The Arrival

by Nicole MacDonald

  Rayna stopped sobbing and glared at him, then ripped the two blades out of a pocket and hurled them to the ground before marching off, flinging insults over a shoulder. Those watching began to laugh at the retreating woman and Alek stooped to grab the blades.

  He grinned at Cat. 'Here you go.' He snapped them onto the sleeve. She gave a pleased smile, admiring the sleeve again and then took his hand.

  WE MOVED OFF to look at other stalls and everyone ignored the minor incident. The ice Sian gave me helped and the original headache faded to a trifling throb. Loi and Sabyn had decided to walk with us again and we headed toward stalls with exotic animals. We froze at one, mesmerized by a large red bird in an ornate cage. 'Is that a phoenix?' It looked like it was molting. We stood closer for a better look and jumped in surprise when it squawked at us. It didn’t sound as pretty as it looked.

  'Yes,' replied Alek. 'But they’re not a great idea for a pet. You have to keep them away from anything flammable and they make a huge mess of ashes when they do regenerate.'

  'And the smell is awful.' Rumal watched the bird, his arms around Kassie. 'It’ll stink the room out for months.'

  'I thought that as one of the symbols on your shield, they’d be a favorite?' I looked at Alek. He shrugged.

  'I like them well enough in the wild, but some creatures aren’t meant to be pets.'

  We continued around the stalls while the men discreetly pointed out other creatures.

  'AND THAT’S A nisalph,' Rumal informed them in quiet tones while the girls watched the female. 'One of the kitchen helpers in the castle is part nisalph and you can recognize the green hair and green tinge to the skin. They usually live in trees, deep in the forest. Wood cutters always have to check before cutting down a tree, in case it's a nisalph’s tree. Otherwise they can be very nasty.'

  'Oh I saw him,' exclaimed Kassie. 'You mean Geldin, right?'

  Rumal nodded.

  They moved to another stall and examined the wares. Alek queried about the disk map again. The owner nodded and turned to collect one.

  'It’ll be very useful to the four of you,' Alek explained, inspecting the quality of the disk. After paying for it he passed to it Cat and the girls crowded close to have a look.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  I STARED DOWN at it. About the size of a small side plate and around the same thickness, the disk map had a dark wood back and a polished black stone front, like obsidian. As the four of us stared at it, a picture began to develop. The image showed an aerial view of the markets and surrounding forest for several kilometers and a variety of colored dots in the market area.

  'YOU’RE THE RED dot, Cat,' Alek explained, looking over their heads. 'Who ever holds the disk will always appear on it as the red dot.'

  'What are the other colors then?' asked Loi.

  'Humans appear as brown dots, gifted creatures show gold, woodland creatures show green, the blue dots are water creatures and so on. Any black dots means the disk map hasn’t come across them before.'

  'But it’s easy enough to train,' the stall owner butted in, anxious to prove its qualities. 'When you get close to whatever is causing the black dot you show the disk it by turning the polished face to the creature. It will then categorize it and remember it in the future.'

  They nodded in acknowledgment and peered at it again. A mix of colored dots showed and they had fun looking at the map, then back up to the actual creature.

  'Wow!'

  Sian looked at where Cat looked and gasped softly. A group of centaurs moved past the stalls on the other side of the market. They looked just like she would have expected. Their ears were pointy and twitched like a horse’s but sat where a human’s ear would be and in proportion. The young centaurs (foals?) that ducked around the adults were adorable.

  WE MOVED ON exchanging impressed looks.

  'So graceful,' murmured Kassie.

  'And natural looking,' Loi shook her head. 'Very bizarre really.'

  'Only for us,' said Sian, her eyes still fixed on them.

  I continued to watch them and admired the unique clothing the females had on. Most wore fitted vests or tunic style tops but one had what looked like scarves, twisted and tied. When a very young centaur headed toward her it became apparent why. The female knelt to the ground in a fluid move and untied a knot at her shoulder, exposing her breast so the youngster could feed. We hastily looked away and instead glanced at a stall we stood near. The delighted stall owner chatted away to Alek, clearly thrilled at having the Prince there. 'My goodness, that Rayna is an isanith. You know she has a new male she’s interested in? Yes, she only recently moved in with him.'

