The Last: Endling #1

They approach a small village that has been attacked. As they approach, they see the Knight of the Fire standing over a young boy who has been tied over a fire. Gambler guesses that the knight is searching for Byx out of a need for revenge because Byx outsmarted him at their last meeting. They listen to the tied boy beg to be freed, insisting he doesn’t know the whereabouts of the person the knight is trying to find. Byx and Gambler decide to save the boy. Byx comes up with a plan that requires the knight to be unharmed; therefore, they wait for the knight to fall asleep. When he does, Gambler and Byx sneak into the village and cut the boy down from the fire. Byx recognizes the boy as the thief, Renzo: the same boy that he, Tobble, and Khara encountered in the cave. Renzo calls for Dog, and they all run. Gambler frightens the knight’s horse to give them a head start.

Byx, Gambler, and Renzo return to camp and wake the others. Khara is angry with Byx and Gambler for bringing Renzo to their camp. She also worries that the knight will find them before they can escape. Byx tells her that this was her plan. Byx calls out to the Pale Guard for help and then suggests that her group of friends leave immediately. They all move toward the river. Byx hopes that the knight will catch up with the Pale Guard soon, but the Pale Guard is closing in behind them, and she still cannot see the knight. Then, she finds out why: The Knight of the Fire is in front of them. Byx again cries out to the Pale Guard for help. Moments later, Byx’s group veers away, causing the knight to turn and follow them, which places him directly in the path of the Pale Guard. As a battle begins between the knight and the Pale Guard, Byx and her companions race along the edge of the river, looking for a place to cross. Renzo tells Khara of a ford, but she’s not sure whether to trust him. Renzo and Khara argue as they rush forward, and the battle grows more intense behind them. Finally, Khara orders everyone to follow Renzo.

After crossing the ford, the group stops to rest. Byx expresses sympathy to Renzo about the loss of the village. Renzo clarifies that he was only passing through the village when the knight arrived. Renzo asks how they came to be traveling with a unit of the Pale Guard, so Byx explains their situation. Renzo suggests that the reason the Murdano has caused the extinction of the dairnes and is trying to do the same with the felivets is because he wants to end the power these governing species have in order to start his war in Dreyland.

As the companions continue to travel, they come upon a village where most of the men have been taken into the army or conscripted as laborers. Others have abandoned the village to avoid the imminent arrival of the Murdano’s army when he moves to invade Dreyland. Byx and her companions stop at the abandoned inn for the night. Renzo goes in search of valuables to steal. Khara expresses hope that the Pale Guard and the knight have killed each other, though she is clearly worried that they are now at risk of being set upon by Luca and his family’s army. Renzo returns, using theurgy to find hidden treasures inside the inn. Suddenly, Tobble comes rushing into the inn to warn them of fire nearby.

The companions continue to move north, coming to the coast. Renzo tells them that the only thing north of them now is Dreyland, which is full of bandits and vicious beasts. Byx struggles with the purpose of their mission, growing convinced that no dairnes would want to live in this place. Food becomes sparse the further north they go. Everyone becomes dispirited and begins to question their path. One night, unable to sleep because of her empty belly, Byx gets up and sits with Tobble, who is on guard duty. Byx expresses her belief that their mission might be a futile one. Suddenly, they spot fires in the distance, but this time, it isn’t the knight. Khara identifies the fires as cook fires in the village of Zebara.

As they enter the village, Byx sees marks on some of the people that indicate their crimes. She also feels a certain level of fear and desperation in the villagers. They use money that Renzo has to buy food and then eat it quickly while sitting in the dirt. They are approached by some villagers who demand to know what their business is. Khara tells them they are in search of surviving dairnes for the scholars at Cora di Schola. One of the villagers claims to have information but wants their horses in exchange. Khara refuses, but Renzo offers to exchange information for information. Renzo tells the villagers that a great danger is coming their way. In return, the villagers tell Renzo that they have seen the sentient islands near a place called Landfall.

The villagers begin abandoning their homes based on Renzo’s information. Byx and her companions buy more food before setting out again. They quickly discover that Landfall is at the tip of a peninsula, meaning they are about to trap themselves with no escape from the knight. Khara begins to formulate a plan. Khara picks a place and has everyone begin to weave a net to trap the knight. In front of where she plans to put the net is a steep gully. Khara begins sharpening the ends of branches as part of her trap. She asks Byx to climb a tree to see if she can see the knight. Byx doesn’t, but Khara asks her not to get out of the tree. Byx refuses and begins to climb back down, but first she looks out over the end of the peninsula. There, she sees a sentient island moving north.

As Byx studies the island, she believes that she can see a dairne gliding down from one of the trees. The island is so close that Byx believes she could glide down from her tree and land on it. However, she can hear the knight crashing through the trees toward her friends. Byx glides down, but instead of landing on the island, she lands just on the other side of the gully. Byx watches the knight come crashing toward her. She calls to him, urging him forward. The knight hits the net, and just as Khara had known he would, he uses his fire to burn through it. The resulting smoke blocks the knight’s view of the gully.

The Knight of the Fire falls into the gully, and the sharpened branches instantly kill him and mortally wound his horse. Gambler ends the horse’s suffering. Khara asks Byx if she saw anything from the tree, and Byx talks about her possible sighting of a dairne. Renzo warns them that moving into Dreyland will mean having to sneak past both the Murdano’s and Dreyland’s border guards. When Khara asks if Renzo is afraid, he boasts of even more dangerous escapades. Renzo then admits to following Khara because he is interested in her sword. He claims to be able to see that it is covered in a theurgy spell. Renzo admits to knowing who Khara truly is and that she carries the Light of Nedarra. He claims that his grandfather, a foot soldier in the war, was saved by that sword. He drops to his knee and promises loyalty to Khara and to the Donati family. Khara has him take an oath of loyalty and uses her sword to dub him a knight.

Khara tells Tobble that she wishes to perform a stibillary for him, but she does not know what is required. Khara tells everyone that Tobble has earned his stibillary because he has shown bravery and loyalty. Tobble is overwhelmed with emotion but manages to recite a poem and sing a song and then eats a centipede before requesting Khara, Renzo, and Byx to twist his three tails into one. After the ceremony, they walk down the peninsula, aware that their future is still uncertain but hopeful that they might complete their mission successfully. They know that the Murdano will soon learn of their betrayal and send soldiers after them. They also suspect that Luca will be coming for them as well. However, Byx concludes that her companions are her new family.