The Eagle And The Nightingales

'I have work tomorrow, and so do you,' she said_then hesitated. 'I don't suppose that you might be free tomorrow afternoon, though, would you?'

'Normally the King does not need me in the afternoon,' he said cautiously. 'And at the moment, I believe I have learned all that I am likely to for a while from the Afternoon Court. Why?'

'Because I'd like to guide you in the city, to give you some idea what places are safe for you,' she replied unexpectedly. 'And there is someone I would like you to meet. Well, more than one person, actually, but there is one person I particularly want you to meet, someone I think will surprise you very pleasantly. I know he would like to meet you. If you'd like to come along with me, that is.'

He struggled with his misgivings for some time before answering. He was so lonely_he hadn't realized just how lonely he was until tonight, but the few hours spent with Nightingale had forced him to see just how much he needed a real friend. Not someone like the Lord Seneschal, nor like Nob. The former was using him, and T'fyrr was using the Seneschal, and both were aware and comfortable with the arrangement. The latter was a child, and no real companion or equal. But Nightingale was different, even among all of the people he had met since leaving the mountains. She was comfortable with him; when he was with her, sometimes he turned to her and blinked to see that she did not have a beak and feathers. The only humans that comfortable among the Haspur were the ones who lived among them, sharing their mountaintop settlements and their lives. In a way, those people were as much Haspur as human.

'I_I think I would enjoy that,' he said finally, letting his hunger for companionship overcome his misgivings. 'Shall I meet you here, on the roof?'

'Perfect,' she said. 'Just after noon. Now, you'd better go, while the moon is still up.'

He nodded_then, impulsively, reached out with a gentle talon and touched her cheek. She placed her own hand on the talon, and brushed her cheek and hair along the back of his hand in a caress of her own.

Then she released him_and afraid of doing or saying anything else that might release his pent-up emotions, he turned away from her abruptly.

Without stopping to make a more protracted farewell, he leapt to the top of the balustrade and flung himself over the edge of the roof, snapping his wings open and catching the rising current of warm air coming from the pavement below. In a moment, he was too far from Freehold to see if she was still there watching him.

But he sensed her, felt her eyes somehow finding him in the darkness, as he winged his way back to the Palace.

And he wished that he could turn and fly back to her.

In deference to Nightingale_Tanager, he reminded himself. On the street, she is Tanager._in deference to Tanager they were afoot, but this section of the city was not as crowded as the streets around Freehold, and as before, crowds seemed to part before them, anyway. It was hot; he held his wings away from his body in a futile effort to cool himself, and his beak gaped a bit as he panted. Tanager looked comfortable enough, although there were beads of moisture on her brow and running down the back of her neck. She wasn't wearing much by human standards, although her costume revealed less than that of some of the humans he'd seen in the Palace.

Many of the people here were wearing similar clothing, anyway. Perhaps in deference to the heat, they had foregone some of that silly human body modesty. He would have been more comfortable doing without his body- wrapping, but Nob had advised against such a move.

'Where are we going?' he asked, dodging around a child playing in the middle of the walkway, oblivious to the foot traffic around her.

'I told you, I want you to meet someone, but first I want you to hear him speak,' she said as she threaded her way along the narrow, stone-paved streets, slipping skillfully between pushcarts and around knots of playing children. 'You'll understand why I want you to meet him once you've heard him.'

At that moment, she darted across the street with him in tow and trotted up the worn steps of a fairly nondescript grey stone building. It wasn't until they were almost inside the door that he suddenly realized the building had a steeple_it was, in fact, a Church building, a Chapel, as they called them here.

He started to balk, but changed his mind just as abruptly as Tanager slipped inside the open door. I have heard her express fear of Church Priests. I have seen the trouble that some of these men have caused her people as well as me. She would not bring me here if she did not have a very good reason. Was this the place where she intended to have him meet that special person she had spoken of last night?

Could it_could it be her lover?

For some reason, his chest tightened at that thought, and he wanted, passionately, for that person to be anything, anyone, but a lover.