"I'll talk a lot then," I corrected. "I'll talk about Kanth. Or other places I've been."
"What places? You mean Byako. I already know about Byako."
"No. I've been to other countries."
"What? I can't think of anything but forestland between the two places, and I'm not in the mood to let you along just to hear about Kanth."
"Well..."
We'd made it to the head of a spiraling staircase. It was at the edge of the upper complexes. I knew from here, it would be descending, leading into one of the exits towards the forest. So she must have been planning to leave the city altogether. Maybe into the jungle? Hadn't she said it was like a second home to her; all in the same breath she'd said it was dangerous...
She was still waiting for me to go on, one of her brows raised impatiently, looking as if she intended not to let me along no matter what my answer was. But that changed at my next words.
"I've been to Shaundakul," I admitted, trying to sound nonchalant.
Her expression, in an instant, switched completely. First to surprise, then softening over. So much so that I no longer worried that I wouldn't be let along.
#
"After?" Ellia repeated to me. "You went after?"
She stood on the beach, at the edge of the water; rolling waves, and grey clouds behind her. It turned out that she hadn't been headed to the jungle after all. There were a few nearby beaches, and this was one of the smallest. Crowded with boulders, and pressed up right to the edge of the forest, it was only a little ways down from the bay the Cirali Warriors jumped off into during training, but far enough into the uninhabited areas of the Isle that you couldn't hear the sounds of the city at all past the crash of the breaking surf.
I gave one long, sharp nod, my hands in my pockets. I stood farther back in the sand from the water then Ellia.
Her brow furrowed. "Well, it's the worst sort of thing that you went after, since you can't have gotten any sort of idea what it was truly like. But in a way, I'm glad, since I haven't... well I've wondered... were there bodies left there and everything? Oh, I can't imagine how horrible it looks."
I started shaking my head. "No. It doesn't. It was beautiful. There weren't bodies or anything from, if, there should have been. It was just empty."
"What do you mean it was empty? You mean, you actually went inside?"
I wasn't sure I'd seen Ellia in such earnest over something since I'd come to Yanartas. It reminded me so much of the way she was as a young girl, completely absorbed in what she felt most strongly for, that it was a strain to stay apart from her.
"The doors were open," I told her honestly. "I thought I might find some stragglers there when I entered. But there weren't. It was just abandoned."
"The doors were open?" She brought a hand up to her mouth. "Was it full of animals then?"
I winced, thinking back to the keep, lush with bats, the few packs of wildcats I'd been careful to avoid, the howling I'd warned Tosch about. "It was pretty dark in there, so..."
"Oh, there were, weren't there? I don't know how I'll ever—" She dropped her hands and started pacing. "In so many generations, such a thing has never been. I've been the worst sort of ruler, and I haven't even begun yet."
"That's not—"
"Cole," she said sharply, turning on me. "You mustn't think that that's the way Uldin Keep has always been." She frowned. "Were there even any tapestries left at least?"
I hesitated before speaking. "There were some chairs." Broken chairs but...
"Mirrors?" she asked. "Ornaments? Anything?"
I hesitated again, then went on lightly. "I could easily imagine how beautiful it must have been."
"Oh," she growled. "No, you couldn't. You couldn't at all. It's nothing like other places. You might think because I've told you that we're bonded to the Yanartians, that it's similar to the isle. But it isn't. Its decorations, they're utterly ornate, and everything's silver and stone."
"Not as cold," I added grudgingly.
"Yes, exactly, not as..." She paused to narrow on me. "How do you know whether it was cold or not? Don't you know it's the mountains? It's much colder there."
"Right," I said, agreeing with her, and hardly wanting to point out my slip-up, but then just before she turned, I couldn't help but go one, "But they have thicker walls there, don't they? I mean, stone, instead of this wood stuff. Like you said. And aren't there furnaces there? I thought I saw a bunch of them. I imagined when they were all lit, they would warm up the stone pretty well..."
