Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Aila wished she could claim a coherent strategy for her retreat, rather than the mental scream drowning every thought as she sprinted away from the phoenix complex, leaving Director Garumano behind, with brow furrowed and mustache twitching.
A quick absence. Make sure Archie was fine. Then she’d be back.
No harm done.
Please, let there be no harm done.
Patrons shot startled looks as Aila wove between them, dodging strollers and wobbly toddlers like road mines, trying not to add child assault to her list of indiscretions for the day. Though the sun had risen, the fog remained thick, a gray cast upon aviaries speckled in condensation, cold morning air prickling Aila’s bare arms.
When she burst into the World of Birds aviary, the humidity of a tropical forest bowled her over, air thick in her lungs, the smell of pungent soil clogging her nose. As she huffed up the path, the periwinkle prairie geese honked in alarm, wafting lavender in their wake as they retreated for the safety of their pool. The screaming mynas shrieked murder in the canopy.
The shouting patrons weren’t any better.
Aila found a group clogging the path. Connor hung to one side, frowning as Luciana addressed the rioters, her honeyed voice paired with calming hand gestures.
“Now, now,” she cooed, as if to a raging griffin. “We appreciate your patience. Please, wait here while we take care of—”
“What’s wrong?” Aila elbowed her way through the onlookers.
The people, she couldn’t care less for. Her scrunched nose and glare were for Luciana. That woman knew how important today was, knew the consequences of calling Aila away from the inspector. Yet Aila saw no animal in peril. No dismembered patron crying in a pool of their own blood (though that would be a paramedic issue, not an Aila issue). What kind of emergency could have summoned her?
“Your bird stole my engagement ring!” a beleaguered patron shouted, tears smudging her mascara, pointing to the canopy where…
Archie hopped from branch to branch, a low hoot in his throat, a diamond ring clutched in his bill.
That conniving little thief. Aila’s shoulders slumped, her sigh the long and pained sound of a disappointed mother whose child was caught gluing candy to a classmate’s hair. Horns and fangs, Archie, they’d talked about this earlier that morning .
Luciana folded her hands together, using her metered public voice that masked all but the most subtle edge of annoyance. “It would seem one of our valued zoo guests decided to propose. Your archibird stole their ring.”
Aila gawked first at the tear-strewn woman, then at a scowling young man beside her, then at the gray-socked aviary that smelled of bird droppings.
“You proposed here , of all places?”
Something Aila would do, but a normal person?
“Aila,” Luciana said, a click on her tongue like she was training an animal. “Perhaps we ought to focus on alleviating the situation.” Her word hardened, a chunk of crystalized sugar to crack the teeth. “And get this lovely couple’s ring back.”
Fat chance of that. They were lucky Archie hadn’t already glued the metal to his tower. In fact, that was downright miraculous. Aila pushed her way to the railing, leaning over for a view of the clearing below.
Tanya stood in front of Archie’s trinket tower, using her body to shield the bird from his goal. He hopped through the canopy in annoyance, honking at her every few steps.
“Aila!” Tanya shouted. “Do something about your bird!”
Do something? Now? On today of all days? Aila’s grip tightened on the railing, damp wood beneath trembling fingers. She hadn’t stopped shaking all morning. The inspector’s scratching pen, the crackle of the radio, had all carved shivers beneath her skin.
But now, the arguing patrons dimmed to a murmur. Luciana’s fake smile fell out of sight. Even the screaming mynas in the canopy receded to background noise as Aila forced herself to pause and breathe . She drew strength from the loamy smell of her aviary, dug her fingers into the railing until cool moss covered every nail.
Birds, Aila could deal with.
And this one wasn’t getting any treats for a week after pulling this stunt.
Aila stepped away from the railing. “Archie!” she called up in her sweetest voice, followed by a whistle and a hand to perch on. “Archie, come down here and let me see what you’ve found. It looks delightful.”
Archie considered her for a moment before resuming his hopping with a grunt, the archibird equivalent of a middle finger. Right. Aila hadn’t expected it would be that easy. She leaned back over the rail.
“Have you tried trading something with him?” she called down to Tanya.
“What do you think I’ve got that’s shinier than a diamond ?” Tanya snapped.
Not a small diamond, either. Aila could make out the hunk of a rock from down here, facets glittering in the diffused light, clasped in a ring of gold. Archie wasn’t giving up a treasure like that without excellent incentive.
“Do you have anything else shiny you could give him?” Aila asked the woman with ruined mascara. “Something less important?”
The woman buried her face in her hands and resumed crying, prompting her fiancé to scowl at Aila. Hey, at least she was trying.
