Chương 377: 9.9

Evren's wind churned in his chest. But his trusted advisor spoke or rather conveyed in his motion, in the manner of his fur upon evren's own." Young Shepherd Wyrm, we must leave the capital now! We have to return home to your family." He snarled, his lips curled so tight bunched up around his snout it ached!" I need to find Murad and burn him to nothing!" Fizzbunches' claws did not pierce his scales, but they caught between them. Clinging sharply and irritatingly into the skin beneath.

The Touch of them conveying the insistence of the Wizard." By the oath I swore to you, we cannot linger here! Your family must be secured or the wounded beast that is Murad the Conqueror will violate then murder them for the insult he has just suffered!" Evren did not halt, he kept moving but he felt his wind fall to dead, still, silence at that." What?!" Hazim, confused and left out of the conversation, shook his head looking between the cat and his brother.

"What?! What did he say! Damn it cat why won't you speak!" Fizzbunches hissed, or moved as if he would, but no sound came from those lips. Evren answered." He just said that the High King is going after our family!" Hazim for his part could only echo in a far quieter tone." What!?"

The cat, clinging to Evren's flanks as he tore through the halls of the palace in the vague direction of the courtyard opened his mouth as if he yowled, but nothing came from his throat, Evren understood but he did not hear Fizzbunches' words.

"I swore on everything I hold dear that I would use all my means and power to protect you and your brother's family, Shepherd Wyrm. And the greatest power I could use to save your family in that room was to speak a lie that could blind the fool king with anger. But, even I cannot be everywhere at once! The Vanaand and your home is in another vault!"

Hazim's legs squeezed and his fingers clenched into Evren's fur as the wyrm leapt across the hallways, turned towards the late afternoon light of a window and then expelled a roaring torrent of searing white. Fizzbunch continued, snarling silently in the roar of wind and exploding stone and masonry as Evren pushed through the hole he had made and then spread his wings and threw himself into the air. Hazim's warbling cry of terror was nothing compared to the fear gripping his heart.

Wind roared through his every feather on the downbeat. His own and the air around him. The claws in his skin spoke Fizzbunche's words where his voice did not." They can be made safe, but I lack trusted receivers of my word in their presence. I have been trying to make the means for such since we arrived, but I've not had time to finish! So we must fly to the Vanaand, as fast as you are able, Evren."

He put the wizard's words to action, his wings scooped great heaping swells of the sky's air and threw them back and down. The stone and dust of Terminapolis's courtyard and the ruin he had made of the palace wall tearing at the silks and polished finish of the stones. Evren pushed his wings harder. Reaching out with the wind of his feathers to catch and extend the roaring currents around him. The press on his fur."

If we make most directly for Kars then that will deceive and trick, he will think you are going to rally the Vanand as its prince against him. He will expect you to travel in this direction. His pride will see this as a defeat for you. When it is a victory for your family." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Fizzbunches' words carried silently, not drowned out but absent entirely under the roaring wind around him and hazim.

It took them days to get here from Kars, nevermind his family's hills. He had to do something, he had to do more. His wings pulled on the world, the wind became a roaring howl. Terminapolis shuddered in his wake. An echoing crack snapping in the air with his next wing beat. What was he doing? He had almost made a spell, a sorcerous working! He had sorcery! Evren took in a heavy breath, felt the wind churn in his throat and tried to speak. To ask, to plead for his family's safety from the High King and his orders.

He tried to say the words but even as he felt the wind raging in his chest and down every feather, driving him onward he could not find them on his tongue. He felt it in his heart but the words stalled, clung, clogged between his teeth. What was this!? What was wrong with him?! Was it the Countess? Had she somehow cursed him by interrupting his command of the world? Had she stolen that from him before he even could make a single plea?" Evren!"

A voice that had no sound from a cat that was not a cat shouted without volume. Spoke without tone. Soundless meaning. And then a snout against his neck, just over a shoulder. Comforting contact." Turn south Evren and focus your power, Your family is in danger but your brother too is under my protection, you must have speed but do not push too hard, conserve and focus yourself. We are already outpacing Magarskan Messenger Gryffs."

The world and wind whispered to him, joyous as he turned, eager to move with his wings, eager to even turn and tumble and flow up to lift him. He could not reach his family with sorcery, but then neither could Fizzbunches! So maybe he could do something else? He tried to call to the wind, to speak to it, to tell it what he needed it to do. The clouds and the sky and the air all around him drew in closer, attention falling like the threat of rain.

A sense of it building, the clouds on the horizon churning like they were raising to attention. This time the words did not catch and lock in his throat. This time he could speak. The air filled his wings and more than that it listened eagerly." Sky and wind of Dacia, I call you, for my family needs me, I call your zephyrs, I call your storms, I call your fury and might! Lend me your speed and power! Guide me and my brother home, swift and safe."

And this time he felt his wind pass his lips, he felt it come unspooled along his tongue and between his teeth. Joining in the whirling passing around him as he turned south. The claws between his scales digging in deeper. And more than that he felt a sagging weight sinking into his feathers and chest. Forcing him to draw more fury from within." Evren, leash your sorcery! Wyrms do not wield their power over the world for free! If the toll is too great you will fall from the sky!

If I'm forced too I will leave you a wreck upon the landscape for the High King to capture if it means saving your brother and family!" Evren felt a lightness suddenly meet his lips at the thought. A smile as his attention wavered, but then as he felt his wings growing heavier a sudden howling fury swept up from below. Deep and shrill and wailing as it spun and dug up under his feathers. Lashing his fur and body from all sides, but all together pushing upon him. Lifting him.

He glanced back over his shoulder to see Hazim clinging between his wings like a wargryff rider. Held in place by four particularly annoyed black cats securing each of his limbs. And then beyond his own tail a churning, almost black storm cloud, swelling, boiling, building up taller and taller upon itself. As he turned his head to take in the horizon of Dacia he saw the clouds rushing to join their own towering brother. Visibly churning and tearing in the winds as they were drawn in.

Winds from all directions pulling in close behind him. Dousing the sun and sky over Terminapolis. And then with a crack of lightning, roaring up in rising swells to fill his wings and carry him aloft. He felt heavy, bereft of the normal lift of wind in his bones. yet lifted, almost thrown into the air and forward. His wings and feathers strained to contain the power pressing into them. The Countess had not in fact robbed him of sorcery!

The pitch black fury writhing behind him, feeding its strength into his passage behind him clamored the truth of it. The world had heard him and answered! A fifth fizzbunch clinging to his neck made a yowling complaint. Ice and fat droplets were starting to join the shrieking fury of the storm under his wings. Spearing through the sky, pushing him forward ever faster. Carrying him home, Just like Evren asked.