// We can't maneuver the craft so close to her, // Thalnarra argued, then released a shriek and a lance of searing fire as a knight passed beneath them, firing a bow up at her. She twisted, catlike, in the air, and snatched the arrow, breaking it in half between her talons before it could touch her, and the craft lurched sickeningly with her movement. // I can't move in this bloody thing! // she cursed.
// There is a way, // Altair said, // if you have the heart for it. //
“Tell us!” Vidarian shouted, untying a ballast bag from the craft's side and slinging it down at the pursuing knights.
// The craft can be maintained by two gryphons, // Altair said, and Vidarian's stomach plummeted as he realized what the gryphon was suggesting. // With the aid of the Breath of Siane, I can carry you to the knight-commander. //
// Madness! // Thalnarra barked.
// No, // Altair said with icy calm. // Madness was lighting that beast's hair on fire within range of their lances. //
// Only an air-brained- // Thalnarra began.
“I'll do it!” Vidarian shouted, pulling the whistle from his shirt and clenching it in his fist. “What do we do?”
By way of answer, Altair twisted in the air, and, to Vidarian's horror (and Ruby's, by her cry of shock), sliced through the primary harness strap that bound him to the craft. The craft tilted sideways for a split second, but then the riven strap slithered through a set of rings in the rigging below, caught, and swung the craft to the right. Arikaree gave a squawk of surprise as they slid into place before him-the craft itself now rested between him and Thalnarra. They slowed, but mostly out of surprise.
Thalnarra snarled something menacing and incomprehensible at Altair.
Altair ignored her and shouted to Vidarian. // Jump! //
“He's got to be kidding,” Ruby breathed.
“He's not,” Vidarian said, knowing it through his core. He took a deep breath, unhooked his safety harness, and vaulted over the side of the craft.
He fell, and instinctively spread his arms and legs. The craft disappeared over his head, and below him ranged the clouds, astonishingly lovely, and the advancing Sky Knights in their formations.
// Blow the whistle! // the gryphon shouted, breaking him out of his astonishment.
Vidarian blew into the crystal whistle, a long breath that echoed in his ears, in his blood, in his skin. A gale swept through him, and out of reflex he tried to shape the energy, but it flowed through him like wind itself, slipping through his fingers unmoved. Altair caught the energy, wrapping himself around it and dancing with it, teasing it into going where he wanted.
// Beautiful, // the gryphon whispered, and then, as an afterthought, it seemed, juggled Vidarian into the reach of the wind's grasp. They stopped falling, and Vidarian arced in a curve, “flying” as if of his own volition just above Altair's wings. He drifted downward, featherlike, until he was touching the gryphon's back, taking a hold on the thick feathers at the base of his neck. The sphere of energy that surrounded them, allowing Altair unnatural strength in the air, was the clearest and most exhilarating Vidarian had ever breathed.
Then he looked down. The ground was awfully far away.…
// Try not to think about it, // Altair advised. Vidarian nodded numbly.
“We need to distract them!” he shouted over the roar of the wind, and Altair sent a wave of agreement.
// This will be a little dodgy, // Altair warned, then dove before Vidarian had a chance to answer.
They plummeted through the knights, who had stopped advancing when they saw Vidarian leap from the craft, and Vidarian's heart flew into his throat. Altair, loose, had unnerved the knights, indicated by their raised lances-but Altair, diving, claws outstretched, utterly scattered them. Feathers, horseflesh, and plated armor slid past them, and as their sphere of Air passed through, knights fell to either side in its wake. One was unhorsed, and plummeted, screaming-his horse dove after him, and they disappeared together into the clouds.
Then they were below the formations, and the sky opened up beneath them. Far below, the ground was green and wreathed with rivers, bizarrely peaceful, wisps of white cloud streaking by Altair's wings. He backwinged, slowing, and gravity flattened Vidarian against the gryphon's back. Then Altair folded one wing entirely, rolling sideways in the air. Vidarian clung for his life, his grip tight around the thick feather-shafts, knowing the sphere of air would adhere him to Altair but hardly trusting it.
The gryphon's wings opened again as they came to the side of the amassed knights, which as a group had reoriented upon them as the greater danger-and Vidarian as their instructed target. Altair whistled, and the sphere of energy seized around them again, and lifted them. His wings rowed the air, and they shot up above the knights; Altair extended a claw as they passed, tearing open the flank of a black horse that screamed in response and fell away from the group, its wings faltering.
Now they were above the group, again, and as Vidarian looked down over Altair's strongly pumping right wing he saw that the gryphon had positioned them squarely over the commander. This was it. For a split second his mind reeled at the sight of something few westerners had ever seen: a Sky Knight commander and her royal mount, its black coat glittering with signature iridescence, its feathered wings, crest, and tail bright with fierce health. The creature's body dwarfed the commander, who was no small woman-it was easily a quarter again the size of the other horses.
// Remember that you must control the beast once you're upon it! // Altair shouted. The “hand” supporting Vidarian suddenly fell away, and Vidarian was plummeting toward the horse and rider.
The commander and the knights surrounding her were looking up as Vidarian fell toward them, their swords and lances raised. Vidarian bent himself to one side, turning in the air, getting his feet underneath him-and only just managed to swerve to one side of the commander's arcing sword. An arm of wind whistled by his head, and the commander shouted as her sword was struck from her grasp, her wrist snapping back painfully in an attempt to retain it. The weapon spun through the air, disappearing below them.
Vidarian fell heavily onto the rear of the horse, which shrieked and kicked in response to his weight. He threw his arms around the commander's waist, grappling with her for the reins. Her armored elbow came up in a defensive maneuver and nearly knocked him senseless, and then she was swiveling in the saddle to bring her other fist around in a punishing strike. He managed to dodge that one, but was quickly losing his balance.
Around them, the other knights were shouting, and she shouted something back at them, then dug her heels into the horse. It leapt forward in response, and she shouted another command, sending it into a dive. Her practiced legs clamped around the beast's barrel, but Vidarian felt himself lifted out of the saddle, and grabbed the nearest object to hand-the commander's helmet.
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.