I glanced at Judicus. His fists were white from clenching them so hard and he bit his lip so that a tiny trickle of blood ran down his chin. But he didn’t flinch. And I didn’t think it was shame or hurt that had him fighting for control. Not when his eyes were aflame with fury.
The Grand Hadri paused, looking around the room to weigh the reaction to his words. He seemed satisfied – maybe even reveling in the shock in the room – when he continued.
“But I am putting him in charge of this little expedition anyway. Because he will be motivated. Succeed and bring me the ai’sletta and your family’s shame will be washed away,” he told Judicus. “I will tear down the statue in Triumph Square and erase from history the censure to your father’s name. I will give your mother and sister the estate and income they might have had, removing the guards who have stood there since the day your father was torn down. Won’t that be nice? They can retire from city life and no longer be shunned by the others of their class. Or.” He paused again, but this time he had eyes only for Judicus and those eyes were hungry. “Or, I can marry your sister to an enemy who will use her mercilessly for his own ends but still gain me some slight advantage. And I can turn your mother out from the last place that will have her. And I can make them both so destitute and ruined that you will wish you had killed them with your own hand. And because you do not doubt me even in the slightest, you will agree to this.”
Gundt cleared his throat and the Grand Hadri gestured to him to speak.
“My half-sister is a renowned high Lady with many resources at her disposal,” Gundt said carefully. “And she currently possesses the ai’sletta. To retrieve the chosen one for you will not be easy.”
“You’ll have letters of marque in my service,” the Grand Hadri said, smiling with only one side of his mouth. “They’ll make you my privateers, make you above the law, give you access to places you wouldn’t have had access to before. And of course, I’ll send you with an escort.”
I lifted an eyebrow. An escort? Would he send guards? How could we travel quickly if his guards were slowing us down? Lady Lightland had the Stryxex. She could move day or night, flying quickly to her goal. But wasn’t her goal to bring the ai’sletta to the Grand Hadri? If he really wanted Mally, all he had to do was wait. But we hadn’t told him that.
My eyes flicked to Gundt and Judicus. Neither of them was saying anything and I wondered if we were all thinking the same thing – that we had no intention now – or ever – of letting Mally get into the hands of this man.
Or was Judicus thinking of his sister and mother?
A chill shot through me. How could he not be? How could he not hold them as more important than Mally who had offered him nothing but trouble?
I bit my lip as the Grand Hadri spoke again.
“My Flame Riders will go with you as an escort.” I felt the Flame Riders stiffen. “They’ll provide help in acquiring the ai’sletta, and they will be my second insurance that you will bring her to me as quickly as possible. My trust goes with you, Flame Riders,” he said.
I risked a glance from them to him and back and I was surprised at what I saw. I’d expected reluctance or interest or simply acceptance. Instead, they looked wary. Was it us they were uncertain of? Or the task itself? Or the Grand Hadri? They were wise to be wary. If he treated his relatives so harshly, how would he treat someone else?
“I’ll have your oath of obedience now,” the Grand Hadri said lightly as if he was asking for a refill on his wine.
The others – Flame Riders, Judicus, and Gundt stammered an oath they all seemed to know. An oath that bound them to find the ai’sletta and bring her to the Grand Hadri.
And I said nothing. Both because I could not and because I would not.
And I wondered what my role might be now that I was the only one who was not bound.
Chapter Seven
“Leave me now,” the Grand Hadri said. “And do not tell me of the hardships you have suffered or the difficulty you have endured, for I do not care. Merely take what supplies you need from the ship’s stores and get into the sky as quickly as possible. We dare not waste another hour ... not when so many have already been wasted.”
Which was how we found ourselves an hour later, mounted on phoenixes and flying in a silent formation toward the shore. We’d been given supplies and each of us had a bag strapped to a back or slung across our bodies. Our phoenixes were not mounts with saddles or saddlebags and if we wanted to carry gear, we had to carry it ourselves.
Gundt had left the Grand Hadri’s presence with sullen rage behind his eyes. He’d said nothing to anyone since then except to lean toward me for a brief moment to whisper in my ear, “Keep trusting. We’ll talk soon.”
Despite everything, despite all my misgivings, I did trust him and even more so now that he was clearly angry about what we’d been pulled into. He seemed to be the only one other than Kazmerev who wanted Mally’s freedom and safety as much as I did.
Judicus had left the Grand Hadri’s presence wiping his mouth and swearing under his breath. Fortunately, only Refrento had tried to talk to him.
“We can take turns carrying the noble,” he’d said and Judicus had cursed even louder, shaking off his friendly hand.
“I ride with Sersha or not at all,” he’d said grimly. His face was like death.
I found I was both nervous that we were going to get in even greater trouble if he didn’t calm down and also flattered. He trusted me. He knew that Kazmerev and I wouldn’t let him down.
And now he slept, head slumped over my shoulder, arms limp where they were wrapped around me. I held his wrists to keep him in place and held onto Kazmerev with my knees – not that he’d ever drop me.
I never would.
