Blood of Azura

Part XVIII

He was halfway across the Ash Sea when he felt the change start in his body, felt the draw of Leoth in his bones, felt his blood begin to push power to his exhausted muscles. The heat of the rising sun faded behind them as the roar of the ocean continued far below. Only the call of the night lay ahead, the call of home.

Nux received the surge before he did, shooting forward in great leaps across the night sky, miles falling away on each leap as her wings worked hard against the whip of the wind around them. He knew not whether Cassine slept, but her body was still and tense; a small silent heap of bone and warmth pressed tightly against him. The scent of her fear had been diluted the further away from Azura they had travelled, the wind carrying it off, the cold air drowning it almost completely. Left over, was her body's own simple aroma - a delicately spiced floral, much like her blood.

At the first sight of the mountains through the low cloud, Nux reared her head before moving to begin her descent. She tilted her wings upwards, before folding them back to slow her speed. Grabbing tighter on the reins, Theodan guided eastward, planning to route the Xohr Wall which at the moment was being battered by the full force of the Kyhr Wilds below. The extra weight and unbroken journey meant they would have to land near the cliff edge and take Whisperwood on foot, she would not have the strength to carry them up the mountain home.

She had carried them against a hard northerly wind and he wasn't sure either how she would make it over the Wilds without a dip in ascent - meaning he was attempting a dangerous landing at low level, in the dark. The Xohr Wall stood looming and large; grey cragged rock which had stood a thousand years and would stand a thousand more. Only one vicious inlet of the realm could be breached without scaling the Xohr Wall and that was manned by the eye of the Visier and the Brightswords. And the current division had been trained by Theodan himself.

Onward they flew, Nux swooping wide around the Xohr Wall, where a short distance out from the cliff he spotted another mass of black rock. The Ossian. It shot up out of the sea at a harsh angle and at the sight of it he knew how to get them the extra height they needed to complete the landing. Gently, he began guiding Nux toward it, even though she knew now what he intended. Nux had to keep a quick speed due to the sheer force of the wind they pushed against, a speed which was on its own far too quick before attempting to land, but Theodan reasoned that even if they far overran the cliff edge itself, then the forest bed was flat enough and soft enough that the spring would offset any harshness from the landing. He hoped his reasoning was correct. He had, after all, landed Nux a thousand times, in all conditions.

The moment they began to descend toward the Ossian, he felt Cassine's fingers grip his thigh, causing a jolt of heat to shoot upward to his groin. He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the rein, urging Nux forward with a gentle kick of his heels against her flanks. Cassine began to whisper a soft prayer into the neck of her cloak; another whispered plea to her long-dead Goddess.