The Griffin's Flight by K.J. Taylor Page A

they were—whether Rannagon sent them or whether they were doing it for some other reason. They destroyed most of what I owned and stole the rest, and when I got home they were waiting for me. They attacked me, beat me up. They put a slave collar on me and left me alone to suffer. I got better, but I couldn’t get it off, and it hurt all the time …”
    Skade was listening. She didn’t try to interrupt but let him talk on.
    “… and a while after that I snapped and stole a griffin chick,” said Arren. “I couldn’t stand it any longer. Without a griffin to protect me, I had become worthless. I wanted my life back. But they caught me, and Lord Rannagon sentenced me to death. I told them all the truth at my trial, but nobody listened. It was my word against his. Lord Rannagon told them I was mad.” He realised he was breathing hard and tried to make himself slow down. “That was why I killed him. After Skandar helped me escape from prison. I came back to the Eyrie and killed him, and Skandar helped me. Someone saw me kill Rannagon. I set a fire in the room and then ran, and Skandar carried me out of there.”
    Skade waited for some time after his story had finished, as if to make certain that he had said all he had to say. “That griffin saved your life,” she said softly.
    Arren paused and nodded. “I suppose so.”
    “No. There is no supposing about it. If he had not carried you away, they would have caught you. You would have suffered a hideous death at their hands if they had.”
    “He killed Eluna.”
    “In self-defence, perhaps,” said Skade. “I would say that a man in your position cannot afford to choose his friends. Anyone who stays by you now should be a hundred times more precious than the friends you had in your old life.”
    “He’ll come back,” Arren said unconvincingly.
    “You will have to hold on to that hope,” said Skade. “But I would not blame him if he did not return.” Her look became bitter, almost angry. “A griffin who thinks he can protect a human forever is a fool, and few humans deserve their protection at all.”
    Arren stood up, watching her intently. “And you’d know, wouldn’t you, Skade?”
    She said nothing, but the certainty had already hardened in Arren’s mind.
    “You’re not human,” he said. “You’re a griffin.”
    Skade froze. “You cannot know that.”
    Arren watched her closely, taking in the golden eyes, the claw-like fingernails, the silver hair. “You’re a griffin,” he said again.
    She took a step closer. “How can you know? I have worn this body for so long, no other human—”
    “I can … smell it,” said Arren. His own voice sounded puzzled, but the moment he said it he realised what had been nagging at him all this time. “You’re a griffin in a human’s body. That’s why you feel wrong to me. You’ve felt wrong from the moment I met you.”
    Skade turned away. “Leave me alone.”
    Arren thought back to what she said when they first spoke. “A year,” he half-whispered. “You’ve been like this for a year. And you’re trying to find the spirit cave so you can change back.”
    Skade, her back still turned, began to make a strange hoarse sound. With a shock, Arren realised she was sobbing.
    He ventured closer. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
    With a sudden motion, Skade flung the sword away and put her hands to her face, rubbing it fiercely in a wild effort to remove the tears that had begun to wet it. He could hear her snarling, trying to stop herself from crying, but she only sobbed the harder.
    Arren reached out to touch her shoulder, but then thought better of it. He surreptitiously kicked the sword away from her. “Skade, I—”
    She turned. “Leave me alone!”
    “It’s all right,” said Arren. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it, I can understand if you’re—”
    Skade let out another half-strangled sob and continued to rub at her eyes. “I hate it!” she screamed. “They will not stop