When The Moons And Mirrors Rise

Chapter 34

"Tanarook, arms wide. Itze, painting Jirrell with Tekynorree colours. I am Alyneh," said a woman. Mallekarri had introduced us to the tribe before we left.
"Pretty calling," Ink croaked.
"My name? Thanks," Alyneh smiled. "Do any of you have sky-gift -- magic?"
"I've got crow and I can use telepathy, and Kestrel can too, as well as all the elemental magics."
"You can help us then. Every tribe has a handful of magic users, and they help with getting provisions. I can use fire and water," she said. "Anyway, why do you want to visit the gnomes?" So Ris told her about her quest; that she needed the Enchanted to gather at the TenthTide Shores, and about what Fang had told us.

"Corinew, running towards Junalur! My great-great-grandmother is an Enchanted, and my father is a Cursed. I am glad the quest is well underway."

Night fell, but we kept walking for a few hours. Argenti was drawing near full, and when it was a couple of hand-spans above the eastern horizon we stopped to sleep. Mallekarri took the first watch. I sat with my sleeping companion, not wanting to go dormant but not feeling like exploring. I stroked Opal's back and traced the outlines of her scales as her stomach rose and fell with each gentle breath, wondering if the wyvern-stars had a similar shape to the kits. One day, on the Grey Noddy, Captain Peter told us there were little fire-breathing lizards in Tezynnaro. Maybe we'd see one. Kits don't breathe fire, and nor did the wyvern-stars, it seemed. Pear got up and moved to Leyin, that sweet Enchanted we'd adopted into our chosen family. Within a couple of months, she'd be able to use her voice and magic again -- I'm sure she was growing excited. I shifted my gaze onto the kind and accepting Lulu, remembering Badger, October, Kian, and Zathrian, and all the others at Kenshalty. With that thought came, of course, Roselen and Cassian, but that was past and we were in Tezynnaro with the Jaquilu tribe. Strange that there were no crow users -- if there were any, they would probably have already made themselves known by now, at least from Ris' experience. My mind wandered back to Etrunbor, to Ris' telepathic conversation with the crow user after talking to King Evander, then to Leyin again. She was close friends with Kyrell, and had been disappointed not to see him when we got to Tirshyer. We'd walked along the beach on one of those days before we left the city, and Leyin had told us about a friend she'd had while she was still looking after Ëtacihruðuhl. I didn't know if she had any Enchanted friends -- maybe I'll ask her tomorrow, I thought. And I'd also ask Ris what the plan for Leyin was, since we weren't sending her to the TenthTide Shores, or at least not yet.

"Hey, come look! There's a desert drake!" someone called, softly but loud enough to get people's attention. The dull-red little creature had spines along the sides of its belly, on its back, and under its chin. It also had two sets of horns that looked like branches broken off a dead, dry tree. Its expression was such that it looked as if it were sternly mocking something. Alyneh slowly reached towards it and gently picked it up. It looked around in a slight panic, but quickly calmed down and settled into Alyneh's hand. Most of the creatures in Tezynnaro didn't seem to be skittish.
"Can I hold him?" asked Lulu.
"Sure," Alyneh smiled and gave the desert drake to her. She stroked it long its whole length, avoiding the line of larger spines along its backbone. Ink left Ris' shoulder and settled on Lulu's, gawking at the lizard, who became nervous and crawled up Lulu's shirt.
"Ow, ah, ah! Little lizard, your claws are sharp and I do not appreciate you digging them into my skin," Lulu protested.
"You alright?" Alyneh asked, and she nodded. Ris gingerly stroked the desert drake like Lulu had done, finding its spines to be mainly for show. They weren't particularly sharp, and its belly was also somewhat flabby.
"They can breathe fire, right? What will it do if I hold a fire in my hand?" asked Kestrel.
"He'll probably breathe fire back at you," said Lulu. "I'm going to put him down, then you can see what happens." Kestrel crouched down beside it. Everyone moved back and, with a snap of her fingers, Kestrel lit a fire to hold in her hand. The desert drake growled, its mouth seeming to fill with something, and then the fire came roaring out in a small cloud.
"Woah," Ris said, and Kestrel stood back up, beaming. Lulu was grinning, and the kits were flying loops around each other.
"That was so cool!" Leyin smiled.
"Alright everyone, we've got to keep moving. Midday rest is coming soon," Mallekarri called.

We'd adapted fairly well to being crepuscular, but as Jaquilu shifted into being nocturnal it became clear something would have to be done about Ink. The bird was a bird, and he found it hard to be awake all night. Naturally, he might wake in the night on the odd occasion, but for him, being nocturnal was near impossible. Ris decided he could stay awake during the day and she'd let him sleep on her shoulder at night. When he did stir he switched shoulders. Under Stella's watch, he and I sat talking, and we accompanied each other on our wanderings -- he searching for food, I searching to sate my curiosity about this copper-soiled land. There were so many kinds of strange trees here, and there was a wide variety even within the kind with the vertical leaves. Some had speckled yellow trunks, some had red blossoms, some had bark that peeled off in long strips. And then there were the purple trees. They had fern-like leaves and purple flowers, which snowed a purple sea on the ground when they fell. Bee would have liked those ones, I thought. We saw a snake once or twice, and found a couple of desert drakes as well. One time, Ink got too close, aggravating the lizard, and he nearly got burnt. Always curious and never cautious, he was, and whenever I thought of it I shook my head and smiled.

"Oh. It's the first of Poniay," sighed Ris, looking up at the light-swollen Argenti, who was nearing her zenith.
"Hmm?" Kestrel looked at her.
"It's my brother's birthday," she said, "and I'm not there with him.  And he doesn't understand why I left. I never said anything about it to my family because the Solinan words told me to 'go alone and silent', and I left on the night of the celebrations for those who were leaving. We always have celebrations for anyone of sixteen winters who choose to leave their hometown, and if not for the Solinan I would have told them I was leaving. They probably think I hate them." Kestrel gave her a hug, and tears spilled onto her shoulder. They sunk to the gorund.
"Dad was back on our last night and we had fresh fish. He's always usually out on a fishing trip. I lied to him, and I lied to everyone else. They're all so annoying but I love them and I miss them, even though I have crow and I've never felt at home in Orsilnon," she signed, mouth twisted from her tears, fingers bitter and stumbling. She and I held much resent for that village, but in spite of it all we still missed our family. How forgetful are hearts!, for here is our family too, who know our love for them. But that does not invalidate this pain.
"We'll make it up to him when we return," I murmured, nuzzling against her arm and putting my arms around her.
"You're going to be ok. We can sort everything out later," said Lulu, as she and Leyin came to hug her too.