{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/15",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/15",
  "publishedAt": "2019-03-16T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\nAs the knife plummeted, my hope fell with it. I hung there on the net\nfor a few beats and then Adwyn arrived.\n\nHe didn't glance at me; he unsheathed a short blade. In a half-dozen\nquick, precise swipes, he slashed at the netting. But instead of trying\nto cut all the way through like me, he resheathed the sword, gripped\nnetting and pulled.\n\nIt came right apart, and Adwyn had flown through before my eyes\nunclouded. I flapped after him, frills folded, tail coiled.\n\nGlancing behind me, the flock of guards had reached the nets. But they\ndidn't all try to squeeze through Adwyn's hole, they just followed his\nexample, without swords, ripping the net with their claws.\n\nI turned away, looking for the thieves and finding them, after moments\nof scanning, both flying low over the town. Nothing much had changed,\naside from my falling behind Adwyn --- about five or six wingbeats ---\nand thieves now having a crushing lead on us: they were more than thirty\nwings in front of Adwyn.\n\nOur flight lead us over the cliffs, then back toward the town. The\nvalleys between the cliffs grew wider, the streets filthier, the dragons\nwalking and winging below browner. It all looked familiar enough, even\ncoming from this direction; I flew around this part of town enough times\ngoing to the Sgrôli ac Neidr every evening.\n\nI gained on Adwyn, and we both gained on the thieves --- even with the\ngliders, they couldn't outfly us.\n\nIt was long moments of threshing --- I even heard the third short ring\necho below us. The thieves were flagging, flying lower and lower. Then\nthey dropped out of the sky all together, landing somewhere among the\ndustone and bamboo buildings.\n\nLaughing, I let a fanged grin play across my face. They were done.\nDragons flew so much faster in the air than we can hobble across the\nground. They couldn't escape us now.\n\nAdwyn dove down before me, and I followed him, and togetherffff we\nglided the thieves' sudden drop and found them low-walking to a basalt\nhouse with flaky windows and dented bamboo door. I knew this house ---\nthe librarian lived here. My eyes flicked back to the thieves.\n\nThey weren't even high-walking! What were they doing!\n\nBy the time we lighted down behind them, the thieves had reached the\nhouse. I stared, wondering what they wanted with the librarian's\nhouse. When they reached the stairwall to the high porch, they leapt\nits height.\n\nAtop the porch, one thief pounded heavy, cracking knocks against the\nblack bamboo while another called out into the house, but we were just\nfar enough away to not make out what. They glanced back, saw our\napproach, and their knocking became more panicked. Adwyn was leaping to\nthe porch. Had we at last cornered them?\n\nAnd then they seemed to give up on the knocking and calling. Instead,\nthe taller thief yanked off their cloak and glider, throwing it to the\nfloor. Underneath was tight armor. Schizon. Aluminum plates. What?\nWeren't these poor farmers? They wore the sort of tight fullrobes that\nwouldn't look out of place on a prefect.\n\nMy eye caught the familiar way they had the human corpse tied to their\nbacks, just like Hinte. As I watched, and as Adwyn pulled himself onto\nthe porch, the shorter thief clawed at the rope harness. When they\nshook themselves, the corpse thunked off onto the bamboo porch.\n\nBoth thieves ran to either edge of the porch! Each took off in a\nseparate direction and flew low away.\n\nAdwyn had reached the porch with a curse, and I was only a few moments\nbehind him. After checking the body, he turned to me. \"Kinri! Take\nthis corpse back to Digrif and Gwynt. Order the guards trailing behind\nus to split up here. Then follow Gwynt back to where Rhyfel ordered us\nto return.\" He didn't even look for my reaction before blasting off\ninto the sky, chasing after the shorter, craftier thief. Who, I\nremember, still had a cloak on.\n\nI climbed onto the porch. I didn't linger, anxious energy still\nthrumming through my veins and Adwyn's order ringing in my frills. The\nglider was ripped from the cloak. The human was tied to my back. The\ntrailing guards were right there. Adwyn's words were given. I was in\nthe air, flying away.\n\nWinging the line from the abandoned building back to the market, I\nwasn't sure what to think.\n\nThis just got twistier and twistier.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nWhen I dropped out of the sky in front of the cart, the only difference\nI noticed was the mother and fledgling had been chained, and there were\nsix more guards orbiting the pile of seeds and seedbags --- the cracked\ncart was gone.\n\nDigrif waved to me and Gwynt smiled just a bit.\n\n\"You made it back!\"\n\n\"Where is Adwyn-sofran?\"\n\nI said, \"The thieves split up. One of them dropped their stolen\ncorpse, and Adwyn chased after the other.\"\n\nGwynt nodded, even as his eyes paled at the mention of a corpse.\n\"...Alright. Rhyfel said to regroup by the edge of the market as soon\nas we find something. Did you fly back with the ape?