Rider (Spirals of Destiny) (7 page)

Needless to say, he didn’t have a saddle. Kayleigh handed her hatchet to Francine and struggled to climb on. He was probably unhappy that she used part of his mane as something to grip onto, but she made it onto his back. Once mounted, she felt the bond coursing through her body. It seemed both strange and natural at the same time. Kayleigh noticed that the other unicorns had moved much closer to their riders, almost protectively.

“You’re not supposed to be on your unicorn!” Alicia said.

“It’s not my idea!”

“Well if you’re going to do it, at least try to stay up. Follow me! You’ll need something to hold on to.” Alicia ran to one of the wagons and grabbed a length of rope. Majherri opened his mouth and bit down on the center of it. Alicia handed her both ends and she held them tightly in her left hand for some stability.

The first screams and sounds of battle came while she was trying to get used to holding the rope and balancing bareback on Majherri.

Her unicorn darted back to Francine who held the ax out to Kayleigh like it was going to bite her.

“Recruit! You’re going to get yourself killed! Get down right now!” The guardsman she’d obeyed earlier commanded. Majherri snorted at him and charged off.

Kayleigh was scared as hell. Majherri fought back with confidence. She could tell that he knew what he was doing. He was begging her to trust him. She wanted to, but the pounding in her chest betrayed her true feelings as they rounded the hill.

She saw at least five or six men, swathed in dark cloaks and furs – the Yar. They carried spears, nets, axes, and vicious looking short stabbing swords. The two guards were surrounded and were back to back, trying to protect each other. The three wagon drivers were on the ground and likely dead. Bile fought its way up into her throat as Majherri went to a full sprint. His eagerness for battle brushed aside her terror as his tail would a group of flies.

The beserkers were stopped by the sight of a charging unicorn coming at them. It allowed the two guardsmen to wound a pair of Yar warriors and improve their odds.

One with a spear and another with a net and sword moved quickly trying to force Majherri between them. It might have worked with a regular cavalry rider and his or her horse, but Majherri shifted directions so fast that Kayleigh had to hold on for her life. Seconds later, she felt the same feeling that he was going to turn sharply.

This must be how unicorns tell their rider what to do!
She thought as Majherri pivoted hard again charging right at the one with the net. The raider tried to throw the net, but Majherri leapt to the right and plowed the man under. Kayleigh tried to block out the sickening cracks as the legs of her unicorn drove into the screaming man. Majherri paused just outside the spearman’s reach and lowered his horn to parry the thrusts. They circled each other in some kind of deadly dance amidst the fighting of the guardsmen.

A jolt of raw anger shook Kayleigh out of her stupor. Majherri needed her to do something! She realized that somehow, she was still holding the hatchet. Not knowing what else to do, she pulled it back and threw it as hard as she could. The man ducked it, but Majherri pounced driving his horn into the man’s chest and lifting him off the ground. Kayleigh batted the raider’s hands away, but he grabbed her shoulder and her throat.

Heat, like a sudden fever, swelled from her connection with Majherri up through her body as she fought to breathe. Her hand smacked at the masked man in a futile gesture at first, but then, she saw flames and realized her hands were on fire and so were the wrappings on the man’s head.

The grip on her neck eased and Majherri unceremoniously dumped the man to the ground. Fire still danced around her right hand as another raider wielding a large ax charged towards them. Kayleigh pushed her hands towards him and a gout of flame leapt from her palm. The Yar warrior tried to shield himself against the magical flame, but he stumbled, falling to the ground. Majherri reared, with his front hooves on fire, and brought his full weight down on him.

Kayleigh couldn’t hold on and slipped off hitting the ground hard. She was momentarily knocked senseless. A few seconds, or perhaps a minute later, the face of one of the guardsmen filled her vision.

“Are you okay, girl?”

“What?” She croaked – her throat still raw from the attack.

“You must have hit your head pretty hard. Easy, sit up. That’s it. It’s all over now.”

Still shaking off the effects of the fall, she heard a scream. It was the other wounded guardsman using his sword to finish off the Yar that Majherri initially trampled. Kayleigh looked for Majherri. He was about twenty feet from her. The hair on his head and neck was matted with blood, like a horrific vision of death. Her eyes drifted down to her clothes and she saw the blood stains on them as well.

“The remaining two tried to run for it, but your unicorn ran the godless bastards down. We were pretty much done for, so thank you for saving our lives. C’mon, let’s get you back on your feet.”

He offered his hand to help her up. When she took it, she screamed in pain. The flesh on the palm of her hand was burnt and blistering welts dotted the reddened skin. She sagged back to the ground clutching it to her chest.

Majherri was at her side instantly as the guard wrapped her hand in damp strips of cloth.

“Walk back to camp and have someone put salve on your hand. Tell Lloyd to send a few more guards up here. We’ve got to bury our dead.”

Kayleigh stood up, walking slowly. Her good hand firmly gripped Majherri. She could feel reassurance coming from him, but those emotional jolts crashed on the shores of her aching numbness. Kayleigh stopped and vomited at the sight of Ben, her wagon driver. His eyes were open in silent terror. People always said that when someone died that they were at peace. The look on his face told a different story. Even with Majherri as a physical and emotional crutch, the walk back to camp was on trembling legs and with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Are you that eager to kill another rider? Do you expect the hand of fate will provide you with a third?” Meghan half asked and half accused Majherri. The unicorns and the majority of humans pretended like they weren't listening. Lynch had a reputation for coolness, except when it came to Majherri.

The unicorn snorted and dismissed her.
Go ahead, human. Get your angry tantrum out of the way.

“I hope you’re proud of yourself. You dragged an untrained girl out onto the battlefield, who can barely even stay on you, for what? The chance to do battle? Is that it? You could have easily killed her!”

