City of Death (24 page)

Bayang gave a polite cough. “With all due respect, the accusations against me were false.”

Scirye shifted her feet uncomfortably. “And anyway, we really shouldn't have been taken to the Chamber of Truth since it was illegal.”

Lord Tsirauñe exchanged guilty glances with his wife before Lady Sudarshane said, “It's our fault. We should never have let the vizier's guards take you.”

“Thank Nanaia you escaped,” her father said and then scratched the tip of his nose. “You know, when the Chamber was operating legally, no one ever broke free from there? How many parents can brag that their daughter not only escaped but was the number one criminal in the empire?”

Lady Sudarshane wrapped her arms around her husband and daughter. “We're not supposed to be proud of that, dear.”

Lord Tsirauñe laughed. “Well, we always hoped Scirye would leave her mark on the world, but I wish she would've done something safer—like knitting the longest scarf in the world.”

Scirye returned their embrace just as fiercely, but she couldn't help wondering if she would ever get to do this again. Only the goddess knew.

Finally, her mother said, “When Kat informed us of the vizier's treachery, the princess thought it would be better if we got you first. Once you were safe back at the citadel, she could tell His Highness what the vizier had done. She was afraid that if she told His Highness right away, he would send an expedition, which would be bound to have some of the vizier's assassins.”

Kles understood court intrigues. “Who might arrange an unfortunate accident that would remove inconvenient witnesses like us.”

Bayang looked at the rescue party. “But she sent only five of you?”

“Five are more than enough,” Kat replied, “if it's the griffin master and three Pippalanta and one former member.”

“True enough,” the dragon gladly conceded.

After Scirye had introduced Bayang to the Pippalanta, Lady Sudarshane glanced around. “Now where is that weasel of a vizier? I want to wring his neck.” Her mother made a choking motion with both hands.

“The vizier is dead,” Scirye said. “He was killed by a makara in the lake.”

“I suppose it's only fitting that his pet should take care of him.” Her father clapped his hands together. “So now we can take you home.”

Scirye tensed, suddenly dreading the next moment. “I need to go on to the City of Death with my friends. Roland bought the loyalty of the vizier's guards here, and I bet he's done the same with the ones sent to protect the city.”

Remembering their argument in the stables, Scirye cringed and waited for an angry confrontation—or worse, some condescending remark—but her father simply frowned thoughtfully.

Bayang added, “And Roland will have his hired thugee too.”

“Thugee?” Lady Sudarshane looked as if the very word were disgusting. “The man's shameless.”

“The news gets worse and yet,” Lord Tsirauñe regarded his daughter, “you mean to go on?”

Scirye tried to look him in the eye to show her determination. “Yes.”

Her mother studied her as if she no longer recognized her daughter. “I didn't want to believe the tales about you, but you've changed. Perhaps this is the goddess's doing.”

“Excuse me, my lady,” Bayang said, “but I think Scirye's heart was always this strong. It was just hidden until the attack at the museum cracked the shell.”

“She's grown up,” Lord Tsirauñe admitted and smiled sadly. “Even if it's better for the world, I still wish it could have taken longer.”

Her mother gazed at her with fierce pride. “Scirye, whether it's your choice or the goddess's, we'll help you.”

Scirye stared at them in surprise.

Lady Sudarshane put a finger to Scirye's chin and gently shut her open mouth. “Back at the citadel, your father and I were trying so hard to avoid the truth. Going to the city is Tumarg.”

There was no need to explain further. Her parents had taught her, just as they had taught Nishke, that honor came before even personal safety.

Her father nodded. “Many talk about Tumarg, but few follow it. We're very proud of you.”

Scirye felt a warm glow as her mother added with a shrug. “Anyway, your father and I were talking about doing more together as a family—though I had hoped it would be a picnic.”

When her mother glanced over at the Pippalanta, Kat spoke for them. “Count us in too. We have a score to settle with this Badik and Roland.” Oko and Wali grinned as they nodded.

