Page 98 of The Eye of the Fifth
Tanwen obeyed his command. Sunsi let out a yelp of fright as she did.Tanwen, land! If we keep flying from them they will only follow! They have to know we are not a threat!
Agreed. Hold on.
‘Sunsi, hold tight to me!’ he shouted, for she’d lost her grip in the chaos. She secured her arms around Gedeon once more. Tanwen’s wings imminently stopped in their beating and pulled into her scaled, rock hard body as she nose-dived to the shore. They shot out again just a hundred metres above ground, beating the air to her will as she landed in the deep snow with an almightythudthat rattled sleeping birds from surrounding trees.
Gedeon slid off Tanwen’s back and onto the white ground, Sunsi doing the same behind him. Before the Eternals could surround them, he found Tanwen’s face and placed his hand on the bridge of her enormous snout.I cannot hide behind you now, nor can I allow you to defend me any longer. This is not your battle. Go, friend. I will find you again one day, I promise.
She pressed her great snout into his hand and exhaled.The spirit is strong within you, stronger than it has ever been. Princeling you are no longer. I am proud to know you and honoured to serve you… Fire Warden, Master of Darkness.
Go,he said gently, though his heart significantly warmed.And Tanwen… thank you.
He let his hand drop from her face, but did not watch as she took off into the foggy air.
The six Eternal warriors landed around them, a tight circle of fierce faces and drawn bows, and Gedeon instantly fell to his knees, lifting his freezing hands in surrender, vaguely aware of Sunsi mimicking him to his left.
The white-haired Eternal approached him slowly, the string of her bow taut. An arrow pointed right at his jugular. She seethed with venom, ‘Give me one good reason why this arrow should not find a home through your worthless throat?’
Gedeon did not move from his position of submission. ‘There is none I can give that you will hear and wholeheartedly believe. But I implore you to give me the chance. We are not here to harm, this I swear by the Four.’
She hissed, ‘Then why do you come?’
‘We have come to speak with the Air-’
A soft thud sounded next to him, along with a pained exhale that had Gedeon’s insides twisting with dread.
Sunsi had collapsed. Her chest rose and fell as though air would not fill her lungs. Her eyes rolled in her skull like loose marbles.
At her legs, staining the unspoilt snow with an aggressive redness, was blood. Seeping with no end in sight from her thigh, where a crystal arrow was embedded deep into her flesh.
The Eternal had not missed.
‘Sunsi-’
‘Do not move!’the Eternal snarled.
Gedeon froze.
Sunsi’s pounding and wildly irregular heartbeat was now all he could hear, resounding in his ears as though he were inside her chest with it. Panic began to set in. He knew how that poison worked: he had felt it once before himself.
But Sunsi was human. It would kill her quickly without a shadow of remorse.
‘Please,’ he begged the Eternal, not daring to move, for he knew she would not hesitate to let her arrow fly if he did. ‘Get her to your healer. This woman is… she isgood.She does not deserve this fate.’
‘I recognise the sigil above her breast. I know what it stands for,’ the Eternal said darkly.
‘That is not who she is!’ Gedeon exclaimed hotly. ‘She is innocent, more innocent than you could imagine.’
‘More innocent than thechildrenwho perished in the cityyouburned?’
‘Please,’ he pleaded again, his voice on the verge of breaking. ‘Do not punish her for my crimes. She is the bright future of the south and everything the Empress is not. Please… you cannot let her die.’
A red-haired Eternal stepped forward, lowering her bow. ‘Nys, it is not the Eternal way to kill without-’
‘Hold your tongue, Zuriel!’
‘I assure you, we are of far more use to your order alive than dead!’ Gedeon told them desperately, and it was completely true. None knew the insides of his mother’s mind better than he, and none had sacrificed as much for the rebellion as Sunsi had.
The red-haired female took another step forward. ‘Nysari, think about what you are-’ She paused and stared at Sunsi.
