When she was young, Veronyka had struggled with the concept of eating animals. It had seemed cannibalistic in some way, as if she were eating her friends. But over time, after connecting with animal after animal, she began to understand that they didn’t see it that way. Humans were predators, and eating prey was where they fit on the food chain. Hunting was still difficult for her to imagine, though animages did it all the time, tracing back to the First Riders, who were famed hunters. They would never use their magic to lure prey, though, because they considered that an abuse of Axura’s gift.
The nonmagical folk in the empire, however, felt differently. They were more than happy to force their bondservants to keep livestock docile before they were slaughtered or to ensnare a stag on a hunting party. It was a cruel use of their gift; animages deserved better than that, and the animals under their charge did too.
After the food stores were taken care of, Sparrow had given Veronyka a small satchel and an old tin pot from her personal supply of hoarded items that she kept hidden in a tree. When Veronyka mentioned her Ferronese steel blade, Sparrow’s mouth had fallen open.
“Would fetch a pretty penny if you wanted to part with it. Then you could make your own, like me,” she added, indicating her spear.
“I think I ought to keep it,” Veronyka had said, adjusting the knife where it stuck out of her belt. “In case of emergency.”
She remembered her grandmother mentioning private Phoenix Rider tutors. They were usually retired Riders paid for by wealthy valley lords to teach their animage children, making them top-notch recruits by the time they joined the military and ensuring they gained a spot among the elite ranks. Her maiora saw it as disgraceful cheating and claimed that no Rider should have to pay out of pocket for their training. But this wasn’t the empire’s well-funded military. Whatever this was, Veronyka needed to be prepared, and if she had to pay to join them, she’d best keep the most valuable item she had.
“Thanks, Sparrow, for everything,” Veronyka had said as they’d parted ways at the edge of the river. Though she’d been anxious to get going—it was a two-day walk to Rushlea, and she had a lot of ground to make up—the prospect of being alone again made her dawdle. “I hope I see you again.”
Sparrow had looked confused for a moment, as if unfamiliar with those kinds of pleasantries. Then she’d smiled widely. “Good luck tricking the steward. Maybe I’ll try to trick him next time he comes to town.”
And with that she walked away, disappearing from Veronyka’s life as abruptly as she’d arrived. Veronyka thought of Val, the way she used her shadow magic to force and manipulate people into helping her. But as Sparrow strolled away, twirling her spear and chatting animatedly to Chirp, Veronyka reveled in the knowledge that you didn’t need to control someone in order for them to help you.
Sometimes you didn’t even have to ask.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long until Veronyka’s plans went to pieces. The journey took far longer than she’d thought, thanks to her tired muscles and the fact that she’d barely slept in two nights. She missed Beryk and his wagon at Rushlea, and she got lost twice on her way to Petratec. In truth, that Rider boy spotting her from the sky had felt more like rescue than capture, and now, finally, she was on her way to their hideout.
Before long they came to the edge of the River Aurys and crossed it by a rickety rope bridge that dangled over the foamy water like a damp cobweb. Though full dark had fallen, it was brighter in the open space surrounding the river, the moonlight coloring the mountainside in shades of charcoal and ash. Water beaded in Veronyka’s short hair, and the steady rush muffled all other sounds.
When they reached the far side, a wide path—the Pilgrimage Road—came into view, slicing across a rolling plain of tall grasses. It led directly to a series of lantern-lit buildings tucked into the side of a soaring cliff face, the looming spear of rock a solid black mass against the star-encrusted expanse of the sky. There was a stable, a stone well, and a larger building Veronyka assumed was an inn and cookhouse—a way station for weary travelers. As they drew nearer, she could make out a steep, narrow stair cut into the living rock of the escarpment, zigzagging to the top of the precipice and out of sight.
Realization dawned on Veronyka. This was the end of the Pilgrimage Road, which meant they were standing on the Field of Feathers. This was where Queen Lyra the Defender rallied the Phoenix Riders during the Lowland Invasion. There had been a tribe of people living in the Foothills hundreds of years ago who’d tried to conquer Pyrmont. Queen Lyra’s Riders, often called the “Red Horde,” represented the first-ever gathering of the entirety of Pyra’s Phoenix Riders. Traditionally the Riders lived in scattered settlements on the higher reaches of Pyrmont, villages and cities accessible only on phoenix-back. It was after Queen Lyra successfully beat back the Lowlanders that the Riders expanded farther down the mountain into the rest of the lower rim and Foothills, establishing the boundaries of Pyra still in place today.
Veronyka wasn’t going to some exiled governor’s country estate. If this was the Field of Feathers, then those stairs must lead to . . .
“Azurec’s Eyrie,” Beryk said, following her line of sight and pointing to the rocky bluff that loomed above them.
There was nothing to see from this angle—but that was the point. After Queen Lyra defeated the Lowlanders, the buildings atop this bluff—given the name “Azurec’s Eyrie” centuries later—became one of the largest military outposts built during the Reign of Queens, encompassing a temple to Axura, living quarters, and training facilities. The temple at the Eyrie was supposedly located in the exact place that Axura’s phoenixes won their first battle against Nox, commemorating the victory.
When Pyra became a part of the empire, most training facilities were moved to the valley, and this location fell into disuse. It was during the reign of Pious King Justyn that the compound was transformed into a religious site and construction of the Pilgrimage Road began. The project had taken most of King Justyn’s reign to complete, but the resulting trade and tourism helped Pyra’s economy flourish and encouraged travel throughout the mountain region. When Avalkyra Ashfire moved to have Pyra separate from the empire, all that commerce was lost, and Pyra hadn’t recovered since. All the inns and cookhouses that had serviced the pilgrims had closed down, and religious sites like the Eyrie were left untended and abandoned, with no funding or leaders remaining to see it restored.
Until now, apparently.
High as Azurec’s Eyrie was, Pyrmont’s upper reaches loomed farther in the distance, rising steeply to disappear into the night sky. No road cut a path through that wilderness. Those that had dwelt there rode phoenixes and had no need for such conveyances.