A Message to Pelara

“Anais, wait!” she shrieked.

The yellow light from his ring vanished as Anais dropped his hand, startled. He knelt to bring himself to her eye level, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“You’re the kithara,” he stated, a hint of amusement in his tone. “The one taken with Wells.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “But I escaped. I was just in Pelara with Cirus and your brother, and I—” She faltered, unwilling to divulge the full, humiliating reason for her flight. Choosing a partial truth, she continued, “I wanted to help rescue Wells as soon as possible.”

“Why didn’t you stay with Cirus?” Anais asked, his question astute.

“Because I wanted to help you find him,” she replied quickly.

Anais studied her for a long moment, his gaze sharp and discerning, before he nodded. “All right. I believe you’re who you say you are. Come on, then.”

As he stood, Aria flew up to his shoulder. It wasn’t as comfortable as Wells’s, but it would have to do. “My horse is over there,” he said, pointing as they began to walk. “I was looking for something to eat.”

“Oh, do you need something?” Aria offered.

A smile revealed the slightly yellow tint of his teeth. “No, I have a pack from the Blade and Band, but I’d much rather have fresh game than dried vegetables.”

Aria laughed in agreement. “I know exactly what you mean.”

As twilight deepened, stars began to prick the indigo sky one by one. Anais reached his roan horse, Mage, and mounted smoothly. With Aria holding tight to his shoulder, he urged the horse into a gallop.

Somehow, she maintained her balance with ease. Anais possessed a mastery that Wells lacked; he was the one in command, not the horse. It made for a smoother, faster journey. Perhaps Mage was simply a swifter horse than Solea, or perhaps Anais was a more skilled rider who knew how to better pace his mount. Whatever the reason, they rode on relentlessly through the night.

Eventually, exhaustion claimed her, and Aria drifted to sleep on Anais’s shoulder. She found herself once more on the slopes of Mount Nenara. This time, she was in a woodland that seemed bathed in the soft light of early morning. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the gentle gurgling of a river.

This was the thinnest part of the forest, just before it gave way to fields of long, yellow-green grass. The trees were sparse enough that she could fly between them with little difficulty. As she passed the last tree, she saw Wells sitting in the grass ahead. He looked up as she drew near, the concern etched deeply onto his face.

“Hey,” he murmured, his voice raspy, as Aria landed on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Hello,” she whispered back. “I’m with Anais now.”

“You are?” he asked. Aria spotted a long, scabbed slash across his jaw. He touched it gingerly, wincing.

“Yes. We’re going to find you. Are you still out in the wilderness?”

“I don’t know,” Wells replied, leaning back and closing his eyes. “She moved me to some kind of prison yesterday. I’ve been in a cell ever since, and she hasn’t come back to see me. That man, Lyren, or whatever his name is, just threw me some moldy bread. The cell is all stone… I think I’m underground. There are no windows.”

Aria nuzzled his head. “I’m going to get you back,” she vowed. “I’m going to make them pay for what they’ve done to you.”

Wells let out a sour, humorless laugh. “I’ve never met such a fierce sparrowhawk. You don’t have to get revenge for me.”

“I never should have left you,” she lamented, guilt coloring her voice. “It was a stupid mistake.”

“No,” Wells said firmly. “It wasn’t. I set you free because I wanted you to get to Cirus. And you did. Aria, I don’t blame you for running when you had the chance.”

She flapped her wings anxiously, looking away in shame. “Wells,” she said reluctantly, “I… I have something to tell you.”

His eyes opened. “What?”

Aria took a deep breath. “I sort of yelled at Cirus. I told him this was all his fault and called him a coward for not coming to save you himself.”

Wells whistled softly. A faint smile touched his lips. “Bet he didn’t like that.”

“He told me something,” she said slowly. “Something about how if he tried to save you himself, you’d both be killed. I didn’t really understand. But that’s why he sent Anais.”

“That’s interesting,” Wells mused. “I’d much rather be kidnapped and alive than dead. So far, at least.”

Aria’s gaze returned to the ugly mark on his face. Her stomach churned. “Wells,” she asked, “how did you get that cut?”

He looked up, and for the first time, she was struck by the piercing blue of his eyes. He glanced away for a second, then met her gaze again. “I’d love to tell you, Aria, but I honestly can’t remember.”

“Damn Helena,” Aria swore. “Damn that woman.”

“Watch your mouth,” Wells replied nonchalantly.

Frustrated by his apparent nonchalance, she cried, “How can you defend her when she’s done that to you?!”

“I’m not defending her, I’m just—”

Before he could finish, he simply vanished. Aria tumbled to the ground with a soft oomph and let out a scream of pure frustration. “I hate this stupid connection!” she raged at the empty sky. “I wish I could see him for real instead of relying on this!”

Get up.

A powerful, thundering voice reverberated from everywhere at once, seeming to rise from the air itself. It was a sound as ancient as the mountain beneath her talons, both fearsome and magnificent. Aria had no choice but to obey. The command jolted her awake.

She was still perched on Anais’s shoulder. The rising sun illuminated an unfamiliar trail, lost in a sea of fields that defined the harsher lands of Anolin. At least Anais seemed to know where he was going. Aria, on the other hand, was completely disoriented.

“Good morning,” Anais muttered as she groggily shook her head.

“How long was I out?” she asked.

“Quite a while,” he answered, shifting Mage’s reins to alter their course. It seemed they had slowed to a walk during the night. “You must have fallen asleep around midnight.”

“Did you stop at all?”

“No.”

This worried her. “Aren’t you tired?”

“No.”

Aria squeezed his shoulder with her talons in reprimand. “Don’t do that again. We’ll never get to Wells if you fall asleep on your horse and break your neck.”

Anais chuckled. “Look who’s talking. You fell asleep and didn’t fall off.”

Her dream came rushing back to her. In a hurried voice, she relayed everything Wells had told her. “He’s underground in a cell made entirely of stone,” she concluded. “Do you have any idea where that could be?”

A new urgency entered Anais’s voice as he pushed Mage back into a run. “Yes, actually. I have an idea. About seven hundred years ago, when Anolin was seceding from the Auran Empire, King Heron established a series of outposts near the Imperial border. The good news is they are all south of the Cinian River, which means we can approach them with relative ease.”

Aria gave a curt nod. “Then let’s go find him.”