22nd Ashan 717
“I can’t take you with me,” Elyna murmured against her daughters forehead. She cradled the child’s head against her shoulder, arms wrapped tight around her. She inhaled the sweet scent of Elsie’s skin and pressed kisses to the pale skin. Elsie wriggled in her Mother’s arms, discontent.“Dadadada?” She twisted, peering at the door as though the man was about to walk in. Elyna held her tighter, and Elsie pushed against her, “Dada!” She demanded.
“Dada’s coming,” Elyna promised and stood, rocking the child back and forth as she walked. Pacing between the door and the window. The sun hadn’t yet started to rise, yet Elsie wasn’t sleeping which meant Elyna wasn’t sleeping. It went in cycles. The quiet request for her Father, which when it wasn’t met, became angrier until dissolving into inconsolable tears. At least until Elyna, or Anna managed to sooth her, which could take hours. Sometimes Elsie then slept and when she woke, the skyrider would try and keep her occupied, playing with blocks of woods. Usually the baby enjoyed nothing more than waiting for a wobbling tower to be built, before attacking it with a roar of delight. Even the tallest towers couldn’t distract the child for long, before the question would turn once again to Dada. If Elyna hadn’t been so desperate herself, to Malcolms return, she perhaps would have been a little jealous of her daughter’s devotion to her sire. As it was, she could understand Elsie’s pain.
“Mummy’s going to bring him back,” Elyna made her second promise as the baby succumbed in her arms and slept, sniffing, with tears dried on the soft cheeks. There was no alternative. Alive they had said. They needed Malcolm alive. Alive so that he could be found and he could come home.
Elyna lay Elsie down in the cradle, tucking her in beneath yellow blankets before withdrawing from the room. Dressed for flying she wore dark leggings, a shirt and a woollen tunic beneath a leather jacket.
Anna was waiting in the hallway, hands wrung together. A thin woman with blonde hair, she shared similar features with her sister, Emily. The young mother had fallen on hard times, and with three mouths to feed, as well as her own, had been pleased to serve as a nurse for Elsie and the coin that it bought. Elyna knew that the woman, with a sharp noise and wide-eyes was truthful and that she loved her children and Elsie too. If Anna noticed that Elsie developed faster than her own baby, Mathius, then the woman didn’t mention it. She’d been given a set of rooms in the Burhan house and it wasn’t unusual for the children to play together. The young mother looked up then and studied Elyna.
“Emily says that you’ll be gone for a few trials?”
Elyna nodded. She’d left her scale mail armour and weapons outside of the bedroom. Now she pulled the familiar weight on, over her shoulders. “I’ve got to bring him home. They’ve had five trials to travel so we need to extend the search further.”
Anna remained silent before taking a breath, “she misses you when you’re gone. Both of you. Lady Burhan, I’m not one to judge-”
“But?” Elyna looked down as she pulled at the fastens. There was always a but when a sentence started that way.
“But you’re getting larger now with a new babe on the way, and your daughter needs you.”
“She needs her Father,” Elyna gave up trying to secure the armour over the swell of her bump and pulled it up, over her shoulders again, discarding it with care. Nothing woke Elsie quicker than a crash of armour. “And you’re right…if I wait much longer I won’t be any good to search for him.” The Skyrider searched the blue eyes before her. “I’ll be back as soon as I can be. I’ll make sure Emily comes home safe as well.” She reached out, squeezed the woman’s shoulder and turned. Making her way through the shadows of her family home. It was hard to walk away from Elsie, and she’d never felt as though Anna disagreed with her before. In some ways, her friend’s sister understood the lifestyle of members of the Iron Hand, better than most commanders.
Before dawn, Elyna shook Vakhanor awake. “Vakh? Vakh it’s time to go.”
