by T. K. Perry
Her pleasant facade slipped. “You are not my husband and you never will be. Leave. Now.”
Tiger and Ryp crowded Talan, forcing him to move away for adequate wing space.
“I'm not allowed to leave you!” he yelled. “The Queen commanded me to stay with you.”
“Then you will show my cousin the respect she deserves,” Ryp asserted, his frigid tone and glacial expression disturbingly similar to the Queen's.
Talan paled, slowing his pace until he flew behind the group.
Tiger snorted out a laugh. “I think he's afraid of you, Ryp.”
Ryp smirked, then flew up next to Lexi. “Did you actually agree to marry him?”
She frowned. “He was the only noble in season.”
Ryp shook his head. “And will my choices be similarly limited and distasteful?”
“I couldn't say.”
“Hmm,” Ryp answered, his expression unreadable.
Puzzled, she turned to Tiger. “Why is he doing it?” she mouthed.
“Tell you later,” Tiger mouthed back.
Lexi grimaced and bit at a manicured nail. Every conversation she wanted to have was impossible just now. The encroaching darkness frustrated further lip reading, and the group flew too closely for even whispers to remain private. She began to torture herself by imagining the conversation she would have with her father. Every version ended horribly. Scowling into the chilly night, she nibbled another nail.
Chapter Nineteen
The quaint little town of Scio was well-lit despite the early morning hour. Though its population was small, it had two inns to cater to the needs of in-season migrators. Few vacancies and Talan's insistence on his own room forced the group to split between them. Lexi was too afraid to object, as her cousin would be Talan's obvious choice of roommate if forced to share. She had yet to learn Ryp's reasons or his concocted backstory, but she was too exhausted to contrive a private meeting. She followed an overly-eager proprietress into an adequate room and collapsed onto a musty bed. The owner was still thanking her obsequiously when she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Lexi awoke to the same voice cataloguing the dishes. A heavy clatter followed. Lexi rose up to protesting muscles and clothing that had dried stiff with her perspiration. Her mouth was parched and her stomach whined. Lexi rubbed her eyes, hoping the stimulation would make them more amenable to opening. Finally, she swallowed a yawn and turned her attention to the waiting proprietress. The woman beamed at her and bounced on her toes making her speckled wings tremble.
“We made everything we could think of, because we didn't know what a member of the royal family would eat, because you're the first one to ever visit!” Her sentence ended in a squeak and she slapped a hand over her mouth and giggled, belying her middle-age.
Lexi managed a gracious thank you before it was interrupted by another yawn.
“The yellow-winged gentleman with the black eye sent me to wake you because everyone is ready, and he's impatient.”
Lexi wanted to laugh at this description of Tiger until she remembered why he was so anxious to get going. “What time is it?”
“Lunch time,” the proprietress said, nodding at the enormous tray.
Lexi groaned inwardly; she hadn't meant to sleep so long.
“May I assist you with dressing? My mother was once a maid to Lady Nessa.”
“No, thank you. Please inform the yellow-winged gentleman that I will be ready soon.”
The woman bounced on her toes and launched herself into a wing-shuddering run across the room. At the door, she looked back to bob a sideways curtsy, then spent a full minute gently opening and closing the door so as not to make any noise.
A genuine smile lit Lexi's face before further movement erased it in a groan of pain. She had flown far too long yesterday. The few paltry breaks had allowed for little recovery and no private conversations. The punctilious flying guardsmen accompanied her everywhere with little allowance for personal space.
Peeling off her sweat-petrified clothing from the day before, she quickly washed and dressed. She had just finished braiding her hair when someone knocked.
“Cousin, might I speak with you a moment?” Ryp asked from the other side of the door.
Lexi let him in, noting that all four guardsmen stood at attention in the hallway. She gave them a pleasant nod and closed the door.
“I'm sorry I didn't believe you before,” he began. “I meant to come talk to you after the first assembly, but I didn't know what to say. I still don't.”
