In the Garden of Gold & Stone

by Ryan Muree

  Ascara walked toward the center of the room with her finger up in the air, following the figures. “I thought it was just a pattern to draw your eyes to the center, but they look like humans.”

  Nida followed her, eyes trained to the ceiling where time had chipped away some of the details. The oculus was always open, and beyond it was the near full moon, a glowing reminder that she was running out of time.

  “What makes you think they’re human and not Tialan?” she asked.

  Ascara smiled. “I knew you’d ask that. Look at the pattern around the oculus.”

  Nida had. “It’s just the same people over and over.”

  “Except for one tiny detail. Look again.”

  She squinted at the pattern again. “The arms aren’t up.”

  “Yes!” Ascara squealed. “They’re out to the side. They’re touching one another. It’s one giant chain around the room.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re Tialan or human.”

  “No, but it shows something, right?”

  It was something, but it wasn’t an answer to saving her sisters’ lives. The pieces of the ceiling that had slid out of place for the opening in the center had the pictures of the human man reaching out for the Tialan queen.

  “It still shows that a human man is needed for the ceremony. And we can’t see what else is part of the painting because the oculus is always open.”

  “Right!” Ascara ran to the side wall where the lever of the oculus waited. She lowered the lever, gears turned in the wall, and nothing else happened.

  Nida shook her head. “It’s too old.”

  “Or maybe someone broke it on purpose.”

  “That’s a stretch.”

  Ascara shrugged.

  “We have nothing then.”

  The weight on Nida’s shoulders pressed down. So many lives were counting on her figuring this out.

  “Not true,” Ascara said. “We know there are hints in the paintings, we know this is probably the only room in the temple that even discusses humans in the ceremony, and we know that we didn’t solve it in the first few hours of the plan’s creation.”

  She rubbed her forehead, turned her face to the moon, and closed her eyes. “I can’t let him die, Ascara. I did something…”

  Ascara placed her hand on her shoulder. “What happened? What did you do?”

  “His brother and his future mate came to ask for him to be released. Brynn said no.”

  “And?”

  “I snuck outside and gave them a rope.”

  Ascara tilted her head. “A rope?”

  “So that he can escape during the festival if we don’t solve this in time.”

  Ascara wrapped an arm around her and rested her head on Nida’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, Nida.”

  ***

  Nida sighed and slumped in the vanity chair of her room, while Ascara did her hair. They hadn't figured it out.

  Two days had passed, and they had spent all of their free time investigating who painted the murals in the prayer room, when the oculus in the prayer room was built, and any other mentions of a pact between humans and Tialans.

  They still hadn’t come up with an answer for the actual ceremony, and time was up. Their plan had failed, and her backup plan to save Rowec would happen in just a few hours.

  “I’m going to start researching how to fix the lever,” Ascara said.

  “It doesn’t matter, Ascara.” She swallowed. “He has to leave tonight.”

  The festival night had come, and Brynn had kept Rowec locked down since that night she’d learned the truth that her species could be just as cruel as the species they railed against.

  She’d had no chance to prepare him to escape or tell him that his brother and Etta had come. He’d be going to the party, expecting to dance and enjoy his evening, only to find out that her people had lied to him and that she had been part of it.

  Tears formed, but she blinked rapidly to hide them.

  He’d get out, no harm would come to him, and her sisters…

  “Hey,” Ascara said, rubbing her shoulder. “Just because Rowec is leaving doesn’t mean we can’t still figure out a way to save the sisters. Are you willing to give your life for them?”

  “Of course.”

  “So am I. I’m willing to bet we’re not the only ones, either. If I have to give them all my Vigor and die in the process, I’m willing to try anything.”

  “Me too, but without a human male…”

  “We’ll figure it out.” Ascara jutted a finger at the mirror. “You slapped Brynn. We can do anything.”

  She shook her head. She couldn’t see how they’d figure it out, and she couldn’t just blindly believe it would be okay.

  Without Rowec for the ceremony, and without a new solution to the ceremony, the sisters would wilt. She’d doomed them all to save a man she wasn’t supposed to… love.

  “Come on. If everything is coming to a terrible end, and it’s not— yet—you might as well enjoy your last evening with Rowec. Tell me again what he said when you mentioned the festival.”

  Nida bit her lip and tried to keep her head straight, recalling the conversation she had originally started with Ascara. “Rowec asked if I was going to the festival.”

  Ascara pulled out a pin she’d been holding in her mouth and stuck it into Nida’s hair. It held one auburn lock just so above her ear.

  “You know what I think?” Ascara asked. “He’s got it bad for you, Nida. Why else ask a stupid question like that? Hello, there’s a party coming up that you just told me about, and I was wondering if you were going. ”

  Ascara’s deep, mocking tone made her giggle. Among the swirling tension in Nida’s chest, Ascara always had a way to make her feel better. For that moment, it felt like they were getting ready for the festival as if everything she loved wasn’t about to fall apart.

