Chapter 8

 

 

Ben woke in the early morning to a fine day. Mia was already up and was cooking some eggs in a pan over the fire. He gave a deep groan and stretched himself to get the kinks out of his back. It had been some time since had he been camping and slept on the hard ground.

 

‘Morning!’ Mia said brightly as he sat up. ‘Hungry?’

 

Ben nodded, feeling his stomach rumble a little. He hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday and the thought of food was inviting.

 

‘Starving!’ he admitted.

 

‘Good, it’s almost ready.’

 

Ben got up, stretching again in the early daylight. Sprite was standing nearby, his blood red wings spread wide as he warmed them in the sunlight. In the light of day Ben noticed that the saddle he wore looked big enough to carry two people. The thought that he might ride him today filled him with some excitement.

 

Shortly he and Mia were eating the fried eggs, along with some flat, nutty tasting bread that Ben found quite delicious. After eating Mia took him across the hill to where it fell away into a broad shallow valley dotted with trees. Beyond the valley were grasslands that spread away as far as the eye could see.

 

‘So what will Dale do once he drives the Grawls into the valley,’ he asked.

 

‘He’ll kill the pack leader with his bow from Whisper,’ she replied. ‘Once the leader is killed, the pack will break up, fighting amongst themselves for a new leader or join a new pack. That way they’ll leave my village alone… for a while at least.’

 

‘That must be pretty hard to do from a Roc,’ Ben said in an impressed tone.

 

Mia nodded.

 

‘It’s one of the skills we have to master if we are to become a Skyrider,’ she replied. ‘I’m a pretty good shot, but Dale is very skilled.’

 

They didn’t have long to wait. Ben shortly heard a shrill shriek sounding from down the valley. It was answered loudly by Sprite behind them, the bird’s cry strident in the cool morning air.

 

‘That’s, Whisper!’ Mia said, pointing ahead.

 

Ben spotted a Roc flying into view, its broad wings spread wide as it glided low into the valley from across the plains. It looked like a southern variety of Roc, all black except for a splash of gold at the neck.

 

And on the ground ahead of the Roc was a pack of around a dozen dark brown animals that were charging up the valley. Ben thought they looked a lot like hyenas and he could hear their vicious snarls and a kind of coughing barking.

 

He watched as Dale began to shoot arrows into the pack from his Roc. The Grawls dodged and weaved to avoid them, but then one at the front suddenly stumbled and rolled to a stop in a cloud of dust. The others began to mill around it, snarling viciously and snapping at each other. Then they all scattered and began to lope back toward the grasslands.

 

With the death of the pack leader Whisper began to wing toward their hill. Ben and Mia got to their feet as it swooped low over their heads, a rush of air swirling past them. It landed next to Sprite and Ben watched a teenager a few years older than himself jump out of the saddle. He came over to them, a wondering expression on his face as he eyed Ben.

 

‘Hi, sis,’ he said. ‘Who have you stumbled upon out here?’

 

‘Dale, this is Ben and Ben, this is my brother, Dale’ Mia replied. ‘Ben… well, he just appeared here last night. He’s from a different world!’

 

‘A different world!’ Dale exclaimed with some surprise. ‘I see there’s a story to tell here.’

 

Mia nodded.

 

‘Some bad people are after him,’ she said. ‘He needs some help.’

 

Dale winked at Ben and extended a hand which Ben shook.

 

‘Glad to meet you, Ben. Sounds like you have had a bit of an adventure. Nothing better than an adventure is there, Mia?’

 

Mia rolled her eyes at her brother.

 

‘Dale is always looking for an adventure,’ she said. ‘Normally it takes three or four Skyriders to track down a Grawl pack. But he told our father that we could do it ourselves.’

 

‘And we did, didn’t we?’ Dale grinned.

 

‘Yes, Dale,’ Mia smiled. ‘Just like you said.’

 

‘Well, if we’re to help Ben, we should head home,’ Dale said.