I longed to talk to him and plan with him – but the other phoenixes had all woken up and anything beyond the basics was impossible with them listening to Kazmerev’s side of the conversation.
I wanted to talk about what we could do to keep Judicus’s sister and mother safe while still not betraying Mally.
Yes, was all Kazmerev would say to that.
I wanted to talk about how we could slip free of these other Flame Riders.
Unlikely, was all he’d allow himself to say.
I wanted to talk about how I trusted Gundt now. How I was sorry I hadn’t earlier.
I understand.
How I was worried for Judicus. How he’d somehow taken some of my energy.
I know.
How even though I trusted him, I was worried that he was going to be so torn in his loyalties that he’d somehow betray that trust.
He won’t.
How I was sad about Aunt Danna and I missed her. Even if she’d never really treated me like I could make my own decisions. Even if she’d seen no more future for me than washing dishes in her kitchen – even then, I just missed her. I just didn’t like a world she wasn’t in.
Death comes for each of us, and we must face it in our own way. Your aunt gave her life for her daughter. She made a strong choice – a choice born of love and self-sacrifice. There is great honor in that – and a future, I think, for her on the other side.
I liked that, and I liked hearing more than one-word answers from him.
Though I am bound, yet my heart feels with you.
I understood. Even if it made us both voiceless right now.
We flew until just before dawn and then collapsed in a clearing. We’d been heading south along the coast – blindly – aiming toward the nearest city.
“We’ll find word of them there,” Refrento had said and with Gundt refusing to speak and Judicus fast asleep, no one had offered a different opinion.
We were within sight of the city when the darkness started to lighten, but not close enough to walk the distance in a day, so we set up rough shelters in the clearing along the road, started a fire – it’s easy to start a fire when everyone there could open a palm and let it fall into the tinder – and pulled out the blankets and kettle in tim
e to settle in before our phoenixes vanished.
I helped Judicus into the shelter Gundt had made and had him tucked into a blanket before Kazmerev disappeared. When he left, I collapsed on the ground, my strength failing me, too.
A strong hand came down on my shoulder.
“Come, Sersha,” Gundt said, “Rest now.”
He led me into the shelter made of boughs and helped me settle down next to Judicus, wrapping me in one of the blankets. He was almost like a father in how he was treating me, gently helping me without any judgment.
“I’ll take first watch,” he said, but if he said anything else, I didn’t hear it because I was already fast asleep.
Chapter Eight
I took my watch second when Gundt came to wake me, stopping to check on Judicus. His cut lip gleamed in the afternoon light and there were dark circles under his eyes, but other than that he seemed fine. We needed rest. Rest and a whole day in one place to clean our clothes, eat properly, and sleep.
Instead, I splashed canteen water on my face and joined Duche Olliman on watch. He’d made tea. He offered me some and I accepted it, fascinated as he made a tiny ceremony out of pouring it for us both.
“Gundt is your Guarding Flame,” he said quietly as we sipped our tea.
Around us, birds sang in the trees and insects buzzed, but the others all slept, and the road was silent.
I nodded and sipped, grateful for the fragrant green tea. It must be from a private stash of his.
“It is good someone found you,” he said neutrally, though I got the impression that he meant it would have been better if that someone was one of the others. “Lone Flame Riders can hurt themselves and their phoenixes.”
I gave him a long dry look. I would be safer alone than with these others. I had no respect for anyone who blindly followed corrupted authority.
“We are not wicked just because we come at cross purposes to you, young woman,” he said acidly.
I tried very hard not to smirk at that. It was hard not to when he was only a little older than me and trying so hard to look important.
He sipped his tea delicately before continuing, “Gundt isn’t much of one for words, so I think it is unlikely he has told you the story of the Flame Riders – how we came to be and why we exist. Is that true?”
Considering how I would not trust him at first, he hadn’t had much time to teach me anything, but he’d tried to understand my signs while this man wanted to tell me all about himself. Two very different approaches.
Of the two, I preferred Gundt’s but we had a long watch ahead and the day was warm and quiet without a cloud in sight, only the warm sun bathing the earth and the earth reflecting back that warmth and adding to it the scent of grasses and flowers.
I nodded, contentedly, happy to hear his story if he wanted to tell it.
“Long ago in a place far from here,” he began. Because all stories start long ago but in an undetermined place so that no one can check to be sure they are true. “A great general was laying siege to the countryside of his rival. He was a cruel and dark person with no pity in his heart or respect for anyone – whether young or old, innocent or comely, he did not care. It was a time of great sorrow for the people. Many died quickly and terribly. Among the many terrible things he did, he used fire as a weapon. He would set great blazes across the earth that ate up crops and homes, animals and people, leaving nothing behind where once life was.
“One day, he set to blaze a countryside where a man lived and worked beside his aged parents and his young child. His wife had died in childbirth and he had only these few left, but he was happy with them, though the work each day was long and arduous, their love gave him great peace.