Connor slipped out of the crowd. “Aila. What about the inspection?”
“I’ll get back to it as soon as this is settled,” she hissed back.
“Let Tanya handle things here.”
“But Archie is my bird.”
“So what? The inspection is more important!”
Luciana stormed between them. “For the love of endless skies and seas, enough of this.” She unclipped a pair of silver loops from her ears and shoved them into Aila’s hand.
Aila stared at the offering. “What’s this?”
“Give it to your bird.”
“But why would you—?”
“Do it!”
Luciana wanted this annoyance over with. That was the only sensible explanation. Never mind the question of what she was doing in the aviary to begin with. Or how she’d noticed Archie’s preference for silver in his tower of trinkets. Aila had no time to dissect such things, nor to dwell on the warmth of the earrings in her palm. The hint of fruity perfume.
Aila held the treasure aloft. “Archie! Look at this!”
He hopped down to a lower branch, azure crest raised in curiosity. With a dramatic head tilt, he examined Aila’s offering, then clacked his beak, adjusting his hold on the diamond ring.
Archie hooted and fluttered back to the canopy, unswayed, searching for a path to his tower. Tanya mirrored his movements.
“Need something better than that, Ailes!”
Aila frowned at the earrings. Shiny, high-quality (as if she’d expect anything less from Luciana). Unfortunately, looks wouldn’t cut it. Archie had found a treasure valuable not only in appearance, but also prestige. Who could put a price on something forbidden? Something he wasn’t supposed to have?
The idea came to Aila like a jolt from thunderhawk feathers.
“I’ll be right back!” She returned the earrings to Luciana, then ran for the aviary door. “Keep him busy!”
“What do you think I’m doing?” Tanya hollered. Aila would owe her a smoothie when this was over.
She hoped her prize was where she thought it was.
Aila bolted into the aviary kitchen and flipped on the lights. The space was smaller than their facilities at the phoenix complex, a staging area to store prepared food and medications for nearby exhibits. Now and then, Tanya made a show of clearing out the miscellaneous “trash” that accumulated along the shelves. A travesty. Aila should be entitled to keep her junk.
Especially at a time like this. She gasped in delight upon unearthing a box she’d shoved underneath the sink. The jumble of metal jingled as she pulled it out. A month of work to assemble Archie’s enrichment toy, and he’d torn it apart overnight. After Aila confiscated all the pieces from the aviary floor and keyholes, she’d kept the parts on the off chance she could devise a more clever, archibird-proof construction.
She grabbed the shiniest metal rod from the bunch and ran back to the aviary.
“Archie! Look what I’ve got!”
Aila ran through the crowd with the metal rod held high like a baton in a championship footrace. Patrons watched the spectacle with confusion. The ring-thefted couple scowled their deepest yet. Luciana pressed jade nails to her temple and shook her head.
In the canopy, Archie went stone-still. Aila held her breath as his beady black eyes widened. His head tilted in one direction. Then the other.
He dropped from the trees like a lead weight, lighting on the rail beside the path. He squawked once, loud enough to silence even the screaming mynas. As Aila stepped toward him, he watched the metal rod in her hand, eyes gleaming on the forbidden treasure.
“That’s a good bird,” Aila cooed. “What do you need a dumb ring for?”
She held out the rod. Archie hopped toward her and, ring still in his bill, grabbed the rod with one foot. He tried to abscond with both prizes. All Aila had to do was hold on, his bird weight inadequate to free the rod. Archie fluttered and honked in indignation.
“Stop being greedy, Archie!”
He paused with chest puffed, crest flattened.
“You want the shiny metal rod?” She held out her hand. “Ring. Now.”
Aila had never met an animal who could pout like an archibird. Thank the skies and seas he wasn’t great at mimicking, or he’d spend all day cussing patrons out of his aviary.
Head bowed, chest emitting a disgruntled wheeze, Archie dropped the diamond ring in her hand. She closed her fingers on it first. Released the rod second. Archie flew off with his prize and a triumphant hoot.
“Tanya!” Aila called over the railing. “Let him have it.” Last thing she wanted was to find another rod jammed into a door lock.
The moment Tanya retreated from the tower, Archie fluttered down and spit-glued his new piece to a place of honor on the pinnacle. Safe and sound. Aila breathed out enough relieved air to fill a cart of animal-shaped zoo balloons.
When she returned the wedding ring, the young couple stormed off with half-hearted promises not to report her to HR. You’re welcome , Aila mouthed to their backs. A few onlookers clapped at the resolution, but once the drama passed, they dispersed, revealing a lone figure standing at the rear of the crowd.
