“Yes!” Marla answered, “Stop worrying about it!”
Alyss frowned, looking somewhat unconvinced.
“We’re not in any danger,” Marla insisted.
“Tell that to Morst,” Alyss snapped, “or to Nerrys’s hand!” She lifted her left hand and wiggled her fingers for emphasis. “I’d like to make it home with all my parts still attached!” she added, “I like my parts!”
Marla’s eyes fell as guilt stung her breast.
Alyss fell silent for a moment. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “That wasn’t your fault, Marla.”
“No, it was,” Marla admitted, “I guess I’ve been so caught up in trying to find the truth that...”
Alyss stepped forward and hugged Marla. Zizi, still around Alyss’s neck, woke from her doze to chirp curiously in Marla’s ear.
“I’m sorry, Alyss,” Marla whispered, “I can’t stop now.”
“I know,” Alyss said, stroking Marla’s hair lightly as she held her a moment longer. She stepped away then and gave Marla a crooked frown. “Just don’t forget we’re right behind you.”
“Thanks,” Marla said, reaching out to scratch at Zizi’s ear.
“There you are,” Claude called out as he approached up the moonlit lane from the direction of the central temple. He carried a cup in each hand, offering them to the girls as he drew near.
“Not rat juice again!” Alyss groaned.
“No,” Claude said with a smile, “James caught one of those green monkeys we saw playing in the ruins.
“He didn’t kill it, did he?” Alyss asked.
“Master Veranu wouldn’t let him,” Claude said, “We only took a little of its blood before letting it go again.”
“Good,” Alyss said, taking the cup, “I think the monkeys are cute.” She sniffed cautiously at the rim of the cup and then tilted it back, draining it thirstily.
Marla smiled and nodded her thanks over the rim of her own cup before drinking as well. The blood tasted slightly musty but filled her with a tingling sensation, like the childlike joy of discovery. She handed the stained cup back to Claude with a curious look. “Where did you find the cups?” she asked.
“James found them somewhere,” he answered, “He probably snuck into the main city while he was out hunting the monkeys.”
“Father said we weren’t supposed to leave the ruins,” Marla said with a frown.
Claude shrugged.
“This is much better than rat juice,” Alyss said, handing the cup back with a contented sigh, “Let me know if he catches anymore of those monkeys.”
“I thought you said they were cute?” Marla laughed.
“Well, they are,” Alyss said, “but they taste really good too.”
Claude flashed his single fang in a grin.
“What happened to your tooth, Claude?” Alyss asked.
Claude’s smile disappeared. “Your father wanted me to tell you not to stray too far from the center of the ruins,” he said to Marla, “He doesn’t want to take the chance of anyone seeing us here.”
Marla nodded. “We’ll be careful,” she said, “Thank you for the drink.”
Claude nodded curtly and then turned to go.
Alyss waited until he was well out of sight before she whispered, “What happened to his tooth?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” Marla answered flatly.
“I noticed,” Alyss said, “but, seriously, what happened to him?”
Marla gave her a narrow look. “I thought your spies told you everything,” she teased.
“I don’t have anything in my files about his injury!” Alyss replied testily, “Obviously you know what happened, so why don’t you just tell me?”
“Why do you think I would know what happened?” Marla demanded.
“Please!” Alyss scoffed, “You read like a children’s book, Miss Veranu.”
“I do not!” Marla retorted.
“Your lips twitched just now when I asked you what happened,” Alyss said, “You wanted so badly to tell me, but then you blushed just a tiny bit before you redirected the question back at me. You’re like a baby who thinks that I can’t see you if you put a blanket over your head.”
“Well, if you know so much already, why don’t you just tell me what you think happened?” Marla said.
“Obviously it was something embarrassing,” Alyss surmised, gesturing vaguely with her hand as she looked off across the ruins, “If he had lost the tooth doing something heroic, even if he didn’t like to brag... which he does, by the way, even if he doesn’t admit it... you would have been quick to tell me the story the moment he was out of earshot, so I would know how brave your boyfriend is. Thus, I can conclude that the loss of the tooth is not a story he would be anxious to have made public.”
