Fallen Warrior (Fallen Trilogy book 3)

by Williams, Tess

  "I still want it. I wish we could leave now."

  Gael dropped his brow low. Low and doubtful, and maybe a little sympathetic. Then I saw a flash of black out of the corner of my vision, and my head turned to it immediately. Cole had just walked onto the platform, but his attention was absorbed on the many activities running about it. The chimera. The fully armored Warriors, practicing their wide varieties of Cirali weapons. It landed on me eventually, and I saw him look between Gael and I, and then he ambled over to the railing close by him, hands in his pockets, leaning back against the fence and looking my way only periodically.

  "There's nothing wrong about being happier, Ellia," Gael said, having looked to watch Cole's whole display with me, but now I turned a glare on him.

  "I'm not happier!" I argued. "You've got everything wrong. And I will go to Genbu. I've been speaking with Lucian and Estrid about it all the time. Neither of them want to go, I can tell, so you and Yurei had better be ready like you offered; I'm going to go as soon as it's warm enough."

  "Ellia..."

  "Were you really offering, or not?"

  "Of course I was."

  "Then, good. I'll tell Lucian, and you'll have to make sure your duties are covered. It'll be a long trip; it might take a week at least."

  Gael was frowning. I felt like matching it; it was absurd after all, me telling a second-ranked Warrior what he'd have to make sure of.

  "Alright, Ellia," he said. "I already told you I'd be happy to."

  I really couldn't bear to look at him any longer, knowing what he was thinking of, so I turned away to face the railing.

  "I didn't mean to hurt you," he said. "I don't think you've forgotten... I mean, I know you haven't."

  I swallowed thick, then gripped my jaw. I could sense him there for another few seconds longer, then he finally left. The sounds of training continued behind me, while the city wind whipped up on these higher levels. I must have stood there another minute, staring, and then I looked down the rail.

  Cole was already watching me. And I'd never been more angry with him.

  CYRIC:

  It seemed like it would have been enough to have to handle, climbing up to the top of the complex by myself. It wasn't as if it were a short walk, or abandoned or anything. There were Warriors everywhere, chimera everywhere, bridges, pavilions, and views of the ocean—all the things that Ellia had gone on and on about when we young. And yes, certainly I preferred my Kanthian robes to going natural, but that didn't make it easy walking around in head to foot black, for the attention it got me. I was positive that not a single person I passed wasn't thinking that I shouldn't be where I was—and what was I meant to tell them? that the princess had said I should come. That would be hardest of all to believe. And yet she had, and that was why I was there, walking onto the crowded platform, chimera flying overhead, and waves crashing off the side. And that had been fine, and even seeing Ellia talking with the same Warrior that had come to rescue her from Akadia had been fine—even when they'd been having an obviously personal conversation, even when she'd seen me and not called me over. I'd handled it well; I'd given them their space. Who ever said Cyric was possessive of things that weren't his? He wasn't. I wasn't.

  But now... now it really was too much, and I couldn't explain it one bit. She hadn't stopped criticizing me, truly hardly a pause in it, since we'd started training. We were teaching some kids, which, at least I was a little grateful for, because I thought that anyone else would have started to think I'd done something terrible to her.

  It might be assumed that I ducked under the pressure, but I didn't. Unfortunately this didn't seem to help. When I gathered up all the weapons for her to give to the kids, she huffed and said I might have spent my time pulling the targets out instead. And then (most of the kids were initially afraid of me, but...) one of the smallest trainees had been having trouble bearing the weight of their wooden sword, so I'd switched it out for a lighter version, then together we'd successfully skewered his target.

  I looked up smiling only to find that Ellia was scowling at me—glaring even, as if she might pull her own sword out and tackle me there on the platform.

  I was thinking of leaving as soon as our training ended, and I doubted Ellia would argue with me, but we had a visitor before I could. He stood about three feet high, maybe less, shorter than a goblin. He had cropped yellow hair, and a tiny face, and from the lyre fitted across his back, I suspected him of being Minstrel, Minstrel of the Isle of Yanartas even before Ellia had greeted him.

  "Yes, Minstrel. Are you here to ask if I will go to lunch? I will. I just finished."