Garumano scowled at his clipboard, mouth hidden beneath his curled mustache, scribbling notes with the most gusto yet.
Aila couldn’t shake the pit in her stomach. With a tight smile, she offered to take him back to the phoenix complex to resume their inspection.
What was the point?
The damage had already been done.
Several hours and several million questions later, Director Garumano scribbled his final notes. How he’d avoided cramping his hand off, Aila had no idea.
“Thank you for your time, Aila. You’ll hear back from us soon regarding a decision.”
Once he left, Aila collapsed on a chair and groaned loud enough to shake the observation window.
He’d asked everything on her flashcards and then some. And then some. Scenarios for bird introduction. Layout of the nesting platform. Feeding schedules at each stage of female incubation. Immolation protocol. Evacuation plans for fire and earthquakes and tsunamis and tornados. Movas didn’t even get tornados.
Aila tried her best. She couldn’t shake the dread in her stomach, the certainty that even her best hadn’t been good enough. So many questions. So many scribbled notes and twitching mustache hairs, never so much as a nod of affirmation. If her oral exams in college had been half as brutal, she’d have flunked out from nerves alone.
The door clicked open. Aila didn’t move from her puddle state as Tanya collected her belongings in preparation to head home. Not even when a firm hand landed on her shoulder.
“Come on, Ailes,” Tanya said.
“No.” Aila swatted her.
“It’s time to go.”
“Leave me. Let my bones become one with the concrete.”
“No one’s bones are becoming one with anything in here. We just put new floors in.”
Aila groaned and turned herself to a rag doll as Tanya attempted to drag her out of the chair, but superior strength won out. Tanya slipped Aila’s backpack over her shoulders like a scowling schoolchild. Led her, moping, out of the building. Once they’d exited the zoo gate, Aila tried to scurry toward the train station. Tanya snagged her arm.
“Nah-uh. Where are you going?”
“Home. A blanket cocoon large enough to swallow me and never—”
“You’re coming with me, Miss Mopey Pants.”
An attempt to lift Aila’s spirits, no doubt. She wanted no part in it. “Really, Tanya. I need some sleep.”
“You know I’d accept that decision and the sanctity of your personal space on ninety-nine percent of occasions. Not tonight.”
Aila wrinkled her nose as she was shoved into the passenger seat of Tanya’s car.
“This is kidnapping,” Aila complained.
Tanya clicked her seatbelt, then pressed the ignition button for the electric engine. “I don’t see you calling no police.”
“A violation of our friendship.”
“Ailes, this is the epitome of our friendship, and you’ll thank me later.”
“What about Tourmaline?” Aila clicked her seatbelt extra loud in protest. “He has a standardized feeding schedule, and if I’m not home in time, you know he’ll start gnawing on my sofa and spread the stuffing all over—”
“We will make a brief stop to get your damn carbuncle!”
Aila said no more, letting her pout speak for itself as the city lights blurred past the car windows. When they reached her apartment, she considered making a break for it, running inside then locking the door. Tanya might break it down. Plus, the mere suggestion of a trip sent Tourmaline into a twirl of pattering paws and dual tails.
They returned to Tanya’s car, Aila grim, Tourmaline panting on her lap. His forehead jewel glowed orange in excitement as he braced his paws on the door, watching every passing car and streetlight. Aila stroked his soft gray coat and rested her forehead against the window.
“What if I let you all down?” she whispered. “All that work for nothing.”
“You’ve never let me down,” Tanya said without missing a beat.
“What about that time I lost both our lab reports and we had to redo the entire assignment?”
Tanya clicked her tongue. “You bought me a brownie to make up for it. We’re cool.”
“Or the time I ruined your favorite dress by spilling shrimp meal all over it?”
“Now why do you have to go bringing something like that up again?”
“Or the time I accidentally hit you in the head with a shovel while we were cleaning out the aviary pond?”
“All right, that’s enough. Here I am trying to help, and all you’ve got is memories of vandalized property and attempted murder.”
The smallest grin cracked through Aila’s gloom. Wider, once she realized where Tanya was taking her.
They pulled into a parking lot a couple of blocks from the San Tamculo Harbor. The street was packed with striped restaurant awnings and bright shop windows. A bookstore had a display of star-shaped lights floating with pixie wren dust, a propped up Guide to Movasi National Parks with a stylized thunderhawk on the cover, another stack of fantasy novels where a woman embraced a weirdly handsome man with antlers. A flower shop showcased unnaturally stunning blooms in ceramic pots, a sign boasting ALL PLANTS AUGMENTED WITH ORCHID VIPER VENOM FOR ENHANCED GROWTH AND LONGEVITY!
