Chapter 21
‘Oh,’ Ezer said, as she approached. He was sitting on the bench beside the door to the catacombs, his legs sprawled before him, his white cane balanced on his lap. ‘You’re back.’
He wore his white and gold Eagleminder’s cloak, but today his shirt wasn’t unbuttoned as normal.
In fact, his cloak was freshly runed, glowing with what looked like little flames.
Runes to warm him, perhaps, though the godstongue was still foreign to her.
He wore white gloves, and she could still see the gold chain with the vial around his throat.
‘Oh?’ Kinlear asked, as she came to a stop in front of him. ‘That’s all you can say after a millennium apart?’
‘It was hardly that long. And forgive my disappointment,’ Ezer said and placed her hands on her hips, ‘after receiving your handwritten threats. And I am not easily appeased by gifts.’
‘Then I suppose I’ll take the books back.’
She gasped. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
He chuckled at that. She was surprised at how light his laughter was, despite the dark circles beneath his eyes.
‘I find the best threats are handwritten ones, Raphonminder. And if I recall … you sent me a threat back.’
He raised a dark brow. ‘Did you miss me, Ezer?’
‘Like a knife to my brain,’ she said. ‘And in case you’re wondering, I’ve haltered the raphon. That task is done, so you can hold off on whatever hellish punishment you had in mind for me. We won’t be needing it today.’
‘A shame,’ he said, feigning disappointment with a deep sigh. ‘It would have been … quite artistic, the way it would have made you bleed.’
‘There was never a punishment to begin with, was there?’
He shrugged. ‘I guess we’ll never know.’
And for the next several moments, they just stared at each other, as if sizing one another up.
‘I hear the magic and combat lessons are going … well,’ Kinlear said. ‘Despite the instructor’s shortcomings.’
Ezer glowered at him. ‘You’re wasting his time and mine, sending me there.’
‘I didn’t realize magic is a waste, Raphonminder.’
She crossed her arms. ‘Magic isn’t. Trying to pull it out of me, when it requires the blessing of the gods … that most certainly is.’
‘And why would you think that?’ he asked.
‘Because the gods have turned a blind eye to me,’ Ezer said. ‘I told you before, and I’m more than happy to tell you again.’
He glanced over his shoulder, holding back a smile as he looked at the black door.
‘You think the gods will answer with words or wielding. Whatever it is, to show their yes. But that is not always the case. Sometimes … they say no.’ He sighed, looking at his injured leg.
Then he looked pointedly back up at her.
‘And sometimes their answer might be a raphon.’
He grunted as he stood, like it truly pained him.
‘My mother is traveling to the Citadel as we speak,’ Kinlear announced.
‘My father’s magic requires much of him.
Too much, in his later years, at least for a Sacred.
While she’s here …’ His eyes met hers, and for a second, she could have sworn there was a shift in them.
Not quite fear. But something close. ‘She and my father wish to meet you and see a Demonstration. with Six.’
Ezer’s stomach dropped to her toes. ‘What kind of demonstration?’
Kinlear waved a gloved hand. ‘We have several days until her arrival. And if what you’ve said is true, then you’ll have no problem saddling the pup today … and getting her ready for a rider by tomorrow.’
‘What?’ she yelped.
‘No time to waste, Raphonminder!’ he said, and opened the black door for her. ‘We’ve got a King and Queen’s blessing to earn, and after that – an Acolyte to kill!’
She glowered at him.
He was mad if he thought Six would be ready for a rider.
But just before she passed him, Kinlear began to cough.
It sounded like it came from deep inside his lungs. He reached for a handkerchief inside his cloak, pressing it to his lips.
When he was done, he waved her forward.
‘Apologies. I contracted a bit of a cold in my preparations for my mother’s arrival. Lack of sleep. Little water, and far too much winterwine … you’ve no clue how large the Citadel’s collection is. Just wait until Absolution. You slept your way through the last one.’
She stared at him for a moment, noticing how pale he was. How truly tired he looked.
She wondered, for the first time, what it would be like to be royalty. Even if he wasn’t the Crown Prince, he still had a responsibility to his kingdom. His people.
‘Let’s go, Raphonminder,’ Kinlear said. ‘The clock is ticking, and there’s a war to be won.’
Just before she entered the darkness, she paused and looked back.
She could have sworn, as Kinlear quickly tucked the handkerchief back into his cloak … there was a smear of red upon it.
Six was waiting for her when they arrived, pacing the cell as if she was already frustrated that Ezer was late.
It smelled like fresh pine now, instead of raphon waste, and Ezer grinned as Kinlear seemed to take notice.
‘A change,’ he said, ‘in the right direction. Though not big enough.’
Ezer reached for the leather halter she’d left hanging on a hook outside the cage door and paused. ‘What the hell is that?!’
