Wards of Faerie

10

“She’s up here!” their mother shouted, catching them both off guard. “Where have you two been? You were supposed to be back by midday!”

Sarys Ohmsford stood squarely in the open door of their home, staring down at them with a look on her face that reflected both suspicion and irritation. She was tall and slim, her Elven features all sharp planes and angles, her red hair worn long and loose about her shoulders. At times she had the look of a cat caught out in a windstorm. Today was one of those times. She looked wild and frazzled and out of patience.

Redden was quick to recognize the cause. “Sorry, Mother. We lost track of time. We were helping an old man down by the lake bring in his nets. It took longer than we thought.”

His mother gave him a look that clearly indicated she had doubts about his story. “Which old man would this be?”

They were walking toward the house now, Redden in the lead and Railing content to let him be so. “We don’t know his name. Never saw him before. He said he lived over by Shady Vale. He even knew our family name, from the old days. He came east in a lake skiff.”

Sarys shook her head. “I’m sure he did. Come say hello to your visitor. She’s beginning to wonder if you still live here.” She turned away as if dismissing them. “She’s in the kitchen eating lunch, but I wouldn’t test her patience any further if I were you.”

They hurried the rest of the way up the path, edging around spools of wire, barrels of nails, bundles of staves tied up with cord, and stacks of lumber under canvas. Building materials new and reclaimed were scattered everywhere, the source of what livelihood the family managed to produce. It was a bare-bones existence, but with their father gone it had been up to the boys from the time they were small to help their mother keep food on the table. Trade and barter with neighbors and the small towns that dotted the shoreline supplemented their efforts at self-sufficiency. It was a combination that provided a way of life for most of those who lived along the lake.

They passed the pens with the animals, the small forge and the cold storage, and were coming up on the house when they smelled the fresh-baked pies and suddenly found Mirai Leah standing in the door beside their mother.

“Your mother is right,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back at all.”

“No, no, we were coming, we just …”

“Just found things a little confusing …”

“More than we … what, Red?”

“Confusing, ’cause of the nets …”

Mirai Leah wasn’t just pretty; she was beautiful. Not in the way of delicate things like flowers or rainbows, but in the way of stone carved into bold, suggestive images. When you first saw her face with its wide smile and fine, chiseled features, you might have thought her delicate. Her long blond hair and startling green eyes might have attracted you initially; you might have taken note of her perfect skin. But after you looked more closely, shifting your eyes from her face to other regions, you would have noticed the broad shoulders and strong hands. You would have seen the confident way she held herself, the cat-like, fluid way she moved, and the strength evident in her arms and legs. If you came much closer, you would have noticed the penetrating gaze and the glimmer of humor that was almost, but not quite, hidden behind it.

Redden and Railing noticed all this every time they saw her, and every time they saw her all the strength went out of their legs. Their otherwise abundant confidence evaporated, and they suddenly felt flushed and more than a little out of their depth.

It was embarrassing, but they couldn’t seem to do anything about it.

Mirai came down off the steps of the veranda and walked up to Redden. “Hey there, Red. Happy to see me?”

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, and he felt the iron in her hands as she gripped his shoulders. No hesitation, not even a pause as she approached and decided—rightly—which twin he was.

“Railing,” she greeted his brother, moving over to kiss him, as well. She touched his cheek and wiped something away. “Busy morning?” she asked, eyes laughing, smiling widely. “Helping that old man must have been hard work.”

Railing started to say something in reply, but she put a finger on his lips to silence him and shook her head. “Why don’t you just come inside and eat something before it’s time to leave?”

Without further explanation she took his hand, then Redden’s, and tugged them both after her up the steps and through the door. She was the same age as they were, but it always felt to them as if she were much older and much more in control of things. The brothers went docilely, smiling at their mother who was watching it all with narrowed eyes, feeling like little boys caught out.

Mirai did that to them. She was the one thing they didn’t share. Couldn’t share. They were both in love with her and had been for as long as they could remember, and they both realized that in the end only one of them could have her.

They sat down together at the kitchen table and exchanged small talk while they ate. Their mother refrained from asking more about the old man, so Redden was not called upon to embellish his lie. Because both twins had washed up before coming to the table, Railing had been able to wipe off a few other telltale stains and scrapes that might have invited additional questions. But Sarys seemed content to sit and listen to her sons and Mirai visit, enjoying their conversation, even smiling now and then at what was said.

It was one of the oddities of their lives that the twins were allowed to spend so much time with the blond-haired girl from Leah. Sarys was cautious about almost everyone with whom her boys came in contact, even other members of their extended family—maybe especially other members of their extended family when it came to the Rover clans—yet seemed to harbor no doubts at all when it came to Mirai Leah. Which was exceedingly odd. Of all the people she should have been worried about, Mirai belonged at the top of the list. Not because she was a bad person. Not because they were both in love with her and this sometimes caused friction. Not even because her family had once been rulers of the Highlands of Leah, but had since abdicated and become just another family working for a living like everyone else.

