Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 48i

Grifford stepped from the quiet of the Infirmary, into the chaos of the Enclosures. The news of his brother's rescue had been carried across the Great-bailey, and the Pride was returning. Many of the nearby pens were occupied by ill-tempered beasts, and the Madriel-masters were busy in their attempts to release them to the Territories. But as the minutes passed, more knights were returning, and the avenues were filled with the disgruntled growling of their steeds. As he left the scented droning of the herb garden, a group of ladies passed by, their steeds panting from the exertion of their swift return.

Grifford did not mind the noise. It was a welcome relief from his sister's wittering. When he had left the room where Dak had been put, in a bed alongside her Field-hand friend, Tahlia had been telling the tale of their brother's rescue again. She had already told it to Maddock, and then to his brothers who had arrived shortly after. Then Master Hepskil and Chief-communicant Vennar had come in and the story was started again.

He knew he should have remained because Tahlia's version of events was a mutilation of the truth. She seemed to relish the part where she shot Vlambra and caused him to drop their brother, but the fact that Kralmir had been hanging out over the waste reservoir had been strangely omitted. Until Grifford had corrected her. Similarly, their pursuit of the Engineer afterwards, and their abandonment of Dak and their brother, had been deliberately glossed over.

Grifford frowned to himself as a gang of Field-hands and a Madriel-master guided a group of unsaddled males from the pens, leading them out towards the Enclosure's edge. As he watched them, the feelings inside him turned over. He was relieved that they had saved his brother, but he still cursed himself for his mistake of forgetting about the nadidge. The safety of his brother should have been his priority, but instead he had followed his sister's wild fancy, and if it had not been for Dak then Kralmir would doubtless be dead. Or taken elsewhere. According to the Engineer girl, it appeared the nadidge had been more intent on taking Kralmir away than it was on killing her or escaping itself.

Dak's account of her bravery was also causing him trouble. He did not doubt the girl's honesty, but if what she had told them was the truth, then she'd had the opportunity to let the nadidge escape with Kralmir. She had not. She had closed the doors and risked her life. In a similar way, the Field-hand, Maddock, had put the life of Hakansa before his own the previous night, and it should not be in the nature of common people to show such bravery. That's what his grandfather had always told him, and his grandfather had been wrong.

Maybe he had been wrong about a lot of things.

He shook his head in exasperation, and headed through the noise of the Enclosures. As he passed through its avenues he became the focus of conversation. Returning knights halted their steeds to watch him pass, and Madriel-masters paused in their duties. A group of young ladies, barely old enough to hunt, whispered behind their hands in a giggling conversation, but Grifford was too intent on his thoughts to notice the attention.

The tall clock in the centre of the Enclosures indicated that it would soon be the hour of Fortak, and when that had passed it would be noon. Grifford knew his father would be back in time to face Sir Galder. He was certain of it. As he passed through the clock's shadow, its outer marker clicked another notch, indicating the passage of another minute.

His father would return.

Nothing would prevent him.

* * * * *

The three outcast Clan knights closed their position to twenty metres before they halted. The remaining hydrayet riders spread themselves out to either flank, though the mounts of those on the right tossed their heads fretfully and snorted at the riderless broindell that crouched, growling in the long grass. A half metre of one of its horns was tipped with bright blood. The surviving razorbeak had disappeared, its pursuit of a wounded hydrayet carrying it out of sight over the valley's lip.