Erin Hoffman - Sword of Fire and Sea

She jerked her head, and the helmet came free, leaving him hanging in midair as she clung like a barnacle to the horse's back and directed it to roll beneath her. Horse and rider spun to one side, and Vidarian curled into a fetal position in the air to protect himself from the flashing hooves that now lashed out at him.

An aquiline shriek, and Altair swooped by him, white feathers a blur. Then he flared his wings, rising beneath Vidarian, supporting him with the shield of air.

Vidarian had just started to breathe again when the grip of the energy sphere began to falter.

A flash of strength blew Vidarian away from Altair, and then he was falling again, striking the gryphon's back-and the sphere went out entirely.

He fell onto Altair's back again, and the gryphon squawked with frustration as Vidarian's weight bore them steadily toward the ground. His wings labored, but only for a few fruitless moments-he was simply not strong enough to bear a full-grown man on his back.

Above them, the knights were rallying, and one group of them followed Vidarian and Altair while another broke off to pursue the craft. Vidarian gave a yell of despair, for the moment thinking more of Ruby and Ariadel, helpless in the craft, than of his own dire predicament.

They were falling relentlessly. Altair held out his wings, but only in token-fearful, Vidarian knew, that if he fully extended his wings, their combined weight would snap them, sending them both into a deadly spiral toward the ground. Vidarian pulled the whistle from where it flapped beside his head on its strand, and blew it, but to no response, its power spent.

// Hold on! // Altair shouted, somewhat extraneously, Vidarian thought. But then he was squashing his own impulse to ask if they were about to die. Instead he did as he was told, gripping Altair's neck-feathers tightly again.

Overhead, a scream-an animal one, as it turned out. Half of a black wing dropped past them, followed by a spray of blood-and a plummeting horse and rider. The cut was clean, a precise cut from a sword. Ruby, it would seem, was not entirely helpless in the craft above. Even under the circumstances, the thought was comforting.

The ground swooped closer below them. Altair was drawing his wings and limbs closer to his body now, controlling their fall, angling them forward. The tops of trees came clear beneath them, deadly arms reaching up to catch them, and not kindly.

// BRACE YOURSELF! // Altair's voice thundered in Vidarian's mind, uncontrolled, and as they whipped past the first branches of the tall trees, the gryphon let loose a blast of raw air energy, pushing toward the ground, cushioning them.

They crashed into the undergrowth, slowed by the expanding radius of Air, but hardly stopped. Branches whipped past Vidarian's face, tearing at his skin, and then the ground hit them, knocking the wind from his chest and blackening his vision.

All was still.

Distantly, the cries of the battle above them raged on, while Vidarian grasped for consciousness. Some lengths away, something crashed to the ground-a Sky Knight, and a dead one, he hoped. Beside him, Altair was struggling to his feet, and gave a high and piercing scream of pain as he did so.

Vidarian's vision came back slowly, and he moved each of his hands and feet, groaning as he did so, but with relief when they moved as he asked them to. “Altair?” he gasped, his breath still not recovered.

// Right wing , // the gryphon mumbled. // Broken, I think. //

Something else crashed into the forest some distance from them, this time to the left.

They began to realize slowly that there were too many cries in the air. Horses couldn't make those noises-and there were only two gryphons.

Vidarian looked up slowly.

High overhead, framed by the gap they'd made in the brush with their fall, a battle was raging in the air.

The flying craft was angling toward the ground, forgotten. Above it, at least twenty gryphons were diving upon the knights, slashing with beaks and claws, wreaking havoc in the sky.

// Thalnarra's pride , // Altair said in wonder, relief drowning out pain.

They stared at the sky, transfixed, as the gryphons darted in among the knights, falling upon them from above like stooping hawks. It was unlike anything Vidarian had ever seen. The gryphons writhed in the air like fighting cats, but swooped and spiraled like falcons, building momentum with powerful wingstrokes in order to bring their tearing claws down upon the knights. For their part, each horse and rider had the advantage of mass on the gryphons-and their lances and swords here and there found marks in gryphon flesh.

But for each hit the knights scored, the gryphons took three more-and in spite of the lieutenant's bold “death before retreat” claim, the commander evidently thought differently, and called a retreat when a third of her riders had fallen and only two gryphons had been injured. In spite of their violence, Vidarian almost pitied them when the gryphons moved to give chase to the fleeing riders-but one of the gryphons gave a screeching command, and those pursuing fell back with the group.

The gryphons above had moved into a circling perimeter when a rustling thump some distance away drew Vidarian and Altair's attention back to the ground. Altair started to move, then cried out in pain as his wounded wing convulsed. “Stay here,” Vidarian said, and foraged through the brush.

The presence of the gate pulled on his mind. The storm sapphires, since they had crashed into the brush, had been a constant dull roar of activity, pulling the energy of the gate toward them. A rolling susurrus filled his thoughts but he blinked past it, bearing down with his will. But they were close, and the stones yearned to fulfill their function, whatever it might be.

He came upon the Destiny in an open meadow, where it had landed and now tilted to one side. Ruby was outside the craft unharnessing Thalnarra and Arikaree with one hand. Her other hand was at her side, where it staunched blood around the poultice-her wound had reopened in the action. Vidarian leapt over the knee-high grasses and ran toward them, taking Ruby's place in the unharnessing. She gave a gasp of relief when she saw him.

“We saw you go down,” she said, looking him over for damage.

“I'm fine, but Altair is injured,” he said. “He thinks his right wing is broken.” With the gryphons unharnessed, he leaned over the rim of the flight craft, checking Ariadel's safety straps and blankets. Her eyes fluttered open, and his heart leapt, but moments later she closed them again, sound asleep.

// We are watching Ariadel , // Arikaree said. Vidarian turned to him and started forward when he saw the blood seeping sluggishly from a shallow wound at the pelican-gryphon's shoulder, but Arikaree waved him away with a gesture of his long beak. // He be needing you more now. Be taking medical kit from craft. // Vidarian followed his instructions and fished a leather satchel of medical supplies from the Destiny .

// Show me , // Thalnarra said, shaking out her feathers. Vidarian looked at Ruby, who nodded agreement, and Vidarian foraged back through the grass toward Altair, following the trail of flattened foliage he'd left moments before.

When Thalnarra caught sight of where Altair crouched, his wing crumpled at his side, she surged ahead of Vidarian and began inspecting the other gryphon. She crouched at each of his sides and moved her talons over him, looking but not touching. Both of their eyes pinned and flared in silent conversation.