Not for any of these reasons, but because when you stripped away what was on the surface—her looks and her manners and her ability to charm—she was just a female version of the twins, warts and all.

“You said something about leaving?” Redden asked after they had finished eating and were sipping from glasses of ale. Their mother had started clearing the dishes and momentarily left the room. “You just got here. Where are you going?”

“Not me. We. The three of us. To the Westland, if you want to make the trip with me.” She gave him a look. “But only if you want to come. I wouldn’t dream of taking you away from anything important. Like helping out old men with their fishing nets.”

Redden shrugged. “We’re done with that. Why are we going to the Westland?”

“Hauling transport,” Railing guessed. She nodded. “What sort of cargo is it? Weapons?”

She shook her head. “Radian draws salvaged from downed airships. I’ve been scavenging them for months. Papa says it’s time to sell. So I found a buyer.” There was a twinkle in her green eyes. “Guess who?”

The twins hesitated. “Rovers?” Railing guessed.

She nodded. “But not just any Rovers. Family. Farshaun Req, as a matter of fact.”

“Bakrabru!” Railing gasped, and almost let out a whoop as he started to leap up. Farshaun Req had taught all of them the most complex and useful tricks for flying airships, back when they were just beginning their education. Without his encouragement and patience, they might not be flying now—and this included Mirai. But in the process of helping them, he had run afoul of Sarys, who had since forbidden the twins to have anything to do with him.

“Mother won’t let us go,” Redden said, grabbing his brother and pulling him back down. “Not in a million years.”

Mirai gave him a look of incredulity. “Since when do you tell your mother everything you plan to do?”

Redden stared at her. “What does that mean? Are we supposed to lie to her?”

She made a rude noise. “Of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to know how to do it properly. So I took care of it for you. I told her we were going to make a delivery on behalf of my father to people he trades with regularly in Bakrabru. You could tell her the same thing. Say you’re taking some of those skill masts you spend so much time fashioning.” She shrugged. “Don’t mention Farshaun.”

“But she must have already guessed just from what you told her,” Redden pressed. “Even she isn’t that gullible.”

Mirai shrugged. “Well, I might have mentioned that Farshaun was away for several weeks in the Sarandanon so she wouldn’t have to worry about us seeing him.”

“And she agreed to let us go?”

Mirai winked. “What do you think?”

When Sarys returned a moment later, Mirai was finishing clearing away the dishes and her sons were grinning at each other like mad fools. She shook her head in despair. Love was a terrible thing.

A little more than two hours later, Redden and Railing were flying west over the Duln, the last glimpse of Patch Run behind them. Working the radian draws and light sheaths, they bounded here and there across the deck of the big airship while Mirai stood at the helm. Quickening was the Highland girl’s ship, given to her two years earlier when she entered into the family transport business, a measure of her parents’ confidence in her abilities. Quickening was named for a fairy creature said to have been the child of the King of the Silver River, a young woman who possessed great magic. If the legends could be believed, she was created to aid one of the Ohmsfords in becoming successor to the Druid Allanon and in recovering a talisman called the Black Elfstone. A member of Mirai’s own family, Morgan Leah, had gone with them on their quest and fallen in love with Quickening. He had lost her in the end, but their love story had been passed down from generation to generation and Mirai liked it enough to name her transport for the girl.

Quickening was a fine ship. Big and sturdy, she could be nimble and dexterous, as well. She was armor-clad from bow to stern and equipped with rail slings and winch-fired crossbows. The empty cradles positioned at all four corners had been built to hold and utilize fire launchers. Illegal everywhere in the Four Lands by Druid Edict since Federation Prime Minister Sen Dunsidan had built one secretly and then tried to use it against the Elves, fire launchers were nevertheless available if you knew the right people. Thus, every transport making a regular run from one quarter of the Four Lands to another tried to have at least one hidden on board.

Quickening was blessed with a full complement thanks to the efforts of Redden and Railing, who had secured them through their contacts on the black market and delivered them unbidden in an effort to win Mirai’s admiration and favor. She had bestowed both on each twin, although neither was fully aware of just how much she had lavished on the other.

This was because they didn’t talk about their feelings for Mirai—at least not in the way they might have if they weren’t in competition for her. It was the only matter on which they did not share opinions and feelings. Each of them was fiercely protective of his relationship with her, even without entirely understanding its nature.

Certainly, Mirai never gave them much to work with. She treated them both the same and never gave one the benefit over the other. She acted as if all three were close friends and nothing more. Except that now and then she did things that suggested maybe there was something more with one or the other. A moonlight walk with Redden. A swim down by the lake with Railing. A special word here, a meaningful look there, a private smile, a sexy laugh, all of it suggesting she felt something more than what they believed or understood.

