The Dragon Star (Realms of Shadow and Grace: Episodes 1-3 of 7)

THE FUGITIVES - LEE-NIN

"Ouch."

"I don't know how your hair gets so tangled."

"Ouch."

"I comb it twice a day."

"Ouch."

"You hardly leave the living chambers and the gardens, so I don't see where you get a mouse nest like this in your hair."

"Mouse? In my hair?"

Lee-Nin laughed and patted Sao-Tauna's head.

"Not a real mouse. It was a phrase of speaking. A way of describing something."

"Oh." Sao-Tauna sounded sad. "I like mice."

"Yes, I remember the one you put in my pocket for safekeeping."

"Wan-Nuno." Sao-Tauna's face brightened ever so slightly.

"Must you name all of the inhabitants of the palace?"

"Ja-Na was going to eat him."

"Ja-Na? The black cat with the white feet?"

"Ja-Na likes mice." Sao-Tauna sounded somewhat sad again. "How can we both like mice, yet I don't want to eat one?"

"Words are subtle things." Lee-Nin finished smoothing Sao-Tauna's hair and slipped the comb into an outer pocket of her dress. The girl rarely spoke so much, and only in Lee-Nin's company. They stood on a balcony of the tahn's private chambers. Technically, they should not have been there. Only the royal staff had permission to enter the high family's private chambers. However, Sao-Tauna loved that particular balcony, as it afforded an unobstructed view of a nest of black eagles perched in the tallest tree of the palace gardens. While Tahn Taujin Lin-Pi disapproved of the impropriety, Tahneff Pai-Neguha made special dispensation for her only daughter and the family tutor who doted upon the child.

Lee-Nin reached out her hand to point at the nest, to ask, as she often did, for Sao-Tauna to describe the difference from the prior day — a game they played with things and people around the palace. As she stretched her finger out, she heard the door of the inner chamber open. The balcony stood outside the tahn's seldom used private library — another reason Lee-Nin loved to frequent the space.

She brought her finger to her lips and caught Sao-Tauna's eye. She pulled the girl back against the wall as the door within closed. A voice she recognized as belonging to Tahn Lin-Pi said something she could not make out. Her heartbeat quickened. The tahn would be angered to find her and Sao-Tauna on the balcony, regardless of the permissions his wife had extended. Should she reveal herself now and suffer the consequences, or should she hide and hope Tahn Lin-Pi possessed no desire to watch eagles' nests from the balcony?

As Lee-Nin swallowed back her fear and made to step around the corner to reveal her presence, she heard another voice she knew.

"You have my deepest apologies, my tahn, but I thought it best to speak where others could not ... misunderstand."

Lee-Nin had heard that voice on a few rare occasions. It belonged to High Priest Bihn-Fan.

"We will not be disturbed here," Tahn Lin-Pi said.

A pause fell over the conversation within the library. Lee-Nin could not risk exposing herself now. Not in front of the high priest. She also could not be caught listening to a conversation between the high priest and the tahn. The former might cause her to lose her station, while the latter ensured she would forfeit her head.

"You have concluded your investigation," Tahn Lin-Pi said.

"Yes, my tahn," High Priest Bihn-Fan replied.