  Minstrel pressed his lips, in response. "Ah. I can see that my calls are now always expected." He paused to laugh. "But be sure, it's not a treat I plan to relinquish."

  Ellia nodded. "That's very good. I'd thought I had you."

  "This is something I've heard from your lips to be true," he replied, slowly. And I was starting to suspect something odd, when he tipped his head to me, "But now isn't this someone to meet here in view?"

  Ellia narrowed, scrunching her features as if she were attempting to resist something, then she looked from Minstrel to me. "Minstrel, this is Cole. Cole this is Minstrel. He's my dearest friend."

  I frowned. Not that I hadn't heard the bit about Minstrel being her dearest friend before, but I couldn't help but notice a scathing tone in the way she'd said my name.

  Minstrel faced me directly and cocked his head. "Here is Cole then. I am pleased to meet you. To say I haven't heard of him, I will not pretend."

  I narrowed, half because I realized he was rhyming, half because of his final words. And they made me glance at Ellia, who gave Minstrel a nudge. "Let's not exaggerate. Don't I tell you about everyone?

  "I do," she added for me.

  Minstrel, Minstrel had taken my hand while I watched her and now he was wagging it up and down with great enthusiasm. Ellia looked that way while I raised one brow at him. Then I heard her scowl and march off. "Tis true, my lady, 'tis true," he called after her.

  It looked as if she'd gone to put away more weapons, but I resisted the urge to go help her, turning my attention back to Minstrel and our bobbing hands instead.

  "Ah, but I have been waiting to see you for myself," he said, releasing me. Then he stood back. He inched his eyes tight, and framed his hands around me. "Let's see," he sang, his voice high-pitched. "You're tall for a deep-wood's Kanthian, but your skin is much paler than they're normal tribes. I suspect you must be... from their eastern borders?"

  I swallowed. "You know about Kanth?" I asked.

  Minstrel laughed. "Well, I've never been there myself, but I have heard a song or two. It's my business to know such lore. So was I right? Was it an eastern tribe then?"

  I looked up, glancing also at Ellia, and then trying to recall what I remembered from Silos's explanations of Kanth. "Yes. That's it," I replied, preferring to please Ellia's dearest friend.

  "Ha! Then it's likely you have the blood of Shaundakul, in you, isn't it? Have you told the princess? she likes that sort of thing."

  My gaze shot to him—so fast that I knew he'd taken notice at my surprise, even before his head cocked.

  "Or do I have it wrong? I thought I recalled some tale I'd heard in Karatel, that said when Shaundakul was younger, before their great Keep was built, their tribes mingled with those of Kanth, and the same for Kanth's northern borders, with the tribes of the west. Carba and Zuta, I think. Not Birmha, that's too far off," he scoffed. Then he turned his attention fully back to me. "But do I have it off?" He looked over my hand again, even tipping his head in the study. "It's rather too pale not to have some Shaundakulian I think."

  "I'm not," I said quickly.

  Minstrel frowned; he turned his gaze up to me. "Not from the east?" he asked.

  "Not..." I glanced back at Ellia, feeling a deep knot in my throat if she heard this, then I looked back at Minstrel and working on the assumption of who he might be as Ellia's dearest friend, I
spoke on, "I wouldn't want the princess thinking I had Shaundakul blood in me, even if it was from long ago. Wouldn't it disconcert her?"

  Minstrel thought this over, looking me up and down, then his face broke with a smile. "Well, this is a finer measure of my friend, the princess, as I've ever heard. Do you know that of everyone here I have known her the longest? This is hard not to flaunt, for I can tell that they are jealous when I understand her moods, and ever better how to console her. But here you've shown yourself a master to rival me."

  "I wouldn't call myself that," I argued, half to deter him from discovering the truth, half because it was so true. I couldn't even understand Ellia well enough to tell why she seemed angry with Cole. "But what do you mean about consoling her?" I asked, giving Minstrel my full attention.

  "Mmm, do I perceive an interest in it?" he asked.

  I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether I should admit to that. Then I nodded out of desperation. Minstrel gave me a wave to come closer.

