The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong (16 page)

“Go,” Joshua thought quietly to him. “We will wait for your return.”

Krieg exchanged a short glance with Grey, then turned around and first trotted, then began to gallop. When his wings unfolded he lifted up and with powerful flaps he rose into the air.

* * *

Wind and Alda had reached the area of the egg-shaped boulders and made their way up the windy path. In her conversation with the turtle, Wind had discovered memories that she thought she had lost. They were memories of her childhood when she was raised in a group of foals. Each foal was given to the care of one of the children of the sky people. The sky children made sure that each foal had enough food and water; they brushed them and took them out to ride regularly. The child Wind was given to was called Leannah. But it wasn’t only Leannah that took care of the foal. The connection and responsibility was mutual and reciprocal. Child and foal taught each other of each other and so began to form a bond that would last a life time.

When Alda told her the story of Leannah, Wind was overcome with emotion, surprised over the strength of the bond she still felt to the child. She did not remember what had become of her. Only that, one day, shortly after Wind had gotten her wings, the children were taken and brought deep underground to work in the mines. The day the men came to take Leannah out of the stables was so clear and vivid, it seemed to Wind as if it had happened yesterday. But she also felt that there was still an area of her memory that was clouded in mist and inaccessible to both her and Alda. It was a memory of a darker time, a time that forgetfulness still kept in its merciful embrace.

Wind was glad for Alda’s lighter memories and Alda was happy to share them with her, as they were her memories as well. So deeply were they immersed in their conversation, that Wind thought she had stumbled over a root or part of a branch at first. But when it happened to her other foot she looked down and saw a bundle of white threads, sticky and thick, wrapped around her ankles.

“What is this?” She thought to Alda who walked slightly ahead of her. The turtle turned her head. Her eyes widened and Wind instinctively opened her wings. But before she could unfold them they were covered in more of the sticky threads. At the same time, both her front legs were pulled from under her and she fell down.

Now she could see behind her. There were hundreds and hundreds of spiders moving toward them. Out of her peripheral vision she saw many more spilling out of the holes in the ground.

“I thought they weren’t dangerous,” was the last clear thought Wind could form. To the crescendo of Alda’s cacophonous music, and within moments, the spiders had wrapped Wind in a cocoon from which there was no escape. She fought it but that tightened the spider’s web and made it more impenetrable. Alda saw the terror in Wind’s eyes when she was taken; first pulled then carried by countless spiders up toward one of the holes.

The turtle turned. Too slowly she moved her massive body under enormous strain as fast as she could toward the hole into which the Pegasus had been carried. Most of the spiders had disappeared already. They left as fast as they came, lead by one single terror-inducing command. When moments later the turtle was alone, she heard the cries of the Griffon Vulture as she landed less than five yards from Alda’s head. The vulture brought with her the stench of death and decay and the insane. Her feathers were blackened, half decomposed. A slimy liquid dripped out of her mouth. One eye was grey, blind yet looking at her from beyond, demanding her attention.

“I should have remembered,” Alda thought to herself. “I could have remembered.”

“Yes. You could have saved them all. Too late now. A pity.” The Vulture cocked her head. “All the wisdom of the world is at your disposal and you forgot? Remember this: I will wait for the dreamer, the red rooster, inside the mountain. If he does not come, the Pegasus dies. And I will make sure to take my time with her. The last thing I will feast on is her heart and she will die knowing that she has failed to fulfill her destiny.”

The moment the vulture spread her massive wings to fly off, Alda saw a shadow blocking the low sun for a moment. She saw the silhouette of the war horse coming toward them from above. The vulture saw him also. Krieg landed and galloped the last part of the distance between himself and the vulture. When he reached her, the vulture lifted off and with only a few powerful flaps of her wings was already high up in the air, her eerie cries hollow and poised to fester in Krieg’s mind telling him of his own demise. Krieg turned around and galloped in long strides then lifted off gaining height and momentum. He turned in the air to face her. The vulture flew toward him, wings wide, talons spread, her blind eye fixed on the war horse. Krieg had fought many battles; most of them head on toward the enemy. He did not withdraw from her.