“I suppose you think yourself very clever,” Marla said coolly.
“I haven’t gotten to the clever part yet,” Alyss said.
“I can’t wait,” Marla said.
“If the loss of the tooth had been from childhood or some form of natural defect, you would have seemed more sympathetic, perhaps even chided me for making him feel self-conscious about it. You would have held the moral high ground in the contest and taken a bolder stance in his defense, but, instead, you chose to hide behind your futile attempt at misdirection.”
“Did I?” Marla asked.
“And so, I must conclude that you are in on the secret, and a secret it is!” Alyss said, turning on her heel to face Marla again with her finger raised, “The boy has confided to you the shameful truth about the loss of his tooth, perhaps in a moment of intimate confession, a baring of the soul, if you will... a moment of true vulnerability, sharing with you his darkest secrets... I see you blush again, Miss Veranu!”
“Only in embarrassment for you!” Marla laughed.
“Redirection is futile!” Alyss exclaimed, “Squirm all you like. We will have the truth!”
Marla took a step back, unable to contain her laughter as the Arkadi girl with a very confused-looking furry creature wrapped around her neck advanced relentlessly toward her.
“So he told you what happened, and he made you swear never to reveal...” Alyss suddenly paused in her advance, looking slightly confused. “You didn’t look away just then,” she murmured, “Why didn’t you look away?”
“Because I have a crazy person staring at me,” Marla said.
“No... because he didn’t tell you!” Alyss hissed triumphantly, “He never told you what happened because you already knew!”
Marla gave Alyss a dubious look.
“Aha!” Alyss laughed. She poked Marla in the collarbone with her finger. “He lost it doing something stupid for you!” she proclaimed.
Marla rolled her eyes.
“There it is!” Alyss tittered in glee, “You admitted it!”
“You’re insane,” Marla sighed.
“Gods I’m good!” Alyss laughed, rubbing her hands together, “What was it? Tell me!”
“You’re never going to find out,” Marla said, “and I shall derive great pleasure from watching you suffer for not knowing it.”
“We’ll just see what Claude has to say, once I tell him you’ve spilled the red about his little secret!” Alyss said with an evil grin as she started down the lane toward the central temple.
“You little rat!” Marla hissed, catching Alyss by the sleeve.
Alyss giggled as she twisted free and dodged behind a chipped marble column.
Zizi fluttered clear of the chaos as the two vampire girls played a vicious game of tag among the ruins, their bodies blurred with vampiric speed.
“Got you now!” Marla laughed as she sprang from atop a broken pedestal to land in front of the fleeing Arkadi girl.
“No!” Alyss howled as she skidded on all fours beneath Marla’s reach. She came to her feet again, scrambling to escape, but then staggered to a halt.
“Ha!” Marla shouted in triumph as she seized Alyss by the back of her robe. Then sh
e saw what the girl was staring at.
Zizi burrowed quickly between Marla’s hair and the back of her neck, chittering in fear. Marla herself watched in stunned silence as a shimmering golden dragon swooped down from the night sky to land in the dusty courtyard before them.
The dragon glittered with tiny, diamond-like scales and thin, iridescent membranes that stretched between the delicate bones of her wings. A fiery nimbus of golden light swirled like a fine mist around her body as she came to rest, and she bowed her long, slender neck to allow a man in white robes to slip down from her back.
“Brother Tye?” Marla gasped.
The Laprian monk nodded his greeting before turning back toward the dragon behind him who now blazed with a blinding golden light.
Marla shielded her eyes instinctively, though she felt no real discomfort from the dragon’s radiance. When she could see clearly again, a slender dark-haired woman in golden robes stood where the dragon had been only a moment before.
“Princess Kire,” the monk announced, lifting his hand toward the vampires, “I present to you our... guests.”
