He bowed his head. “Good luck, Auraya of the White. Fly high, fly fast, fly well.”
“May the gods guide and protect you,” she replied.
Turning to face the sea again, Auraya drew magic and sent herself directly upward. The beach dropped away from her feet until Tyrli was a small dot in a great arc of sand stained gold by the rising sun. She glanced behind at the mountains and noted the position of the double peak. Turning her back, she sent herself in the opposite direction.
For the last few months she had become accustomed to flying in imitation of the Siyee. Now that she was alone she did not feel the need to pretend what she could do was limited by physical strength or the pull of the earth. She began to experiment. The Siyee could only fly as quickly as the wind and their stamina allowed. She had no idea how fast she could move so she began to increase her speed.
Wind was already a problem and she guessed this would be the factor that limited her. As she flew it buffeted her face, dried her eyes and chilled her. She could use magic to generate warmth, but as she flew faster she found that this warmth was quickly stripped away. Curiously, she also began to find it hard to breathe.
She created a magical shield in front of her. It slowed her abruptly, like an oar dragging in water. The shield acted like an oar because of its shape, she guessed. She didn’t need an oar, she needed... an arrowhead. Inspired, she changed the shape of her shield to a pointed cone. Now it cut through the air easily. It diverted the wind around her and she found she could breathe again.
By now she was moving quicker than she had ever moved before, on land or in the sky, but the only way she knew this was because of the wind rushing past. The sea was too far below to give her any true feeling of speed, and there were no Siyee or reyer riders to compare herself to.
Looking ahead she saw that a shadow had appeared on the horizon - the coast Tyrli had described. If she skimmed over land she might get a better idea of how fast she was flying. She watched the coast impatiently as it drew closer. A rocky face appeared. Cliffs. When she finally reached them she curved to the left and began to follow this rocky, vertical road.
As she did she felt a thrill of excitement. The rock wall rushed past. The air hissed. She was flying faster than she had imagined. Exactly how fast she couldn’t guess. As fast as falling, perhaps?
It would have been faster to fly in a straight line, but she found herself following the curves of the wall. It was exhilarating. She swooped into bays and ducked around points. An archway of rock appeared ahead. She flew through it and found herself weaving between several spires of rock that had survived the slow erosion of the cliff face. Ahead, she could see one huge spire standing like a defiant sentinel just beyond the next point. She flew out and circled it.
Coming back around to face the coast, she felt a wry disappointment. From here the cliffs turned sharply northeast. The sentinel marked the end of the peninsula. Her flirtation with the coastline must come to an end.
Circling back around the sentinel, she slowly rose until she reached the top, then set herself down on a flat area of rock. The thin whistling of the wind through the cracks and crevices of the spire was unnaturally quiet after the roar of air passing her during flight. She considered the coastline then turned to regard the sea.
Borra was too far away to be seen from the coast. She had made good time so far. Perhaps if she continued to fly as quickly she would reach it in the next hour. Drawing more magic, she started the final leg of her journey.
The first of the islets appeared after several minutes. Soon more followed, then she saw bigger islands ahead. By the time she had reached these islands even larger ones had appeared on the horizon.
Unlike the smaller islands, which looked like the tops of sand dunes that had accumulated vegetation with the tides, the larger islands appeared to be small, half-drowned mountains. The first she passed was a pair of mountains linked by a rocky ridge. To her left she could see a single smaller peak, and to her right a high rocky crescent rose out of the sea. These landmasses, and the smaller islands between them, formed an enormous ring the size of one of the Si mountains.
Tyrli had told her to look for Elai on the beaches of the largest island. That would be the crescent-shaped island, she decided. She flew toward it, descending slowly. When she was low enough to make out the shrubby vegetation near the coast, she began to search for signs of the sea people.
She found them moments later. Dark-skinned men and women roamed every beach. They were laying strips of glistening seaweed out on the sand, and she could see human forms swimming underwater around the dark shadows of the vegetation, cutting more.
Most were working steadily, though one Elai in each group appeared to be there only to direct the others. A few individuals had climbed to higher ground and stood looking out to sea. One appeared to be looking directly at her and she sensed his amazement. He did not wave or alert the others to her presence. From his thoughts she saw that he didn’t believe what he was seeing.
Then there was a bellow of anger, and the watcher jumped and turned to look down at the nearby beach. The leader of the working Elai waved a fist threateningly. The watcher pointed at her. The leader glanced up, then took a step back in surprise.
As the leader continued staring at her, other Elai stopped working and looked up to see what he was gazing at. She descended slowly, as she was now sensing both fear and awe from them. Though she dropped toward a place several paces from them, they backed farther away.
Then, as her feet touched the ground, they threw themselves onto the sand.
She blinked in surprise, then searched their minds. At once she saw the reason for their reaction. They thought she was Huan.
“People of Borra,” she said slowly, picking the words in their language from their minds. “Do not abase yourself before me. I am not the goddess Huan, but one of her servants.”
Heads rose. The Elai exchanged glances, then slowly got to their feet. She could see them clearly now. They were only slightly shorter than landwalkers and completely hairless. Their skin was a smooth, glossy blue-black, similar to the skin of the seaner she had seen swimming next to the ships on her return from Somrey. Their chests were broad and their hands and feet large and flat with membranes between the fingers and toes. As they stared at her, she noticed that their eyes were rimmed with pink. When they blinked she saw that this pinkness was another membrane, which slid over their eyes like a second set of lids.
All eyes were fixed on her. She skimmed their thoughts. Several had quickly concluded that, if she was no goddess, and clearly not Siyee, then she was a landwalker and not to be trusted. These Elai regarded her with unconcealed suspicion and a hint of simmering hatred. The rest were still confused, their thoughts sluggish. These were the lowest of the Elai society, she guessed. The slow or the unfortunate. They did this menial work because they could do little else. She looked at their leader. He was no smarter, but his bullying temperament had earned him this higher position.
As she met his eyes, the man squared his shoulders. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“I am Auraya of the White,” she replied. “One of the Gods’ Chosen. I have come on behalf of the gods to meet the leader of all Elai - King Ais.”
The leader narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“To...”
It was hard to find the right words when these Elai workers’ thoughts were full of words they associated with landwalkers - killing, raping, stealing. The words for peace, negotiation or alliance did not pass through their minds so she changed tack. The leader did not expect her to explain herself.
“That is for the king’s ears only,” she said.
The leader nodded.
“Will you send one of your people to the king for me?” she asked.
He scowled. “Why?”
“I would not enter your city without permission,” she replied.
He paused, then looked around at his workers. He pointed to the man who had first seen her - the watcher. The man’s shoulders were slumped and his skin looked dull. She read thoughts of discomfort and realized he was dehydrated from spending too much time out of the water. As he received his orders he cheered at the thought of a decent swim.
“Go tell Ree,” the leader said. “He’ll send someone to the palace.”