There was a leather saddle on a rack outside the cage.
Ezer stared at it like a nasty little spider, unwelcome in a space that was supposed to be safe.
‘She won’t let me put that on her. There is no way. The halter was bad enough.’
He shrugged and pulled up his usual stool. ‘Then I suppose we’ll discover what that punishment is, after all.’ His smile was wicked.
She sighed. ‘Fine. But you will remain outside the cage.’
‘And you,’ he said, as he approached the door and unlocked it with his key, ‘do not give me orders. Are you aware how many war eagles I’ve minded? How many I’ve saddled and sent to the skies?’
She shrugged. ‘Quite frankly, Your Highness, I don’t give a damn.’
She slipped inside the cage, slamming the door shut behind her before he could follow her in.
Six’s tail flicked once as she approached.
‘Good morning,’ Ezer said. ‘You’re looking positively chipper today. And just in time. We’ve an audience. And orders.’ She looked back over her shoulder at the saddle, then turned back to Six, and whispered, ‘Please. Can we make this quick and easy today, Six?’
Six’s tail flicked twice.
Ezer wasn’t at all surprised, but she approached the raphon slowly anyway, reaching out to place her hand on her neck. No visions, for it seemed Six was content to remain silent.
But the raphon’s dark eyes were on Kinlear.
They narrowed. And she flicked her tail twice again.
‘I know,’ Ezer said as she pulled away. She began securing the halter around Six’s long, curved beak, taking care around her scar, then up around the back of her neck. ‘But he’s here, whether we like it or not.’
‘You know I can hear you, right?’ Kinlear asked from outside the cage.
Ezer ignored him.
‘Now, today we’re just going to try out the saddle. Just a little weight on your back, nothing you can’t handle, with how strong and lovely you are.’
‘Complimenting the raphon, I see,’ Kinlear said aloud.
Ezer closed her eyes and sighed.
Gods, he was obnoxious. She missed her silence with Six.
‘I promise it won’t hurt,’ Ezer said. ‘I won’t even buckle it.’
‘You most certainly will,’ Kinlear said, ‘unless you wish to spook her more when it slides from her back and gets tangled in her paws.’
At that, Ezer spun to face him.
‘Enough.’
He chuckled. ‘Brave, Raphonminder. And curiouser, each time I’m near you, you seem to forget your place.’
‘Oh, I know my place quite well,’ Ezer said as she exited the cell. ‘And it is here. Alone. Just me and Six.’
The saddle was light, at least, as she hoisted it over a shoulder. Kinlear made no move to help, just sat back and watched like a proper palace cat.
The second she entered the cell, Six skittered backwards, sending a wave of shavings towards her boots.
‘That’s enough fear out of you,’ Ezer told the raphon. ‘It’s leather and buckles, and it’s oiled black to match your feathers and fur. At least they got the color right. Imagine if they dressed you in white, like him.’
Six’s tail twitched twice again.
‘If you don’t put this on,’ Ezer said, ‘then he will stab me. I’m assuming that’s what the punishment will be.’
She glanced back over her shoulder at the prince who stood watching and waiting.
‘Not even close,’ he said, and coughed into his sleeve.
Ezer looked back at Six. The beast had lowered herself down to a sitting position. And once again, she twitched her catlike tail twice.
‘Six,’ Ezer tried. ‘Please. I’m not up for a battle today.’
She plunked the saddle into the shavings, earning a gasp from Kinlear, who probably liked his tack as nice and neat as his clothing.
Ezer lifted her hand out, no longer afraid. And when she touched the raphon’s scarred beak, a vision sucked her under.
A fish caught in a net, washed ashore as it struggled to breathe.
Now the vision shifted; she saw a tiny bird caught in a cage, flapping its wings to no avail.
She felt the dread like it was her own, even as she broke the moment and the vision fizzled out. Six’s dark eyes held hers, wide and panicked.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ezer whispered. ‘But I will be right here with you.’
Two tail flicks.
‘Six.’
The raphon turned away from her.
And laid a pile of waste on top of her boots.
‘Now, that’s just rude,’ Ezer growled and called her a terrible name.
One that had even Kinlear balking from the other side of the bars. ‘Perhaps progress hasn’t happened at all,’ he said, and lifted his hand to sweep aside his dark curls. Ezer caught a glimpse of the fat rings shining up on his fingers, made clear by the torchlight.
And an idea sparked in her mind.
‘Stop laughing,’ Ezer growled at him. ‘Neither she nor I were prepared for this today.’
‘It’s clear you’ve never saddled a beast before. You don’t prepare a war mount. You simply do. You haven’t even tied her down.’
At that, it was Ezer’s turn to gasp. ‘I will do no such thing.’