After my encounter with the Terrans, Stravus didn’t think it was safe for me to go back to the underground compound. I was heading out to one of the farms deep in the sand, somewhere it would be easier to hide until I was able to do whatever it was that he thought I would be able to do.
Baila had agreed to travel with me, along with the smaller of the two men I had met with Stravus. Torlyn was thin, with sharp features to match his razor-sharp teeth, which he rubbed incessantly with his tongue. Baila told me in secret that it was something that new mages did, both because their teeth were still unfamiliar to them and because they wanted to draw attention to them.
We rode in an enclosed wagon pulled by bovii, slow and steady, tossing us up at every bump and turn in the road. We took turns driving, which was mostly unnecessary. The bovii knew the way better than we did, and pushed on through the sand without complaint. We stopped during the hottest part of the day underneath a lean-to shelter that had been made just for escaping the sun.
As the bovii drank water from a little wooden basin at the foot of a hand pump, the three of us shared some meat and a bit of pepperwine that Torlyn had brought along. After we had eaten and cleaned up, the three of us settled in for the worst of the heat. Torlyn was snoring quickly, but I saw that Baila was just sitting with her knees curled up to her chest, lost in thought.
“What made you join the Talons?” I looked at her hopefully, but she didn’t adjust her gaze, and didn’t speak for a long moment. I waited, didn’t push her. Finally, she spoke.
“What made you join? You aren’t the first person to lose family by Terran hands, and you definitely won’t be the last. We all join for the same reason, or near enough that you could call it the same. We want freedom. You can say you want to stop the Terrans, or that you want to build a better world, or even revenge, or a hundred other excuses. Really, though, we just want to be free.” She never looked up, but also never wavered in what she said.
I nodded, understanding and agreeing. After some more silence, she spoke again. “Do you know why we are called the Talons?” I shook my head, and she smiled and finally looked up at me. Well let me tell you, then. It’s more important than why I joined.” She took a long drink from the pepperwine and grimaced, then cleared her throat and began.
“There was a planet, Liandia, with trees and water and so much life. When our people first landed there, we were amazed at the things we found. There was nothing like this on our cold, hard home - no forests, no rivers or oceans. The world we came from was much more like Altura than you might realize. A hundred of the strongest knights went down first, and were the first of our people to encounter Avians.
The strange creatures were not like any we had encountered before. They were like us, in many ways - smart, powerful, and wary of the threat of the Terran empire. The empire was only a whisper for most at that point, still in its adolescence, but the Avians were already watching their advance.
One of the Avians, Chrysaetos, told us of his desire to stop the Terrans before they could advance any further toward the Avians’ home. Their leader did not agree with Chrysaetos, and he was banished from their flock. We took him in, along with some others that shared his beliefs. It was several generations before the Terrans spread out across their corner of the galaxy and started encroaching, but they eventually found their way to [planet name].
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The battle was short, but intense. The Avians were stronger, faster, smarter. Terrans were innumerable, and their weapons were overwhelming. Eventually, the Avians fell and were either killed or enslaved. Only those that had come from Chrysaetos’ small flock remained free. By the time Liandia had fallen, they numbered over a hundred, and had moved on to fight for the resistance on other planets.
The group, the original Talons, dedicated their lives to making things as difficult as possible for the Terrans. They knew they would never be able to defeat the Empire, but refused to stop, and vowed to fight to the last feather to help free their people, and any others enslaved by the Terran Empire.”
She stopped speaking, took another long swig of the pepperwine. Torlyn reached for the bottle after she had finished, and added in, “The Talons are doing the same thing now that they always have. The only difference is, now we know the Empire can’t be subdued. It must be stopped entirely, destroyed.”
The cart rolled on through the sand-covered pathway. Sometimes it would lose traction and Vuvu would whimper against the unsteady feeling of the wheels slipping across the stone road. The mountains in the distance had doubled in size, but were still a few days away. By midday of the second day, I noticed that we were slipping less often, and looked ahead at the path before we settled into the shelter. There was less sand, and the ground had small patches of green holding some of the soil in place.
I looked across the circle to Torlyn. Instead of sleeping, he was looking down the pathway toward our destination. With no prompting, he finally spoke up. “I have not been back to the fields in twenty spins. My mother died right in the field, one leek in each hand. I swore I wouldn’t come back.” His raspy breathing filled the silence and I understood now.
“I’m sorry. I did not know you were a farmer.” I looked over to him, trying to fight back the sadness that had overwhelmed me. He just shrugged and pulled his hat down over his eyes.
“I’m not a farmer. I’m a Talon.” With that, he laid back and was sleeping in minutes. I looked at him, then at Baila, who was already fast asleep. There was no need for watches here, as nobody could traverse the desert during the midday heat to sneak up on them. I closed my eyes and let the heat surround me, the rhythmic rattle of Torlyn’s damaged airways sending me to sleep.
As we finally made it into the village, the first thing that stood out to me was the knights. There were more knights walking the streets of the small farming community than there had been in Boh’gren. I noticed, too, that they were the only ones that had any real protection from the sand.
There were dozens of frail-looking Alturans walking around the center of the village, some with thin masks and some with no facial coverings at all. Only a few had any eye protections. We dismounted from our cart and asked one of the knights for directions. He only grunted and nodded toward an open-air market.
There was a line of thin, dirty people trying to get into the market with hand carts, bags, and boxes overflowing with fruits and vegetables. The nearest of them looked at us as we moved closer. I tried to skirt the line, to talk to the knight at the front of the line, but was greeted with angry stares and grumbling from the others in the line.
We joined the que and spent much of the afternoon waiting until it was finally our turn to speak to the knight. He looked up at us, then back down at the glowing screen where he recorded names and information on everyone that entered the market. “What’s yah purpose?” We looked at one another, then back at the knight, unsure of what to say.
“Y’can buy, y’can sell, or y’can keep moving.” He tapped the table with his finger, highlighting the impatience that his helmet hid. The three of us wore thin masks and goggles, barely more protected than the farmers. Baila’s helmet was underneath the seat in the cart.
“We want to buy some food, and we need a bed for the night.” I spoke with confidence, but Torlyn’s eyes flicked to me quickly before shooting back toward the knight. I waited, now worried that I had said something I shouldn’t have. The knight finally stood up and waved over another, larger man with a mechanical respirator mask that covered his entire face, but strapped against the back of his head.
“Ok’di, get these three over to the pits. They need somewhere to sleep!” He laughed robotically and waved us to the side of the line for the imposing form that was walking toward us to collect us.