They met in mid air high above the ground and even though Krieg was bigger and his anger fueled by the pain of what happened to Wind, he had no chance against the vulture. She ripped her talons into the side of his neck and down toward his belly. The only thing that saved him were his powerful hind legs. He hit her once and pushed her away from him.

“You cannot defeat me in the air, war horse!” Her thoughts screamed at him. “This is my home. Up here you are nothing!”

Krieg had trouble staying in the air, his right wing suddenly flooded with pain. He sank fast barely making it to the ground without crashing. When he landed next to Alda, the vulture flew low over their heads, her cries penetrating deep into their souls.

“You will die and in death you will feed me and my army and make us more powerful than we have ever been before. Darkness will take you and never let you go. You will stay in its icy claws until your life gives way to death and then you will belong to me forever!” The vulture made one final low swoop and disappeared from their sight. Krieg stood panting, blood dripping from his side.

“Krieg I’m so sorry, I should have remembered. I could have warned you and the others. It comes in bits and pieces and fades again soon thereafter. There was something about the dreamer of light and that…by his very dreaming, he somehow awakens his dark counterpart… But this is my fault. I lead Wind straight to her. How could I have missed this? How could I have forgotten this?”

“There was nothing you could have done,” Krieg thought to her. “We just have to find the entrance to the mountain and somehow get her back.”

“Go, fly to your friends. I can’t make it into the mountain. No entrance will be big enough for me.”

“I shouldn’t leave you here—”

“You must go, Krieg! I have lived here for a thousand years. I know how to defend myself. But you must go and bring her back. Do you hear me? Bring her back to me!”

“I shall.”

Alda’s and Krieg’s forehead touched for a brief moment. Then Krieg turned and galloped over the meadow until he had enough speed to take flight. Aware of the waves of pain in his side and his right wing, Krieg pushed through it and despite it gained height and speed.

“Bring her back…” the turtle’s thoughts trailed off until they were gone. It was an hour’s flight from here to Joshua’s and Grey’s last position. Krieg just hoped he would not encounter the vulture on his way there for he would not be able to fight her again today.

17.
B
ROGA

When Joshua saw it, he stopped and turned around. It was, at first only a dot in the landscape but it came closer fast.

“What is this?” Grey asked and stopped as well.

They had made good progress and were about three quarters of the way between the Lake of Tears and the pond below the Great Wall. Grey had discovered a narrow path that did not follow the river but cut a relatively straight line toward the pond. They had stopped only once and only for Grey to catch a few muskrats by the river and for Joshua to find some berries. They had been starving. Joshua thought that if they could maintain their current speed, they would have about half a day of walking left until they reached the water. From there it was just a matter of figuring out how to find the entrance. He didn’t have any illusions about how hard it would be. It was put in place by the sky people who didn’t want anyone to gain access to the mountain. Another thought that kept coming back to him was that the entrance may have simply collapsed over time and because of it, there was no way into the mountain at all anymore.

“It’s Krieg!” Grey saw him first. The war horse ran in full gallop toward them, pulling a dust cloud behind him. Before he caught up to them, they could hear his panic stricken thoughts. “Wind. Taken. Spiders,” were the only fragments Joshua could decipher, so erratic were the horse’s thoughts.

“They took her,” Krieg’s thoughts poured out of him when he arrived and his emotions hit Joshua and Grey like a battering ram. “They took her into the mountain. I came too late. They captured her.

“Who captured her?” The wolf asked.

“Spiders. And a Griffon Vulture,” Krieg replied.

“Spiders?” Joshua was surprised. “I thought they were harmless.”

“They were,” Krieg answered. “They were harmless until the vulture resurrected the dead ones. She said she will wait inside the mountain for us. She wants to exchange Wind for you, Joshua.”

They looked at each other. Krieg’s right wing was lifted up showing the deep blood filled and infested markings the vulture had left. Joshua could sense Krieg’s pain.

