“Where are you going?” Ajana asked in a sing- song voice that made his steps slow. He wanted to stay with her. Just hearing her made him want to turn around and run back to her arms. He took in a deep breath, however, and continued on. Eventually, he knew, he would have to walk without the safety net he‘d been hiding in since being found.
“Just for a little walk,” he said. He heard the trotting feet before he felt a cool hand slip into his. He glanced down at his own hand then at Serai who smiled so innocently at him that all his concern melted away.
“I will come. I want to see this place. It is… singing to me.”
That made Reven smile. He heard the same song. Knowing that Serai heard it as well made him feel a little less crazy, a little less lonely. While Ajana was entrancing, she belonged to Liam. Serai belonged only to herself.
“Do you speak the language spoken here, master bard?” Serai asked in soft but fluent Damaskhan tongue. He glanced at her, grinning with surprise at her knowledge. She surprised him often, he found, something he was beginning to like a great deal.
“I do,” he said in equally eloquent Damaskhan. “I don’t how or why, but that seems fairly common for me.”
“You do not remember much, do you?” she asked, staring straight ahead as they walked hand-in- hand. They heard shouts from inside certain buildings or music from others. A few of the inns and taverns interspersed between guild houses were a riot of noises and scents that made Serai peek around Reven or tug him to one side of the cobbled street over the other to get a better look.
“Nothing at all, actually,” he admitted while staring at an odd sculpture in the front lawn of the metal smith guild. He tilted his head to the side, trying to put together what the welded pieces were intended to represent. Serai did the same, then tilted her head in the opposite direction. It did no good.
“What is it?” Serai finally asked. Reven snorted a laugh and shrugged.
“No clue,” he answered turning back to the street, to the house at the bottom of the hill. It called to him. The closer he got, the more his head hurt until he felt himself stop completely at the halfway point between Ajana and the house. Serai looked up at him, her eyes beseeching, red hair in wild disarray that was made worse by the breeze. At least this time she wore pants.
“Come,” Serai said, rocking him from his stupor. “Ajana is calling.”
He turned to look at the thief-taker. Liam stood beside her, arms folded while Ajana waved them back. Reven took one last look at the house at the bottom of the hill and then trudged back toward his friends.
***
Kaleo stepped out onto the porch after a good long soak in the bath and a hot meal in his belly. The coolness on the air was refreshing, helping him clear his mind. The conversations with Zuri were rather heavy, revealing more about his father than he originally knew. While he knew his father was no saint, he did not know that the former prince kept two other mistresses besides Zuri inside the Chateaus de Soie. Zuri’s son, Idris,
was another surprise; he belonged to Gannon Oenel. While Zuri had never said as much to her son, and never intended to, Kaleo put the pieces together rather quickly. She’d wanted a child and begged one of the prince. Much to Kaleo’s surprise, Gannon obliged her. Kaleo knew Idris. He was a few years older than Kaleo was, and a great thief-taker among other things. Noelani would have kittens if she knew about Idris. She would have kittens anyway.
He also learned that Aeron returned to the Chateaus de Soie after failing to find Gannon and then promptly left again, this time heading east. The last letter Zuri received from the young heir set him somewhere in Kormaine. The human-run nation that sat between Damaskha and what was now known as Cartha was not generally ‘tirsai friendly’. Recent rumors also put them in direct path of the demons that sacked the Phoenix Empire and Asphondel. It concerned him and put a seed of debate in his heart: did he continue looking for his father or did he go after Aeron?
What troubles you, little one? Fionn asked. He was close, probably loitering somewhere directly behind the Chateaus.
“Aeron, and my father,” Kaleo said aloud. Fionn could still hear him, still respond. They were not bothered by distance. “He’s not who I thought he was, Fionn.”
Does that change anything? The large chimera replied. Kaleo sighed, leaning on the banister. He felt much better now that he was clean and better still in clothes that were not covered in stains.
“I suppose not,” he said, glancing up to the stars above. His mouth dropped as he saw an orange-blue speck flying high in the sky. “It can’t be…”
He stumbled off the porch and out into the yard, eyes glued to the sky. He ran right into the iron gate, only barely remembering to pull it open before continuing on. The bird above had distinct coloring. There was more blue than orange, a color so electric and bright that it stood out against the night sky.
“Azure,” he breathed out. His steps increased in speed as the bird’s speed increased. He ran all the way up the hill and around corners, barreling into people with barely an uttered apology until reaching the
