The Shadow's heir trs-1

by K J Taylor

  “Ain’t this excitin’?” she said to Oeka. “Amoran, at last!”

  Oeka clicked her beak. “Soon, we shall meet a mighty ruler indeed.”

  “Yeah,” said Laela. “An Emperor, eh? Fancy that.”

  “And his human, of course,” Oeka conceded. “Now, I think that while we have time, you should fulfil your duty as my own human.”

  Laela guessed what she was getting at quickly enough-this “duty” was one Arenadd had taught her about, and she’d practised it several times. She went into the cabin and fetched the brush and the talon-cleaning tools. When she returned, she found several adult griffins already on deck, being groomed by their humans.

  “Little room for us,” said Oeka. “Others will take their place once these have done. We shall go back into our nest.”

  Laela nodded and retreated, not wanting to be around that many large griffins anyway. In the cabin, she spent a good chunk of time brushing Oeka’s furred hindquarters, going over each patch until the fur was smooth and glossy. After that, she had to go through her feathers, looking for parasites and removing any dead or damaged feathers. Oeka didn’t like that much, and hissed warningly once or twice, but she kept still and let her finish before obligingly lifting her forepaws one by one so that Laela could clean the talons.

  Once that was done, Laela took a bottle of very expensive scented oil and rubbed some into Oeka’s beak-making it shine as if it had been polished.

  After that, she could rest and have something to eat, while the griffin groomed her wings herself.

  When she was fairly sure the grooming up on deck was over (she waited until the ship had stopped rocking so much), she went back outside. Sure enough, only one or two were left, and the rest were in the air, following the ship as it drifted up the mighty River Erech.

  From the deck, Laela could see the faint lights of buildings on the riverbank, and her heart began to flutter. She was seeing the first tiny parts of Amoran-a country that, among their party, only Vander had ever seen, one so far away that most Cymrians believed it didn’t even exist except in legends.

  Oeka, of course, looked completely unflustered. “Amorani griffins are smaller than us,” she remarked. “I shall feel very much at home, I think.”

  “Yeah.” Laela was finding her partner easier to understand all the time.

  There didn’t seem to be much more to say after that, and girl and griffin stood together in silence on the stern, watching as the lights of Instabahn came into view at last.

  Laela knew they were there when the griffiners assembled on deck. All of them were wearing their ceremonial outfits. Laela, sweating horribly in hers, went to join them.

  Arenadd was there, also, and he, too, was in his ceremonial clothing. His, however, rather than being a tunic enhanced with feathers and fur, was based on a robe. It looked more or less like one of his customary black robes, but the area over his chest was covered in Skandar’s silver feathers, and the wing feathers on his shoulders and sleeves were a mix of silver, black, and white. The patch of fur below the feathers on the chest was white, and the end of the “tail” had been decorated with a fan of more feathers in imitation of a griffin’s own.

  He was wearing the crown, too.

  “Okay,” said Laela, coming to stand beside him as he’d beckoned her to. “Now yeh look like a King.”

  “A King ready to meet an Emperor,” Arenadd murmured. “Now, remember your manners, Laela. I’d rather you didn’t embarrass me.”

  Laela nodded sternly and stood a little taller.

  Instabahn’s harbour came in sight. The ship angled toward it and came to a sedate halt as the sailors dropped the anchor and threw ropes to the waiting Amoranis.

  A few moments later, the sailors had thrown down a wide ramp, and Arenadd walked down it with Oeka and Laela in step beside him. She had been aboard ship for so long that she stumbled a little, and her head spun before she managed to recover herself.

  The moment Arenadd set foot on solid ground-the Mighty Skandar came down to land by his side as if from nowhere. He, too, had been groomed, and his gleaming feathers and fur only made him look more magnificent.

  Arenadd walked on without missing a step, ignoring the other griffins, who landed as their own humans stepped off the ramp.

  Ahead, the great court of Instabahn was waiting for them-dozens of men and women, dressed in their strange finery, most with griffins beside them.

  At their head was a bald man of indeterminate age, wearing nothing but a yellow-and-blue-striped kilt, a pair of sandals, and a heavy collar decorated with dozens of tear-shaped jewels.

