CW:

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“Do you think there are any humans in there, Tal?”

Ghisé posed the question while the two of us sat perched on a high branch overlooking the run up to the mine entrance. The sun had nearly set entirely, so visibility wasn’t at its best. Still, there were no signs of human presence or recent departure.

“I don’t see any wagons, or beasts of burden. Ahbe didn’t describe any either though, so it doesn’t mean they aren’t inside. Maybe they have beasts willing to traverse the tunnels, or there’s still the possibility this is a trap,” I answered.

Ghisé pulled the spear from her side and dropped it into her talons, “Then let’s not give them a chance to spring it.”

I took up my spear in the same fashion, and pointedly flicked a few spellbraids that sparked to life. Ghisé huffed and focused for a few long seconds, activating her sole Enhancer. “Just don’t rush ahead, Tali.”

I grinned in satisfaction at the warning. My flight wasn’t as elegant as Sen’s, as efficient as Cee’s, or as strong as Ghisé’s, but I was fast. Nature had warped my acrophobia. My heart still raced, but that racing drove me forward and faster like an adrenaline junkie. It reminded me of another life where the pilots would boast and whoop as they climbed out of their cockpits and onto the flight deck. People from a lifetime ago, two lifetimes, even. I wasn’t [F-16] fast and I couldn’t break the sound barrier—though, it was a goal—but I could travel at terminal speeds sideways.

“I’ll give you a head start, Ghisé.”

She rolled her eyes and kicked off the branch, hard. I maintained my perch as the branch shook violently beneath my feet and watched her cross the open area that stretched out towards the mine. When her silhouette was about halfway there I started my approach. I was competitive, sure, but I wouldn’t chance Ghisé arriving before me, not when the humans had attacked without warning already. When I had caught up with Ghisé well before our final approach, I shot her a victorious grin. That earned a halfhearted attempt at swatting me with the butt of her spear. The look on her face was serious, though… I had to focus up myself.

We flew through the mouth of the cave, knowing the walls opened up to the camp just inside. We went for a shock and awe approach, lest the humans forget that the Hesht were predators eager to swoop in on unsuspecting prey—and our prey certainly hadn’t been expecting us in such a fashion.

There was a single sentry wearing chainmail posted in the entrance picking at some bread and jerky, leaning against the wall with his crossbow doing the same. He should have been more vigilant. Ghisé crashed into his chest with one foot, her spear deftly held in the other. The crash turned into a landing and skid as she half-dragged, half-tackled the roughly six-foot tall man several feet deeper into the cave and through the outer perimeter of the camp. The sentry was bleeding profusely from his unarmored neck and face, caught between choking on his meager meal and crying out in agony.

I was right behind Ghisé, spearing through the same perimeter as I concentrated lightning mana in my chest and throat. My hawkish eyes picked a group of three gathered around a small table, having meals of their own. One had barely even started to rise at the thud of their sentry being knocked to the ground before I unleashed a shout of electricity that I hoped rivaled mighty dragons. Cries of alarm began to ring out from the cave, though two of the three I blasted weren’t even convulsing.

“[The Thunderbird!]”
“[It’s here!]”
“[Kill it!]”

They were still six humans unscathed, and scrambling for their weapons. 

“[Shut up idiots! We need it alive, kill the brown and white one,]” said a man with a particularly well maintained black beard.

“Well, it looks like I don’t need to introduce myself at least,” I quipped at Ghisé. I took some sick satisfaction in the recognition, even if it confirmed what I suspected about the mines being a trap set for me.

My comment didn’t register though. She had already intercepted one of the humans who couldn’t get to their weapon in time, and was extracting her spear messily from the unfortunate woman. I clicked my tongue, in frustration. Fine, I’d just focus my attention on the other prey. They were even more unfortunate given that they had the extra time to consider their approaching doom. I cast a glance at the black-bearded man again—I’d want to keep him alive enough to talk. He was also the fastest to react, bringing a crossbow to bear on Ghisé.

Two of my braids surged with energy, I crossed the camp and buffeted him with a wing that crackled with electricity, throwing off his aim and causing him to fumble his crossbow. The errant bolt clinked off of the cave walls harmlessly, and he dropped back cursing and shaking the numbness from his arms.

It saved Ghisé, but put me in the exposed center of camp. Ghisé came up beside me, holding her spear tight where it wasn’t slicked with blood. “There are more here than Ahbe said.”

It was true. Ahbe’s report put the humans at five. If that were still the case, we’d only have corpses around us, but we were still outnumbered over two to one. Of the remaining five, the leader was scrambling for a sword, two were carefully advancing with spears, and two were pointing crossbows at us. They weren’t firing immediately, but carefully lining up their shot to avoid their melee fighters and me, drawing a bead on my guardian.

