However, once she’d wriggled up into the leaves she saw that her initial assessment had been right and that there was nowhere she could remain hidden from other top-riders. Except that she detected something off about the scent up here. Arara leaned into the leaves and took a deep whiff; nothing but the smell of water and the sweet scent of leaves.
She jumped into the middle of the bundle of leaves, where the top was the clearest. In her experience this was the best place to ride, it gave you a nice view of every side of the pod while shielding you from casual view. She leaned over and sniffed at the top of the pod’s hard shell. The earthy smell of nuts was all that hit her nose. No Jegera had ridden up here in a long time, if ever. Well, Elric had expressed his dislike of Jegera so it made sense he didn’t employ Jegera guards. She smiled and crouched down to wait.
Elric took his time; Arara had almost fallen asleep curled up amongst the leaves. When it moved below her she extended her claws on instinct but caught herself before she managed to dig them into the shell below her. She heard Elric giving instruction, and a Kin answering him. The pod lurched again as it pulled up its roots and pushed up onto its vines. Arara stayed crouched low it crawled out of the greenhouse, but her luck held and she wasn’t noticed.
To her surprise they didn’t return to Elric’s mansion in the garden district, but instead continued on, leaving it behind. They approached the gate that led to the Jegeran district, but turned off onto a small side street. The carriage stopped in the shadows of a particularly large tree-house and waited.
Three Jegera slunk through the shadows towards them. Arara couldn’t see them as they stayed out of the light of the sun flower lantern hung at the carriage’s front, but she could feel them in her mind. She crouched lower, trying not to brush the leaves and give away her position.
The Jegera moved to the door and one knocked. The door opened, although she didn’t hear the ramp move.
“Be ready, tomorrow night at moonrise,” Elric spoke quietly through the cracked door. Even with her enhanced hearing Arara had to strain to catch his words.
“But it’s a new moon tomorrow night,” the Jegeran growled back. “Not gonna be a moonrise.”
“Wait and see, my friends. Just be prepared.”
The carriage door clicked shut. Moments later the carriage rocked to a start. She could hear the Jegera cursing; the one who’d knocked had been too close to the thrashing vines and had gotten whipped.
Arara curled her tail around her feet and ducked her head, as much to avoid being hit by the leaves bobbing in the wind as to try and think. Tomorrow at moonrise Elric was throwing a new moon party for Kin only; Kin who normally bedded down at sunset except for emergencies and special occasions. It had to mean something, but as Arara turned it around in her head she couldn’t figure out what that might be.
They arrived at Elric’s mansion. The carriage dropped Elric off at the front of the tree and Arara remained where she was, listening to the click-click of his cane as he made his way inside. The other Kin remained, and as soon as Elric was gone she drove the carriage around and into Elric’s greenhouse. Arara waited while she settled the carriage down for the night. As it sunk down Arara worried the Kin might look up and see her, so she curled up into an even tighter ball.
The sun flower lanterns went out one by one and Arara felt the Kin girl’s presence depart leaving her all alone. Still, she waited for a count of one hundred, just in case, before climbing down. She tripped over a few of the vines in the dark. They stirred sleepily before drooping back down, and she made it out without any further incidents.
Crickets chirped as she crept across the dew soaked grass. She could feel the minds of several Jegera patrolling the outside of the house, moving towards her around the corner. Her white fur would stand out like a beacon against the dark of the grass so she abandoned stealth and streaked towards the Speaker’s tree house. Unlike the palace, this tree's soft wood gave easily under her claws as she scrambled up the side to the nearest window. No tell-tale thoughts came from nearby; her chosen room was empty.
The window glided open at her touch and she tumbled inside just as she felt the guards clear the corner. Her scent on the grass would alert them to intruders, so she didn’t have much time.
She crept forward on three legs, holding her front paw out until she found the wall and then the door. Sparks of life came from further into the house, but she still couldn’t feel anyone nearby.
However, she now faced a problem. The guards might smell her at any moment and she had no idea where to go. From outside the tree-house had seemed to loom over the yard, and inside it felt oppressive and suffocating. In her head Sels reminded her about the spells Elric had mentioned. He must have finally caught on to her whereabouts.
Sels continued to plead and harangue at her to come home. She didn’t dare try to block the bond lest she upset the fragile balance of the sedyu bond again, so she did her best to tune it out. She headed towards the grouping of life she felt towards the center of the house.
He must have guests over, then, but she found the Jegeran’s presence odd. The hatred she’d felt in Elric’s mind had been too overwhelming. Perhaps he just liked ordering them around, but then why not have a Jegeran guard on his carriage?
Arara had only made it a few steps down the hall when a howl went up outside. She dashed into the next room and jumped from the window, sprinting away from the house as fast as she could. So much for that plan.
SELS TOOK A DEEP BREATH and knocked on Sesay’s door. Recka answered it before he’d knocked more than once.
