Maw of the Devourer, page 30
His mood had only worsened because of his lack of sleep last night. After a long debate this morning, he had kept his promise. He would show Norne he wasn’t some gutless liar or some nonsense. Ceptin had left him at the southern gate earlier with explicit commands to make connections. But as soon as the man had left, Squall had disobeyed him.
Now, after waiting for more than an hour and wearing his boots down with how his foot tapped wildly, Squall finally spotted Norne. When she finally strolled into view, wearing her usual clothes, Squall’s heart soared despite himself. He growled inwardly, reminding himself about how annoyed he was at her. Norne didn’t greet him and instead imperiously motioned for him to follow her. Squall did so with a snarl. She relaxed once they were out of sight of the guards, but even realising what she had intended only made him more upset. Of course, she didn’t want anyone to see them together, did she? If anyone saw her with someone so beneath her like he was, she would be so embarrassed, wouldn’t she?
“Where are we going?” Squall asked.
Norne turned to him with a smile, and his heart skipped a beat. “I know a good spot. Just trust me!”
Norne guided him to the edge of the fourth tier, near where the tier met the edge of Eoven’s Peak. There was no railing or wall to keep someone from falling over the edge and, despite himself, Squall felt nauseous when he looked at the drop to the city below. Norne’s amused expression made Squall blush, and he felt a little happy that she was enjoying herself, until he remembered how annoyed he was with her.
She led him onto a mountain path that wrapped around the side of Eoven’s Peak and away from the city. Squall followed her without a word of complaint, though he made certain not to wander too close to the edge or spend too long looking at anything but the path ahead of him. It didn’t scare him or anything! He just wanted to be careful…
After half an hour’s hike and an instance where the path narrowed to a frightening degree, Squall stepped out onto a ledge that overlooked the western side of the city and the surrounding countryside. Norne had forced him to climb up the mountain a decent distance to reach this lookout, and they had even wrapped back around to remain on the western side of the mountain.
Squall could see each tier of the city. His vantage was enough to take in the impressive difference in height between the tiers of the city and see the world beyond Monden as it stretched out to the horizon. He had never thought that the world could look so small, yet so large at the same time…
Still, his anger tainted the beauty of the view. Norne stepped up to the edge of the ledge and sat down. She patted the ground next to her, and Squall begrudgingly joined her. Looking down at the cliffside and city below as sent a wave of dizziness coursing through him, but Squall forced himself to ignore it. What was worse, though, was how Norne rolled her eyes at how far he sat from her and shuffled closer to him—it was impossible to ignore how beautiful she was when she moved so close. Norne noticed his staring and rolled her eyes again, which caused Squall to blush and bristle at her reaction. But Norne mollified him with a smile.
They sat there together for close to an hour, chatting about nothing in particular. Despite failed attempts to spend the time grumpy, Squall felt his anger cool, and he quickly focussed on enjoying their time together; it was hard not to be charmed by Norne when she focussed her attention on him. On the ledge as they were, looking out over the city, it was as if they were the only two people in the world. Squall liked that.
But then Norne sighed and stood, brushing the dirt off of her trousers. “This ledge is my favourite place in the city. I hope you’re not feeling hurt anymore… I know I can’t help but calm down after staring at that view!”
It pleased him how she had showed him the ledge, but she still treated him like a child. But he could be mature. “Thank you for showing me.”
Norne looked down at her hands. She frowned and Squall knew that whatever she said next, he wouldn’t like it. “If you’re going to be at court, Squall, then we can’t meet like this anymore…” Squall shot to his feet and felt his face pull into a scowl, but Norne held up a hand to stop him from interrupting. “And if we run into each other at the palace or any social functions, we can’t talk like we know each other, okay?”
“Why? Why are you just throwing me away?”
“It’s not like that, Squall. It’s just how it has to be.”
Squall hated that patient tone because it made him seem like a child throwing a tantrum—and it made him feel like one, too. “You just think that I’m worthless, don’t you?” Norne shook her head patiently. “Tell me, then! Tell me why!”
