A week later they crossed the River Drell into Tortall on a ferryboat. Watching the Gallan shore pull away, Daine searched her soul. I should tell Onua all the truth, she thought. (By then she had given her new friend the less painful details of their life and had come to see Onua was right— it felt better to talk.) I should tell the rest— but won't she turn on me, like they did? Maybe it's best to keep shut. The madness, the scandal— it's all back there. Maybe that's where it should stay. Lily was the only one besides Cloud who had stayed by her side through everything. Daine knew Lily would never tell their secrets. Their love for each other only grew after the tragedy and madness.
She went forward to look at Tortall as it moved closer. We could start fresh. It can't be worse than home, with folk calling me "bastard" and scorning me. Lily wouldn't have to deal with people calling her foundling, spitting on the ground as she walked by as if she were cursed. It wasn't her fault she was found wondering the woods. Ma had made her theirs, plain and simple. Nobody here knows we've no father, and they don't know about the other thing— the bad thing. They don't need to know.
"You worry too much." Onua ruffled the girl's hair before doing the same to Lily. "It'll work out. You'll see."
Cloud butted Daine's shoulder; Tahoi pawed her leg. Their concern and Onua's gave her comfort. I'll manage, she told herself as the ferry bumped the landing dock on the Tortallan shore. Silence is best.
The country beyond the crossing was a mixture of hills and wide valleys, some of it farmed and grazed, but most left to the woods. Towns here were back from the road, and traffic this early in the spring was thin. There was little to keep them from their usual routine of camp and march, riding the ponies, hunting for game birds or fishing for their supper.
The third day from the river brought rain, slowing them and the animals down before the sky cleared at day's end. All three women were up late, getting mud out of shaggy coats and off their own skins and clothes.
It was the first time on that trip that no animal crawled in with Daine overnight. She slept badly, flipping back and forth, never quite waking or sleeping. Her dreams were thin and worrisome. She remembered only one:
The badger was in his lair, neatening up. "There you are. I'm glad to see the claw works so well."
"Excuse me, sir—" she began.
"No questions. Kits must listen, not ask. Pay attention." He squinted at her to make sure she was listening. "If you look hard and long, you can find us. If you listen hard and long, you can hear any of us, call any of us, that you want." Rolling onto his back, he added, "The madness was to teach you something. You should mind the lesson."
Daine wasn't the only one who was dreaming odd dreams of late. Amaryllis was dreaming of a man, stuck between two worlds. One foot was in something that looked gross, while the other seemed to be in stable earth and sand. His eyes looked sad, even when he tried to smile. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but her heart felt warm whenever she woke up.
Daine woke a little before dawn. The sky was gray and damp, the air sour.
"Onua." When the woman only stirred and muttered, she went over and shook her. "I think trouble's coming. Last time I felt this way, a rabid bear came out of the woods and killed the blacksmith."
"A rabid bear?" The K'mir yanked on her clothes and Daine followed suit. "Goddess, how many of those do you see in a lifetime?"
"One's more than enough" Lily stated, already awake and had breakfast cooked. She felt the weird feeling in the air and had made breakfast sandwiched so go. She rolled up her bed and fixed it to her pack. The animals were restless and ill tempered. Tahoi paced the camp, his hackles up. He stopped often to look down the road, only to resume pacing.
"Maybe it's another storm?" Onua suggested over breakfast. "I don't think so." Daine gave her barely touched sandwich to Cloud. "My head aches— not aches, exactly. It's— itchy." She sniffed the breeze, but picked up only the scent of water and plants. "The wind's not right, either."
Onua looked at her thoughtfully, then doused the fire. "Let's go." She hitched the ponies to lead reins while Daine secured the packs. "There's a fief on the other side of this next valley, near a marsh. If need be, we'll ask for shelter. I'd prefer not to." She strung her curved bow. "Lord Sinthya doesn't like the queen; he loathes the Riders. Still, we can wait a storm out in his barns, particularly if no one tells him we're there. If we're caught in the marsh, we're in trouble. I don't have any marsh craft."
Daine warmed her longbow and strung it. The quiver's weight on her back made her feel better as they took the road.
Lily rubbed her arms, trying to get her nerves to settle. The sad man from her dreams had tried talking again last night, but no sound came from his lips. He had pointed into a direction past her left shoulder into the woods, but she didn't know what that meant. Past the next ridge she saw a wide, shallow valley filled with reeds and water, with nowhere to hide.
By the time they reached the center of the green expanse, the hair was standing straight out on the back of her neck. Where are the frogs, and the birds? The girls wondered when they stopped for a breather. I don't even see dragonflies.
Something made Lily glance at the wood that bordered the far edge of the marsh. "Onua!" She pointed as a bird shot from the cover of the trees. It was black and hawk-shaped, flying crazily, as if drunk.
Shrieks, metallic and shrill, tore the air. Eight giant things— they looked like birds at first— chased the hawk out of the cover of the trees. Immense wings beat the air that reached the women and ponies, filling their noses with a stink so foul it made Daine retch. The ponies screamed in panic.
Daine tried to soothe them, though she wanted to scream too. These were monsters. No animal combined a human head and chest with a bird's legs and wings. Sunlight bounded off talons and feathers that shone like steel. She counted five males, three females: one female wore a crown of black glass.
