Zeydrick
Before dawn broke over the horizon, my bags were packed, my armor on, and my resolve, while not entirely solid, was at least not crumbling like fragile glass. By the time the servants came to get my bags, I was already heading down the stairs with my saddlebags. The servants stared at me, my bags, and pressed against the wall of the stairs, mumbling their apologies for being late.
“You weren’t late, I’m early. Go help the others and have breakfast pouches delivered to the stables,” I told them, waving them off and heading towards the stables myself. When I got there, the stablemaster already had six of our mounts ready in their stalls, their scaled hides gleaming under their tack.
The stablemaster smiled wearily up at me as he straightened from finishing with the last of the beasts.
“Zephyr’s in a mood this morning, just a warning,” he told me, patting the neck of the beast he stood beside.
“When isn’t he?” I replied, letting my gaze roam over the creatures.
Most of the beasts, a species called ebriaen, stood at just about 8 feet; not Zephyr, who stood proudly beside his fellows. Standing at well over nine feet, the beast was massive to anyone but me. Though the creatures resembled horses at their very basic structure, they were as far from horses as you could get without losing the intent. Over 90% of their bodies shine with scales, while the rest sport a protective layer of thick fur. While horses have hooves and thin powerful legs, ebriaen have lizard-like talons at the end of their thickly muscled front legs and huge, powerful lion’s paws capping off their massive corded back legs. Trailing down their long, sinuous tails, deadly spikes become a fan of fur. Protecting their bellies were hardened layers of scales, easily three times as thick as the rest of their hides.
Their heads were probably the most surprising, resembling a strange mix of horse and lizard. Hardened scales protect from the curve of their nose to the ridge of their forehead, while softer scales line the sides of their faces. Like horses, they grow manes to match their tails.
But unlike horses, their teeth are sharp, pointed, with multiple rows of razor daggers lining their mouths.
These were not herbivores. Nor were they natural to any ecosystem on the planet.
“Has he had breakfast?” I asked the stablemaster as I approached the silver-maned beast and patted his leather-soft neck. Zephyr snuffled against my neck and I rubbed his chin, gently pushing him away from my neck. The beast had already bitten me - twice - by letting my guard down around him.
Did I mention they’re venomous?
“Aye, he had his, and tried to steal Catlin's and Quin’s,” the man said, leaning against Zephyr’s stall door. “Greedy thing that he is, Quin almost gave up her food.”
I sighed and tightened the saddlebags in place, before leveling a glare at the back of the beast’s head.
“Just because you’re the lead stallion doesn’t mean you get to take from your herd,” I growled, low enough that Zephyr’s ears twitched and flattened against his head, and he turned to meet my narrowed eyes. “You pull that shit while I’m around and you aren’t getting fed.”
Fast as a viper, his teeth made for the only vulnerable patch of skin - my neck - but I’d been expecting it and shoved my metal-clad arm between his fangs. In the same instance, I grabbed his hair, right between his ears, and yanked him back. Our height difference wasn’t so great that he had a chance of throwing me off if he reared or pulled away, and my strength was far greater.
With another yank, I pulled him off of my arm and glared into his void-black eyes. “Do you need a reminder of who is in charge?”
Zephyr huffed and I let him go. He nuzzled at my cheek before pressing his forehead into my chest.
“Ah, I see. You’re testy because I haven’t had time to visit.”
The beast’s ears swiveled back up as he stared up at me again. His tail swayed behind him as we bonded, melding minds once more.
It’d been far too long since I’d heard his voice in my head. I admit I missed it.
“Missed,” came his deep, rumbling voice, settling into my mind, a missing piece filling the void left each time we parted.
“I know,” I murmured, my knuckles rubbing along his nose, where the soft scales met the hardened ridge. “I was away for too long. Will you forgive me and stop trying to bite me?”
“Maybe,” Zephyr replied, a sparkle in his dark eyes.
Mischievous little shit.
“We have a long march ahead of us,” I told him, pulling back and grabbing the reins just under his chin. “Try not to freak out the horses or bite one of the soldiers.”
“They heal,” he said with a huff into my short hair.