“Why are you going to the palace?” Lexi blurted, her heart giving an anguished thump in her chest as she pictured her father's disappointed eyes.
“Isn't that the plan? To blackmail my aunt so you can marry Tiger?”
Lexi covered her face with both hands, feeling the pull on her sore back muscles. “I don't want it to be.”
“Hmm...well, that actually makes me feel better. I don't really want to be an object of blackmail nor meet my aunt, the Queen, in a manner that is likely to enrage her.”
Lexi dropped her hands. “You think the Queen is given to rages?”
Ryp shrugged. “My father always called Ami his personality twin; the stories of their hot-headed battles are my favorites. I assume she hasn't changed that much?”
Lexi gave him a small, non-committal smile. “I'd like to hear those stories. She never talked about her family.”
Ryp frowned. “She's really not going to enjoy meeting me.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Ryp glanced at the elaborate lunch tray and pointed. “May I?”
“You haven't eaten?”
“I have, but I've never even seen most of this food before. Would it be horribly rude if I tasted everything?”
Lexi laughed and motioned him to the table. He sat eagerly and began pulling various dishes towards him.
Ryp spooned some sort of pudding into his mouth and shut his eyes for a moment. “Mmm...now this,” he said, indicating the dishes in front of him, “is just one of the many reasons I want to go.”
“You're going to the palace for the food?” Lexi's lips twitched as she held back a laugh.
“Partly,” he admitted, tasting something else. “See, at home, we have boiled oats for breakfast, fruit and cheese for lunch, and soup for dinner. Every. Day. It's not my mother's preference, it's just what we can afford. We're poor.” He shrugged as he scooped some sort of vegetable puree into his mouth. “And my dad is all prideful about it. He insists that I take over the family farm, even though I hate farming,” he complained, waving a spoon at her. “And then I'll be just as poor as he is, shouting furiously at the weather the rest of my life.”
Lured in by his obvious enjoyment of the food, Lexi took the stool across from him and began sampling a fruit pastry without interrupting his narrative.
“And the Mating Mountain wasn't turning out like I expected, either. Terrible food. And not one pheromone match in two months.” He stopped to thoughtfully chew a piece of meat. “The Leafwings usually have two- to three-month seasons, in case you didn't already know, so I was getting seriously worried that I was going to end up being a life servant— one of the few professions that is actually worse than being a farmer. So when Tiger came to talk to me, it seemed like a pretty good solution to my problems.” He shrugged and popped a dumpling in his mouth.
“So you're going to jump into an arranged marriage and pretend to be a noble the rest of your life?”
He shrugged. “My aunt is the Queen. How am I not a noble? I may have to gloss over some details of my youth, but honestly, I do that anyway. As to the marriage, Tiger said I could arrange that for myself. Was he lying?” Ryp looked slightly perturbed as he gnawed off the end of a sourdough baguette.
“If mother acknowledges you as her nephew, she will likely insist on arranging your marriage.”
“But I would get some say in the matter, wouldn't I?”
Lexi shrugged and hid a grimace from the pain of
the movement.“Depends on the selection.”
Ryp stopped eating and folded his arms. “So what are my choices?”
“I've been gone for a week,” she reminded him as she tore some sticky bread and nibbled on it.
“What were my choices when you left?”
“Juno Buckeye and Delpha Sister.”
He rolled his eyes. “Their names mean nothing to me. Tell me about them.”
“Juno is beautiful, and Delpha is sweet.”
“So Juno isn't sweet and Delpha isn't beautiful?”
Lexi covered her frown with another bite.
“Hmm. Well, still isn't worse than being a life servant.” Ryp unfolded his arms and leaned forward. “If we're going to pull this off, it would help if I looked the part.”
Lexi eyed his clothes and rough hands. “You'll need a suitable hobby to explain your calluses.”
“Do mending fences and plowing count as hobbies?”