  Arenadd walked straight toward him, halted, put his hands together, and bowed. Then he spoke-in Amorani.

  The bald man smiled and put his hands together and bowed before he replied in the same language.

  “An honour,” said Arenadd, using Cymrian now. “Great Khalid, Master of Amoran.”

  The bald man smiled again. “I am sorry that I do not speak your own language, Great King,” he said in very good Cymrian. “If I did, rest assured I would use it.”

  “Your courtesy is not in doubt,” said Arenadd. “I am honoured merely to meet you at last. Sacred Ruler, this is my partner, the Mighty Skandar, greatest of all griffins in my Kingdom.”

  Khalid bowed deeply to Skandar. “It is a great joy of my life that I have met such a magnificent griffin,” he said-using griffish now.

  Skandar peered at him, and snorted. “Furless human!” he declared.

  After a moment of painful silence, the Emperor burst out laughing. “Observant, indeed, Mighty Skandar!” he said.

  Arenadd smiled slightly. “My partner has a habit of saying just what he thinks, Great Emperor.”

  “So I have noticed,” said the Emperor. “Now, who is your companion, who looks so much like you?”

  Laela panicked for half a heartbeat, and then imitated Arenadd’s bow. “I am the Lady Laela,” she recited. “Master of Wisdom and chief advisor to the King. And this is Oeka, a very powerful griffin.”

  Oeka moved closer to her to show her pleasure. “We are both honoured to meet you, Sacred Ruler.”

  The Emperor looked at Laela with interest, and then he looked at Arenadd. “I see the ability to rise to great power is in your family’s blood, Great King.” He paused briefly, before his smile returned even more warmly than before. “Now, my own family and I are happy to welcome you to our home, and to invite you to come and share food and wine with us.”

  “We shall be honoured to accept, Sacred Ruler,” said Arenadd.

  The Emperor paused for a moment, and his smile became much more genuine. “My lord Vander!”

  Vander came forward, bowing low. He greeted his master in formal-sounding Amorani, but the Emperor laughed and embraced him. Vander returned the embrace while Ymazu-now heavily pregnant-looked on approvingly.

  Laela smiled to herself. Amoranis weren’t so different after all.

  After that, they were ushered away from the dock and walked with the Emperor and his court along a paved road lined with enormous stone pillars and into a large building.

  Inside, it was warmly lit, and dozens of low tables filled the space. A hall, Laela thought.

  But while a hall in Malvern would have had wooden beams and probably some spears or hanging animal skins by way of decoration, this one was so rich it took Laela’s breath away. The walls and roof were completely smooth, as if they had been made all in one piece. The room was made all in sensual curves and elegant domes and arches, and everything had been painted. Laela saw images of brown-skinned women dancing and playing instruments, griffins using magic to cover a pillar in swirling patterns of red and green, and a massive flower opening to reveal a golden man with a serene smile.

  Flowers were everywhere, in elaborate gold holders on the walls and on the pillars that held up the ceiling. More decorated the tables-ornamental vines, lush with blooms, flowing over the wood.

  Laela realised her mouth was hanging open. She shut
it again, so she could use it for a disbelieving grin.

  Even Oeka looked taken aback. “Such magnificence!” she chirped. She spread her wings and fluttered them a little, as if trying to calm herself down. “What power humans possess!”

  “What power these humans possess,” said Laela. “This place must be the most magnificent building in the country!”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” said Arenadd from behind her.

  “Argh!” Laela turned sharply. “I hate it how yer always doin’ that!”

  Arenadd grinned. “Call it a bad habit. Now, let’s mingle, shall we? I think the Emperor will want to introduce me to his daughter in a moment.”

  The other griffiners had already spread themselves around the room and were beginning to mingle with their hosts-using griffish to talk to them.

  “Everyone in Amoran speaks griffish,” said Arenadd. “It’s a sacred language to them-apparently they believe that Xanathus only listens to prayers spoken in it.”

  Laela was about to ask who Xanathus was, but remembered in time. “Should make it easier for us here, eh?”

