Summoner 20, p.28
Summoner 20, page 28
“She is safe in my care,” Freya assured her. “She will always be within my sight, and I will make sure her experience in my husband’s homeland is just as impactful to her as it was to me.”
“I trust you, my love,” Ratreya replied, and then she crossed over to me and began to coo at our daughter. “Oh, my Lahrra. I will miss you as well.”
“I think she’s going to miss you just as much,” I assured the hawk queen, and Lahrra immediately reached for her grandmother as if she’d understood my words.
“May I hold her one last time?” Ratreya requested, and I couldn’t deny my mother-in-law the opportunity, so I carefully handed Lahrra over to her.
The hawk queen cuddled Lahrra tightly against her chest and planted a soft kiss on the child’s forehead.
“I love you, dearest one,” she whispered to my daughter. “I look forward to seeing you again.”
Lahrra cooed softly and blinked up at her grandmother in response.
Ratreya reluctantly handed Lahrra back to me and then turned her attention to Cyra and Erin. “Gryff, will you please tell Cyra and Erin it was wonderful to get to spend time with them?”
I dutifully repeated Ratreya’s words back to my women, and Cyra and Erin lit up immediately.
“Thank you.” Cyra bowed her head respectfully. “I had a great time, all things considered.”
“Yes, thank you both so much,” Erin addressed Freya’s parents.
I translated their words back to the hawk chief and his wife, and the pair nodded their heads in response.
We stepped away to give Vahla a private moment with her parents, and out of the corner of my eye, I watched the younger hawk shifter get enveloped into a strong embrace. The sight made my heart hurt, but I reminded myself that the princess would be reunited with them soon enough. This was all a temporary arrangement, and while it was going to take her a while to adjust, this was all for the best.
Once we said our final goodbyes to Freya’s parents, we turned to the airship and began the walk to the ramp, but before I could board the vessel, I felt a tug on my jacket.
Vahla stood behind me, and her emerald-green eyes were round with concern.
“Is the flying metal machine as scary as it appears?” the hawk shifter asked me quietly. Despite the mature way she’d spoken to her father the other day, she was still just a young girl, and her quivering lips betrayed her fear.
“It’s a little scary at first,” I admitted to her. “But as the ride goes on, you’ll grow accustomed to it. It’s sort of like how it feels to fly with wings, only you’ll be sitting.”
“I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Vahla sighed, but she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “I will be brave anyway. If my sister can handle airship travel, so can I.”
“That’s the spirit,” I encouraged her. “Between you and me, I was really nervous on my first flight as well.”
“Really?” Vahla asked.
“Yep,” I confirmed. “I grew up in a place that didn’t have airships or fancy technology like this, so it took me a little while to get used to it. But I can assure you, Vahla, you’ll get used to it, too, and soon, airship travel will feel commonplace.”
“May I hold my niece once the ship takes off?” she inquired.
“Once we get to a reasonable altitude and Erin gives us permission to move around in the cabin, you can most definitely hold Lahrra.” I smiled. “We won’t be confined to our seats for the next three days, so you’ll have plenty of time to cuddle with the babies and play with them.”
“Yes!” Vahla grinned, and she tightened the strap of her leather bag around her shoulder. “Shall we get going?”
“Sounds good to me.” I nodded.
We gave Fenrir, Ratreya, and the rest of Hawk Clan a wave goodbye and then headed into the cabin. I noticed immediately that Freya’s smile had faded into a thin line, and I reached out for her.
“It won’t be too much longer,” I reminded her gently.
“I know,” she replied. “Thank you for your support.”
“Always.”
Once we boarded the craft, we stashed away our belongings and strapped the infants into their seats. Milo, Olivir, and Lahrra fussed a bit, and I knew they weren’t thrilled about going through all of this again, but they would eventually settle down.
When the babies were situated, we all took our seats. Freya helped Vahla fasten her safety harness, and I watched a thin line of sweat trickle down the younger hawk shifter’s face.
“You’ve got this under control, Vahla,” I assured my sister-in-law, and Vahla nodded slowly.