Ellia was narrowed on me. But even I was sure that this was common enough sense; besides, I didn't like her behaving as if Shaundakul was colder. It wasn't. She always used to argue with me that it wasn't; just like she used to argue that the Yanartian's fires were magic.
"Plus the stone blocks from the wind better, doesn't it," I added for good measure—both to make my point and validate the basic reasoning of my statement.
"Oh, what do you know about it," Ellia scowled. "Didn't you say you like the cold? The best of my people hated it. And once I return there, the first thing I'll do is add in at least twice as many fires. Or maybe..., well, maybe not as the first thing, but as soon as it's reasonable."
"With as many fireplaces as I saw, I'm not sure it'll ever be reasonable," I scoffed. But then when Ellia turned after making a face at me, her words repeated back in my mind, and I actually thought them over. Were there a lot of people that had hated the cold? I couldn't remember them. Of course, I'd hated it, (I still hated it, despite what she thought of Cole, though I didn't care much about it either way with Ellia around). But that couldn't be what she meant... I swallowed.
"Do you really plan on going back there, princess?" I asked. "I mean, if you get your people back?"
"Is this your attempt at trying to get me to tell you when we're attacking again, Cole? I told you, I both don't know and can't say. Meaning even if I did know I couldn't say. And even if I could say, I don't know. Didn't I bring you here to talk about what you saw in Shaundakul anyways?"
I frowned. The next battle really was something she wouldn't talk about; but I believed her that she didn't know when it would be yet. I knew she had to go to Genbu, though she hadn't told Cole as much. I was almost sure that that trip would come first, and I wasn't in a hurry for it to come sooner, which meant her leaving.
As for speaking of Shaundakul, I'd already told her on our treck down to the beach, why I'd gone there. That I'd just left my homeland, that I'd heard news of Akadia attacking Uldin Keep, that it hadn't been far out of my way to go see for myself. None of this wasn't true—really. I'd only left out the bit about Lox being the one to send me, her having been waiting for me back in Akadia at the time, my homeland being Shaundakul, not Kanth, the Constellation animals... okay, I'd left out a lot of things. But I hadn't lied.
"Is there something else you want to ask about?" I offered, enjoying the opportunity to give her accurate information. I wished I'd told her back in Akadia, when I'd returned. I could have been specific about how much had remained intact; that the goblins and their smell and the smoke was all gone. That the dragons had been buried. It would have made her so happy.
Ellia cleared her throat before speaking. "Did you go up very high?"
She had her arms crossed, hers sleeves and hair both tousled by the ocean wind.
I nodded.
"Were all the towers intact?" she asked.
I half-smiled. "I doubt any sort of attack by Akadia could have dismantled the towers. They're sturdy, aren't they? As far as I saw, they still stand."
She stood unresponsive for a moment, but then something lit in her eyes. Her lips didn't quite pull to a smile, but the stress around them eased. She turned, and started pacing again, but this time, there was a lilt to her walk, that said her musings were light instead of dark. I was reminded, instantly of seeing her demeanor shift for Minstrel on the high platform, and then of all the things I'd thought during the fight. About the happiness, though she hadn't smi
led when I'd quit fighting, could I have just made her happy by reassuring her about Uldin Keep?
"Princess?" I said, drawing her attention over, with the slightest smile still trying to show through. I swallowed, and spoke clear. "I know I haven't been a lot of places, so you might not think much of what I have to say. But I've heard of the golden palace in Akadia, and their sparkling walls. I've heard of the bright deserts of Selket. The green fields of Democedes. Even the fire city of Echren. And you know for yourself that I've been to Byako. Their temples are very beautiful." I swallowed again and gave my head a little jilt. "But I don't think any of those places could compare to what I saw of Uldin Keep... I think it must be the most beautiful place that's ever existed."
Ellia let out a shallow breath. And for a moment, I thought I'd failed, because she looked more pained than pleased. But then her face broke to a smile, and her eyes lit so bright I thought I might be blinded. "Really, do you think that, Cole?" she asked.
I nodded resolutely.
