Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (57 page)

“What’s wrong? You okay? Why aren’t you saying anything…?” said Peadar, as he shook Raylan’s shoulder.

Peadar looked around, slowly.

“…where’s Gavin…?”

Galirras let himself drop away from the railing again.

“He…did not make it…” said the dragon, as he disappeared from sight.

Raylan stumbled to the stern and grabbed the handrail. He sat down, with his back against the wood, putting his hands over his eyes.

“It’s my fault. It’s all…my…fault. If I hadn’t pushed to steal a ship…to expose ourselves like that…my fault,” he mumbled, continuously.

Raylan felt a small stream of blood run from his cuts. His leg felt numb, like his head, where one of the enemies had put a spear through his armor; the cloth on his skin felt wet and sticky. He suddenly felt more tired than he had ever felt in his life.

They looked at him, in silence, but before anyone could say anything, they heard shouts carrying on the wind. As they looked to port side, they saw Galirras dive at the larger airship that had been coming their way. Soldiers fired arrows and cross bolts at him, in an attempt to take him out of the sky.

“What is he doing?” called out Richard. “He’s going to get himself killed!”

Galirras tried his best not to give them a chance to hit their mark. He had planned his attack carefully. To avoid too many archers from targeting him, he approached the airship from high above. The enemy immediately sent their archers up on the balloon, but only two made it up the ropes by the time Galirras started his dive. He tried to make another wind ball, but he lacked the energy. And to be honest, he was not sure if he knew precisely how to recreate one at this time. So he dove forward, claws at the ready. His windblast knocked the two archers off the balloon, sending them falling to a watery grave.

But as they fell, one of them seemed to completely ignore his imminent death as he took aim and shot one last arrow. If it had hit Galirras on the back, it would probably have bounced off; but with his belly exposed, the dragon felt the sharp pain as the arrow struck him in the chest. Galirras roared, in surprise, as he passed the thick skin of the balloon. He threw out his claws to rip it, only to find the skin was thicker than he expected. After his attack, only a few small punctures from his claws were left behind; but as he looked back, he saw green vapor rushing out of the holes. The ship would lose altitude soon. They would not be able to follow them.

As Galirras got back to their own flying ship, his injuries and fatigue caught up with him. He had spent most of the day’s early hours flying, and while the injuries did not look serious, they felt very uncomfortable. The amount of time he spent in the air had been much longer than he had ever done before. After he crawled aboard as carefully as possible, he could do little else than lay heavily on his side on the front deck…panting. As his eyes swirled, one by one his eye lids closed. He felt like he could sleep for a week.

The rest of the crew ran to the main deck when Galirras attacked the other ship, while Raylan barely moved at all. Peadar ran up the stairs to the front deck, in order to get to Galirras, and to check on the arrow wounds and other injuries.

Raylan seemed oblivious about the whole ordeal; he still sat quietly against the wooden barricade, his own blood slowly dripping on the wooden floorboards. He heard someone’s footsteps approach him and halt before him. He looked up and found Richard, looking back at him.

“Raylan…let’s get you patched up…”

But Raylan only looked back at him with a blank stare.

“Look, I’m sorry about Gavin…I truly am, but as second in command, I have to ask you to pull it together. You’re still a soldier, and we still have a mission,” said Richard.

Something about the fall-in-line order struck Raylan completely wrong.

“The mission? Soldier? I didn’t even want to be a soldier!” he shouted. “Gavin was the soldier. He wanted to protect everyone…he tried to protect his stupid little brother…and see where that got him!”

“So, you are just going to stay down and do nothing?” Xi’Lao’s voice broke in as she approached the two of them talking.

“Do you think you are the only one hurt by losing him?” she continued, in an icy voice. “That none of us feel his loss?”

Raylan shook his head, slowly.

“But it’s my fault…I pushed him to listen to me. I put him in danger. I made him do that,” said Raylan.

“
That
was not your fault! Do you truly think you could make Gavin do anything? He was not just your brother, he was your superior! He might have made a decision against better judgment, but it was his decision to make. No…no, I will not allow you to feel sorry for yourself. Not while you have someone depending on you so much,” she said, looking over her shoulder to Galirras, lying on the front deck.

“He did not just jump in to save his little brother. He saw you for the important part in all this that you are, without you Galirras would be lost and the entire mission would be in danger. So, he decided to put everything he had out there and get you back to this ship…”

“And I hate myself for it!” yelled Raylan. “I failed him, yet again…”

“How have you failed him? You are here, are you not? On this ship…with the only dragon alive in the world, as far as we know. A creature you swore to protect. You will not fail him, unless you quit,” countered Xi’Lao, but this time her voice sounded slightly warmer.

“She’s right,” said Richard, “We all heard him shout to you, telling you…ordering you to get out of there. He wanted you to be with Galirras, to take care of this creature who we’ve begun to see as one of our own.”

Raylan looked at them, in silence, for a long time. He slowly got up and stepped forward. Walking past her and Richard, he briefly halted and whispered softly.

“Thank you, but it is my fault…”

Raylan crossed the ship to get to Galirras, feeling his concern grow every step of the way. Drops of blood, from his leg, followed him across the deck. When he arrived, he saw Peadar yank out the last of the three arrows, sending a shudder through Galirras’ body. He quickly put his hand on the dragon’s head, as Peadar put pressure on the wound.

“
I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, my friend,
” he said, when Galirras opened one eye in response to his touch.

