Sighing, I made for my bags and pawed through them until I found a plain white sarette.
“Do you think I can have privacy for long enough to bathe and dress?” I asked my guards acidly.
Jakinda strode into the room at that moment. For the love of the mighty Penspray, it was like my suite was the inn common room!
“We don’t have time for bathing. The High Tazminera has given us ten minutes to be gone. Dress quickly and then follow Casban to your elephant,” she said, sweeping up the other guards with a motion of her hand and leaving.
A servant scurried in while she was leaving and began to pack my things, but since the servant and Casban, the guard Jakinda had left, were both female I felt no qualms with stripping down and quickly sponge bathing before dressing in the fresh white sarette. I snorted to myself. Why the prudishness? By this time tomorrow I would be chained to a man and there would be no niceties like bathing alone again.
I dressed with care and arranged my hair carefully in the current fashion of loose waves before following Casban and the harried servant down to where Alsoon stood saddled and waiting my arrival.
I glanced around. There were only three elephants saddled, and none of the horses. Jakinda and two other guards sat on one elephant and another guard helped the harried servant girl up with one of my bags.
“Where are the rest of our retinue?” I asked Jakinda.
“They’ll remain here,” she said. “The High Tazminera has asked that we limit our number and ride with all haste.
Great. My last few hours of freedom and I was going to have to rough it with just one servant and one bag. At least I still had Alsoon.
You understand me, don’t you?
Wild girl.
That’s right.
Ride?
Yes. We ride.
Up the street Amandera’s palanquin was surrounded by a dozen elephants and twenty armed horsemen. She wasn’t roughing anything. I sighed as our pathetic group of three elephants lumbered to follow her. Why was she always rubbing my nose in her higher station? Was it simply because she could, or was there more to it than that?
Tiredly, I sought the meditation for relief, but when I found myself there staring at a flat beach with a shovel in hand I realized there would be no escape today.
Why had I ever wanted to leave the Silken Gardens?
Chapter Fourteen: The Cliffs of Canderabai
I shifted in the cool breeze. It felt balmy last night when I was out dancing, but it was probably only a few hours before dawn now. What was wrong with Amandera that she wanted us to ride through the night? Was it really so bad for her to have to worry that I might have a moment’s more fun before I was tied down? My fate was sealed. There was nothing anyone could do about it. Didn’t she realize that Jakinda had me practically under house arrest?
I shivered. Had no one brought a shawl or blanket? I couldn’t be the only one who was cold, or tired. I could barely keep my eyes open, and Alsoon’s gentle gait was no help, rocking me back and forth like a baby in his mother’s arms.
We left the edge of the city hours ago and began up the winding path along the bluffs to the very top of the cliffs of Canderabai. Tradition said it was there that the sons and daughters of the High Tazmin would be bound for service when they were deemed ready, and there that we would be marked as full blood and given a place among our family. There was a ranking system of sorts. What mark they placed on me would determine whether I would spend the rest of my life tallying tax money, bearing children in a quiet country estate, or training to be heir. As if. There was nothing much in the future of the ninth daughter of the High Tazmin. There were simply too many people before me. If I could wield my magic—if my heartstone was clear—well that might have helped, but even then...
We wound between the heady-scented cedars, our elephants’ feet making crisp scratching noises on the hard paths. In the almost-light of predawn it was like I was in a dream. Although, judging by where I was headed, it was more like a nightmare. But, no. I would not lose my courage. I would not refuse, as some do and be banished out of the royal line to vanish into nothing. I would not weep or moan like a child. I would show them that you don’t need a clear heartstone to have value and you don’t need to be slimy Amandera to have dignity.
We turned a last corner as we gained the tops of the cliffs. Below us, Al’Karida glowed with lanterns and fires, the spires, lacy bridges and minarets glowing in reflected light. I gasped. I knew the city was large, but from the cliffs it seemed to go on and on.