\"\n\n\"Uh, I have this glider. It takes the strain off my wings.\"\n\nGwynt nodded and strode off, other guards falling in step behind him.\nWhen he leapt, they leapt, and Digrif and I were a few beats late. The\nguards settled into a skein, a 'v' shape with Gwynt at the head. I\ntook a spot the very end of the left fork of the skein, leaving Digrif\nwith a spot right behind me.\n\nDown on the ground, the remaining guards lead the mother and the\nfledgling away.\n\nI glanced back at Digrif --- he was peering at me.\n\nHe cleared his throat. \"Hey, how did you know the cloaked dragons were\ngoing to fly off?\"\n\n\"I guessed? I saw one of them looking at the sky, and I just ---\njumped.\"\n\nDigrif shook his head. \"How did you two get to be such natural\nadventurers?\"\n\n\"I'm not. At all! I'm about as far from an adventurer as you can\nget.\"\n\n\"So am I, I think. But I can't do any of the things you and Hinte\nkeep doing.\"\n\n\"So? I don't like almost dying. It's scary! And I don't like\nhaving the weight of doing something important pressing down on me. I\nalways mess something up.\"\n\nDigrif stayed silent after that. I turned my gaze up to the sky. Dark\nclouds were piling up, so dark I wondered if it would ash today. It\nwasn't ashing down now, not yet, so we kept flying. Ahead, Gwynt\nshifted out of the head of the skein, and another guard took the lead.\nThe rest of us shifted back. I looked, and Digrif had flown over to the\nother fork.\n\nI flew on in silence. The skein-head rotated a few more times, more\nclouds came near the suns, but at last we came the alleyway again, and I\nglided down with the rest of them, letting the glider do the work for my\ntired wings. The guards had cleared the area around the alley, and\nabout eight had stuck around, now just milling about down there. Among\nthe guards were prim figures in the black and gold halfrobes that told\nme they had to belong somewhere in Frinan administration. Where had I\nseen them before? On Cynfe?\n\nAnd then there was a lone figure in a very black cloak with dark, dark\nred accents. From the way no one ventured within spiting distance of\nthem, they must be an inquirer.\n\nWe lighted down, and waited.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n:::\n\n::: subchapter\nThe fourth little ring rung out, and you'd be forgiven for thinking\nwe'd worked on a schedule. Almost on time --- but not really on time\n--- the last of the guards lighted down in this little blocked off\narea. What started as a slow pulse of guards coming in, or (some)\nleaving --- too slow to call it a flow or even a trickle --- had\naccelerated until here came dragons that, if not familiar, had become\nrecognizable after the big gathering earlier.\n\nThe pink guard arrived with a cowering plain-dweller, looking smug and\nwearing their best imitation of Rhyfel's savage grin. The pink guard\nwas passing the plain-dweller to another, older guard. I watched that\nguard, and saw them take the plain-dweller to a closed off area with\nseveral other dragons, a mix of brown and one or two red. Ffrom was\namong them, and so were the fledgling, hatchlings, and the mother from\nthe cart.\n\nJerking my gaze back to the pink guard, I found, standing near them,\nRhyfel the younger and Hinte. Hinte's wings --- the first thing I\nlooked at --- were still covered under her cloak. On her back sat\nstrapped a glider. It wasn't the kind the thieves used: it was brown\nwood and woven wings of triumphant pale gold and gray.\n\nCovering Rhyfel and Hinte, a fine layer of ash and soot sat and blew in\nthe wind.\n\nThe other guards looked stony-faced, not seeming to have found anything\nat all. Very few --- three, it seemed like --- carried anything at all.\n\nOne didn't even have a human corpse as their finding. Instead, they\nhad a Hägre hog. Maybe it was an easy mistake to make if you had never\nseen a human. But didn't they at least have a sketchmaster drawing an\nimpression or something? They should at least know what they were\nlooking for.\n\nI stared at Digrif, until I had his notice, and directed my gaze back at\nHinte. Whatever was going on with him earlier, he got my meaning.\nObliquely, Digrif and I moved about, trying to get to where Hinte\nwaited.\n\nRhyfel, clad in black and golden reds, waved for the attention of Hinte,\nthe grinning pink guard and a few others that had the same dusty look\nabout them. Closer, I could make out, right on the high guard's neck,\na bloody bandage. If the stains told the whole story, the wound must be\na forefoot or two in length.\n\nWhen Rhyfel had their attention, those guards and Hinte started\nfollowing him over to one of the prim figures.\n\nHinte, in contrast, had one of her cloak's sleeves hiked up, and\nbandages covered it too. It was the very same leg that had been slashed\nby the apes in her fight last night. What starless luck.\n\nAs we crept toward the center of the small crowd of guards, I felt\npowerful yet faint flapping in the distance. I turned, claws dragging\ntracks in the gravel. Was it the thieves returning? That messenger\nreturning?\n\nIt wa",
  "title": "Agnize"
}