I glanced up. He was close. His eyes were there, grey and reassuring.
"I know it's alright," he told me. Then he reached over and grabbed the hanging glove from my teeth. At the same time, I looked down, then ducked my fingers into the pouch of stones.
They weren't actually, shards as I'd thought they'd seemed in the sacred halls. But they weren't better described as anything else either. That was their shape, how they looked, but how they felt—not just like light, and energy, and life—there was a density to them, and a smoothness to the way they rolled across your skin; like marbles all in a bunch, only thin and somehow sharp, without being sharp at all. And heavy, though it seemed they'd float if you tossed one upwards.
It was, without thinking, that I pulled my hand with a start from the pouch, took Cole's hand beside me, nipped it with my teeth to take the glove off, then shoved it straight into the shards.
My cheeks grew too instantly red to look at him. I looked at Luffie, who was patiently watching on—and sincere, rather than teasing, in thoughts—then I finally looked up at Cole. By now, I'd felt him switch his fingers in the bag. I expected, like it had been for me, he couldn't help it. It was like touching movement, and so you couldn't keep still.
I grew a grin, at his dazed eyes, staring down—then his gaze switched to me, and he started laughing, instantly, and full and long. I didn't realize the reason, until I opened my mouth to speak, then Cole's glove fell from to the snow, and I realized it must have been there while I was smiling at him—and how silly that must have looked. Now that I really considered it, I could taste leather in my mouth.
"Isn't it amazing?" I put to him, pretending that my blunder hadn't occurred. What a way for a princess to be in the midst of such seriousness.
"I don't think I feel so much from it as you do," Cole answered. Not laughing now. Looking back at the glowing shards. "But it's rather extraordinary, yes."
"No, I think you must feel it all."
He was shaking his head. "I watched the way you went up to them, when we were in the mountain. You were drawn to them, even from a distance."
I thought in my mind, as soon as he said this, whether if for how long he'd had these shards! But then I remembered he'd said he'd had them only since the rulers meeting last night. So it was no explanation at all.
"It's because you're the princess, Tongon said," Cole went on. "He said they responded to you, even to your powers. He knew about them; he said it's something in your blood."
I remembered making my hands disappear before this, yesterday. That had all been by Cole's convincing. I'd not used to since. I'd not thought much of it, as I'd said I would. "It's probably to do with my being from Shaundakul as well," I added. "Maybe even another of my people would react." Watching Cole's hand buried inside, too scarred to tell that they were strongly veined as I could when I held it, I wanted him to move it out, so I could have a turn again.
"There's that too," Cole replied, his tone both empty and grim in a way that made no sense. I remembered his comment to begin with; on how I'd known something first, and how it also hadn't made sense. Now I thought my mind was getting foggy, and shook my head clear, pulling my eyes off of Cole's hand.
"What's it for then?" I asked. "I mean..." I glanced at Luffie, then back. "It was a gift of my people? The Azure dragons?... But you said before it was meant for Luffie. I don't understand. I hope I'm not meant to know, because I don't." Was that what he'd meant?
Cole's expression cleared as mine had, and I felt the bag shift. I looked down just in time to see his fingers leaving it. It was strange, but the shards clung to him like dripping water, slowing slipping off—only they caught as well, attaching to his skin, then snapping off, and rolling back to the others. I felt kindred to them; thinking this was exactly how I'd reacted with Cole's skin, as when we'd danced. Scars weren't rough at all. They were softer than other things, like a smooth surface, but then with pricks of places that clung on like static. It had been the same when he'd put his hand on my cheek to kiss me. It hadn't been the same with his lips, because they hadn't been scarred, for the most part.
"No, you're not meant to just know," Cole answered, now having shaken off the remaining sparks of light. "Though I suppose..." He laughed a little and I looked up at him. I was trying too hard to concentrate now, to dip my hand back into the pouch. "Never mind," he dismissed. "There's not much to it anyways. Just give it to Luffie. Just one of them. I imagine she'll know what to do. Or if not... well, just try holding it out to her. Do you recognize them, at all, Luffie?"
