Hands, already wrapped around Tuya’s back, tender and loving moments ago, held her with violence and hatred. Hands that guided her for many seasons, helping her become herself, now restricted her freedom as they closed around her neck. Yaha’s voice roared, deep and guttural, coming from the throat and lacking all the melody of her Mahagan accent, “You cannot fly away from me, Chosen!”
Tuya clung to Batu’s neck feathers, trying to hang on as Gurg strangled her with Yaha’s hands. The Ezen’s mind unleashed shockwaves of hatred and anger and Tuya wanted to make herself small and hide from him. But there was nowhere to hide. Batu flew higher and higher above the treetops, ensuring naught but death should Tuya try to flee. Tuya gave everything to not let go, to not fly away into the sky, to not crash back toward Celegana’s land and become just another dead girl who failed to survive the Hollows. She fought for her life.
The air rushed into Tuya’s face. She struggled to breathe, to focus, and her exhaustion, her lightheadedness made Gurg’s grip seem insurmountable as his hatred hammered against her mind. He wanted to destroy everything she cared about, to throttle her to the brink of death every day, to never give her another chance to embarrass, to betray, to hurt him.
The giant eagle frantically veered up and dove down, tilted left and right, as if he could evade the menace on his back like an arrow being shot at him. His mind was a turbulent whirlwind blowing chaotic thoughts at Tuya’s already overwhelmed psyche. Batu’s panic was indistinguishable from her own and threw dry tinder upon the flames of her nightmare. He was going to fly toward the stars, ascending until his passengers slipped and fell down into the evil place where the trees had holes. He was not going to let the evil men control him again. He was going to fly home and never look back, even if that meant letting go of his sister. He ascended, sharply, and Yaha’s hands slipped off Tuya’s throat and latched around her waist, clinging to her as Tuya gripped into Batu’s feathery flesh, trying to hang on as he flew into the firmament.
Batu, no! Tuya thought. She did not spend seasons learning how to fight, learning how to survive, enduring all the suffering, pushing through sorrow of losing over and over again, to die here, especially thrown through the sky by her bird brother. Her eyes glowed silver and light burst around her body as she searched for hope that would keep her and Batu from letting go. The images swam through the link, lighting the way ahead. Batu would fly steady over the treetops, giving her a chance to fight for their lives. She would win her freedom, throwing Yaha down into the Hollows, she would land safely, using her windjumping, then Tuya would drive Gurg’s consciousness back to Celegana’s Spire. They would all fly away and find the place they belonged. Together.
Tuya’s fingers burned, clinging to the great eagle, carrying Yaha’s weight on her back. She cried out, mustering strength, refusing to let go of her dream, sending it to Batu just as fiercely as she clung to his feathers.
Batu’s guilt flowed through their link, communicating regret over his panicked reaction. The giant eagle steadied his flight, hundreds of body lengths over the treetops. His thoughts were a dark place, born from dreadful days, not unlike Tuya’s, full of the dead memories of loved ones they failed to save. Alas, the tiny twinkle of hope gleamed bright enough for them both to persist into the darkness and hold on. If only for a little bit longer.
Find a meadow! she pleaded.
Batu thrummed with understanding. Throw her off!
Yaha’s hands grasped at the spear fastened by a vine to Tuya’s back, she gripped to Tuya’s hair, pulling her head back in sharp agony. Tuya killed the voice inside her that refused to hit her mother, her protector. She knew what Yaha would have her do now, knew why the woman spent the last season driving this lesson into her. Tuya refused to let her down now, even if it meant she might kill her.
Tuya’s elbow smashed into Yaha’s face. Blood spurted on her back and flew red through the air behind them, splattering over Yaha as it rushed from her twice-broken nose. Yaha reeled, releasing Tuya, one hand covering the bleeding.
Tuya suppressed her misery as her eyes stung from more than the fierce winds in the skies above the Hollows. She gripped tight to Batu’s neck and shared an unwanted, but necessary, mental image with him. Now, Batu!
