Chapter 64 Raelia the Griffin Rider-fshback (POV chapter voted on by Patreon readers)

  Raelia walked the camp, looking for the meal tent for the riders. She had seen it from up in the air before she nded, and it should be his abandoned farmhouse. There, she spotted it. The tent fps were green and not bck this time. She walked io the smell of food being cooked.

  The cook pted her some food with a smile, and she took the pte to a table to sit opposite Zyi, her ahe tall, lean elf woman smiled, “Raelia, the food is good tonight. A sweet pepper sauce over brown rid shredded venison.”

  “You took down the deer, didn’t you,” Raelia smiled back. “You are always telling us o risk bat from our mounts, yet you do it every flight!”

  Zyi smirked, “Well, I ao your brother. You ao me.”

  “I am sure you ao him a lot in his tent—privately,” Raelia retorted and quickly received a kick to her shin from her ander.

  “Not when we are on a campaign,” she scolded Raelia. However, it was not a well-kept secret. “The enerals on the campaign would frown on me distrag him.”

  Raelia tasted the food, “Ugh, too sweet. They must have added honey again.” Her aried to hide a smile, “It was you? You asked for it.”

  “When you are the one whs in a three-hundred-pound fresh game animal for the table, the cooks tend to honor your requests,” Zyi said, shoveling the food into her mouth with a smile.

  After they both fihe meal, Raelia asked, “What are my orders?”

  Zyi rolled her eyes, “The postings are twenty feet away oent wall. Fine! You zy elf. You are cirg the city from two miles above with Nessa, Enor, Daena, and Yavanna. We are attag tonight as pnned. I will fly out and ehe Duke’s army has been deyed.”

  “By yourself?” Raelia asked, knowing that doe did not allow Riders to operate alone.

  “Rina is ing with me. And no, I am not taking you! You would probably try to fly too low and t the Duke’s army or something else foolish,” Zyi said seriously. “We have thirty minutes before we exge flights.”

  They left the tent together ao where the griffins were stabled. The attendants had fed them raw horse meat while they had beeing their own dinner. Mooncw saw his rider approag and wo riffons, Monsoon and Sunfre, out of his way to get to Raelia. The griffin’s head nuzzled her chest, lifting her off the ground with its powerful neck.

  “Mooncw, be o the others,” Raelia scolded weakly. He tinued nudging her until she rubbed the feathers around his ear holes. He started clig his tongue in appreciation. Finished with the affeate beast, she started to prepare.

  Raelia checked the harwice, iing it for wear and fit. When griffins were used in rapid rotation like this siege, they would lose weight rapidly, and you o adjust the straps stantly. It was for your own safety and the fort of the griffin. Nessa, Enor, Daena, and Yavanna were already in their saddles.

  Raelia swung her small frame up into the saddle. She sed the skies, waiting. A few mier, a griffin started to nd. Raelia and her patrol took to the air o a time, blowing dead leaves into small cyes from the force of taking off. The wind bsted through her fad hair before she activated her air spell form to shield the rush of wind in her face. She circled the camp oo ihe army. Thousands of men were below her like little ants scurrying about. She was gd she was a Rider.

  She soared high into the sky before starting her dull circle patrol. She pulled her spygss and watched the defenders of Macha prepare for the iable. She had nothing against the people of the city. Their Emperor and his hatred of non-humans was the rot of the Telhians.

  They had killed many Bartiradians on Bartiradian soil i two years. This assault was their own fault. The Telhian pn was also painfully obvious. They would put up a tokeand let the Bartiradians take the city. Then, they would trap the Bartiradians iy.

  Her brother and the enerals were smarter than that, though. They had killed the Dispt Mage in Macha, and they po reinforce the city themselves through the portal after taking trol of the city tonight. Then, they would let the Telhians waste their men and legiorying to retake the city. Her breneral Gvien, would ehe Telhians were much weaker after this battle. Returning Macha to Bartiradian hands was sure to be a bloody endeavor.

  Three flight rotations ter, Mooncw was exhausted as he fpped his wings and glided over the night battle below. It was dark, and the fog had allowed the army to reach the walls and gates. It would not be long now before they broke the defenders on the wall. Then, a huge gust of wind ripped from the city. Raelia had to let the wind take Moond her away. She saw the battlefield revealed below, the fog elimihe Bartiradian attackers were suddenly exposed. Arrows pelted them from the walls, and men were falling by the scores.

  Raelia felt helpless. She was not supposed to do anything but observe a. Maybe she could help, though. The defenders were focused on her brother’s army. She could possibly prepare a fireball, swoop down, and release it before they tracked her.

  She started to guide Mooncw with her legs, guiding him with the stirrups and squeezes of her thighs. He was sensitive to her body movements and uood what she wahe important thing she o do was shield the fireball as she formed it. Otherwise, it would be like a bea in the sky to the defenders.

  She mentally worked the weave of her aether into the spell forms. Layering the aether in a well-practiced a. She would have to dive to get inte to release the ball of fire, though. She o remain uhe glowing ball of destructive heat twisted between her cupped hands as she squeezed her knees and dug her heels in. Mooncw dove at the unspoken and.

  The range of her magic fire was one hundred and twenty feet. She o get about a hundred feet away and release on the dive. Moonew this as well and would rise after the fireball was released. She was focused oower on the left. There was definitely a mage there. She revealed the light of her prepared spell and was about to throw it when the spell forms dissolved in her hand. She grabbed the reigns and pulled hard. The mage iower had seen her and disrupted her spell form. She o…

  Mooncw shrieked in pain as an arrow protruded from his wing, with wispy bck tendrils ing his wing. He could not fp to turn away from the city. There was no time as she tried to get him to nd on a rooftop iy. Mooncw came up short and crashed hard into the building. As they fell between two buildings, the griffin did his best to spare his chosen rider.

