Good news for Feathered Hearts fans · 8:08pm Sep 14th, 2022
Namely, that the next Continuation and Chronicles chapter will be out within a week. Even though I meant to finish the Harmonic Resonance epilogue first, I’ve just been charging through this latest entry at breakneck speed and it’s now likely to be draft complete within a day or two. It’s already at 10k words and likely to be at least 12k by the time it’s released, so you’ll be getting another nice meaty chapter, with severe suspense once again being the theme.
It’ll be a slightly different form of suspense this time, though, the nature of which I won’t divulge just yet. But I will offer up a thousand-word teaser to hopefully whet your appetites:
“What you are is a warrior, Marco Lakan,” Gilda said in a tone that brooked no argument, making sure Imlay the other Marines heard her, “and anycreature who disparages you is disparaging me.”
She could just see him smiling in the dark. “Thanks, Gilda.”
“You’re welcome. Now that said, be quiet, all of you! We need to listen for signals…”
Another minute passed before they received one in the form of two radio squelches, which was the Ravens telling them to move forward. She was getting increasingly worried about Ebon Umbreon, who she could tell was more gravely wounded than he let on. Even the Ibex buck had said as much, with Karin Kazal informing her quietly after the Shadow Decurion departed that he had magically scanned his rival earlier and found that his lungs and throat were damaged, likely from inhaling flame.
“That kind of injury will result in shortness of breath and increasing inflammation as he can no longer get the nourishment he needs from the air. He is weakening and needs to be healed, or he will collapse soon,” he warned her, to which she had responded with a terse nod, saying only that they couldn’t spare him just then.
A glance behind her showed that the Ibex antlers were dark as they had lowered their carried griffons to ground to rest their still-healing auras, while Nydia’s stave remained weakly aglow, keeping Chris suspended in the air.
She didn’t look healthy either given her massive magical expenditures over the past day, but she was still doing everything she could, stealing five or ten minutes of rest and meditation at a time to try to keep her aura adequate for at least minor tasks. The Ibex, in contrast, appeared to be slowly healing their horns to judge by the half-sealed cracks in them, which glowed a little brighter than the undamaged parts of their antlers. Even the third Ibex doe, who had been the most wounded and had to be carried on the back of one of her brethren, had regrown half her broken-off antler.
But their faces—at least to the extent she could read them—were drawn; it was clear to her that just like Nydia, they needed plenty of food and rest before they could fully heal and that their stamina reserves they had would not last forever.
Crows take it. It isn’t just them. We all need sleep… Gilda thought as they began to move slowly forward again, glad she’d at least snatched a couple hours of it earlier at the steadholt of Bale. But even that gratitude was tempered by the knowledge that she’d had the chance—again—to indulge herself sexually with her human friends but declined it despite severe temptation.
She shook her head at the thought. And now Chris and Tara are wounded, so that’s out the window. And worse, we’re still in danger, stuck twelve leagues from Aricia with no guarantee that Fortrakt will make it there, or they’ll be able to reach us in time!
She suddenly wondered if she should have sent out additional flyers with him as they neared the bridge. Maybe I should have told him to take a backup flyer, but it’s too late now. Too late for fun ‘under the covers’ like Tara suggested, too. Ancestors, she’s such an honorable eagless and as much a warrior as Marco. And that’s to say nothing of CHRIS!
She shook her head again, finding that the closer death crept, the more she wished she’d taken the chance to be with them, onlookers be damned. Ancestors know they’ve proven their honor a decade of times over now. Crows take it… maybe Fortrakt was right, and I should have just let them—
“Centurion!” she had no sooner had the thought when Fortrakt’s voice was heard above her.
“What?” She looked up as blacklights were turned upwards to reveal his unstealthed form hovering in front of them. “Midnight!” She hissed out a challenge phrase.
“Maven!” he replied instantly, then descended to ground as the rifles on him were lowered. “Beg to report!”
“Crows take it… what are you doing here, cub?” she asked as he passed through the Marine cordon and saluted her. “You couldn’t possibly have made it to Aricia and back in that short a time!”
He grinned happily. “I didn’t! As it turned out, I was met halfway there… by them!” he motioned around them to a series of stealthed forms were shortly lit up as the Ibexians ignited their horns to produce the same purple glow blacklights, revealing the fluorescing outlines of seven additional gryphons.
“Hold your fire!” First Scimitar Bellator cried out somewhat painfully as rifles were hurriedly raised; Gilda glanced back to see her struggling to stand despite the admonishment of Chief Jacobs. “They’re Ravens! Good to see you again, Senior Scimitar,” she said as she struggled to walk forward and greet her, saluting her fellow gray-dyed warrior somewhat painfully. “My team lives.”
Despite the greeting, the other eagless eyed her balefully for a moment, then spoke to her in what sounded like the Saddle Arabian tongue of Mareabic. To which the injured First Scimitar replied in kind, to a nod of satisfaction.
The Raven leader then switched back to Aeric, pointedly ignoring the humans and Ibex as she turned to Gilda, though the latter had repeaters pointed at them before Gilda ordered them to stand down. “Good to see you as well, Oculta Belator. And greetings, Centurion. I am Senior Scimitar Miles Fortuna. My team was dispatched from Aricia to locate and aid you.”
She landed before Gilda and saluted, leading a full team of seven elite shadow warriors. Most were armed with repeaters, but the three earth griffon members of her force had strange oversized crossbows she’d never seen before attached to their backs. They were much larger than even the heavy earth griffon repeaters she’d seen fired just once during her Gauntlet training, with their folded launcher arms studded with small crystals and woven with criss-crossing mithril filaments along their entire length.
“Dispatched?” She blinked, exchanging a confused look with Imlay. “But how? If Decurion Gletscher hadn’t made it to Aricia, we hadn’t gotten word of our location to you yet!”
“I know not how, but we were told you were here and ordered to assist you immediately. Our instructions were to make contact and help secure a defensible perimeter before further reinforcements arrive. We met the Decurion halfway here, and he informed us where you were, offering to guide us in.”
Gilda relaxed, barely daring to believe their crow-begotten bad luck was finally turning. “I see. I have no idea how they learned where we were, but we thank the Ancestors you did. I have wounded who need immediate healer support, and we have no idea how long it will be before the Cloven find us. When can we expect evacuation?” She spoke in Equish so Imlay would understand her; she noted the Marine Corporal and Marco had stood back from her, letting her take the lead.
There was an uncomfortable silence of several seconds before the Raven female spoke again, switching to Equish as well. “You don’t understand, sir. There is no evacuation. We’re only here to defend you, not take you to Aricia...”
Best guess for a release date at this point is Saturday night or Sunday morning, but it could slip depending on how fast I get feedback. So prereaders, stand by. You’ll be getting it today or tomorrow. And for those of you looking for the final Harmonic Resonance chapter, I have over 5k words written of it and I’ll double back to finish it after this new C&C chapter is finished. But for now my muse resides firmly with Feathered Hearts.
That snippet was definitely suspenseful. I need more.
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How about tomorrow?
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Sounds good!