“You fought her?” Grey asked.

“Yes,” Krieg answered. “I had no chance against her in the air. Alda mentioned something about a dark counterpart to the dreamer of light. I think she meant you, Joshua.”

“Me?” Joshua was surprised. “I don’t understand.”

“The eagle has told me about her,” Grey thought.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” Joshua asked.

“I didn’t want to upset you,” the wolf answered. “Also, I thought it a myth, not a reality.”

“A myth? What kind of myth?”

“The eagle spoke about a dark counterpart to the dreamer of light who was awakened the same time as the dreamer.”

“A counterpart?” Joshua had trouble grasping the idea and its full implications.

“Yes. The dreamer who sets out to find the three feathers inevitably awakens the dark counter part of himself. If you are on one tipping point of the pendulum, Joshua, the Griffon Vulture is on the other side. She is the darkness to your light. She is your opposite.”

Joshua thought about this. Why hadn’t he heard of this before? There were other legends he had known of or heard of in the past. Not this one.

“Krieg, I’m so sorry about Wind.”

“We have to find her and get her back,” Krieg answered. “I cannot bear to think about her being captured like this when she had just escaped her prison a few days past. The time of freedom that was given her was too short. Far too short… We have to find her and free her.”

“We will, Krieg. I promise you,” Joshua was surprised at the strength this thought evoked in him. He felt fear, yes, but he also felt something else deep inside him that stirred, that moved, small still but there nevertheless. It was the image of the lioness that brought forth this response in him.

“We will find her, Krieg. And when we do, we will save her.”

“Then let us go and find the entrance to the mountain and let us be swift,” the wolf answered. “Krieg, can you fly?” Joshua thought.

“I don’t think so. The claws of the vulture must have severed a muscle or at least injured it in such a way that I can’t use this wing for long. But I can run, Joshua. Come on my back.”

Before Krieg could finish the thought, Joshua had already jumped up and the horse began to trot. Grey ran in front of them and both found a speed that they could sustain for a while. Joshua could almost physically feel Krieg’s pain. The cuts were deep and infested and each step caused his wing to brush against them. But the pain in the horse’s body was nothing compared to the pain he felt for Wind in his heart. Joshua knew that the mighty war horse had at last found an enemy that he did not wish to meet in battle: the notion that he had lost Wind and that she would not survive.

They ran the remainder of the distance without stopping for water or rest. Joshua still had no idea how to get inside the mountain. And another question rose inside him. It was the question as to how the vulture would get Wind into the mountain. If the entrance was sealed and if the Porte Des Lioness was the only way in… But maybe there was another entrance and one they could also find. Joshua kept looking ahead toward the pond that was now clearly visible in the distance. There was nothing but the sheer cliff of the Great Wall above it, with no sign of an entrance whatsoever. Until he saw it.

Just like up in the tower room when he saw the head of the lioness jump out at him, it suddenly became visible. And because the path they took lead straight toward it, it was hidden to them up until now. Joshua realized that they did not go toward the head of the lioness. They were about to go into its mouth. They were walking towards a massive outcropping of rock that jutted straight out of the wall and was shaped like the head of the lioness. Joshua could see the outline of her head and ears and, from where they stood, it looked as if the path lead straight into the open mouth. This was not a man made sculpture but the shape of the rock was unmistakably recognizable as the head of a lioness.

Grey and Krieg slowed down as they now stood almost directly below the upper part of the mouth. Joshua estimated that it was at least eight stories above him and from here it was nothing more than a large overhang in the cliff. In front of them, in the shadows, lay the pond. It was covered in lily pads. The blue color they had seen from the distance was not water, but the surface of the lily pad leafs which emitted a dark blue hue. As they entered the mouth of the lioness, Joshua realized immediately that there was no visible entrance into the mountain itself. Where the pond ended was a slight mound going uphill until it met the rock in the back of the mouth. The rock itself was smooth like the rest of the Wall. There was no indication of an entrance whatsoever.