It was fromm Luffie's visions that I realized he was actually addressing her with this question. I thought it was the first time someone had spoken to her like that. Besides, perhaps, Lucian—but his were always critiques on her form; not questions, as if he expected an answer. Even Gael didn't do that, though he had better reason to. Did Cole think he could get a response?
But Luffie did respond. She responded to me, saying tentatively that she did not recognize them; and then, much less tentatively that she thought she would like to eat one.
"What?" I retorted aloud, drawing a quick glare from her. Then I went on laughing as she quickly switched back to the shards, her appetite increasing. "She says they look tasty to her," I translated for Cole.
If I'd thought he would be surprised by this, I was wrong. He laughed, but only a little, then said. "Well, why not? I think they look as if they might be good to try."
I scoffed mournfully, then added without considering, "I think they look like stars."
Luffie, seeming to find this prospect no less appealing, licked her lips.
Whilst Cole, went silent, watching me. Then announced, as if it were a profound observation. "I don't think it'd be half-bad to try a star."
I smirked. "Yes, that's what Luffie here is telling me. You're both mad, I think. It'll give you, at the least, a stomach ache."
"At worst, a wrenching sort of heart ache."
"Yes, a wrenching sort of—" I paused my repetition, looking up at him, but he only spoke on, pointing to her.
"Still, she's got it right. She's meant to eat it. Just give her one, I think, and let's get along, before I come out and tell you early. I'm dying— keeping it from you this long."
"Oh, so, we're all to pity Cole who knows too much now."
"Pity Cole for lying not for knowing. Now come along. Give her one. Let's see it. We might freeze as well, as it's getting dark." He tipped his head towards Luffie with the licking lips, who was pestering me just as much to listen to him.
I frowned at his quick instructions, happy at least, to put my hand back into the bag to retrieve a single shard. "It's not getting that dark," I pointed out to him.
His hands were in his pockets now; I absently noticed he glanced up and around, as if he really hadn't known we were far from night. Sure, the sun was gone, but the clear horizon, and even the clouds were vivid dusk, blue, and then silver. Wasn't it true, with snow anyways, that just starlight, reflected off was enough to see by?
My single shard came out, stuck to the tip of my finger, like a glowing pricker. I tugged, with my other hand, the pouch closed, then slid it back to my belt. I cupped my hand under my finger, just under the light, so there was no chance it would fall. It still had its own energy, seeming to guide my hand on with its own force.
"Is that really how you see a star?" Cole asked.
I thought it was strange to ask, in the circumstance—Luffie's eyes bright with the light, and her thoughts full of eating it and all, but then I supposed he wasn't seeing this; only me, moving my sparkling finger forward very slowly in the falling, freezing snow.
Was it that I had star-insecurity now, that I didn't want to answer. There was a time when I'd had to explain the stars' appearance to Cyric, so I'd grown rather sensitive about it, before now.
I lifted a shoulder up to shrug, which with my layers, I wasn't even sure he would have noticed. Then Luffie opened her mouth. Then the moment I'd turned my finger round
, she licked her tongue up, catching it before it was mid-air.
Instantly, I felt Cole's strong hands at the sides of my arms. He pushed them tight against me, then jerked me back, towards him—where we'd been by the rock, except now he moved me side-ways, so that I was not out in front of Luffie. She, on the other hand, had gone distant from me, not just in physical matters, as she'd pawed two steps down the slope, but also in her mind. It was gone, and any sense I did get of it, was too bright to view.
I stretched out my arm to reach for her, as her jaw dropped tightly closed, but Cole held me back. He moved my arm against my body, then his voice was at my ear. "Just watch, Ellia. You've seen this before."
After the meeting, when I'd walked out to Cole, and he'd seemed like a prince, I'd sought his comfort, since he knew so much of Cyric—enough to tell how glad I was to hear he'd saved the Lieutenants. He was my friend. He knew me, and even better he knew Cyric. So I'd hugged him, and then he'd put his arms around me—a strange sort of way to hug someone, almost like a brace, for he'd wrapped his hands over my shoulders, his forearms were vertical, his elbows pointed downwards—all the strength of him there in the way he held.