Ghisé took a step towards them but I reached out my wing to halt her. “Stay right next to me,” I ordered as I dropped into the concentration needed to improvise one of my Magnet spells. I breathed out slowly with focus as two crossbows quietly clicked as they loosed their deadly projectiles. Two clinks sounded as the bolts dropped far short of their intended target and bounced off the metal cookware at our feet.

“[Huh?]” one of the crossbowmen uttered at the unexpected trajectory of his shot.

It was all the time Ghisé and I needed to swiftly dispatch the two spearwielders. Whether they were formidable fighters against humans or not, they went down quickly to Ghisé raining a flurry of thrusts from high angles no flightless human could replicate.

That left the leader and two crossbowmen as the only remaining fighters. They still had us outnumbered, but only if they all still had the nerve to fight. Considering one of the crossbowmen had collapsed on shaky legs, and the other scrambled into a tent to cower, it was safe to say those two had lost their nerve. Even the leader, who had managed to draw his sword, pointed it at us shakily.

“[It would be smart of you to take their example if you want to live through this,]” I hissed at the only man still on his feet.

His eyes went wide at my perfectly-understandable-to-a-human threat.

“[I-I’ll not lie down and die quietly at the hands of a monster.]”

“[Watch your tongue, human,]” Ghisé spat. “[Be thankful our Princess is merciful.]”

I narrowed my gaze at him, holding it until he averted his own. His sword clanged to the ground as he dropped it in surrender.

I relaxed ever so slightly. “[Excellent. Now that you’re compliant, question number one: Are you with The Association?]” I asked.

“[What? How do you—]”

Ghisé cut him off with a spear pointed at his throat, “[Just answer our questions.]”

“[Y-yes.]”

“[Two. How does The Association know about me?]”

“[Tch. They only mentioned a Thunderbird. Not whatever the fuck you are.]”

Ghisé’s speartip pressed dangerously against his throat, “[That’s not an answer.]” She pulled up and back on her spear, giving the man a cut on his jaw that would be sure to scar. His hands went up to his jaw to stem the bleeding. “[I said, ‘watch your tongue.’]”

“[I don’t know! B-boss gave the order, I don’t know how she finds out the things she does!]”

A discordant note passed my lips. “[Fine. Three. Where is Alex? Is he safe?]”

“[Who the fuck is Alex?]”

I growled with waning patience. “[Raphael Petras’s heir, Alex Petras. Tell me!]”

“[Alessan—?]”

I whipped my spear at his knees, sending him tumbling to the ground, and causing the crossbowman at his side to scurry up against the wall. With a foot on the supine leader’s chest, I squeezed him between my foot and the unyielding stone. My talons rested dangerously close to his neck. “[Where is the heir?!]” I hissed.

He wheezed with the pressure, and spoke weakly with lack of breath. “[Gone! She disappeared nearly a year ago.]” I sucked a sharp breath between my teeth and kicked him in the side for his ignorance. Did Alex and Jiju never make it to Redwall? That didn’t make sense. There wass no threat in the Redwoods that Jiju couldn’t handle alone. Nothing that could prevent her from taking Alex to the skies to flee.

Ghisé must’ve picked up on the incongruence too. “How is that possible Talivi?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. We’ll have to continue on to Redwall.”

“What if it’s not safe?”

“This was the trap, Ghisé. They failed. They won't expect us now. We’ll get our answers from Alex’s father.” I spit on the unfortunate relation between my friend and the man.

“What about him?” Ghisé asked, gesturing to the black bearded human struggling to catch his breath.

I looked at the man. “[Take your Thing One and Thing Two, and go to Avali City or somewhere else. I don’t care where, but Redwall isn’t your home anymore. Got it?]”

He nodded slowly, even as he seethed through clamped teeth. With a gesture to Ghisé, we started our withdrawal from the cave.

The clicking of a crank sounded before Ghisé and I could exit the camp fully. Ghisé put herself between me and the presumed impotent leader as he fired, taking a bolt to the wing in the process.

I spun back on him in a rage as he tried to reload his underling’s crossbow a second time.

“[I won’t let a monster like you enter Redwall!]” he shouted.

I was on him in a flash. He never got another bolt loaded. Instead, he looked down at his chest in disbelief where my spear was now embedded. I pulled it free, leaving him to drown in his own blood. “[Irredeemable,]” I said, though, the glazed over look in his eyes told me his mind was already too far away to hear my words.

With a quick look to ensure any remaining living humans were either unconscious or sufficiently cowed, I rushed back to Ghisé’s side. “Let me see.”

“It’s nothing, Lightblessed. I did my duty”

“Don’t give me the Lightblessed crap right now. You were my sister long before my Guardian.” She begrudgingly let me inspect the wing. The bolt was embedded just above her elbow and protruding out the back. I circled around to get a look. “Damn it, it’s barbed… Does it hurt?”

