Wyrd: Book One of the Witch War Trilogy - WATTYS 2018 WINNER!

Chapter 23: Where Will Rides Into a Valley of Mist

Will rode his gray stallion at the back of the group beside his sister, relishing the whipping wind and the cool rain. The bruised clouds lay low, darkening the day with their cocooning effect as the heavens opened up and the burgeoning storm unleashed upon the rebels, drenching Will down to his knickers.

Will looked ahead at the black horse carrying Sky, gratefully. The weather had clipped the Valkyrie's wings and kept her close, riding with them instead of flying through the tempestuous squall. As thunder rumbled like growling giants and sheet lightning arced above their heads, flashes of energy forking across the expanse of the celestial sphere, they pushed on.

Laina wore a brave face as she bounced awkwardly on her chestnut Naisuladna mare. The large horse made her look tiny. Her hair was wet and plastered to her body, and she was clutching the reigns tightly—her knuckles white with effort—and clasping her legs around the sides of the horse as she jolted up and down. Sit back into the seat, he wanted to say. Put pressure on the stirrups to move naturally with the rhythm of the horse. Post, I think it's called. But the brisk pace and the wind would have stolen away his words.

He could see her struggling. Fighting the animal beneath her. Will winced thinking about how sore her backside was going to be by the time they arrived. Despite Will's lack of riding experience, he had felt immediately confident. He had scratched Gideon's muzzle and the horse had whinnied in reply, as if to say, I'll take care of you. Will had mounted easily, one foot in the stirrup and one swinging over to take his seat, and then he had mimicked the other soldiers. He pushed his heels down and leaned his torso forward, one with the steed beneath him.

Riding under the angry sky on his galloping horse was exhilarating. This whole trip—the entire adventure—felt like a kindling of excitement in his belly. Home, it had said. And he'd felt it. The smell of the land, the energy of the place, coursed through his blood and invigorated him. And then, looking into Sky's eyes, he'd recognized it again. Home, his intuition had told him. Home.

But his sister Laina was a fish out of water. And Will felt guilty because as happy as he was in Htrae, he could tell from his twinsense that she was miserable. Will felt like it was the right thing to do, to dampen his excitement due to her misery, but he didn't want to because he felt so alive and so in love. Meanwhile, Laina was having a rough go of it, first with her lack of an aptitude, then with the dismissive greeting of their sister, Rowan, who Laina had been dreaming about since she was a girl. This world was not taking it easy on her. And Will guessed she was missing their Grandfather and mother, their friends back home, more than she wanted to let on.

Laina was smart and capable; she had a creative attack-plan for every situation. Here, powerless in the face of an impending war, Will could tell she was feeling useless and, worse, helpless. But all that talk about her having no aptitude ... no magic ... he didn't believe it. Not for a second. Laina had always been special. Laina knew things. Things she had no right to know. Perhaps it was just her way of reading people or her uncanny intuition, but nobody else knew Laina the way he knew Laina.

Will had learned it as a kid: when he bet on Laina he always won. It wasn't just that he loved his sister or that he believed in her, both of which were true. Ever since they were born, Laina had been defying expectations, succeeding in unconventional ways.

When the courts had tried to separate the siblings into different foster homes at three, she'd drawn a picture of the two of them holding hands. She'd gotten their social worker to help her write 'My family, my heart' underneath it and then asked her to mail it with a letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, explaining the situation. A few weeks later, they'd been together again.