“Come in,” Recka moved to the side and gestured them inside with a flick of his pointed ears.
“Hello, Recka,” Sels said politely as he entered.
Recka tilted his head back briefly and chuffed. “Sesay is in the sitting room.”
Inside the balcony doors had been thrown wide, flooding the room with early morning sunshine.
“Can it wait?” Sesay paced back and forth on the balcony, a large sheaf of papers clutched in her hands. She stopped long enough to shoot Sels a frazzled half smile, then began pacing once more, muttering and flipping through pages of the document.
“It’s important...” Sels trailed off as he got closer and took in Sesay’s appearance. Her robes had dirt stains on the hem and her sash was crooked. Sesay was fastidious about her appearance and Sels had never seen her anything less than immaculate. “Is something wrong?”
“Wrong?” Sesay spun mid-step to face him. “Yes, you could say that!” She shook the stack of papers at him. “I was awoken in the middle of the night with news that the escaped Yaka broke into Elric’s mansion last night.”
That was faster than he’d anticipated. He’d hoped to at least tell Sesay what they found before admitting that Arara had gone against Sesay’s orders and followed Elric home.
“That was Arara,” Sels sighed. “I told her not to, but after Elric said he was canceling all future lessons she got a little mad.”
“He won’t teach you anymore?” Sesay blinked in astonishment. “Why?”
“He invited me to an evening celebration of the new moon at his mansion tonight and I sa
id I wouldn’t go.”
“Sels, I know you don’t like him, but he is your father and he’s done so much for you over this last month. The least you could have done was to attend a party.”
“I know. I did say yes, at first. But then he said Arara couldn’t come...” Sels hesitated.
“So? Just go. Your bond is strong, Arara will still be with you even if she’s back at the palace,” Sesay took his hand and led him back inside, dropping off the stack of papers with Recka, who Sels hadn’t even seen come in.
“Something about it felt wrong,” Sels said as he sat on the couch next to Sesay. “Especially with what Arara overheard later that night, I’m glad I turned him down.”
“What was that?”
“Before he went home Elric went to an alley and met with some Jegera. He told them to be ready tomorrow night at moonrise.”
“Be ready for what?”
“Arara thinks another riot. But the strange part is that tomorrow is a new moon.”
Sesay just stared at him blankly and he realized that as a day dwelling Kin of course she wouldn’t follow the phases of the moon.
“A new moon means that there won’t be a moonrise, not until three nights from now when the moon begins to wax. But right now, tonight, nothing.”
She frowned and sat back. “So, maybe Elric got mixed up?”
Sels just looked at her. “You know him better than me, serving on the council with him all these years. Is Elric ever confused or mixed up about anything?”
“No.” She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully.
“We should talk to Mother,” Sels said.
“I agree,” Sesay pushed to her feet. “If nothing else, about getting you a new tutor.”
“But what about-”
“It is strange,” she shook her head. “But we still don’t have any concrete proof. Not really. Now, thanks to this little kerfluffle with the break in at Elric’s I have an emergency meeting of the Council heads to attend. The Queen will be there too, so we’ll have to wait until this evening to get a chance to talk with her. Just try to keep it together until then.”
Sels sighed and went back to his room. The day passed slowly. Sesay had given him the book she and Recka found in the archives, so Sels spent the day translating the next page. It was ponderous work, especially because the parchment tended to crumble at the slightest touch and the ink was faded.
The council meeting went late; the sun was fully down by the time Sesay came to get him for dinner.
His mother smiled as they took their places at the table. “How was your day, Sels?”
“It was pretty boring,” he said as the servants placed a plate in front of him. He picked at the food and stared out the window at the stars.
“Did Elric tell you that he quit tutoring Sels?” Sesay said.
“No,” the Queen set her fork down and looked at Sels. “When did this happen?”
“Last night,” Sels sunk back in his seat. “I told him I wouldn’t go to his party if he wouldn’t let Arara come too, and he canceled all future lessons.”
“He can be a bit prickly if he doesn’t get his way,” Seuan smiled. “Just give it a few weeks, he’ll cool down and I’ll talk him into coming back.”
“Thanks, Mother.”
Moon magic crackled. The magic drowned out all his senses in a flood of liquid fire through his veins and skin. It kept coming; more and more. The air around him shimmered. Sesay and Seuan were staring at him, their mouths dropping open.
Sels lifted his hand. It was wreathed in flames. They danced along his skin in a red rolling sheen. It didn’t hurt, didn’t even feel hot. He lifted his other hand and the fire jumped from one palm to the other in a fiery red stream.
“Sels, you’re on fire!” Sesay screeched. She gestured and water poured down on him from above.
The fire quenched with a hiss; where the water touched steam rose, burning his eyes and stinging his skin.
“Ouch!” Sels jumped back, sending his chair clattering. The arms and back of it were blackened, smoke rising from the remains. Sesay’s magical rain continued to pour down where he’d been sitting.