Onua gave a two-fingered whistle that could be heard the length of the valley. When the monsters turned to find the source of the noise, their quarry dropped into the cover of the reeds and vanished. The monsters swept the area, over and over, trying to find the black hawk, without success.
"Look at them," Onua whispered. "They use a grid pattern to search by— they're working that part of the marsh in squares. They're intelligent."
"And they can't land easy on level ground," Daine pointed out. "Those claws aren't meant to flatten out. They have to fly— they can't walk."
For some reason, they seemed familiar to Lily. She had met these creatures before, but she couldn't place where or how.
When the creatures gave up, they turned on the women. Daine watched them come, her bow— like Onua's— ready to fire. Lily had kept her knives sheathed but had a hand on the pommel. The attackers were smeared with filth. When they spoke or smiled, she saw razor-sharp teeth caked with what she knew was old blood. Halting over the road, they fanned their wings to stay aloft. Their smell was suffocating. Lily quickly fished out a salve for dry lips that contained a strong herbal smell and dabbed it under her nose, passing it to her sister and Onua once she finished. They never took their eyes off the creatures, but Lily didn't seem to mind them for some reason.
"We almost had the motherless spy," one of them snarled.
"But you had to interfere," another said. "Never interfere with us." It lifted its wings above its head and stooped. The others followed.
"Daine, fire!" Onua shot: her arrow struck the first, hitting a wing with a sound of metal on metal, and bounced off. Daine struck a man-thing square in the throat. He dropped with a cry that brought sweat to her face.
Onua and Daine fired steadily, aiming for the flesh of heads and chests, while Lily stayed by the ponies to keep them safe. A female almost grabbed Daine by the hair before Onua killed her. Cloud got one by a leg, and Tahoi seized its other foot. Together pony and dog tore the monster apart. Birds— herons, bitterns, plovers, larks— rose from hiding places to fight the creatures, blinding some, pecking others, clogging the air so the enemy couldn't see. Many paid for their help with their lives.
The glass-crowned one was finally the only monster alive. She hovered just out of Onua's range, one of the K'mir's arrows lodged in her shoulder. "Pink pigs!" she snarled. "How dare you defy me, maggots! You filth!"
"Look who's talking," Daine shouted, sliding an arrow onto her string. She lowered her bow, wanting the creature to think she was done. "Your ma was a leech with bad teeth," she taunted. Onua laughed in spite of herself. "Your da was a peahen. I know chickens with more brains than you!"
Lily had quickly amended her thought process on not being afraid of these creatures. Ateast this group seemed violent. It caused the back of her head to ache focusing on the queen.
The queen screamed and dropped, claws extended. Daine brought the bow up, loosing as she reached the best point in her swing. Her arrow buried itself in the queen's eye as Onua cheered.
Daine had another arrow on the string and in the air, but the queen pulled away. Blood dripped from her ruined eye. If she felt pain, she ignored it, hovering well out of bow-shot, her good eye furious.
"Ohhh, I'll remember you, girlie." The hate in her voice forced Daine back a step. "Your name on my heart." She looked at Onua. "I'll return for you two ground crawlers. You belong to Zhaneh Bitterclaws now. And YOU!" she shouted, pointing her chin towards Lily. "You should have known better little piglet!" She launched herself into higher air and was gone.
"I can't believe it." Onua sounded as if she were talking to herself. "The rumors said there were monsters abroad, but these? Where did they come from?" She went to examine the body of one of the creatures, the stink so bad she had to cover her nose to get close to it.
Limping, Daine followed. She was unhurt, but she felt battered and cut and torn in a thousand places. A chickadee lay in the road. She picked it up, to find a wing was attached by only a bit of skin. Tears rolled down her cheeks to fall on the dying bird. All around her, birds lay in the rushes, bleeding, dead.
"I'm sorry, little ones," she whispered. "You should've stayed hid." Her temples pounded. Stripes of black-and-yellow fire crossed her vision. Her ears filled with a roaring sound, and she fainted.
Onua saw her fall. Lily screamed before rushing forward to catch her big sister. The bird that had been in Daine's hand jumped into the air and zipped past, nearly missing the K'mir's nose. In the marsh, she heard a rush of song. Birds took off, clumsily at first, as if they were stiff. An owl that lay in the road moved, then flew away as she stared. She was positive that the bird's head had been cut half off.
Shaking her head, she went to the fallen girl. As far as she could tell, Daine was unhurt. Lily was frantic trying to get the girl to wake up. Onua noticed her hands were sparkling somewhat, but nothing seemed to be happening. With a grunt the K'mir levered her onto a shoulder, surprised by how light she was. "You need to eat more," she told her burden as she carried her to the ponies. Cloud trotted over to nuzzle Daine, worry in every line of the pony's body.
"I don't suppose you know a place where we can get off the road," Onua asked, half jesting, never thinking these animals would understand her as they did the girl. Cloud trotted into a nearby stand of reeds. Just beyond her Onua saw a clearing, floored in solid ground.
This was food for thought. Onua followed Cloud. The remainder of the ponies followed her, Tahoi bringing up the rear. Lily grabbed the reins of the other ponies to walk them to the clearing.