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Authors: Danbert Nobacon
3 Dead Princes: An Anarchist Fairy Tale (17 page)
BOOK: 3 Dead Princes: An Anarchist Fairy Tale
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“Toromos is vain and cruel, but he’s not stupid. Braggardio was always the crazy one,” Gwynmerelda said.
“I too have met Toromos,” said The Fool, “and more recently than the Queen. He remains vain, but he is clever. He is a good tactician, but something tells me he is also a mite blind. I am guessing he thinks this huge technological leap in ocean power will scarify us into submission.”
Stormy made an impatient gesture. After the Accidental Adventure of the last few days, she felt she’d earned the right to say her piece now. “Do we have a plan?” she said briskly to the Bird.
Surprised, Gwynmerelda looked at her. And the Queen, in spite of her many worries, smiled.
Emmeur smiled too, though he hid it when Stormy looked a demand his way.
“I , we, The Fool and I, have a sort-of-plan,” he said.
“Oh,” said Stormy. “Will it sort-of-work?”
“I am sort-of-hoping so.”
“And so what is it, Gentelmengracks?” asked the Princess. At this, all three of her grandparents smiled. She looked just like her father in that moment.
“Fighting ships are all very well so long as one is not attacked from the air. It’s like the redfish you ate for dinner. He never saw me coming.”
The council considered this.
“It is a gross act of war, there being ten warships below the falls,” said Jakerbald finally. “Us being able to inflict a blow against them is the very last thing they expect. You’re right. If we can unsettle them in some way, then it will not be as one-sided as they might have thought.”
“This golden tube that sends fireballs. You’ll aim for that,” said Geraldo, sensing where they were going with this.
“Yes,” said The Gricklegrack. “Only, I can’t do it alone.” He rubbed at his feathers and looked up at the ceiling of the cave. “I need someone one person to balance with the rock, and to tell me when to let it fly.” He cleared his throat. “It should be a smallish person. One who has already proved she…I mean she or he … has rapport with me in the air.”
Well, of course Stormy knew who he meant. She looked at the faces of those gathered around her, and then at her feet, looking for the strength to make the decision for herself. She did not like it one bit. She looked at Emmeur, and thought she saw a look of reassurance.
After a heartbeat of hesitation the Princess announced, “I’m doing it then.”
“No, you are not!” screeched the Queen.
“Am too. Emmeur says he needs me to do it.”
“Aggh Mmmm!” intoned The Gricklegrack. “It’s true, gracious Queen.”
“That’s settled then,” said Stormy. She said this in the determined way of a Princess who knows where her duty lies.
And the Queen, who was, as we have seen, as wise as she was beautiful, knew that it was so.
It was some time after midnight but a longer time before dawn, when Stormy was once again strapped to Emmeur’s back.
They were only about a half-mile from the cave to the point where the Bald River cascaded off into the dark night below. Once down near the riverbank, Emmeur broke into a sort-of-jog. He remained very sure-footed, despite his size and the uncertain nature of the rocky terrain. Stormy felt the cool air skimming her cheeks.
The moon had passed its zenith and was moving towards the western sky now. As they neared the edge of the falls, The Gricklegrack slowed to a walk and then stopped. Stormy stared over the edge to the Lumbiana far below. The Bird sat down by the riverbank and sort-of-wiggled his whole rear end.
The noise of the water crashing below the cliff was deafening.
He had given her instructions. When they took flight towards the ships, she was to wait for him to cry out. He had told her the flight would be very quick and warned her that his caaw would be deafeningly loud. As soon as she heard it, she was to tug with all her might at the feathers around the left side of his head where his chin would be, if he had one. He had her practice again now, finding the right spot with her fingers, taking hold of the feathers, but not pulling just yet. She felt that she knew what she had to do, but she was still puzzled. Where was the weapon? Unless, yes, of course, Emmeur had secreted it in his undercarriage.
Emmeur turned his head half towards her and winked with a fearsome red eye. He stood and exchanged the weight from foot to foot, and Stormy guessed correctly that the time was now. She braced herself. But then, all at once, a thought hit her over the head.
Her dad. Where was her dad? Was he on the lead ship? How could she have forgotten?
“Wait!” she cried out.
But it was too late. The Gricklegrack took a short run, then pushed off from the last remaining ground. They plummeted downwards. Stormy’s stomach dropped. She shrieked but no noise came out of her mouth.
She hoped against hope. With her eyes tightly slammed shut she concentrated all her energies into her outstretched left arm. Her fingers reached around the left side of Emmeur’s neck in a claw shape.
They plunged headlong towards the ships, and Stormy, opening her eyes, saw the glitter of the gold cannon in the prow of the leader. What if it was that ship that held her dad? Emmeur opened his mouth, but before his cry could be heard, in her fear for her father, Stormy tugged with all her might.
Feather fragments came away in her hand as Emmeur’s flight path bottomed out into a swooping curve. The spasmering of nerves from The Gricklegrack’s neck enabled his undercarriage muscles to relax for the half-moment necessary.