Batu twisted to the right, his body going sideways in flight. Tuya clung to his feathers, both hands tossed over his neck, grasping for her life as her entire body dangled over the treetops. Yaha lurched forward, blood streaming, and latched onto Tuya’s leg. She swung her leg, trying to hurl Gurg off. Gurg screamed as Yaha’s feet grazed against the leaves and branches at the top of the trees, but he did not let go. Tuya gritted her teeth, trying to hang on, hoping that Gurg would slip, feeling her grip weaken as it felt like fire burned in her fingers. Her mind knew the score, knew where this was headed, and Batu was not stupid, even if he had lapses like the rest of them.
Batu steadied his flight and Tuya collapsed atop him, her aching body refusing to follow her commands as it felt like every muscle in her body was dead and her bones hollow.
Yaha’s fist crashed into Tuya’s back, the pain shooting throughout her whole body as Gurg bellowed his fury. The bigger woman fell atop Tuya, her weight snaring her to the back of the bird, giving her little room to wriggle beneath her. The hands that made her latched around Tuya’s throat again, throttling her and slamming her head into Batu’s muscular back. Tuya gasped, breathing in as much of the tumultuous air as she could. Wave after wave of hatred slammed into her mental walls, trying to force their way through her link with Batu.
It was hopeless, as it always seemed to be when fate turned upon her and spat in her face. She tried anyway. What else could she do? She was not the little girl staring down at the cliffs and contemplating leaping. Yaha saw to that and now, even if it was Yaha’s body doing the destruction, she would not give up.
Tuya squirmed, waiting for any opening she could find. Gurg anticipated her every move, guided by the knowledge of the one who trained her to fight. He shifted Yaha’s weight and oppressed each attempt at rebellion, each time slamming her head against Batu’s back and calling her a stupid khorota.
You have no hope of escaping me! Gurg projected, ripping out a handful of her hair as he throttled Tuya again. You never did! You never will! He slammed her head against Batu’s back. YOU! Slam. ARE! Slam. MINE!
Never had her silver eyes struggles so much to see clarity as her vision blurred. Tuya tried to rise, to push Yaha off her back. Her forearms quaked, strained, and burnt from exertion. Her hips rose, lifting off Batu’s back, pushing, pushing, pushing for some separation. Her feet dug into the bird, her legs tangled in Yaha’s as Gurg pinned them down, refusing their movement as Yaha’s pelvis thrust into her rear, driving her hips back to the bird.
This will not work! Batu pulsed, horrified, convinced that the taller two-legs would soon kill Tuya and then kill him with her little pointed tree.
Tuya thought of the spear strung around her shoulder, about the woman that taught her to use it, and about the man that she worked so hard to use it on. Very well, she thought, her head colliding again with the feathered muscle of Batu’s back. Fly higher, Batu.
Batu obliged, shooting skyward, up, up, and above the Hollows, sorrow permeating his heart as he foresaw the end, as he remembered being alone, being responsible for the death of the ones he loved, and having nobody to protect him from the evil two-legs that took his body from him. Feelings and memories that Tuya knew well, thinking of all she lost, and of what she would probably lose even if this last hope held true.
I will not leave you, Tuya thought to Batu before letting go, breaking her link with him, and flinging herself through the sky.
Gurg gripped onto her and their bodies fell through the air, hundreds of body lengths over a meadow.
CHOSEN! The fear in Gurg’s thoughts gave her a thrill, a sudden jolt of life, even as her body plummeted many, many body lengths down through the open air above the Hollows. He was certain that, at last, she had escaped her, that he lost, and that his destiny was doomed without her. Tuya felt satisfaction in that, even though hurting him was not why she let go. She sent her mind to Yaha and Gurg, melding into their intertwined consciousnesses.
Yaha!
So many emotions could be charged into a single word, in the inflections of a name. Love for the woman who did not give birth to you but raised you. Fear that she was gone and would not hear Tuya in what could be their final moments. Hope that she would hear, that she would come through and save you once again.
tuya. Faint though her mental pulse was, Yaha was there, buried within Gurg’s dominion, a tiny drop of love swimming in an ocean of hate.