  The ground came fast, and she never had time to activate her featherfall device. It would have minimized her own body mass and made the crash less impactful. Instead, Mooncw bounced on the ground, and the impact tossed Raelia out of her saddle and into a building, breaking ribs and wreng her knee. She must have hit her head because she was dazed as well.

  Whe senses, and back to her feet, Mooncroteg the alley from a squad of legionaries. Mooncw was injured and overmatched. She tried to form a fireball, but her head hurt too much, and she could not focus. Mooncw shrieked in pain. She couldn’t help him. She cried as she limped away into the alley, looking for a pce to hide. Mooncw, her friend that she had raised from an egg, would buy her time. She wiped the tears and focused on escape.

  She took a simple healing potion on her belt. As its effects spread, her mind started to clear as she hobbled away. The potion was not enough to heal her ribs or knee, but it did give her baough sense of mind to cast magic. A shifting light came up behihe legionaries were already on her. Fug legionaries! Anger welled in her as they killed her mount and friend. It was not the first friend she had lost to the Telhian legionnaires either.

  She timed the approag light, spun with her daggers drawn, parried the sword strike, went into a roll, and came up in a crouch, grimag from partially healed injuries. The legionnaire looked surprised she had evaded his attack. He was just staring at her like an idiot. “I will kill you, legionnaire.” She rasped in his own tongue. Blood trickled from her lips as she spoke. At least her ribs felt slightly better from the potion, but she probably had a damaged lung, as breathing was difficult.

  As she waited for the legiono attack, loud booms came from the outer wall. She smirked, knowing her brother robably sending all three assault elements at the wall in an attempt to save his stupid sister, who had crashed into the city. She just o hide until he got his forces ihe city. She thought Zylia would scream at her for this, and her brother would probably have her exiled from the Riders. First, she o survive long enough.

  The rge booms had the young human legionnaire nervous. His long bck hair was matted with sweat under his metal legionarie helm. He held his short sword with skill but seemed relut to attack. She o stall him while her mind worked the spell forms for a fireball, “Your city will return to us, and the duke’s army will not save you!” She said with as wicked a smile as she could jure through the pain.

  He rexed in his defeance, uimating her. He started to talk, “ you just…” She finished her spell form and ignited her fireball…

  <<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

  Raelia pressed the fireball forward in the dark and was fused when Alhar, her brother’s friend and bodyguard, was three feet in front of her. The fireball exploded betweewo of them, burning her fad throwing Alhur into a stone wall behind him. Her retinas were burned, and she could barely see. She couldn’t move, and her sciousness was fading. What had happened? Was this a bad dream? Why was Alhur in front of her and not the legionnaire? Was this some mind magio, the pain was too real.

  A blurry image of the legionnaire from the alley stood over her momentarily. He then shuffled off out of her sight, leaving her in pain and thankfully fading into unsciousness.

  <<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

  Raelia woke slowly. “Rex, Raelia. You are iy,” her brother’s voice soothed her.

  “Alhar?” She said with a dry throat.

  “The healing mages are seeing to him. He is in much worse shape than you,” said.

  “How am I here?” Raelia said while gratefully taking a cold water skin from her brother.

  “We thought you could tell us? We repyed the battle you had with the legioner you crashed and thought void magic had erased you,” her brother said softly.

  “No. I don’t remember. He said something and then…” Raelia could picture his face. Shock at the fireball and panic. Raelia thought she was about to bst the young legionh her spell, but…instead, Alhar was in front of her. And she hit him instead.

  “No time passed for you then?” asked the old dwarf healer at her bedside. Raelia nodded slowly. The dwarf nodded sagely, “Dimensional space. He stored you like an old pair of socks, girl.”

  barked, “Impossible! His space would have to have been huge, and he could not have overe her aether resistao forcibly store her!”

  The old dwarf healer spoke with years of wisdom, “He could have if his affinity was high enough. Probably in the eighties.”

  Raelia shook her head, “No, he was just a regur legionnaire. Not a mage.”

  sat down, sidering the events as he remembered them, “The speed of the cast…it ell form, not a true spell. If it had been void magipletely disappear a body, his affinity would have to have been in sixties or seventies…”

  Raelia was still in disbelief, “I am telling you, he was just a regur legionnaire. He wore just leather armor, not eveal of the Imperial Legion.”

  The general shook his head, “Whoever he was, he escaped. Acc to my bodyguards, he was not among the dead bodies at the reservoir,” murmured. “Whoever he is, he is dangerous.” He sidered, “We will spread his description among our spies in the Empire. He is probably one of their Praetorias. He is not our at the moment.”

  stood and patted his sister on the shoulder, “I o see to the defenses of the city with the enerals. The portal mage is also opening a passage home. Yoing. A few days rest, and you go to the rookery. I am sorry, but Mooncw did not make it.”

  Raelia winced a guilty. She had fotten about Mooncw. He had died defending her. It was her own stupidity that had gotten him killed. She ged, “I do not know if I will remain a griffin rider, brother. Maybe I will think about it for a few weeks. Maybe I could join the Rangers as we trained with them during our Rider training.”

  grimaced. She knew he did not want her in any unit. Especially the Rangers, who worked as spies and scouts. He let out a sigh, “Zylia has you ing stalls at the Rookery for the year for your unauthorized attack.” She nodded in uanding. She would have to pay for her mistake. A mistake that had ooncw his life.

  But she would help fight the Telhians. It was in her blood. She would do her penand return.

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