As Kles hastily adjusted her clothes and hair, Scirye turned to the golden cloud that had been hovering nearby. “Nandi, can you take a message back to Princess Maimantstse at the citadel?”

A hole appeared in the mist that curved upward at the ends like a smile. “I think that would come under my mistress's instructions to help you.”

Her parents gave a description of Princess Maimantstse's palace and then said, “Please tell her that we will not be coming back with Scirye because Roland will be at the city soon and the vizier's guards will probably help him, not stop him. Ask her to bring every warrior she can muster and join us there.” Her father finished with a bow. “If you tell her that, the House of Rapaññe will be in your debt.”

Nandi's misty tendril waggled back and forth. “Consider it partial payment from the House of Urak and from myself.”

Then he began to glide upward until he was ten yards above their heads. Extending a dozen tendrils, he waved toward the paradise. A moment later, a shimmering cloud rose above the roofs of the island and sped toward him. As it neared, Scirye saw the butterflies flittering through the air in a horde.

She watched them and Nandi speed toward Bactra. “Good-bye and thank you.” She kept waving until they were out of sight.

As her mother watched the ifrit with the long train of glistening butterflies behind him, she murmured, “Your father and I can't wait to hear the rest of your tale.”

Koko began to brush some of the dirt from his fur. “Just think of it as a picnic with guns and monsters instead of mosquitoes and ants. Do we have fun or what?”

 

45

Leech

Her parents came for her.
The Voice sounded amazed and sad.

“They must love her a lot,” Leech agreed.

He hadn't realized he'd spoken out loud until Koko punched him lightly in the arm. “What do you expect? She's got a pedigree. She's not a mutt like you and me.”

Leech hadn't been able to take his eyes away from Scirye and her family. “That's the way parents are supposed to be, isn't it? I mean, not abandon them or kill them, actually protect their children,” he said wistfully.

“Are you thinking about your own parents or Lee No Cha's?” Bayang asked thoughtfully.

Careful. If she thinks I'm here,
the Voice sounded frightened but defiant,
it won't matter that you're different from me. As long as I'm inside you, she'll have to kill you too.

Leech felt his stomach flip-flop, but he forced himself to look right back at the dragon. “I don't know anything about my own folks so I've been wondering about Lee No Cha's. They were so cruel.”

“I was curious too so I read our records as part of my briefing for my mission,” Bayang said. “The dragon elders gave Lee's family a choice: kill Lee or we would exterminate the entire clan. It was a choice no parents would want to make.”

Leech cringed inside.
No wonder you don't trust anyone,
he said to the Voice.

I dare you to ask your “friend” about the other killings,
the Voice taunted.

Even though Leech did not want to, he had to know. “But with the later reincarnations, you dragons took over the executions. Wasn't his first death enough?”

Bayang looked away in embarrassment. “The elders didn't want to take the risk.”

And so Bayang had become the Hunter and Lee No Cha the Hunted.

But again Leech sensed there was something beyond that bond between Bayang and the Voice. And then the boy remembered what Bayang had said about her own youth and her reasons for becoming a warrior. “How old were you when Badik started his war?” the boy asked.

“About the equivalent of a six-year-old human,” Bayang said.

“I bet you were too small and weak to fight against grown dragons,” Leech said.

“Unfortunately, that was all too true,” Bayang admitted.

Leech touched his arm, feeling for his missing armband. “But what if you'd had a powerful device back then and you had met Badik?”

“I'd have broken every bone in his body,” Bayang replied without hesitation.

Leech felt as if he were acting as an interpreter for both Bayang and the Voice. “So maybe Lee was just as scared and just as angry when he killed the dragon prince.”

“I would never have made a belt out of Badik's hide like Lee No Cha did with his victim,” Bayang snapped.

I thought if I gave it to father, he wouldn't get mad,
the Voice insisted.

Leech tried to convey the Voice's thoughts to the dragon. “Maybe he panicked. He was only a kid after all. Maybe he was more afraid of what his parents would say than of the dragons. So he thought if he gave his father a gift, he wouldn't be so angry.”

