Falcondance by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Author:Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Legends; Myths; Fables, General
ISBN: 9780440238850
Google: l3Pg6REW_04C
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2007-05-08T21:34:25+00:00

CHAPTER 12

THE REST of the night passed blissfully, but we had barely stepped through the door of my rooms the next morning when Lily was pulled away.

One of the Pure Diamond falcons who I had seen guarding the palace delivered the summons. “Your lady would like to speak to you.”

Lily looked surprised. “Is it time for Nicias’s lesson already?”

Now it was the messenger’s turn to look surprised. “Your lady the Empress Cjarsa has requested your presence,” he clarified.

Lily’s eyes widened. “I apologize. The Empress so rarely grants audiences, I didn’t imagine she would have reason to summon me. Nicias, I’m sorry, I must leave you for a while. Please, be careful.”

She kissed my cheek and then changed shape without another word.

“Is something wrong?” I asked the Pure Diamond falcon before he could leave, too.

“I do not know the circumstances of the command, sir,” he answered, watching me with an eerie focus. It took too many moments for me to realize that he was standing at attention, a guard before his monarch, awaiting either further commands or permission to leave.

“Dismissed,” I said, not at all comfortable with the turnabout. I had heard that word many times from Oliza, my commander and the Tuuli Thea and Diente; I had never expected to speak it.

“Thank you, sir.” He changed shape, spreading black-and-white gyrfalcon’s wings to take himself back to the palace.

Only after he was gone did I realize we had had an audience. Instead of greeting me, Syfka said, “Pure Diamond falcons are bound magically to obey anyone of royal blood. That you have not decided to stay as Araceli’s heir doesn’t change that.”

“Can I help you?” I asked, still distracted. Syfka had shown no interest in me since I had arrived on Ahnmik, but now she obviously had something she wished to say.

“Your mother left some things here when she fled,” she said briskly. “Rightly, they’re yours now. If you’ll come with me?”

She turned without waiting for me to respond, and I hastened to follow. I thought she would lead me into the courtyard, but she passed by the white sands, and instead we went to one of the three yenna’marl.

“This is the Mercy’s tower,” Syfka explained as she led the way up a spiral staircase formed of smoky glass. We passed by several doorways, each marked with a different pattern. “And this was your mother’s room. It has been locked since she disappeared.”

She touched the doorway, and the patterns shifted until the door clicked open and Syfka stepped back to allow me access.

“Thank you.”

She shook her head. “If it was my choice, I would have had these things destroyed years ago. It was Cjarsa who favored Kel and Darien, Cjarsa who ignored their treason as if they were children and not guards of the royal house, and Cjarsa who commanded that your mother’s possessions be passed to you.” She snapped, “Help yourself,” before turning and abandoning me with the remnants of my mother’s old life.

I pushed the door open the rest of the way.

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