The airship began to hum, and Vahla immediately straightened up in her seat and whipped her neck around as she tried to understand the sound.
“We’re getting ready to take off,” Freya explained to her sister. “It’s only the ship warming up.”
“Oh.” Vahla gulped, and she relaxed her position in her seat. Then the russet-haired hawk shifter wrapped her fingers around the thick belt of her safety harness and took long, deep breaths.
As Freya calmed Vahla down, I leaned back into my seat and closed my eyes. A million thoughts raced through my mind, and I wasn’t sure which thing to focus on. Assimilating Vahla into Enclave life was going to be a bit of a challenge, and I was worried about her experiencing the homesickness that plagued Freya soon after she fell pregnant with Lahrra.
Granted, my blonde wife had been affected by a swarm of pregnancy hormones, so maybe Vahla wouldn’t have as strong of a reaction as she did.
I knew Arwyn was going to be thrilled about the young princess’ arrival, and the others would accept her with open arms. The language barrier was going to be a bit of an issue, but we’d cross that bridge once we got there. The main priority was keeping Vahla safe and away from the Moose Clan warriors who wanted her gone.
Suddenly, the ship began to rock, and we slowly rose up into the air. As we gained altitude, I watched Vahla’s eyes widen.
“Eyrie Island looks like a speck from this vantage point,” Vahla breathed as she stared out the window. “I’ve flown at great altitudes before, but this is even higher than that.”
“Just wait until we get high up into the clouds.” I smiled at the shapeshifter. “Sometimes it feels like we’re amongst the stars when the ship reaches a certain height.”
“Wow.” Vahla rested her chin in her hands. “This is going to be wonderful. Thank you for allowing me to join you.”
“We’re happy to have you.”
“What’s being said?” Cyra wondered with a raised eyebrow. “There seems to be a lot of affection being passed around, and I want in on it.”
I translated through some of the small talk and mentioned Vahla’s appreciation, and Cyra’s face lit up.
“We’re excited to have her with us,” the dark-skinned summoner said, and she offered the hawk shifter a kind smile. “I’m sure the others will feel the same as well.”
We fell into a comfortable silence soon after the ship began its journey, and as my women relaxed in their seats, I turned my attention to the reason we were returning to Mistral so early in the first place.
The return of the mistwolves weighed heavily on my mind, and I needed to make sense of it all. If the creatures were closing in, an attack from Hunnah and Quilla was on the horizon. I’d vowed to subdue the final Archons, but there were still so many questions to answer.
Why had the wolf-eared Archon sent her pack in the first place, and what did they seek? Were they planning on harming the citizens of Mistral, or did they serve as a warning that stronger dangers were soon to come?
And what of the voice in my dreams? I had no idea what Quilla or Hunnah’s magical powers were, so there was a strong chance the eerie, threatening voice was something they’d sent my way, but why the theatrics? Were they just trying to scare me, or was there another element to it I hadn’t thought of?
“Gryff?” Cyra prompted me. Her dark chocolate eyes swept over me, and she reached her hand toward mine. “What’s going on in your head?”
“Just trying to sort through it all,” I explained. “I need to strategize and plan out what to do in case Hunnah and Quilla are there when we arrive.”
“Sera said we could beat them there,” Cyra pointed out. “Is that still the case?”
“We hope it is,” I answered. “But we still need to plan for the worst in the event Sera was wrong.”
“Hopefully, Arwyn, Ashla, and the research team have made some kind of progress with the translations while we’ve been away,” Cyra mused. “I know it’s only been about a week, but if they even managed to translate a small enough amount to help us figure out what the Archons’ overall plan is, that would be excellent.”
“Definitely,” I agreed with her. “This would all be so much easier if Carth would cooperate with me, but I don’t foresee that happening any time soon.”
“Have you tried again since the last time?” Cyra wondered.
“No,” I admitted to her. “I wanted to wait until I could find a way to get around her influence magic, but none of the other Archons had a solution for that. I may need to try a different approach, but I don’t particularly want to.”
