One winged angel
Deakon looked out from under his hood at the white tower that rose from the desert with a look of wonder. It looked almost exactly like the tower in Meirin which they had left behind nearly three weeks ride before. “There you go, Deak,” Tobin said noticing that Deakon had even looked up, “that’s Danev.” The tower was the same smooth white stone as Meirin, but rose out of a dip in the desert surrounded by rocks and breaking up the grit and sand there were a few straggly bushes. There was a small abandoned town around the tower, and Deakon could hear but not see the crashing of waves. There was nothing to suggest that Danev had been lived in for a long time, the city was eerily silent.
“It looks abandoned.” Deakon said turning back, he still had a piece of cloth over his face to help with the dust and so all that showed between the fabric and the line of his hood were his bright yellow eyes.
“It has been, there are stories about Danev, you’ll see better once we get to the tower. We’re not that far from the sea here.” Josian said spurring his horse onward. Unlike Deakon he hadn’t put his hood up, but he did have twinned kerchiefs over his face and hair, but his clothes were thick with sand and dust.
The Cadacus nodded before joining him leaving Deakon and Tobin to take up the rear for the rest of the ride. The tower was nestled in a small glut of houses made of the dark grey stone of the desert rocks where the tower was pure white, and from the chimney of one of the houses Deakon thought he could see a plume of smoke. This close to the sea, he could smell the salt in the air and wondered if he went beyond the rocks if he could see the sea for the first time in his life. He had seen the Termigent, dark and foreboding, he had seen the mountain of Meirin but he had never seen the sea. “What is this place?” He asked.
“This,” Tobin asked as he led his horse down unto the cobbled streets away from the desert of shifting dust and grit. There had been a city here but it was gone to emptiness and the desert, no one had lived here for a very long time and the grey houses felt empty. “There are lot of answers to that, Danev was the last port of the infamous pirate ship Revenge, and before that it was home to the cult of the Tobrettin, and after that it held the Blood cult, but legend has it that it was Tower of the South in the fairy tale about the Queens.” Deakon’s face, if anything, went blanker. He knew nothing of this place or the history Tobin mentioned. Noticing his expression Tobin pulled down his kerchief and prepared to explain.
“It’s haunted.” Josian interrupted, “It’s just a ghost town with a very old history.” He wore a heavy coat, despite the desert heat and he looked tired from the long ride. They were all in need of a long bath.
“Then why are we here?” The Cadacus asked. His black hair was tied back in a cloth bandanna, and a second one about his throat to cover his mouth from the dust. Neither the heat nor the dust affected him. He wore the kerchief over his face in case anyone queried why he didn’t need one.
“Because after centuries of people avoiding this place all of a sudden miracles are happening here again.” The Cadacus looked as if he understood something when Josian said that but Deakon’s face remained blank.
The town was in a terrible state, some of the windows were blackened from fire, none of them had glass, and most of the roofs were either open rafters, gaps or at best containing great holes. “If someone’s living here, wouldn’t they be in the tower.” Deakon ventured, this place was disturbing him, it was full of death, he had never felt anything like it before. Meirin had been a graveyard, but this place felt dead.
“If you stopped at Meirin, would you stay in the tower?” The Cadacus asked.
“No!” Deakon shocked himself with the force of his answer.
“You wouldn’t here either.” Josian answered.
“I don’t want to get off my horse.” Deakon added, “this place, is,”
“A lot of people died here, violently.” The Cadacus explained, “the death visions will be unbearable. They’ll make him ill.” He reined in his horse beside Deakon, so that the two were side by side, so if anything happened the Cadacus would catch him.
“At best.” Tobin said, “knowing the history of this place, stay on your horse, Deak, we won’t linger here long. We just have to check something.”