This was the same way as that, only I was turned around. My back was to him; his arms were vertical, in front of me, one with my hand. The other wrapped full over my shoulder from the front.
Luffie took off into the air in such a mighty flush of her wings, that I had to close my eyes, and turn my head to keep the wind from whipping me. Cole's hold got tighter. Then I looked up to see her rising first, above the branches, then through them, bursting with speed. I tried to reach for her in my mind, but it was still just piercing light. Like that energy, perhaps that the shards themselves emitted.
She whipped backwards, then forwards, then backwards, then forwards. I wanted to tell Cole that I was afraid, then I heard him shout. I couldn't tell what it was, but he shouted it to Luffie, and it was the first thing to draw her attention, draw her gaze even, for her eyes were bright to see. She looked right at him. He dropped his hand back from where he'd lifted it to his mouth to help to shout to her. He put it back bracing me. Then Luffie was coming to a swoop out in front of us, then she was slowing down, then she was hovering still, then opened her mouth, aiming at a tree with her wings flushed full and slow.
The night really hadn't gotten dark, but what came next made it seem so. The mountain, with its snowfall, had a whisping sound about it, but that disappeared into coiling silence all at once. It started as a pinprick of light, like one of the shards, suspended at the center of space between her jaws. Then it built, in a swirling mix of blue mist, turquoise ice, and vivid white sparks, into a globe as large as her mouth could fit. At its peak its crackling sound was deafening, and then her head jerked back and it shot out from her—then sparked through the air, straight towards the tree. Cole pulled us further back, just before it struck, then it traveled, from the center, to the top, to the bottom of the tree, in static light, and the place where it had struck, broke to pieces—cutting a hole that broke the wood, that sent it tipping sideways, to the ground, where it crashed into another first, before finally falling into the snow, shooting up a burst of powder.
I was short of breath. So was Cole. Luffie's thoughts were back to mine in sublimely full force. She was fully ecstatic, and that was all. The images in her mind, were crowded, almost entirely with vision of Yurei's fire-breathing, and then flashes of the lightning she'd just released. An image of Yurei striking a crowd of Akadians. An image of Luffie striking that bolt of lightning into a midst of Akadians, the electricity sparking through their armor, as it had the trees. Yurei aimed at a field; Luffie aiming at a field, and turning the grass instead of burning to black char.
The tree was actually sputtering now, with fire, but after seconds, it fell to smoking for the snow—but certainly the lightning could have started the woods off on fire—more fiercely that even fire-breath could. Even a dragon's fire-breath, long and streaming, and hotter than a chimera's by far.
Most chimeras at least, but not Luffie, like this, as she was.
With the whole of the event, not seconds past us, I heard a collection of claps and cheers I couldn't define at first; until I looked up the slope, past the tree across over, to see a group of the Genbuan outpost-men and women standing there. They were too far to do anything but wave at, but I was too frozen in place to. Luffie, though, for herself, flew off towards them, then to my great shock, she rose up above the trees, and shot another of the lightning bolts into the clouds.
It disappeared there, then the sky responded with a rumbling, and light, blue chains of it, flashed within. She went on with this, sparking lights across the sky. I gasped, for the shock of telling that she could do this over and over. I could feel her power like it was mine. It didn't end; it was like life inside of her.
I gripped my fists tight, for the sensation of it, and then I went rather fully weak. It was good that Cole had braced me, because I slipped full loose from my own feet, like falling water, but he caught me at the arms, then turned me round, then tried to lift my face to him.
"Ellia?" he voiced excitedly.
"She's so powerful, Cole," I replied.
One hand was to my back, around it, then gripped over my torso, holding me up like that. The other was holding up at my arm. "That's because of the shards. Can't you see? They're the golden dragons, Ellia. They can all be that powerful. We can defeat Akadia."
"It's so bright; I can feel it inside of me. I knew that the chimera were always tied to Shaundakul. I told him, that, Cole. I told him that."
