Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 4

Ryraso wasn't sure what he had been expecting to find when he finally met the young leader but certainly not the man who had been in front of him. Inai was almost ten years younger than Ryraso and twenty years younger than Loror but not in the least naive, nor weak. Inai knew how to fight unlike most priests and he was prepared to do anything to stop this war.

Compared to Tai'ray and Loror, Inai was more like Tai'ray in appearance. No scars and a handsome face, but Ryraso put that down to his young age. Inai had been chosen as high priest hours after Loror had murdered the previous High Priest and no one had expected him to be the successor. Certainly not the council who had been hoping the Gods would choose one of the more malleable priests. Instead, they got Inai, who was as stubborn as he was good hearted.

The job Inai had to offer him was to work on a secret warship which had just been completed. A ship which was able to fly and fight Loror's own warships which had been giving the man the upper hand. Until now, the humans' alchemy hadn't been strong enough to duplicate what Loror's side had been able to do, especially with the destruction of the technological centres. The ship was possibly the last of its kind, even the D'mar were unable to repair ships once they were downed.

Inai wanted Ryraso to be his head surgeon. After talking to the man for an hour, Ryraso accepted the job offer. Inai had something about him which made Ryraso curious about how the ship was going to change things. Plus he didn't exactly trust other doctors with the twins.

On the ship, he learned a lot more about the politics of both sides. He learned just how important the k'nairi were to Loror's army. He learned how much Inai had to fight against the council in order to fight back against Loror. Which was the main reason why Inai had gathered a crew of people who were brilliant but didn't quite fit in with the rest of the army, to fight on his own terms.

After working with the crew for a few months Ryraso had come to know the characters fairly well. Some were too odd for the regular army, some were almost too much like the people you would find on the D'mar side and others were just plain damaged but everyone worked together well. For the first time since Ryraso had left the forests, he felt like he had a home again.

Despite fighting the D'mar elite no few of which included k'nairi he didn't run into a k'nairi for a while. There were troublemakers other than the twins and Wiljam, but he gained their respect almost as quickly as he had gained the k'nairi's respect. They learned quickly what Ryraso was capable of doing to people who messed with his patients.

Whether the crew realised it or not, his manner was still more k'nairi than human. His temper had calmed slightly; not that the people on the ship would believe that. His bedside manner grown warmer over the years since Navat, but he still gave orders regarding treatment. Orders he expected to be carried out in full no matter what rank his patient was and he had some stubborn ones.

People often joked about how he could scare even the k'nairi into submission. Little did they know it was true, he could.

The fact he had worked and trained with the k'nairi was not a well-known one. Ignoring Inai, Isst and Taidra, the security director, no one really knew about him. Part of Ryraso had expected to be revealed early on but in was actually a good year before a k'nairi showed up. Ryraso was not looking forward to this confrontation, he thought darkly as he walked down the corridor from his private room to the medical rooms.