“I said it fine,” she huffed.

Despite her strong front it had to hurt. It wasn’t nearly life threatening, though infection could quickly change that. “Let’s get out of this place.”

Once the canopy above our heads consisted of stars instead of rocks, I took her wing into my hands once more. I grabbed my spear and choked my grip up near the tip. Careful to move the bolt as little as possible, I snapped the tail end off, then shaved away any potential splinters with the speartip—I wanted to do this cleanly. With one hand on the tipped end of the bolt, I placed my other on her shoulder to steady her.

“Ready?” Ghisé nodded. “Three… two…” I yanked it through before I got to “one.” My sister barely even grunted as the remainder of the shaft slipped through. Damn, she was tough. I quickly applied a poultice and bound it snugly with a boiled rag. When I circled back to face her, she looked smug. Whether it was pride in her non-reaction to the bolt removal, or in intercepting it in the first place, I wasn’t sure, but clearly Jiju had rubbed off on her quite a bit.

She rotated her arm at the shoulder and asked, “Onto Redwall then?“

I wanted to force her to rest, but even if she would agree to it, now that we sprung the trap, delaying wasn’t an option. Sending her back to the village would be even less agreeable to her, and frankly unappealing to me. So, onwards it would have to be. She’d stay grounded if I did though, so with a nod of confirmation, I took off running towards Redwall.

———

I looked out over Redwall from a high vantage. Ghisé was waiting below, probably still whinging about how we ran all the way here. It did take longer by ground, and the sun had long since set, but carrying her through the skies would’ve left me exhausted physically and magically. With it being late as it was, there was little activity that I could see in the town—just a few people milling about the public houses, though less than I’d have expected for a town of its size. It made me wonder how much of the populace had fled like the merchant Ray and his companion Rose did. Outside of that, the only thing that stood out to me was the wizard tower-esque structure that had once been my prison for years. Through the high openings that served as windows, not even the flicker of a candle emanated.

“The town is quiet, and Galden’s tower is empty,” I informed Ghisé and pointed to the opening on the tower’s side. “We should be able to slip in quietly.”

“That’s where they kept you all that time?”

I nodded with grim determination even as my eyes were transfixed on that window. A majority of my time spent there was under Alex’s care, but the more recent memories were the ones coming to the fore. Memories of hunger, of being plucked clean, of Galden’s stench that overpowered what lingered of Alex’s following his ousting, and the sight of that damn window through the bars. That taunting window that I could have escaped through the night Alex disappeared. If only I could’ve flown then. If only I was uncollared when Galden paced the perimeter of that cage. I pulled at the disabled torc around my neck, the physical remnant and reminder of my time there.

I shook my head, trying to loosen the unpleasant thoughts that lived in my chest as much as in my head. I wasn’t the same girl as back then. I was the fastest flier in the village. The collar held no power over me anymore. I was Talivi, the Lightblessed mage. I was Liv, the world-hopper. I wasn’t going to be under anyone’s thumb ever again—not Gladen’s, not Getra’s, not anyone’s. I fought tooth and nail, talon and claw, over the course of two lives to be myself and to be free. Never again would I be powerless. Never again would I be at the mercy of others. “Never again,” I growled low.

“Tali?” Ghisé’s voice tickled my ears, but the concern in it was lost to me.

I thumped my fist against my chest hard enough to sting, hard enough to dislodge the anxiety gathering there. “Let’s go,” I ordered even as I was already taking to the skies.

The sound of rushing wind was blowing past my ears then, as I quickly took a line towards the accursed tower window. Every passing moment brought me closer, closer. The closer I got the more the feeling in my chest drummed, spurring me onward, begging me to prove myself. Faster, faster.

A voice came from behind me, barely overcoming the sound of rushing air. My injured guardian struggled to keep up, leveraging her lone spellbraid in order to fly while injured no doubt. My eyes were locked on that window, though. That window I couldn’t fly through before, but I could now. And so, after a moment longer, I did just that.

My feet touched down on the upsettingly familiar floor of the court mage’s space. Before I could even relish in my conquest of the mundane portal, though, magic surged and stirred up the currents, slamming the opening shut behind me. I spun towards it. Where there was once air, now there was solid stone, indistinguishable from any other tower wall.

The window that had always taunted me was no more. Its non-existent voice didn’t chide me for being too weak to escape, instead it was silent. It wasn’t saying “If only you could escape,” it was now saying nothing, because the escape was gone. Clacking sounds echoed as a spear tip struck helplessly at the other side of the now unyielding wall.

Before my mind could fully grasp the situation, my neck was fully grasped by a large meaty hand and a chain latched onto the same collar I’d worn for what felt like half my life now. The pounding of my heart turned to screaming in my ears and a dulling of my senses that said in an insubstantial voice, “Welcome back.”

 

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