The giant eagle, a creature native to the land where the two rivers met in Leveria, where the greatest tree in the world rose high over verdant fields of flowers, where the Fourteenth presided over Leverian peace before carrying it to the Mahagans, to the Celegans, and to every place in the world, stretched its neck into the howler hole. The tamer controlling this beautiful creature with feathers the color of Celegana’s earth, except for the snowy ones on its head, with a golden beak and eyes like the rising sun, debased it into something ugly and belligerent. Its angry caws created a discordant din alongside the flapping of wings and the scratching of talons against the sequoia bark outside the howler hole.
Tuya and Yaha held their backs against the far side of the howler’s nest, spears held tight, ready to be used, if using them was indeed the thing that would help them fly away. The eagle’s beak snapped open and shut, still a body length away from them, but gaining ground with each push. Those horrid screeches ricocheted off the walls of the small enclosure, resonated within Tuya, shaking her to the bones.
Yaha’s desperation, her uncertainty, her willingness to die if it gave Tuya a chance, blended with Tuya’s sorrow, her disbelief, her oppressing exhaustion. The result was mutual panic, lethargy, pain, and inaction. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion, cramping in her gut and pelvis, disorientation from a body still without its core strength … Tuya saw no way out. There was nothing left to do. They were found. Soon, tens of thousands of tamers and tamed would be here, among them, the three-headed tyrant. Her dreams would come true, just not the right ones.
We must not think like that, Yaha transmitted, thinking like that herself. She focused on the one thing she knew, on the spear in her hands as the bird clawed at the bark, trying to find a perch. What happens if we kill it?
The tamer returns to his body.
And tells the rest of the Tamers?
If he already has not. He can speak while fully within another’s body.
Then we have to fight and run. Now! Every moment gives us greater chance to find another hiding place.
Tuya’s pains were amplified, her exhaustion deeper than the ocean. Between the hunger, the thirst, the sleep deprivation, first blood, the bite, the day spent walking, the night spent running and fighting, and the vitality she gave to Yaha, there was no running today.
You are not allowed to give up on me, Yaha projected.
The giant eagle’s beak snapped and Yaha stepped aside, pushing Tuya tighter into the corner.
Tuya tried to will her body to be strong, tried to believe in their chances, tried to conjure the light of hope. All she saw were three-headed beasts and a dead mother. I do not choose this, she told Yaha, I simply do not have any other choice.
Within the link, Yaha contemplated how far she could carry Tuya. She too, was weakened, dealing with the same pains as Tuya, mostly. Neither of them were getting far, especially if one of them had to carry the other.
Yaha growled at the bird as it snapped closer. She too saw the same three heads, the same monster that took the other sixty-three sailors on her ship, the same end for herself. Yaha denied her eyes. I will not let him have you! Zafrir will lend me the wind! I will fly you away, Tuya!
The bird’s talons found grip on the tree, its head craning further into the hole, squawking viciously. Yaha careened to the side, stepping under the bird’s beak, and drove the shaft of her spear into the great eagle’s throat. The creature recoiled, dislodging from the perch it made for itself, its wings flapping madly. The great eagle sputtered for a moment, its mind and body at war, landing on the branch below as the tamer fought for control over the great eagle’s body.
Wait, Tuya thought, a memory tickling her mind, pulling her back in time, to a day where rain poured down from the sky and a tall woman with long hair whispered love in her ear. This day was remembered for many things, but one thing she oft forgot in the midst of all the pain came back to her now. Fly away, friend. Be free. “Fly away to the place where you belong.”
Hope, so quick to flee and even quicker to return, burned again within Tuya. Yaha looked through the howler hole, preparing to leap down and strike the great eagle while it was vulnerable. Do not attack, Yaha!
Fourteenth’s blessings! Yaha thought, reacting to the plan forming in Tuya’s mind.
Tuya hesitated, knowing that to do this thing, she needed to sever her link with Yaha, expose herself to Gurgaldai and the other tamers, even if just for a moment.
“Fly away, Tuya!” Yaha shouted, ejecting Tuya from her mind, not giving her time to contemplate the weight of this decision.