“What about trying to appeal to her desire for you?” Cyra proposed in a thoughtful tone. “The Archons are all desperate to get pregnant with your baby, right? Maybe you could find a way to exploit that desire for your personal gain.”
“That’s pretty devious.” I smirked at her.
“As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures,” Cyra said. “We don’t know what the remaining Archons are capable of, and literally anything from Carth would be helpful in this case.”
“I’ll think on it for a while,” I decided. “Before I make too many plans, I want to check in with Arwyn and Ashla and find out what they know about it all. I want to think Hunnah is just doing this to mess with me, but I also don’t want to make any assumptions.”
“I’m ready for you to capture her already,” Cyra sighed.
“Trust me, I am, too,” I said, and we left the conversation at that. There wasn’t much else to say at the moment, not until we returned to Mistral.
After two more days of uneventful but anxious travel, the sea below us gave way to the familiar emerald-green ground of Mistral, and Vahla’s demeanor switched from nervous to excited.
“Wow,” she breathed as she stared out the window. “This is amazing.”
“Just wait,” I laughed. “It’s going to get a lot better.”
Not too soon after that, we breached Varle’s sunset orange walls and finally made it home. The airship gently touched down on the landing pad, and Vahla’s knuckles were white as bleached bone as they gripped her safety harness.
“Relax,” Freya soothed her sister in their native tongue. “That was the worst of it. We’ve finally arrived home.”
“Home?” Vahla repeated back. “Is it normal for everyone in Mistral to have an airship?”
“No,” I laughed. “That’s mostly just an Erin thing. The other airships belong to the Academy and the military, and most of those hover near the top of the Enclave, like we saw a little while ago.”
“Oh,” Vahla said simply.
Once the airship’s hum died down, Erin called out from the cockpit and gave us the go-ahead to rise from our seats. I unbuckled my safety harness, and once I was free of the oppressive straps, I crossed over to the children and unbuckled Olivir from his seat. Erin had enough to worry about up front, so I had no problem attending to our son until she was ready for him.
Cyra and Freya removed Milo and Lahrra from their seats, and once all of our belongings were gathered up, we headed down the ramp and out onto the lawn.
The sudden rush of air felt amazing after being trapped in an airship all day, and as we approached the tall white walls of the mansion, my heart thudded in my chest. I wasn’t sure what we were about to walk in on, or if anyone would even be home in general, but I prayed everyone was safe and sound.
“This is your home?” Vahla breathed as her eyes followed the incline of our multi-leveled mansion. “This is definitely impressive.”
“It doesn’t have quite the same appeal as Hawk Clan, but it’s got all of the accommodations you’d ever need,” I replied to the hawk shifter. “Bedrooms, bathrooms, rooms meant for relaxing. We even have our own hot springs down in the basement.”
“Hot springs?” Vahla repeated, and her auburn eyebrows crept up her oval face. “That sounds so lovely. May we visit them later?”
“We can do whatever you want,” I said. “You’re our guest, so you’re more than welcome to take advantage of anything in the house, especially the hot springs.”
Vahla brightened up at this and practically skipped in place.
“Ready to enter the shit storm?” Cyra sighed as she caught up to us.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I smiled thinly, and after I inclined my head, we made our way up the circular drive.
When we entered the mansion, I was surprised to see no one was in the foyer to greet us, but then I heard a mixture of voices float down the corridor. They sounded like they were coming from the living room, and I managed to single out Nia’s distinct tone amongst the babble.
Wait, Nia?
What was she doing here? Sera had told me she’d gone off to scope out the mistwolf sighting, and yet she was still here in Varle three days later. Something about this was strange.
“I’ll go see what’s happening,” I said to the rest of the group. “I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, so I’ll go survey the area first. Would you mind taking Olivir?”
“Vahla can take him,” Freya replied, and Vahla stepped forward and happily took my son into her arms.
The strawberry-blond baby cooed at the hawk shifter, and Vahla grinned with delight.
“Shall we show Vahla around the first floor while we wait?” Cyra proposed.