Along the edge great lights had been lit, wide as a man and twice as tall, they sparked magenta. Some strange herb or mineral must have been added to the fuel to make them that color, and make them spit bright sparks into the sky. Ahead of me, Amandera rode between lines of nobles dressed in finery. They crowded in three deep to watch the spectacle of our arrival and pressed in close to me as I rode between them. Alsoon stopped, and I knew even before my armsman ran forward to take him that I needed to dismount.
I swallowed and wiped my sweaty hands on my sarette. Was I ready for this? I wasn’t ready. No. I needed to run. My legs felt like jelly, but with a surge of will I forced my panic down and demanded stiffness from my legs, refusing to look at the curious glances from the nobility on either side. These were the people Amandera had been negotiating with and pandering to in order to gain favor for the High Tazmin. Likely she knew each one’s name and what they had eaten for breakfast. I knew none of them. My cloistered upbringing was a terrible disadvantage.
The elephants were herded away by guards and servants. Ahead of me, Amandera stood proudly, holding her bright bird and speaking in low tones to an old man in general’s armour and helm. Her bird was singing a song so sickly sweet that it sent shivers up my spine. Did this feel surreal to everyone who came for the binding, or just me? And then my guards left, and Jakinda gave me a small squeeze of the shoulder as she left with them. I shuddered at her touch. Could I do it? I must.
I stepped forward, just one step, as the ritual demanded. At least they had taught me this.
“Who brings herself to the Cliffs of Canderabai and claims to be worthy?” Amandera asked in the ritual greeting, loudly enough for all to hear. Beside her two men in black robes stepped forward, like two ravens circling her.
“I, Tylira Nyota, ninth daughter of the High Tazmin, daughter of the stars and blood of Canderabai, claim to be worthy” I said as the ritual required. My heart hammered fiercely in my chest and I couldn’t seem to swallow.
“Do you submit to the rituals of loyalty, binding you to the High Tazmin?” one of the black robed priests beside Amandera asked.
I cleared my throat.
“I do.”
“The oaths, the rituals and the binding are not light. No one who is unworthy may take them on. Once they are begun, they must be completed,” the other priest said. “Do you submit to this?”
“I submit,” I said.
“Any who fails once the ritual begins is thrown off the cliffs of Canderabai,” the first priest said. Wait. Hold on. No one told me about that! Was that why so many people were here? Were they hoping to see me thrown off the cliffs? “Do you still submit.”
Oh, mud in a bowl, no! But my lips stuck to the ritual. “I submit to the ritual and honor the High Tazmin.”
“Come forward and let it begin,” Amandera said. “I am your face-bearer and I deem you ready for your test.”
Oh great. Amandera was the one speaking on my behalf? It could have been anyone. Why did it have to be the person who hated me most?
I walked five paces before I reached Amandera. Two women dressed in gold stepped from the audience. This was part of the ritual. I stopped and waited. One ripped the top of my sarette off and the other scrubbed my skin like I was a wooden inn floor. I braced myself. If a hard scrubbing was the worst of it, no one would get thrown off the cliffs.
“Be pure in the name of the High Tazmin of Canderabai. Be washed of your past life and come to us p
ure, daughter,” one of the priests intoned. Now that I was getting closer I could see he was darker and shorter than the other.
“Be marked as our daughter. Be marked as our blood forever,” the other priest said, and I flinched at their words but braced myself, gritting my teeth in anticipation.
Beside me a third woman walked from the crowd with a red-hot brand and stuck it against my upper arm. Pain flared: hot, stabbing, agonizing. I bit down on my tongue, tasting blood, and swayed, but I didn’t cry out. Oh! It hurt, hurt, hurt. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I couldn’t see what they looked like. All I could think of was the hurt. Someone clapped a cool compress against it and I flinched again, tears flooding down my face and choking me. I gasped, sucking in air. Mud in a bowl! Why couldn’t they tattoo the Penspray-damned symbol onto my arm like all the other signs? Why did they have to burn it into my flesh? But all my siblings and ancestors in the royal line had so been marked, and those who weren’t yet would be unless they refused the binding. It hurt too much to look at. Even knowing that it would determine my fate wasn’t enough to make me peek.