The bird took flight again, the tamer in power. Tuya lowered her mental walls to the cries of the tamed. A seeming infinity of tamed souls begged for freedom, more numerous than she could recall in all her seasons creating a din of absolute agony surrounding the nearby regions of the Hollows. She held her center, trying not to get swept away in the storm of oppression, honing in on the one nearest.
The great eagle’s voice reached out to her, full of recognition, despite the seasons separating them from the one moment they shared together, the moment where he taught her the meaning of love. Help me, friend! He takes over again!
Tuya gasped, tears filling her eyes. I am coming, my friend!
Her mind fused with the great eagle and collided with the tamer. Her friend’s love spread through the link, antithetical to the absolute hatred emanating from the mind of the tamer, a hatred Tuya knew even better than the great eagle’s love, one she would never forget. She need not see the face, hear the voice, or even translate a single thought to know this monster. A bloody log in her hands, a little girl crushed in the mud, words she could never fully unlearn after seasons of trying.
You did this, Makhun projected, trying to turn the great eagle against himself as he had so many little girls.
Tuya witnessed the great bird’s guilt. He lost himself to the tamers, again, this time murdering his mate and their three young instead of leaving them behind. The great eagle’s mind staggered, submitting to Makhun, its very purpose for living gone. I did this.
Tuya’s hands clenched. Hatred and love vied within her, pushing against each other, neither taking dominance. She knew well, so divinedamned well, what Makhun did to make you feel small, to make you hate yourself. A season spent unmoving, wanting nothing more than to die than to be the person who killed Sarnai. That he did this to her friend…
Tuya roared, hatred taking control as she shouted Makhun’s name in the link, projecting her violent desires, wishing she had finished him that day on the beach when she claimed Yaha from him. Some monsters did not deserve mercy. Mercy did not stop her from thinking about him nearly every day, remembering one who hurt her so deep in ways she could never forget. A lesson learned now. She would not spare him today.
Hatred met hatred, clashing within the mind of the great eagle. I will do what I should have done seasons ago, should have done the day I made you kill Jhorgal’s khorota, before you were Chosen.
There would be no mercy today, no capturing of chosen ones, no sparing of little, evil men. If Tuya failed, he would end her, end the one who made him small again. Alas, pebbles did not push boulders. Even with her mind weakened from yesterday, she was the stronger.
Tuya slammed her consciousness into Makhun’s, imagining her mind as giant talons, clawing at his psyche. Though she was stronger, he was not weak, and, worse, he was focused, he was at his fullest. Makhun recoiled from her mental push, then wound his mind like the serpent’s body, and sprung back at her.
Tuya staggered, her body thrown into the unforgiving innards of the sequoia. Makhun continued his onslaught, drawing the blood from her nose, her ears, her eyes. She was exhausted, trying to ward off his barrage of antipathy. Tuya fell to her knees, her mind strained, struggling to stay tethered to the great eagle’s.
Hatred waned, failing to power her enough to keep pushing back against Makhun’s even more intense odium.
Within the link, the third mind, the great eagle, did not ask for his own salvation, but transmitted that same feeling he did all those seasons ago: love.
Do not let me hurt you too, Batu projected.
Batu, the great eagle internalized Tuya’s meaning of the Celegan word. Batu.
Yes, Tuya said, finding strength in love, rising from her knees, leaning against the tree. Love for Sarnai who she killed, love for Batu, who did the same to his family. You are loyal. You are Batu.
He is not loyal! Makhun roared, his mind like a windstorm pushing them against the edge of a cliff. You did this! Makhun shoved, conjuring memories of Sarnai and of Batu’s family, memories of blood on the log and blood on the talons.
Tuya reached out, leading with love, for Batu, sharing memories of him flying away from here and dreams of him flying away again, this time with her, with one who loved him and would keep him safe from monsters like Makhun, while he carried her out of this place she did not belong. Together, we can deal with this one who made us hurt them. Together, we can be family. Together, we will find the place where we belong.
Together, Batu agreed, love drowning out self-hatred.
