Thursdays With the Crown

by Jessica Day George

“Oh,” Celie said. She felt tears in her eyes again. She’d often worried that she was an unfit parent for Rufus, that it was only sheer dumb luck that they had ended up together. But Rufus really had chosen her, and their bond was no accident. If she hadn’t been there when he’d hatched … she shuddered to think of him alone and sick in the high hatching tower. Another question struck her. “How do you get them to eat once they refuse you?”

  “You don’t,” the Arkower said heavily. “If there isn’t an acceptable rider at hand, nor any parents … they don’t ever eat.”

  “Oh,” Celie said again, feeling sick as he confirmed her suspicions. She looked at him in horror. “How many griffins don’t bond with a rider? Is it common?” She frowned around the room. “And how did you bring the egg here? Where are his parents?”

  The Arkower silenced Ethan with a chopping motion before the young man could even speak. Darryn looked at Lulath, looked at the Arkower, and then stormed out of the room.

  “We may as well rejoin your companions,” the Arkower said, his voice bitter. “I will have more food brought for the beast.”

  “Darryn’s on duty, but I’ll bring it,” Ethan offered. “He needs to take some time, I’m sure.”

  Rufus strutted up the corridor to the room where they’d left the others. Celie wasn’t sure how much he understood of what had just happened, and how much he’d known was going to happen. Had he sensed the egg, and wanted to go to it? Or had he merely wanted to stretch his legs, and found the egg by accident? And what would have happened if they hadn’t arrived? Her heart clenched at the thought.

  “Where have you been?” Lilah’s face was pasty white with fear when they reached the room again. “We heard noises and … oh!” She saw the little griffin and stretched out her hands to stroke it. “Precious!”

  “Indeed! Is he not the very precious?” Lulath beamed, holding the baby griffin out for her to admire. “He is being named Lorcan the Destroyer.”

  Rolf burst out laughing. “I was not expecting that,” he said. “The name. Or the griffin. Where have you two been?”

  “We heard a noise down the corridor,” Celie began, but the Arkower entered the room behind her and she stopped. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t like hearing again about how Darryn had failed to imprint a griffin.

  “Yes, yes, now this foreign prince has a griffin,” the Arkower said as though it were of no importance, “and so now we must have a very serious discussion.”

  They all stopped fussing over Lorcan and gave the wizard their full attention. Celie sank down in a chair, one hand gripping Rufus’s harness tightly. Lulath sat on the floor with his new charge, and Ethan slipped in and offered him a platter of food, cut into bite-size pieces. Seeing the look on the Arkower’s face and the stillness of the others, Ethan bowed himself back out immediately, though Celie saw a twitch to the tapestry covering the doorway a moment later. She didn’t say anything; she could hardly blame him for eavesdropping.

  “Now, Prince Lulath of Grath,” the Arkower said, “you have an infant griffin. What are you going to do with it?”

  They all looked around, communicating as best they could with eyebrows and meaningful looks. Rolf wrinkled his nose at Celie, and Celie grimaced back and made a little motion with one hand at Lulath. Rolf wanted her to do the talking, but he was the Crown Prince and it was Lulath’s griffin. Besides, the Arkower frightened her. Lulath was so caught up in feeding Lorcan that he might as well have been back in the Castle for all the attention he paid them.

  Rolf sighed and straightened his spine. “We’re going to take him back with us to Sleyne, naturally,” he said. “Lulath loves animals and will take excellent care of him, just as my sister has taken care of Rufus.”

  “A fine sentiment, Crown Prince Rolf,” the Arkower said. “There is, however, one small problem.”

  “And what is that?” Celie couldn’t help herself.

  “I’m afraid that there is no way for you to take these griffins back to Sleyne,” the Arkower told them in a tone of gentle regret. “Either of them.”

  They all sat in shocked silence for a moment.

  Lulath was the first to recover. He shook his head at the wizard. “You are telling us the lie,” he informed the Arkower. “Rufus is being coming from the Sleyne just this very day of yesterday with us. Why is he not going to his home again? And why is my Lorcan not with him and us?”