Redden was thinking about the unfairness of all this when Mirai called down to him from the pilot box and asked him to come up and take over the controls.

“I want to speak with Railing a moment,” she announced casually, as if to confirm his worst fears.

She went down the deck to where Railing was tightening the draws on the forward light sheath and spoke to him for a very long time. Redden watched with a mix of suspicion and envy, and when she returned and took back the controls it was all he could do to keep from rushing down to ask his brother what was so important.

Instead he said to her, “Why did you ask us to come? Didn’t your father offer to send some of the sailors who work for him?”

She glanced over and held his gaze. The wind was whipping her blond hair all about her face, forming a kind of shifting veil. She looked so ravishing it was all he could do to keep his thoughts together.

“Maybe I didn’t want my father’s sailors with me as much as I wanted you. Maybe I don’t want him to know everything I do on this trip.” Her laugh was slow and rolling. “Or maybe it was a whim and nothing more. What do you think?”

He grimaced. “I think maybe I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, no, you can always ask, Redden. But you can’t always expect to get the answer you’d like.” She was working hard to make herself heard over gusts of wind that nearly knocked him backward from his perch. Only his handhold on the cockpit railing prevented him from being toppled. Mirai, on the other hand, barely moved. “Windy, isn’t it? Don’t you love days like this?”

In truth, he did. Wild and windy, no clouds, all sunshine and blue skies—perfect flying weather. He loved them as much as he loved cold ale in summer and his mother’s warm bread in winter. He grinned in spite of himself.

“There, you see?” She laughed and gave him a playful shove. “I like it so much better when you smile!”

He felt himself blushing and turned away, pretending to study something down by the ship’s railing. “I smile enough.”

She shoved him again. “Get out of my cockpit, Troll boy! Go talk to your brother. Ask him to tell you what I told him. That should give you something to think about.”

He hesitated a moment to see if she was serious, but when she pushed him again he did as she said and headed downship toward Railing, who was still at the bow. Before him and to either side, the vast green canopy of the Duln spread away in a rippling blanket of leaves and tiny branches, giving the landscape the look of a vast emerald ocean. To the north, Rainbow Lake shimmered in clips of silvery light, and beyond its bright reflective surface you could just see the dark smudge of the Dragon’s Teeth through a haze of mountain brume.

“Mirai told me to ask you what she said when she spoke to you,” he said grudgingly, positioning himself next to his brother, both of them leaning on the worn surface of the ship’s railing.

“Did she?” Railing gave him a surprised look.

“Yes, actually, she did. But you keep it to yourself if you want. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Glad to hear it. I’d tell you if it was important to you that I did, but not otherwise. It isn’t important, is it?”

Redden clenched his teeth. “Not in the least.”

“Good. Because it was kind of private. Personal, really.”

Redden’s fingers tightened their grip. “You are pressing your luck. You know that, don’t you?”

Railing grinned. “She told me she wanted us to come with her to Bakrabru because she’s expecting trouble along the way. Raiders. Gnome pirates using flits. Apparently they’ve drifted down out of the Northland, tracking vessels in our shipping lanes. There have been reports of them along the eastern shores of the Myrian. Her father hasn’t heard the reports yet or he wouldn’t have agreed to let her go. Obviously, Mother hasn’t heard or she wouldn’t have agreed, either. Mirai has been busy covering up some stuff, it seems.”

“Nothing new there. She’s always covering up something.” Redden relaxed his grip on the railing. “But that’s okay. I’m glad she decided to take us with her. I think we need to get away for a few days. See something new. Have an adventure.”

“Maybe get in a fight?” Railing glanced over.

“Maybe.”

“Almost as much fun as crashing a Sprint.”

“Almost.”

“So Mirai thinks we might get attacked?”

“She thinks it’s certain.”

Railing gave him a solemn nod. “I hope she’s right.”

They left it there, staring out at the world below, lost in their separate thoughts. A few minutes later, Redden moved away.

They spent the night anchored just east of the Duln Forests, not quite into the Tirfing, but safely onto a stretch of flats where they could keep watch. The night was clear and bright with moonlight, so it was easy to see anything approaching from some distance away. They took turns at the watch post, much of the time all three of them awake and talking about everything from airships to Federation politics.

By dawn they had eaten and raised anchor and were flying west again toward their destination.

Three hours later they were under attack.

It happened all at once, just as they were entering the airspace over a rugged clutch of lowlands dotted with heavy woods and riven with deep ravines and twisting rock formations. The lowlands stretched far enough north and south that trying to fly around would have taken them well out of their way, so Mirai simply pointed Quickening’s bow toward what she believed to be the narrowest part of the unfriendly lowlands and increased speed, intending to be over and past before they could be challenged.

