Chapter 13
A point. A tilt of the head. A nod. I thought I would be relieved to not have to speak with Darragh, but his commitment to barely talking and communicating through gestures produced more tension.
I fidgeted with my hands the entire trip to the stables.
It was harder for me to read someone when I couldn’t gauge the inflection in their voice and had to rely on facial expressions.
Except that he wore impassivity like a tailored suit.
Perhaps he had perfected it through years of practice, and maybe that was exactly what he wanted to convey: unreadable.
It certainly added to his fearsome exterior.
Heady smells of hay, horses, and leather were a welcoming comfort. Withered hands worked expertly to cinch the dapple-grey mare’s saddle and buckle her bridle. The stable hand walked around the stall with a slight limp, patting the mare warmly as he moved along her body.
Darragh leaned against the frame of the stable with the reins of his horse in his hand.
His steed was a huge black stallion named Astorath, who was currently pawing at the ground and huffing.
“Shh. Easy, boy. We will go soon.” Darragh stroked down Astorath’s long neck.
I would be riding Celeste, whose size paled in comparison.
At least the horse gets warm interaction.
My coin purse was tucked into the inner pocket of my cloak in case I was able to visit a merchant or two.
I didn’t know if it was worth anything in Tironaill, but I wanted it with me in case I could use it to buy clothes.
It would be delightful to have options other than impractical pink dresses.
Otherwise, I would have to continue to rely on Gabriel, and the thought of that left a bitter taste in my throat.
“All ready, miss.” The old daemonite stable hand offered me Celeste’s reins and hobbled toward me with his arm braced to give me a leg up onto her saddle.
I held my hand up to him. “Oh, I can manage fine. Thank you…what did you say your name was?”
“Ketlus, miss.” He bowed his head.
I smiled and put a soft hand on his dust-covered shoulder. “Thank you, Ketlus. I can tell you are good at what you do, and the horses trust you.”
His clouded gray eyes wrinkled around the edges as the corners of his mouth crookedly tipped upward. He was missing a few teeth, which gave him an impediment when he spoke. “‘Preciate it, miss. Please ask for me anytime you need a stable hand.”
I smiled warmly. “I will.”
I mounted my horse in one swift move. Riding in a dress was not always the easiest to do, but I positioned the skirts to drape behind me, covering the saddle and Celeste’s rump. A true lady would have asked to ride side saddle, but much like my noble title, I had given up trying to be a lady.
Darragh mounted Astorath and guided him out of the stable and into the courtyard.
I rode Celeste behind him, and the brilliant sunshine caused me to squint for a moment.
Aristocrats and servants milled about the courtyard and moved around the pillar of Themis.
His ever-judging and watchful stone eyes stared out of the gate and into the city, trying to catch any wrongdoing.
There was something about his divine stare that made my blood run cold, and I averted my gaze.
I feared that if I stared into his marble eyes, he would determine that I was not worthy of being here any longer.
“Follow closely,” Darragh rumbled, pulling me from the regard of marble judgment.
I gave him an unsure nod. “Of course.”
We cantered out of the courtyard and through the open gate, the guards standing at attention for their captain, but all heads followed us as we passed by.
It was an unseasonably warm day. The sun made the fog and dew of the morning dissipate quickly.
Darragh’s black hair gleamed with a slight blue tint, making him stand out, even if he wasn’t the biggest seraph in a crowd.
Grey cobblestone streets bustled with merchants and shopkeepers selling their wares.
The smell of bread and sweets thick with cinnamon wafted toward me from a bakery.
I made a mental note to stop there on the way back to buy a treat for Cora… and maybe for me.
Darragh had quite an effect on the inhabitants of Aquila City.
Notably, their fear of him. Gabriel said he wasn’t trusted by most seraphs, but I hadn’t realized that they actually fled from him.
Some even scrambled to get inside shops and inns as we rode past. It made my heart clench.
Being ostracized for not belonging was something I could relate to as the misfit daughter of one of the continent’s wealthiest and most prestigious families.