Deakon nodded, he was uncomfortable on the horse but he could feel the dead of this place seething around him, wanting some kind of contact with him to show him, they wanted him to understand and without realising it he removed his glove for them. They loved him, they knew he alone could bring them peace. He wondered if the Cadacus’ dead wife had known this sensation. The feeling of love, if he opened himself to them they would be with him always. Ahead of him a woman stood, she was beautiful in the early afternoon light, her long grey hair was silvery, as was her skin, and the dress she wore appeared to be made of clouds. Her eyes were as golden as his own. Her smile, though, was draconian. Then she was gone and in her place was a man with half of his head caved in, bits of meat and skin hung from the wound that was as grey as the woman’s skin. This was a bad place. Then there were two children running through the streets, laughing, the first had a knife in her back, between her ribs, and the other’s neck was broken at a strange angle.
“Tobin, can I wait outside the town?” He asked, as Tobin swung off his own horse to lead it. The light was seeping through the ghosts, a woman with a terrible blood stain on her skirt between her legs carried a dead baby in her arms.
“Are you all right?” Tobin asked looking at him clearly.
“This place is haunted.” Deakon said, “I can see them, all the dead here, I can see them.” The woman with the baby had bent her head and she was singing to her baby, but the song was for Deakon, he knew that.
Tobin nodded. “Cadacus, this isn’t the place for Deakon, can you wait with him.” The Cadacus turned his horse around and picked up Deakon’s reins to lead him out. He didn’t say anything, but offered Deakon a piece of cloth to wipe his face with. Deakon hadn’t even realised that he was crying. No one asked him what he saw.
“I hate this,” Deakon murmured as he climbed down from the horse, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I hate it. What is the point of this power if all I can do is kill and see the dead.” The area the Cadacus had chosen for their campsite was sheltered by large rocks with small shrubs for the horses to graze upon, it was not far from the town, but out of the way of the wind. The ground was hard packed dust under Deakon’s feet though.
“Mina said it was for balance.” The Cadacus said softly, “that she had power over death to balance all those who had power over life. The purpose of your power is to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead, to bring them peace. You just don’t know how to do that yet.” Although his words made sense they sounded like platitudes to Deakon, in this place, so devoid of life, near the city where there were so many ghosts.
“They were children,” Deakon protested, “they were playing tag and one had been gutted and the other snapped in two like kindling. They were children, Cadacus.” He leant against the Cadacus, banging his fists against his chest as the Cadacus put his cold arms around him, he never rejected this comfort, cold as it was.
“You didn’t kill them.” The Cadacus said softly.
“And what about that woman in Jimpachi?” Deakon snarled. “I could see the death in her, and I told her, we got driven out of that place as if I was a witch.” That word stung Deakon more than he wanted to show. “I could tell she was going to die, she was so faint and the death so strong. Why me, Cadacus, why me?”
“I don’t know.” The Cadacus said stroking his hair. “I don’t know.” He was stroking Deakon’s hair in a kind of strange mother comfort. Since they had left Meirin the Cadacus and Deakon were becoming closer, the Cadacus was always there when things happened, and then when the weeping was over Tobin would come in like a big brother and replace the tears with laughter. Tobin always managed to make him laugh. The Cadacus always tried to comfort him, even when it was in vain, but Deakon appreciated the fact that he tried.
“Cadacus, I hate this.” He murmured against the strong cold chest. He had stopped listening for a heart beat, he had learnt quickly enough there wasn’t one to be found.
“I know you do, chibi,” the Cadacus said, it was Tobin’s familiar name for the boy when he teased him, meaning little one, he didn’t mind the Cadacus calling him little one at all. His mother had never had any endearing terms for him. “I know you do.”
They were interrupted by a plume of fire at least twenty foot high and four foot wide. It stopped them both as it roared into the air, and then vanished. “That wasn’t me.” Deakon said shocked and awed as he looked at where the fire had been, at the clear blue sky beyond.
“No,” the Cadacus said, “I know.” He was as awed at the fire as Deakon was, “but I think those two have found what they were searching for.”
“That’s the A’setra?” Deakon asked.
“No, I wouldn’t say so, but that’s definitely not natural either.” The fire wasn’t extinguished as much as frozen, it turned into a swirling pillar of ice and then there was screaming.
“Do you want to?” Deakon began.
“Run away,” the Cadacus mused. “If I wasn’t dead I’d consider it. As it is it might still be an option.”
