Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 4, Final Part

Domi didn't mean to eavesdrop on the skychariot attendants. He was just trying to make his way back to his Ma and Radix without getting caught sneaking out to spend time among Pyrrhaei when he overheard two voices in the private dining chamber.

"Will you put that stupid stone down and help me?" a woman asked. Glass clinked and steam whistled.

Domi paused, pressing himself behind the lip of the rounded wall. He didn't know how to behave around regular people anymore. To his extreme discomfort, they now ogled at him like he had two heads and yet managed to do it without lifting their own heads or meeting his eyes. And that was without knowing that he was royalty.

"I will in a second," a man said, his voice low and absent. "There's an update."

"No, not in a second. Now, please." Liquid burbled. "We have a job to do."

The man's answering voice was scornful. "What, provide a midnight coffee break to a bunch of lazy Lightholders who have been partying all night? Please."

Domi glared at the faux marble wall on the other side of the corridor. Bellus and the rest of the protocol handler's team were working furiously to deal with the mess Domi had caused and these people called his staff lazy?

"I doubt they're partying," the woman said, and he relaxed a little, leaning closer. "I have no idea what they're doing, but have you seen their expressions? Whatever they're focused on, it's serious. They've been up all night working on it."

"Not working hard enough. Sipping coffee while the whole world burns?"

Domi felt the blood draining from his face. Was the whole world afire because of him? His back ached where the Blightlands were and he could feel other, smaller pangs and a weird churning unease in his belly, but it didn't feel like the world had been set alight. But he did not understand the Trellis yet, and what if--

"The whole world is not burning." The woman's words had him breathing a sigh of relief, though he tucked his lip between his teeth as she continued. "Just some fires here and there. And that was earlier."

"Just some fires and flooding, then frost, and now this hurricane," the man mocked. "I heard in the Caeles that it's expected to become a hypercane."

"A what?"

Abrupt silence fell and Domi realized then that he'd spoken out loud.

Well, crap. Feeling like the world's biggest dunce, he stepped from behind the curved wall, rubbing the back of his neck.

The man, a short, stout youth, tossed a weird palm-sized black rock on the dining chamber's central counter and inclined his head in fear more than respect. "Promerenti!"

The woman was more composed, offering a smooth bow with a quick glare at her fellow attendant out of the corner of her eye. As she rose, she asked politely, "May I get you anything, Promerenti?"

Domi studied her aquiline face. Something about her beak-like nose perhaps, was familiar. Yet she looked back at him with no hint of recognition, so he just shook his head. "No, I'm not allowed to eat."

"What? Not allowed?" the man asked, grimacing at his companion as the woman pointed an emphatic finger at a steaming pot from which the most amazing aroma wafted. Grumbling under his breath, he grabbed a large mesh metal ladle and, placing it atop another pot, began to pour.

Domi eyed the dark liquid. "Actually, can I have some coffee?" He was pretty sure he wouldn't be breaking his fast by just drinking something and for once his Ma and aedificans were not around to stop him from trying the divinely-scented beverage.