The crowd was chanting the Canderabai Anthem now, like the rhythm of my fate.
“Step forward, marked one. Your Captain will swear now on behalf of your guards.”
I took a step forward, but the pain was still so great that I was only able to digest the world in flashes. Jakinda was kneeling before me, her spatha on her raised palms, speaking the Oath words that would bind both her and my other armsmen to me all their lives. I took the sword, in deference to the ritual, flinching as my right arm moved. I didn’t dare look at the puckered skin.
As the ritual demanded, I slit the tip of my thumb with the sword, dripped it on Jakinda’s hands and then gave her back her sword.
“With my sword, I shall defend your life,” she said, “And by the mercy of the Gods if ever your blood is spilled again, I will avenge it and offer my life in return.”
“So let it be,” I agreed.
Jakinda was swept to the side and the priests stepped forward to take her place. They were deep in the meditation, and they reached their hands towards the general. His face was lined and his shoulders bent, but he smiled slightly at me as they took the silver tether from his hands and placed one loop around my hand, the colors of their heartstones flaring as they controlled the Common to weave the bond into the tether.
General Komorodi wore his flared helmet, shaped like the head of the dragons of legend, and heavy plate with dignity and authority. Even in the strange light it was dented and worn. His campaign on the Kosad Plains must not have been easy. His voice was deep when he spoke—almost like a certain baritone.
“As the chief of the High Tazmin’s armies, I stand here as his representative. This one of his blood will be bound by tether and forces beyond our understanding until such a time as she has grown wise. For it is through our enemies that we learn wisdom. This tether may not be removed by any person until the High Tazmin agrees to her release and both she and her teacher agree that it be so. He has received his instructions. Let the binding begin at the High Tazmin’s pleasure. He has gifted this daughter one of his defeated foes.”
He turned to me, as the far eastern horizon began to glow.
“Learn, Tazminera, and do not repeat our mistakes. Lead us to the source of the Gods and grant us peace.”
The ritual words sounded strange in his voice, and then the priests backed away from me, playing out the tether slightly. It was eight feet long. Too long, and not nearly long enough. I wiggled my wrist. It felt smooth against my skin, and, oddly enough, not too heavy. I knew from my studies that it was far stronger and more durable than it looked and far lighter than silver. What magic they infused it with was a closely guarded secret.
And now it was time. I would finally see what hulking brute they would bind me to. The general gestured behind him, and two soldiers dragged a slumped figure forward. As they stepped out from the crowd, the sun slipped up from over the horizon, bathing the world behind them in light and leaving them as black silhouettes in front of it.
I couldn’t see their faces, but it wasn’t theirs I was so anxious to see. Who was this man they would chain me to? The chanting was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything from him or the soldiers. He was hurt, clearly. He stumbled and had to be caught and half-dragged to the priests. What was I supposed to do with him when he got here? I wasn’t fit to nurse a dying man. Was this the best my father could come up with? I shifted from one foot to the other.
The priest’s heartstone flared, but not enough to see my new san’lelion’s face. Then the General spoke the final words of binding as the priests stepped back, leaving only one guard to ease the man I was now physically and magically bound to down to the ground. Whoever he was, I would have to make this work. My honor was on the line. How bad could it be?
“The High Tazmin gifts you Rusk Hawkwing,” General Komorodi proclaimed. A cloud passed over the face of the sun, muting its effect for a moment and I finally saw the face I had been searching for. It was a wreck; blood and bruises covering most of it. He clutched his belly with one arm, as if he was holding it together. I gasped and my own legs gave out. I collapsed to my knees with one hand over my mouth. “The Prince of Hawks.”
Chapter Fifteen: The Mark
It was him. And now I knew his name: Rusk Hawkwing. It sounded so plain for someone who was both the villain of my nightmares and the one who had starred in my daydreams only days ago.
