Chains of Moonlight: Chapter One

Aesira had taken a vow to protect the princess with her life; today was the day to prove she’d meant it.

Wind cut across her skin as she looked out at the horizon below. Her armor and the fabric beneath did little to ward off the chill it brought, but she was used to it. Her wings arched out from her back, beating against the air when needed, otherwise letting the current keep her aloft. She flew at the front of the formation, as was her duty as captain. Her charge was safely ensconced in the middle, valkyries surrounding her on all sides as well as below.

While it was the first time Aesira was flying this route, they’d practiced this formation dozens of times. So far, everything had been quiet, but Aesira couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.

She looked down at the ground, but it was too late.

A dark object flew up from the plains, faster than Aesira’s eyes could follow. A sharp cry tore through the air.

Aesira should have known they weren’t going to make it to Iubar’s capital without an attack. She had hoped for good fortune. That hope died the second the first arrow pierced the valkyrie at the edge of the back left of the formation.

Aesira looked over her shoulder to see the arrow sticking out of the guard’s leg. Better her leg than her wing.

“Tighten up! Protect Princess Ragna!” Aesira called out as she dropped back. The two closest valkyries of their group of fifteen moved in and closed the gap Aesira left as she broke out of the formation. She tilted one large cream and tawny speckled wings to turn as she pulled in the other, dropping in altitude.

Princess Ragna rolled in the air onto her back, her brunette braid smacking her cheek as she did so. “Aesira—”

“I have to pinpoint where they are! You keep flying!” Aesira rolled in the air, locking eyes with Ragna. This was important. She could not let her princess’ reckless loyalty get the better of her. “Do not stop no matter what! Do you understand, Your Highness?”

Two more arrows whistled by, one nearly clipping Ragna as she had to turn back over on her front in order to regain altitude.

How were their arrows flying this high?

“Captain—” Lieutenant Stigr called out, keeping close to Ragna as he drew his bow, knocking an arrow.

“I know!” Aesira snapped as she tucked her wings in and dropped lower, flying beneath Ragna and blocking her completely. She grabbed the shield that had been strapped to her back and slid it onto her arm. They’d already been flying for hours. The guard would be able to keep going for at least another hour or two, but Ragna would need to rest long before that. She was already lagging.

Aesira had been expecting to be looking at the ground to find a place to land and make camp in an hour. That wouldn’t be happening.

The sun hadn’t begun setting yet, but the moon was already visible in the sky and climbing higher. That explained the arrows’ height, and how their horses below were keeping pace. The elves’ cursed moonlight magic.

The sun would vanish in less than an hour.

When night fell, the Moon Elves rose.

They couldn’t afford for the elves to pursue them and find them when they were at their weakest, falling out of the sky because they couldn’t fly a second longer. Even if the guard carried Ragna when her wings failed, they still wouldn’t be able to outfly the Moon Elves.

An arrow bounced off her shield.

Aesira looked down at the land below. She could see their silver horses racing to keep pace and only getting faster the longer the moon was in the sky. Their archers took aim again.

“To the right!” Aesira called out and the all of them adjusted accordingly, the arrows missing them by a hair.

Her wings hit the air again and again, having no current to help carry her as she was below it. All the other valkyries above her were using the current to carry them along. They were all moving so fast the elves were silver blurs on the plains below. But she could see them enough to count how many there were.

Too many.

Aesira took a deep breath.

This was supposed to be a quiet, easy trip as Ragna’s first visit to Iubar. It wasn’t supposed to be the end.

Aesira wouldn’t be able to hold them off long enough for Ragna to escape alone. The other guards had taken the same vow she had. But that didn’t mean Aesira didn’t feel sick to her stomach having to handpick the ones who would be sacrificing their lives to ensure Ragna’s escape.

But this was the job Aesira had taken. As the wind beat her down, she looked around at their faces, she couldn’t really remember why she’d taken this fate-forsaken position in the first place.

“Aesira, how are they keeping up? They can’t be this fast!”

She looked up at Ragna, and then she remembered.

“Your Highness, the moon is already visible. They’ve bred those abominable creatures to be faster in the moonlight. They’ll be able to follow us no matter where we go.” Lieutenant Stigr fired his bow, but at their height and the speed they were going it was impossible to know if it did any good. He looked over at her. “Captain—”

“I know. I have a plan. Everyone! Listen closely, if I call your name, you’re with me. Everyone else, you stay in formation and you keep flying. You are not to stop for anything.”

“What do you mean—”

Lieutenant Stigr hushed Aesira as she called out the first name. Six names came out of her mouth, each one stilted and hollow. Her altitude dropped again.

With each name, the valkyrie it belonged to dropped out of the formation and joined Aesira on the lower level. She choked on the last one.

“Tofa.”

She startled, turning to lock eyes with Aesira, but Aesira wouldn’t meet her gaze. She knew.

They all knew why they were being called. None of them protested.