  ALEK SHOOK HIS head. That figured, he thought, I’m glad I called it off with her. He conversed politely with the stall owner for a few moments before they moved on. Cat had listened to the conversation and frowned again; he gave her hand a squeeze and arched an eyebrow when she glanced up.

  'Hmm?'

  'What’s an isanith?'

  Alek chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, steering her past Rayna’s stall and toward some jewelry stalls.

  ALEK HERDED ME toward a jewelry stall while he explained. 'An isanith is a type of faerie. There are hundreds of different types of faerie, but the isanith is a pretty basic version. It hunts insects and will even kill other faerie if they’re small enough and not quick to get away. They have a nasty bite and a sting.'

  'Eww. They sound like wasps, are they considered a pest?'

  'Depends on where they are,' he smiled at me. 'They can be very useful to farmers if they’ve had an infestation of wetans or deni. But if they found a hive near their house then they’d get rid of it.'

  'Oooh, pretty.' I forgot the conversation in an instant and beamed at the gorgeous jewelry on display, making Alek chuckle. The girls and I examined each piece, to the obvious delight of the stall owner.

  THE MEN INSISTED on buying a piece for each of the women, though Cat refused to let Alek. Sian felt bad for him and touched his arm when Cat was preoccupied with examining something. 'Buy her a piece to wear at the ball and surprise her with it, she’ll love it.' She helped him pick out a piece.

  Kassie went to Cat’s side to make sure she stayed distracted while they selected the jewelry. Sian felt pleased to see Alek giving the stall owner a genuine smile as she wrapped up the pieces and he turned to Sian. 'Thanks, it’s a great idea.'

  She beamed, happy to have done something that would make them both smile.

  DARON FELT A twinge of annoyance at not having thought of surprising Sian. Sabyn gave him a wry look which said the same. They followed the others to where Cat and Kassie stood. They’d bought food from a selection of stalls for their lunch and explored the other half of the market while they ate. When they approached a clothing stall, Daron felt Sian stop short and tug his hand. He looked down but she stared at something across from them.

  'Daron, what’s that?' She had her head cocked, studying it.

  He looked across and spotted what had caught her attention. It appeared at first glance to be a normal human female. But as you studied it, you got the idea something wasn’t quite right. 'Rumal, look at that. Haven’t seen one of those in a while.'

  Rumal glanced over and whistled softly when he saw it. 'Do you think the griff’s have spotted it?'

  About to answer no, Daron spotted Loushka. She watched the female with a playful turn to her head and her tail swished in the manner of a mischievous cat. 'Umm, Alek,' he called warningly.

  ALEK’S HEAD SNAPPED up from looking at me. 'Uh-oh.'

  'What?' I looked around confused. Why are we staring at the woman over there? Hold on, I thought, she looks a little odd. What is she? I watched along with everyone else when Loushka and the other griffons surrounded it. The crowd at the markets seemed to know what was about to happen and moved out of the way. The woman started to get agitated and tried to dart around the griffons, but they were too quick, catching her and pushing her back amongst them. She opened her mouth and
… squawked.

  'WHAT?' THE GIRLS spoke together while they stared at it in surprise.

  Loushka gave it a hard nudge and it stumbled across into Nesha, who shoved it across to Kerak. They continued playing this monkey-in-the-middle game while the creature got angrier and angrier. It screamed in fury and appeared to explode.

  WE GAPED AT the slender and furious dragon which snapped and snarled at the griffons who regarded it with amusement. It lunged at Kerak and bit his leg hard. I heard a strange deep rumble and realized the griffon growled. The dragon quickly let go of Kerak’s leg and stumbled back on its hind legs. The strange looking dragon made a jerky bowing motion to the griffons who then allowed it to walk out. I watched, fascinated. It had dark yellow scaly skin, much scalier than Nnelg’s, and its hind legs reminded me of a dinosaur. Actually it looked like a raptor of some kind, with an upright body and longer forearms. Grumbling, it stalked past us and headed for the woods. Just before it reached the woods it stopped. We could hear the sound of energy rising.

  Before our eyes it transformed back into the form of a human woman and marched off into the woods.

  'WHAT WAS THAT?' Loi demanded to Sabyn.