  "As I've said, these secrets I don't usually share, so you might do well to think on why I do, but let me state the rest plainly, for from what I hear, that is the way which Kanthians conduct themselves. You see the lady?" he asked.

  His small yellow head tipped towards Ellia. She was still sorting through weapons, exasperated.

  "You mean Ellia?" I checked to be sure.

  "As she stands," he replied.

  I gave him a nod.

  "Her people, they are of a thinking sort. Ponderers of the future, and the present, and the past. The princess is most for pondering the latter; or guilty of pondering it, perhaps would be the better term, as it brings her grief much more often than joy. If some should try to change that, they would fail; it can't be done. Neither can you shift her mind about what she has determined to do. What's she had purposed for herself, it will be done—even if it greatly strains her."

  I frowned, wondering if this was really as "simply" as Minstrel could speak.

  "But there is one healing force which she remains susceptible to. For she is of brave heart, and tender virtue, and sweet smile." I eyed the small gnome, all of these being so recognizably true that I was in earnest to hear what he'd say next.

  "You witnessed our beginning exchange?" he asked, seeming to start from a different direction.

  I thought about it. "With the rhyming?" I followed.

  "Yes. The rhymes. That was my idea. All intended for one purpose." He tapped his lips with his finger, and then lifted them into a toothy grin.

  "To make her... smile?" I asked.

  Minstrel shook his head. "No, no. Much more... To make her happy."

  I narrowed, blinking. "Make her happy?" I repeated, my tone skeptical, or at least, bemused.

  Minstrel bobbed his head, bringing me closer to him with the hand I'd only then realized he'd place on my shoulder. "It is the same healing force of which I spoke. Craftier than logic, or any sorts of arguing with all of her pondering. More effective than distraction or persuasion. It is simple. It is accomplishable."

  I frowned, looking back up at Ellia only to catch her glaring at Minstrel and I.

  "So I have to rhyme?" I asked, desperation striking me once again. I'd never had skill for rhyming; not in the least.

  Minstrel laughed, patting my back, then stepping off from me. "I see you already have a natural talent; don't sway far from trusting that. Just keep in mind what I have told you. For now watch on as I show you my example. You won't take the tactic for granted when you see the shift in her demeanor."

  I thought he meant to leave, but first he took my hand and wagged it up and down, gaze still on Ellia, then he headed off straight towards her. I was still hunched down towards the platform, my fingers resting on its wood. Ellia was waiting for Minstrel as he sauntered up, as if she'd been watching to see when he'd leave me all the time.

  He greeted her in some way or another, then she crossed her arms and replied.

  His head tipped.

  She shifted her gaze, first to me, then to the trees, and then she was scowling.

  That was when Minstrel's lyre came out. He swung it deftly over his head, and then he plucked some strings; I could hear his voice only a little over the rush of the platform.

  Ellia's scowl only grew deeper.

  I wondered if he was proving much of anything.

  But then, very suddenly I saw the shift. It was her lip first, quivering at one corner. Then something relaxed around her eyes; they lost their tension and their narrow, and the color of them showed brighter—which I wouldn't have considered possible seconds ago, but it did. Her arms uncrossed after another minute. And her smile, it crept up so slow, I doubted she even noticed, until there she was grinning outright, and stretching her hand out and conversing with Minstrel, pointing about, and so on.

  I stood up tall, and even though it was hard not to smile seeing her like that, I was narrowing more than anything. Maybe Minstrel, Minstrel of the Isle of Yanartas could have this affect, but I didn't understand how I'd accomplish it at all. I didn't know how to play the lyre at least—which looked as if it worked the best.

  I was about to leave, so she could have her happy lunch with Minstrel, when a chimera dropped down beside me, one I recognized, Luffie, but closely following her were two others. These bearing riders, Lucian and Estrid. Luffie let out a call and nudged her head to my hand, and Ellia's gaze snapped in my direction.

  Estrid Larke lifted her chin. "Are you that same Kanthian from before?" she asked. "Luffie, why are greeting him like that?"

  Luffie flicked her tail haughtily, keeping her head close, as if to make it clear, she wouldn't be questioned.

