Sky Riders: The Rising Sun

Astrum closed his golden eyes and spoke. His voice rang clearly through the small, circular room. There was something distant and ancient about his words, as if they had slipped from the pages of one of the centuries-old volumes below them.

"Lies, deceit, and selfish greed

Are what make this war begin.

We have made blood enemies

Out of those we called our friends.

“Centuries lie before us;

Lives lost and both bloods shed,

But there is one who will end it

In the time far ahead.

“Barely a child she will be,

With blood of both in her veins.

An outcast among both our kinds

But a spirit that cannot be tamed.

“Fire will be her ally,

Joined by a dragon of brilliant gold

And they will fly together

Just as the Riders did of old.

“One more will stand beside her,

Descended from our finest kings,

But he will give up his noble throne

To aid the girl and all she brings.

“At the time we need her most

She will fight to end the war,

Bridging the divide between us:

Elves and humans, friends once more."

The golden eyes opened again, watching Eliana carefully. She stared back in silence, perplexed; hearing the prophecy herself had not done anything to alleviate her confusion.

However, it seemed to be enough evidence for Caedis. “You see!” he exclaimed. “It couldn’t possibly be anyone else! You have a golden dragon and a former elven prince to help you! Are you going to try to tell me that’s just mere coincidence?”

Caelum… She hadn’t considered that he could be the elven man in the mural. She had tried not to spend much time thinking about the prophecy at all, but even she had to admit it seemed possible now.

“I still don’t understand,” she said to Astrum. “How does the prophecy being about me depend on me?”

The white fox smiled and shook his head. “Humans and elves alike have always tended to assume that the things I prophesy are carved in stone, that it must all happen a certain way. But that is not the way Fate works. Destiny does not negate choice. My prophecy will be fulfilled, one way or another, at one time or another. If the first should choose not to fulfill it, another will come who can, and so on, until it is done. Could this prophecy be about you, Oriens, and Prince Caelum? Yes. Does it have to be? No. It all depends on you.”

With that, the bushy white tail disappeared out of the round doorway, somehow summoning and descending on the disk on his own. Eliana blinked in surprise as realization dawned on her. She felt Oriens in her mind, absorbing the information as well.

“It is about us,” Eliana mused quietly.

“But only if we want it to be,” he added. “We have a choice in our own destiny after all. It is not decided for us.”

Despite the elves’ beliefs and Astrum’s prophecies, the path they took was ultimately their decision.

“We don’t have to take on this responsibility,” she thought wistfully. “We could leave it all behind, allow someone else to come along and take on the duty.”

She wanted to believe her own words, but even as she thought them, they both knew that there was only one decision they could make. As much as Eliana wanted to run from this responsibility and this prophecy, she couldn’t. If they walked away, there was no telling how much longer this war would continue before another came along to end it. There was no knowing how many more lives would be lost before the bloodshed would be stopped.

“We will be the answer to the prophecy,” she sighed in her mind. To her surprise, she felt a sense of relief come over her. She didn’t have to try to fight this any longer. The choice had been hers all along, and now that she had made it, she was ready to face it.

She sensed her dragon’s agreement. “This is the only choice we can make, they only path we could possibly choose to follow.”

She nodded. They’d made their vows to Iterum and Amiscan already. They would make the same vows to anyone who joined their ranks, and they would fight with them and for them until they drew their last breaths.

“Our destiny is our own, Oriens,” she thought. “And this is it.”

Mara and Caedis were watching her curiously, as if they were aware that she was mulling over Astrum’s words, making a decision that could decide the fate of Paerolia. She met their gazes expressionlessly.

“We should find Laurus,” she said. “We need to get back to Caelum and Ispera as soon as possible.”

Mara nodded and led them out of the mural room and onto the thin wooden disk, which quickly took them to the floor of the archives. Laurus walked in as soon as the disk had settled into the floor. She carried a large basket of herbs and vials, her black cloak around her shoulders.

“I’m ready,” she announced, brushing a few wild curls away from her face.

