Chapter 17 #2
I returned to my rooms to change into something better fitted for creeping through the swampland. Homisu asked no questions, for which I was grateful. Nohe opened the wide windows, letting in a humid breeze that did little but move the hot air.
When I was dressed, I leaned out the window, searching the trees until I saw three black shapes gliding through the air. I stepped back just in time for Terror to land on the windowsill. He was shoved aside by Ratcatcher. Dawn was more graceful, coasting over their heads and landing on my shoulder.
“They have followed you across the Imperium,” Nohe said, her voice full of wonder.
“And they are hungry for it. Can you go fetch me something for them to eat?” I asked, using a gesture that turned the request into an order. When she left, I glanced at Homisu.
He dipped his head into a nod. “I will go speak with the emperor’s servants so that your clothes do not clash in the morning. I presume that tomorrow you will not be dressed quite so much like a Dog.”
I gave him a thin smile, nodding my assent. He disappeared out the door and I stroked my hand over Dawn’s breast.
“What did you find out?”
“The children are in the forest,” Terror croaked.
“They live in the trees. Like rats.” Ratcatcher sounded distant, hungry.
“You can’t eat an elf. Even if they are a child,” I said.
“I didn’t say anything about eating them. But if they live in the trees, do you think they know where the rats are?” Ratcatcher looked at me, his black eyes fixed on my face.
“Well?” I asked Terror.
“They have built their homes in the trees. Nests that grow as the branches form. We could not land in them, not safely. The trees would have eaten us whole.” Terror made an unhappy squawking sound. “And there was a house of glass in the middle. That was what we had to perch on.”
“A house of glass?” I asked. “What was inside it?”
“What else? Plants.” Terror tilted his head at me, the angle turning his question from disdain into concern. “We will not go with you at night. There are too many things in the forest.”
“I didn’t ask you to come.” I helped Dawn off my shoulder as Nohe returned, bearing a platter of food for the birds. I left them in her care and slipped out of the room. Irad?o caught me on the stairs, and we disappeared out the front door.
The back of the house had too many servants going in and out for us to risk the same exit the children had taken. Irad?o asked no questions as we crept into the tree line, keeping our heads beneath the top of the tall grasses.
The fireflies were brilliant explosions of light, and I could hear insects in the distance, their songs joining together into a cacophony of noise. Something slid by my leg and I paused, frozen. I hadn’t even heard it coming.
After watching the swamp eat so many people and boats, I had my knife free and ready before I even glanced down and realized it wasn’t some terrifying creature, but Na?.
The dragon stared at me, her head cocked.
She was still the size of a small cat, although the gleam in her eye was decidedly lethal.
“Well? Were you planning on leaving me behind?”
Irad?o muffled her laugh before raising both of her eyebrows. I shook my head.
We continued forward, finally getting past the large manor house. Once we were inside the tree line, I allowed us to stand. The trees and brush would hide us from view.
The earth was still damp, sucking down my feet as I moved. Despite that, there were no visible tracks in the forest, no evidence of where the children had gone. The swamp had consumed any trace of their direction, making their footprints disappear the way it did all bodies.
I held up a hand, and Irad?o froze behind me. Something about the forest was throwing me off, something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite feel what it was. As we paused, waiting, I realized our breath was the only sound.
The singing insects had dropped to silence. Even the fireflies with their buzzing wings had disappeared. I frowned, narrowing my eyes as I tried to see. My eyes had adjusted, but the further we got from the lights of the manor house, the darker it was going to get.
Finally, clearly fed up with my hesitation, Irad?o whispered, “Where are we going?”
I nearly pointed in a random direction, but hesitated. I could hear something. A delicate tune played on a flute. It rose and fell, lilting.
Irad?o grabbed hold of my arm, squeezing once and pointing. We knew better than most that sound carried strangely through forests, so it was dangerous to follow sound alone.
But there was something haunting about the song, as though its tune was a stream of light, drawing us deeper into the swamp. I took a few steps forward, then froze. Letting strange magic summon me into dark forests and swamps was dangerous.
Perhaps it would be better to come back in the daytime. But would the children even be there in the daytime? Would we lose our chance at speaking with them at all?
There was always the manor house servants or the teachers that worked at the school. They might know something, but there was a reason the children had been hidden. There was a reason they had been sent away.
A few yards ahead, the branches of a tree crackled, and I looked up sharply, ready to face whatever monster the swamp had summoned to deal with us. Instead, I saw a surefooted child, leaping between the trees, using her hands and feet and the tendrils of long vines to keep herself steady.
I grinned. The flute wasn’t for us.
It was summoning all the children home.
Quietly, I crept forward, following the noisy child as they leapt from branch to branch, eventually joining a small group.
Their voices carried in the forest and they must have assumed they were too far away from the manor house or that nobody from the emperor’s party would be following them, because they spoke loudly, laughter nearly covering the haunting pull of the flute.
The echoes of their joy surrounded me, reminding me of the few moments in my childhood when I had been allowed to be nothing more than a young northern boy. During winter, when all of us were packed too tightly in the Silver City, Eona? and I had been allowed to be children of the Silvereyes Clan.
With the gates of the Silver City closed, my mother had been too busy overseeing the endless drama of the clans’ bickering and rationing supplies. So Eona? and I had still trained, but our spare time had been our own.
We would run and play with children our own age, regardless of clan, tumbling into heaps of young bodies in front of the fires.
With the other children, we had begged scraps of pastries from the kitchen and slept in the great hall after stories were told. I still remembered waking in my father’s arms as he carried me back to bed, Yor?mu holding Eona? in hers.