Her smile widened, and she started to match my nod, expression excited. "Well, so it has been said, for many generations. So I was raised believing. The dragons, you might not have seen them, but they are beautiful also." Something sparked in her expression; her smile turned to a smirk, and she dipped her head towards me. "Shall I tell you something else?"
I nodded, moving closer when she waved for me to, and grinning wider than her, though she couldn't have known it.
She spoke in whisper. "Shaundakul is actually considered one of the higher kingdoms. Did you know. So as the princess of Shaundakul, I would be..." She broke off abruptly, then wormed her lips together. After a moment's pause, she stuck both her hands out, two fingers raised on each. Then she made a sort of ladder with them. Starting with one hand at the bottom, then putting her second over it, then the first again, and so on, until her hand was up above our heads. "That's me," she said, in a sneaky whisper.
Her eyes lit as brightly as ever, as she did, my grin grew as wide as ever, and there was only one thing that I wanted to do. But instead, I gave a low bow, then spoke with amusement. "Well, that explains it. Who would have known this whole time I've been following around the princess of all princesses."
"Don't joke," she laughed, "It's true."
"Why would I joke? If I offend, couldn't you," I moved a finger across my neck, mocking a beheading.
"I could," she enthused, reaching to move my hand away, but I stepped back first.
She scowled, but still smiling reached for me again. I ducked away again, and this time slipped under her arm and came up behind her.
I tapped her shoulder and she laughed. She reached for me again, this time I wasn't sure what for, but I still walked back, now with her chasing, until I hit the water—which I thought was fine at first, albeit cold—then very suddenly a wave came up behind me, and knocked me clear off my feet backwards. Soaking me head to foot. Swallowing sea-water.
I came up out of the water, which was barely even knee deep, to see Ellia laughing, full-out. Still on her own feet. Her hands covering her mouth, bent over, laughing.
It sounded like music to me. And in a way it sort of was. Even if it meant getting toppled by a wave, or quitting a fight that I would have won, making Ellia happy was like a song I could play just like Minstrel played his lyre. And, if that was true, I was sure it was going to become my favorite sort to sing.
Chapter Thirteen
CYRIC:
Minstrel was one smart gnome.
Because he'd thought of making Ellia happy? A little.
Because he'd written hundreds of songs, or because he knew at least one thing about every kingdom? Sure, maybe.
Because he could rhyme with any sentence? No.
Minstrel was really smart because he'd said that he thought I had a natural skill for making Ellia happy. And so I did.
I'd started small. First with things like complimenting her, or Shaundakul, or Yanartians, or Luffie. None of these things ever really surprised her, or even affected her each on their own. But I'd learned... a full day, piling them on consecutively could make a big difference. I'll just state, for the record, that it's hard telling when Ellia might get sad, or angry, be alright, or suddenly depressed; there was no predicting it. But when she did show up frowning, it usually didn't take more than an hour of compliments, before I'd at switched it to a smile. It was almost as if she was always sad, but if provoked, easily distracted from it.
Having had success with this, I ramped up my tactics. Her cabin, it was made of wood, but one could have just as easily called it wicker; that's how thin the slats were. True, in the winter, they had extra layers of the wood, to keep the cold out, but they created this whistling noise, and still let in a little wind. So I got together some tarps, the best I could find for the cheapest (Silos hadn't given me that much money) and much in the style of the tapestries in Uldin Keep, or even Silos's tents, I'd pinned them to the outsides of her walls.
I'd put the same sort of mind to helping her train. Most everything was organized, but there were some things she didn't like doing, or else Luffie thought they were boring, so I worked to trade her tasks with other Warriors, switching out ones that she and Luffie didn't like for ones they did. It wasn't long before she started expecting that I would do this, and she would chide me if I got it wrong; which I never minded, because I learned before long that she enjoyed it.
The first time I'd caught a real break, was during training. One evening, when we'd just finished up and the sun was near setting. I was just about to leave because—though I'd become an expert in disguising my night-blindness, even so much so that Ellia would be hard-pressed to guess—I still tended to avoid walking about the complex at night with her, unless it was necessary.
Then I'd seen her fingering a flail, spikes and all; testing it with a swing.