“I can’t, Squall…” Hurt flickered across Norne’s face, but Squall refused to care.
“Fine!” Squall stomped away from Norne and back towards the path.
“Squall!”
Squall refused to look back, but he heard Norne trail behind him as he stomped down the path. The path grew treacherous just before the ledge, but Squall stomped down it without a second thought. He just wanted to put as much distance between him and Norne before he said anything he would regret—not that he hadn’t already done so.
In his haste, Squall’s foot caught a stone that jutted out of the rocky path. He stumbled close to the edge of the trail and heard Norne cry out in concern, but he caught himself before he tumbled over the edge of the path and breathed a relieved sigh—one that he quickly hid before Norne could notice. He would not let her think he had almost fallen like an idiot—not that it embarrassed him or anything!
But then something grabbed his ankle and pulled him off of the trail.
Squall’s stomach churned as the world spun around him and there was suddenly nothing below his feet. But then, all too soon, his body collided with the mountainside, and a flash of pain jolted through his left shoulder. He tumbled down the cliffside with a surprised cry, feeling each bump and collision with the stone.
Then his left arm got caught in a stone outcropping.
And his body tried to continue tumbling regardless… and something in his arm snapped.
Squall didn’t feel the pain until he tumbled further down and his broken arm collided with the mountainside. He howled before the intense pain threatened to steal his consciousness away from him. But then his arm hit something again, and he repeated the cycle anew. It was too much to handle and Squall’s screams only died down when he couldn’t force enough air into his lungs to continue them.
After tumbling for what felt like an eternity, Squall slowed to a halt on a ledge. It took him a moment to realise how precariously close to the ledge’s edge he had rolled, but his mind couldn’t force his body to move. Squall gasped for air, forcing his lungs to work hard. When he finally caught his breath, he climbed to his feet. Every movement sent a shock of pain through him, and it surprised him when he looked down at his left arm and didn’t see it jutting out in the wrong direction. By the look of it, the arm seemed fine, but the pain he felt told him something had broken.
Squall shook his head groggily. He heard a noise come from the mountain path above him and he looked up, expecting to see Norne. Instead, he saw a scaled creature sliding down the cliffside, bearing down on his position rapidly. The reptilian creature was just a little shorter than Squall. Its scales were a mixture of greys and browns, akin to the stone of the mountainside. When the creature opened its mouth, it revealed teeth that looked sharp enough to bite through Squall’s bones like they were nothing. Whatever the creature was, it covered the distance between them swiftly.
“Squall!” Norne’s voice carried down the mountainside. She slid down towards him, but Squall couldn’t focus on her for once.
Not when death itself rushed towards him.
As soon as the creature’s feet touched the flat stone of the ledge, it lunged at Squall. He stepped out of the way, narrowly avoiding its sharp claws as they cut through the air where he had been. The movement sent a shock of pain through his arm and Squall stumbled. He barely kept himself away from the edge and recovered just in time to jump away from the monster. The leap took him out of the creature’s reach, but he slipped and fell to the ground. He landed on his injured arm and screamed.
Norne appeared, skidding to a stop in front of him. “Back you!” Norne threw a ball of stone at the monster. Her second throw hit the creature in the head and it reared back with a hiss. “Squall, get away from the grunell!”
Squall forced himself to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his arm that got worse with each passing moment. He stumbled to the side to stay out of Norne’s way and the grunell lunged at her. She jumped to the side, easily avoiding the monster’s clawed hands.
And right towards the second one camouflaged into the mountainside.
Squall dove at the creature without thinking and let out a scream as its claws tore at his flesh. But he snaked his working arm onto the grunell and didn’t let go. He heard Norne’s surprised cry, but could not make out her words as the claws dug deeper into his chest. The grunell surprised him by pushing off of the ground and sending both of them tumbling precariously close to the edge of the cliff.
