Heart of Farellah: Book 1

by Brindi Quinn

  “Well then,” said Poe, curtseying, “I shall return when it’s time. Please remain in these quarters for now.” She frowned, still sore about the way things had turned out, and headed for the door.

  “Thanks, Po-” I started to bid her goodbye, but Kantú interrupted.

  “Wait!” The Squirrelean ran over to her before she could leave. “Have you seen a real brooding, lovesick Elf named Nyte by any chance?”

  Lovesick? I rolled my eyes at the description, but I was grateful that she’d asked.

  Poe thought a moment and then nodded. “I delivered his suit to him before coming here.”

  He’s still here.

  This time, full relief washed over me. The idea of a dance didn’t seem as bad if I pictured Nyte by my side – even though thinking of him in dressy getup made me a little jittery.

  “I nearly forgot!” Poe’s expression turned flustered.

  “Hm?” I barely heard her, still consumed with the thought of Nyte in formal wear.

  “Your masks are in that box over there.” She pointed to a silver wooden box covered in scrolling carvings on the table next to the bed.

  “Masks?” asked Kantú, voicing the bewilderment I also felt.

  “The ball is a masquerade. Since many of the members of Yes’lech are unknown even to each other, it is important that identities remain hidden even during a time of jubilee.”

  “Masks to conceal identities? I guess that makes sense . . . but if they don’t know the other members, then how do they know who’s on their side?”

  “The officers know. They control everything.” She sounded incredibly ominous.

  “Oh, right.” I shivered.

  Poe left, and Kantú and I hurried to the ornate box, eager to find out what the masks were like.

  They were beautiful, sparkling with crystals, each in the colors of our gowns. Just big enough to go around our eyes, they were trimmed in silver thread and tied behind the head with long, silver strands of fabric. It was just like a fairytale!

  “Now nobody will be able to tell who we are!” squealed Kantú after putting hers on.

  “Yeah, besides the fact that you have a tail sticking out of your gown and I have silver hair, we’ll be totally inconspicuous.” I grinned.

  She crumpled her nose at me.

  ~

  Poe returned hours later, dressed in a much simpler gown and mask than ours, and led us down the stained glass hall, which was now dim with afternoon light. Each of the colors still shown from the light cast through the glass, but they were much darker and tinted with orange.

  I preferred it that way.

  Sort of mysterious.

  It felt surreal. We were walking through a dream.

  When we neared the large doors at the end of the hall, I started to hear the sound of murmured voices, and my stomach toppled.

  One or two hundred? Eh . . . Was it too late to turn back? But Poe opened the great doors and led us down a swirling stone staircase. It was suspiciously similar to the one at the Orolian Tunnel’s dwelling. Had it been built by the same people?

  But I’d have to contemplate that later. Right now I had to concentrate on breathing.

  The bottom of the staircase came way too quickly.

  “I’m so excited!” whispered Kantú. She looked ready to burst. I was ready to shrink. I wanted to share in her excitement, but instead I was shaking. My nerves were a mess.

  Calm down. Everyone will be there. Grotts, Scardo, Ardette, Rend, Nyte . . .

  “Wait here a moment, please.”

  Poe slipped through the door at the bottom. While we’d descended, the murmurs had grown louder, but now they stopped altogether. I looked to Kantú apprehensively. She patted my back, attempting comfort, but it didn’t work. It didn’t work at all.

  “It’ll be fun,” she coaxed. “Don’t worry.”

  I faked a smile. “Thanks, Kantú. I couldn’t do this without you.”

  But in the end I’d have to, because Poe returned a moment later and said,

  “Alright, Miss Heart. I must take your friend.”

  “What? You’re leaving?!”

  “Sure!” Kantú gave me a thumbs-up. “You have to make a grand entrance, after all.”

  I growled, getting the feeling she’d known it would be this way all along.

  Poe tipped her head in a delicate nod. “When the music starts, walk through this door and follow the hallway to the audience chamber.”

  “Wait! I don’t even know-” But she pulled Kantú behind her through the door before I could finish, “. . . what to do.”