Their minds fused, stood strong against the windstorm of odium buffeting them. Batu, once more with purpose, unfurled his wings, fluttering over the branch of his own volition as Makhun tried to retreat. The tamer found no escape. Tuya swirled around Makhun’s consciousness. She shrouded the monster’s mind, pushing him into a tiny sphere within Batu.
Batu lashed out at Makhun, clawing with talons, envisioning the evil man being fed on by carrion and dreaming of Celegana’s Spire in flames. Die. Die. Die.
Tuya battered him with logs, showing him the faces of the many, many girls he hurt. You did this! The girls stood over him, hitting him over and over, as she battered his mind, like two handfuls of blows to the face with a thick log. She leaned down, projecting the image of Sarnai’s face looming over him. You did this, tamer.
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Tuya seized hold of his consciousness, of his entire mental, psychic, spiritual being, and crushed it, crushed it like a puny, evil man beneath the foot of a warrior who did her best to do the right thing. Rather than returning to his body, his consciousness dissipated, ceased to be rather than stream back toward his body. Whether Makhun died, or if his consciousness left his body behind like an empty shell without the pearl, he was gone. He would never hurt anyone again.
Makhun’s poison seeped out of the link, draining it of hatred, leaving behind a grateful love.
Tuya shared her feelings with Batu, trying to make his pain small. My brother, she transmitted.
My sister. Batu’s love made Tuya’s pain smaller. Together. He thought of them flying away, a queer amusement seeping through the link. I would be like one of the quick four-legs that carry the metal men.
No, Tuya said, remembering stories Yaha told of the yangkun of the Heiyan savannahs or the horses of the Leverian plains. We will be like dragon and knight. Tuya projected images of a strong woman, with blue hair and blue eyes, riding upon the back of a beautiful winged creature covered in glistening silver scales, a flying behemoth larger than even a chimaera with a mouth full of ice. The dragon blew its ice at the tamers atop the Spire, descended upon Chimaera and tore it apart, the woman joining the fight with a weapon like Gurg’s, easily severing the serpent head of Chimaera.
Batu’s amazement at the existence of such creatures and their bonds with two-legged hunters made him giddy. We will fight against the ones who take over?
Yes, Tuya said, but first we must escape this place. We are strong but we must find friends.
Batu’s mind, smarter than that of nearly any other creature she ever knew, thought of the dragons and their knights, creating his own images of the destruction they would reap upon the Spire.
Yes. Friends like them.
“Tuya?” Yaha whispered, brushing Tuya’s shoulder.
“Yaha!” Tuya embraced her mother, unable to contain her joy, and the infectious spread of Batu’s enthusiasm. She grinned up at Yaha, the woman’s frown rising into a big, Yaha smile. “Let’s fly away.”
We fly! Batu projected. Away from land of bad men and stupid trees! Wait until I show you my tree, sister! It is unbroken and bigger than any of the stupid ones here! Many strong warriors ride four-legs there! Two-legs that make great fires with their hands! Good friends?
Great friends! Tuya projected, taking on Batu’s eagerness with glee. She could not remember feeling this free. She laughed aloud, smiling up at Yaha, unable to restrain how much she liked Batu.
“An empagong with wings,” Yaha said, “they will speak of this day forever, my little one.”
“Only because you will be around to tell stories of it,” Tuya said. She reached up to the howler hole, her arms not quite high enough to grab the edge, her body still not quite capable of making the jump.
Yaha grabbed her, leapt, and landed them on the big branch beneath the hole. “The empagongs have figured out how to fly, but they still are trying to discover the illusive secrets of jumping.”
“Ha ha ha,” Tuya said, giggling.
Batu settled on the branch, turning his neck toward them. Tell your friend that I am sorry for attacking her and I forgive her for attacking me.
“Batu says he is sorry and that he forgives you.”
Yaha beamed. She spoke slowly, gesturing to herself and to Batu, “I am sorry and I forgive you, Batu.” She looked at Tuya. “Is he sure he can carry us both?”
Is this two-leg stupid? Batu asked.
