A relaxing flight

The departure of the Lord-Marshal and his escort leaves you with a troubled mind and a little time before dinner to sort things out. Part of you wants to find Alexia and follow up on where you stand with the beautiful young woman, but the wise ruler in you sees the potential hazards in getting too close to this dangerous spymaster. Instead of searching her out, you decide to send your Oath-brothers alone while you sort out your thoughts.

"My brothers, go to the command tent and tell Alexia and Galeon what you know of the 100 Tribes and go over the idea you mentioned earlier. I'm going to take a quick flight to calm Spook's nerves."

"Be careful, Bruce." Victor rests his hand on your arm to make sure he has your undivided attention. "I know there's this temporary cease fire, but the United Armies are patrolling the skies over this whole area, and if you get close enough to the Citadel there might well be some twitchy-fingered ballista-man manning their drake bows."

"Whose being an old-woman now Victor? Bruce knows what he's doing so stop being such a baby, plus do you think Spook would allow to happen?" Victor shakes his head and lets out a loud laugh.

"No Barticus, I guess you're right. With Bruce's pretty face and Spook's brains those two are near invincible." Both crown princes leave laughing as you turn towards the Drake roosts trying not to think about Alexia.

When you were still just a teen, the skinny girl with bright red hair had followed you around like a lost pup until her father put his foot down. Alexia disappeared for four years, only returning a couple years before the **** of your parents, a pretty fourteen-year old whose slender body was just starting to fill out. By this time you were twenty something and too busy to allow yourself to be distracted by a reserved young woman, no matter how pretty she was. And then, with the deaths of first your parents, followed by her father two years later who had any time for that kind of thing. Until earlier today, you thought you and Alexia had settled into a comfortable relationship - how in the name of Hades did things get so complicated so fast?

Before you reach the great white drake, he spots you and lowers his head rubbing his face against yours. "I know, boy. I missed you too." You saddle the drake quickly from years of practice explaining your hurry to the beast even though you doubt he understands a word you're saying. "Let's get up in the air before Alexia shows up to stop us." Unlike some drakes, Spook seems to understand the process and lets you rig the harness around his snout without a fight. "Just let me grab a bow and we'll be off." Looking over your shoulder at the tents below you half expect to see the slender young woman sprinting up the hill towards the roosts, but perhaps she is avoiding you just as much as you her. All the same, in your hurry to be off the ground, you skip wrapping your legs in the fighting straps. Few Riders would risk this, because the flight of a drake can be erratic, especially in combat, but your bond with Spook is better than any other Rider pair you know, and after all, you are not expecting trouble.

With a bow and quiver of arrows on your back, you settle into Spook's saddle and hang on for dear life as he scales one of the two the wooden tower erected at the roosts. The drake pulls himself awkwardly using talons and the hooks at the midjoint of his wings to climb the bolted assembly to the ridgepole at the top. Only then some ten to fifteen paces above the ground, when he spreads his wings to catch the evening breeze, do you allow yourself to relax. Spook launches his great frame forward off the pole, falling even as he beats down with his wings but never quite touching the ground he accelerates down the sloping fields towards the river. Once up to speed, the drake slowly and steadily climbs the afternoon thermals into the sky.

As always, a wing of patrolling drakes from the United Armies shadow your movements, flying a bowshot above you and a little to your rear, you could probably outrun these three even with their height advantage, but other wings even higher up would just take their place. Spook is more irritated by the presence of the trio than you, but he allows you to swing towards the United Armies Camps flying a couple bowshots high, the relatively low altitude allows you to observe the layout of the camp. In spite of the claims of unity, each city appears to occupy a wedge of the fields with the central area reserved for the largest tents. Some of these like the Polares and Heliopolis sectors are larger while others are quite small with as few as twenty tents. A separate camp filled with mercenary troops and camp followers faces the setting sun, and as with your camp, the drake roosts are on the high ground above the multitude of tents.

Leaving the besieger's camp behind you glide towards Athenapolis itself admiring the white walls of the city that stand largely intact even after the month-long pounding from the war machines encircling the city. Three or four breaches in the walls and the destruction of several city gates was all it took to bring about the fall of Athenapolis, and you wonder how it was that the defenders could not hold back the rush that took the walls?

A good part of this flight, you admit to yourself now that it is just you and Spook, is your hope to see Sandrine once again. As you fly over the city you realize how hopeless that goal might be, but all the same you spend some time trying to figure out at least where you first met that brave noblewoman. After two fruitless passes where you fail to even identify where you and Sandrine parted ways, your turn your attention to the tactical situation below.

The lower city will fall, you decide. You note the different districts of the city, nearly all still teaming with people, and wonder how long the food supplies for the city will last. The citadel, by all accounts, is stocked to withstand a siege of up to a year or more but the common people below must already be feeling the pinch of hunger from the month-long siege.

Ignoring Victor's warning you turn your attention to the towering pillar in the center of the city. It rises over one hundred paces above the city and the only way up to the gates of the citadel is a narrow path that circles the nearly vertical spire of stone. How in Olympus does Raxius think he'll take that fortress?

You circle dangerously close to the Citadel, flying above the temple district to check the status of the holy places of worship; as far as you can tell no United Army forces have made their way this deep into the city, although you see the gates of all the temples sealed shut in preparation. Suddenly, a knot tightens in your belly causing you to buckle in pain. The agony increases rapidly as you approach the unmistakable grandeur of Athena's Temple with its white marble walls and massive bronze gates.

Never in your life have you felt such pain, and as your head reels, you cling to the horn of your saddle wishing in hindsight than ever that you had taken the time to wrap fighting straps before taking off. You are only vaguely conscious of Spook turning away from the city center as he flies back towards your camp or the cries for help as you slide off your drake's back. You hit the ground with a hard thud, and just before passing out, you see Alexia and Sandrine running side by side towards you.