Daughter of the Centaurs by Kate Klimo

Author:Kate Klimo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-01-24T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

The Magic Canopy

It is the room Malora saw when she smelled Orion’s scent Homeward Bound. There is the high vaulted ceiling with the mosaic of an orange sun in the center. The bed has a canopy of blue filmy material that the night breeze gently ruffles. Malora walks to the foot of the bed and sits down. She looks back out the arched doorway. While they are closed for the night, the buds of the flowers growing in the pots are as big as baby’s fists and will, in the morning sunlight, open up into lush, oversized blooms. The tiny, colorful birds must all be asleep, but she sees that the fruits on the trees shine like gems and look ripe for the picking. She hears the sound of running water.

“Is there a stream nearby?” she asks.

“There is a fountain in the garden below us,” he says. “Medon thought of every detail when he made this room for me when I first came here. He thinks I sleep in it every night, and I never had the heart to tell him otherwise. It always seemed a shame to let this lovely room go to waste, but I could never bring myself to sleep in here. How can I put it? The room never seemed meant for me. Perhaps it is meant for you instead.”

Malora rises from the bed and walks out into the big room. She looks around for Jayke’s rope, finds it lying on the floor near the door, and returns to the bedchamber. Going directly to the hook on the wall, she hangs the coiled rope.

Behind her, Honus lets out his bark of laughter when he sees what she has done with the rope. “Oh, that’s perfect!” he says. “Why, it’s a horse wrangler’s wreath. That settles it. This room is meant for you. Now, is there anything else I can get you before I retire?”

“No,” Malora whispers.

“Please avail yourself of the marble convenience. I’ll leave the lantern burning in the big room and one of my sleeping shirts hanging outside your door. Lessons will begin first thing in the morning.” He bows and leaves.

Malora takes refuge between the covers. The mattress molds to her body. Her heart calms as she gazes up at the canopy. The stars on the blue fabric, like golden pebbles seen through deep waters, shift with the breeze and form themselves into pictures: a running girl with flowing hair, a galloping horse, a centaur, a horse with wings, a giant raptor, a lion, a serpent, a man pulling back the string of a bow who looks just like Jayke.

Honus awakes when the sun rising over the Hills of Melea seeps beneath his eyelids. The book he was reading last night, Lives of the Caesars, still lies open on his chest, facedown: a terrible disservice to its already cracked binding. He sits up stiffly and finds a small feather to mark his place. Then he picks his way along the terrace, through the potted jungle, and peers into the bedchamber.

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