Yaha! Tuya slammed into Gurg’s mind, Give. Her. Back!
The Ezen was a shadow of himself, a tiny child, petulantly whining to himself about the injustice of this end, hating himself for his failure nearly as much as he hated her. Yaha grew stronger as his grip slipped, as he embraced defeat. She was a rising tide in the ocean sweeping toward the shore.
Tuya.
The ground approached, faster and faster, certain to return them Celegana’s earth, to the dirt and the roots beneath the ground.
Yaha! Seasons of apologies for every time they fought, seasons of gratitude of all the times she felt cared for, seasons of hope for helping her dream of flying away.
TUYA!
The wave slammed into the shore, breaking free of the ocean, blending with the sands, and taking control of its own fate.
Yaha! Dreams of flying away from the Hollows, of going to the Mahogany Isles and seeing the rains of Dalazuli, of flying around Covademara and witnessing the beauty of every flower upon the great tree atop the hill, of touching the sands in Isihla and seeing the place where Norali’s children roamed. Hope burning bright as Gurgaldai receded.
The wind rushed up to meet them, slowing their fall like two feathers embracing. They landed amongst the flowers and the grass, within a circle of trees from some faraway region of the Hollows beyond the eyes of Celegana’s Spire.
The pleasant perfumes of the meadow, the vibrant colors of hundreds of different flowers in bloom, the sunset rimming the horizon and casting soft, dull light on the entire scene, the precious smile on Yaha’s face, the sound of her saying, “My little empagong,” with her melodic voice, as her dark eyes filled with tears was beauty fit for a reunion in one of those stories the woman told of faraway lands in long ago times. Tuya hoped that this was the beautiful beginning of the rest of her life and that, as Batu landed in the meadow, they would fly away and leave behind the ugliness of Tuya’s childhood.
Alas, the ugliness was still here, clinging to Tuya like evil roots leaving her planted in this hell. Batu squawked, urgently. Faces appeared along the edge of the meadow, tamers with their stupid tamer clubs. Tuya drew her spear from her shoulder and leveled it at the tamers. She spun around, counting the dirty, bruised faces of men leering through the trees. Fourteen. She opened her mouth to speak, to tell Yaha it was time to go, but the resurgence of hatred, of desire, of domination in the space where three consciousnesses met slammed her jaw shut.
Tuya turned, taking several backsteps away from her mother, and stepped into empagong stance.
Yaha sneered down at her and even though she was leaner than she was the day she arrived in the Hollows, Yaha was still more muscular than Tuya. Their battle atop Batu fresh in her mind, the memories of old sparring matches in the dark place resurfacing, not wanting to hurt this woman who called her “little empagong,” who loved her, she struggled to believe in herself. Yaha’s dark eyes were gone, replaced with the beautiful blue seers of the man who held the reins. “Where are you going, little empagong?”
Yaha’s voice, Yaha’s language, but not Yaha. Tuya trembled, her grip on the spear weak. Batu squawked but Tuya could not hear him over Gurg roaring through Yaha’s mouth, “This is my Chosen. Bind her!”
Gurg blasted psionic energy at Tuya’s consciousness, tearing her psyche to shreds as she clung to her mother’s freedom. Yaha’s consciousness grew smaller and smaller, reverting back to the small drop in the ocean of hate. Tuya tried to keep hold of her, to will her with the strength to fight against this insurmountable monster within her mind. They were both so tired, so worn down by running, by two full days without rest, by all of it. Still, Tuya fought. What else could she do? She could not leave her mother behind without trying everything she could. Yaha! Be yourself! Be free!
All else was lost in this beautiful meadow as every sense was devoted to staying in this link, trying to give Yaha strength and break away from Gurgaldai ezen Celegan. She felt herself slipping, being driven to her knees, blood coming from every orifice, her fingers struggling to hold to her spear, every part of her twitching and jerking as she was throttled mentally.
behind you, tuya!