 

They headed toward the Rocs, Dale chatting about what it had been like shooting the Grawl leader. But as they came up to them, Whisper suddenly tensed, looking southwards and uttering a low shriek.

 

Dale frowned.

 

‘What is it, boy? Seen something?’

 

Sprite gave a low shriek as well, almost like a warning Ben thought and they all looked to the south over the hills. Ben couldn’t see anything at first, then he caught sight of around six Rocs with riders on board approaching.

 

‘Riders! I wonder who they…’ Dale began with a frown and then Ben watched his expression grow tense. ‘Relmaks!’

 

‘No!’ Mia said in some dread.

 

‘We’ve got to get out of here!’ Dale said in urgency.

 

‘Who are Relmaks?’ Ben asked, a little unnerved at their reaction.

 

‘Slavers!’ Mia replied bluntly.

 

‘Slavers!” Ben echoed in shock.

 

‘No time to explain, Ben!’ Dale said and he was quickly helped up into Sprite’s saddle. He was quickly shown some leather straps hanging loose from the saddle and how they were used to tie his thighs down. Ben guessed they were there so a rider couldn’t fall off.

 

‘Head into the mountains, Mia,’ Dale said as she climbed up in front of Ben. ‘You know where our hiding place is! I’ll lead them away.’

 

‘Be careful, Dale!’ Mia said.

 

Dale nodded with a grin.

 

‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said. ‘I can outfly a Relmak rider any day. I’ll meet you later.’

 

With that he gave Sprite a slap on its side. The big bird suddenly tensed and with a huge leap, launched itself into the air.

 

Luckily Ben was hanging onto Mia’s waist, otherwise he would have been thrown backwards by the force of the jump. He hung on tight as Sprite gained height, his wings beating hard and Ben’s stomach reacting a little unsettlingly. Then the big bird began to wing his way toward the mountains, heading towards the nearest pass.

 

Ben managed to look behind him and saw Dale was airborne on Whisper. The other Rocs and their riders were almost on top of him and Ben saw the sudden glint of spears being thrown. But instead of following after he and Mia, Whisper winged directly toward them, driving through the flock and scattering some of the birds.

 

But two Rocs had broken away from the main bunch and were in hot pursuit of Sprite.

 

‘There are two birds after us!’ he said nervously to Mia.

 

She nodded.

 

‘Don’t worry, we’ll loose them.’

 

Then he could see no more as they passed through a narrow gap between two mountain cliffs. They skimmed over a ridgeline and then dropped sharply into a valley beyond.

 

* * *

 

For a good hour Sprite flew deep into the mountains as they tried to loose the pursuing Rocs. Ben kept on looking over his shoulder for them, telling Mia how close behind they were. He found the chase both exciting and terrifying as they banked steeply around mountain cliffs, soared over ridgelines and dropped like a stone into valleys beyond.

 

They eventually lost sight of their pursuers and they shortly dropped down into another narrow valley. Then as they skirted around one cliff face, Sprite passing so close that a wing almost touched it, Mia turned in the saddle to him.

 

‘We’re going to land!’ she said.

 

‘Where?’ Ben exclaimed, unable to see anywhere safe to do so, with just sheer rock walls and steep ridges all around them.

 

Mia pointed ahead of them and in the distance he saw a narrow ledge of rock hard up against a cliff.

 

‘There’s a cave on the ledge ahead,’ she said. ‘When we land, jump off Sprite straight away.’

 

Ben was nervous as the ledge looked awfully narrow. But Sprite approached it with a sure grace and then landed with a thump on it. Ben unstrapped himself and then slid off, followed by Mia. She then slapped him on a wing and he launched himself back into the air, wings beating hard as he climbed away. He then vanished over the top of the cliff.

 

Ben then followed Mia to a narrow cave on the ledge and they slipped inside. It widened a little inside and here they sat down, looking back out across the ledge. A minute or two went by and then they saw two Rocs fly past some distance away.

 

‘There, we’ve lost them,’ she said confidently. ‘The cave is not easily seen from the air if you don’t know what to look for. But we’ll stay here for a few hours. Sprite will come back for us when it’s safe to leave again.’