  Since when had the dainty woman become so aggressive?

  Alone? This is mortifying.

  If Kantú’s presence had comforted me any, it all went away as I stood in the dim stairwell. Time passed slowly, but I couldn’t have waited more than a few minutes before the music started. A solo violin hauntingly called me through the door.

  I don’t want to! But I knew I had to. I took a deep breath before stepping through the door and into a hall that was lit with glowing torches.

  The earthstone paint glowed a silvery-white just as Poe said it would, showing for the first time the true intricacy of the designs. I wished I had time to marvel at the phenomenon, but I had to keep going. They were waiting for me . . .

  And him too?

  I walked down the dim hallway, and the violin grew louder, but in my head the drumming of my own heartbeat overpowered it, seeming to reverberate off the hall’s stone walls. I tried to calm down with each tapping step that brought me closer to the ball. I was scared, but one thought kept me moving though my steps were meager: Nyte. I’d get to see him. That was reason enough, wasn’t it?

  The hallway opened to a large chamber also lit with glowing torches. I walked into the chamber, and it filled with a chorus of gasps and ‘ahhh’s.

  I was standing on a balcony at the top of a rounded staircase. The chamber was sickly warm from the heat of flame and bodies.

  Bodies? I looked down at the crowd below. One or two hundred people?

  This was more – much more. The floor of the enormous room was filled with masked people, and they were all staring at me expectantly. My deafening heartbeat grew even louder.

  What was I supposed to do? Introduce myself? Sing? It was too many. I wasn’t prepared.

  I felt like I’d faint, but just then, a masked figure came to me from the opposite side of the balcony and reached out its hand. My eyes were still adjusting to the fire’s glow, my head still swirling from the intense atmosphere. Was it Nyte? I couldn’t tell. His eyes were shadowed by the mask. If it was Nyte . . . My veins danced at the thought of walking with him. I took the hand.

  Nope. It wasn’t warm, but it still felt good to hold.

  Who are you? It wasn’t Nyte, but there was a small something there. I entwined my fingers in his.

  “Ardette?” I whispered. His presence calmed my raging nerves.

  “My, my, how did you guess, my cherry pit? Is our connection so deep?” He beamed and led me down the staircase.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” a voice boomed from somewhere, “The Heart of Salvation, Aura Telmacha Rosh!”

  The room was quiet, but then immediately erupted in a fury of cheers that lasted way, way too long. It made me feel guilty, for I’d done nothing to receive their praise. The cheers weighed heavily upon me. All those people. All those people were counting on me. They all believed I held some mystic power capable of saving them.

  Do I?

  “Ugh . . . Tell me when it’s over,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Aura.” Ardette’s voice was soft.

  “Hm?” I scanned the crowd for the rest of the guard, but it was no use. There were too many of them; too many masks.

  “You are too beautiful.” He squeezed my hand.

  “It won’t work, Ardette. You’ll never win.” I grinned, still scanning the room.

  “I’m serious.”

  Was he? I couldn’t tell. I glan
ced over at him, but he was staring ahead at the crowd, a strange half-grin on his lips.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs, and the crowd leaned in eagerly. I didn’t know what to do, but Ardette turned to me and bowed.

  “Dance with me?” he asked.

  I nodded, unsure what else I could do beneath the shackles of hundreds of curious eyes. As though on cue, the violin faded, and a much more fanciful song sounded from another group of musicians holding bells and woodpipes.

  Ardette pulled me close.

  “But I don’t know the steps,” I whispered. And silently I pleaded with him, afraid to make a fool of myself in front of the society members. Surely they’d been expecting someone far more graceful than me.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll lead you.”

  I nodded, grateful that I didn’t have to think.

  He twirled me around with ease and then pulled me back in and rocked me close. The band played on, and he continued leading me through the steps in that manner. His cherry eyes never left mine. I felt safe there, led by him on the dance floor that had cleared.

  His gaze was intense.

  Don’t get nervous. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  But he grinned knowingly when his hand lingered too low on my back.

  “I see. Is tonight the night I’ll win, then?” he asked, voice cocky.