The four of them headed back towards the practice fields beside the palace. Denio and Queen Ivi stood together beside Oriens, speaking to someone that Eliana could not see. When they approached, the queen and prince turned in their direction, and she saw the woman in front of them. It was the same dark-haired elven woman that Caelum had indicated on the morning they’d left for Amiscan—Kana.

Denio smiled warmly. “Eliana! Come, please, I want you to meet Kana!”

She briskly stepped forward and took the woman’s hands between her own. “Congratulations,” she said with a smile. “I couldn’t be happier for you both.”

Kana smiled shyly and said in a quiet voice. “Thank you, Rider. It means very much to me to have your blessing.”

“Please, call me Eliana. After all, you’re going to be royalty soon enough.”

A blush crept into Kana’s fair cheeks. “Yes, I… I suppose I am, aren’t I. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Eliana laughed briefly. “You’re marrying a prince and you didn’t think about becoming a part of the royal family?”

Kana reached out to Denio, who took her hand with a tender expression on his young face. “I suppose,” she said slowly, “I was just so happy that he asked me that I… I didn’t even consider anything else.”

The Rider smiled softly, observing the loving tenderness with which the two elves gazed at each other. It made her heart ache for Caelum. She turned away from the pair and spoke to Queen Ivi.

“It’s time for us to return to Vegrandis. We should get Laurus back to Caelum as soon as possible.”

The queen gave her a brief hug, whispering in her ear, “Please, take good care of my boy. Bring him home to me.”

“Of course,” Eliana answered quietly.

Ivi released her, and Eliana turned to look at her dragon, who was waiting patiently, still saddled. “Ready to go?” she asked.

“You know,” he answered with a dragonish smirk, “if you continue to treat me like a carrier pigeon, I may just stop letting you Ride me one day.”

“I’d like to see you try,” she chuckled. “Can you handle three passengers from here to Vegrandis?”

“I’ll manage, though we may need to stop once for me to rest.”

“Whatever you need,” she replied with a nod. She looked over her shoulder at Caedis and Laurus. “Ready to go?” she asked.

They both nodded in the affirmative, and Eliana swung up into the saddle. Caedis climbed up behind her and took Laurus’ basket, settling it between his legs and Eliana’s back. She pulled Laurus up in front of her, squeezing them all tightly into the small saddle.

“Okay, Oriens,” she said. “Back to Vegrandis.”

The dragon’s wings beat laboriously, then finally pulled their weight into the air. Ivi, Denio, and Kana waved at them until they were airborne, and they swept away over the treetops.

“I wish you had waited a few more months to decide to give me such a load,” Oriens complained. “I could have handled it easily then.”

“Nonsense,” she teased. “It will make you stronger.”

“Then why don’t you try it?”

She laughed, and they headed southwest, towards the village where Caelum waited.

~*~

Eliana quickly pulled the saddle off of Oriens, thanking the weary dragon with a kiss on his scaly forehead, then ran towards Otium’s house. Caedis and Laurus followed close behind. The door opened for them before they’d reached it, and the old widow stood in the doorway, looking strained and exhausted.

“Thank heavens!” she cried. “Prince Caelum has gotten worse.”

At that moment, a scream tore through the late afternoon air, making Eliana’s heart feel like it was being shredded to pieces. “NO! ELIANA! PLEASE, NO! DON’T HURT HER!”

She rushed inside and tossed the saddle unceremoniously on the floor, rushing to her mother’s side as the woman struggled to still Caelum’s thrashing body. Eliana dropped to her knees at his side and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, trying to hold him.

“I’m here,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I’m here, Caelum. I’m here.”

Slowly, his thrashing quieted until he trembled in her arms, sweat soaking his brow. “Please don’t die,” he whimpered softly. “Eliana, don’t leave me… Please…”

She reached for the nearby cloth and basin of water. She soaked the cloth in the cool water, then wrung it out, gently wiping it across his burning forehead. “I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered.

Ispera sat back with a sigh. “He’s been doing this every ten minutes or so for the past hour, and it’s worse each time,” she explained. “He just keeps screaming your name, like someone’s ripping his heart out.”