  “I am certainly not ‘telling the lie,’ as you so poetically put it, Prince Lulath,” the Arkower said. “Once I gladly would have sent you all to Sleyne, children, but no more.” He spread out his frail hands, studying the gnarled fingers, and shook his head.

  “Come to the point,” Rolf said, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Princess Cecelia and Prince Lulath just witnessed the problem that has been an even greater plague in our land than the poisoned lake,” the Arkower said. “We have few royal griffins left. Whenever people find an egg, they bring it here, and we attempt to bond with it. The young men who serve me take turns in trying … and every one of them has failed since the griffins were sent away to Sleyne. We need these bonded griffins here, to show our people how it is done. Apparently we have lost the knack for it, but you have somehow discovered it.” He said this as if it pained him.

  “There are no griffins, royal or wild, in Sleyne,” Celie pointed out. “And that’s where the Castle is.”

  “The Castle is beyond my reach now, and I care nothing for it,” the Arkower said, and his words sounded like a lie. “But the griffins, we need the griffins more than the Castle does!”

  “You are needing these griffins?” Lulath said in a careful voice. He had stopped feeding Lorcan and was looking at the Arkower with such intensity that it transformed his face, and Celie thought she wouldn’t have recognized him if he hadn’t been sitting right in front of her. “Why for are you needing the griffins, if the Castle does not?”

  The Arkower appeared to have noticed the change in the prince as well. “The Castle hardly needs defending,” he blustered. “And the griffins are native to this land, not yours. They belong here.”

  “There is being only one reason that a brain like to mine can see for having a great many young men with a great many griffins, as you are wanting,” Lulath said, absently feeding Lorcan with one hand while he continued to gaze with piercing blue eyes at the wizard.

  “And what might that be?” The Arkower’s voice had an edge like a razor.

  “For going to Sleyne and attacking those with no griffins, for bringing the Castle that you love so well back to you and you alone,” Lulath said in a voice that was just as sharp. “You are knowing how to go to Sleyne, you are speaking the language in a betterment than I am having, and must have much knowledge of that land. We are not knowing how to get to here, or how to get back from here. You are having griffins, we are not having griffins … You are having the lie with us so that you are attacking us.”

  “Celie,” Pogue whispered directly into her ear and she jumped. She hadn’t even heard him leave his seat and move over to her. Now he was perched on the arm of her chair, one hand on her elbow to keep her from leaping up.

  “What?” Celie tried not to move her lips, after she’d recovered.

  “Get on Rufus and go.”

  “What?”

  “Go. Get on Rufus and fly away.” He paused. “Lilah, too.”

  “This is nonsense,” the Arkower was saying to Lulath in a level voice.

  “Then let us be coming and going with freedom,” Lulath retorted.

  “Go now,” Pogue whispered again.

  “No, I—”

  Pogue seized her around the waist and whipped her off her chair and onto Rufus’s back before she could finish her protest. Then he had hold of Lilah, and Lilah leaped behind Celie with little urging.

  “What are you doing?” The Arkower half rose from his seat in alarm.

  “Be going,” Lulath shouted. “We can be finding you later!”

  “Stop them,”
the Arkower said, hardly raising his voice.

  Ethan and Darryn burst into the room, along with another man Celie had never seen before. She grabbed the handles of Rufus’s harness.

  Rufus took off.

  Celie was amazed that Rufus could understand the underlying menace in the Arkower’s words. That, or he just wanted to be away from the Arkower as desperately as Celie did. He ran right around the startled Ethan, heading to the edge of the long spiraling ramp that had brought them to the Arkower’s chambers.

  Extending his wings, he plunged over the edge. Celie screamed, though she knew he had plenty of room to fly, and tried to get a better grip on the harness. Lilah grabbed Celie’s waist painfully tight and buried her face in Celie’s hair. Celie recovered quickly and pushed the handles forward, urging Rufus to go down to the entrance. But Rufus circled and then began to fly upward, toward the hollow peak of the mountain.

  “Where are you going?” Celie called to him, and he screeched in reply.