He turned away in contempt as the woman continued berating him and gazed at the onlookers. There were no looks of support from the other maiden warriors or their mounts, just returned from the battle at Miros. Naturally, the two human guardsmen seemed reluctant to defend him.

You’d think they’d be more grateful that I saved their lives.

He lifted his head. She wasn't here during the battle. His rider was never in any serious danger. A pitiful group of raiders was not exactly the same thing as going into battle against an ogre.

Majherri kept within a few steps of Kayleigh as the fire maiden, Annabeth, surveyed the damage to Kayleigh’s hand. He simply tuned Captain Lynch out and focused on the more interesting conversation.

The small, waif-like fire maiden whispered to his rider, “You need to learn control, if you’re going to be throwing heat like that around. The way we teach is to put gloves over our hands. The flame is always conjured on the outside of the glove like a barrier. Eventually, we take away the glove, but maintain the barrier in our mind. Even after you master this, burns will still happen when you’re not focused on what you’re doing or rushing the conjuration.”

“Am I going to be okay?”

“It's pretty nasty and we used up our supply of healing tears to tend to the wounded in Miros. You’ll have to use the salve, until we can get some more.” Annabeth glanced up at Majherri and then at the water maiden like she was measuring the odds of that happening. “Anyway, I’ll start working with you on the basics of fire magic. Burns are an occupational hazard, but we don’t want this to become a habit. Welcome to the sisterhood of the eternal flame, fellow fire maiden.”

Kayleigh smiled weakly as her hand was rebandaged. “Will you be teaching me at the Academy, ma’am?”

“No, just here on the road. I’m on loan from one of the High-King’s battalion to do demonstrations. Your instructor is probably leading a recruiting team that went north and west.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. If you want to really thank me, put a good word in for Rhey with Majherri.”

“I don’t understand, ma’am.”

Annabeth chuckled looking directly into Majherri’s eyes. “My unicorn seems taken with Captain Lynch’s T’rsa. He’s courting her, but her brother here seems to be a bit of a stick in the mud.”

He’s resorting to having his rider beg mine for help? How unworthy of Rheysurrah. I thought my opinion of him couldn't get any worse.

“I’ll do what I can,” Kayleigh said. Majherri overlooked this display of treachery from his rider. She was still very young and trying to please the rest of the humans. He’d put up with this from her.

Turning his head back to Captain Lynch, he could see she was livid that he wasn’t paying any real attention to her
righteous
fury. The armored woman angrily marched up to his rider. “Get up. You and I are going for a walk.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kayleigh said with a note of hesitancy in her voice.

Majherri followed to see what Meghan intended to say to his rider. T’rsa fell into step next to him glaring at him. Her body language quickly told him that she was of the same opinion as her rider.

I did what I had to do and I’d do it again. The human has spent too much time teaching and not enough time doing. I choose where I fight and when I fight. You either battle on your terms or someone else's.

Humility wasn’t one of his strong suits. Outright defiance was. He and Danella had perfected it into an art form, which was why she was such a good independent scout.

The foursome walked back to the road and the scene of the battle. As soon as they were out of the earshot of the camp, Lynch said in a stern tone, “I want you to understand this, Reese. My anger is directed at Majherri and not you.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand.” His rider responded.

“No, I don’t think you do. He knows how the bond works. Each recruit and the unicorn spend years sorting each other out like when a couple gets married. All the other recruits and their unicorns are discovering it for the first time … except you and him. There’s no way you wanted to charge into battle on his back. He made you do it!”

“But we saved those guards’ lives. Well, mostly it was him.”

“Yes, the two of you did just that. It’s the upside in all this, but here’s what I’m looking at Reese. Majherri is a strong willed unicorn. He will run roughshod over you if you let him. If it were just the two of you, I wouldn’t be as interested. Trust me, there’re plenty of maidens out in the battalions that are ‘horn whipped’ and allow themselves to be led around by their steed. But you, you’re going to likely be lead rider for this new class. Every one of these recruits in this year is going to look to you for guidance … especially after this. Fair or not, you’re going to be a role model to all these girls.”

“
Your rider’s being a bit overbearing, sister.” He flared his nostrils at T’rsa.

She responded that the truth must be a hard thing for him to hear and that this is entirely his fault.

He pawed the ground with his hoof.
“Oh, I brought a bunch of human raiders into the area. Maybe I should make certain that young male sniffing your backside most every second of the day knows what a fool you really are!”

“What are you asking me to do?” His rider asked, oblivious to the spat Majherri was having with his sister.

“You’ve got a tough road ahead of you, Reese. I’m going to ride you hard and not take any of this wishy-washy rubbish from you. I’m responsible for the whole class – every rider. If you can’t stand up for yourself, the others won’t either and everyone suffers. I’m telling you now so we’re perfectly clear on this. If you start becoming a burden to the class, you’re going to get promoted to the second year or even the third year and be completely lost in your training. You’ll be Captain Anella’s or Sycroft’s problem then.”

“You’d do that?”

The woman fixed her gaze on his rider. “In a heartbeat, recruit. You and I know that I hate him. He hates me. I will do my level best to separate my feelings about you from what I think of him. That’s why I’m telling you this up front. You deserve a chance to succeed, just like every other recruit. You’re not going to wash out, if that’s what you’re worried about. There’s never been a recruit who was able to manifest elemental magic that’s washed out of The Academy before. That’s a strong bond after only a few days. And I know Majherri won’t let you fail, you’re his only chance at redemption. So let me offer early congratulations. The years ahead are a formality for you. But what I’m concerned about is what kind of fire maiden you will be at the end of your training? Will you be Majherri’s equal partner, or his tool? That’s what we don’t know yet.”