Tuya snorted out, choking on laughter. No, but we all have lapses. “He says he can carry us both.”
Yaha’s eyebrows discovered the secrets of jumping. “Is that so? Why are you laughing?”
“Brother Batu is very funny.” Batu’s joy seeped through the link, creating a loop when Tuya’s joy went back to him, and his grew larger and went back to her, and so on. Happiness felt good. After last night, and the dawn, Tuya thought she would never visit this place again. Now, she hoped to always be near, sharing joy with her brother.
“Funny like you?” Yaha asked, “or actually funny?”
Tuya stuck out her tongue. “They are the same thing.” She balanced along the branch, placed her hand on Batu and hugged his side, pressing her head against his coarse brown feathers. I am so happy to be your sister. I have dreamt of this day for so long.
You helped me fly away long ago. Sorry that I did not come for you sooner, sister. Batu’s sadness trickled into the link, awakening the previously silent shadows of his self-hatred. If I had you all along, my mate and my little ones would still be here. Batu mourned them, even as he chastised himself for not doing everything he could to stop the ones who take control.
You are here when I need you and you are exactly who I need, Batu. We will find the place where we belong. We will find friends. We will make sure they do not take control anymore.
Tuya climbed up the side of him. He was far larger than her. His body spanning at least two body lengths from neck to rear and one body length from shoulder to shoulder. She realized now that holding on would not be simple. Yaha’s stories never did talk about how the dragon knights of Volqor stayed on their dragons.
You are having a lapse, sister. Just hold on.
Tuya exhaled. Why did I not think of that?
Lapse. Try not have too many.
She giggled as Batu cawed with delight. How do the two-legs ride the four-legs without falling off?
Poop perches.
Tuya questioned the translation of his thought into words her mind could interpret. Poop perches?
Indeed.
Tuya opened her mouth, utterly confused, generating some unlikely, and unsavory, images of how the Leverians rode their horses. She had much more to learn about the faraway lands. She twisted to Yaha. “You are not getting left behind, Yaha. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Yaha snorted. “Keep this up and I will jump just to avoid your sense of humor.” Yaha smirked, sidling up to the side of Batu. “On the other hand, I stay if instead I get to see that happy smile.”
Is she coming or not? Batu demanded, thrumming with annoyance.
Tuya exaggerated her smile. Shaking her head, Yaha gingerly followed Tuya, wrapped her arms around her back, and buried her head in the back of Tuya’s.
“Afraid?”
“Brave,” Yaha said, in her spearmaster voice.
“Brave,” Tuya agreed. “We are ready, Batu. Fly away, so we can all be free.”
Celegana’s Spire loomed in the distance, stretching far above the sequoia. Thousands of tamer consciousnesses scoured the Hollows, their minds flowing from the Spire. Many more joined them from the ground. Birds squawked and roamed the skies below them. Blessedly, Tuya neither heard nor saw Chimaera. From this high, with lightseer eyes, the Endless Blue stretched out into eternity. Somewhere beyond it, Batu’s home waited.
Not that way, he thought. Images of her falling into the sea while he dived for fish, of her having no place to rest, of him losing his strength from the extra load, filling the holes in Tuya’s understanding.
You do not have many lapses, do you, Batu?
That way, he transmitted, projecting satisfaction at her compliment.
Tuya’s eyes turned to the southwest, inland, just as Yaha planned. Her farseeing eyes found nothing but land and trees. They were a lovely sight from up here, if one did not know about the ugliness within those trees.
There are places where we can rest and the trees are not broken forever.
Then that is the way we go. Tuya sighed, leering at the Spire, hoping she would not see it by the end of this day, dreading that this end was too good to be true. After all, when had things ever worked out as planned? Yesterday was the most painful teacher. Today and tomorrow were held captive by the harsh lessons of yesterday and yesterday’s lessons were among the harshest she ever learned.
Enough fretting, Batu projected, grab on tight. “Stop reminiscing, Tuya. It is time we leave this place behind and never look back,” Yaha added, not knowing Batu projected the same sentiment.