I snickered under my breath. The dark stain on her lineage meets the dark stain because of his lineage.
Celeste easily matched Astorath’s pace. The behemoth equine was quick and agile, much like his rider, weaving around seraphs and turning street corners with ease.
We rode for fifteen minutes before the horses slowed to a walk, and we came to a building at the city’s edge.
A library nestled in front of a large, forested hill.
Columns lined the front with ivy creeping up the stone sides of the building, now reddening as the autumn season waned on.
The cloudless sky allowed leaves of the forest to illuminate in tones of crimson, honey, and rust. It was a mix of architecture and flora. Structure coated in the untamed.
“Beautiful,” I whispered. Darragh turned and looked at me but said nothing.
We dismounted, my green dress billowing around me as I dropped to the ground. A young stable hand beckoned to us from a small wooden outpost around the side of the building. We handed him the reins of our horses, and Darragh reached into his cloak and handed the young stable hand a couple of coins.
“Be sure to water them if you can,” he said to the young seraph, more gently than I anticipated.
“Yes, Captain,” he squeaked with a slight tremble in his voice. He led the horses to a pen without making eye contact with either of us.
“Do you know the name of whom you are to meet with?” Darragh asked.
“I was not given a name. Just that I was to meet with scholars and then peruse the library at my leisure.” I tried to speak steadily, but I didn’t exactly come off as confident when I spoke.
He nodded, turned toward the library, and walked with purpose. I moved briskly to catch up, one of his strides matching two of my own. He kept his gaze on the library. “Take as long as you need. I have some books I need to find after you meet with the scholar.”
“You like to read?” I asked.
He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at me. “I do.”
Goddess, Rory. Don’t act so shocked.
As we entered the library, leather, dust, worn-out pages of well-read books, and candle wax lingered in the air.
The sun filtered through the large windows, casting soft rays of light across the shelves of books.
It was a building of quiet composure that appealed to me greatly.
My mouth hung open, and I turned in a circle with steady steps, taking in the vastness of it.
The tensed muscles I held loosened for the first time since arriving in Tironaill.
We were approached by a seraph with a weathered face, wearing deep purple robes and a smile. The wrinkles etched across his body were indicative of the many moons he had surely seen. In a voice just above a whisper, he greeted me. “Hello. Is there something I can help you with today?”
I matched the volume of his voice, “Yes, I was sent by King Torrish and Queen Mollah. They said you may be able to help me. I’m Aurora.”
“The human!” He blurted out. All eyes in the library lifted to me.
The scholar glanced around at the audience he created and then landed on my rounded ears.
“Yes, yes, please come with me. I am most excited to speak with you. I am Acrion.” He paused at Darragh and waved his knobby knuckles in his direction. “He may stay here until we are done.”
Acrion turned, and before I could take a step to follow the scholar, Darragh gently placed his hand on my arm.
My breath stilted, and my stomach fluttered.
I looked at his hand and then his face. His warm brown eyes met mine.
“I must accompany you under orders.” He assessed Acrion behind me and dropped his hand.
“Afterward, we can peruse the library. Together,” he said softly.
I inclined my head. “Yes. Of course.”
The scholar scowled at Darragh’s accompaniment but said nothing. He led us past row after row of old, musty books, the pages of which I desperately wanted to read.
Reading was often a way for me to escape the reality of my youth.
When I wasn’t on the back of a horse, my nose was buried within the pages of fantastical stories of dragons, monsters, and faeries.
Stories of girls having unbridled adventures into the unknown and having control of their lives after they free themselves from wicked queens or menacing ogres.
I found solace in their plights. Like I was not alone in my need for a life filled with more than avarice and ego.
Once my mother found out that the books I read were for fun and not for education, she tried to take them from me.
She didn’t want her daughter’s head in the clouds when I should be focusing on the bore of noble snobbery.
My governess would often sneak me the books I craved under the stipulation that I kept them hidden in my room and only read them at night.
“In here, my lady,” Acrion directed.