I rolled my eyes, leading the ebriaen from the stall. The stablemaster moved out of the way, keeping his distance from Zephyr, his eyes on the beast’s maw. Even though he’d been taking care of the creatures for a decade, he had a healthy wariness of their vicious natures.
The Knights chosen to accompany me chatted with their fellows as they readied their own mounts. I glanced towards the stalls, taking stock of who Esrin had chosen.
My eyes found the albino Ser Duras easily enough, matching his white-scaled ebriaen eerily. His white armor amplified the effect, especially in contrast to the dark-haired, dark-skinned beauty in the stall next, standing beside an ebriaen dark as a forest at night. The dark-green armored Ser Aleanna carried with her a cloying, frightening scent of ambrosia and I had to grip Zephyr’s reins tighter, enough to cause a slight stab of pain in my fingers, to keep it from clouding my thoughts.
Zephyr nudged my back, his will strengthening my own, and the scent’s effects faded as quickly as they’d come.
The Knight’s bright green eyes and my own met briefly before I moved on.
In the next busy stall, the ethereal, silver-haired, silver-armored Ser Ji’u busied himself beside a brass-colored beast. The smell of recent rain clung to him like a second skin. He traded light jabs with a tan-skinned auburn woman wearing light blue armor in the next stall over, Ser Eyvindr, whose scent carried with her salt and sea spray. With her, stood an ebriaen with opalescent scales, shimmering in the low light of the stables.
As for the last of the Knights, to my surprise, I caught his scent before I heard his humming. The familiar scent of riverbanks and recent sex clogged my nostrils and I fought the urge to cover my nose.
The dark blue armored Ser Euri hummed beside a red-gold beast far too tall for his stature.
“Ser Esrin picked you to come?” I asked, stopping at the stall.
The golden-haired Knight turned with a smile, patting his beast on her haunches. “That’s right. Esrin thought it might be a good idea to toss me out of the Capitol for a few months. Give the people a chance to rest.”
“Please don’t chase after everything you see while we’re on mission,” I sighed, staring down at Euri. “I don’t care what you do here in the capital, but once we leave these stables, I expect you to be serious.”
Euri grinned and saluted, slamming his gauntlet against his breastplate. “Yes, sir, Captain, you can count on me. I’ll be as serious as the rest.”
“Strive to be more so,” I said. “Finish up. Dawn is fast approaching and we must gather the legions.”
“Yes, Captain!” Another salute from the flirtatious Knight and I strode off, the click of Zephyr’s talons against the stone comforting to my ears.
As I checked Zephyr’s tack once more outside the stables and rechecked the saddlebags, my five companions trickled out one or two at a time. Surprisingly, Euri was not the last one, as he walked out with his beast right before Ser Aleanna and Ser Duras joined us.
“Mount up. Let’s grab the legions and head out,” I said. Swinging myself up into my saddle, settling into the creaking oiled leather, I could sense the oncoming dawn drawing ever closer. Hearing my companions clink and thud into their own saddles, I turned Zephyr toward the barracks to collect our soldiers.
As expected of the legions that served under the Holy Knights, all six legion commanders sat mounted on their horses just outside the courtyard of the barracks.
“Ser!” the commander of my legion saluted in greeting. “We had the legions gather outside the North Gate, to await your arrival.”
I smiled and gestured for the commanders to fall in. “Good. Let’s collect everyone and be on our way.”
Just as the commander said, six legions - roughly one to two thousand men each - waited in ranks, at attention, as we trotted out of the North Gate. Under each Knight, served a commander of the legion, five majors, and ten lieutenants. Those officers stood with their assigned units, mounted on their issued horses. Near each unit sat wagons, both for the soldiers and supplies. Glancing over the legions gathered, I nodded and glanced behind me to the commanders.
“Very good. Get them in the wagons.”
The commanders saluted and galloped off to their legions, shouting commands. In a flurry of movement, the soldiers were loaded into the waiting wagons and, with roughly ten thousand soldiers at our backs, we left the city and headed north.
The first few days of our march were quiet, too close to often-traveled routes for beasts to try anything, and our line was far too large for bandits. As we rode, I spoke with the Knights and my commander, explaining the exercise.
To me, that was all this retrieval mission was: a military exercise.
Comments (4)
See all