“
I am sorry I could not protect him for you…
”

“
…it was not your job to save him, my friend…that was on me…thank you for trying.
”

Raylan put his forehead against Galirras’, as tears ran down his cheeks again. The dragon closed his eyes as they both shared their moment of sorrow.

Part of Raylan did not want to open his eyes again, he felt so tired he could sleep for a week.

“
So could I
,” said Galirras, in reaction to the thought.

Soft footsteps approached them from behind. A polite cough announced itself, but Raylan was not yet ready to let the world in again.

“Ahum…Raylan…sorry to interrupt,” said Kevhin, after another moment, “but Richard asked me to come and get you…”

“What’s wrong?” asked Raylan, after letting out a sigh. It seemed like he would not be able to rest, for at least a little while longer.

“Sebastian has lost a lot of blood, from the hook, and needs to rest, which means you’re the only one that knows anything about sailing. The armada is gaining on us…they’ll catch us, if we don’t figure out how to fly faster,” said Kevhin.

“I can take them down,” said Galirras.

“No, my friend, you need to rest. If you exhaust yourself too much, it could end very badly,” said Raylan. “Peadar, how do his injuries look?”

“He’s losing some blood, but it’s nothing serious. I should be able to stop the bleeding, soon. He, however, needs to rest and heal. Flying, with all the movement, will only increase his injuries,” said Peadar, strictly.

“That decides it then, we need to outrun them with this little ship. So, let’s see what she can do,” said Raylan, who took strength from the fact that he could preoccupy his mind for a bit.

As he got up, Galirras opened his eyes and he turned his head.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. You just get some rest,” said Raylan.

“
I know you will. I just wanted to say, we need to fly higher. The winds…up there…they are blowing west. We need to get to them, if we want to outrun them,
” said Galirras, inside Rayland mind.

Raylan looked up. It would never have occurred to him that the changes in altitude could provide different winds. All of a sudden, he was not just sailing on a flat surface, he had a completely new aspect to think about.

“
Thanks, I’ll tell them. Now go rest,
” replied Raylan, privately.

As he limped off to join Richard and the others on the main deck, Galirras rolled over to give Peadar better access to the wounds; then he slumbered again, every now and then, twitching his skin as Peadar cleaned his wounds.

“How bad is it?” asked Raylan, as he reached Richard and the others.

“Look for yourself,” said Richard.

As Raylan leaned over the handrail, he felt the cuts and carvings in the wood from all the fighting. Looking behind them, he saw the full armada on the move. A handful of airships were on their tail. They were all still quite low, catching up horizontally, but still had to close a very large vertical gap. Even further below them, the entire sea fleet could be seen as they headed for the bay’s exit.

“We need to get higher,” said Raylan. “Galirras says there is a favorable wind blowing up there for us. It will be our best chance to get away. I had a chance to look around the ship as we prepared to take off, so I know what to do; but first, Marek needs to get us higher.”

Richard gave the commands, through the tubes, and right away they felt the ship rising.

“We also need to get the air blade—the fan behind the ship—moving, but it’s heavy,” added Raylan.

“Galen, you’re the strongest. See what you can do. Rohan, Kevhin, go give him a hand. What else?”

“The rest should help me with the sails. If we can set them up correctly, we should be able to outrun our followers, before they can reach the same altitude and wind speed,” concluded Raylan, before he limped off and started working on the closest sail.

“Don’t you need to take care of that leg first?” Richard called after him, but either Raylan did not hear him or choose to ignore him.

The air blade slowly came to life as Galen and the two archers put everything they had left into turning the gears. The air blade seemed extremely heavy to turn. Not until they all tried together, did they finally get it moving; there was no way one person could get it started by himself. But, now that it was turning, it was possible to keep it going with just two people at the bars.

“
You need to get a little bit higher still. You’re almost there,
” said Galirras’ sleepy voice in his head.

Raylan had just secured the sailing line, when the wind fully caught hold of it, and their ship jolted into high speed. He half hopscotched to the port side to check on the sails there, until everything was optimally set.

He joined Richard and Xi’Lao on the upper deck. Xi’Lao stared, silently, at the receding harbor, as Richard kept a careful eye on the increasing distance between them and their pursuers.

As their airship exited the bay, and Raylan felt the wind pick up even more, the full view of the Doskovian coastline could be seen.

“It looks so peaceful from up here,” said Raylan.

Ca’lek came walking up the stairs with powerful strides.

“Richard, the captured soldiers are coming around,” he said, as Richard turned toward him.

“Good, let’s get some answers, then. The more information we can bring back home, the better,” he said, as he put a hand on Raylan’s shoulder. “I won’t let Gavin’s sacrifice go to waste.”

As Raylan looked at him, he had trouble accepting Richard as their new commander…it meant accepting Gavin was gone.

“Now have Peadar, or Xi’Lao, take a look at that leg of yours and get some rest.”

As the words were spoken, something beyond Richard, far off in the distance, caught Raylan’s eye. He walked past Richard, staring off toward the south.

“No…it can’t be…why does it only get worse?”

“What is it?” said Xi’Lao, as she joined him at the railing.

“The problem just got bigger. I fear you’d better start asking those questions Richard, because we’re going to need all the information we can get,” said Raylan.

As Richard joined them, Raylan pointed toward the south. There, miles down the coast, the small silhouettes of hundreds of ships spread out from one of the bays, like tiny ants. Beyond that, the morning sky turned dark again, from the number of airships heading off toward the west…too many to count.

As their own airship sped away on the wind, Stephen’s last words to Raylan crept back into his mind.

The crumbling darkness is coming…we’re all going to die…

- To be continued -