Dragon Rising

Chapter 7: Their Failure

It was cold.

The night air streamed through Ryadni's hair. She screwed up her watering eyes and realised the ground rushed up to meet her.

Almost miraculously, the fall slowed. Something tugged and squeezed her under her arms and around her waist, ripping the air from her lungs. She gasped and then choked, slowing to a stop suspended in mid-air. Just when she started breathing again, she ran her hands over her body. Fingers skimmed the rope tied expertly around her torso. Ryadni reached behind her, pulled out her knife, and sawed through the rope. She fell the last six feet onto the ground and rolled.

All she could hear were the sounds of her panting and the snap and crunch of branches and leaves as she crashed through them. For a brief moment, the world spun around her and her stomach tumbled over and over. The strange alienating sensation that blunted all her senses dissipated. The scent of grass and dirt filled her nostrils.

Ryadni glanced up. Silhouetted against the starless night sky were the spiralling towers they had seen on the way in. Swinging lamp lights illuminated the broken windows of one of the towers. Urgent voices reached her ears. She kept absolutely still, willing her breathing to slow as blood pounded in her ears. Shadows flitted past the opening, but none of them lingered long enough to indicate they had seen her.

A twig snapped to her right. She turned, her knife held out in front of her. Squinting into the darkness, she could make out a growing shape. Had her fall been spotted? Unlikely, given the debacle inside, and nobody above had said anything yet. She tensed.

A woman's face came into view as the bushes parted, a frown upon her face, covered with fresh scratches and streaks of dirt. Her hair had come out of its neat bun, within which bits of twigs were still entangled.

"Didn't you hear me calling you?" she said, reaching out a hand. Ryadni hissed in warning, stiffening. The woman paused, a confused look on her face. "What is it?"

The familiarity with which she addressed Ryadni unsettled her. She was dressed in all black, the front torn, and she sported a deep cut on her forearm. She clamped her hand over the bleeding wound and continued to eye Ryadni with bemusement.

When she turned to check behind her, Ryadni raised the knife, ready to plunge it into the woman's neck.

The blade descended. Her eyes were fixed on the shadow beneath the woman's chin.

Then it all came flooding back to her.

She stared at the female Raider, her arm dropping back down to her side.

"Let's go; Casten's already been taken ahead. We only have to get ourselves out, now," said the woman, oblivious to what almost transpired, still turned in the opposite direction. Ryadni followed without a word, sheathing the blade.

Her whole body tingled as the pressured feeling she had built up to that point lifted. She gave the tower another glance before dissolving away into the darkness with the Raider.

Even as the distance increased between her and the Castle of Rubanast, it was like she had left a piece of her soul behind and it glowed as brightly as the sun, awaiting her return.

****

"I'm sorry to say we were unable to get Urseus back during this mission, Sumair." Pallas knew his words would be devastating.

All along the table, people avoided looking at Urseus's mother and none dared to break the horrified silence. Jocas gripped Sumair's flaccid, clammy hand.

"We will, of course, be sending a reconnaissance team later on this week after further information is secured about his whereabouts."

It seemed Pallas's words fell on deaf ears. Sumair said nothing.