Tuya fled the link, surrendering Yaha in order to save herself. She twisted, caught the encroaching tamer in the chest with her spear, then thrusted once, twice, thrice, with quick jabs that spilled him and his blood upon the flowers. The next group tamers tried to surround her from each angle. Tuya shifted into water form and flowed away from them, leaking through their trap, finding her footing, and shifting into lion form. She lashed out with quick, precise thrusts, hitting an eye there, leaving a heart wound here, plunging the sharpened tip into a leg and then slashing across the throat as the tamer dropped to his knee squealing in pain. Their faces swam past her consciousness as she shifted from stance to stance executing perfect maneuvers as she was taught. Tuya did not register the faces of the men she killed, spared no thoughts for who they were or where they began. She knew them not, only that they stood between her and freedom, that they were obstacles between her and saving Yaha. Eventually, they stopped coming at her, their bodies littered onto the flowers and coloring the grass with red, their final traces of consciousness veering into the Hollows, seeking a second life. When the last one fell to the flowers, her awareness broadened beyond the immediate danger to herself.
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Batu cawed madly, defending himself from a pair of tamers with clubs while another tamer tried to seize his mind. Tuya dashed toward him and sent her consciousness ahead of her. The tamer trying to seize Batu staggered to his knees as she hit him with a wave of repulsion that ejected him from Batu’s mind. Unbound, Batu tore out a tamer’s throat with a talon, took to the wing, and crashed down on the other tamer, crushing him between his talon and the ground. Tuya executed wind form, leaping and driving her spear into the chest of the staggered tamer. She ripped the spear free and slashed it across his neck before driving it into his heart and twisting until the tamer’s consciousness seeped out of him.
Many eyes watched from the edge of the meadow, crouched low to the ground, making themselves small, watching this display unlike any other they ever saw, but Tuya only cared about one set of seers now. Blue, they were, and wrong. So very wrong.
Yaha stood in the center of the meadow, her spear in her hands. Gurg’s eyes glared out of her dark, bloody, bruised, tired, frowning face.
Batu squawked and Tuya sent her mind to him. She found him open as any mind ever was to her. He wasted no time sharing his thoughts. Your mother is gone. The evil has claimed her. If we do not go, it will claim us too!
Tuya clenched her spear, knowing Yaha would want her to take this opportunity, to leave her and fly away. She knew that Yaha, infused with Gurg’s physical might, was beyond her skill with the spear, and physically there was no chance of overpowering her. Norali’s light! She saw that clear as she saw Yaha standing in front of her wearing Gurg’s eyes. She knew! Alas, knowing was not the same as feeling.
No. I will drive Gurg to his knees and tell him who sent me, then I will take her with me. He and his people have taken everyone from me. Everyone! Tuya stepped toward Yaha, the dark woman’s lips rising. He will not take her too. Not until I have done everything I can.
Says your heart, but your mind does not believe, sister. There is no shame in surviving today. Your mother, my partner, your friends, my young, they will all be avenged. But not today. Batu projected love, that same sentiment she felt long ago, a little child without a word for the way he felt toward her. If we leave now, we will still have each other.
Love means everything to me, Batu, including yours. If your mate were alive, if there was even a glimmer of hope, one single ray in a world of darkness, that you could save her, would you fly away?
No, Batu admitted, his hardness melting. No. I would fly toward her as fast as I can and never once look back.
She took another step toward Yaha. Even if it meant you might die.
Life without love is death.
Then you understand what I must do.
Sorrow seeped into the link, but with it, acceptance. Batu receded, gently setting her consciousness out of his mind. I do.
Gurg beamed at Tuya as she closed the distance between them, spear in hand. “She is so disappointed in you, little Tuya.” Gurg imitated Yaha’s voice, somehow making it even more stubborn. “I am not the one that must go on! Tuya of the Hollows! We! Cannot! Defeat! A Chimaera! Promise me, Tuya! Promise me that if a chimaera closes in, you will leave me behind! Promise me that you will go on after I am gone!”