She smiled. “No. But woodworking and gardening are fairly acceptable; let's call it that. As to your clothes...” Lexi retrieved her bag and extracted the wad of money her father had given her. “You'd need a tailor to really look the part, but take this,” she said, giving him half the money, “and buy whatever makes you look more like Limen, Van, and Talan.”
He nodded and took the money. “I'll return whatever I don't spend.”
“No, don't. It's best if Talan and the guards see that you have money. And if things go badly, it will make your journey back to the Old Castle more pleasant.”
“And what would you say are the odds of this going badly?”
She wanted to give him a serene smile and assure him that everything would be fine, but it felt terribly dishonest when his risk was so high. It was not impossible that her mother would lock him away in a dark corner of the dungeon or even have him put to death for being part of Tiger's blackmail scheme. Panic seized her as she thought of what her mother might do to Tiger and Cercy.
Ryp stood, still looking expectantly at her for an answer.
Hiding her panic, she gave him a blank expression and shook her head. “I don't know.”
“Hmm. Fly on without me,” he said, grabbing a frosted pastry and walking to the door. Opening it, he looked back. “I'll make some purchases and catch up.”
As the door closed behind him, Lexi wondered if she had seen the last of her cousin. Though she found him oddly pleasant, she hoped she had. She couldn't bear the thought of her father's disappointment when he realized she hadn't kept her mother's secret.
“Where is your cousin?” Talan demanded.
“Making some purchases. He'll catch up to us later,” Lexi informed the group.
Talan looked up and down Scio's main street with a critical eye. “Here? He's shopping here?”
“We all have to make do with less than ideal circumstances,” Lexi remarked, letting her icy gaze rest on Talan.
Talan frowned, then jumped into the air. Lexi could see Tiger shaking his head in her peripheral vision, but ignored him. She followed Talan into the air, gasping at the pain of using her sore muscles.
“Isn't that exactly what the Queen said when she took away your riding privileges?” Tiger asked, outpacing her with rapid wingstrokes.
Lexi frowned and called after him. “You know it is; you heard her.”
He suddenly turned around, forcing her to slow or collide with him. “And yet, you're repeating it.”
“He needs to be put in his place,” she hissed, wary of the guards now flying around her.
“I agree, but can't you do it without morphing into the Queen?”
“Apparently not,” Lexi snapped, then felt immediately contrite. Flying closer, she touched his fingers, her wide wings brushing his. “Sorry.”
Tiger gave her a forgiving smile, his bruised eye wreathed in putrid greens and yellows. The sight of it threw Lexi back to the Old Castle courtyard and the fight with Coli's brother. She shivered as she remembered the sickening sound of the punches, and then Talis' broken wing. She pressed her lips together. She would not feel guilty about that. Lexi's hands unconsciously tightened into fists. Tiger took her hand, forcing her fingers to unclench, and giving them a little squeeze. Alarmed, Lexi glanced around at the guards, then Talan. Her wings brushed Tiger's again, this time uncomfortably, and Lexi tightened her strokes to rapid flutters, her hand limp in Tiger's grasp.
“It's not much of a secret,” Tiger assured her. “Not after Talan's tantrum yesterday. And I can't figure any advantage to hiding our engagement. Can you?”
“But the display laws...”
“You're surrounded by uniformed flying guardsmen; what crown agent in his right mind would object?”
“And Talan...”
“Has made you miserable enough. Stop giving him that kind of power. Ignore him.”
“But he'll come after you,” Lexi objected, grateful that Talan was still leading the party and hadn't turned around.
“Let me worry about that.”
“I...can't,” Lexi apologized, pulling her hand away. She stretched her wings out into broad strokes, breathing deeply to calm herself.
“Fine,” he said, his face stony as he fell behind the group.
Lexi groaned inwardly. It wasn't that she didn't believe Tiger could defend himself if Talan attacked him, it was just that wings were so fragile. And if blackmailing her mother didn't go as planned, she hoped Tiger would be able to fly back to the Old Castle, find a mate, and live a happy life. Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized she was preparing for failure. Blinking rapidly, she willed the tears away and increased her speed until she passed Talan.
