WINGS OF STEEL

Dedicated to Wyrren Sarrasri

Chapter Two: Assault on Corus

Stone Tree nation lurked fifteen miles away from King Jonathan's palace in Corus. Zircah had insisted that, were they any closer, the mortal chick - Veralidaine, whispered the binding spell in her mind - would sense them coming. Jokhun had finally relented and allowed this in order to be sure their plan would succeed. They were nested away from roads in the centre of an expansive wood, completely silent.

This was a huge change for Zircah's nation - usually the dark-haired Stormwing had to put up with the shrieks and inane babble of her flock. Now that they were being quiet, she had the chance to open her mind and listen to the minds of others around her.

She could sense eager anticipation and excitement around her; all the Stormwings were quivering at the thought of a battle. She could well understand this - they hadn't feasted in centuries, not properly. She, too, was starving, and the ribs showing through the flesh of her muscular stomach were testimony to this.

She stretched her mind out to tentatively sample the emotions of Jokhun. He was smug and arrogant, certain he would win. However, underneath the initial confidence was an insidious, icy trickle of fear. Zircah felt a smirk tugging at her lips and allowed it out to show her satisfaction. Jokhun was afraid.

She moved on until she found another mind she recognised as Rikash. He was glowering - Still? Talk about grudges... Zircah thought, shaking her head - and bating almost nervously. She could feel his anxiety - he wanted this to work. He wanted to fight and win even more favour with his new king. At this thought, a thin sadness crept through his mind. Zircah frowned. Rikash, in mourning for Barzha and Hebakh? It seems he is more loyal to them than I suspected from his recent actions. Interesting... Moonsword, you may impress me, yet.

In the darkness, she reached her mind out to speak with the night's animals. She found none near Stone Tree's perch - they had all fled the reek of death that Stormwings brought with them. Zircah wrinkled her nose in distaste. She didn't like it either, and so took care to bathe as often as possible. She was probably the only Stormwing who bothered. But then, she reflected, she was the only Stormwing to have been raised by Weiryn - and, just prior to the summoning of Stormwings, his mate, a new goddess they called the Green Lady.

With her ears and her mind she heard a pack of wolves singing. She flowed over them and knew the joy of singing in a pack. It was not the first time she had felt alone since the deaths of Hebakh and Barzha, but it was the first time she felt like crying. Instead, she howled it out in a wild, despairing song of her own. The wolves fell suddenly silent, then abruptly howled the loneliness of losing a pack member. Zircah felt a little better when she came back to herself later in the night, when the wolves were hunting and the Stormwings were preparing to take flight and begin their attack on the palace.

Zircah shook out her wings in a rattling death beat and took to the sky with her nation. The feathers that adorned her hair tinkled softly in the air-flow, and her talon earrings seemed almost to glow, despite the moonless night. She smiled. It was perfect weather for such an attack. The sky was as dark and forbidding as the deepest, stillest waters of a lake, and without the moon their reflective wings would not attract attention.

She could sense from up ahead that Queen Zhaneh was nearly prepared to attack. She felt the chill fingers of foreboding run down her spine - they would arrive too early, and aid would not have gone to the lower palace yet. She knew it would happen, and yet she could not make herself speak. So she glided in the cold air of the night, and was very surprised when a powerful call echoed through her mind for help. She felt compelled to follow it, but resisted. She saw birds startle from trees and dart towards the sound. It came from the palace...

Zircah shrieked a war-cry as they came over the upper palace and dove on an unsuspecting guard. Rather than kill him, she picked him up and carried him in her talons so that if there were any archers about, they would not shoot her for fear of killing the flailing, screaming man she held in her talons.

The downside was, of course, that she couldn't bring her clawed feet to bear on any potential enemy. Scowling, she hovered, raised both wings and gathered herself to release bolts of magic at the guards that were running towards (and away from) the newly arrived 'demon birds'.

We've been gone from this realm so long that none remember what we are or what purpose we serve! Zircah thought in shock. Then fury seeped into her veins and with a scream of effort, she unleashed her glowing green magic to stab down at the ground-pounders in bolts that were like falling swords made of lightning.

She almost fell out of the air when bright white magic entwined with deep blue magefire to shield the archers and repel her magic (and the magic of other Stormwings) back at the skies. Her own bolts went wild to char Stormwings who were attempting to attack with their talons and wings. The white and blue magic flared again and Zircah was nearly deafened with a roar of discontent from within her mind. She shrieked and back-tracked frantically.

"Retreat!" She screamed to Jokhun, but the king of Stone Tree nation had already seen that they could not possibly win against King Jonathan and the Dominion Jewel. The oppressively powerful roar in her mind had been the consciousness of the land itself as it tried to repel the invaders. A savage wind had whipped up, one that required all Zircah's skill to stay aloft on - it was cold, but vicious, offering no lift to the Stormwings. All of its currents led to the ground, so the winged immortals were forced to battle every gust to stay in the air. Zircah gritted her teeth in an angry snarl and dropped the man in her claws. He was too heavy for her to deal with in this wind.

