Chapter 15:
Wild Flight
Enis (April) 9, 1538
Thirty-eight days into Prince Terosh’s Kireshana journey
Kireshana Path, Riden Mountains
When Reia stopped to check on Prince Terosh, she spotted the gray clouds hurtling across the blue sky at an unholy rate.
Windstorm!
Windstorms consisted of the sort of wind that brought cannafitch halfway across the habitable continent.
“We need shelter, right now.” Reia’s voice was low and calm.
Their position on the mountain’s east side would be uncomfortable in minutes and deadly soon thereafter. Windstorms could strip kintral trees right down to their trunks. The trunks stayed put only because their roots went down nearly twice the length of their height. Unprotected cal trees with their shallow roots could be thrown hundreds of meters.
Prince Terosh turned to see what had upset her.
“Windstorm. Lovely.”
Reia grunted and spun on her heel, knowing they faced a race they couldn’t afford to lose.
“We’re on the wrong side.” She unfurled her banistick and used it to keep balance while she skipped over small boulders and clambered up larger ones. “The west side should have some caves.” Reia headed left to get around the mountain rather than going over. She glanced back at the prince.
“Stop watching me. I’m fine.”
Chuckling, Reia concentrated on conquering each new mountain obstacle. By the time they’d left camp, Prince Terosh had been begging to leave for days.
Reia had picked the areas around the campsite clean of anything with the slightest healing properties, but if the windstorm caught them, they would be beyond such help. A strong breeze struck her back, picking up her cloak and twisting it around her body. As Reia smacked the cloak aside, a crazy idea came to her.
If cannafitch can do it, so can we.
Her mind did rapid calculations.
This will work. I think.
The boulder in front of her took a moment to mount. Its flat top jutted out over the open valley below. Reia halted so suddenly that the prince bumped into her back. His arms instinctively wrapped around her, taking away the chill of the mountain air. The windstorm’s scouts knocked them forward a step.
“What’s wrong?” Prince Terosh asked, steadying her. He shouted into her ear to be heard.
When the wind slackened, Reia twirled in the prince’s arms.
“Take off your cloak and wrap your bedroll around yourself,” Reia ordered. “And hold this,” she added, shoving her cloak into his hands as she tucked the clasp into a pouch at her waist.
The prince followed her line of thought.
“Are you sure about this?”
Of course not.
Instead of answering, Reia opened her caydronan sack and whipped out some toom leaves and a short, fat dandi branch. Her dagger tore into the branch. When the sap began flowing, she held it to one end of her bedroll, and said, “Hekr.” While the sap melted, Reia flipped the caydronan sack over her shoulder and rolled her bedroll around her upper body, using the sticky end to secure the padding in place. Next, she took the edge of her cloak and drew a thick line before pressing the edge of the prince’s cloak to the sap and repeating, “Hekr.”
Hoping her plan worked, Reia tore several toom leaves lengthwise into strips about the width of three fingers. Next, she applied sap to one end of a toom leaf strip, firmly pressed it to her cloak, and commanded the anotechs to heat it. Bending the leaf up, Reia grabbed Prince Terosh’s right arm, yanked it into position, and fixed it in place by sealing the leaf’s other end to the cloak.
A gust of wind caught the cloak, causing it to flap behind the prince like a blue-black banner. Reia chased down the loose end and secured the prince’s left arm, leaving just enough cloth for him to move. Frowning, she turned him sideways so the wind wouldn’t catch the cloak while she bound it to his ankles. Finally, she made a strap for her right arm and both legs. The arm strap wasn’t as tight as Prince Terosh’s because she didn’t have someone to help her. She also needed both hands free to make the last strap for her left arm.
A new idea struck her. For the last strap, Reia started the same way by sap-sticking one side down, but then, she used her dagger to make two small slits through the cloak and threaded the toom leaf through it.
Already Prince Terosh and Reia had to concentrate to keep their footing as the wind stabbed at them. They huddled close and changed their angle to cut down on the profile they presented, but each passing second brought faster and faster winds.
Reia shoved her left arm through the loop created by the toom leaf and gripped the loose end, yanking up until the strap pulled tightly across her left arm. Feeling somewhat secure, she maneuvered them to the edge and glanced at the prince.
“Ready?” she asked.
The prince nodded.
“Then jump!” Reia shouted.
With wild cries, they launched themselves off the mountain. At first, they plummeted toward the sharp rocks below. Then, a strong gust caught the underside of their collective cloak and violently altered their course. Instead of falling at an alarming rate, they shot up into the sky above the valley. The rapid ascent stole the air from their lungs, killing their screams.
Reia’s stomach jammed into her throat. She clamped her lips tight, thankful they had not eaten a midday meal yet. Reia forced her eyes to stay open, though they stung and streamed with tears. She feared that if she closed them, she would never open them again. The view was breathtaking, but Reia had no breath left to spare. She drew painfully cold air into her lungs. They were almost above the Riden Mountains and could see all the way to the Asrien Sea to the north and the island of Ritand to the west. Resh, Fort Riden, and Mount Palean, respectively to the west, southwest, and south, flashed before her eyes as they twirled in a dizzying circle.