But Squall did not let go and tried his best to wrestle the creature into a better hold, leaving it atop him and pinning him to the ground. He spared a glance in Norne’s direction and saw her fending off the other grunell. She looked like she held her own, but then he saw it. A third grunell had climbed up onto the ledge and stepped up behind Norne. Before Squall could call out a warning, the creature clawed her back and blood sprayed from Norne’s wounds.
“Argh!” Norne fell to her knees.
And Squall felt an intense, searing rage boil up in every fibre of his being.
His mind moved on instinct, like it reached for the wind with his Senses. Squall let his arms fall from the grunell crouched over him and focussed on how easily his mind seized the wind. It pulled the wind fiercely and a raging gust slammed into the grunell on top of him. The wind hit the monster with enough force to fling it off him and sent the grunell tumbling over the edge. Squall rolled over onto his belly and focussed.
A second gust rammed into the two grunells reaching for Norne and it sent them stumbling back. It wasn’t strong enough to throw them off of the edge, and Squall screamed in frustration as the creatures recovered and moved back towards Norne’s fallen form.
Something tore into his back and a weight press onto his broken arm. “YEARGH!” Squall turned his head and found a fourth grunell on top of him. The creature opened its mouth and leant down to place his shoulder in its maw. Squall watched in horror as the creature’s teeth sunk into his flesh, unable to force his body to respond or muster the strength to escape the grunell.
Just as Squall felt the teeth tear into his flesh and screamed anew, a sword slammed through the creature’s head and out of its mouth—the blade scraped along Squall’s shoulder and barely avoided stabbing into him. The sword pulled out of the creature’s head and the grunell fell limp on top of Squall. From the corner of his eye, Squall saw a black-haired woman standing over the dead grunell with a bloodied sword in hand. He turned his head to see Ceptin attacking one of the grunells that stood over Norne.
Squall did not know how the man had found him or what he was doing here, but his attention shifted to the wounds on Norne’s back. The grunells had clawed at her back even worse! Squall felt his world still for a moment as he stared at Norne’s unmoving body.
Then he saw her chest move slightly as she breathed and he let out a relieved sigh—only for it to die on his lips when he noticed how weak her breathing was. Ceptin barely held off the two grunells, but when the woman joined him, they quickly overcame the creatures. One fell to the woman’s sword, and the other fled after Ceptin cleaved into its side with his sword.
Then the ledge grew quiet.
Squall ignored the conflict and its resolution. Instead, he squirmed and bit his lip to stop himself from screaming as the movements pulled on the wounds on his back and his broken arm grazed the ground. It was hard work, but he pulled himself from underneath the dead grunell and crawled to Norne. He forced himself to sit up next to her, heedless of the fresh blood that seeped from his back when he pulled on his wounds.
Squall looked down at Norne’s bloodied form. He wanted to save her… but was there anything that he could do? Just like with Riti, Squall was helpless… Thinking of the woman sparked something in Squall’s mind, but then he noticed something odd. His connection to the Sense had not severed despite his pain. Though it made no sense, he could feel something from Norne.
Squall focussed on the odd connection and willed his powers to heal the woman. If he really had inherited some of Stormrider’s divinity, then he should be able to at least do that much! He felt something happening, but then Norne writhed in pain. But it was working! Whatever it was…
“Stop it, Squall!” Ceptin shook him. “Stop what you’re doing to Lyrria!”
Squall hesitated, but then he noticed how violently Norne writhed. and He instinctively stopped whatever he had been doing to Norne. She settled quickly, but her body was still tensed in pain and Squall’s heart bled to see that. “I need to save Norne… I need to save her…”
“What you’re trying to do will only kill her…” Squall looked at Ceptin and saw how serious the man’s expression was. He believed Ceptin—as if something in him knew that the man told the truth.
I… almost killed her, Squall thought. His eyes unfocussed and he stared at nothing. I almost killed her. But what else can I do?
He couldn’t do anything, but that wasn’t true for Ceptin. Squall turned to the man and stared up at him. “Please save her! I know you can do it!”