  “Definitely.”

  The Emperor was already seated at a table with a group of people who looked to be his family. Arenadd went to join him, with Laela and Oeka following. Skandar, typically uninterested, was wandering here and there, busily intimidating other males and making suggestive remarks to the females.

  The Emperor received Arenadd with his usual smile. “So, how do you like our hall, Great King?” he asked. He had a gold ring in his nose, Laela noticed.

  “A very beautiful place indeed, Sacred Ruler,” Arenadd said smoothly. “Your people are very skilled.”

  The Emperor inclined his head. “This is only a minor hall-I apologise that I could not receive you in the Hall of Suns in our capital city, but I thought you would prefer not to sail up the River Erech for another moon’s turning, and I was in Instabahn regardless.”

  Only a minor hall! Laela wondered if this Hall of Suns was made out of solid gold or something.

  “No offence is taken, Sacred Ruler,” said Arenadd, inclining his head in return.

  “Excellent.” The Emperor’s startlingly white teeth flashed. “Please, allow me to introduce the Imperial Family, Great King.”

  The table had strange round cushions around it instead of chairs. Laela tried to get comfortable on hers, and listened while the Emperor named the other people with him.

  “Aznaran, my first wife.” This was a middle-aged woman whose ears sagged under the weight of a pair of enormous gold hoops. Her face had been painted to make her dark eyes look bigger. Laela thought she looked how a mother should look.

  “And Ilya, my second,” the Emperor added. This one was younger, and was openly staring at Arenadd’s pale skin.

  “And this,” said the Emperor, “is my youngest daughter, the Princess Nyria. No doubt you have been longing to meet her.”

  Unlike the other women there, the Princess wore a veil over her face-but it was thin enough for Laela to get an idea of what she looked like. She had a small, pretty face, and wore a gown covered in golden beads, and she stared silently at the table while she was introduced.

  Arenadd smiled at her. “I have indeed.” Then, to the apparent surprise of the Imperial Family, he reached toward her with his good hand. “Nyria. You’re as beautiful as I imagined you would be.”

  There was an awkward silence, and Laela knew he’d broken some kind of Amorani protocol. But Arenadd looked unembarrassed, and, a moment later, the Princess touched his hand in return. “I am awed to meet you, Great King,” she said softly. “You are far more handsome than I imagined.”

  At that, the Emperor burst out laughing. “I see you are to my daughter’s liking! I hope that she is to your own!”

  “She would put any Northern woman to shame,” said Arenadd.

  “You shall have plenty of time to see,” said the Emperor. “Nyria, if you would like, then perhaps you could visit your betrothed in his quarters tonight, so that you can come to know him better.”

  The Princess bowed her head toward him. “I would be glad to, Father.”

  “Just be careful the Mighty Skandar doesn’t eat yeh!” Laela joked.

  The Emperor and his family looked at her with slightly shocked expressions, but then they laughed.

  “It would seem that your own daughter has a fine tongue on her,” the Emperor remarked to Arenadd. “As fine as your own, Great King.”

  Laela decided that she quite liked this strange bald-headed man. “I ain’t his daughter, Sacred Ruler,” she said.

  The Emperor paused at that. “She looks very much like you, Great King,” he said. “I am sorry if-”

  “She does,” said Arenadd. “In more than looks, let me assure you. But she is not my daughter. I am unmarried.”

  The Emperor’s eyes gleamed. “Of course. Please excuse my mistake, Great King.”

  After that, he and Arenadd chatted about this and that, trying to put each other at ease. The women didn’t try to join in.

  Laela supposed they weren’t allowed.

  In the meantime, food was brought in for the Amorani court and its guests. Naturally, the Emperor’s table was served first, and Laela was shocked when she saw who brought the food to it.

  They were men, pale-skinned and black-eyed. Their hair had been shaved off, and they wore nothing but plain white kilts. All of them had heavy metal collars clamped around their necks.

  Slaves. Northern slaves.

  Laela had never seen a slave before. Now she could scarcely believe her eyes. To be treated like that, to have all your hair cut off and be forced to work all day, to be a piece of property instead of a person. .