Jokhun roared to retreat and as one the flock wheeled to struggle away through the wind. They made it back to the forest they had been nesting in and Zircah immediately collapsed onto a thick branch, exhausted and still starving. There had not been enough casualties for the Stormwings to feed, or even to sate their thirst. She scowled. They had been cheated out of their meal and their captive by a stupid mortal with a pretty stone. Great. There's one for the books - Stone Tree nation, brought down by a pack of dumb ground-pounders and a big lump of rock.

She tried to concentrate on what was going on around her. Jokhun was speaking quietly but urgently into a globe of red magic in his talon. Zhaneh's voice emanated from the magic.

"Salmalín wasn't even at the palace, then! He arrived just as that stupid mortal with the jewel did, but you didn't see him? Our plan was foiled all along! Bah!"

She spoke harshly in her native tongue, calling her nation to her and then cutting off the speech-spell. Jokhun's ruddy face was dark with anger. Zircah almost felt slightly nervous as he glared at her as though it was all her fault. Almost.

"Bladewing. Your services are required." He said shortly, grumpily, as though he were an old man deprived of a game of chess. "Heal those who are injured."

Zircah's eyes widened and she stared at him. "Do you not understand? I - can't - Heal - that - many - Stormwings. I just can't! My magic relies on my energy to Heal. I can only Heal a little at a time!" she raged, furious that he would even suggest such a thing when she was so tired.

"Do it, Bladewing." The king's voice was cold. Zircah's lips curled back in a disgusted sneer as she whirled on her branch and took a look around her.

Everywhere, silver blood stained the wood of the trees. Stormwings were tiredly settling in to roost, shifting their weight awkwardly to compensate for injuries. Her conscience set in - she couldn't just leave them all like that.

With a sigh, she set to work, repairing burned skin and arrow wounds. Several of her flockmates had taken arrows through their shoulders or stomachs, and some had broken ribs or feet from awkward impacts with their own kind as the Dominion Jewel's wind had knocked them of-course. Finally most were healed except for minor scratches.

Rikash approached her low branch half-heartedly with an arrow in his collar-bone and burns all down his right side. He was the last. Blankly, Zircah stared at the burns before wearily working her magic on his flesh to Heal them. She blinked blearily at the arrow, grabbed it with her teeth, and yanked. She would later reflect, when she was trying to get the other immortal's blood from her hair, that it was probably not the best way she could have removed the arrow. Silver blood sprayed out all over them both as Rikash yelled, and then Zircah was fusing skin and arteries together again. When she was finished, her head nodded - she was ready to drop off her perch with exhaustion.

"If I ever have to Heal you again, Moonsword, you'll be... really... really... sorry..." She stated hazily, and then slumped to one side against the trunk in a dead faint.

She could hear muttering.

"...don't know why I have to stay here and guard you, Bladewing. The gods know you can bloody well fend for yourself, I don't see why I have to sit around and baby-sit you. It's disgusting. I'm going to tell everyone that you drool while you're sleeping, did you know that? And that you snore. You just wait until you wake up and we get back to the Copper Isles..."

Zircah let out a slight groan as she opened her eyes, and the voice stopped abruptly. Her head pounded as she struggled to regain her balance, and then gave up and relaxed against the tree.

"Do you always babble when you think you're alone, Moonsword?" She asked, vaguely interested in just how crazy the foolish male really was. Her words came out slightly slurred, as though she were a mortal who had drunk too much mead, and there was a lengthy pause before Rikash understood and answered with a snort and a "Hmph."

Zircah let her eyes focus slowly, and then rocked back onto both feet. She winced - she probably had bark patterns all up the side of her face, and down along her chest. Her wings ached from being held so awkwardly while she slept, and her left foot was sore from being the only one she had leaned on for the time she slept.

"Where the hell is the nation?" She demanded, blinking at the empty trees. She reached out her awareness of creatures, but the only Stormwing she could sense was Rikash.

"On the Copper Isles, where I'd be if it weren't for Jokhun ordering me to be a babysitter." Rikash said darkly. "You've been asleep for nearly two days."

"Really?" Zircah asked, ice blue eyes wide with the interest that comes of being too dazed to notice what's happening. "That has to be a record of some kind." She yawned. "Hope you kept yourself entertained." She added, unrepentant.

"Oh, yes." Rikash drawled. "It was marvellous. First I played 'Stare At The Sun Until Your Eyes Hurt', and then 'Watch Grass Grow'. And then I decided it might be nice to carve a design into a tree - so I did, it's right over there. And then I got rather bored and sat here and whinged."

"Yes, I woke up towards the end of that." Zircah interrupted, leaning forward slightly to see what sort of horrors Rikash had engraved on some poor unsuspecting elm. She was rather surprised to see a very well-drawn wing etched into the trunk of a thick, dark-wooded tree, and then saddened by a near-perfect portrait of Barzha and Hebakh. She stared at the tribute for a moment, dark brows knit over eyes filled with sorrow, and then gathered herself. "You're quite the little artist, pretty-boy."

Rikash scowled. "I take it this means you're well enough to fly?" He asked, almost hopefully. Zircah shrugged. She took off into the air and hovered for a moment to get her bearings. Then the two took flight for the Copper Isles, where the rest of Stone Tree nation waited.

*

A/N: ^^ I hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I love writing it... I had to wait nearly a year and a half before I could write it, because I had so much else on my plate. *grin* I'm so glad I can start again!