An airy voice spoke from behind them, “He needs to have the Darkness removed from his mind.”

Ispera looked up in surprise. “Laurus?” The Healer nodded, and Eliana’s mother jumped to her feet, throwing her arms around the woman’s neck. “Look how you’ve grown!”

Laurus laughed, her pale eyes moistening as she embraced her mentor. “Everyone thought you were dead,” she said. “It is truly wonderful to see you again, Ispera.”

“And you,” Ispera answered, pulling back. She looked towards the elf on the sofa, who was breathing shallowly and raggedly. “Do you know what can be done for him?” she asked. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this before.”

“I have only seen something similar once,” Laurus replied, “when the young elf Ater was brought to me. I didn’t know how to treat it then, but he somehow managed to recover on his own. Since then, I have studied the matter further. When one is tortured with Dark magic, the Darkness can imbed itself deeply in the mind, feeding on the fears of the host. It’s especially painful to elves, because our magic is of the earth, and so it repels the Darkness.”

“Is there something you can do?” Eliana asked, kneeling beside Caelum’s trembling form.

Laurus nodded slowly. “Yes, but it’s complicated and difficult. And I can’t say for certain that it will work. I’ve never tried it before.”

“But if we don’t try?” the Rider asked hesitantly.

Laurus’ voice was quiet. “Based on how far gone he already is… the Darkness will consume him. Then he can either willingly subject himself to it and become Dark himself… or he will die.”

“What do we have to do?”

Ispera and Laurus immediately set to work, grinding herbs and mixing potions, all under Laurus’ instructions; the former apprentice now guided her teacher. After nearly an hour—and several more feverish outbursts from Caelum—Laurus held a swirling, silvery substance in the vial in her hand.

“Now,” she said, “we must add three of the four elements of elven magic.”

“Which three?” Eliana asked.

“The three that are not Caelum’s strongest element.”

“What is his strongest element?” Ispera asked.

The two women looked at Eliana. “Water,” she said confidently. “Caelum’s element is water.”

“Are you certain?” he mother asked.

She nodded firmly. She clearly remembered him summoning the water sphere when they entered Amiscan. And he was like water to her—his soothing, healing presence, like water to her fire.

Laurus nodded in return. “Very well. Each of us must choose an element to add. I will add earth.”

“I’ll add air,” Ispera said.

“And I’ll add fire.”

Laurus set the vial on the floor and the three dark-haired women knelt in a circle around it. Caedis and Otium stood beside the fire, watching curiously. They each held a hand over the vial, their fingertips centimeters apart, forming a triangle in the space above the flask that held the silvery substance.

“On my count, summon your element,” Laurus instructed. “One. Two. Three.”

There was a spark in the triangle of space between their fingers, and a green flame sprung to life, whipping about in the small flurry of wind. The green flame slowly descended, dropping down the neck of the vial and landing in the swirling, silver liquid. Immediately, the color changed to a brilliant blue. Laurus stood, picking up the flask.

“When Caelum drinks this,” she said, “it will force the Darkness away from his mind. It’s painful, and it only lasts for a moment.”

“Then what good will it do?” Eliana asked in surprise.

“The potion can only separate the mind of the host from the invading Darkness. Someone must then enter his thoughts and remove the Darkness.”

“How?”

“It must be someone he is very close to. Darkness feeds on fear, anger, and sadness, but it flees from any other emotion. If you enter Caelum’s mind, Eliana, there will be emotions that the Darkness cannot control, and it will leave.”

She stared at her in surprise for a moment, trying to understand what the Healer had said. It sounded absurd to her. A sudden scream of pain tore itself from Caelum’s throat, cutting through her.

“Okay!” she cried hastily. “Give it to him! Hurry!”

Ispera and Eliana held Caelum as still as they could while Laurus tilted the silvery-blue substance down his throat. The moment the vial was emptied, Caelum’s screams grew louder and more pained. His back arched and his hands grabbed at his skill, as if trying to hold it together, just as he had done when Peior had tortured him. Eliana stared in blank terror as the beautiful face contorted with shrieks of pain.

“Eliana!” Laurus shouted at her. “Now!”

