As the magnificent red griffin that carried them banked so its passengers could have a better view of the city below, Leslyn reflexively doubled his grip on Koben's saddle and leaned in the opposite direction. The red held the center of a five-griffin diamond formation, a black on either side, a brown in the rear, and a white taking point. Gunu was on the white, Xavara and Tannoran on the blacks. The second captain, Esmor, was on the brown, and Kaleit rode with his father.
The beginning of their flight was unfortunately aimless and wasted some time, but it was not long before evidence of Wrath's presence in the city below became obvious. All they had to do was watch for the pockets of confusion and disarray, where unusual gatherings of people milled or damage had been done.
More than one market display had been knocked down, and large dents and holes had been sunk into the roofs of several houses she'd climbed, or perhaps fell on while attempting to fly. It was fortunate that her wings were still tender from the chain that had served to yank her from the sky during her capture, or else she might have just flown away, never to return.
Minutes went by, and even with so many eyes in the air, they still hadn't located the immense griffin.
"She’s a bright blue predator half as large as some of these houses. She should stand out like a beacon down there," Koben grumbled.
Leslyn’s mind had slowly drifted elsewhere as they searched. He was back in the Aerie, going over Wrath’s actions as best as he could recall. Her sudden exit couldn’t have been predicted, but, with the clarity of hindsight, he could see how it came to that. “She knew exactly what she was doing,” he murmured, staring off beyond the distant horizon. “She saw that Aeriemaster Gunu turned his back to her and opened the door for Erin, and knew he would do it again if she picked someone else from the crowd.”
“And Gunu said then that she was looking for someone in particular. She’s a smart, smart girl. She knew who she wanted when she was looking for Erin. Just like she knows who she wants now.”
“And that person wasn’t the Aerie at all, so she had to find a way out to get to him or her.”
"Yes." Koben’s terse answer had a grim finality to it. “And I have a gut feeling as to just whom she's after. Let’s go, Romo!" The prince urged his mount to pick up speed, dropping down below the formation and coming back up in front. With a shout and a wave, he led the others in a different direction entirely—toward the castle.
As they got closer, Leslyn suddenly spotted the mother griffin below in the streets, loping on all fours. Whether all of the riders saw her or not, they seemed to react as one, following Koben into a series of swooping dives that gained them ground at what felt to Leslyn like an impossible speed. They blew ahead of Wrath and landed in the courtyard of the castle.
The Aeriemaster immediately dismounted, leaving his white to wait while he sprinted to meet Wrath as she came in. The others remained mounted some distance behind him.
“He’s figured it out,” Koben said. “He’s going to try to reason with her.”
“What for?”
“Apparently,” the prince drawled, “her time as queen over her very own island has given her a big head. She thinks she’s above the rules, now.”
“Which rules would those be, sire?”
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“Quite a few, at this point.”
Before Leslyn could beg a less cryptic answer of the prince, Wrath entered the courtyard at a dead run. Gunu called and waved his arms, but she barely acknowledged him, and that mostly just to swerve enough to get around him. She froze when she saw the other griffins, and even through the cloud of dust she stirred, Leslyn could see her tongue wagging with each heavy pant she suffered. Her eyes were wild, darting around in a frantic search. At last, they fell on the stable. She sniffed the air, and her ears stood straight up.
General Xavara let out a throaty yelp of protest. As Wrath took off for the stable, she pressed her griffin to intercept. They clashed in a whirl of black and blue, snarling with thunderous voices that echoed off the walls of the castle and courtyard.
Koben’s gaze was steely when he turned from the fight to look at his squire. “Leslyn, down. Now.”
Leslyn’s hanging jaw snapped shut and he obeyed instantly, climbing down red Romo’s hind leg, then watched in stunned silence as the prince took his own griffin into the fray. It was impossible to grasp the flurried movements of the beasts as they circled and slashed with talons and wings, but he caught a few glimpses of Xavara and Koben, curled into their mounts’ manes to make the smallest targets possible for Wrath’s blows.
Gunu’s shouts at them to stop were futile, and barely audible over the awful din. The two captains on brown and black remained still and looked on with grim faces, likely hesitating because of how easy it would be for their own griffins to end up in a fatal tangle with their allies in such close quarters—and Tannoran had the safety of his son to be concerned with, as well.
After what seemed like an eternity, there was a pause in the battle, Koben’s red and Xavara’s black blocking Wrath from the stable with mantled wings and flared manes. Leslyn’s stomach clenched at the sight of blood on everyone, including the riders. The griffins were heaving from exertion, each of their breaths sounding like the rumbling of angered lions.
“Stop!” someone called.
Leslyn looked for the voice, but it was too faint to pinpoint.
“STOP!”
Arlis ran from the stable and between the defending griffins, waving at Wrath to leave them be.
With another cry, Xavara leapt from her saddle. Her bloody right leg crumpled underneath her, but she gritted her teeth and limped until she stood in front of Arlis, arms held out to shield him from the blue griffin.
“You will not take my son!” she shouted up at Wrath.
The blue’s wings unfurled to their fullest with a snap. Koben shouted a warning, for his griffin and Xavara’s had both tensed to spring.
The woman’s eyes did not waver from Wrath, even as the blue’s beak hovered nearer and nearer. “He’s just a boy, not even old enough to take part in the pact. My baby!” Her face twisted in anguish. “And not just that. He’s… He’s all I have left of his father.”
Wrath snorted at the general, mane flattened to her neck. She let out a frustrated shriek and shook her head, then centered back on Xavara with focused eyes.
“My husband is dead.” She stared up at the beast, her face hard as stone. “He and his griffin both, gone forever. And you want to take the only part of my lifemate that I have left, my son, and risk him to the wyverns too, while he’s still just a child. Do you understand?”
The ruff that cradled Wrath’s head puffed out, independent of the rest of her mane.
Wrath lost her rider, Leslyn suddenly recalled. Maybe other loved ones, too. She was all alone on that island. She might understand, after all.
Snatching his chance in the moment of quiet, Koben called to Xavara, and they spoke briefly. Leslyn guessed the prince was telling her the same thing. The general looked back at Wrath, pulling Arlis to her as he edged around to stand in front of his mother.
Wrath dropped her beak, its tip still freshly blood-stained, until it was nearly touching the boy’s knees. Both of her brilliant green eyes were locked on his. The trilling sound she made then was still rough with distress, but there was a counterpoint of warmth in it that Leslyn had only ever heard her use toward her keets.
Gunu approached them and said something else that Leslyn couldn’t hear, and Xavara spun her son by the shoulders to look him in the face. Whatever they said to each other then caused her to cover her face with her hands. Arlis hugged her, then turned back and spoke softly to Wrath.
A gasp left Leslyn’s lips as Wrath bent and laid her head on the ground, allowing the boy to climb onto the crest of her neck. She spread her wings, tested her battle-battered body with a hop and a few flaps, found it strong again with the fire of the earlier fight, and bounded into the air toward the Aerie.