Bayang arched her neck so her face was in front of Leech's. Her eyes bored into his as if she were hunting for Lee hiding inside him. “Do you think he eventually realized it was wrong?”

Leech took a step back before that penetrating gaze, and he heard the Voice give an involuntary whimper.
It was a bad thing to do,
the Voice confessed. The shame was plain in his tone.

“Yes, I think he … did,” Leech said to the dragon and added for the benefit of both the Voice and the dragon. “We can't undo the bad things we did, but we can try to do good things to try to balance things out. I mean, you were an assassin but then you became my bodyguard.”

Bayang folded her forelegs, tapping a claw against her scales as she thought a moment. “And I hope I'm your friend too.”

“And what about Lee if he was alive?” Leech asked. “You're like each other in a way.”

Suddenly they heard Momo call down from above them. “Look out below.”

Leech leaned his head back to see the badger riding on a sleek thoroughbred griffin. It might have even been the one that had carried the vizier to the villa.

A sack plummeted toward the ground, and the Amazons, who'd been tending their griffins, shoved their mounts away as they themselves jumped back before the bag thumped down in their midst with metallic clinks.

“I found this stuff while I was taking my severance pay from the vizier's baggage,” Momo hollered. She pointed to the large bundle still tied behind her on the griffin's back and then pointed below. “I thought you might need your things back.”

Leech ran to the sack immediately and opened it to reveal Pele's charms, the pouch with the chess piece, and Leech's armbands—the hag's belt must still be at the citadel being studied by the mages. M
ā
ka's zodiac necklace and belt of star charms were there, though, and so, unfortunately, was her grimoire.

“My armbands,” Leech said, holding them up lovingly.

“And my book,” M
ā
ka said, hugging it to her.

Tute rolled his eyes. “There's always some bad news to balance out the good.”

Koko cupped his paws around his mouth to form a megaphone. “Okay, doll, I forgive you.”

“That's nice,” Momo shouted sassily, “but who asked you to do that, handsome? Maybe I'll bump into you again somewhere somewhen and we can chat again.”

“Count on it, doll,” Koko promised.

At a kick of Momo's heels, the griffin banked and then began flapping toward the south.

Koko set his paws on his ample hips. “Now there goes a badger after my own heart.”

“She turned out to be nice after all,” Leech said.

Koko grinned. “Nice-schmice. Did you see the size of her sack of loot?”

He was still shaking his head in admiration as Momo vanished into the sky, griffin, stolen treasure, and all.

 

46

Leech

Leech couldn't wait to mount the flying discs once more. As he rose into the air, Lord Tsirauñe gazed at him. “So it's true.”

Aware of all their eyes on him, Leech skipped through the air like a stone over a lake.

Tute butted M
ā
ka's hip. “Now, if you could work that kind of magic, we'd actually get to finish a performance.”

“I'm afraid these are one of a kind,” Leech said as he glided back to them. He swung his arm, pleased at the familiar weight of his weapon armband.

“Don't forget this. You may need it in the mountains even with the clothes Princess Catisa gave us,” Scirye said, holding out one of Pele's charms to Leech.

“What about your parents?” he asked.

Lord Tsirauñe waved a hand to include not only his wife but the Amazons. “We have a warming charm written on the inside of our traveling outfits. So don't worry about us.”

Scirye started to tie a charm around Kles, but he waved his paw toward M
ā
ka and Tute. “I'm used to the temperatures up here. They'll need it more. As long as one of the charm holders touches those who don't have it, they should stay warm too.” So Scirye passed it on to the magician.

Tute bumped her leg. “At last, you've got some magic that works.”

M
ā
ka sniffed as she tied the charm about her neck. “A little encouragement wouldn't hurt, you know.”

“I just wish there was a charm against monsters,” Koko said.

“Roland and his monsters scare me,” Scirye confessed, “but you know what frightens me even more? Dealing with the goddess.”