Aesira didn’t look any of them in the eye. She couldn’t.

“Aesira, don’t—please!” Ragna called out as her guard was evenly divided. “Don’t do this! Don’t make me leave you!”

Aesira had left the fastest and strongest fliers with the princess. The strongest warriors and those with the highest kill counts were with her.

As much as Aesira wanted to spare Tofa, she couldn’t. She couldn’t play favorites. Not even with her friends. Tofa just wasn’t as fast a flier as the others. She also didn’t have a very high kill count. But at the speed the rest of the guard would need to fly, Tofa would slow them down.

So Aesira had to choose. Aesira chose Ragna’s safety over everything.

Aesira hoped Tofa was better with her spear than when they’d last sparred.

Not that it mattered in the end. This was only going to go one way. She could feel it deep in her chest, ringing in her bones.

Aesira tucked her wings in and rolled onto her back before stretching them out again to slow her descent as she looked up at Ragna. “Tell Heimir—” Her voice cracked.

“No—No!” Ragna shrieked, tucking her wings in and dropping. She started to reach out for Aesira, but Lieutenant Stigr swooped in, grabbing her, beating his wings twice as hard to keep them both aloft. “As your princess, I’m commanding you, get back here! Don’t leave me! Don’t make me tell him you’re dead!”

“Ragna…” Aesira took a deep breath, looking at her princess for the last time.

All she could hear now was her brother’s voice from years before in her head as he led Aesira through the halls, saying, “She’s not like her brother or the court at all. You’re going to love her, I promise.”

Aesira hadn’t believed him at the time.

Heimir had been right.

“Tell Heimir I love him.” Aesira took another deep breath.

They didn’t have time for her to say everything she wanted to. To tell Ragna it had been an honor. To beg the princess to take care of her brother even though she knew Ragna would. To ask her if she remembered the night the three of them had ditched the banquet Ragna was supposed to be attending to coast on currents and do tricks in the air beneath the stars until they found a cliff to catch their breath on and watch the sunrise. To ask if Ragna had known that dawn that when Aesira had heard Ragna pull Heimir’s laugh from his lips, Aesira had decided then and there she would do whatever it took to ensure there would never be a day Heimir stopped smiling like that.

“I’m sorry. Please, tell him I’m sorry.”

Ragna kept protesting, screaming as she fought against Stigr, still trying to stretch her arms out to grab Aesira.

Aesira rolled back over, the wind ripping the stinging tears from her eyes as she took the lead. The valkyries she selected fell into formation behind her. They flew on a diagonal, picking up speed as they angled their wings in, outpacing the horses below. They needed to cut the elves off before they reached the forest. If they made it to the trees, several could slip away in the battle and keep pursing Ragna before she’d gotten to safety.

The magic pulsing through her grew louder. They all felt it like a bell tolling, vibrating through their bones.

The cold, dark hand that wrapped around their hearts, sinking claws into it and strangling them. The Death Knell.

Once, twice, again and again until Aesira lost count. At least seven, but it was a slight comfort each toll in her bones above it. They weren’t the only ones going to die that day.

But the seven of them would die.

They flew on anyway.

Aesira didn’t even have to call out, her warriors read her instructions through the shifting of her wings.

The rocky ground was rushing up to them, and Aesira extended one wing, making a sharp pivot in the air. She whipped around as the warriors did the same, letting out a blood-curdling war cry, hoping maybe her voice could rip the elves in two before they reached her.

But the Moon Elves were undeterred.

Aesira drew her battle axe from her hip, flapping her wings again to push her back up and propel her toward them. She and the other valkyries rushed at them and they collided head on.

A glowing silver blade bounced off her shield as she used her wings to propel her forward. With her other arm she swung under, the blade of her axe cutting through the gap at his knee.

And then she was jumping back into the air before he could retaliate. Screams ripped through the air. A deep, commanding voice was shouting orders in another language.

Seven valkyries. Twenty elves.

They were severely outnumbered.

Aesira dove back in again, shield first, slamming her whole body into the next elf as an arrow pierced her left wing. Something wrapped around her ankle, burning her skin. She looked over her shoulder to see a whip of moonlight trying to drag her down.

She pushed the elf in front of her away, tucking her wings in and spiraling as she shot forward as fast as possible, dragging the elf through the dirt instead. Then she jerked sharply, nearly colliding with Tofa who was trying to fly up and aim her throwing spear as Aesira kicked, sending the elf holding onto the whip into another and knocking them both over.

But then more harsh moonlight slammed into her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. Her teeth cut into her tongue as her jaw slammed into a rock. The taste of hot iron filled her mouth. Three more elves surrounded her as she jerked her wings in tightly and shot to her feet. She pulled her shield close and spun her axe before spitting out blood, Death Knells still tolling in her chest and taking her breath.

Not a single valkyrie would survive. Their only goal was to take as many of the elves with them as they could.

