Chapter 14: Pursuit
It took every ounce of willpower Nienna had to ignore the others calling out to her as she left them behind. Her heart ached, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she had made the right choice after all. Had she left them to die at the hand of a frozen monster? Would her presence have even made a difference? Uncertainty battered her thoughts, but one rang clear above the rest: if no one went after the airship, they might lose the girls forever. This was her mess, and she brought this on them all. She owed it to Seren and Salara to at least try.
Her sudden break away from the rest of the group unfortunately drew the ice jotun’s attention. It turned and uttered a warning growl that was muffled by the sheet of ice covering most of its face. With a wide swing of its arm, the creature swept its massive clubbed appendage along the frozen ground, kicking up snow and ice in its wake. There was no time to dodge to the side or run the other way. Instead, Nienna waited until the last moment before leaping over the limb and tucking into a roll as she hit the frozen ground. Without hesitating, she pushed herself to her feet and bolted for the camp’s front gate.
Once she was safe outside the camp, Nienna slowed and caught her breath. She remembered seeing Lord Aedan come this way sometime before, so she searched for him. The falling snow and sleet had already started to fill a harried set of footprints leading off to an area of disturbed snow not too far away. From there, a set of cart tracks and hoof prints led north. There was no sign of the highborn lord anywhere. She uttered a curse under her breath. Two options were now laid out before her: she could follow the tracks and possibly intercept further on down the way, or she could follow the airship as originally intended.
As tempting as it was to track down Lord Aedan and bring him to justice, the airship had to remain her priority.
A dolyak brayed nearby, unsettled by the vessel’s roaring motor overhead. Nienna looked up, watching as it gained altitude and departed from its temporary landing at the camp. Her first thought was to run after it, but there was no way she could keep up with it on foot. Glancing over at the beast of burden, Nienna grimaced, not thrilled with her limited options for transportation.
She approached the dolyak hesitantly with her hands up so as not to spook the animal. “I’m sorry buddy. At the moment, you’re my only option.”
The dolyak bull raised his large head and watched Nienna with calm, dark eyes. Completely unaware of the urgency of the situation, he simply chewed on a clump of grass from a bunch growing under the protection of an alpine tree. She gently grabbed its harness and tugged with a gentle firmness, despite her rising trepidation. He didn’t budge. She swallowed hard and tried again. On the second attempt, the dolyak finally turned from the grass and trudged through the snow, following Nienna to a rock she could use to step up on. Her heart pounded wildly. She had never ridden anything other than modes of transportation with wheels. The idea that she was about to hop on a four-legged animal in hopes it would carry her willingly, terrified her.
“What am I doing,” she said out loud to herself as she stepped up onto the rock. She placed a shaking hand on the beast’s back. Her hand sunk into his thick, coarse fur. “This is a terrible idea.”
Nienna’s attempt to climb up on the dolyak was less than graceful. As she climbed up onto his broad back, she pulled a little too hard on his harness, causing him to bellow unhappily while backing up with her only half way on. Her heart jumped into her throat as she pictured herself getting tossed down onto the snow and trampled. Her fear of death by dolyak motivated her to keep climbing up. Thankfully, once she finished pulling herself up, the beast settled down as well. She uttered a sigh of relief.
Sitting astride the dolyak and gripping the long, dark fur on his neck, Nienna gave him a little kick, urging him to go. He started moving, but not as quickly as she wanted, so she gave him another kick. He uttered a grunt and broke into a full gallop. The first few strides nearly bounced Nienna right off, but she held on tightly to his fur and tried to adapt to the rocking motion. Eventually, she was able to relax a little and attune her body to the dolyak’s stride.
Sleet stung her face as they sped down the hillside, making it difficult to see. She hunched down behind the beast’s large neck and head, trying to keep her face from being bombarded by the raining ice crystals. However, protecting her face cost her a clear line of sight. She snuck a glance through dark fur wafting back in her face, and she was glad she did. Through the snow and ice, Nienna spied a small copse of trees approaching quickly. She gasped and pulled hard on the side of the dolyak’s scruff to try to steer it away from the first tree. They veered to the right just in time to narrowly miss scraping against the bark. Almost instantly, she had to pull on the left side to steer them around the next tree. Together, they slalomed through the small grove until they emerged into the open valley once more.
Glancing up at the airship ahead, Nienna mentally plotted her course and guided the dolyak with gentle pulls on the scruff of his neck. Despite the ashy cloud of smoke it left in its wake, the vessel was still maintaining altitude and moving quickly. Nienna was surprised it was still in the air, considering the shot Danae and her crew had managed to land against its hull. Whatever repairs they had managed to do in the time they had spent at the camp were holding—for now. She was not confident the airship would be in the air for much longer, however. When it did finally come down, she was determined to be there.
Suddenly, the airship turned east, toward the high hills across the valley. Metal creaked overhead, and the vessel’s engine continued to belch black smoke into the air. She watched to see if it would turn again, but it stayed on its easterly course. The falling sleet battered her face as she strained to look upward, but just before she hid behind the dolyak’s thick neck again, she spied a subtle flash of purple from the airship.
The strange light drew drove her to brave the sleet one more, and she looked up. The purple light was gone, but now orange and yellow flames had broken out along the bow. Nienna’s heart caught in her throat and her thoughts immediately went to the worst possible scenarios happening up there. She urged the dolyak on with another kick of her heels and prepared to hold on for dear life. The beast gave a hearty grunt and galloped as fast as his legs could carry them.
Ahead, something fell from the sky near the airship and into the snow ahead. As the dolyak carried Nienna by the spot, she caught a glimpse of something glowing inside the melted hole, but wasn’t able to identify what exactly it was. Another object then rushed through the air and landed hard next to them, kicking up snow and spooking the dolyak. He reared, uttering a frightened squeal and nearly tossing Nienna off of his back. With a white-knuckled grip, she held on to his neck fur and shrieked.
“It’s ok,” she repeated out loud until the beast settled. The words were more for herself than him, but they seemed to work on him all the same.
She gave him a little kick, and they were underway once more. Checking the ship’s trajectory, she noticed there was something off about its position in the sky. It appeared to be closer to the ground. She blinked her eyes a few times and then gauged the vessel’s position against the height of the mountains ahead. She spat a curse. The airship was losing altitude now rather quickly, and if it didn’t recover, there was no way it would clear the hillside looming in front of them.
Nienna silently prayed to the gods—any who were there to listen—for the ship to not crash. She could not lose them now. Not while they were right there in front of her. All she had to do was get to them—somehow. She gave the dolyak another kick, but the beast was already galloping as fast as it could go, and his breathing had grown rough and labored. She had only ever seen these beasts carrying cargo or pulling carts. Never had she seen them ridden like this. For all she knew, she could have been running this poor beast into the ground. Yet, he continued running as fast as his stocky legs could go.
Not caring about the sleet anymore, Nienna craned her head up and watched as the airship grew even closer to the hills without any signs of slowing or pulling up. Flames had now spread throughout the entire bow and were working their way back toward the stern. A thundering boom filled the valley as something exploded inside the ship, ripping another hole in the hull and raining metal and flame all around them.
Nienna opened her mouth to cry out, but the horror unfolding before her stifled her words. The sleet stinging her tear-stained face didn’t matter anymore. Her fear of riding a dolyak didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered were the two lives up on the airship. There was nothing she could do to save them—nothing she could do besides helplessly watch the Byrnes’ airship crash into the frozen hillside.