We must change direction!
The winds carrying them were strong enough that the bits of dirt smacking them hurt, but in their current position, much of the mountain they had jumped from protected them from the windstorm’s full fury.
Reia wrenched her left arm across her body, twisting enough to slam into the prince. The force spun them dangerously close to the mountain and changed the angle the winds caught them. Tangled in a mass of limbs and cloak, they let the wind carry them along, speeding downward again but not as swiftly as before. Reia almost lost her grip on the left arm strap, which would have doomed them, but she managed to hold on.
By mutual consent, they untwisted and spread their arms and legs to catch the wind. Again, they started to rise, but now, they had enough control to direct their flight. Prince Terosh wheeled them right. By working in concert, they flew two circles over the valley on the west side of the mountain. They were still a good six meters above the valley when the wind suddenly slackened.
Feeling more wind to her left, Reia threw herself that way. The move slipped them into a stream of wind that shot them forward horizontally, then slightly up. They approached the far side of the valley in seconds.
At the last moment, Prince Terosh rolled them out of the air stream, and they smacked into the mountain with harsh—but not deadly—force. Stunned, they tumbled toward the valley and landed on a large, flat rock.
Reia landed atop the prince. With her last scraps of strength, she rolled off his chest. His left arm remained trapped beneath her, but she was too tired to care. She surrendered to the encroaching darkness, thankful to be alive.
***
Enis (April) 9, 1538
Same Day
Site of Ungraceful Landing, Riden Mountains
Terosh Minstel woke up with a massive headache. His breaths came in uncertain gasps. Blood pounded in his ears. Every part of him lodged a complaint. He felt like a piece of pottery someone had put together wrong.
Wetness spread across his chest and right side. It took him several seconds to determine that it wasn’t his blood seeping out but rather the contents of his waterbag. His left arm had something heavy across it. He couldn’t move, not that he wanted to, but the option would have been nice.
The first thing he noticed, besides the intense pain, was the silence. Aside from his ragged breaths, not a sound could be heard. No birds sang. No korvers howled. The wind had swept the battle, cleanly and completely.
The heavy thing on his arm shifted. Terosh forced his eyes open, rolled his head left, and found an unconscious Reia facing him. A nasty gash below her hairline told him why she was out cold. Her right shoulder pressed against Terosh’s upper arm, causing the tingly numbness.
An urge to protect Reia sent adrenaline coursing through Terosh. The energy rush wasn’t much, but it allowed him to draw her closer. She rolled into his side and fit perfectly. Her head rested on his left shoulder and her body paralleled his. If they had to spend the day lounging on a rock at least they would share warmth. Though the deadly wind was mostly gone, a thick layer of clouds blotted out the sun and sent temperatures tumbling. Holding Reia close, Terosh finally admitted his growing fondness for her but buried the feelings in common sense.
She’s a Ranger. You’re a Royal. It would never work out well.
Sometime during the week and a half convalescence, she had ceased being “the Ranger” and become Reia. Getting her to address him casually had been impossible thus far, but he would persist.
Terosh lost track of time. He dozed off and on, trying to monitor their situation. When the sun finally appeared, he tried to get up because the blinding light wasn’t helping his head. He couldn’t quite raise his right arm to block the sun because the rest of the cloak was trapped beneath his body. Frustration made him tense.
The movement woke Reia who groaned and struggled to rise. The cumbersome cloak caught her, and she landed close to where she had started. Moaning, she rolled away from him, unfurling the cloak as she went, waking Terosh’s left arm.
“Does that help?” Terosh inquired.
Reia looked at him.
“Hold on. I’m still trying to get my brain to work.” Her voice was faint and cracked with dryness.
Relief flooded Terosh, putting him in a better mood.
“Take your time, though you might want to tend to that dent in your forehead.”
Reia released a long, low moan, and said, “Yes, it helps.” Cautiously, she unclenched her left fist and worked her arm free. Then, she wriggled her other arm free of the toom strap, sat up, and retrieved her boot dagger. That took some doing because she had to lean over to reach her right boot. Once she had the dagger, she attacked the toom straps binding her ankles and Terosh’s to their cloaks. Next, she slashed at the strap around his left arm. To reach the one on his right arm, Reia had to lean over him. Exhausted, she dropped the dagger next to him and fell against his stomach.
“Just roll me off,” she mumbled. “I’ll sleep for a month now.”
Terosh chuckled, enjoying being alive.
“Experiment conclusion: humans aren’t built for natural flight. Ow!”
“What’s wrong?” Reia asked, pushing off Terosh so she could look at him.
“My head hurts … a lot.”
“I know the feeling.” Reia gingerly touched the wound on her forehead. “It’s like a giant gust of wind just tried to decorate a mountainside with my skull.”
“Yeah, something like that,” Terosh agreed.
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