“But their story does not end with peace. They fled the flames, running from their home, but they had no animals on which to ride swiftly, for they were very poor, and there was no lake or pond or ocean nearby in which they could huddle, so they ran instead through the thick forest, hoping to reach the mountain nearby where the trees are far apart and perhaps the flames would not climb too high. All the forest was filled with others trying to escape. I do not wish to detail the tragedy of that day as it is grim and terrible. Let me only say that by the time the man had reached the base of the mountain, both his parents were lost to him, as were all the other villagers, so there was only the man and his young child – a boy of seven.
“The flames leapt up before him, consuming the land ahead and behind until there was only a small patch of ground around them that was not yet burned. The desperate father whispered sweet words into his terrified son’s ear as he tucked him into a small dip in the ground and then laid his own body over the boy.
“’Do not fear my son, for I shall never leave you,’ he said. ‘And even if I pass from this life, I will rise again in your heart.’ When the flames passed over and the forest cooled, the boy found that his father had died, and he wailed in sadness for he alone lived and had lost those he loved best.
“But when night fell, his heart felt so full that he thought that perhaps it would shatter and run out across the ground like a broken egg, but to his surprise, instead it birthed a phoenix. The phoenix burst from the ashes of his father that were clutched in his hands and it came forth as an egg which then hatched and grew before his eyes.
“It was the soul of his father, risen up from the dead to protect him.
“But death is a great adversary and though the father could hold it back in the night, when dawn came, it consumed him just as the fires had consumed his body. And yet, when the blazing sun fled again at dusk, he would return again, reborn.
“In this way, he led his son to safety and in this way, he comforted the boy’s sad heart, and in this way, he raised the boy up until he was a young man and with the strength and magic of the love of his father, he slew the general and set the land free.
“And so, the first phoenix was born.”
I found myself blinking away tears. I wanted to ask what the name of the phoenix had been, but Duche Olliman did not say.
“Each phoenix that lives now has a story like that. They gave themselves long ago out of love and sacrifice, though most do not remember the story of how this came about. Through the millennia, they have lived, passed on to the next person who needs their love and shelter and the next after that and the next after that. My own friend phoenix, Frissei, was passed to me from a member of my guard as the man lay dying in my arms. He prevented an assassination attempt on my father. I did not even know he carried a phoenix with him until he thrust a handful of ashes into my palm.”
He was silent a long time. And I was silent with him. I reached out and took his hand and he let me hold it for a moment as we sipped our tea and watched the butterflies hover from flower to flower. After a long time, he took his hand back and shook himself.
“Do not judge us too harshly, Fledgling. You do not know our stories. We are each doing the best good we can in the way we know how.”
And to my surprise, I found that I believed him.
Chapter Nine
Gundt woke in the late afternoon and Judicus with him. The pair looked far too casual as they moved about the camp, tidying and gathering wood for the evening meal. Gundt collected the waterskins.
“I’ll fill them in the creek,” he told us. “Help me with this, Sersha. It’s a lot of water for one man to carry.”
I stood, brushing myself off, and hurried to join him.
“Don’t be too long, older brother,” Duche Olliman said. “When Refrento awakens, he has promised to cook his spiced beans for us. They are already soaking.”
Gundt grunted and shoved half the empty waterskins at me. I hurried to catch up as he broke a purposeful trail through the undergrowth and brush.
It took us long enough to find the creek that I was almost worried we were lost when a low whistle broke the quiet of the forest.
Gundt grunted again and then we emerged on a flat black rock fringed in reeds where the creek formed a shallow, whirl
ing pool. From the thick grass nearby, Judicus emerged. He grinned.
“Good ear, Gundt.”
“You’d better hope your whistle didn’t carry, rope worker. I tried to make this look casual.”
I looked from one to the other and asked them what was happening in signs.
“We don’t have to discuss it to know that none of us likes this letter of marque or the task the Grand Hadri has set us,” Gundt said in a low voice, looking side to side to be sure no one had followed. “But this might be our only chance to talk. Look.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. He looked like someone had jammed thorns down the collar of his jacket.
“If you’re about to apologize for not being forthcoming – for not telling us your half-sister is Lady Lightland or that you are a sworn Greensleeve, then save the breath,” Judicus said mildly. “It’s clear you’re no closer with Cassanetta than I am. Knowing you’ve got a blood connection with her changes nothing. As long as there’s nothing more we need to know then I am satisfied.”
Gundt grunted. He was doing that a lot lately. “I will inherit nothing at her father’s death. They do not claim me, nor have they had a hand in either my decisions or my fortunes. My mother, God rest her, was fond of me, but now that she has passed, I am not welcome to their home.”
Judicus nodded. I laid a sympathetic hand on Gundt’s arm.
“As to the other thing,” he said, and I knew he was upset because he hadn’t shaken my hand off to prove he didn’t need my help. “I am sworn to protect the ai’sletta and sworn to search for her. Which should make you feel safer, Sersha,” he said looking at me. “And though it might not do the same for you, Judicus,” he said, “you should at least realize I am a man of honor. If we can think of a plan to save your sister and mother along with our nation’s best hope, then I will listen.”
Phoenix Heart: Episode 5: Grand Hadri Page 3
