An Heir to Thorns and Steel by M.C.A. Hogarth

Author:M.C.A. Hogarth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Publisher: M.C.A. Hogarth
Published: 2015-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

Dawn from the back of a drake, fleeing for my life across a tufted plain bordering the sea, was indescribable, except that again I wept, wept as the long pink shadows swelled from our bodies, fluttering across the passing grasses like a gossamer flag. I was tired of crying, and tired of the Archipelago with its way of breaking me open. I had learned hatred; now I knew beauty. That I had learned them both within a day of one another seemed obscene. How could the world hold such extremes? How could my heart?

The drake ran on, tireless and faithful, and we clung to its back. I waited for the sounds of pursuit, shoulders hunched against the blows I imagined would come soon enough.

We stopped at a stream cut into the rocky soil so the drake could drink. Almond passed me a canteen as I leaned against the saddle.

“Can you hear them?” Kelu asked the smaller genet.

Almond’s ears flicked outward, inward. “Something,” she said.

Kelu nodded. “We have to keep going.”

The drake turned its head to me, nuzzled my jaw. That its chin dripped water didn’t seem important. I cupped its face and brushed my thumbs against its cheek, below the round red eyes.

“Master,” Almond said, voice soft, “can you ride?”

“Yes,” I said, unable to drag my gaze from its. “Are they really following us?”

“I think so,” Almond said.

I closed my eyes and rested my brow against the drake’s. It rumbled.

“We can’t run forever,” I said, voice tired.

“No, but we’re going to try,” Kelu said.

That was when the ride became torment. The first night and into the morning had been a wonder, but as the hours passed and Kelu spurred the creature on I longed to stretch, to rest, to stop moving. My legs ached save where they touched the drake’s sides. My spine trembled with weariness. I realized I had not slept, or what sleep I’d had I’d caught between strides, jerking awake when my head nodded forward. I worried about falling off, about losing my glasses, about eating, about being caught. I worried that my wrists were beginning to lock around Kelu’s waist, that my knees wouldn’t bend when I finally dismounted for the day, that the pain would be more sadistic than the elves when it caught up with me again. I had had no poppy, but while both drake and genets could bolster my sense of well-being I could sense their effect on me attenuating; soon I would be again at the nonexistent mercy of my sickness.

I longed for an ending, and there was only more of the same.

“They’re coming,” Almond hissed into my back. I looked over my shoulder and glimpsed a purple shadow growing against the plain’s grass-felted edge.

“I thought this was the fastest mount in the stable,” I said.

“Yes, well, they don’t care if they run their horses to foundering and trade them for fresh ones,” Kelu growled. “Everything’s disposable to an elf.” Lower then. “This is probably fine sport for them. I bet there are banners.

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