Ceptin’s gaze shot to the pale, black-haired woman for a moment, before he sighed. “Fine.”
The odd woman gave Ceptin a curious look as he knelt beside Norne, and Squall moved out of the way for him. Squall frowned when he got a good look at the black-haired woman; he recognised her, though he couldn’t place where he had seen her. Ceptin took a deep breath and Squall turned his attention back to the man. His grey eyes bled to amber as he laid his hands on Norne’s wounds.
Slowly, Norne’s body relaxed, and her breathing settled into a regular rhythm. The tension bled from Squall and he slumped to the ground, suddenly feeling weak. Then he felt Ceptin’s hands on his chest and a searing warmth flooded through him. A shivering cold quickly replaced the heat, and it took Squall a moment to realise that he could barely feel any pain from his arm, chest, and back. The pain was still there, and it wasn’t like Ceptin had numbed it or anything—it just lessened immediately.
“I’ve healed the worst of your wounds,” Ceptin whispered in Squall’s ear, “but I’ll leave the rest to test your potentially strengthened vitality.”
Squall stared at the man for a moment, but then the realisation dawned on him and he couldn’t help but laugh. After everything that had happened, Ceptin still wanted to test the limits of Squall’s divinity. It made some sense, but it also hadn’t occurred to him how he needed to test his recovery speed. Regardless, when Squall moved his arm and it barely throbbed with a dull pain, he felt grateful for what healing the man had done.
The black-haired woman shot Squall a curious look, but turned her attention to Norne. She whistled appreciatively as she inspected the sudden lack of wounds on Norne’s back. “Now, that is something…”
“I would appreciate if you could keep what I’ve done a secret, Irilla,” Ceptin said, a hint of a threat to his words.
Irilla raised her hands placatingly. “Of course. I can see why you would prefer to remain quiet about that… But might I suggest we see the princess to safety sooner rather than later? More grunells could be around, and I hardly see the appeal of being ambushed by them.”
“Of course.” Ceptin bent down and picked Norne up. “And thank you for your cooperation…”
Irilla nodded and trudged back up the incline to the mountain path. Ceptin followed her, somehow carrying Norne while still half-climbing up the mountain. Squall just stood there for a moment until he put it all together. Who was this princess? What was it Ceptin had called Norne before?
Norne was Lyrria Venos, Crown Princess of Geovenos.
Squall felt a faint as he saw their meetings in a new light and realised that he’d thrown a tantrum in front of the heir to the throne.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Squall sat beside Ceptin in a waiting room, fidgeting despite himself. He wore an uncomfortable set of finery Ceptin claimed was the only appropriate thing that he could wear for their purposes, but all it did was make Squall feel even more anxious.
The injuries on his body from the grunells, and his fall down the cliffside, had healed well. Of course, Ceptin had healed him of any major damage, but what he had left to Squall’s body to fix had done so admirably—which Ceptin accounted to his apparent divinity. It still hurt when he tried to lift anything with his left arm and there was now a fine webbing of scars on his back from where the grunell’s claws had torn into him. But that was fine. If only he could feel as calm about what was about to happen…
“Calm down, Squall,” Ceptin said. He pitched his voice low. “It won’t be long now.” That only made Squall feel worse.
The queen herself had invited Squall and Ceptin to a private audience because of their actions in saving Norne—or Lyrria, as Squall forced himself to think of her. It was probably only a formality to thank them and offer a reward, as Ceptin had told him to expect, but Squall wasn’t ready to meet an actual queen. Not that he hadn’t met with a princess several times already…
“Hah…” Squall clasped his hands together to stop them from shaking.
“Remember, Squall,” Ceptin said, “we need to politely refuse any reward offered to us except an audience with Eoven. While this might not have been how I planned it, it is our best opportunity to achieve our goal.”
“Yes, I will.” He’d already heard that same advice three times, and it grated more each time. Ceptin shot him a frustrated look, but a noise at the door to the queen’s sitting room drew his attention away.