Sels wrung water out of the sleeves of his robe while Sesay whisked away her raincloud.
“What happened?” Seuan said, staring about the room.
“I don’t know, there was just so much magic...” Sels shivered and hugged himself.
“I felt it too, dear,” the Queen said softly.
“You did? I thought you couldn’t feel Moon magic, just like I can’t feel Sun magic?”
“It...” Sesay trailed off. “Is that why you caught fire?”
“Yes, so much power in the air. Even more than in my-” he cut himself off before he could admit the secret of his star-metal lump.
Luckily, he need not have worried. A scream would have cut him off anyway.
“Look out the window!” Sesay pointed to the window. The sun that had just fallen behind the mountains in the west, was again rising in the east.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
FALSE-SUN
The riots had started very soon after the false-sun appeared in the sky, just as Arara had known they would. Just like Elric had ordered. The energy jolt from Sels had awakened her from where she’d fallen asleep with Yegra. Arara’s thrashing had woken Yegra as well, and together the two of them rushed to the window to see the false-sun rising in the east, casting away the night before it had barely started. News of the riots had reached them soon after.
When she’d seen it, everything Ottont had said about the prophecy came rushing back to her. The final night had been literal, not figurative. And she knew that before the ‘night’ was through, that they were going to need Ottont’s knowledge and assistance. She and Yegra took the first available carriage and rushed through the city at dangerous speeds. Arara used her powers to map out the open streets, steering them around the worst of the fighting that had sprung up in the wake of the false-sun's appearance. The gate between the Garden District and the Jegeran District had already been torn down by the time they arrived, the guards fled.
It took very little prodding to convince Ottont to return to the palace. The false-sun was a threat to everyone, Yaka as much as Jegera, and he knew his life would be forfeit if they couldn’t figure out a way to stop it.
They arrived back at the palace just as the guards there were getting ready to bar the gates. Already a huge crowd of Kin and Jegera stood just outside the palace walls, hurling insults, stones, and more, although mostly at each other. The Jegera blamed the Kin and the Kin blamed the Jegera, and they all blamed the Queen and her rule. None of them had yet been brave enough to try to enter the palace themselves through the line of fierce Alpha-Guard blocking the way, but they were working themselves up to it.
Arara, Yegra, and Ottont piled out in the courtyard and raced for the front door as the gate boomed shut behind them. Ottont wore Yegra’s old cloak, and it was long enough to drag on the ground as he walked. It hid his distinctive white fur well enough to get through the palace to present him to the Queen.
During the last months at the palace Arara had thought she’d become familiar with every nook and cranny of the towering palace tree-house. Her faith was shaken when Yegra guided her onto a stairway she’d never seen before. She still had a lot to learn even here.
The ground floor, with its vaulted ceiling, led up to the suite she shared with Sels, along with a few much smaller guest rooms. Above that were Sesay’s rooms, and then the Queen’s. But the sheer size of the tree had tricked her perceptions. Yegra’s stairway let them to a level between the atrium and the Prince’s suite that Arara hadn’t known existed.
The floor here was bustling with activity. Kin sprout pages raced about with bundles of scrolls, trays of drinks, and other items. Knots of elegantly attired Kin and Jegera held hushed conversations in alcoves. Arara’s internal clock put the time as past midnight and it was jarring to see so many Kin up and about. The rising of the night sun had thrown o
ff everyone. Several of them looked curiously at Ottont’s small cloaked figure, but no one tried to stop them.
The hallway curved around and opened up. Long tables grew up from the floor in a wide arch, filling up the end of the room. Open scrolls, books, and papers covered most of the surfaces. The Queen, Sesay, and Sels stood at the epicenter of the mess. Currently their attention was focused on a bookish female Jegera who was talking to them in rapid-fire old Jegeran, alternating between pointing at the open pages of a book spread on the table next to her and gesticulating widely at the bright sun visible through the open windows.
The Jegera finished speaking.
The Queen nodded. "Thank you for those insights, Ihet. You are dimissed."
Ihet bobbed her head and pushed her iron-wood framed glasses back up her muzzle. She scurried away, a determined look on her face and her ears alert. As she passed she slowed for long enough to lean over towards Arara and present her neck for a brief moment before continuing on.
Arara blinked in surprise at the gesture. Despite her status as Sels’s sedyu, very few of the palace guards acknowledged her position. Yegra’s reassuring warmth at her side and Sels’s encouraging thoughts helped, of course, but it was still hard being snubbed all the time. The gesture from Ihet had been a welcome surprise.
“Your Majesty,” Arara said, tilting her head back slightly as she approached. Sels smiled and through the bond he reminded her that she was part of the royal family now, and there was no need to be so formal.
“Arara, my son tells me that the two of you have a confession to make, something that may help to explain this,” the Queen waved her hand at her side, indicating the window at her back. “He refused to talk until you returned from your errand.”
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