“I cannot make that promise,” Tuya whispered, the wind carrying her words, hopefully to wherever Yaha lurked inside of her own mind.
“Of course not,” Gurg said, in his own voice. “Your dark one is a fool, Chosen.” Yaha’s face smiled. “You will never be able to go on.” He pointed to Batu with Yaha’s spear. “Fly away and find that there is no place where you belong in the faraway lands. All you will find is broken lands and broken people, except they try to deny it, try to pretend to be better than they are. You will soon see the lies of the childish dreams you believe in. You will not sleep, knowing that I am always watching, always listening, and that, sooner rather than later, I will find you.” He opened Yaha’s arms. “Fly away, Chosen! Play pretend with the pretenders! See for yourself where it leads you!” He snarled, stepping toward her, and Tuya shifted into empagong stance on instinct. “Back to the place where you belong! Tuya of the Hollows!”
Yaha’s body circled, wielding the spear like a spearmaster, holding lion stance, ready to pounce. Tuya kept empagong stance, crouched, weight on the backs of her feet, arms ready to defend herself from any onslaught.
“Fly away,” Gurg taunted, sneering. “I will always be with you, haunting your every thought. My eyes and ears will be everywhere, always watching, always hearing. Not a day will go by where you do not look over your shoulder, expecting to see me.”
Tuya shook her head. “Do you ever stop and think there is a reason why nobody loves you? Why the most powerful, most beautiful, man in the world is the least loved, the most alone, the one who can trust nobody, the one everyone will always betray? No, Gurg, you will not be with me. You will not haunt me. Each day you will rise, blind and deaf to me, wanting my power, my womb, my love. Instead, you will be waiting, wondering, fearing if this will be the day that I come for you, the day I destroy everything you have ever fought for. I will be the one haunting you, you ignorant, cruel, broken, unlovable, piece of shit.”
Perhaps it was unwise to taunt the most powerful man in the world, to call him out for the narcissistic piece of shit that he truly was, especially when he wielded the body of the person who trained you to fight, a person you would not give up on, no matter how hopeless it was to fight. Alas, Tuya forgot how to stand down and make herself small, thanks to Yaha, and she never did learn to stop hoping, despite it all, thanks to herself.
Yaha’s body pounced forth, Gurg screaming, the hate flowing off his consciousness a massive dark cloud raining balls of fire upon her mind. Tuya held empagong form, shelling herself from hatred and deflecting each of Yaha’s lion strikes. Yaha was quick, but Tuya was quicker. Yaha knew what Tuya would do, but Tuya knew even more what Yaha would do, her lightseer eyes seeing what would be before it became what was. Her body knew the movements like it knew how to breathe. One, two, three, four, fifty. Gurg came for her, but he found no holes in her shell.
He launched into the air, seeking the one advantage Tuya could never have, and plunged down, recklessly going for killing blows, his anger, his hatred, too intense to restrain as she thwarted him again and again, as none ever had before. Wind form was outclassed by water. Tuya flowed, stepping aside of the devastating plunging attacks. She backstepped and circled, her feet as graceful as the Endless Blue. He tried and he tried, Tuya shifting from empagong to water, never striking back, wearing him down, breaking his control over his emotions, weakening his grip over himself, and, by extension, Yaha. Tuya only struck out with her mind, repeating the same five words each time Gurg failed to hit her. Be yourself, Yaha. Be free.
The psionic bombardment of hate did not diminish, but it was no longer alone. Through the depths of Gurgaldai ezen Celegan’s consciousness, Tuya felt her there. Yaha’s spirit soared with pride, knowing that she created this spear, and that this spear would drive the tyrant to his knees.