Marla and Alyss quickly knelt in the lane before the Princess, too overwhelmed to speak.
The dark-haired princess of Lapria gasped, putting her hands over her lips as her eyes flared with golden heat.
“Sha Damira!” she exclaimed, her burning eyes locked on Marla. “You have come!” she spoke in thickly accented Gloaran.
Marla looked at Alyss and then back at the Princess with a reassuring smile.
Princess Kire’s golden robes fluttered with a sound like roiling flames as she fell prostrate on the ground before Marla. Brother Tye looked momentarily stunned before he too dropped to the ground at the woman’s side.
“I offer my thanks that you have answered my summons, Spirit of the East!” Kire chanted with a musical lilt to her voice. She pressed her forehead against the dusty stones of the path with her hands upraised before her.
“Please, don’t!” Marla gasped. Zizi fluttered clear of her shoulder as she sprang to her feet to reach out to the Princess. “Please stand up,” she said.
Kire lifted her face from the ground, her neatly trimmed bangs framing her golden eyes as the long tail of her topknot fell across her shoulder. She studied Marla’s face, hesitating a moment before rising gracefully to her feet again.
“I am Marla Veranu, and this is my friend Alyss Arkadi,” Marla explained, “I’m afraid we...” She hesitated, not knowing how much she should say. “You say that you summoned us?” she asked at last.
“I called for you,” Princess Kire answered, her golden eyes still studying Marla’s face, “in the... dreaming song.”
Marla gave the monk a questioning look.
Tye was now standing and dusting himself off. Unlike Kire’s shining raiment, his own robe now bore the dusty stain of his brief prostration. He frowned as he considered the Princess’s words.
“The song of the sun’s glory that greets us each dawn,” he explained, “A voice may follow that song to any place the sun may shine.”
“Not a popular song in Thrinaar,” Alyss chuckled as she now stood with a curious Zizi draped once more over her shoulder.
“You say that you called to me on... the dawnsong?” Marla asked.
Kire nodded. “It is sung that once the spirits of the East and the West were joined in song across the great waters, but the East long ago fell silent... My heart ached to learn of the fall of the East. I could not believe that our two worlds would never again join in song.”
“Yes, when the moon fell, the dragons... I mean our people were driven... to great sorrow,” Marla said, “Surely you must have felt it as well, here in the West.”
The Princess shook her head. “I have heard the stories of what it was like in those days, when the old gods turned upon us, and when the ancient ones despaired of the loss of the world that was. I have asked my mother and the other first-born to describe that time, but they speak with unwilling tongues.”
Marla gave Alyss a confused look before turning to the Princess again. “You weren’t there?” she asked.
Now Kire gave Brother Tye a confused look, her lip twisted between a smile and a frown.
Tye narrowed his eyes and looked at Marla. “Forgive us,” he said with a thin smile, “We are not accustomed to your manner of humor.”
“I’m sorry,” Marla said, “I meant no offense. I was taught that all dragons alive today were born before the fall.”
Princess Kire looked shocked. “Is that how it is in the East?” she demanded.
“Yes, to my knowledge,” Marla answered.
The Princess studied Marla with widened eyes. “You must be very ancient!” she gasped.
Alyss snorted with laughter.
“No,” Marla said, “Actually, I am only part dragon,” she explained, “I am fairly young among my kind.”
“The Anomoke is her father,” Tye explained.
“Ah,” Kire said, “Is it this way with all the dragons of the East? Have they all been... reborn in the bodies of these humans?”
“No, Princess,” Marla replied, “there are still dragons in the East, but we do not believe that any new dragons have born like yourselves since the fall of the moon.”
Kire’s eyes fell. “A world without children,” she sighed, “I know now why their song has faded.”
“So, there are baby dragons here?” Alyss asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.
Alyss yelped in alarm as Berrol Veranu landed in the lane beside her. “This isn’t a petting zoo, Lady Arkadi,” he growled.
Marla glanced back to see Claude leap down from a ruined tower behind them as well. She greeted him with a tense smile as he followed her father into a low bow before the Princess.
