Ashes

by Lauralana Dunne

  Phoenix grinned and the two went to the sharing tables to grab their meal, allowing Phoenix the opportunity to flag down Tessa and relay her message from Malcourt.

  “I should take some scraps for Kit,” Phoenix said to Rae, when she was finally able to sit down. Groaning happily, she stretched out her legs and kicked off her boots. “That’s better,” she said with contentment.

  “No kidding. Why didn’t you come back?” Rae asked, following suit and kicking off her own footwear. She slipped off her wet apron and flapped her arms comically in an attempt to shake loose the excess water in her sleeves.

  “Had to stay with the Head Table,” Phoenix said, smearing a thick layer of spread on to a piece of bread.

  “Ah. That’s why Brianna was looking so murderous earlier,” Rae said, her eyes dancing. “I heard about the other night...”

  Phoenix groaned. “Do people do anything around here besides gossip?” she asked, somewhat testily.

  Rae smirked. “You tell me,” she retorted. Phoenix grimaced and took a large bite of her bread. “Besides,” Rae continued while she was chewing, “it’s not like she hasn’t done anything to deserve a bit of discontentment now and then. She’s certainly caused enough of it.”

  Phoenix had to admit that that was true.

  The girls sat in silence for a moment, just eating and enjoying the rest after such a long day. She couldn’t help but frown when she remembered Brianna and Jenny laughing at her earlier.

  “Brianna being awful means that everything is normal. I’ll start to worry if she becomes pleasant,” Rae told her. “Don’t mind her,” she added, when Phoenix nodded. “She can’t do anything too horrible. Being sent home would be the ultimate insult to her - and to her father. She would never do anything to jeopardize her position here. Y’just need to avoid her for awhile, is all.”

  “I’ve been trying,” Phoenix said bitterly.

  “She’s just sore because Prince Hallan prefers you, is all,” Rae said blandly, laughing when Phoenix blushed.

  “He does not!” Phoenix protested. The Prince would never prefer her over all of the beautiful Ladies chasing him.

  “He is rather handsome,” Rae said, admiringly. “I know I sure wouldn’t mind him as a suitor.”

  “You can have him,” Phoenix retorted with mild outrage. “Then I wouldn’t have to deal with Brianna. Or Captain Rolf,” she added in a huff, remembering their conversation outside the Prince’s quarters.

  Rae frowned. “Rolf? What do you mean?”

  Phoenix folded up a few slices of meat and shoved them into her mouth. “He’s always watching me,” she complained. “He shows up wherever I go. And he’s always glaring at me.” The relief of finally telling someone about it turned her tone sharp. “He’s mean. He gives me the creeps. And he’s been doing it ever since I met him. Even more since I saw him lurking around the back hallways-”

  “You what?” Rae asked, wide-eyed. “When? Where?”

  “A few months, when I first got here. I got lost when I left the library. You know, the night when I...” Phoenix trailed off, remembering the sleep-terror she had experienced in the common room.

  “The back hallways!” Rae squeaked, looking aghast. “They’re forbidden!”

  Phoenix rubbed her face. “Well, I know that now. I obviously didn’t then. It was an accident.”

  Rae looked serious for once. “No. I mean that they’re forbidden to everyone,” she clarified.

  “Everyone?” Phoenix asked. “Then what was Rolf doing there?”

  Rae stuffed a roll in her cheek and pursed her lips “That is the question, isn’t it?”

  CHAPTER 18

  The back corridor was dark and deserted. The layer of dust on the unused stones seemed to swallow up all sound as the two crept carefully down the hallway.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Phoenix asked Rae in a whisper. It felt strange being surrounded by such emptiness while the rest of the castle was bursting with activity and life. “What if we run into trouble?”

  “You tell me, Apprentice Caller,” Rae whispered back, and Phoenix couldn’t help but find her friend’s faith in her abilities somewhat disconcerting. “Are you sure this is the right way?” Rae asked.

  “Pretty sure,” Phoenix answered without conviction. It had been a long time since her encounter with Rolf had happened, and she had since tried to put it out of her mind as best she could.