  “Not a chance.” The mask hid my expression, but I narrowed my eyes anyway and swatted his hand away.

  The song ended, and he released me.

  No! Don’t feed me to the wolves. But he slipped away, smiling brilliantly. Stupid Ardette!

  The crowd closed in, and at least a hundred introductions were thrown at me all at once.

  “At last we meet.”

  “If there’s anything I can do to aid in your quest . . .”

  “Miss Rosh, thank you for coming!”

  “It’s an honor to be in your presence, Pure Heart.”

  I was suffocated by the crowd struggling to gain my attention. It was too much. The heat of the chamber was affecting me. I couldn’t think properly.

  “It’s nice to meet you all. I’ll help out in any way I can.” I waved and smiled, but I couldn’t answer their questions fast enough.

  “Alright. Git back. Give ‘er some room.” After five or so minutes, a husky voice cut through the crowd.

  Grotts? Sweet familiarity poured over me. Something I knew.

  The giant man swooped in to save me. He was oddly dapper in a gray tuxedo, his white mask making his red hair look even more fiery than usual. He looked extremely uncomfortable in such garb and stood rather stiffly, though his posture had always been lax. In his hand he held tight to his trusty hammer. Its crescents were calm.

  Really, Grotts? At a ball even? I snorted.

  Scardo wasn’t far behind. In contrast, he appeared quite comfortable in formalwear since he’d preferred it all along. He’d traded in the worn, green tuxedo for a clean, emerald one that was almost too green. It didn’t do much to help his amphibious appearance, though I supposed Poe would be pleased. On his hands he wore fine white gloves with the fingers cut out.

  “Simply stunning, Miss Heart,” he said.

  “Thanks, guys.” I was extremely grateful for their interference. They threateningly took guard on either side of me to stop the crowd from pestering further.

  “Kantoo’s waitin’ for ya.”

  Grotts and Scardo led me to the back corner where Kantú was standing next to a woman that was much too tall to be an ordinary woman. The tall woman leaned boredly against the wall. Even with the mask, it was easy to tell who it was. Rend. Her dress was simple and muted, but she still looked fiercely beautiful.

  I wondered what kind of persuasion it’d taken to get her to participate in the event.

  “Kantú! Rend! But where’s Nyte?”

  Rend shrugged. “How should I know? Am I my cousin’s keeper?” But in a way she was.

  That’s strange. Usually Rend kept tabs on him.

  I looked around. Where are you, Nyte?

  “See, you did great, Aura!” Kantú ran over and hugged me. “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

  “Ardette sort of helped me.”

  “Couldn’t refrain from talking about me, could you, cherry pit?” I whirled around to see the Daem himself coolly sauntering over to us.

  Now that the blear of everything had settled, I got a good look at him. It was my first time seeing him out of his Druelcan garb. He looked quite princely in a black suit, just like the sort of foreign royalty Miss Danice would’ve liked to play hostess for. It was a look that suited his garish personality.

  Kantú swooned.

  “I’ll save a dance for you too.” He flashed her a dazzling smile.

  “Ugh.” I was still frustrated with him for abandoning me to the crowd.

  “Come away with me for a moment.” Ardette nodded to Grotts and Scardo and then grabbed my arm and pulled me with him before I could disagree. He shielded me from the hungry crowd and led me through a heavy, burgundy curtain a ways down the wall. A small passage led us outside onto a veranda.

  Much better. I breathed in the fresh air, glad to be away from the muggy warmth of the chamber.

  The sky was cloudy, the moon shining only faintly through the dense white haze.

  “It looks kind of haunting, doesn’t it?” I asked. “Just like that violin.”

  I sat down on a stone bench and listened to the waves that had calmed only slightly since the previous day. Whoo shaa . . . whoo shaa . . . The sound only added to the eerie atmosphere.

  Ardette stood at the veranda’s edge and said nothing, and I suddenly had a strange feeling.

  “Where’s Nyte?” I blurted the words, somehow sensing that Ardette knew the answer.