"I know you did, Ellia. You were always right."
"No, you don't know what I mean."
My strength still wasn't my own. I could feel and hear Luffie shooting off sparks behind me, with the Genbuans cheering. And I could see it too, within my own thoughts, as she shared them, and lighting Cole's mask, dark then light, dark than light.
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We'll win, Ellia. And then you'll take me to Echren with you, and then we'll bring Minstrel back here to Genbu. You promised, Ellia. You'll stay with me." He spoke the words, like they were truth I couldn't argue with. Then with a great lift of his chest, he put his arms back over me, and I couldn't argue with this either; I only melted against him, my head turned so that I could watch Luffie, swirling and dipping in flashes of dusky gold, and then shooting out her powerful sparks, faster, and slower, smaller, longer.
She was so beautiful. And the sparks she shot out were really like stars come to the lands. And I thought that if Cyric were watching them, he would be able to see them so brightly.
Chapter Twenty-Three
ELLIA:
"Yes, tomorrow," Lucian said, "so it will have to be. Everything's prepared."
His voice, was as authoritative as I'd ever heard—even his stance, as he held his hand out over the table strewn with maps and battle plans. But this tone, was required to hold the attention, without argument, of those in the room. Not the rulers, from all about the lands—as it had been for so many days now. These were just the Warriors. And even then not all of them. Many first-orders—barring Baraduce and Lodan, who'd already gone on to the battlefront. A few second-orders, including Gael, set across the table, beside Lucian. Then a single third-order Warrior (apart from myself), Estrid Larke, standing just at my side.
His remark, was for the battle, which one of the second-order Warriors, fourth-ranked, Japsin, had called into question. "Not all the chimera are ready," he'd stated, knowing well for himself, since he was a trainer. "Must it be tomorrow?"
Most had taken well to the shards. Especially those first-order Warriors' chimera. Luffie, though, was best of all. Not that she had the largest bolts, or even the most destructive; it was the ease with which she'd learned to harness the power. And so, for this reason, she and I had become the main instructors for the ability—let alone the fact that I was the one to administer the magic out: First, to the chimera's respective Warriors; they t
hen, would give it to their bonded animals. Because of the nearness of the attack—and simply because of the threat to the small Isle of Yanartas, having so many lightning-sparked chimera upon it—the powers had more-overly been administered and subsequently trained on the plains of Karatel—just outside the city.
Those first days, there had been lightning striking off like a great thunderstorm. We'd quickly learned to set our brass armors aside in place of leather and wicker. We'd learned not to strike the lightning in rain—though only one day had it grown warm enough for that. By now those grassy plains outside of Karatel were scorched with black marks. Chimera had ceased their practice (most of them at least) just yesterday, since tomorrow would be the attack, and they needed to rest. Second-order, Japsin, spoke of some chimera which hadn't yet learned to harness the ability well. But Lucian was strict about our plans. Now he added,
"We can't think of putting anything off now. Not just because of the chimera, for the time they've been away from the Isle. But because of the other kingdoms. There are too many now to go switching things about. We Warriors have become powerful, but we could not imagine striking against Akadia without at least the force we have, all gathered."
He could well say this, and with such license—for in the assemblies that we'd had, between the eastern kingdoms, and those of the constellation animals, and even more, he'd played a great role. Oh, but I had not envied him or any of the others, Nain or Baraduce, standing at the head of some thirty rulers, going on about what we would do.
"I only wish that we'd planned for more time," Japsin said.
"We could have," Alek Scarn added, "Remember how we thought to block off, not just the east, but the west from Akadia—and so disable their supply lines."
"Yes, but that would have caused the citizens to suffer just as well as the soldiers. Not only Akadia's. Citizens of our own allies."
I felt glances in my direction. Before Estrid went on to ask about the schedules for departing out. That's what this meeting was brought about for, anyways. A last gathering of the Warriors, who would ride in force together. I imagined that the keepers of the White Tigers, were having a similar meeting. And the Echrians. And the Genbuans—already gone to the battle-front to compensate for the Tortoises slow pace.
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