  The candle that Rae held abruptly blew out.

  “Toads,” Rae swore as they were swallowed by the darkness. Phoenix took the candle wordlessly and pinched the flame back to life with her thumb and forefinger. “I’ve got to learn how to do that,” Rae joked, her voice sounding weak in the dim light. Phoenix didn’t have a chance to respond as the next instant Rae screamed and leapt backward.

  Phoenix tensed and pivoted. A brief thought had her reaching for her Power, rousing it with ease until her fingertips grew warm. Phoenix felt a thrill at how she was able to call upon it and wished that it always happened that easily.

  She stood still, eyes narrowed as they adjusted in the unreliable darkness. A familiar wing-shaped form stood in front of them, his dark outline a pale shadow next to the open window that had been the source of the breeze.

  “Toads!” Phoenix repeated Rae’s earlier oath, glaring at the creature.

  “Gargoyle, actually,” Rorin said coolly. Despite his condescension, Phoenix heard a note of humor in his voice.

  The light that illuminated them shook violently, and Phoenix reached out to take the candle from Rae’s hand. The girl’s body shook with tremors as she stared openly at the gargoyle, her mouth agape with silence - for once.

  Phoenix had to admit that the sight of him was unnerving in the half-light. He was at rest, to be sure - Phoenix could see the relaxed stance of his shoulders, and both his tail and wings were hanging loosely to graze the floor - but the glint off his wicked curved blades, the way that the light caught his eyes like that of an animal… it was enough to give Phoenix pause.

  Rorin crossed his arms languidly and tilted his head at Rae. He raised a brow ridge with amusement. “Is she all right?”

  Phoenix made a disgusted noise at him and laid her hand on Rae’s arm. “It’s okay, Rae. He’s not going to hurt us. He’s here to help.”

  “Help?” Rae squeaked, still trembling violently. “You sure do attract strange friends,” she told Phoenix, weakly.

  Phoenix was brought up short when she considered Rorin as a friend, but for Rae’s sake she didn’t dispute the claim. “Takes one to know one,” she retorted instead.

  Rorin opened his wings and Rae squealed in fright. Instead of moving, he crossed a wingtip over his chest and bowed to Rae. “I am called Rorin,” he introduced himself. “And you have nothing to worry about. Any friend of the Lady Phoenix is a friend of mine.”

  “Apprentice,” Phoenix muttered, correcting him sourly. If Lady Marianne was any indication of what Ladies were like, Phoenix felt insulted to be compared to one.

  They both waited for Rae to say something, but the girl remained frozen so Phoenix introduced her instead.

  “What are you doing here, anyway?” Phoenix asked Rorin.

  “Watching you,” he replied, casually adjusting his wings.

  Rae squeaked again, but Phoenix frowned and narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

  He gave her a crooked smile, the tip of a fang poking out the side of his mouth. “You were quite the center of attention when you were in the hall earlier. It piqued my interest.” When Phoenix blinked at him in confusion, he raised his eye ridges in surprise. “You didn’t notice?”

  Phoenix shook her head. She shrugged, trying to dispel the unease that she felt. She had spent so much time watching out for King Benedict that she hadn’t thought to watch out for herself.

  “Could be just the prestige of being the new castle Caller and all, but you were certainly interesting to a large number of people.” The gargoyle cloaked his wings around him, the large membr
anous skin folding easily, compressing into a space that seemed too small for their size. The hooked talons at their apex hitched into his shoulder guard, nestling easily between the metal spikes that adorned the armour. “I was watching from the rafters,” he continued on, pushing away from the wall to stride down the corridor. The girls exchanged looks and, with a shrug, hurried to catch up with him.

  “You must be incredibly long-sighted,” Phoenix remarked, struggling to keep the candle flame lit with their brisk pace. Rae, unusually enough, remained silent.

  “Most gargoyles are,” he shrugged. “We tend to see beyond your limited human vision.” His voice was somewhat smug, but Phoenix couldn’t contest that statement considering his ease in navigating the blackness of the corridor ahead of them.

  “No wonder you can sneak around unnoticed,” she countered instead.