Gurg brandished the spear and dashed forth again. Light burst from Tuya’s eyes and flashed Gurg’s blue eyes with the radiance of the stars. She anticipated just how he would shield himself from the light, and, like a flash of light, moved in, striking Yaha’s gut with the shaft of the spear, then slamming it upward into the bottom of her jaw. Yaha staggered, blindly. Tuya swung, catching Yaha’s fingers. The spear fell to the grass and Tuya charged, pushing Gurg back with another thrust with the blunt end of the spear and then swept Yaha’s legs, spilling her into a bed of blue flowers.
She retrieved Yaha’s spear, wielding them both, and shouted, “Batu!” She projected her mind to his, hoping that he would agree, that he would understand, that he would do what he could to keep her from leaving behind any more loved ones.
The great eagle, circling the clearing, descended, his talons pinned the unarmed Yaha to the ground before she could rise again. Not even Gurg, limited by Yaha’s depleted body, could overpower a creature vastly stronger than her, restrained as he was.
Bring her home, Batu projected.
Tuya reached for Yaha, piercing through Gurg’s mind with her own, flashing like a spear that went all the way through the front and out the back. Be yourself, Yaha. Be free!
Yaha seized the mental hand Tuya extended and clutched to her mind as they weathered the immense waves of hatred and wrath that inundated them. Tuya held her mind against the storm and pushed back with the assertion that she would not be intimidated by him anymore. She would not be caught! She would not be leaving without Yaha! She would not return to the Spire until the day she killed him! She was done! Done being wrapped in his vines and told to run as far as she could, only so he could pull her back and tell her how helpless she was! He might have been an ocean but she was the sky and all the lights that shone in it. She would not be touched, whatever clouds he might conjure, she would send the bad water back down and keep shining the light on the truth. His way was wrong. He was wrong.
Gurg’s hold over Yaha slipped, her eyes shifting from blue to dark. Her body twitched as the mind knew not who commanded the body. Batu kept Yaha’s body safe beneath his talon as she went rigid.
Desperate, Gurg tried to intimidate her, to remind her of how powerless she had been, of the things she had done to get here, the people she lost. Darrakh’s blood on the tip of her spear, a beach full of dead farawaylanders, a little girl that lurked in her tiny hollow waiting to die, thinking of the cliffs everyday until it was him who stopped her from leaping.
Tuya smashed through his lies, done with those who tried to make her hate herself. Yaha’s pride enveloped her, like the warmest furs, like a mother’s embrace, as it had since the day they met, dispelling the lies that cruel men taught a little girl who was exactly like every other. She battered against Gurg’s mind, crashing into his consciousness, repelling him as she strengthened Yaha’s control over her mind.
Still, Gurg refused to let go, and Tuya could not force him out, even if she could keep him from dominating Yaha. Their power shifted, Gurg pushing her down and Tuya reclaiming herself the next. This was not a grand battle where blademasters dueled among fields of flowers or cognitive-affectomancers clashed with fire and lightning on a mountaintop. No great tapestries would be woven demonstrating the way their minds forced through their opponent’s life stories and pulled at insecurities. No songs would convey the mental movement that occurred between the two greatest masters of their craft. Their war was invisible but the equivalent of two perfect storms colliding. No fancy, flowery words could capture how their powers were antithesis and equal. Neither of them would win this battle. One of them would lose it, would give in first.
You will give in, Gurg projected. You are not my equal, khorota!
No, Tuya realized. Our power may be equal, but we are not. When life has given me impossible choices, I have always done my best to make pain smaller. When you have been given choices, you have always chosen to make pain greater. That is why you will never be my equal, Gurgaldai. That is why I will never love you. That is why I will never choose you. It is not because of who I am or some innate unlovability within you. It is because who you have chosen to be! You could have made the same choices I made, you could have used your unfathomable power to make pain smaller, and I would have loved you. How I would have loved you if only you chose to love others instead of hate! That, Gurgaldai, is why the most powerful, most beautiful, man in the world is the least loved, the most alone, the one who can trust nobody, the one everyone will always betray. That is why I will not give in first.