I shivered. My arm hurt from the brand every time I moved. My hand hurt from the blade. I was cold and ... oh wait, my sarette was wrecked. I pulled one of the shredded layers of my sarette up to cover myself. I didn’t know what to feel. Should I pity him with his face ruined? I reached cautiously towards him. Should I beat him myself for failing to stop my mother’s murder? I snatched my hand back. Oh, sweet Penspray! Bound to the one person who could have prevented my greatest pain. Bound...maybe even forever. I scrambled up, anger and horror filling me. This wasn’t going to work.
“Tylira,” he said hoarsely and then coughed.
Around us the ritual finished with words from Amandera and the priests and a final benediction over the gathered assembly. I heard none of it. I was staring out over Al’Karida, bathed in the dawn. I didn’t care who might see the silent tears pouring down my face. Let them think I was too weak. Let them think I was overwhelmed by the task ahead. I didn’t care anymore. Should I throw myself over the cliff? Should I end all this before the next torment was sprung on me?
Not yet. It would mean his death, too. Although I shouldn’t care what happened to him.
The brand still hurt so intensely that it kept breaking my train of thought. I glanced down and gasped.
“There must be some mistake,” I whispered.
“No mistake,” Amandera said, emerging from out of the crowd of departing celebrants. “The High Tazmin saw a vision, as he always does while in the meditation. One of his very ancient ancestors told him the sign he was to give you.”
My brow furrowed. “It’s not any of the signs I know for ranking daughters.”
Amandera’s mouth twisted. “The High Tazmin, may he live forever, is a wise and noble ruler. He takes his ancestor’s wishes seriously, and it was their wish that he give you this sign. I suppose, in the Silken Gardens, you had no need to learn it. Suffice it to say, that it is the sign of a son. You would correctly be addressed now, as Tylira, Son of the Stars.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I protested.
“Do not doubt the wisdom of the High Tazmin,” Amandera said coolly, gliding away. As always, she was a fount of joy. What did she get out of this other than making me squirm? And what would it be like to be married to a man twenty-five years older who you called ‘noble ruler?’
“Tylira,” Rusk said, wobbling to his feet with a wince of pain. I couldn’t deal with this—with him. I turned my back on him and started to walk away, but then my arm jerked backwards on the tether and I wa
s forced to stop in my tracks.
Jakinda slid gracefully in front of me with a wall of my guards. They surrounded us, forming a wall with their bodies and then the servant girl slipped into the ring with a fresh black sarette in her arms. My cheeks flared, but she was quick and unstoppable as she stripped my tattered, dirty sarette off, wrapped a jet black one expertly around me, and then quickly bandaged my hand and arm with white linens.
I was distracted by the dressing, but when I looked up, Jakinda’s mouth was gaping open.
“Go ahead, look all you like,” I said, acidly.
She shook herself, looking more pleased than I’d ever seen her. “It’s not that. It’s the sign. I’ve only ever seen it once before.”
I grimaced. “Amandera said it was the sign of a son.”
“It is, yes,” she agreed, motioning for our guards to open the ranks again.
“Wait,” I said. “You served in the Palace Guard before you were assigned to me. How could you not have seen this sign? There were sons there too.”
She bobbed her head back and forth as if she were uncertain whether to answer, but eventually she lowered her eyes and said, “It’s not just the sign of a son. It’s the sign of an heir. It means you could be High Tazmin some day.”
Did the surprises never stop coming? No wonder she was pleased with all of that ‘your glory is ours’ talk. They had the chance to guard the High Tazmin some day.
“Do you have orders about your san’lelion, Tazminera?” Jakinda asked.
I turned warily and looked at Rusk. His eyes were trained on me like a beaten dog’s.
“Let’s find our mounts. Then see if there are bandages and clothing we can lend to him. Gather any of his things that we need to take with us.”
The cliffs were almost empty now, leaving only my entourage and some stragglers who were funneling into the road.
“I have no things,” Rusk said.
Did he expect me to talk to him? He tried to kidnap me. He’d watched my mother die. Exactly what did he expect? But he was mine now, like Alsoon was. I needed to see to his care whether I hated him, or not—and I wasn’t really sure about where I stood on that yet.
Teeth of the Gods Page 9