  'A quern. A shape-shifting dragon.'

  That impressed Loi. 'Can it change into anything else?'

  'Yes, they usually only take a human shape if they’re attempting to breed with a human.'

  Loi’s eyebrows shot up at that. 'Why would they want to?'

  'They have their reasons,' Sabyn winked at her. 'Which vary greatly, so I couldn’t tell you. You could go ask if you like.' He laughed at the narrow look she gave him.

  IT WAS AN interesting end to the day and gave us lots to chat about over dinner and before bed. The incident with Rayna had left nothing but a brief bruise that Elena had dealt with when we’d arrived home. I felt so pleased. Today had been wonderful. It felt like I’d actually seen things and mingled with the real creatures of Elion and I loved the disk map Alek had bought us. I needed to learn more place names so I could ask it to show me them. I felt completely satisfied while drifting off to sleep and actually looked forward to training.

  ELENA DECIDED TO have us practice on control this week. 'We have the ball at the end of the week and I do not want you too exhausted.'

  Compared to the previous weeks training, this week was laid back. The look on Iggy’s face when a page interrupted our weapons training to lead us to our scheduled beauty session was classic. 'What?' he half roared at the nonplussed looking page.

  'A beauty session in preparation for the ball, of course,' the page informed him. 'It will include a dress fitting. The Archduchess requested it.' Lieutenant Patel managed to keep a straight face but Lieutenant Rashid appeared to bite the inside of his cheeks. Iggy had turned a rather ruddy red and almost shrieked. 'I nearly have respect for them and then they leave training for a beauty session?'

  'Yes,' snapped the page. 'Now, if you please, we’re running late.'

  The four of us made a point to flutter our fingers in farewell at Iggy when we left and I winked at Rashid who’d begun to laugh.

  It felt like we were being readied for the Oscars with all the preparation. I was grateful they didn’t appear to have anything like fake-tan here and that being white (practically glow in the dark) was acceptable. We were scrubbed and oiled and massaged; all of it so very good! The lovely assistants at the beautens worked miracles. Our aches and pains from the month's training disappeared and we shone. They even attended to our hair and my hair had never felt so silky. Somehow they encouraged it to stay in long tangled ringlets, it looked gorgeous and the expression on Alek’s face when he saw me that evening certainly gratified me. We caught up with Ada at the end of our beauty session and she had us try the gowns on. After hearing how much I liked green she had chosen a shade she thought matched my eyes and I stood with my eyes wide while she adjusted it. 'Perfect! An exact match.' Then she set to making sure the dress fitted. When she moved on to Loi, I walked to a mirror to admire it. She was right. The intense green matched my eyes precisely. Ada had done an amazing job with the dress; a strapless design with a fitted bodice she’d reinforced so I wouldn’t need extra support. It twisted around my waist, making it look smaller and flared out into a fuller skirt. The fabric had a delicate sheen, like silk. I carefully sat and watched while she fitted Loi’s dress. She’d used a brilliant shade of red, with just enough depth to flatter Loi’s olive skin and the style was perfect. It had small, off the shoulder sleeves and the bust was gathered and sculpted, making her chest appear bigger without revealing too much. Then it glided over her figure from under the bust, hinting at her waist and hips. It looked incredibly regal.

  'Loi, you look like a Queen,' I said with a smile.

  She flushed in pleasure. 'Thanks.'

  We changed out of our dresses and Ada took them away for safe keeping. Now Sian and Kassie had their turn, Loi joined me on the sofa to watch. Sian’s dress was a blue halter-neck. The wide ribbon that held the dress up at her throat made her neck look longer and the fabric gently glided down and around to the back, so that the dress was fully backless. It looked almost more daring than her dance dress and fit snug at the waist. The skirt of the dress fitted tightly at the top, like a mini skirt, then from mid thigh flared out. The back of the skirt hit the ground and the front rose up to mid calf. Loi and I applauded with enthusiasm. Sian laughed and spun in front of the mirror. 'Honestly, Ada, I don’t know what we did before we met you. Everything you make is dream-like.'

  Ada flushed and went quiet, fussing over some fabric.

