Leslie Moore - Griffin's Daughter

“ Stay alert, everyone,” Ashinji instructed. He scanned the trees and the ground ahead, looking for any clue that people might be near. Day’s end was near, and soon, nightfall would force them to break off their search and make camp.

“ What do you say, Gendan? Should we go on or stop for the night?”

“ Let’s continue on a little further, my lord,” Gendan suggested.

“ What do you sense, Captain?” Ashinji asked, staring intently into the craggy face of the older man. The shadow of his helmet obscured Gendan’s eyes, but Ashinji could see his mouth pursed thoughtfully.

“ I had a premonition this morning that we’d find what we were looking for today…no, that you , my lord, would find what you’ve been waiting for.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what the last bit means, but I have a very strong feeling that whatever it is, it’s close by.”

Ashinji’s heart skipped a beat. “My father has always put his complete trust in your advice, Gendan, and so shall I. We’ll continue a little further.” He urged his horse onward.

“ Lord Ashinji, wait!” Gendan barked. Startled, Ashinji pulled up and turned in his saddle, frowning. Gendan pointed downstream. “Listen.”

Ashinji heard it faintly at first, then more loudly. “Someone’s shouting… in Soldaran!” Ashinji exclaimed. “They seem to be headed right for us.” He checked the chin strap of his helmet and drew his sword. “Let’s go!” He spurred his black gelding, and the horse immediately leaped forward into a gallop.

The company raced headlong down the riverbank, Ashinji and Gendan in the lead. Rocks shot out from underneath the horses’ flying hooves, ricocheting off the soldiers’ leather and metal clad bodies. As they thundered around a bend in the channel, Ashinji spotted a group of humans standing near the river’s edge. They all froze for a heartbeat, then turned and began racing away along the bank, all except two, who stood rooted to the spot, either too terrified or astonished to run. Ashinji tightened his grip on his sword hilt and prepared to strike.

Suddenly, like deer startled by hunting hounds, the two humans leapt apart and away, the larger man taking off downstream after the rest of his retreating comrades, the smaller one-a boy from the look of him-running for the trees.

Clever move , thought Ashinji as he twisted in the saddle to mark where the smaller human had gone. For an instant, it had looked as though the boy’s hands were glowing with magelight, but that was impossible. Humans had no magic.

“ Gendan!” he shouted, pulling up and turning his horse so sharply that it reared back on its haunches. “Go after the main group. You know enough Soldaran to offer them surrender. Kill them only if you have to. I’ll go after the boy.” Gendan nodded and galloped off, the company riding at his back. Ashinji spurred the gelding into a canter towards the woods.

The trees were large and very close together, and Ashinji quickly decided that it would be pointless to ride in among them. The human boy would be able to evade him with ease. He halted and peered into the gloom, straining to detect any movement. The gelding whickered and looked off to the left, his black ears pointed forward. Turning his head ever so slightly, Ashinji looked out of the corner of his left eye in time to see a slight figure slip from the margin of the woods several yards upstream and start to run in the direction of the fords. He immediately gave chase.

The boy glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had been spotted. He began sprinting hard, his feet a blur on the pebbles, but Ashinji knew the young human could not outrun a galloping horse.

Please don’t make me hurt you, Ashinji thought grimly as he bore down on the fleeing boy.

Suddenly, the boy tripped and went down. Ashinji shouted out a curse as he pulled back hard on the running horse, but it was too late to avoid riding over the boy’s prone body. He heard a scream of pain as he threw himself from the saddle and ran to crouch beside the fallen human.

The boy lay very still, face down. His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle and blood soaked the torn cloth of his shirt over his ribcage. Ashinji could not see the boy’s face, only his shock of tightly coiled, mahogany locks. A shiver of recognition passed through him. Slowly, he reached out, gripped the boy’s shoulders, and gently rolled him over.

“ Ai, Goddess!” Ashinji exclaimed. The shock of seeing her face drained all of the sensation from his arms and legs, leaving him unable to move. He sat down hard on his backside, staring. It was the girl from his dream!

She moaned, and her eyes fluttered open, alighting on his face. They were bright with pain and fear. She opened her bloodstained mouth and tried to scream but could only manage a croak. She began groping weakly at the empty sheath fastened to her hip as if trying to draw a knife that no longer hung there.

The look in her eyes revitalized Ashinji’s enervated limbs. “You must lie still,” he said softly in Soldaran. “My horse trampled you, and I do not know the extent of your wounds. I will not hurt you anymore, I swear.” He unbuckled the strap of his helmet and pulled it from his head, tossing it to the ground.

If she can see my face, she might not feel so scared.

It seemed to work. The girl stopped moving and began to stare at him, as if transfixed. “I have some poppy juice in my saddlebag,” he said. “It will ease your pain. I will go get it now.”

Ashinji scrambled to his feet and spotted his horse a few paces away, head down, pulling at a tuft of grass growing among the stones. Quickly, he retrieved the poppy juice and returned to the girl’s side. He uncorked the vial and slipped his hand beneath her head. “Drink this,” he murmured, lifting her up so that she might sip more easily. Her eyes never left his face as she swallowed the drug. She appeared to be in a trance, with him as the focus. She took a final sip, shuddered, then was seized by a spasm of harsh coughing. A gout of bloody froth bubbled from her lips, and she clutched at her chest, sobbing. Abruptly, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she went limp. Shaking, Ashinji lowered her head gently to the ground, sat back on his heels, and took a deep breath.

Her skin was a shade or two darker than his, and the wild mass of hair, though shorter, was as he remembered it from the dream. She was dressed in plain, well-made clothes-a man’s shirt, trousers, leather vest, and boots. Her features bore the unmistakable look of a hikui, one of mixed human-elf ancestry.

She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

At that moment, Ashinji felt the world shift beneath him, as if the mighty tidal forces shaping his life had suddenly changed, pulling him in an entirely new direction. He had no idea why, but he knew with the bone-deep certainty of a man of faith that this was meant to be, that he and this girl were meant for each other. He could not-would not-let her die.

He looked up at the sound of approaching hoof beats. Gendan had returned.

“ Lord Ashinji! Are you hurt?” the captain shouted in alarm at the sight of his young lord on his knees. He jumped down from his horse and ran over to where Ashinji knelt beside the injured, unconscious girl.

Ashinji waved his hand in reassurance. “No, Captain. I’m unhurt, but this girl here is, and badly. It’s my fault. She fell, and I rode over her. Gendan…look at her. She’s no bandit.”

Gendan squinted down at the girl’s drained, slack face and shrugged. “If you say so, my lord…We had to kill a few of the others,” he reported laconically.

Ashinji looked at the captain sharply. “Was there no other way, Gendan?” he questioned, dismayed.