Asunder: A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

aversion to connecting with animals since his… incident with Gamarron. No time. He tried not to think about what he was doing, but simply cast out, Trust me. Friend. Leave here now!

One of them let out a bell-like trumpeting, tossing its head and thumping its front two paws on the stones. Kest assumed it was the leader of the group, though he could only guess at intent of its communication. Hopefully it was assent, or this would be a very short ride. “Get on!” he shouted to Nira, swinging his weapon in broad strokes at the animal keepers. The workers scattered clear, and he brought the obsidian edge down on the leather traces attaching the beasts to the carriage. It wasn’t as sharp as he would have liked - those edges had to be either chipped down or replaced on a regular basis – but there was enough force in his swing to part the lines.

He turned to the zephyrs, sending out a rough, clumsy intent to climb on top and his friend to do the same, when suddenly he lurched sideways, borne to the ground by one of the guards. The man had tackled him from his blind side. Groaning in pain beneath the other man’s weight, he thought once again about just how badly he hated not being able to see half of the world. His assailant grabbed Kest’s hair and bounced his head off the pavers. Stars bloomed inside his head and screaming pain shot through him. He couldn’t even tell if he had made any noise or not - the world was gone, and only his fire-lined skull existed. Help! He wasn’t sure if he screamed it or cast it to the beasts. One more of those blows, and he’d be unconscious.

He couldn’t see, but suddenly the grip on his scalp loosened and the weight fell away from him. He could hear scuffling and screaming, and he rolled away from the ruckus. A zephyr trumpeted, and the pound and scrape of the beasts’ claws on the stone seemed to be everywhere.

After a long moment, his vision cleared and he sat upright. His attacker lay still on the ground, a zephyr leaning its long neck over him and worrying at his neck with sharp teeth. There was a lot of blood. The other five beasts were prancing about between him and the other soldiers, rearing up to lash out with their front claws at the men, who backed away with clubs and spears held at the ready.

Seeing Kest rise, the captain yelled in frustration and lunged at the foremost zephyr. His spear cut a deep line in the beast’s neck, and it fell to the ground, thrashing and screaming. The other four screamed in rage and charged, heavy paws lashing and stamping. In moments the captain and the other two men were being trampled. Stop! Kest screamed out in his mind. Done with them. Leave now. Amidst the pain, chaos, and self-doubt, he wasn’t certain he was communicating with the zephyrs meaningfully. He hoped the men weren’t dead.

Nira was crouched against the carriage and looking on with horror. When he turned to her, she yelled, “You want me to ride one of those things?”

“Just one more bad idea,” he responded, gesturing desperately for her to approach. They had quieted and retreated from their attack. One of the men on the ground was crying, but the other two were very still. The fallen zephyr was still kicking, but its movements were weakening as it pumped its blood onto the stones. How much money did we cost the Atrillmer family today? He wasn’t sure he could count that high. He was sure that if they ever found him or discovered his identity he wouldn’t survive for long. “I can speak to them, sort of,” he told Nira. “I… I told them not to hurt you. Come on, we need to go. Those workers will bring the rest of the guard.”

The reminder of imminent danger overcame Nira’s reluctance. “Sort of?” she muttered. Approaching warily, she touched the flank of the nearest zephyr. It twitched but held still. With a fatalistic sigh, Nira jumped as high as she could and scrambled up onto the thing’s back. She arranged herself astride the beast, long past caring whether her thighs were showing, and scooted forward until she was sitting in the hollow between the animal’s first and second set of legs. The neck was too thick around to hold on to, so she gingerly took hold of the beast’s long, hairy ears and gave him a nod.

Kest wasn’t sure he could get up onto one of the zephyr’s backs. His head hurt terribly, and he was dizzy and nauseated. Approaching the leader of the pack, he commanded, Down. He tried to project a confidence and mastery that he did not feel. The thing snorted and shied away. He lunged up and took hold of the animal’s soft, sensitive ear, twisting it. Down, he cast at it again. Squealing, it submitted and sank to its knees. Sometimes, strength is all they understand, he thought. Gamarron came to mind, and he didn’t want to think about why.

“You could have made mine do that, you know,” Nira groused.

Climbing astride the zephyr, Kest shrugged. He was too tired and hurt to apologize. Patting the beast’s back, he told it to rise.

“Hold tight,” he said, and then cast out, Go! Run!

The zephyrs ran, and they sounded like a storm on the horizon. They proved their name, too, as they rounded the side of the house and burst out to the front in mere moments.

The formidable gate, which Kest hadn’t even thought to worry about yet, stood wide open, and Renna lounged in its shadow. The two gate guards were nothing but lumps in the grass, and Gamarron stood nearby, the chaos wielder draped over his shoulder. Kest had never been happier to see anyone in his life, and for the first time since approaching the manse, he dared