The boulderous rock therein big as a sheep was ejected forthwith. And the moment after that, a scream rang out, but was almost immediately eclipsed by a loud splinterendering
kerrcrack
, as the rock smashed into the tip of the ship’s prow below.
kerrcrack
, as the rock smashed into the tip of the ship’s prow below.
Stormy opened her eyes and saw they had missed the cannon. The boulder fell too soon, and had landed right at the tip of the prow. The Gricklegrack relieved of his heavy burden began to climb once more.
We missed the cannon. We were supposed to hit the cannon. It’s my fault.
Freed of the weight of the rock, the Bird was suddenly much more airgile. He gave a raven about-turn and for a moment The Gricklegrack was upside down with Stormy beneath him. Then they banked and sped back down toward the front line of ships to inspect the damage.
Emmeur dipped low, and Stormy could hear the whistling arrows. With a
kerthwack
, an arrow skidded off one of the restraining straps of her harness. She half-scrunched up her eyes to shield them from the rushing air, but in the instant before the Bird veered abruptly up and away, she saw the body.
kerthwack
, an arrow skidded off one of the restraining straps of her harness. She half-scrunched up her eyes to shield them from the rushing air, but in the instant before the Bird veered abruptly up and away, she saw the body.
Well, she saw the boulder crushing the planks of the ship’s deck. And she saw a pair of arms and legs out from under it. It wasn’t likely that meant anything else.
“We weren’t supposed to hit anybody!” she thought. “It’s my fault.”
She pressed her head against the Bird’s neck and heard him say, “An accident. But perhaps a fortunate one.”
And they began to soar away from the ships again, toward the Falls.
Stormy craned around to look into Emmeur’s eye. From her position she could only see a scimitar flash of red iris. Had they been on the ground, she could not look him in the eyes as she could another person. She wouldn’t be able to read the secrets of eyes that had been engineered tens upon tens of thousands of winters ago, for just such a
mission
as the one they had almost completed.
mission
as the one they had almost completed.
A grinding, guttural alarm
caww
of the Bird cut through to shake Stormy from the trance. Instinct forced her head around, and she saw not one, but two flying shadows pursuing them.
caww
of the Bird cut through to shake Stormy from the trance. Instinct forced her head around, and she saw not one, but two flying shadows pursuing them.
“The Drocas!” she screamed, her yell swallowed by the noise of the Falls, her stomach lurching.
Emmeur surged into a climb before the wall of water. They were now only feet away from the crashing falls, and Stormy shook herself as the spray lashed her face. Then the Great Bird arced around and away from the Falls to face their pursuers.
The Drocobadaws were as long as The Gricklegrack was tall, but they were much leaner. As The Fool had said, they were lizard-like, though it was hard to see any detail through the mist except their silhouette outlines.
Emmeur thought about trying to outfly the creatures, but he had been flying all day and had just hauled a weight that was really too heavy for him. He thought about the danger to his precious passenger. But the part of him that was raptor and predator knew the only choice was to fight.
As the flying gatoriles closed, Stormy saw the nearer one open its long ferociously beteethed snout, and
gack
some signal to its companion. She felt herself being wrenched, upside down and around, as Emmeur suddenly flipped full circle and turned again.
gack
some signal to its companion. She felt herself being wrenched, upside down and around, as Emmeur suddenly flipped full circle and turned again.
Stormy saw the Great Bird snap its huge beak, the moonlight reflecting momentarily off its rows of razor teeth, and heard a crunching sound as they closed on the Drocobadaw’s tail.
The Gricklegrack shook its head vigorously from side to side. Stormy reeled convulsively, but remained firmly strapped in. The lizard’s tail had been severed off completely, sending its former owner spinning out of control into the darkness below.
Next Stormy heard a whooshing sound, and the ear splitting caw of The Gricklegrack, as the other Droca’s tail spikes slammed into Emmeur’s side, not a foot away from where her own thigh lay.
The Black Bird wheeled in pain, but not before grabbing the Droca with an outstretched talon. The creature writhed and spat, as Emmeur brought his opposable thumb-claw to bear, slicing into the lizard’s wing and rendering it useless for flight. The beast plummeted to the water below and disappeared with a silent splash.
“M! Are you all right? Are you all right?” Stormy called urgently. But Emmeur remained silent, and seemed to be putting all his energy into lifting them both back over the lip of the Bald River Falls to safety.
Landing on the bench before Eagle Cave, Emmeur finally allowed himself to speak.
“I take it by your energies that you are unharmed, girl, and for that I am ecstatic.”
Stormy could see the blood streaming from Emmeur’s side as she unbuckled herself. “But, but, but,” she protested, trying to plug the wound with her hands.
“I will live,” the Bird said. “But I fear I will be of little use should it come to fighting in the morning. I can rest and recuperate in the cave. As should you.”
BOOK: 3 Dead Princes: An Anarchist Fairy Tale
8.86Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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