She leapt forward, pressing her hands on either side of Caelum’s head, on top of his own. She plunged her mind deep into his. The once-familiar mind was now foreign to her. There was no comforting voice, which had so often spoken in her thoughts. The elf’s mind was cold, dark, and silent.

She searched desperately through Caelum’s mind, trying to find something that felt like the mind she loved so dearly—a thought, a memory, anything. Laurus had given her no instruction; she’d only said that it would flee. So how would she know when it had fled?

She forced her thoughts deeper into his mind, searching for any sign of Caelum’s consciousness. There was nothing. No memories. No thoughts or emotions. Only that cold, miserable Darkness, which she felt slowly creeping into her own mind.

Suddenly, in the middle of the dark void, she saw a figure lying before her, twisted and moaning. She recognized him immediately and called out to him frantically. He looked up, but the blue eyes were now black pits, filled with hatred.

“Caelum?” she repeated.

He opened his mouth, but instead of words, a low hiss escaped his throat. Then the figure closed his eyes, his teething grinding together. The body began to jerk violently, thrashing from side to side. Suddenly, a scream echoed around her, but it was not Caelum’s voice this time. It was high-pitched, furious, and terrifying. It echoed through Caelum’s mind, and Eliana trembled with the effort of not fleeing from the sound, back to the safety of her own mind.

Suddenly, the figure that was not quite Caelum was still. A dark shadow hovered over him, darting around his shape, as if trying to find a way back into his body.

“Eliana?” Caelum’s voice seemed to come from everywhere around her.

Another hiss came from the dark shape and, suddenly, it was gone. The blackness around her disappeared with it, as did the lifeless form of Caelum before her. Slowly, she began to feel the familiarity of Caelum’s mind as it returned to normal.

She heard his thoughts. “Where am I? What’s going on? What happened?”

A few of his memories flashed before her, several of them containing her own face. She sensed realization coming to him, felt him noticing her presence in his mind. And then she was pushed from his thoughts as he barricaded his mind once again.

Eliana opened her eyes and found that she was breathing heavily, her hands still on either side of Caelum’s head. She looked down and found his blue eyes gazing back up at her, a small smile on his lips.

“Hello there,” he said quietly, reaching up to brush the back of his fingers over her cheek. “I was beginning to wonder when I would see you again.”

She made a sound between a sob and a laugh and pressed her face to his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re alive,” she whispered.

She felt him stroke her hair as he answered. “Yes, because of you.”

Eliana sat back, dashing away her tears with embarrassment. Caelum slowly pulled himself upright, wincing in pain, and looked around him. “Where am I?” he asked.

Eliana gestured at Otium, who still stood by the fire, and answered, “This is Otium’s home, where I lived after my father died. We’re in Vegrandis.”

His brow furrowed. “We’re in a human village?” His gaze fell on Caedis. “Who’s he?” he asked suspiciously.

“Caedis,” she answered.

He looked at her with sharp, blue eyes. “The one who tormented you for all those years?”

She nodded. “But things are different now, Caelum. All of Vegrandis know about Oriens, and they’ve chosen to join us. So have many of the people in the villages nearby. They all want to fight with us, to fight the emperor.”

Caelum rubbed a hand across his eyes, trying to make sense of everything she’d said. When he opened his eyes again, they came to rest on Ispera. “Aren’t you… the woman from the dungeons?”

Ispera gave a small curtsy. “Hello, Prince Caelum. I’m happy to see you awake. My name is Ispera.” She smiled at him. “I remember when you were born. It was shortly before I left with Tego.”

Caelum blinked and shook his head. “What? Tego? Eliana, isn’t that…?”

Eliana nodded. “My father’s name,” she finished for him. “Ispera was the Healer in Iterum before Laurus. She’s also my mother.”

Caelum pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes again. “I swear I will never be unconscious again,” he said with a groan. “Too much happens when I am.”

The Rider chuckled and took his hands in her own, pulling them from his head. He opened his eyes again and met her gaze.

“By the way,” she said with a smile, “did I mention Denio’s getting married?”