From the harbor, a cold salt breeze carried aromas of waffle cones and fried potatoes. Strongest of all, though: lard. Corn meal tortillas. Boiled beef. Above the sidewalk, a sign shone in fluorescent green and red outline, a central strand of black neon looping into letters: MACBHAIRAN PUB AND TEQUILERIA .
Most people in San Tamculo had no idea what Vjari-Movasi fusion food entailed. To be fair, most patrons left without the clearest idea, either. Aila’s parents claimed heritage from the fog-soaked moorlands of western Vjar, and blending their bland national dishes with the spice of Movasi cuisine came off as a family joke at first.
Twenty years later, the restaurant served as a marvel as much as an institution.
Tanya heaved open the wooden door, handle a knot of woven iron twisting into the head and tail of a diamondback dragon. Inside, they were struck by an onslaught of guitar music. Voices echoed off wooden beams and concrete walls with murals of Vjari sheep in festive sombreros. String lights dangled over tables and the scalloped tiers of a fountain, creating the illusion of an outdoor patio beneath twinkling stars. Clunky beer mugs and slim-necked margarita glasses peppered the tables.
From out of nowhere, a woman appeared to sweep Aila into a bear hug.
“There’s my lass! Tanya said you were on your way.”
Aila’s mother had even paler skin, more time spent inside tending tables than out in the sun. Her frizzy auburn hair made for a chaotic bob, the same hazel eyes with a few more laugh lines crinkling the edges. Tourmaline danced at their feet, unsure what everyone was excited about, but excited nonetheless. Aila tried not to let her smile crack into tears.
Her parents had never been animal people. They’d never quite understood what drove their daughter to pursue a career of meager salary and daily exposure to mud and bird droppings.
That never stopped them from being Aila’s biggest fans. On every trip to the bookstore, they escorted their daughter out with a tower of discount animal encyclopedias and field guides. They suffered a menagerie of pets, from purserats to snapping shrimp, to a vocal emerald cockatoo whose shrieks launched a war with the Homeowners’ Association.
Aila had been so busy with the renovations, she’d hardly talked to her parents in weeks. Their warm smiles welcomed her all the same.
“It’s good to see you, Mom,” Aila mumbled, cheeks too squished by the hug to enunciate properly.
“Well, have at it, then!” Her mother released her, punctuating her words with energetic hands. “How was the inspection? Just grand, I’m sure. With Rubra involved? Who couldn’t love that sweet pea of a bird?”
“Oh, you know,” Aila said. “The inspection was… long.”
“Which is why we’re here.” Tanya swung an arm around Aila’s shoulders. “To relax. And celebrate.”
“Celebrate?” Aila’s nose scrunched. “But we don’t even know what the inspector decided. What if I didn’t—”
“You did your best, Ailes. And now, you deserve a break.”
“I’ll let your pa know you’re here,” her mother said before Aila could protest. “He’ll be whippin’ up your favorite. Potato nachos, extra bacon n’ cheese.” She winked and ushered them to a table of thick wood, heavy lacquer. “And how is your lovely Rubra? Pretty as ever? I saw her in the news, you know! Just the loveliest photo, all puffed up and grand.”
Aila settled at the table, making a show of perusing the laminated menu she had memorized front to back. After two months of non-stop work and anxiety, her fingers jittered. She shouldn’t be sitting here. She should be doing something.
Then the first plate of food arrived: fried potatoes in three types of melted cheese, chopped bacon, sliced jalape?os and a glob of sour cream. One of Aila’s comfort foods since she was a kid, followed by a spread of corned beef and fish tacos in creamy sauces and crunchy chopped cabbage. Last, a chocolate chili torte, rich Ziclexian cacao spiced with hot Movasi peppers, enough to leave a fire on Aila’s tongue.
As she stuffed her face, her mother asked endless questions about her, about Rubra and all her other animals. Tanya went on and on about how tidy the phoenix complex looked, how well Aila had handled Archie during their disaster earlier that day.
They had done a lot of work, hadn’t they? Now, to wait for the verdict.
At least Aila had Tanya to lean on. And another giant hug from her mom as they left.
Though the prospect of failure loomed, a full stomach and an evening of smiling faces soothed Aila’s nerves enough to collapse into bed the moment she returned to her apartment and finished tending her animals. She curled up with Tourmaline and slept like she hadn’t in two months, dreaming of phoenixes.