But the Gnome raiders were waiting, hidden in the ravines under cover of trees and scrub, and their flits were airborne and winging toward the transport in minutes. Redden, standing forward on the port bow, spotted them first. Yelling a warning to his brother and Mirai, he leapt to man the forward port rail sling. Railing, standing on the starboard side, was quick to seize control of the rail sling opposite his brother, and Mirai accelerated the Quickening further.

But outrunning the lighter, faster flits was virtually impossible, so the raiders were on them almost immediately. Zipping about like angry hornets, the flits swarmed over them, the raiders wielding poles with blades attached to rip at the light sheaths and cut at the ship’s rigging. Enough damage and the ship would go down or the crew would surrender. Because the flits were one-man airboats, they were quick and maneuverable, and even the wide scattershot of metal pieces fired by the rail slings seldom found their targets.

But the Ohmsfords had practiced extensively with rail slings and fought off Gnome raiders before, and they took down three of the flits in minutes. Even so, there were dozens to replace them. The Gnomes relied on superior numbers to overcome defenders, and frequently that was enough. Railing took a dart in his shoulder early on, the bolt fired with such force that it penetrated the heavy padding he wore for protection. Redden heard his brother grunt, yet when he turned to help found him still at his post.

But the light sheaths were being shredded, causing the flow of power from the radian draws to diminish and the airship to slow. The Gnomes, sensing victory, shifted their efforts from disabling the ship to disabling her pilot, launching an attack on Mirai in the cockpit.

During all of this, the Ohmsfords had failed to make use of the fire launchers. They had carried two of the weapons topside from their hiding places early that morning and placed them in the forward cradles before setting out. But the brothers were not extensively practiced with fire launchers, and on talking over how they would function in the event of an attack they realized for the first time a number of problems with trying to use them to fight off flits. First off, the launchers were not easily maneuvered and would have trouble tracking the tiny craft. Second, if they swung them even a little too far one way or the other, they would set fire to their own vessel. Third, it took time for diapson crystals to charge sufficiently to maintain the intensity of the fire stream necessary to burn attackers out of the sky, and once their power charge was exhausted the launchers were useless.

So the brothers had turned at once, on sighting the flits, to the more reliable rail slings for defense.

But seeing the raider attack shift toward Mirai, Redden had a flash of inspiration. He abandoned his rail sling and rushed to the port fire launcher, swinging the big weapon’s barrel about so that it was facing toward the speedy attackers just off the port side of Quickening.

This better work, he thought, because otherwise we are in serious trouble. And he cursed Railing for his impetuous wish of the night before.

Railing was screaming at him from the other side of the bow, presumably because he had abandoned his station, but Redden ignored his brother. He opened the barrel cap, released the trigger safety, and with the launcher ready for use summoned the wishsong’s magic.

Worked for Railing with the Sprint. Should work for me here.

He channeled the magic out of his body and down through his hands into the fire launcher. The weapon bucked in response, a lurching that very nearly unseated it from its cradle.

Redden hauled back on the trigger.

The magic-enhanced fire exploded from the barrel in a sharp burst of light and heat, the backwash of which very nearly flattened Redden. But he held on to the weapon’s handles, maintaining control of the wishsong through his grip, directing its path. Normally, the launcher’s fire would have assumed a tight, narrow beam with sufficient intensity to burn right through iron. But Redden used his magic instead to create a swath wide enough to impact a whole raft of Gnome raiders, mustering less force than a more concentrated beam would have, but enough to knock dozens of them all over the sky. Caught by surprise, the flits spun this way and that and toppled out of sight.

As quick as that, the attack was broken up. With half their force either downed or disabled, the rest of the raiders broke off and flew back the way they had come.

Redden glanced toward the stern and the pilot box. Dozens of darts and javelins sprouted from the wooden cockpit walls like quills from a porcupine; dozens more littered the decking. Mirai was still at the controls, disheveled and streaked with sweat and dirt but miraculously unharmed. She gave him a reassuring wave and began brushing splinters from her clothing.

He released his grip on the fire launcher and stepped back—right into Railing, who had appeared at his elbow.

“Good to see I can still teach you something,” his brother quipped. He had pulled the dart from his shoulder and was holding a makeshift compress to the wound. “That was pretty impressive, using the wishsong like that. I should have thought of it.”

Redden gave him a weak grin. Maybe so. But he hadn’t, and so he didn’t know that invoking the wishsong to control the power of diapson crystals in a fire launcher was debilitating and scary. Even now, Redden was shaking. The power of the wishsong had been drained by that single use, that momentary effort. He was left light-headed and dizzy, and there was something happening inside of him that he couldn’t quite define.

Whatever it was, he didn’t much like how it made him feel.