An unkindness of man-sized ravens dotted the sky below us, and dragons were patrolling the air around Dreki, while others went out and came back at great speed—I assumed they were reporting to the palace about the giants. Both winged creatures ignored us. Perhaps Brenna had already warned them to leave swans and their riders alone.
"Exactly where are we off to?" Thord asked. He'd maneuvered his swan to be close enough to talk, but far enough that our swans’ wings didn't slap against each other. "In your spellbird message you'd mentioned going to the land of the giants, which is not on any map or mentioned in any book. So where is it then?"
"Well, that's where we have a bit of a problem," I admitted. "Right now we're heading toward the Black Islands. It's where the dragons had that battle with the giants. I just want to see for myself what is happening now and maybe get a hint of the direction the giants came from. After that, we will have a long trip to find the land of the giants. I'm afraid we are in the 'let's make a guess' part of our journey."
"I hope it is a guess that has a bit of education behind it. Before we make that guess, do tell me what happened leading up to this trip."
"I'll do that," I said. "But I need to think about the right order to lay things out. I need to let my, how did Master Alesius say it, my inner sleeping mind wrestle with it."
"Yes, he said that. I always imagined it was a small giant that I had to wrestle with inside my head. I guess we'll be wrestling the real thing soon enough." Thord narrowed his eyes. "You miss him still, don't you?"
The softness in his voice barely crossed the space between us, but it hit me in the heart and made me swallow a sudden swell of emotion. "Yes. Every once in a while I wish I could climb the stairs to his study and ask him a question. He was my stone."
"He was like a father to you," he said.
"No, he wasn't, he..." I stilled my tongue, realizing I was lying. "Yes, obviously I saw him as a father."
Thord didn't reply to that, but I was certain he was thinking about the fact I was an orphan. It was good of him not to point out the obvious. Here I was talking about a father figure while I rode a swan who was named after my mother. This was already an evening of coincidences and oddities.
And that included Thord's beard.
"I never got close to any of them," he admitted. "I mean, I liked them, and Maestru Beatrix was always kind. But I kept my distance."
"It's what they trained us to do." I loosed the reins slightly because Carnda didn't seem to need my guidance. "To not be emotional. To not make connections beyond those needed to complete our missions."
"Yes," he said. "Perhaps, I listened too attentively to that. Then again, I seem to have come out of school with at least two good friends."
I smiled. "I'm assuming you mean Megan and I. We are grand friends, aren't we?"
"You don't have to beg for a compliment," he said.
"Beg? I wasn't begging. I was stating a fact. And you're lucky to have us."
"I am," he said, and this time there wasn't any playfulness.
We had gone higher than I usually flew with Brax. I'd let Carnda pick our height. The ground was still dark, so it was hard to judge our speed, but the stars seemed to move a bit faster in the heavens. "Do you have any idea how fast we're going?" I asked Thord.
"No." He looked around. "But we have found a very helpful air current. So we're lucky."
"Yes, lucky," I said. But I couldn't help but steal a glance at Carnda.
"Since you don't yet want to spill the beans on what happened with these giants," Thord said, "we need to pass the time. I'm surprised you haven't asked me what I've been doing for the last few months."
"I thought you'd tell me, eventually. Not that you're a blabbermouth. But I didn't want to pry."
"Well," he said. "Do I look different to you?"
Several answers shot into my head at once. You look hairier was the first one, but I didn't say it aloud, because it might not be taken as a jest. I looked across at him, the moonlight on his face, highlighting his square jaw. "You look older," I said. "And it's not just the beard."
He nodded. "I feel older. But I have not felt the same since your brother gave me this." He pointed at his chest as if worried his words would wake up some sleeping thing. "The scar in my chest. The new heart. It has changed me in ways I am still trying to understand." He clenched his jaw for a few wingbeats. "So what have I been doing?" he asked, as if he were starting a personal interrogation. "Well, I've been killing things."
A cold lightning shock went down my back. He'd said it so quietly and yet with pride. Or maybe he wanted to surprise me. I worked hard to not show any emotion on my face. "Oh. That's interesting," I said.
"It is more than interesting. It is one of the many things that have changed. When I recovered from the surgery, I found I was stronger than I'd ever been. And that I could lift large things—boulders and anvils heavier than anything I could lift before. I could break stacks of wood. I even shattered bricks with my bare hand."
"Well, those aren't changes to complain about," I said. "You're as strong as an ox now. And twice as smart."
"Don't be flippant," he snarled, giving me a harsh glare. Then he shook his head. "Sorry. That's another thing I've noticed: my temper is very quick."
"You always had wonderful control over your temper," I said.
"I know. It's... frustrating." He looked across the skies, toward where the Land of Ellos would be. "Megan convinced me to help her find and hunt down the Akkad Empire's spies, who were still sabotaging the Five Realms. Well, the Seven Realms, if the other old countries rise up. But I couldn't work with her."
"She can be annoying," I said. Then: "Sorry, that was flippant."
"It's all right. It was Megan who told me to leave. I didn't have the patience for the fine details of tracking down spies. And, well, there was an incident when we found an Akkadian spy and I may have punched him too hard. And kept punching him. Again and again and again."
"Oh," I said. I didn't ask whether the spy had lived.
"So my mind isn't as settled since getting this white bear heart." He frowned, and I thought for a moment: His hair was white now. His beard. He was so different. And it was clear the bear heart was changing him from the inside. My guts had come to that conclusion some time earlier, but my mind was only now catching up. "So, I went hunting," Thord continued. "I returned to the northern mountains of Woden and lived off the land. Tracking deer and mountain rams, living in caves. This swan, Gorgon, has stuck with me. He's a bit of a grumpy, angry swan, so maybe we belong together. He helped me hunt. With spear. With bow. With axe and snare. And my bare hands."
"So that's what you meant by killing things," I said. I let the tightness in my neck loosen a bit.
"Yes, killing things and killing things and…" He drew in a breath. "… and eating them."