  Rorin surprised her by smiling to himself. “Indeed.”

  “What’s that?” Rae asked, breaking her silence and pointing ahead of them.

  The painting that Phoenix found last time was coming into view. This time she noticed a metal plaque at the bottom of the frame as the light from the candle caught on the dusty surface.

  “Queen Helena and Princess Penelope,” Rae read next to her. “The Day Before the Name-Giving Ceremony.”

  “Name-giving?” Rorin asked.

  “Yeah,” Rae squared her shoulders and turned towards Rorin. “When royals are recognized formally as having the Blood. Don’t you gargoyles have something similar?”

  Rorin’s face was impassive. “Something similar,” he conceded, “though nothing so needlessly formal.”

  “Needless?” Rae scoffed.

  Rorin leaned closer to inspect the painting, and Phoenix felt a small pang of jealousy at how well he was able to see it in the darkness. She thought about illuminating the area with her Power, but immediately decided against it as she didn’t know if she could control the flame this far from the tower. She somehow doubted the King’s good graces would extend to her burning down the forbidden areas of his castle… Or Master Malcourt’s, for that matter.

  Rorin cocked his head at the painting before sliding his attention back to Rae. “We are a matriarchal people. It’s easier to track lineage that way.”

  “Matri-what?” Rae asked.

  “They trace their Blood through the females,” Phoenix told her, half-paying attention to their conversation, remembering the word from one of the books that Malcourt had given her to read. Phoenix was studying the painting with a renewed curiosity. Something about it seemed strangely familiar, but whatever it was continued to slip around in her mind, eluding her.

  “Is what you’re looking for near here?” Rorin asked, interrupting Phoenix’s concentration.

  Phoenix gave up on the painting and turned her attention back to the two. “Yes. There was a room - somewhere around here - that Rolf was sneaking out of.”

  “Captain Rolf? Guardscaptain Rolf?” Rorin asked. When the girls nodded he curled his lip. “That’s unsurprising.”

  Rae stared at him. “What does that mean?” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

  The gargoyle shrugged a shoulder. “He’s always so sure of himself - so superior. He acts as though everything in your castle is his business to know.”

  “That’s because everything is his business to know,” Rae said, defending him staunchly. “Besides, what do you mean by ‘always’? How often are you even here?”

  The gargoyle gave her a slow smile, and Phoenix couldn’t help but notice that the tips of his long canines were visible between his lips. “More often than you will ever know,” he told her in a purr.

  Rae shuddered and stepped closer to Phoenix.

  “Anyway,” Phoenix said awkwardly, breaking into the following silence before it could stretch any further, “we have to find the door-”

  “That door?” Rorin interrupted, pointing into the shadows where Phoenix could see nothing. “Unless of course there’s a second, hidden, doorway somewhere?”

  Phoenix shot him a withering glare and stalked in the direction he indicated. As she stepped closer, the light from the flame of her candle caught the metal door handle and reflected off its dirty surface with a dull sheen.

  Resolutely, she grabbed the handle and gave it a hard yank to open the heavy door. Nothing happened. She quickly tried again with more force. The door moved slightly, but it stopped with an abrupt clang that jarred her arm.

  “It’s locked,” she told the two needlessly, wincing as she rubbed her arm.

  Rorin stepped forward and grasped the handle. Phoenix was surprised to note that his hand only had three digits as opposed to five, but that thought was pushed aside as he pulled on the door with surprising force. He was much stronger than she remembered. The door made a grating noise, and there was a loud sound of metal scraping off of metal as he attempted to force the door open despite the lock.

  After a moment of exertion he stopped.

  “Shhh!” Rae hissed, looking over her shoulder. “Someone might hear you.”

  “So?” Rorin asked, nonchalantly.

  “There’s no one around, Rae,” Phoenix reminded the girl comfortingly.

  “Can you break the lock?” Rorin asked Phoenix, ignoring the other girl’s fears.

  “What do you think I am, a blacksmith’s hammer?” Phoenix asked with exasperation.

  “No,” he said, as if she were simple, “but perhaps a forge. Can you not melt the lock?”

