On Wings of Chaos (Revenant Wyrd Book 5) (11 page)

Sara smiled at the offer. "That would be most welcome. Goddess only knows when I’ll be out of this chair, and I would so love to leave my room and office at some point."

"It would be my pleasure," Caldamron said, bowing himself out.

“Guardian Joya,” Shelara said, her blue skin blushing with splotches of green at a rapid pace, indicating her high excitement. “I’ve reached out to the other ooslebed through the shadows of a great oak tree. They are assembling, and await your orders. They are mounted on the heckling and armed with bows.”

“Perfect,” Joya said.

“And mine await with their machinery, though I’m not sure how much you wish them to bring,” Caldamron stated, joining the two of them as they started their descent down the stairs.

“As much machinery as they can. The louder the better. Fear might be our greatest weapon in this war.”

Flora shrugged her shoulders, straightening her green robes before pushing into the common room of the suite she shared with her students. Pi was in the midst of lobbing a pillow at Devenstar, which caught him square in the face in the middle of what looked to be a long-winded lecture or tall tale.

“You know none of that happened!” Pi said, collapsing onto the sofa in gales of laughter.

“I’m certain it did!” Devenstar said, flattening his ruffled blond hair after the attack. “You were horrible in the fire classes, always blowing something up.”

Flora cleared her throat to hide a chuckle.

“Ah, here’s our stately crone now. Maybe she can shed some light on this,” Devenstar said. Hugging the pillow to his midsection, he sat down.

“No comment,” Flora said, holding her hands up in surrender.

“See!” Devenstar said. “She agrees.”

“That’s nonsense!” Pi said, readying another pillow for an attack.

“I would like your attention,” Flora said. Instantly Pi, Devenstar, and Chy, who had been sitting in a corner laughing silently so as not to attract attention and attacks to himself, all sat straighter and tried to school their mirthful faces into attention. Flora hated this part of the conversation. It was good to see her students finally getting back to what they were before the attack on the school. How long had worry about their home, the well, and now Clara, marred the surface of their happiness? She shook her head.

“As you guys understand, we’ve come to the keep at a rather bad time for us, and at a rather good time for the Guardians.” Flora sat down on another sofa. A ceramic tea pot, decorated with a scene of rolling highlands with a wistful-giant looking out at the plains below, sat on the coffee table. She felt the side, noting it was still warm, and poured herself a cup. A thin trail of steam circled the rim of her cup. “The chaos dwarves make ready an attack, and the Realm Guardians feel that we humans are outnumbered. They need all the help they can get, and we are three able-bodied sorcerers.”

Devenstar nodded, and Pi looked worriedly at her brother, Chy, sitting in the corner studying his feet. Flora followed her gaze to the black-haired boy.

“Don’t worry about Chy,” Flora said, resting a hand on Pi’s knee. “They wouldn’t use him anyway; he hasn’t even started working with wyrd yet, and is years from his training.”

Pi seemed to relax. “What about Clara?”

“She’s still out of it,” Flora said, taking a sip of her tea.

“What do you think, Pi, they’re going to strap her to a post on top the wall and let the dwarves use her for target practice?” Devenstar said, tossing the pillow-turned-weapon back at Pi. It bounced off her face, hitting the tea pot, which slid across the table and would have shattered on the floor if it hadn’t been for Flora’s reflexes.

“Whoops,” Pi said.

“Your face isn’t that great at catching things,” Devenstar noted.

“But your ass is going to do a good job of catching my boot if you don’t calm down,” Flora said.

Devenstar cleared his throat.

“It is good to see you guys relaxing again,” Flora said. “But we have miles to go before we’re done. It seems we’re being wrapped up in events as they unfold, and with our academy out of sorts, we might as well lend our aid until we can get back to our home.”

“When will that be?” Pi asked.

Flora shrugged, taking another sip of her jasmine tea. She wondered whether to tell them about the Turquoise Tower or not, or the dreams of the angelic battle to come. She settled on honesty. If she was asking these two to give themselves to the war effort, at least she could be upfront with them.

So she told them everything she knew. She reinforced, in case they’d forgotten, that Cianna was the daughter of Pharoh and Arael. It was easy to forget a person’s lineage once you knew them better. Flora also told them that Angelica, Jovian, and Joya were the children of Sylvie LaFaye. She informed them of the dream of the Turquoise Tower, and the fear that another angelic war could be on them.

“But this time,” Flora said, “Arael isn’t looking for the tower, he’s already found it.”

Her students sat in silence for a time. Devenstar cleared his throat. They all looked to him.

“So it’s happening again?” he asked.

Flora nodded her head.

“Just like Azra predicted: the shadow in the west,” Pi said.

“It appears so,” Flora said.

“Who told you this?” Devenstar wondered.

“The LaFaye offspring have been having dreams of the tower, calling out to their angelic blood. It’s said that’s how it happens: the tower is activated, and all creatures with angelic blood are called there to have their humanity burned out and regain their wings, their path to the Ever After.”