 

‘Where do these slavers come from?’ Ben asked.

 

‘From from the city of Relmak some way south of here,’ Mia replied.

 

‘What do they take slaves for?’

 

‘Well, like your story, that is quite long too,’ Mia replied. ‘Some years ago, Lord Petten, the Lord of Relmak was overthrown by his uncle, Agmin, a cruel, greedy man. Since then he has forced people to work in the gold mines near the city, greedy for its wealth.’

 

‘Why hasn’t someone overthrown him too?’

 

‘It’s not that easy,’ Mia replied. ‘To help him come to power he hired slavers and mercenaries from southern Relmak where the practise is quite common. The people of Northern Tarken mainly live in large forest villages spread throughout the north and large towns are uncommon. My father says it’s always been too hard to unite all the tribes against him. Most prefer to try and ignore him, staying well north to avoid the slavers.’

 

Mia’s expression then turned quite concerned.

 

‘But I’ve never heard of them coming this far north before,’ she said. ‘Lord Agmin must be getting desperate for slaves.’

 

Ben was a little unsettled by the sound of these slavers and wondered just what kind of trouble the Silvyn had got him into. He had his own problems to deal with. But Tarken was Mia’s world and he was a guest here, so he might as well find out more about it.

 

‘What’s the city like?’ he asked.

 

‘It’s the largest town of the north and when I was younger, an exciting place to visit. It was built as a trading city between the northern tribes and the rest of Tarken. You could find people from just about every corner of Tarken offering different goods and trades. But it’s all changed now. The town is a grim place now, living in fear of Lord Agmin.’

 

‘How far is it from here?’

 

‘About three days flying time on a Roc,’ Mia replied. ‘It’s on the coast of the Wildwind Ocean. The town surrounds a small bay, with Lord Agmin’s citadel overlooking it from a high hill. I actually have an uncle and aunt who live there. My aunt owns an inn and my uncle is a citadel guard from Lord Petten’s day. He managed to keep his job when Agmin came to power. He does what he can to help people that are captured, though there’s not a whole lot he can do.’

 

‘And what about your home? You said you lived in a forest? What’s that like?’

 

Mia smiled, obviously happy to talk about it.

 

‘It’s about a day’s flying from here,’ she replied. ‘We live around this large lake in the middle of a forest. If I’m not out flying, I’m fishing or swimming in it.’

 

‘Sounds like fun,’ Ben said. ‘Do you have any other brothers or sisters?’

 

‘A baby sister,’ Mia replied. ‘What about you? You said that you live with your grandmother. What happened to your parents?’

 

‘Well, I never knew my dad and my mum died a couple of years ago in an accident,’ he replied in a quiet voice. ‘I don’t have any brothers or sisters.’

 

‘Oh, I’m sorry!’ Mia said apologetically. ‘I shouldn’t have asked.’

 

‘That’s all right,’ Ben said. ‘I love my gran. That’s why I’m really worried about her. I’ve got to think of a way to rescue her.’

 

‘Well, don’t worry. Once Dale gets here, we’ll fly home and see our father. He’ll think of something to help you I’m sure.’

 

Time slipped by and they talked more about their individual worlds. But it soon became apparent that Sprite was not going to return quickly and Mia said that the slavers must still be in the area. They eventually both dozed off on the floor of the cave.

 

* * *

 

Ben didn’t know how long he slept, but it must have been a while because when he woke he saw the daylight was fading outside. Mia was still asleep on the ground and he was careful not to disturb as he got to his feet. He had to relieve himself and still a little groggy from sleep and not thinking clearly, he slipped out of the cave.

 

Shadows lay thick about the mountains, the sun well below the horizon. He walked a little away from the cave, but then stumbled to a halt as he saw a huge shape ahead. It was a Roc, but it wasn’t Sprite. Nor was it Whisper either, coloured instead in brown and white.

 

Then a sound behind him made him half turn before something slammed against his head and everything went black.