  Phoenix was glad that it was dark so that her blush could go unnoticed. However, judging from the amused twitch of the gargoyle’s expression, she was unsure as to whether he could make out skin color in the dark or not.

  She stepped forward and took a deep breath. Phoenix knew that she was not supposed to use her Power outside of the tower as there were no safety precautions save her own focus ring. Still, she reasoned with herself, this was an important cause - the very life of the King could depend on what they found.

  Grasping the handle, Phoenix closed her eyes and calmed her breath as Master Malcourt had taught her. Carefully, but with determination, she sought for the Power that rested inside of her.

  She closed her eyes and visualized a pool of liquid fire residing in her belly. She pictured herself slowly feeding the flame, fuelling the fire until it expanded, boiling up her arms until the contents overflowed through her skin and spilled out into her hands. There was a soft hissing, and Phoenix opened her eyes in shock as steam rose into the air. She was never able to get her Power to work without being upset.

  An orange glow spread from the handle and seeped through the metal mechanism of the door. The metal glowed angrily, the heat palpable in the air, though the feeling of burning didn’t touch her skin.

  When she was satisfied, Phoenix clamped down on her Power and dropped her hand. “Careful,” she cautioned breathlessly when Rorin stepped forward to take her place. The gargoyle ignored her.

  There was a sharp sizzling when Rorin gripped the handle, making Phoenix wince, but he immediately twisted the knob and a loud cracking sound could be heard. The girls jumped from the noise, but Rorin calmly set the previously-glowing doorknob in Phoenix’s hand. The gargoyle’s skin was ice cold, and Phoenix was shocked to find that the knob was frozen solid.

  “You may want to melt that back into place afterwards, Apprentice,” Rorin murmured. Before she could respond, he reached his arm through the hole and clicked the lock open from the inside.

  The door swung towards them with an ominous creak.

  It was a storage closet.

  The room was smaller than Phoenix was expecting. The three peered inside, but when Phoenix held the candle up all that could be seen were rows upon rows of shelves containing glass jars.

  An acrid smell assaulted Phoenix’s nostrils, and she coughed lightly in an attempt to clear the burning sensation.

  Rae stepped forward to read the labels on the jars. “Barknut... Darkroot... Banebore... Some of these are poisonous. This one
is missing!” She pointed to an empty space on the shelf, the circular pattern in the dust showing where a large jar had rested until recently. A shadow of a stain pooled on the empty shelf. The remnants of the oily liquid shimmered in the dim light, and Phoenix knew at a glance that it was what had been used on the meals for the Head Table.

  “This one too,” Rorin pointed under the bottom shelf, where the larger containers were kept. The floor was damp. Whatever had spilled there was what was causing the smell.

  Rae stopped in her tracks, as though the act of standing still would somehow ward herself against any possible danger. “I don’t understand.”

  Phoenix and Rorin exchanged grim looks. “It makes sense to keep people out of these corridors,” Rorin said.

  “And to keep the doors locked,” Phoenix added.

  “But why would Captain Rolf come here?” Rae asked the two. “The main storage room is full of herbs. Why would he want something so dangerous?”

  “That is the question, isn’t it?” Phoenix responded, echoing the girl’s earlier words back at her.

  Rorin nodded. “And, for the more important one: now that we know, what are we going to do about it?”

  ***

  Phoenix attached the handle back to the door - sparing a moment to wonder if it would work again - and the three hurried away from the dangerous room in the forbidden corridor.

  Rorin, upon reaching the window, opened it and bid them good night, slipping lithely through the opening and disappearing from sight. Phoenix and Rae ran to the window to watch as he disappeared. They gasped in unison as he dropped like a stone before unfurling his large wings and - with a powerful flap - soared upwards and disappeared out of sight over the rooftops.

  Phoenix wordlessly closed the shutters behind him.

  The lights were bright in the main corridors, and Phoenix and Rae winced slightly as they rounded the corridor into the well-lit foyer. The activity was deafening in comparison to the quiet that they had become accustomed to.

  Can you meet me in your tower? Phoenix Heard Rorin ask, presumably to Master Malcourt.