* * *

The Death Blow ripped through Aesira the second a valkyrie fell. The pain was stronger than the arrows piercing her.

One in her arm, three in her right wing, and one in her left. Not even the gashes on her body could compete with the agony ripping her in half as the Death Blow tore through her.

She opened one eye to see an elf pulling his blade, glowing silver in the dying light, out of a valkyrie’s chest.

Tofa.

It was Tofa. Her eyes were open, staring up at the elf in horror, the hand that had been wrapped around the blade fell to the ground. She’d been knocked from the sky; her mangled wings would have never recovered anyway. They’d been half burned off her back.

Her spear was broken and scattered around her.

She’d gotten better. It hadn’t been enough.

Aesira was the only one left.

But she couldn’t move.

She’d long since lost her axe. Her shield was broken in a thousand tiny metal shards scattered across the rocky terrain. After that, she had been forced to utilize the only weapon she had left. Herself. Her wings had made for a formidable tool, sweeping and knocking elves down wholesale, but they’d taken so many blows. Several of the bones were broken, so was her left leg. Consequences of fighting with them when her bones were hollow and the elves’ bones were not.

Blood spilled out of her mouth and to the ground below. Her hair had fallen out of her practical pinned up braids, covering her face and obscuring her vision.

But she’d seen it all already.

It had been a slaughter.

Anyone who wanted to live knew better than to fight a Moon Elf when the moon was in the sky. Lady Fate had not been kind to them that day. The moon had risen before the sun had finished setting.

But as the Death Blow eased, and the elf stepped away from Tofa’s body, the suffocating clawing on her heart eased. The Death Knell was gone.

Which meant…

Did the Moon Elves think she was dead already?

Footsteps moved nearby and the Moon Elves spoke. Aesira had learnt Iubian Elvish when she’d joined Ragna’s guard and there were many similarities between it and Lunian Elvish, but her mind was too slow and there was a ringing in her ears that kept her from being able to make any sense of it. Horses huffed and pawed at the ground.

The sun’s last rays streaked across the rocky ground, spreading across the bodies, the blood, and the broken wings. Armor and weapons were scattered amidst the carnage. Feathers were strewn about, soaking redder and redder by the minute.

Aesira took comfort in that at least.

It meant they’d fought long enough to ensure Ragna and the rest of the guard outpaced the Moon Elves and were too far for them to catch even on their fastest horses. If they could even locate Ragna and the remaining guard.

It meant their sacrifice was worth it.

And if Aesira stayed perfectly still, the elves would think she was dead and leave her.

Although with her wounds, she didn’t know if it was a matter of minutes of hours before the Death Knell would creep back in, this time for her. But if the elves realized she was alive, it would be back within seconds.

Not that she deserved to survive, but if Lady Fate was going to see fit to be kind to Aesira and give her a fighting chance to make it to the Sun Elves and reunite with Ragna, Aesira would take it.

Heimir and Ragna would want her to.

Aesira closed her eyes as the voices and footsteps grew louder.

But the Death Knell didn’t return.

She held her breath.

A cold hand sank into her shoulder, jostling the gash there and it took all of her willpower to stay perfectly still and unresponsive. She pushed down the scream trying to rise up her throat. Her whole body was flipped over, twisting her right wing unnaturally.

The Death Knell still didn’t return.

She wasn’t going to die.

She just had to—

The elf hovering over her called out. Aesira struggled over the words. No. She couldn’t have translated it correctly.

“This one’s alive.”

The Death Knell still hadn’t returned.

The elf’s blade brushed her chest, hovering over her heart. Aesira had never once heard of this happening. Every valkyrie felt their own Death Knell.

Another voice called out in response. This one was darker, harsher, commanding.

“Stop.”

The elf pulled its blade back and let go of her. She hit the ground and opened her eyes since the charade was up.

An elf with black and silver hair, long and flowing down his back approached. Markings on his temples and cheekbones glowed a silvery white in the darkness. He walked with an easy confidence and power practically poured out of him.

He had to be the captain.

Maybe he wanted to do the honor of killing his rival captain himself. The Moon Elves prided themselves on how much they valued their honor. She thought they had a rather disturbing sense of it given this bloody decades long war was their fault.

He came to stop in front of her and drew his own blade. It was thinner but also glowing, brighter as the moon continued to rise. The edge brushed over the badge that clasped her armor over her heart and denoted her position. It scratched the metal and then came to rest beneath her chin, and just enough pressure was applied to tilt her head to the left and then to the right. He was examining her. For what?

Still no Death Knell.

Then he pulled the blade back and sheathed it. He turned to the other elf and said something.

Then he looked straight at her with a grin that sent a cold rush through her worse than any Death Knell as he spoke in her tongue. “She comes with us.”

A Death Knell would have been a far kinder fate.

* * *

Thanks for reading Chapter One of Chains of Moonlight! Read Chapter Two here!

Find all the chapters here!