She felt him, back on Munderra, overlooking the Hollows like a god. A sad, lonely god worshipped only out of fear. Gurg shook, every way that a man could shake. Blood fell from his eyes and ears, from his nose and mouth, as the chimaeras and tamers atop the Spire watched their master fill with fear. His hold over Yaha withered, her mind becoming clearer within the space they shared.
To his knees, Tuya.
Go away, tamer! Be gone! Tuya pushed with all her mind, Yaha’s mental force joining with hers, growing in strength.
Gurg dug in, his mind being torn to shreds, his psyche beginning to fracture under the pressure of not one strong woman who refused to break, but two.
Gurg fell to his knees and pleaded, I do what I must. The pretenders push each other down, striving to be at the top and in control. They do it in the name of their false gods, in the name of their ancestors, in the name of might, in the name of little jewels or shiny metals, some even in the name of this love you so cherish. Everywhere everyone hurts. The only answer is to make us one again, to restore the Wholeness. To do that, I must wield absolute power here because nobody else will do what must be done. One more chance, Chosen. You have proven your might, but you will not be able to escape me. I can still forgive your foolishness. Join me and I will spare the dark one, I will let the bird fly away, I will allow you to live with me and I will give you whatever you want as long as you do what we must. If not, you cannot defeat a chimaera. Do not make me hurt you.
Tuya was done listening to his manipulations. All his words, every last one he ever uttered or transmitted, were designed to control her. There was nothing wrong with what he did, it was not that bad compared to what happened in other places, it was not his fault that it happened, if it was, it was not his intention to hurt others, but if it was, you bet it was their fault.
I am not yours, Gurg. I am mine.
His anger burned in the link but could not breach Tuya’s shell. Let him burn, she would not be afraid of the flames anymore. She was the good water that would wash him away, cleanse the world of the filth and rot planted atop Celegana’s Spire.
Take your dead weight back, Gurg projected. You will see me soon. Chosen.
Gurg’s consciousness fled Yaha, retracting from whence it came before Tuya could eject him.
Tuya patted Batu’s flank. The evil two-leg is gone, my brother. We won.
Batu cawed, triumphant in the meadow. He beat his wings, blasting Tuya with a cool breeze in the night while dozens of eyes watched from the edge of the meadow. Yet, only one set of seers interested Tuya. Dark as they had ever been, and the most welcome sight in the world. Tuya offered her hand to Yaha and helped the wonderful woman back to her feet.
Strong arms enveloped her, as they had many times, but this time they felt the best of all. “I am so proud of you, Tuya. So proud.”
Tuya nestled her head in Yaha’s side. “I am sorry that I could not make that promise.”
“You are not sorry, my little empagong.”
“I am not.”
Batu squawked, sounding urgent. His anxiety emanated from him, spreading to Tuya, but even more to Yaha. His wingbeat sent gusts of wind at them. He cawed, refusing to be ignored.
“Come on, Yaha. We will have seasons to pester you about the dangers of doubting Tuya.” Tuya returned Yaha’s spear to her, strapped her spear to her back and shoulder, and climbed upon Batu’s back, ready to finally fly away. She grinned. “Let us fly away before Gurg even knows we are gone.”
“You are … you.” Yaha frowned, her mind thrumming with worry. She leapt onto Batu’s back, but the great eagle’s squawking did not relent. You should go to him, Tuya. I would not ignore the one who can fly up into the sky on us and send us crashing back to earth.
Wise words, Tuya offered, following Yaha’s advice as Batu started lifting off, leaving the meadow below.
Up in the air, overlooking the Hollows, Tuya did not need to share a mind to sense what Batu wanted to tell her.
No more did she smile. In the not too far distance, trees were leveled, crushed like twigs upon the forest floor, or brushed aside like they were branches. The sound of timbers and the thunderous cracks of snapping wood followed not long after her eyes saw the source. Three enormous heads and a black-haired body. A roar cut through the air, lightning crackled in a cloudless sky on a night where every star shone from above, and even the big blue moon glistened like the eye of a monster watching over her.