Cheyenne cocked her head as she listened to the conversation. The only words she could pick out were Aranél and Cu’ón, but she recognized the language. She turned toward Maleshi and pointed at the raugs. “Are they speaking French?”
“Ouí.” The general chuckled at Cheyenne’s confusion. “Don’t tell me you never wondered why a separate world full of magic and every race under the sun except the human race was full of magicals speaking English.”
“Of course I wondered.” Cheyenne folded her arms. “I guess I figured it was because of the portals or something. I don’t know. You guys travel back and forth all the time, don’t you?”
Corian snorted. “Only some of us, kid.”
Maleshi shot him an exasperated glance but couldn’t help a smile. “It has something to do with the portals, sure. Our worlds are connected. Nobody can argue that. Very few O’gúleesh magicals speak the old O’gúleesh tongue day-to-day, minus the few colorful words thrown in for fun.”
“So, what? Everyone just speaks English and French instead?”
“Try all Earth languages.” With his hands clasped behind his back, L’zar wiggled his eyebrows at his daughter and grinned. “Earthside portals exist all over the world. It wouldn’t make sense if we only spoke English and French over here, now would it?”
Cheyenne shook her head in disbelief. “How long has this been a thing?”
Corian shrugged. “As long as the portals, I assume. It’s anyone’s guess.”
“The only pure O’gúleesh language still intact is our alphabet.” Maleshi chuckled and stared wistfully across the small courtyard in front of the gates. “Let me tell ya, kid, it took me a hell of a lot longer than I expected to nail down reading and writing after I made the crossing. Just one of those things you don’t think much about when you’re abandoning your post and a dying world to start over fresh.”
Ember slid her hands down her cheeks and let out a surprised chuckle. “Raugs speaking French. Now I’ve seen it all. What else is there?”
Corian smiled at her. “The Golra have a fluent understanding of almost every Chinese dialect.”
Cheyenne barked a laugh, then cleared her throat. “Nu’ek too?”
“Probably.”
Foltr nodded at the raug guards and turned slowly toward the group, shambling back with his staff clicking on the stone.
L’zar dipped his head toward the ancient magical. “Well?”
“It’s a start.” Foltr looked at Ember and raised his thick brows over wrinkled eyelids. “They need your help.”
“My help?” Ember glanced at the others. “You’re not talking about just me.”
“Yes. Just you.” Foltr grumbled something unintelligible, then looked at Maleshi. “They don’t want us here. Especially you, General.”
“They recognized me, huh?”
“Yes. They also made it perfectly clear they have ended all ties with the capital and whatever fate befalls it.” He lifted a crooked gray finger at Ember. “But they need you.”
“To do what?”
“They need a fae. A healer. There’s a dying raug inside those gates who stands to meet the final deathflame far before his time. If you can save him, these gates will open for all of us. They’ll give us a warm raug welcome, and we can sit down with whomever we like to discuss how they can help us.”
L’zar chuckled. “’Warmraug welcome?’ There’s a term you don’t hear every day.”
“If it didn’t exist before, it will after this.” Foltr waved Ember forward. “Let’s get it done.”
“For real?” Ember looked at Cheyenne. “Is he serious?”
“It’s healing, Em. No spells. You just do it, right?”
The fae glanced at Foltr, who was shuffling away again. “I guess.”
Cheyenne nodded. “You got this.”
L’zar sat down outside the front gates, stretching his legs out in front of him and propping himself up with his hands. “We’ll be waiting for you. Try to be quick about it.”
“Oh, sure. I’ll just rush the healing of a dying raug. No problem.” Rolling her eyes, Ember floated after Foltr, clenching and unclenching her fists at her sides.
L’zar chuckled. “I like a fae who talks back to me.”
Corian snorted. “You like anyone who talks to you at all.”
“Not true, but nice try.”
Cheyenne watched Ember and Foltr follow the guards through the door at the base of the massive gates. “So we wait.”
Maleshi set a hand on the halfling’s shoulder and dipped her head. “We’re not storming into this stronghold, kid. I can tell you that much.”
“As long as they let her back out.”
“If she heals this raug, they will.”
When the small door shut behind the raug guards, Cheyenne sat down on the ground too and crossed her legs. “There’s no if. She’ll get it done. That’s what fae do, right?”
“It certainly seems that way.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ember floated behind Foltr and their raug escorts into Hirúl Breach. She didn’t get to see much of it after they passed through the gate, but it was enough to convince her she’d walked into one more giant city she knew nothing about. And I’m here playing magical doctor. Okay. I can do this.
The guards led them into a long, low building built against the wall of the canyon. They climbed three sets of narrow staircases and stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. One raug pressed his palm to the door and nodded at her. “Don’t let him kick you out, fae. He does that.”
“Okay.”
He shoved the door open and gestured for her to walk in. She floated through the door, and the other guard held out his hand to block Foltr from entering as well. “Only the healer, old one.”
Foltr grunted and lifted his staff, preparing to knock the guard’s hand aside. “I’m old, brother. Not useless. I can help.”
“Not if you catch what eats this one.”
“Hmm.” Foltr stepped back and called through the door, “I’ll be outside, girl. Call if you need anything.”
“Right.” Before she could say anything else, the guards pulled the heavy door shut with a bang. Wrinkling her nose, she scanned