  She was pretty sure Rowec liked her, too, which made what she was about to do hurt all the worse. “I don’t know.”

  “What are you afraid of?” Ascara continued piling pins into her mouth for safekeeping as she looped and gathered sections of Nida’s hair into place.

  “What am I afraid of?” Nida scoffed. “Uh, let’s see, my sister killing me—”

  “Which one?”

  They both giggled.

  “Drathella, mostly. But also, Brynn for ruining the ceremony.” She glanced down at her fingers in her lap. “Can you believe Brynn wants him to be in love with her?”

  Ascara pursed her lips. “Brynn can want all day long. And too bad. This is your last night with him. Besides, Brynn has no chance. I saw that dinner conversation. They have no chemistry.”

  Nida shook her head, but her sister quickly straightened it. “What do you know about human chemistry?”

  “I know what it’s not!” She stared back at her through the mirror. “Which dress are you wearing? The gold one?”

  Nida laughed. “Eh, it’s okay, but I think if I wear the gold one, Rowec will puke. Everything in this temple is gold to him. He used to mutter it under his breath.”

  “Oh! What about my blue one?”

  Nida blinked. “The one with the—”

  “Split open back, high cut on the thigh, plunging neckline. It would look amazing on you.”

  “I don’t think so.” It was too much. Overkill. “What about the lavender one?”

  Ascara put the last two pins from her mouth onto the counter and dashed for the closet. Within seconds, she had retrieved a soft, shimmery lavender dress. The neckline was still low, the back still dipped, but it was an elegant shape with flowers and vines embroidered with gold thread up the neck.

  “Oh,” Nida said. “I forgot that it’s sleeveless.”

  “So?”

  “My shoulders are—”

  “Mostly human, which is quite attractive to a human, I imagine.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Yes, you do. You love it. I can see it in your eyes. You’re wearing it. You’ll lo
ok more like a queen than Brynn.” She hung it over the back of a chaise by her bed. “Turn back around. I’m nearly done with your hair.”

  When Ascara had finished, she spun Nida for her to see how it pulled up neatly and loosely just behind her very human ears. Her hair had been sufficient for hiding them until now. A metal clip in the shape of the same flowers from her dress held her hair together in the back.

  “Okay! Make-up!”

  “Not too much. I don’t want to overdo it.”

  Ascara took a seat across from her, pulling out tin after tin of inks and powders. “Okay, so, I’m excited for you. Are you going to dance?”

  “Yes. We all are supposed to dance. Don’t you remember the last one? We were little, but I remember everyone dancing.”

  “Of course, I remember. Tilt your head back a little.” Ascara dusted some powder across her chin. “I meant: are you going to dance with him ?”

  Nida blinked. “There’s no way Brynn will allow it. I think he’ll be too overwhelmed by a party swarming with Tialans to want to dance. He’ll be starving, probably.”

  “Nope, I brought in some of the fruit from the garden for him. Can’t have your man starving to death.” Ascara sat the powder down and picked up a tin with pale-teal powder. “Lean forward and close your eyes.”

  “What if they have weird festival customs?” Nida asked.

  “You mean humans in general?” Ascara dusted the powder across her eyelids.

  “I mean human customs in general, yes. He did these weird hand things.”

  The dusting stopped. “What?”

  Nida opened one eye.

  Ascara was grinning ear to ear and staring at her.

  “No, not weird. What are you thinking? I mean just normal weird things. Like they touch hands to make a promise, and he had me hook my arm in his arm… It was weird.”

  “Show me.”

  Nida went through the motions of their hands squeezing, and then hooked her arm through Ascara’s to show how they walked places.

  “Oh,” Ascara said. “I get it. This is close. You’re really close to me like this. Oh, Nida, he likes you.”

  She shook her head a little and returned to her place.

  “He likes you. What if he wants to kiss you?” Ascara tilted Nida’s head down. “What if there are other mischievous things humans do with each other to show love? Remember the statue and the crotch?”

  “Ascara!” She couldn’t handle another thing to worry about. Between her sisters, Rowec’s reactions, the dress, her make-up, the sabotage of the ceremony, the escape… She couldn’t possibly muster enough courage to face unknown human customs with or without using their… their… parts.

  “Just a little bit of gloss on your lips, and you’re done.”

  Nida smacked her lips together and checked herself in the mirror. She looked nothing like her sister. Ascara was a beautiful Tialan—big, bright eyes; shiny scales; thin claws. Nida was… different. So different. Was she attractive or was she just a mess? She liked all the human qualities in Rowec, but that didn’t mean she had enough human in her for him to fall in love with. Not like gorgeous Etta.

