Heartbeat
They flew over a volley of flaming arrows, their allies in the tower warned to watch for them. Below them the barren no man's land surrounding Falketurn boiled with wolves, their gray shapes zigzagging through the blackened ash to run at the temple doors, powerful shoulders making reinforced wood creak.
But the Mord'Sith, D'Haran quads, and Wizard of the First Order inside the temple walls would not come out, would give no quarter. They kept to the high slitted windows made for archers, stayed out of reach atop the tower wall, too high for the wolves to jump.
The Brotherhood of the Gods was ambitious, with many tools at its disposal. But they were not military campaigners. They hurled themselves against the bulwark that was Falketurn, achieving nothing more than pounding themselves into the dirt.
Jarl closed his eyes, face twitching, eyelids flickering as he communed with Tyrn.
Turning to the Brother that stood at his side, Jarl ordered, "Bring me the girl Sepina captured. She's tied at the edge of the camp. Go!"
Bowing, the younger monk went to do as commanded.
Twenty heartbeats.
Though their hawk eyesight was not much better than a human's in the fading light as night set in, the white of the unicorn and the shining fabric of Kahlan's dress where like beacons that drew the eye. The Confessor sat astride Sepina's back as they bounded toward the gates.
Richard shrieked a raptor call, clumsily spilling air from his wings as he plummeted to intercept her.
That was not part of the plan.
Darken called to Richard with his hawk's voice, but was ignored. Much more gracefully than the sandy brown hawk that flew before him, Darken trimmed his wings, following Richard, Cara close behind.
If she had possessed a human tongue she would have screamed curses at the both of them. It had been agreed that the most important thing was finding and neutralizing the leader of the siege - perhaps extracting information on how to free Kahlan. But no, Richard charged blindly after Kahlan, as always, though this time he dragged Darken and Cara along with him.
Beneath her bluster, Cara understood. Were it Darken held in thrall, she would do whatever it took to save him.
But for Spirits sake, she would be smarter about it.
Fifty heartbeats.
They drew even over Kahlan's position long before the spell of transformation had run its course. Soaring, they kept her below them.
Cara glared her hooded raptor's glare at Richard's tail feathers. Now what did he expect them to do?
She got her answer as Richard dove, talons open to rake at the eyes of the unicorn Kahlan rode.
With a cry Cara and Darken followed, distracting Kahlan and Sepina and the surrounding wolves with their superior skills of flight long enough for Richard to clumsily regain the altitude he had sacrificed.
The Seeker was fearless, reckless to the point of foolishness. As wolves snapped, the beasts close enough for their breath to ruffle his tail feathers as he angled upwards again, Darken wondered what that made him.
-l-
Seventy heartbeats.
Haden did not follow when the Lords Rahl and Mistress Cara flew after the Confessor. She had one mission in mind - a course that even Lord Rahl had known not to deny.
One of the first lessons a successful commander learned was not to give an order that wouldn't be obeyed.
Haden searched the trees, her dusky wings cutting effortlessly through the air as she circled in the area where she believed Jennsen to be.
She would have her Sparrow back again, and then she would find those responsible for every bruise, scrape, cut, and fear and make them pay in inches of flesh in the torture chambers of her temple. Their screams would echo down the halls, their blood would coat the flagstones; she would be merciless until they begged for death.
And then she would give it to them.
Only to grant them life once more.
And do it all again.
Eighty heartbeats.
Below she caught sight of a monk, his robes bright against the trees as he fiddled and fidgeted with ropes.
Ropes that had been used to bind.
Haden circled slowly, alighting on a branch to watch the man. A cool rage filled her from claw to beak with the direst cruelty.
One hundred heartbeats.
Haden was covered in an eerie cloud of black smoke that wasn't smoke as she regained her true form. The branch she was on began to give way, but she was already tipping forward, somersaulting through the air to land like a stone on the monk below her.
He squawked as her feet connected with his back, his knees buckling as her weight crushed him to the forest floor. A sickening crunch suggested something might be broken.
Haden did not care.
She knelt on his back, eyes burning with fury as her Agiel screamed her rage, her gaze focused on the shredded ropes and splash of blood that adorned the base of the tree in front of them.
"Where is she?" she purred, a dangerous, seductive sound.
The monk whimpered and she dug her Agiel into the bald pate at the top of his head, his cries pleasing to her ears.
"Where is she?" she asked, using the exact same inflection as she had before.
"I don't - aarrggh!" the monk screamed, the veins of his scalp burning deep red as she pressed her Agiel to it again, drool sliding down one side of his face.
"She was s-supposed to be here, in this spot," he stuttered out when she released him from the Agiel's dark embrace, not waiting for her to ask again.
Haden shifted her weight, pulling herself and the monk up, one arm twisted painfully behind his back. All she need do was apply the correct pressure and...
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know! I swear I don't know!" he whined, a piddling excuse for a man. He hadn't lasted long at all.
She held her Agiel in his periphery vision, bringing it slowly closer to his temple until -
"There was one of the Fenrisulfr here with her! He might have killed her, I don't know anything else!" He told her in a rush, whimpers and moans following the speech.
Haden's heart stopped beating.
She heard herself say, "Fenrisulfr?"
There was a ringing in her ears.
"The wolves," the monk moaned.
Haden sheathed her Agiel at her side, then reached up to gently run her free hand along the monk's jaw, stopping when her fingers where splayed across his neck and cheek.
"You have been very helpful, so I will have mercy," she whispered into the back of his bald head, her heart filled with ice.
She flexed her hand, prepared to snap his neck.
"Haden!"
The Mord'Sith blinked, looking toward the trees.
Jennsen burst into sight, scratched, bloody, bruised, but beautifully alive.
And astride the back of a monstrous wolf.
"I've been looking for you everywhere. Skull sensed your Agiel!" the redhead screamed from the wolf's back, holding out a hand for Haden to climb up behind her.
"Where are my brothers? I have things to tell you."
"Last I saw, they pursued the Confessor."
"Well then," the bloodied white hand was shaken impatiently, "come on!"
-l-
Hatemail: I just wanted to let everyone know I received an interesting letter regarding this story last night. You can read it and my response at http : / pristineungift . livejournal . com / 32146 . html (Remove the spaces)
