and he could feel himself sweating, so he concentrated on trying to remember the precise wording of the letter from Rivermeet. Getting there should be fairly straightforward; he’d shown the map to Eluna, and she had said she could navigate there without any problems. All she had to do was follow the river. There were plenty of villages built along it where they could stop for the night, and some patches of woodland where she could hunt if the need arose.
He and Eluna stopped several times during the day to rest and finally landed that evening in a small town called Lansdown.
It was a fairly nondescript place, built along the banks of the river. Most of the occupants were farmers.
When Eluna landed in the square, there was a crowd of people waiting to receive her and Arren. They gathered around, bowing low, all speaking at once.
“Sir! Welcome, sir!”
“It’s an honour, sir!”
Arren stretched. He was stiff and sore after spending so long in the air. “Hello,” he said. Beside him, Eluna yawned. His stomach twinged. “I’m passing through here on official business and I was wondering if there was anywhere I could stay here. And I need to buy food for my griffin and myself.”
“Sir, anything you want you can have,” one of the crowd said promptly. “Food, somewhere to stay—just ask.”
“Is there an inn here or something?” said Arren. “I can pay—”
“Oh no, sir! There’s no need to pay for anything. Please, come with me.”
Arren wasn’t about to argue. He followed the man with a feeling of tired satisfaction, in spite of the ache in his limbs. Eluna loped beside him, eyeing the people following them. They were sensible enough to keep their distance. Arren was glad about that. He wasn’t sure he had the strength to hold her back if she decided to make a lunge at someone.
They were shown to the local inn, where there was a room for Arren. The horses were removed from the stable so that Eluna could stay there, and people brought meat for her with astonishing speed. Arren accepted the food they offered him with gratitude, especially when he saw that it included plenty of fresh vegetables. Perishable food was expensive in Eagleholm.
He was exhausted when he went to bed that night, but it took some time to get to sleep. It was hard to get comfortable in a proper bed instead of a hammock, without the gentle swinging to soothe him. He’d slept in a hammock for as long as he could remember.
Perhaps it was this vague feeling of unease that gave him an equally uneasy dream.
It was a dream he knew very well.
He was standing in the sky. The wind was icy cold and strong, like a river. But the sun was shining brightly and the sky was blue and dotted with white clouds, and he smiled and reached up toward them, wanting to touch them. And he could, he could—
But then he looked down, and he saw the ground, and it was so far below him, all dark and tiny, and then it was rushing toward him, getting bigger and bigger but never quite reaching him, and he was falling, screaming and screaming, knowing there would be no-one to catch him, knowing he was going to die, and there was nothing but darkness and the howl of the wind and an empty sky mocking him, beyond his reach forever.
The ground below was dark. It looked like a huge black sea, stretching away into the distance. There was grass down there, shivering and sighing in the wind. Above him a bright half-moon hung in the sky like an eye. Just like his own eye.
He could see the human, walking over the grass toward the village. It was a large one. He’d been watching it for days.
The black griffin circled lower. Up here, he was almost invisible. Anyone looking up might have seen his shadow pass in front of the moon every so often, but only for a moment, and even if they did it would be too late. He was too fast for them.
The black griffin circled lower, intent on the human. It was moving slowly, unable to see where it was going in the dark. Humans had poor eyes. He had thought they were weak, at first. They were so small, so fragile. But they had built this place. They could make their prey obey them. They didn’t have to hunt. And there were so many of them, all somehow