size of Six’s. Bits of shadow, like black smoke, trailed from behind the rider’s dark robes.
A Sentinel, Arawn explained, his voice thrumming against her mind. It felt strangely comforting, like she wanted to lean deeper against it.The strongest warriors lead the packs and wield some of the Acolyte’s magic. Their numbers are far less than ours, but we must invocate to wield. Their darkness flows freely. Endless, in battle.
As he said it … a tendril of shadow soared from the Sentinel’s outstretched hand.
It spiraled towards the eagles, and as the one in the back of the aerie dipped … the tendril of shadow dipped, too.
It trailed the eagle like it wasalive.
‘No,’Ezer gasped out loud.
She didn’t want to watch anyone die.
But when that shadow suddenly exploded against rider and eagle – it bounded right off, dissipating in the sky.