“Yes,” Freya confirmed, so the women set the luggage down and guided the russet-haired princess into the formal sitting room.
I briskly walked down the corridor until I reached the kitchen and then veered to the left and into the living room, and I was surprised to see Ashla, Arwyn, and Nia sitting around in the leather couches and chairs. Each member of them held on to a packet of papers, except for Nia and Arwyn, who had their hands full with the twins.
They didn’t hear me approach, so I gently rapped my knuckles against the doorway to signify my arrival. Ashla’s eyes looked up first, and the umber-skinned ice mage flashed me a brilliant smile.
“Gryff, you’re back!” she exclaimed.
My girlfriend set her stack of papers down on the ground, rose from her place beside Arwyn, and ran at me full-force. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her body so tightly against me that I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t care. It was nice to be reunited with my beautiful lover.
“Hi, Ashla,” I murmured, and I tilted her chin up so I could lean down and kiss the ice mage’s plump lips. She tasted like something exotic I couldn’t place, and I savored the deliciousness of her on my tongue before I pulled away to face the rest of the room.
“You all certainly made much better time than I anticipated,” Arwyn assessed, and the crimson-haired healer mage smiled at me over the cotton-like poof of Nicolis’ silvery hair. “Sera didn’t know how quickly you could return, and I wasn’t expecting you to arrive until tomorrow.”
“Erin flew like a maniac the entire way.” I smirked at the professor.
“Speaking of Erin, where are the others?” Nia asked, and the ashen-haired elementalist craned her neck around to search for the rest of our family.
“Erin’s out in the ship, and Cyra, Freya, and Vahla are in the front room,” I replied. “We weren’t sure who would be home, if anyone, so I came first to gauge the situation.”
“Vahla?” Nia asked, and her piercing blue eyes flew over to me. “What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t realize she’d be joining us.”
“It’s a long story I’ll explain later,” I said. “There was an incident on Eyrie Island, so I offered to take Vahla in for a while. Is that alright with everyone?”
“Of course, it is,” my ashen-haired wife assured me. “Vahla is Freya’s sister, which makes her family. And family is always welcome here. We’ll set up one of the guest bedrooms for her.”
“We can definitely arrange that,” Ashla agreed with her.
“Thank you,” I said as I took a seat next to Nia. “Now that we’ve addressed that, could you catch me up on the whole mistwolf situation? What exactly is going on? Sera said when she appeared, you were on your way to go investigate, but you’re all clearly here, so--”
“We were, but the mission was shifted at the last minute,” Nia explained, and she smoothed her silvery-blonde braid back into pristine condition. “There was a mistwolf sighting out in Nattanger, and we were going to go investigate it, but Headmaster Sleet ultimately decided it would be better to stick around the Enclave in case the monsters return.”
“And have they?” I pressed. “Returned, I mean?”
“Not to Nattanger, but our reports from other Enclaves and towns surrounding the Enclaves say otherwise,” Nia continued on. “The pack has grown larger since the last time they were spotted, and they’re definitely preparing for something, we just can’t tell what. That’s why we’re all gathered here. We were trying to sort through all of our information and see if there’s anything written down about Hunnah or her monsters.”
“And have you found anything?” I wondered.
“No,” Nia sighed, and the elementalist’s blue eyes dulled as she looked away from me. “Absolutely nothing at all. It’s so vastly irritating to be up against an enemy we have no way of knowing about.”
“What could they be preparing for?” I wondered. “Is this all just a part of Hunnah and Quilla’s plan to merge the realms together?”
“It very well could be,” Arwyn said. “Though, I wish we had a way to find out just what that is. At present, all we really know for sure is they’re threatening the smaller towns out in the Wilds that can’t protect themselves. Grand Mage Kenefick has deployed troops out to protect some of the towns surrounding the Enclaves, but our forces are spread too thin. It’s as it was with Carth’s herd, only much worse, because at least she had a finite number of monsters. Hunnah’s pack seems to expand by the day, and thus far, we’ve had no way of finding out how many she has.”
