The Red Plague Affair by Lilith Saintcrow

Author:Lilith Saintcrow
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction / Fantasy - Contemporary, Fiction / Fantasy - Historical, Fiction / Science Fiction - Steampunk, Fiction / Romance - Fantasy, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯), Fiction / Fantasy - Paranormal, Fiction / Fantasy / Urban
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2013-05-20T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Barely, But Sufficient

The gryphon riders of the Skystream Guard were often chosen by the beasts themselves. It was not unheard of, even in these modern times, for a gryphon to descend from the sky and hover over a boy (or, very infrequently, a girl), buffeting them to the ground with wingbeats. To be plucked from a child’s life and thrust into the training to ride Britannia’s winged steeds was a shock some failed to endure.

Those who did found themselves with new names, scrubbed and shaven like a Collegia orphan, and drilled intensively before being allowed to see one of the creatures again.

Gryphons did not forgive a single mistake, and their riders had to be naturally resistant to the strange aura of lassitude that dropped over their usual prey. There was a martial practice of movement – the Shields were taught this, in addition to their other training – that allowed a rider certain advantages against even such a large, winged carnivore, and certain tricks with their traditional longcrook with its sharpened inner curve allowed them to direct the beasts.

The riders sometimes even slumbered with their charges, and there were stories of deep attachment between Guard and beast; from the gryphons they learned peculiar charter symbols that did not seem to disturb the æther but were nonetheless effective. Among the Skystream there were charioteers as well, those who could hold two or more of the beasts in check while they drew one of Britannia’s shield-sided conveyances.

A gryphon chariot was light and afforded little protection from the elements. Boudicca had not been the first vessel to ride one into battle at the head of her armies, but it was said she had been the one to design better chariots. Certainly very little in their manufacture had changed since her ill-fated reign, and a citizen of the Isle from her time – or even Golden Bess’s rule – would instantly recognise the high sides, rounded back and the queer metal-laced reins crackling with strange charter charms. Geared wheels and runners, cunningly designed to shift as the terrain made necessary or flight made unnecessary, were alive with crawling coppery light.

Mikal leapt lightly into the chariot, his hand flicking out to take the reins from the charioteer. Muscle came alive on his back as the two gryphons – both tawny with white feather ruffs, their beaks amber and their wings moving restlessly – tested his control.

Shields, made resistant to the aura of lassitude by their membership in their ancient brotherhood, could commandeer a chariot. Carefully, of course, and only if the need was dire. Of course, very few of sorcery’s children would consider such a conveyance under even the worst and most pressing circumstances.

There was no time. Rail to Dover and a ship from thence would simply not do. And the sooner Emma laid hands on the man, the sooner she could… do whatever was necessary.

“Prima,” Mikal said, his head turned to the side. The gryphons heaved, and he stiffened, wrapping the reins in his fists.

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