Taking Flight

“Oh, may the gods help me,” Kelder said, “you mean we’re just now halfway?”

“Probably not,” Irith said. “After all, they’re probably faster than we are.”

Asha whimpered at that, and tried to walk faster.

The sun was setting, its parting magic turning the clouds to incredible shades of pink and lavender, and Kelder was becoming concerned that they would have no shelter for the night. He looked at the orange ball, and suddenly came to two realizations.

First, the sun was off to the right, rather than straight ahead; the road had turned until it was headed far more south than west. And second, the ground was no longer level, but sloping slightly downward. He looked down at the dirt beneath his feet, trying to convince himself that this was not merely an illusion.

Irith noticed what Kelder was doing, and her wings sprang forth; she rose straight up, flapping lazily, and peered ahead.

“I can see the river,” she reported, “shining gold in the sunset. There’s a bright line across it that must be Azrad’s Bridge catching the sun, and a black line beside that that must be the bridge’s shadow, and the Inn is atop the ridge on the far side. Look closely, maybe you can see the smoke from the chimney.”

Kelder stared, and saw a line of smoke rising gently into the vast polychrome sky-but that by itself would have meant nothing, as many of the farmhouses had cookfires and chimneys.

“That’s the inn?” he asked, pointing.

“That’s it,” Irith confirmed.

By the time they came within sight of the bridge full night was upon them; the gods had washed the World in darkness and lit the stars anew. The lesser moon gleamed pink in the west, while the greater was nowhere to be seen. The fields to either side were black in the gloom, as was the road they walked upon.

And in truth, they could see almost nothing of the bridge itself, but the torches set along its rails blazed warm and inviting, beacons in the night. The sight gave Kelder and Asha renewed strength, and they hurried ahead.

Irith held back slightly, and Kelder turned, wondering.

Before he could speak, she said, “There’s a toll.”

“What?”

“They charge a fee to let you cross the bridge, just the way Caren wanted to charge tolls on the highway through Angarossa.”

Kelder stopped. “How much?” he asked.

“A copper piece, it used to be-that was for each adult, no charge for children or livestock.”

That meant three pieces-Irith, Ezdral, and himself. Asha would be free.

“I’ll fly across,” Irith said, “or maybe swim-I haven’t been a fish in ages. And I’ll meet you on the far side.”

Two pieces, then; Kelder considered the contents of his purse and decided that was manageable, but he was not happy about it. “Maybe I should swim, too,” he suggested.

“Are you a good swimmer?” Irith asked. “It’s a long way to swim for a human, especially in the dark.”

“I’ve never tried swimming at all,” Kelder admitted. “There wasn’t anywhere to swim, in the hills of Shulara.”

“Then you can’t swim, silly!” Irith told him. “It’s something you need to learn! You’d just sink and probably drown!”

“Oh,” Kelder replied, embarrassed.

“Come on!” Asha called; she had ignored the discussion and was waiting halfway down the slope.

Kelder came.

There were no guards on the bridge, so far as he could see, and he wondered if Irith’s information might be out of date. He said as much as they stepped onto the first stones.

“I don’t think so,” Irith said. “I think they’re at the other end. And even if they aren’t, I’m going to swim, anyway-I haven’t been a fish in years!” She leaned over, kissed Kelder on the cheek, then slipped away into the darkness beyond the bridge’s torchlit rail.

He tried to watch her go, but outside the glow of the torches he could see nothing but the night. He sighed, and led Asha and Ezdral onward.

Irith’s information proved correct in every particular; by the time they were halfway across, Kelder could see and hear that four soldiers lounged at the far end of the bridge, chatting in Ethsharitic spoken in accents just like Azraya’s, telling each other obscene anecdotes. When they spotted the travelers they broke off the conversation long enough to collect two coppers, and then ignored the threesome thereafter.

Once aground again, Kelder hesitated; Irith was nowhere in sight, and although she had told him the inn was just the other side of the low ridge ahead he could see nothing of it. It might be farther than he had hoped, and Ezdral was in a stupor and on the verge of total collapse. “You two go on ahead,” he said, despite misgivings about sending a sick old drunkard and a child alone in the dark. “I’ll wait here for Irith.”

“I could wait,” Asha offered.

Kelder considered; leaving a child alone in the dark wasn’t any better, and might be worse.

Before he could answer, though, Irith called, “Here I am!”