“So a war in the Ever After?” Devenstar said. It was hard for him to keep the hard edge of panic from his voice.

“Not yet, but I’m sure it’s on Arael’s agenda.”

“What are we supposed to do against them?” Pi asked. “The angels, I mean.”

Flora shrugged. “Last time Arael hadn’t found the tower, so he didn’t have an angelic army with him. This time it’s different. I feel that the LaFaye offspring will go to meet him after this is all done.”

“And what about us?” Pi asked.

“I’m sure there will be plenty for us to do. The angels won’t just sit around waiting for people to come to them.” Flora took a drink of her tea, trying to appear calm, though her insides felt like they were dancing a jig.

“So that means Cianna will go?” Devenstar asked. His eyes lost some of the mirth Flora had walked in on.

“I honestly don’t know, Deven.”

“Right,” was all he said.

Chy crossed the floor to his sister, sat beside her, and let her wrap her arms around him protectively. She turned her eyes to her teacher. She wouldn’t say she was afraid, not when Chy was with her, but Flora read all too clearly in Pi’s eyes that she was terrified.

Me too, Pi, me too.

“So what do we do?” Devenstar asked.

“I’m sure you can remain here in the suite to sleep, but I would report to the wyrding root. They have a commander named Krouner, he will instruct you further.”

“And you?” Pi asked. It wasn’t that she wondered if Flora was going to help; it was evident in her voice that she didn’t want to be far from Flora’s side.

“I’ll be helping Dalah, Grace, and Rosalee in the infirmary.”

“Joya,” Cianna said, catching up to her cousin as they all filed out of Sara’s office. “I was wondering, by chance, if you still had the medallion.”

Joya and Cianna started walking down the stairs, Shelara and Caldamron close behind. A look of confusion came over her shorter cousin’s face.

“You mean, Aunt Pharoh’s medallion?” Joya asked, casting a sidelong look at Cianna.

“Yes,” Cianna said with a nod, her heeled boots making a heavy clunk on the stairs.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” Joya asked. “It’s not like I tossed it out now that we aren’t using it.”

She smiled, and Cianna smiled back, some of the worry of how well she would get along with Joya fading. Cianna had known she would get along with Angelica and Jovian. She knew from the moment she saw them that there was something of her aunt still lingering inside of them, and she knew for that reason alone that they would get along, because she felt the swell of love issuing forth from them through Sylvie’s memories. But Joya was something else completely. She was her own person, and she was made up of her own thoughts and memories, with no interference from the lingering wyrd of another person.

“I was wondering if I might have a moment with it?” Cianna asked.

Joya’s face suddenly melted into a look of understanding, and then sadness. She stopped on the stairs, forcing Cianna to stop with her. The other people parted around them and continued on their way.

“Oh, Cianna, how foolish of me not even to think of that. You haven’t had contact with Aunt Pharoh, and here I’m toting around her soul in a necklace. Of course!” Joya gripped Cianna’s hand, and all of Cianna’s worries melted from her. She smiled and averted her eyes. “It’s in my room,” Joya said. “I’ll take you there now.”

It was somewhat premature to proclaim she would take her right to the medallion, since they had to climb down the rest of the Guardian’s tower and then up the other tower to their suite.

They were nearly down the right wing when Joya spoke again.

“Would you do me a favor?” she asked.

“What is it?” Cianna asked, looking to her cousin. She remembered the dream she’d had of Joya, and how she’d felt in her cousin’s presence. Cianna couldn’t place the room they were in, but it felt like a tower room that belonged to Joya. Could it have been the Spire of Night? That didn’t make sense, though; they weren’t surrounded in darkness in the dream.

“If the call for the tower gets too much, and we have to go, will you go with me?”

“Wouldn’t you be going with Angelica and Jovian?” Cianna asked.

“I’m going to hold off for as long as I can, to make sure things are wrapped up here and my people are safely home. Then I will go. They might leave before me.”

“We’ll discuss it then,” Cianna said. “But I would gladly go with you if I can resist the call.”

They crossed the entrance hall and started up the right tower toward Joya’s room, the dark elf and the cat-man a constant presence at their backs. The Shadow Guardian’s guards.

“How long have they been having the dreams?” Cianna asked.

“It sounds like a while now,” Joya shrugged. “But I can’t be sure.”

“So it’s possible they could be called before us?” Cianna asked.

“Yes,” Joya said, her voice labored with her heavy breathing. “How many times have you dreamed of it?”

“Just the once,” Cianna said. It occurred to her that they were talking in near-whispers, as if they didn’t want anyone around them to hear what they were talking about, which was probably for the best.

“Me too,” Joya said as they crested the second floor landing and made their way down the hall to the suite she shared with Jovian and Angelica.

Joya opened the door, and Cianna walked into the room. Jovian and Angelica were already in their rooms, either preparing for something or winding down from the meeting. Their doors were open, though, and they were yelling back and forth to one another.

“Gosh, it’s so much colder here than at home,” Angelica was saying.

“What did you expect?” Jovian said, laughter in his voice. “We
are
in the north.”