Son of the Drowned Empire by Frankie Diane Mallis

Author:Frankie Diane Mallis [Mallis, Frankie Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seven Queens Press

Chapter

Fifteen

Garrett and I flew in silence, both in shock. I thought of calling Aiden over the woodlands, but after I asked Garrett what he thought and he shook his head in response, I knew I couldn’t. It had been risky enough calling him once, and even if we did pass on the warning, who could he get to in time? How could he explain what he knew without revealing we’d broken the law?

And we were so out in the wilds. I had no idea where the soturi were posted—most were camouflaged. We could lose time searching for someone to raise the alarm. Heading to the Gryphon Pits was the fastest, most efficient way to let the soturi know about the threat.

The threat I prayed was over.

The idea that I might have left too soon was twisting my stomach, but I knew Garrett hadn’t been able to take much more, and we couldn’t allow ourselves to be turned. At least we’d left two akadim dead.

My mind kept turning, insisting I’d made the right choice, and then falling into doubt all over again. I just knew this: the red gryphon was still there, and he was more than capable of taking on another beast. Far more than Garrett and I were.

I urged the bronze gryphon to fly faster. Beside me, Garrett grimaced. Something darkened in his aura, spilling across the sky. He shouted to speed up, and upon his command, the gryphon’s wings flapped, emitting powerful gusts of snow-dusted wind into my face.

I kept my ears open as we flew, anxiously listening for the sound of warning bells. I wasn’t sure if I truly wanted to hear them or not. Hearing them meant more akadim were in Glemaria, but it also meant our security measures were in place, that we were attempting to protect our own people, that someone knew, that something was being done.

Through the shrieks of the wind, the only bells that rang, in the end, were the ones calling out the time. We’d be at the Pits within the hour by my calculations. The woods below had long grown sparse, leading into some of the smaller towns and villages. We’d have a short window to fight in the Alissedari before the sky went completely dark, barely hours before sunset, but not much.

Occasionally, I called out to Garrett. He was uncharacteristically silent, staring ahead, no longer playing with the gray gryphon. He barely offered him a pat on the head when he followed directions. Gryphons, while fully capable of having and expressing emotions, did not pout, yet somehow, Garrett had found one who did.

As we soared over another cluster of sun trees, their golden leaves muted beneath the overcast sky, I spotted the Pits on the horizon. The structure grew taller as we approached, and I tried to remain calm as I took in its size—larger than the Katurium, larger even than Seathorne. I tightened my grip.

The Gryphon Pits had been modeled after our Katurium. It was a large, round building with an open center that held a soturi’s training arena.

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