I hoped that was what childhood was like for these young elves.
It was obvious to me that, despite all protests to the contrary, the Chaliko family had not abused these elven children as the Imperium had demanded.
Perhaps, even though they hadn’t been able to save any of the blood monks, they had been able to save some of the heirs of Tavornai.
The laughter of the children covered our nearly silent footfalls, and Irad?o kept pace with me, guarding my back as I readied myself for any attack.
Na? moved with such grace and quickness that she may as well have been a ghost herself. She made no jokes, and periodically straightened her body, tilting her head back and forth as though she sensed prey that Irad?o and I couldn’t see.
We were nearly inside the elven town by the time I realized Na? had disappeared.
I froze, barely shifting my weight, holding up a hand so Irad?o paused. With a frown, she lifted a hand, palm up in question. I shook my head. Looking around, I squinted into the darkness, searching for any sign of Na?.
Her silver fur and scales should have stood out even in the near darkness, but she was gone. Nothing could have happened to her. She was a dragon.
Still, my heart raced, and I desperately hoped that I wasn’t wrong in my confidence. Shifting my weight back, I slid my front foot backward, moving slowly in reverse, never giving up the balance I would need to move forward or backward.
Irad?o followed my lead, and we had moved back just far enough that when the roots of the tree in front of us exploded up out of the ground, we were out of reach of the tendrils. I heard a whistle through the air and ducked, throwing myself backward as an arrow passed where my throat had been.
I had been wrong. The music had been for us. Tempting any imperials that wanted the secrets of the swamp deeper and deeper into their territory so that they could be killed for daring to threaten the children of Tavornai.
Irad?o grabbed a throwing knife, pitching in the direction of the archer, but she didn’t have my aim, and I could tell it went wide, falling with a thump into the soft earth of the swamp.
I gripped hold of her arm, dragging her with me, hiding behind one of the trees.
Once we were out of sight of the archer, we ducked down, trying to find cover in the tall, marshy grasses.
“Wait!” I recognized the voice as Lady Chaliko’s.
There was a scuffle, a soft argument in a language I didn’t speak. Irad?o leaned close, pressing her mouth to my ear.
“They’re speaking in the ancient elven tongue.” Her words were no more than a breath, tickling my ear and neck, but I stayed still.
When no more arrows flew, I tapped once on Irad?o’s hand and we began crawling through the grasses, trying to match the sway of the gentle wind as we moved.
“Wait! Please! If you reveal yourself, I promise no harm will come to you!” Lady Chaliko sounded desperate. “I understand you must report to the Kennelmaster, you must answer to Emperor Tallu, but please let me at least explain.”
I paused, crouching lower. They didn’t know who we were. They assumed that we were part of the Kennel, two of the Emperor’s Dogs.
“Do not even think about it.” Na? spoke from nearby, but I could hear her words in my head and from Irad?o’s wince, they had echoed just as loudly inside her skull. “They have dragons of their own.”
Around me, the dense grass moved back and forth with the breeze, brushing softly against my cheeks.
“Prove you will not hurt us!” I made my voice loud enough that it echoed off the nearby trees, making it difficult to tell where exactly we were hidden.
“Look. We’re throwing down our bows.”
I squinted and saw someone throwing something out of the trees.
It was impossible to tell if it was a bow, or just a very long stick.
Either way, Lady Chaliko would know intimately what happened when you crossed the Kennel.
I tensed, readying to stand, my hands damp where they touched the swampy earth.
Irad?o grabbed hold of my wrist, squeezing twice.
I squinted into the darkness, hoping she could see me, then leaned forward, breathing against her ear. “You stay here. Save me if something goes wrong.”
Then I was up on my feet, striding out of the grasses. The land around us was silent except for the sound of wings. Thinking of what Na? had said, I nearly winced away when something passed overhead, but it circled, landing on my shoulder.
“I still think you are foolish,” Na? complained, nuzzling the side of my head.
“You didn’t even warn us before you disappeared,” I muttered.
“Why should I?” Na? nuzzled my head again and I stepped close to where the roots had torn free of the ground. They were frozen in place, a trap that had been sprung without a rabbit inside.
“Show yourself,” I called out.
There were more whispers, and then Lady Chaliko called down. “It would be easier if you came up.”
One of the trees nearby shifted, groaning as it sprouted stairs. I didn’t hesitate, climbing them until I was in the tall branches of the tree. They were lit by heavy fruit that hung from the branches of all of the nearby trees. They glowed a soft red that shifted to purple and violet.
Terror had been right. These were not houses built into the trees. The trees themselves had grown into houses. I was standing on the exterior of one, and when I looked inside branches grown like windows, I could see a small table and a bed, perfectly child-sized.
“Thank you.” Lady Chaliko stood on a bridge made of branches and vines that connected this house with the one in the next tree. She took a step forward, and her eyes widened as I turned. “Consort Airón! Your Highness.”
“Lady Chaliko,” I said. “It seems you may know more than reported about the Tavornai elves.”
I saw a flash of metal as someone drew an arrow, but Lady Chaliko held up a hand, desperately calling out, “Do not shoot him!”
“Don’t shoot me,” I said. “I don’t care if out here in Tavornai you have rebuilt one of the ancient elven cities. All I want is Spider. Can you get her for me? Can you tell me where she lives?”
Lady Chaliko hesitated, then dropped her head into a nod.
“Perhaps.” She gestured her trembling hand in silent invitation for me to follow her. “You will need to come with me to find her location.”