Ryp caught up to the group just before nightfall, resplendent in new clothes and a fine leather bag. Lexi looked over his clothing with a critical eye; it was almost right. The cut of the shirt and pants were fashionable, but the fabric was poorer quality, and the fit wasn't ideal. But Ryp seemed so pleased with his purchases that Lexi merely gave him a nod and a smile when he looked to her for approval.
Tiger's steady scowl lifted at Ryp's arrival, and they traveled the next few hours in pleasant conversation until Talan could stand it no longer.
“Why are you conversing with this stable serf?” Talan groused, somehow managing to sound both demanding and obsequious.
Ryp raised a single eyebrow and looked askance, letting the silence become awkward until Talan finally flew back to the front of the group.
Tiger erupted into his closed-mouth, musical laughter. “You look just like your aunt when you make that face.” Tiger tried to imitate it, raising both eyebrows rather than one and provoking Ryp's laughter.
Talan glared back at them, then quickly looked away when Ryp caught his gaze. Tiger guffawed and Ryp joined him. Their boisterous laughter slowed their flight and both men lost altitude before they regained control of themselves. Lexi watched them with wistful eyes until she noticed the guardsmen had all slowed down to match her distracted pace. Giving them a bland smile, she sped up again.
When darkness fell, they stopped in a scenic hamlet appropriately named Edgewood. The forest it bordered was dotted with towering redwoods and crowned with a glacier-topped inactive volcano. The mountain reminded Lexi of the Old Castle, and she felt a momentary longing to return until she remembered Cercy's plight. She glanced at Tiger surreptitiously: his sandy locks were a mess and his lovely wings shook with laughter at something Ryp had said. Glancing away, she noticed Talan watching them as well, his face pinched in sanctimonious disapproval and envy. Lexi resisted a scowl and followed a fawning hotel manager to her room for the night. The place was rather lovely, and her room was only slightly less grand than her own at the palace. She bathed off her grime in a small private pool, then sank into the welcoming mattress. Despite her exhaustion, sleep was slow in coming and peppered with nightmares when it did. In one, her mother turned into a dragon that burned off Lexi's wings with her fiery breath. In another, Lexi was the dragon and Tiger slayed her. Troubled, she abandoned sleep befo
re dawn and paced her room, whispering speeches intended for her mother while she stretched her aching back muscles. By first light, she came to the exasperating conclusion that she had no idea what to say. Thoroughly vexed, she abandoned the pursuit and went looking for food. Two sleepy flying guardsmen straightened to attention when she opened the door.
“Do you need something, Your Highness?” the guard that had carried her father's note asked.
“Breakfast,” she said briskly, marching down the hallway with enough speed to blow her wings back. She could hear the guards' heavy footfalls behind her, one struggling to keep up until he took to the air. As she walked, she chided herself for not learning their names and for behaving so imperiously. When she reached the dining room, she invited them to sit with her, belatedly noticing that Tiger sat by himself at a corner table. Apologizing, she excused herself and joined him.
“Good morning,” she said warily.
Tiger gave her a half smile. “You couldn't sleep, either?”
Lexi shook her head. “Too many dragon dreams.”
Tiger let out a one-note laugh. “Why dragons?”
Lexi shrugged. “Because they're scary and destroy lives.”
“In their imaginary world?”
“And mine,” she nodded.
Tiger took her hand, his large palm enveloping hers. “There are no dragons in your world.”
Lexi gave him a tight smile. “Sorry about yesterday.”
Tiger waved his other hand dismissively in the air to let her know it was forgotten.
“I'm not myself lately,” she admitted, watching Tiger's lips spread wide in a suppressed smile.
“Being a ruler doesn't suit you.”
Lexi's mouth dropped open, and she slipped her hand out of his to smack him on the shoulder, making him erupt into a surprised guffaw that petered out into musical laughter.
“What? It doesn't,” he said, flinching away from a second smack and eyeing the flying guardsmen, who were fast approaching their table.