Promising Light (46 page)

“Would you like some tea, dear?”
Di asked.

“Yes, please,” Matilda
said.

Sierra sat next to Grace on the
couch. “How did it go today? Any leads?” Sierra asked.

They exchanged stories about their
days over dinner. Matilda had been able to get some more money, and
they bought new provisions for their next trip: a new tent, dried
meat and fruit, and weapons, including a crossbow for
Matilda.

After cleaning up after dinner and
setting up their beds, they decided to spend another day in Aron to
see if they could find any help. If not, they needed to go to
another town to find a Boren who knew something about the
tigers.

Grace crawled into bed with Dar,
and the others quieted around them. The room was dim, the fireplace
sending sporadic slivers of light onto the ceiling. She could see
the outline of Dar’s face across from her. She reached for him
under the covers and found his arm. He turned toward her and kissed
her on the forehead. Warmth spread from the place where his lips
had touched and she closed her eyes. She wished it was just the two
of them somewhere safe, away from the curse and the
Protectors.

He ran a hand through her hair, and
she moved closer to him. Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around
her. His scent filled her as she rested her head against his
shoulder. When she lay next to Dar, she couldn’t picture herself
anywhere else.

* * *

A soft knocking stirred Grace from
her heavy sleep. What was that? She rubbed her eyes as the knocking
persisted.

Dar rolled out of bed, finding his
sword on the ground. “I’ll get it.”

He walked to the door as Grace sat
up. She glanced around the room; the fire in the wood stove was
running low. They must have been asleep for a couple
hours.

Dar called, “Who is it?”

“This is George,” a faint voice
came from the other side of the door.

By now, the others sleeping in the
living room were also up. Grace could see their dim forms in the
dark room and heard Matilda loading her crossbow. “George?” Matilda
asked sharply. “The old Boren?”

Dar slowly opened the door. “What
is it?”

“I’d like to speak to the Lady
Grace and Lee,” George’s raspy voice responded. “And you and his
cousin, I suppose.”

Dar hesitated. “Evan, give me the
Mahri manacle, then I’ll get Lee.”

Grace went to the fireplace and
poked at the coals, trying to raise the fire to get some light in
the room. Evan went to the door with the manacle, and after a
moment, George stepped in carefully, and Dar led him to one of the
chairs.

The sparks flared as Grace eased a
small log into the fireplace. The fire cast a small amount of light
on the crowded room, figures moving back and forth like
shadows.

A few minutes later, Lee was out of
his room, and they sat around the living room, waiting for George
to finish sipping his tea. Matilda stood at the door with her
crossbow. Grace wished she’d sit down; she was making her
nervous.

George set his teacup down on the
table and looked up. “I know what you’re searching for. When I was
younger… still not as young as you, Lee… I lived in Haltar for a
while. In Nyad, the tropics. I met some tigers. I think I met the
ones you’re looking for.”

Grace held her breath. He moved his
hands toward the fireplace, warming his fingers on the
heat.

“Tigers don’t have a sense of family. They’re mostly
solitary, but
I stayed with
one or two—separate ones, mind you, they didn’t get along. I was
with them for a few months while trying to escape some Protectors.
This is when they were just starting up, when Custer the shape
changer was messing about with things in the royal family… it
happened before any of you were born.”

Grace remembered the story from
Jeshro: the shape changers who infiltrated the royal court. It
happened a decade before William’s father Thomas was crowned
king.

“Anyways, all the magical folk
were being run out of Renaul. It wasn’t a good time.” George took a
sip of his tea. “The point is, these tigers said something about
Avialies. They said something about the ancient books. That’s what
you’re looking for, isn’t it?”

Lee glanced at Dar, who nodded.
“Yes,” Lee told George. “Yes, and you said these tigers were in
Nyad?”

“They were forty years ago,”
George said. “It was in Mumbar Jungle, anyway, and no one goes
there, so they must still be there.”

No one said anything for a moment.
The jungle was the main setting of the scary stories Kyler used to
tell her, the place Jocelyn’s mother said she’d send Grace and
Jocelyn if they didn’t stop pestering her. Grace remembered her
visit to Nyad and the night everyone on the political trip had
talked about Mumbar Jungle, trying to scare Governor Peter’s
daughters.

“Those legends are true?” Grace
asked. “I mean, it’s not just a place to scare
children?”

“Oh, no,” George said, laughing.
“I’d never return there.”

“But that’s where the tigers were?
The ones who know about the ancient texts?”

George nodded. Behind Grace,
Matilda swore and talked quietly with Chad.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me
asking…” Grace trailed off. “Were you blind when you went to Mumbar
Jungle?”

“I was born this way,” George said
quietly.

“How did you survive?”

“I survived because I was a Boren.
The jungle is crawling with animals, and some of them were quick to
be friendly when they realized I could communicate with them. They
protected me from most of the dangers. In the jungle, hearing the
animals gave me vision of the place I was in.” He reached down and
pulled up his pant leg to reveal blackened skin on his leg. Grace
held back a gasp; his entire leg and foot was black, and the skin
looked warped, like it may have been burned. “I didn’t get out
without trouble, though. No, I didn’t…”

“Are you sure?” Dar asked. “Are
you sure the tigers there know where the ancient texts
are?”

“They had some pact,” George said
with a shrug. “I didn’t ask much about it, but they asked me if I
was looking for them. They said someone was supposed to come along
to get them.”

“Did they say where they were?”
Dar asked.

George shook his head. “They didn’t
mention it again after I told them I wasn’t a shape
changer.”

Grace swallowed, glancing at
Sierra, who sat next to her. “Mumbar Jungle,” Sierra said
faintly.

