"Skylands: The Third Gate" ch.08 (NaNoWriMo 2015)
Eris had to pretend she wasn't worried. They had continued on, southward, as they had agreed. The hills to the west grew larger and more imposing. But Adam was nowhere to be seen. Planning for this early on, the agreement had been they would not try to find each other unless they had evidence there was somewhere they could actually go to achieve success. In this case, all of day three went by without a word from their only flier. When day four dawned, Adam had yet to return. Eris merely took charge and advised they try moving at double-speed in hopes of covering more ground before a longer break at midday. Her hope, though, was that they would run into Adam before Yar suggested they turn back.But despite his annoyance at their trek which no one but Eris seemed to notice, the first mate said nothing.Adam did not show up at Noon.Nor, even after a longer-than-usual wait, did he appear on the horizon.Kaia didn't seem to care but the normally reserved Irri looked about furtively every few minutes as if hoping to catch a glimpse of the dragonkin. That night passed fitfully with Eris taking double the watch; at best, her sleep could be called "fitful". At least the skies had remained clear. The weather, however, was much colder. The frost at dawn didn't fade right away. She was glad for her fur and found herself glancing at Kaia wondering how she managed with only skin. It had not been all that long ago that she had been human, after all, but already it seemed strange to imagine life as anything but tahvic.Home life hadn't been exactly
difficult but it hadn't been easy, either. Taking care of her younger siblings, in addition to her mother, had been taxing. But it had been a good teacher for living a self-reliant life. When her world ended, she'd stepped forward with squared shoulders and set jaw. It had been hard and there had been a few tears but she'd come through it all in one piece.Later, a year later, when the storms came to rip her and her city free from its old world and deposit it in the skies over the new, she had become prepared for anything.She had to assume Adam was not coming back.Eris checked her compass. It wasn't magical but it was solid and reliable. After Adam had told her about how he'd tracked her using a spell that worked similarly, Eris figured she should have something similar. The Scouts had taught her to get by outdoors. Living the last year of her life on the streets in Minnesota had crystallized her winter experience.There were several ways she could go about this. She had paid attention when the slavers had taken her the first time. She still remembered the slant of the sun as it blinded them during sundown. The long shadows of the mountains had proven relief even as she had known that reaching them would mean Adam would lose her trail. And, since then, more than a month had passed.The angle of the shadows.Eris smiled to herself. She had been watching them every night but hadn't really been thinking about them. After all, they each had expected Adam to be able to find the gate from the air. Relying upon him, she'd not
thought about it very much. But she had the clues in her own memory. She wasn't the best at advanced mathematics, not having yet gotten into geometry when her world fell apart, but she understood the basics.Looking at the compass and at the western foothills and mountains, she pictured the setting sun from last night in her mind's eye. Overlaying it upon her memory of the slaver-trek towards the gate, she nodded, calculating."Madam Eris?"Irri's voice was curious and slow.Eris looked at the whimsy and winked. "I know where to go," she said.She didn't tell Yar that she didn't plan on stopping nor that she planned on keeping going forward until she found their target. She just told them to keep up with her. Heart racing, more from excitement than exertion, she led the other three forward.By late afternoon, with the long shadows reaching forth from beyond the mountains to surround them with fingers of cold, those peaks were looking familiar."On the morrow," Yar said, "we must turn back.""I think Lassiter will forgive us our delay,"
Eris said."Ten days, she said," Yar replied. "And now it's been five. We've not found the gate, yet; we must turn back."She turned and looked at the other tahvic, seeing in her the frustration that he had kept from everyone else. Eyes narrowing, she flared her nostrils and lowered her arms to her sides, palms facing Yar with fingers curled towards him. The posture, the inherent threat, was not lost on the native.He snorted, showing derision in his sneer. "You think t' challenge me?" he asked."Nope," Eris said, her tone low, "I think to tell you what we're going to do." Before the first mate could respond, she held a single clawtip to her muzzle and shushed him. "We could go back but Captain Lassiter didn't get as far as she has by not taking risks. We come back without anything, we come back not saying we tried our hardest, and she'll accept it but she won't respect you." She saw one of Yar's eyes twitch. "But that's not why you'll agree to keep going. Time is precious to us, yes? Well, how do you think you'll feel knowing that I've gotten us this far but you turned back, wasting ten days of life?"Irri and Kaia were watching the two, now, but keeping quiet. Kaia looked amused while Irri was inscrutable with her raven's face."Better ten days wasted than eleven," Yar said."But success after twelve is better than failure of any sort," Eris countered.Again, Yar twitched. His muzzle curled into a snarling frown. Eris knew she had won."Kaia? Irri? Are you still fit enough for another couple hours travel ... even by moonlight?"Kaia laughed. "I can keep up with you any day of the week, tahvic."Eris rolled her eyes. When she glanced at Irri, though, she saw the whimsy simply nod. She turned back to Yar. "Well, then: let's keep going. We're almost there."They pressed on through freezing grasses and uneven hillocks of prairie. They passed stands of short, stunted trees and streams that had frozen shelves of ice along on their edges. They set up camp after sunset by a considerable margin and had to rely upon only a single lean-to as several tremors shook the late autumn prairies around them. They had almost grown used to the shaking over the last few days and managed to sleep, rough, through to another day.They did not find the gate during day six. But, like day five, they pushed on anyway. By dawn on day seven, Yar looked almost ready to argue for turning back but the trio he was guiding were still possessed of a resolute mind.All the while, Eris kept watch on her compass and compared her memories with those of the hills from almost two months ago.It was at sundown that she saw it.They had cut closer to the foothills. The roughness of the landscape had slowed them as, increasingly, they had to trek up and down the hilly terrain. But this close, it was easier to see some of the landmarks she had seen once before. As the last rays of the sun cut through the western peaks, Eris saw it.There was a skull, just visible against the deepening navy of the sky, over a hill.By the time the stars had fully come out and Khetef, the silver moon, had lit the world: she had found it. The twin spires, their cracked and spent debris from what had once been an arch spanning both, were there before them.Yar was silent in her success.She didn't let him stay that way and pulled him into a rough kiss before shouting her success to echo off the cliffs. There was still no sign of Adam but she slept soundly, anyway. The next morning, although she now realized that her trek was more about her finding a way to not worry about her friend, she felt a flood of relief when Adam came swooping in, carrying Kelmore in a sling.The dragonkin landed, roughly, and after setting Kelmore on his feet came up to Eris."I'd thought I'd catch you on the road," he said. "I mean, I found this place a few days ago. I just--""You bought us more time," Eris guessed, nodding at the derroni.Kelmore was stretching his legs but already walking up to the base of the nearest spire of stone skulls. He took off a rabbit-fur-lined glove and ran his fingers across the stone, in awe."Yeah," Adam said. He shook his head in amazement, a dragonkin approximation of a human smile on his muzzle. "I should have guessed you'd find it, too. How'd you do it?"Eris shrugged. "Memories," she said."So," Irri said, walking up to them, "Now what?""Now," Eris said, looking at the starry sky as clouds began to drift in over the peaks to the west, "we camp. And tomorrow...""Tomorrow, we climb the stairs," Adam said.They slept soundly despite the cold and the moaning sound of the winds between the stones: both natural and hand-carved. The stars turned slowly over them while a few snowflakes fell. Adam used an incantation to keep them warm despite him seeming more worn-out than Eris had seen him since the fight at the second gate. Whatever he had done to get back to the Astinato, get Kelmore, and ferry him back, had taken its toll. But, together, they seemed to have all the energy they needed to go on.At dawn, they began to ascend.