Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 36

Horse hair tickles my cheek. The smell of dust, sweat, and hay fills my nostrils. I ride half asleep, leaning into Dancer's neck. My body tingles with warmth, beams of Nocturne Melody sunlight trapped inside me. A song Ma used to sing when Kel was a baby drifts in my head. Far off in the mind-world a dense pool of color pulses, carrying echoes of a gigantic symphony through the mountains. The Red City is close.

A voice, irritating as a gnat, disturbs my tranquility. It occurs to me my mare has stopped. With enormous effort, I squeeze my eyelids, until they release and flutter open.

"She's fine," I hear Tug say. "The bird-men attack left her petrified. I gave her something to calm her nerves." Calm her nerves! Bravo, Tug. An artful lie, in keeping with the Duke's opinion of my frailer sex.

"I am concerned her affection for the Prince will be the ruin of her," the Duke answers. "If her father knew what was going on, I am sure he would not approve."

The Duke is talking of the Delladean Lord Tersil, but it is Pa's face that forms on my inner eye. My father reaches out his arms, asking me to come home. I shake my head, partly telling him "no", partly to dislodge him from my thoughts.

"As you have noticed, Mirra is a determined young woman. Lord Tersil understood preventing his daughter from following the Prince would only backfire on him."

"I have seen it before," the Duke answers. "A lady with a broken heart is hard to coax back to the living."

"Prince Jakut will not break her heart." The abrupt finality in Tug's voice sounds false. He doubts his own words. It is as though they have both unknowingly started talking about Tug and the Duchess. "He has agreed for Mirra to be presented to the Court as your niece."

"For what good it will do."

The blurry Duke in his royal tunic melts into the mass of soldiers. I strain to sit up. Tug repeats my name, but it is the view ahead that catches my attention, and rivets my gaze.

Shimmering in the fiery glow of the evening sun, a city of ochre-tinted houses climbs to the sky. And high on the top, in a misty haze, stands the palace.

White flags fly from the spires of a dozen minarets. The massive tiered structure resembles a vertical maze of arcades, walkways, and stepped gardens. It is as though the soul of the Carucan people was distilled and poured into one perfect vision.

"It's beautiful," I murmur.

"Like all the deadliest things are," Tug says. "Give me the pain reliever." I take it from the pocket of my skirt and pass it to him, wondering what my father would think if he knew tonight I would be sleeping in Caruca's infamous Ruby Palace.

An image of Pa lying in the snow snaps to the front of my mind. Dark patches staining powder-white snow as his life force ebbs away. The bewildered expression on Ma's pale face as I told her she would have to build a shelter, and fire, and heal him without my help. Pa! I cover my eyes with my hand.

Arms wrap around my waist, and I am pulled from my mare. I moan as the pressure on my rib transforms to pain. My feet touch the ground, but I am so sleepy I can barely stand. Tug kneads my sides, his oafish hands prodding and pushing. I batter him away.

"What are you doing?" My words come out in a lazy drawl.

"I am checking if it is a bruise or a fracture, and nothing is moving."

"A bit late for that."

My neck lolls as I tilt to look at Beast-face. Guilt slithers in his eyes.

"We are almost at the royal stables at the bottom of the city," he says, "where we will rest the horses and eat before the climb. It will be a slow ride up the mountain, and well after supper before we reach the palace. You will be able to go straight to your chambers and sleep. No more Nocturne Melody."