  Kassie came out of the dressing room, taking the attention off Ada while we all oohed and ahhed over her dress. A beautiful antique gold fabric shaped into a one shoulder dress. It draped in a way that minimized her bust, stopping a top-heavy look. The twisting around the waist appeared similar to mine and then the dress finished on an angle, starting above her right knee and finishing mid calf on her left leg, the ideal length for Kass, flattering her figure and not emphasizing her height or chest.

  'The inspiration was your dance dress, Cat,' Ada said. 'I’d never thought of finishing a garment on an angle before.'

  'Ideas we’re good at,' Sian said with a laugh. 'It’s the actual sewing we find a little more difficult.'

  We spent the next day with Elena at the training circle. Again just practicing control; how quickly we could summon energy, how long we could hold a position for—even doing maneuvers with our eyes closed. Tiring and time consuming work, but I could feel the improvements. It began to feel like second nature to bring forth our energies. This in turn meant we could sense one another more and we even began to anticipate each others’ intentions.

  When I fell into bed that night, with Audi already snoring away beside my bed, it hit me. The ball was in just three days. We had weapons training tomorrow and then two days in which the castle became even more chaotic with preparations. On the eve of the second day was the ball, after which, we would start our normal life at the castle and fulfill Elena’s expectations, as protectors of the Realm. I could feel the beginning of a panic attack while images of what had happened in the last month bombarded me. I sat up, ripping the covers back.

  Breathe. In out. In out.

  I kept the chant up in my head, trying to keep quiet so I didn’t disturb the others. Audrey sat upright a moment after I did and cuddled against my leg, her head on my thigh as she studied me with a concerned expression. I smiled down at her and stroked her head. 'Beautiful girl,' I cooed, feeling the anxiety lift a little. Her tail swished and she gave me little kisses on the nose then nibbled it, something she did on rare occasions, making me giggle. Feeling calmer, I climbed back into bed.

  One day at a time Cat, just take it one day at a time.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  AT THE SAME time he’d arrived in our last weapons training session, the page arrived again. Everyone froze for an instant.

  'What?' Iggy growled loudly. 'Again? Come on this is ridiculous.' />
  Our men and the other Lieutenants gave him narrow looks. Sabyn went to open his mouth but the page interrupted him. 'No sir, it’s your turn. The fabricer has requested the company of the Lieutenants for their fittings.'

  There was a moment of silence and I exchanged amused glances with the girls. Sian stepped forward and struck a tragic pose, the back of her wrist to her forehead and in a very bad French accent declared. 'Whaz? Whaz eez theeze? Argh. Non non, eet ezz impozeble—Ve moost practice.'

  Kassie and I started laughing while all the men’s jaws dropped. Loi decided to join Sian and began to shake her finger at Iggy, her other hand on her hip. 'Ouw can ve ever beelef ouh are seriouz? Non, zez cannot do.' Everyone laughed hard while Iggy gave us his best death stare and turned, marching off down the corridor. Hiccupping with laughter the rest of them followed, along with the somewhat disturbed looking page.

  At dinner that evening, Rumal and Daron had the room in fits of laughter with their impersonation of the day’s performance.

  THE NEXT DAY was a free day and I meant to sleep late but thanks to my very accurate body clock woke at dawn like usual. The others slept soundly while Audi and I crept out of the room. I would’ve liked to have found Alek and gone for a run, but he’d already told me last night that all the guys would be busy for the next couple of days. So other than at dinner I wouldn’t get to see him. It didn’t improve the butterflies that’d taken up residence in my stomach. I sighed and Audi nudged my hand, I smiled down at her and gave her ears a good scratch. 'Even Nnelg is too busy to keep us company.'

  Audi’s ears perked at the dragon’s name then drooped. Nnelg must have already explained to her. They seemed to communicate well now, though I’ve no idea how. As long as it works for them, I thought and clucked my tongue at her, indicating with my head which way to go. The run around the inner gate was pleasant at this time and a variety of birds sung out their greetings. It gave me another pang of homesickness. I really missed the sound of the tui, kereru and fantails we heard in New Zealand. I’d never hear them again. The butterflies in my stomach made me feel queasy and I stopped running, leaning against a tree for a breather. A crashing sound made me snap my head up, looking for Audrey. She stood beside me and stayed tense and ready while the sound grew closer.