George stood up. “Mumbar Jungle,”
he repeated. “I met the tigers by the waterfall, but they roamed a
large area.”

“The waterfall,” Grace whispered.
There was a waterfall in Lisbeth’s vision. Could the texts really
be in Mumbar Jungle? Could they really break the curse
there?

“Thank you,” Lee said, getting to
his feet. “Can you tell us more about the jungle? How we might
survive?”

George reached for his walking
stick, shuddering. “That place nearly killed me… on numerous
occasions. My advice… find some animals willing to help. Stay away
from the vicious ones. Don’t disturb anything. Don’t even eat the
plants you find there.”

“But maybe you could help us with
a map,” Lee said.

George shook his head and walked
through the maze of couches, chairs, and tables. “No, I want to
leave that place in my past.”

“George,” Lee said
softly.

“Leave me be!” George said,
hitting his shin on a chair.

“All right, I’m sorry.” Lee led
him through the living room to the door. “Thank you,
George.”

“The dominant tiger
when I was there was named Naja, but he’s probably dead by
now,” George said. His gaze roamed the room, never landing on one
detail. “Good luck and God bless… oh, may He bless
you.”

Grace sighed as George left and she
looked at Sierra. “Well, I don’t know if that was good news or bad
news.”

* * *

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

The next morning, as everyone was
waking up, Lee came into the living room. He glanced around
furtively. “Listen. I’m going to try to go to Nyad with you, but I
need to speak to my boss, Paul. I’ll tell my mother
later.”

“Are you sure?” Grace couldn’t
help asking. “I mean… it could be dangerous.”

Matilda scoffed. “It
is
dangerous.”

“I know that,” Lee said, waving
his hand. “I’m telling her I’m just going to work, so keep that up,
all right?”

They nodded, and he ducked outside.
Di came back inside a few minutes later with eggs from the
chickens. “Good morning,” she said cheerily.

Grace’s stomach twisted in guilt,
and she avoided looking directly at Di for the rest of the
morning.

During breakfast, Dar spread maps
on the table, and Grace looked over them. Mumbar Jungle was in Nyad
and parts of Jolen. Governor Peter’s house wasn’t far from the
jungle. Grace could have been only miles from the ancient texts
without even realizing it.

“We can either go through Haltar,”
Dar said, leading his finger up from Kleisade to Nyad. “Or into
Jolen.”

“If we go through Jolen, it could
add two days,” Evan said.

Someone pounded on the front door,
and everyone fell silent. Di stood from her armchair and looked out
the window. Her eyes widened. “It’s a carriage with a royal
flag!”

“What?” Evan said,
standing.

Matilda grabbed Grace and Sierra’s
arms and chanted while Dar and Evan changed. Chad began gathering
up the maps and shoving them into a burlap sack. He threw a plate
into the sink, and it shattered. The sound made Grace jump, her
heart slamming against her chest.

“Cut it out, I’ll hide their
plates, too!” Matilda said. She turned to Grace and Sierra. “Get
out of the seats in case people sit down.”

Grace squeezed past Dar’s form of
Ira Herlonsen; she stumbled on his foot, and he caught her. Smiling
despite the circumstances, she moved to stand behind the couch with
Sierra.

Di opened the door as the others
sat down around the kitchen table. “Can I—oh, my!” Di
said.

Sierra grabbed Grace’s hand,
squeezing it hard.

“Ms. Diana, we request an audience
with you and your son,” a voice outside said. Grace didn’t
recognize it.

“Oh, of course,” Di said. “My son
isn’t home at the moment, but please come in.”

She stepped back, and a man with
dark curly hair walked in. Sierra leaned close to Grace. “He’s a
Protector. He was the one who found us at Vin and Amina’s. I think
his name is Arlan.”

Arlan was bigger than Lesado, but
looked just as arrogant as he surveyed Di’s house with an upturned
lip. Prince William came next, then Kyler. Grace tightened her grip
on Sierra’s hand, covering her gasp with her other hand. What was
her brother doing here?

“That’s my brother,” she breathed
to Sierra.

Kyler ran a hand through his light
brown hair as he looked at his surroundings. He stood proud and
tall, even next to Prince William, who pet the gray cat as the
animal walked across the top of the couch Matilda and Dar sat
on.

“What are they doing here?” Grace
whispered. The reward wasn’t out here… they couldn’t arrest them
without approval of Aron authorities, right? That’s what everyone
said, but she knew more about tigers than she knew about
politics.

“Um, please have a seat, I’ll make
you some tea,” Di said. “Chad, please introduce
everyone.”

They exchanged pleasantries, and
the prince sat in Di’s armchair. Grace wondered if they had a Cosa
in their party, one who was walking around outside right now,
searching for enchantments to tear down. What would they do when
she and the rest of those hiding were revealed?

Di came back in with teacups for
her new guests. “Your Highness, what brings you to Aron?” As she
poured tea for them, her hand shook just the slightest.

William looked at the guests. The
kitchen table sat behind Di’s numerous couches, and they could all
share in the same conversation without raising their voices. “I
think confidentiality would be in our best interests. We’d like to
talk to your son, as well.”

Di nodded, handing him a teacup.
“I’m sorry Lee’s not here. I don’t know when he’ll be
back.”

“Where is he?” William
asked.

“He’s working in the fields.” Di
looked at the clock as she wrung her hands. “Usually he stops by
for lunch. He may be here in about a couple hours, but you may have
more luck going there to speak with him.”

William and Arlan exchanged
glances. Arlan pulled a scroll out of his jacket. “We also wanted
to alert you to some criminals who may be in the area. These three
people have kidnapped a woman of the court.”

“My sister,” Kyler said, his voice
hoarse.