A Time of Blood (Of Blood and Bone #2) - John Gwynne Page 0,74

leg. Riv glanced down, saw an arrow protruding from his calf, blood leaking from the wound, raining down upon the field. She blinked, felt the red mist of her rage retreat and looked down to the weapons-field far below her.

Bleda was standing in his stirrups, his bow in his hand. Another arrow flew from his bow, whistling past Sorch’s head. Instinctively, Riv jerked him away, felt herself coming back to her senses. She released her grip around Sorch’s throat and held him by his training vest.

“Open your eyes. Look down,” Riv said, hovering with great, slow beats of her wings.

He didn’t, so Riv shook him, like a cat with a mouse.

He screamed, Riv was impressed with the strength of his lungs.

“If you don’t open your eyes I’m going to drop you,” she said.

He didn’t open his eyes.

Riv let go of one arm and let him dangle a little.

More yelling as his eyes snapped open.

“P-please,” he begged. “Please, please, please.” Tears streamed from his eyes, snot from his nose.

“Look down,” she growled at him.

Slowly, inch by inch, his head shifted and he looked down. He whimpered again, a pitiful sound. Riv had only flown about the equivalent of a hundred or so paces straight up, but it was still high enough to splatter Sorch over a wide area if she dropped him. The ground seemed a very long way away, everyone on the field frozen, staring up at them.

“Remember this,” Riv snarled at him. “Remember that I have your life in my hands, could kill you if I wished.” She paused. “Do you realize that?”

He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

“I can’t hear you,” she said.

“Yes,” Sorch squeaked.

“Good.” Riv nodded. “Now, you are a worm, but you are still one of Elyon’s creations, and so have the right to live. Just like I do.”

She stared into his eyes.

“Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

He nodded frantically.

“Tell me.”

“Th-th-th-that you are not an abomination,” he stuttered. “Th-th-th-that you should live, do not deserve to be e-e-executed.”

“That’s right,” Riv said. She narrowed her eyes. “But do I believe you? If I take you back to the ground, see you safe down there, will you just do this again, or worse?”

“N-n-n-n-n-n-no,” Sorch said. “You can trust me, I swear. Live and let l-l-live, that’s what I say.”

“Because I could still drop you. It would be easier that way. No need to worry about whether you can be trusted, then.”

Riv glimpsed Ben-Elim swooping towards her, Kol amongst them. She glanced over Sorch’s shoulder and saw Hadran. He was close, but just observing, making no attempt to interfere.

Then Riv heard a sound, distant, a horn blowing, far away, beyond the walls of Drassil.

An answering horn blast from Drassil’s towers.

What’s that?

Riv beat her wings and rose higher. Sorch let out a yelp and shut his eyes tight again, his arms flailing, reaching out and grabbing Riv. He pulled himself tight against her body. She could feel his trembling.

The horn calls resounded again and Riv climbed higher, level with Drassil’s towering walls, then higher still, until she could see the sea of green that was Forn Forest, stretching in all directions for endless leagues. Hadran flew close to her.

A column of horses was spilling onto the plain that surrounded Drassil, coming from the east road. Easily two to three hundred, with still more appearing. Riv squinted, the figures not much more than pinpricks, but she glimpsed a banner, stared a few moments longer and made out a white horse on a green field.

I recognize that sigil.

Kol and a score of Ben-Elim reached her then, but they were not giving Riv any attention, all of them staring out at the riders on the plain. With a beat of his wings and a shouted command Kol sped forwards, towards the riders.

Then Riv was descending, by the shrieks and yelps that escaped Sorch, a little too fast for his liking. When she was about the height of three horses from the ground she extended her wings wide, checking her speed, and touched down with a whisper of feet. Sorch collapsed in a heap on the floor, hugging and kissing the ground, quivering and shaking.

Riv ignored him, ignored the cheers and shouts from the crowd that were all staring at her, instead turning to Bleda, who was still sitting upon his horse where she had left him. Ellac and Bleda’s guards were about him now, as was Jin and a few of her honour guard. She was looking at Riv with