“Great,” Tuya said, smirking, “now I have two of you nagging me.”
Good, Batu thought. “Good,” Yaha said.
Tuya knew when she was beaten. She leaned forward, wrapping her hands around Batu’s neck, making herself small on his back. Yaha did the same, clinging instead to Tuya’s trunk. Tuya spread her legs, hoping to steady herself as best as she could. The anticipation worked itself toward anxiety and then edged toward panic.
Batu did not give the anticipation enough time to fully complete its transformation. Great wings unfurled, fluttering and flapping into the air as his body lurched forward off the branch. Tuya felt the shift, her mind keenly aware that nothing was beneath her but a few hundred feet of empty air dispersed with trees that would not feel great to smash into on the way down. She yearned for something to tether her to Batu, to make her feel like she could not slip off and die with the next breeze, or any lapse of her strength.
You will not put a poop perch on me, Batu transmitted. Just hold on.
Tuya had more important things to worry about than poop perches. I do not think you understand!
No, two-legs, you don’t understand. The sky was mine. Now it is ours. Hold on. That is all.
Thus, she held on, clinging to her dear brother’s neck like her life depended on it because it rather did. She breathed as Zaya taught her, flying away, freeing herself, as she promised her first protector. She brought Sarnai with her, thinking of her as the vast sea of green, red, and brown passed beneath them and how beautiful Sarnai would have found it, as Batu flew faster than she could ever run. Tuya accepted that she was leaving Masarga behind, but not forever. The girl would grow and she would be ready and Tuya would return to her. She went on, flying to the place where she belonged, toward people to love and people who would love her, as Darrakh told her to do, even if he could no longer do it with her.
Batu soared over threats, both of them invisible to the tamer sense, as the sun chased them across the sky and began bending down into the western horizon. Though hungry, though thirsty, though exhausted, they dared not drop down into the Hollows while the sun still shone. Batu perched a handful of times upon high trees and ate leaves, complaining that they did not taste so sweet as the flowers from his tree. Tuya and Yaha finished off the few strips of fish they preserved the night before, but would rather swallow the water those fish swam in. Her throat was so dry, the breeze so fierce, that she could not speak to Yaha. Not that words were needed. Yaha held her as they flew, her hope, her love, and yes, her worry flowing from her mind sense as loud as any shout.
The skies became clearer, less inundated by tamer streams of consciousness the further they were from Celegana’s Spire. Tuya wondered whether they were beyond the fifty miles Yaha wanted to travel. She assumed so, given that Batu covered far more distance through the air than they had yesterday, blending in and walking upon the ground where they had to weave through dense forest and take detours to avoid tamers. Even still, Batu was keen to remind her that this was not his full speed.
Everything seemed to be going as planned, which of course made Tuya worry. She was flying away to the faraway lands, bonded to a brother that would carry her far and fast, held by Yaha who long ago accepted she would never escape the Hollows, and soon they would be able to land, to gather food and drink, and finally rest. So, naturally, she looked back at the Spire, expecting to find it looming over her. Instead, it was a distant blip in a faraway land. No doubt, neither Yaha nor Batu could see it if they tried. The beautiful monstrosity of earth and tree was behind them. Gurg would be at the apex, perhaps sitting upon Munderra by himself. She wondered where his mind was.
Tuya wished she never had the answer to that question, wished it had never been asked, wished that the day would have turned to night and the three of them would have rested and recovered and began another day of flying away. Tuya of the Hollows wished she did not see what she saw, with eyes that saw all. A vast gray cloud, one that bore no rain, but intended to reign over all, rushed from Celegana’s Spire, spreading across the horizon, washing over a sky free of malice moments ago.
Tuya tried to direct Batu away from it. Yet, how did one avoid such all-encompassing might? Not even great eagles could outrun a stream of consciousness, let alone Gurgaldai ezen Celegan’s. Lower, she called, hoping to mitigate, and possibly fly under the cloud, undetected. A hope, she knew, would be in vain.
Batu could not outfly Gurg’s mind, nor could Yaha, despite the incredible strength of her character, resist his power.