"Are you thinking of trying it for the next battle?" I asked, a little humored.
There were a few Yanartians around us, still training or cleaning up. Ellia looked up from the flail like she'd been caught at something, then smiled. "Oh, no. Well, maybe. I'm..." Her head tipped. "Have you been told about Cirali Weapons yet?" she asked.
"You mean the sap and everything? Yes, you told me yourself. I haven't forgotten."
"No, not that," she said, hiding a smile—no doubt because the first time she'd touched me had been just after that conversation. "Cirali weapons as they pertain to Warriors," she went on, "You must have seen how Cirali Warriors all fight with different weapons?"
Sure, I'd noticed. It had been quite a trial as an Akadian, not knowing whether a chimera-mounted soldier might next pull out a crossbow, sling, axe, or simple sword.
"Yes," I answered, "I thought they were just fighting with what they preferred."
"Well, they are," she admitted. "I mean, in a roundabout way. Really, it's more than that though. Each Warrior, while they train, by the time they take their trials and bond to a chimera, they're meant to find the weapon that's particular to them. Not just what they like to fight with, but if they're a true Warrior, it should be something that they connect with. That they're best with. Something they wouldn't be able to be beaten at."
"Ah. Like Lucian with his crossbow," I followed. So that was why he was better than me at it. Magic-power, didn't really count. I liked that.
"Yes," she confirmed. "It's meant to be that, so long as you were fighting with your Cirali Weapons, even if you were fighting another Warrior, that you would win. So if Lucian and Gael had a battle of crossbows, Lucian would win. But if they had a battle of maces, then Gael would win."
And if Gael and Cyric had a battle of swords, Cyric would win.
"Alright. I get it. That's really interesting. So yours is a sword then?" I followed.
Ellia frowned immediately, brows dipping, and her lips pressing together.
"Or a flail?" I guessed, less confidently, as she set the weapons down.
Ellia shook her head. "No. Estrid, and I, when we came to Yanartas... as
you guessed before, I was trained very quickly. Most Warriors, being Yanartians, have a whole lifetime to practice and discover what their Cirali Weapon might be. Estrid and I didn't. I ended up going to my first battle with just a sword. When Estrid bonded to Tris and become a Warrior, she didn't know what hers was either, but she kept at it, and finally settled on the claymore." Ellia smiled a little. "As much as we doubted her... I think she might have forced it to work by sheer strength of will, just to prove Lucian wrong."
I didn't have anything to add to this. Other than to think in my own mind, from what I'd seen of Lucian and Estrid, that Ellia was very likely right. But I wouldn't say that out loud.
"But as for me, maybe it would have been better if I had someone to prove wrong as well, because I still haven't found mine. It's not a sword. I received the Byakoan sword from the White Tigers, and I use it to fight in their honor, but it's not my Cirali Weapon. I'm not the best at it." She rolled her eyes. "I don't nearly compare those that do have a sword as their weapons. Alec Scarn, for instance, the second-ranked of the first-order Warriors? His Cirali Weapons is a sword. You should see him. He's amazing."
"You're amazing," I argued. "I've seen you. He couldn't be as good."
"Oh, Cole, be reasonable," she said. "You could beat me at swordplay. It's meant to be more than that. I would be able to beat you."
"Maybe all of them are your Cirali Weapons. You're the Princess of Shaundakul, aren't you? Just one isn't good enough."
She laughed. But it wasn't very deep, and it didn't last long. She fingered the flail again, still resting as it was, inside a barrel. "Anyways, that's why I was testing this. I've gone through them all, but sometimes I think if I keep trying at different times, I might find one that fits me."
"I don't think a flail," I said automatically
It made her laugh again, but this time scoffing—as if she found it funny that I thought I could predict just by sight. My brows went high. Now this, combined with the fact that it was obviously making her unhappy that she hadn't found her Cirali Weapon, made the challenge a must. I would find her Cirali Weapon. And it wouldn't take me long either.
Fallen Warrior (Fallen Trilogy book 3) Page 25