  He stared out at the waves. “I’m most interested to know what you find so appealing about such a boorish person. Do you really prefer him that much to me?” His voice was quiet.

  “What?” Prefer him?

  Whoo shaa . . . whoo shaa . . .

  Ardette wave-gazed another moment before taking off his mask. When he did, his smile was completely gone; in its place, staleness.

  “Ardette?”

  He walked to me. “Dreadfully sorry to disappoint; he’s not here.” But he didn’t sound sorry at all. He sounded impervious.

  “Nyte left?!” My heart dropped. Why? Without Rend? That didn’t make any sense!

  The waves continued to clap, and I waited for him to answer the question. To tell me I was wrong. To pull my heart back up. But that staleness remained, and he said nothing.

  “He didn’t leave, did he?” I asked in a small voice.

  Gritting his teeth, Ardette finally dropped his arrogant air.

  “I should say yes.” He averted his gaze, but before he did, I saw that flicker of pain return. “Why can’t I say yes? Most peculiar, I tell you. Never have I been affected in such a way. I believe it’s your eyes. The look in your eyes. That’s why I’ve allowed it to go on for so long. True, I worried about Rend’s reaction if I tried something while traveling, but now that we are safely here, I can’t keep you in danger any longer, even with those hauntingly innocent eyes!”

  Danger?

  “What are you talking about? My eyes?” Why was he acting so strangely?

  “Tell me. Why do you blindly trust him so? Do you . . .” – he stared out at the tumbling coast, his voice strained – “love him?”

  It really bothered him?

  “Love him?” I repeated the words. Do I? “We’re friends. Elder Pietri trusts him enough to give him this task, so why shouldn’t I?”

  He simpered, “Friends, are you?” His haughty attitude was back.

  “Don’t do that,” I said.

  “Excuse me? Whatever are you talking about, my cherry pi-”

  “That. Don’t do that. It’s so frustrating when you do that! I like you how you really are, those times that you show through that stupid act. I want to talk to the re
al you.”

  His eyes widened. He stared down at me. The masking smile was once again gone.

  “How? How is it you’ve come to affect me, when I can’t even do anything to you?” He gnashed his teeth and messed with his unkempt hair.

  And he looked . . . poetic.

  Why? Why was he struggling so?

  “Ardette. Please quit tormenting yourself. I told you not to worry about the secret any longer. I don’t care-”

  “I’m not tormenting myself!”

  He dropped his mask and slammed his hands against the wall on either side of my head. I jumped back, surprised at his sudden aggression. He left his hands there and dropped his head.

  He was so close to me. Almost against me. My chest rose and dropped, and my breathing grew heavy.

  “It’s you. YOU are the one tormenting me.” His voice fell quiet. “It would be fine if it were someone else. But why him?”

  I was tormenting him? How? I don’t understand. I’m sorry, Ardette. I don’t understand.

  “Where’s Nyte?” I bore my eyes into him. He still hadn’t answered my question. I wouldn’t let him avoid it any longer. Something was wrong. “Did you . . . do something to him?”

  He sighed, finally defeated. “I’ll tell you. But before I do, you must agree to two things. I want you to make your choice wisely.”

  “Choice?” I breathed. He was still close to me, his hands spread against the cold stone wall on either side of my face.

  “The first is to listen to my secret,” he said.

  I nodded. If I could take some of its burden, then I’d hear it. I couldn’t stand to see him struggle any longer.

  “The second,” he said, voice a whisper, “is to do . . . this.” Before I realized what was happening, he pulled my body to his and arched me backward; and as he brought his lips to mine, I struggled for a moment, but then something about it was okay-ish, so I closed my eyes and finally succumbed to his charm.

  It felt good.

  You win.

  The kiss was passion-filled and forceful. This wasn’t part of his game. This wasn’t gaudy or cheap flattery. This was real; the real him. He had genuine feelings for me. Did I have feelings for him? Yes.

  But not like I had for Nyte. Nyte’s warmth; I wanted it again. But it was more than that. Nyte was something more. Nyte was the western moon; he was the ocean; he was the meadow. He was everything dear to me.