  Then, just above the Arkower’s living quarters, she saw it: a broad, jagged hole in the side of the mountain. It was large enough for a full-grown griffin to pass through without pulling in his wings, and Rufus was only half-grown. They sailed through and out into the open air, where another griffin waited for them.

  It was Rufus’s father. He gave a cry of greeting and turned to fly alongside them.

  “Are you coming?” Celie called to him. “Let’s go that way!”

  And she pointed both griffins toward the ruins of the Castle.

  Chapter 7

  Celie had never flown with Rufus for such a great distance, and with such speed. It was exhilarating, though it also made her sad that her poor griffin hadn’t been able to really stretch his wings before now. It comforted her to think that if they returned to Sleyne, since everyone at the Castle knew about him now, he would no longer be a secret. He could fly as much as he liked, and in daylight, too.

  When they returned to Sleyne. When. Celie said this to herself several times to make it feel truer.

  But she soon found it was also rather tiring to hold on to a speeding griffin for very long. Minutes of flying, which Celie was used to, stretched into an hour, which she was not. She began swaying in her seat, eyes fluttering closed, as nerves and lack of sleep caught up to her. Fortunately Rufus, sensing her inattention, would scream loudly whenever she was just about to drift off, and she would jerk herself upright again.

  She and Lilah tried to talk, but the wind carried their words away. Also, the only thing they had to say to each other was that they would return for the others soon and go home to Sleyne. Soon.

  The sun had set as they reached the far shore, and they soared over the edge of the forest. Lilah tugged at Celie’s waist and pointed over her shoulder.

  “We can’t go back without them,” she shouted into Celie’s ear.

  “It’s too dark,” Celie called back, and her teeth began to chatter with cold. “We’ll wait in the tower for morning.”

  Flying was always cold, courtesy of the wind and one’s proximity to the clouds, and she had no cloak. In addition to that, her gown had several rips in it, from catching on the grabbing branches of the forest, and the wind was slicing right through every one of them.

  “I don’t know how you stand it,” Lilah said, her teeth chattering. “I’m freezing! Did you really fly around the Castle at night?”

  “Yes,” Celie said, thinking of how easy things had been when keeping Rufus a secret was her biggest worry. “We’re going to have to have a warm place to sleep,” she said, and Rufus tilted his head to show that he had heard her. “Head for the tower.”

  Rufus’s father was still flying alongside Rufus, and Celie wished that there was some way she could send him back to fetch her companions. Rufus would understand if she asked him to go back for Rolf and the others, and she wished that she dared send him, but she could tell that he was tiring, and she knew she wouldn’t ask him to fly all that way again.

  But before they reached the ruins, and as Rufus started to fly lower over the trees from exhaustion, the other griffin squawked and veered to the right. Rufus started to follow him, and Celie panicked and yanked on the harness, digging her heels into his sides as well to try to keep him on course. If they landed too far into the forest they’d be hopelessly lost.

  But Rufus’s father flew ahead of them and cried out again even louder. His call was commanding, and Celie knew that she had lost. Rufus’s whole attention was on the larger griffin now, and she had no choice but to hang on.

  They swerved again to the right and then Rufus’s father began to descend. Celie refreshed her grip on the harness as Rufus also began to go down among the trees, landing in a sandy clearing to the west of the lake.

  “Now what?” Lilah asked, releasing her painful grip on Celie’s waist.

  “I suppose we might as well get some rest,” Celie said doubtfully. “It’s too dark to go back for the others.”

  Neither of them knew how to make a fire, but Lilah made a hollow in the sand and they curled up together. Rufus lay down next to Celie, radiating warmth, and after a moment, his father lay down beside Lilah. She made a small eep, but when he just sighed and appeared to go to sleep, she relaxed.

  Celie wasn’t sure she would be able to sleep, with everything that had happened. She wiggled away from Lilah just a little, so that she could pull Rufus the lion out of her bodice and give him a secret cuddle.

  “What is it?” Lilah asked drowsily. “What are you doing?”

  “I — I found this in the griffin stable,” Celie told her, rolling over so that Lilah could see her stuffed lion in the moonlight.