  Ascara smiled. “What do you think?”

  “I look…”

  “More human? That’s what I was going for. I like it. I mean, it’s probably a good thing for Rowec. For what it’s worth, if he doesn’t like it, well, screw him. My opinion is the only one that matters.” Ascara grinned and yanked her from the chair. “We should hurry and get dressed. We need to check on Brynn.”

  Both of them slid into their dresses, admiring their sisters’ work.

  Ascara had taken the blue, jaw-dropping dress and ogled herself in the mirror. “I need my own human to impress. I look good.”

  “I thought you wanted one as a pet.”

  Ascara looked back at the mirror and twisted her hips to see herself better. “Pet. Play thing. Whatever. And you’re right, the lavender one is more your style.”

  Nida twisted her body in the mirror. It fit against her neatly, accentuated her curves. It was more her style.

  Ascara took her arm and pulled her out of their room, through the temple, and toward Brynn’s chambers.

  The bustle of all their other sisters echoed through the halls, each one eager to be ready and start the party. They all moved from room to room, giggled, twirled, begged for pins and laces. This festival was to celebrate Tialan beauty, hope in the new generation, and life.

  Life that might not come. Her heart squeezed in guilt.

  “Nida!”

  The shrieks from her youngest sisters came from behind. She stopped and greeted them.

  “Oh, Nida,” said Nymfan, a younger, amber-scaled sister. “You look so beautiful.”

  The other little girls beside her nodded and agreed.

  Nida smiled. “Thank you, sisters. I love the lace in your hair. It’s a very nice touch.”

  They giggled.

  “Will you read to us again? After the party?” Nymfan asked.

  “Sure. Absolutely.”

  The girls ran off, and Ascara pulled her into Brynn’s hall. Even the guards had dressed for the evening in full-length skirts and a little bit of make-up.

  “You two look great,” Nida told them at the door.

  They smiled and let her and Ascara pass.

  Inside, Brynn’s room was full chaos. Everything in her closet had been pulled out and strewn across her bed and floor. Every tin of jewelry had been opened and dumped.

  Drathella was perched on Brynn’s bed wearing what she always wore. Was she not attending the festival? That would definitely improve the night.

  “Ugh.” Drathella groaned and headed for the door. “That’s my cue to leave.”

  “I think you could go help clean some pots if you don’t want to go tonight,” Ascara snapped. “The kitchen really is a good fit for you!” But Drathella had already slinked out of the room.

  They carefully stepped around twisted jewels and wadded undergarments.

  “Brynn?” Ascara called out, edging her way around the colossal mess. “Nida and I wanted to check on you.”

  She made a face at Ascara, who shrugged and muttered quietly to her, “Really, we just want to see how crazy you are, you lying, scheming, slith—”

  “Girls!” Brynn burst from the bathroom half-dressed and holding a goblet. “I’m so happy you’re here. You can help me.”

  Nida caught the sloshing goblet from Brynn’s hand and set it on the bedside table. Ascara held their sister upright and evaluated the emerald dress she had managed to halfway put on.

  To make matters worse, Brynn’s eyes had thickly smudged gold liner. Her cheeks were smothered in red powder. Her nearly non-existent Tialan lips were painted bright red, only higher and thicker.

  “How much have you had to drink, Brynn?” Ascara waved her hand in front of her nostrils.

  “Just a little. I’m so nervous. I thought I was sweating, but that’s silly. So I started panting, and then I saw how unattractive that was—”

  “All right, all right. Just hold still.” Ascara stood her up straight while Nida adjusted the dress on her sister’s shoulders and laced up the back for her so it would sit in place. “We can’t have her going naked.”

  Nida smirked.

  “How does it look?” Brynn spun and put her hands on her hips.

  “Isn’t that the same dress you wore for your dinner with Rowec?” Ascara asked.

  Nida shook her head. “Ascara—”

  “It is.” Brynn smiled. “I did it on purpose.”

  “Why?” Ascara shook her head, palms out to the side.

  “Because the last time it didn’t go well, and I don’t want him to have any negative memories about me in this dress. I thought I’d make new memories with it tonight.” She waggled her thin eyebrows. “I look gorgeous. He’ll feel something for me tonight. I’m sure of it.”

  Ascara just nodded. Nida did, too.

  “Do you like how you look?” Nida asked. />
  Brynn shrugged. “It’s a little much, I admit. I was trying for a more human look, I guess.” Her eyes raked over Nida, as if seeing her standing there for the first time. “You look positively not-Tialan , Nida.”

  That was okay. She didn’t care what Brynn thought. All she wanted was one last evening with Rowec before she helped him escape.