  What upset her most was the way the Emperor and his family reacted to them. They didn’t even look at the slaves as they put platters of food and jugs of wine on the table before retreating.

  Even Arenadd didn’t react much. He gave one of the slaves a lingering look when he came near, but his expression didn’t change, and he didn’t say anything. It was as if nothing had happened.

  But Laela kept her gaze on them, and she didn’t take it away. She kept on watching them, ignoring the food they’d brought despite her hunger. They moved slowly, their faces blank, as if they had nothing to feel or think about. But the more she looked at them, the more she began to realise the truth.

  This is what they were fightin’ for. Arenadd and his rebels. It wasn’t about power. It was about this. It was about stoppin’ this.

  She took in every detail of them, seeing their long fingers, their narrow shoulders, the hints of black hair on their heads.

  My people. They’re my people. Our people.

  She felt like she was waking up. All of a sudden she was angry-angry toward the likeable Emperor, toward his family-toward his entire country that put these people in bondage and treated them like animals.

  But they had to be friends, she realised. Arenadd had to make them his friends, so that they would let these slaves go home. Even if it meant his marrying this Princess he didn’t know and taking her to live in a place that would be as foreign to her as Amoran was to Laela.

  Eventually, hunger won through, and Laela ate. The food was strange and spicy, but she barely tasted it. She ate as if in a dream, letting the conversation wash over her.

  By the time the meal ended, and the visitors were ready to be shown to their quarters, Laela found she had a new respect for Arenadd-even admiration. He’d left his Kingdom in someone else’s hands for a year, just so he could come all this way to gather these last few Northerners who still had to be brought home. Cymria’s slaves had been freed, and now these were all that were left.

  An’ it’s up to me t’help him, she thought. I’m his right-hand. . woman now. It’s my duty.

  She’d never thought of it that way before.

  Her quarters turned out to be a set of rooms in another building attached to the great hall. They were close to Arenadd’s and Skandar’s, but though
Laela had wanted to talk to Arenadd before bed, he had the Princess with him and was obviously more interested in having some time with his bride-to-be instead.

  Laela managed to catch him for a moment anyway. “I saw the slaves.”

  “Of course you did,” Arenadd said tersely. “They weren’t exactly easy to miss.”

  “I can’t believe the Emperor actually had them poor buggers serve us like that,” said Laela. “What was he thinkin’?”

  Arenadd glanced at the Princess, who was waiting for him. “Possibly he just didn’t think of it, but he seems much too intelligent to make that sort of blunder. I think the intention was to remind us of just what we’re asking him for here. And maybe to warn us.”

  Laela cringed. “What, they wouldn’t make us into. .”

  “We can’t assume anything just now,” said Arenadd. “Listen; I’ve got things to do, and you should get some rest. Tomorrow I’ll be in talks with the Emperor, so you probably won’t see much of me.”

  “What’ll I do, then?”

  “You’ll be shown around the city, most likely-they’ll want to entertain you, try and impress you. And to keep you busy as well.”

  “Yeh don’t think they’re gonna try anythin’ on, do yeh?” said Laela.

  “It seems unlikely, but that’s no reason not to be careful,” said Arenadd. “Keep Oeka with you. Never let her out of your sight. If something happens, she’s the best defence you’ve got. Don’t accept any food or drink you’re not certain about.”

  “Right. But what should I do for you?” said Laela. “To help yeh?”

  He smiled very slightly. “I’m pleased you asked. I want you to be my eyes and ears, Laela. Remember everything you see and hear. Note anything you think could be important. I’m counting on you.”

  “Gotcha.” Laela grinned and retreated into her chambers after Oeka, where she dumped the small travel bag she had brought with her and stopped to look around.

  Her quarters were large and airy, and simply but richly decorated. There was another of those low tables with cushions around it, and a brass bowl full of strange fruit. The bed was a strange, flat straw mattress covered in fine fabric and had nothing in the way of bedding aside from a single thin sheet and an odd-looking long, thin pillow. Oeka had been provided with a nest in an adjoining room, and a beautifully carved water trough.