  “It’s Rufus,” Lilah said in astonishment.

  Celie’s griffin raised his head and made a questioning noise.

  “Not you, Rufus, but that Rufus,” Lilah said, reaching out to touch the toy. “Where did you say you found him?”

  “In the griffin stable, just before the Arkower came,” Celie said. “Rufus’s parents had him all along. Because —” She stopped. It felt strange to say it aloud. “Because Rufus’s father is the one who ate Khelsh,” she said finally.

  “Is he really?” Lilah sounded impressed. She reached behind her back and thumped Rufus’s father’s side. “Good job, sir!”

  Rufus’s father lifted his head, gazing down at Lilah in the moonlight. Her eyes were starting to close from exhaustion, though, and she didn’t seem to notice.

  “I hope Khelsh was a tasty meal,” she said sleepily. “The Arkower looks a little stringy, though …”

  “Lilah,” Celie said, startled. “Don’t tell him to eat the Arkower!”

  “If the Arkower’s not going to send us home, what good is he?” Lilah countered, her eyes shut.

  “He’s … he’s … he really isn’t any help, I suppose.” Celie sighed.

  She wanted to talk to Lilah some more, but Lilah was asleep now. She wanted to plan how they would get the others free, get the missing piece of the Eye, and get home, too. But soon she was spiraling down to sleep, a warm griffin pressed against her back.

  “Wake up, Cel!”

  The next thing she knew, it was dawn — and Rolf was standing over her.

  “Rolf!” She staggered to her feet. “You made it out!”

  She blinked around and saw Lilah hugging Pogue and then Lulath, her cheeks flushed. Celie quickly hugged Rolf and then Pogue, who was looking much better, and Lulath, who had his baby griffin stuck in the front of his tunic. He pointed to the stuffed lion sticking out of her bodice, and they shared a smile.

  Standing to one side of the clearing, looking awkward, was Ethan.

  “How did you all get out?” Lilah asked.

  “It was being this Ethan,” Lulath said.

  “It was Prince Lulath’s doing,” Ethan said at the same time.

  “We brought food,” Rolf offered a beat later. “While you hear our tale of adventure.”

  They sat down and he handed around bread and cheese from
a bag.

  “Don’t forget to steal food for your escape, I always say,” Rolf told them cheerfully.

  “How often do you escape from places?” Pogue asked, amused.

  “More often than I’d like,” Rolf countered, handing him a wedge of cheese.

  Pogue took his portion and ate with better appetite than he’d shown the day before. He noticed Celie watching and raised his eyebrows. She blushed and looked away, concentrating on her own food.

  “So, we are being told by this Arkower that we are not leaving, not ever,” Lulath began. “And you taking the leave, with much shouting.”

  “I think he wanted to use me and Pogue as ransom to get you and Rufus back, Cel,” Rolf interrupted.

  “Precise,” Lulath agreed. “So I am making very much fuss, that my Lorcan he is sickening. He must be having a certain food, I am a raiser of the sort of dogs, and do know what tiny animals are needing, and so much so forth.”

  “It was a sight to behold,” Rolf said, his eyes shining. “He was leaping around the room, waving his arms and flinging poor Lorcan around until I thought he really would be sick!”

  “It was not my favorite thing that I have been doing,” Lulath said. He stroked the griffin head that poked out of the elaborate lacings of his tunic. “But it was being of a necessary!”

  “Then what happened?” Lilah asked. She looked around. “Are you sure you weren’t followed?”

  “We have a little time,” Ethan told her, “but we should move along soon.”

  “To where?” Lilah wanted to know.

  “Let them tell the story first,” Celie said, exasperated.

  “So, to be quickly going,” Lulath said, “I am making the insistence that the Arkower of himself is bringing me certain food, and so much forth. Or having it broughten, to say. And when he is leaving, we are going down and around, to get out of this terrible mountain, and we are finding Ethan!”

  “I told them they were going the long way,” Ethan supplied, as though eager to prove to Celie and Lilah that he could be trusted. “I took them out one of the side tunnels and down one of the more hidden trails.”