“Berrol, Anomoke,” the Princess greeted Marla’s father. She turned her golden eyes toward Claude next with a questioning look.
“Young Master Claude,” Berrol introduced him, “a countryman of mine.”
Kire nodded toward the young gaunt rider.
“I have explained the situation to the Princess,” Tye said, “She understands the... delicacy of its nature.”
“So, are we to be roasted alive when the Emissary arrives?” Berrol asked with a wry smile.
“The Emissary’s voice has flown already to my mother’s ear,” the Princess said, “She awaits his arrival before the throne within the rise of the next moon.”
“Damn!” Berrol hissed.
“He can talk to her from a distance?” Alyss asked.
“His song of rage echoes upon the wind even now,” Kire said, “The city wakes to the news of your arrival.”
Marla cast an unconscious glance toward the eastern sky, noting the dim glow of approaching dawn.
“Any chance of us getting in to see the Empress before sunup?” Berrol sighed, running his fingers through his curly gray hair.
Brother Tye gave him a pained expression.
“I will go to my mother,” Princess Kire sighed, “I will explain the situation and plead your cause to her.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Berrol said, dropping to one knee before her again.
“Please, do not be afraid,” Kire said, smiling as she turned her golden eyes upon Marla again, “I believe that we have met for a reason, and my mother will understand the importance of this.”
“Thank you,” Marla said, bowing slightly toward her.
“I will return soon,” Princess Kire said, her body’s shape already blurring as she turned to go. Golden heat erupted from her shoulders as she seemed to stretch herself toward the sky, sprouting shimmering wings once again. With a few mighty beats of her wings, the coiling body of the golden dragon twisted away into the night, sailing toward the distant spires of the city beyond the ruins.
“What’re our chances?” James asked as he and Nerrys emerged from hiding in the shadow of a broken wall nearby.
Brother Tye smiled hopefully and shrugged.
Chapter Thirty-one
Braedshal
The warm breeze tasted of smoke, and the moon hung low and swollen red on the horizon, casting an eerie light across the fields below Braedshal. The castle itself stood far across the grasslands and wheat fields, a great shadow of towers and walls, speckled with flickering torches.
Garrett stood on the wooded hill at the edge of the southern forest and tried to quell the sense of foreboding that filled his chest. He lowered his gaze to the orderly ranks of Chadiri tents arrayed in a blackened field near the foot of the hill, and his heart turned cold.
“Is that where they burn them?” Garrett asked.
“Yes,” Sir Baelan answered.
The knight’s face shone pale in the light of the crackling blue flames that now wreathed Garrett’s clenched fist.
“We’re here for Cabre first,” Haven reminded him.
Garrett relaxed his fingers, and the flames died away, letting the shadows reclaim the space between the trees.
“Where are we going?” Garrett asked.
“The royal stables,” Sir Baelan answered, “Cabre and I both learned to ride there. It was a happy place... for both of us.”
“Horses and I don’t really get along very well,” Garrett said, “I don’t want a bunch of yowling to wake everybody up.”
“Horses don’t yowl,” Haven corrected him, “they neigh.”
“Well, whatever noise they make, they don’t like necromancers... or ghouls, for that matter,” he added worriedly.
“I will send word for Cabre to meet with us in the hall above the stables,” Baelan said, “The horses should remain undisturbed by your company’s presence.”
“How do we know that Cabre won’t just send a bunch of guards to arrest us instead of coming himself?” Haven grumbled.
“I have prepared a rather specific... invitation for the King,” Sir Baelan sighed, pulling out a rolled piece of faded blue fabric that looked to have been cut from the knight’s own doublet. A dull metallic gleam drew Garrett’s eye to the silver chain and medallion that Baelan had bound tightly around the roll of cloth. The center of the medallion bore the graven image of a stag, surrounded by intricate scrollwork.
Trials of the Twiceborn (The Songreaver's Tale Book 6) Page 35