  Meanwhile, Lucian Denathar's brow had gone so dark frowning at me, that I didn't even have the capacity to duck back in fear from Luffie.

  "Cole, wasn't it?" he asked, dismounting. Estrid was doing the same.

  I nodded.

  "You are the one," Estrid remarked. "—Not speaking when you might as well. I suppose you've gotten the drop on all of us now, though, wearing all those robes. You must be perfectly warm."

  "Are you here with Ellia?" Lucian asked curiously.

  I glanced that way. She was approaching (Ellia was) in a fashion more resembling stomps than anything else, with Minstrel trailing behind her.

  "I... was just training," I stuttered out.

  Lucian narrowed a little. And despite Estrid's joking, she matched it as she came to stand beside him. Luffie moved then, at the arrival of her owner, to stand beside Ellia.

  It was obvious that Estrid and Lucian attempted immediately to cheer up their expressions.

  "Is Cole here to train with you, Ellia?" Lucian asked carefully.

  "You mean train as a Warrior?" Estrid echoed with surprise.

  I brought my hands up, palm-flat.

  "No, of course not," Ellia answered for me. "Who else besides you tries to sneak their way into the Cirali? It's Yanartians only."

  "And royalty," Minstrel pointed out.

  "Excuse me if I've been the only one clever enough to realize how simple it would be," Estrid remarked.

  "How's that?" asked Lucian.

  She smiled wide. "Befriend the head trainer of course."

  Lucian gave a self-deprecating snort, while Estrid went on. "Though I suppose befriending a princess would work just as well..."

  "Oh, Estrid, really," Ellia chided.

  "Is that it? He's your friend?" Lucian wanted to know.

  "No," Ellia argued, "he's—" She looked at me then, and I knew she couldn't see my expression, but I wished it didn't seem so obvious that she thought her denial had hurt me. "I mean, yes," she corrected, "He is. Well, sort of. He's just been helping me to train."

  "Since the winter festival?" Lucian asked.

  Ellia stretched her hands out as if to ask what difference it made in either case.

  "Well," Estrid said, breaking the silence that had fallen, "I don't see why it's an issue at all. Aren't there hundreds of trainers about? You must be
very good to have won Ellia's notice," she told me politely.

  "Right," Lucian agreed, at obvious prodding from Estrid. "If you're assisting Ellia you're certainly welcome. We're glad to have you here, Cole."

  I bowed my head, in quick acknowledgement.

  Ellia had returned to crossing her arms, and now her lips were pursed as if she weren't sure whether to argue with them—or if she attempted to, how she would go about it.

  Lucian's tone turned to an official one again. "Ellia, we stopped off on our way to the summit to tell you that Nain is flying in with Lyrie. Estrid and I should be back before nightfall, but will you greet him for us?"

  "Nain's here already?" Ellia replied, practically leaping, her arms coming loose and her scowl disappearing.

  Lucian shook his head quick. "No, not yet, but soon."

  Ellia's demeanor fell noticeably.

  "That was a fine way of putting it," Estrid snapped at him.

  Lucian winced.

  "Oh, but Ellia, you'll keep busy," Estrid added, "because I wanted to ask if you'd take my place teaching with the diving. Since I'll be gone and... Tris can't bear the tension of it anyways."

  "When?" Ellia replied automatically; nodding.

  "Just past noon."

  "Alright." Luffie lifted her chin up and Ellia's lips pressed to a small sort of smile. "Luffie will be pleased about it at least."

  "We really will be back by nightfall," Lucian assured. "And... well, we'll talk after dinner."

  Ellia nodded, as if she already understood the meaning of this.

  After that they were off. And I didn't have much time to process how quickly all of it had happened before Minstrel invited me to join Ellia and himself for lunch. It didn't look like she appreciated this, but I wasn't very skilled at resisting opportunities to be near her.

  The dining pavilion where the Cirali Warrior's ate was open to the air and crowded, but thankfully framed in torches which kept back the cold. Ellia really had been right about Yanartas being better on the ground this time of year. It was ridiculously cold this high up. Ellia kept running her hands over her arms between bites of food, which I automatically took notice of. But then she caught me and that was the end of that.