“What is doing that?” Deakon asked, he knew that the Cadacus wouldn’t let him come to harm, he was still upset but he was safe and he knew that.
“At first guess, I’d say it was the ghost of the Dread Pirate, but I’m the Cadacus and I know there are no such things as ghosts only death memories, so.” He left it open.
“It’s alive.” Deakon corrected. “Whatever it is, it’s alive.”
“Well in that case if it comes near you, chibi, I will kill it.” He turned away, “we should start to build camp, though I think that I would be happier camping in the ruins of Atalantis in the Dread Termigent with all the monsters that live there than this close to Danev.”
“Is Danev haunted?” Deakon asked.
“No,” The Cadacus replied, “It’s a bad place and it remembers. It is as old as Meirin, and where Meirin was a place of joy, of remembrance, so much death happened here. Even when I was alive people avoided Danev.” He opened his saddlebag and pulled out the tent that he shared with Deakon to build it for the night. “There is a legend in Dathyl, a fairy tale Tobin called it, about a cursed mirror. Apparently the Queen of Dathyl had a daughter and sent all of the other Queens an invitation to the party she was having as an honour, but the Queen of Danev never got the invitation and when she learnt that all the other Queens were gathering without her she thought they were attacking her.” His hands were deft and sure as he built the tent, he spoke even as he wove the staves for the frame and stretched out the fabric for shelter. “So she made a mirror of sand from the desert bound with her own hair and into it she put her strongest magic, a curse that the Queens would die with her. But when she attacked them the spell was turned back on her and rather than killing her she was trapped in the mirror, to watch as the Queens killed each other.”
“That was the fairy tale Tobin mentioned?” Deakon asked. He had sat with his back to one of the large rocks, with his cloak balled up under him, watching the Cadacus who never let Deakon help him.
“Yes, this was a place of the Queens, of the ancient magic that existed before the Paraiko and the draimae. The memory of that lingers in this place, and then there were the Tobrettin who worshipped the Paraiko Selestin with human sacrifice before he destroyed them for the presumption, and then the blood cult who sought to manipulate the magic here with human blood sacrifices before the Seraphim destroyed them, and after that the Dread Pirate docked less than a mile from here and used the legends of the haunting to protect his own gold before the place rose up itself to destroy him. No one comes here, unless they can avoid it.”
“I saw the dead there.” Deakon said wanly. “It is sad more than angry, it just wants…” he stopped realising what he was saying, “can a place have feelings, Cadacus?”
“There are five towers in this world, Meirin, Tanis, Danev, Gwen Ystrat and Atalantis, they are the lynch pins on which our world is anchored, if any places in the world can feel it will be them.” He laid out the two bedrolls, although he did not sleep, he shared the tent with Deakon to give the boy some comfort in the night when the terrors came.
Something occurred to Deakon and he looked up. “There are five towers?” He asked. “What are the towers for, if Meirin guards the Aegis and the gate to the underworld, what do the others do?”
For a moment the Cadacus was perplexed. “I do not know.” He said finally. “we can find out though. The tower at Tanis is broken in two and has been for a thousand years, Danev is,” he paused for a moment, “haunted, Gwen Ystrat and Atalantis have been swallowed by the Termigent, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still have purposes.” He started to build a fire as Deakon watched. “We can find them out when you’re older. There are five towers in Sidi as well, perhaps that will shed some light on the reason. I know that the towers of Sidi were built to life, the three aspects of fate and death perhaps the white towers were as well.”
“That makes sense.” Deakon said, “being as Meirin is death, would that make Danev life?” He asked looking at the town, it was full of cold and longing, it wanted people to live here, to make their lives here, but they never would again. The town, by all rights, should have been swallowed by the desert but it hadn’t. “It’s lonely.” He said. “It’s been alone so very long.” He wanted to go to the place, to give it a measure of comfort, the way that Cadacus had him, he just didn’t know how. He just wanted to soothe it.
“Stop running away from me!” The interruption was Tobin shouting, then there was a muffled thump and someone clearly swore. “Do that again and I’ll leave you tied up here, little ingrate.”
“Leave her alone!” That was an unrecognised male voice from the town.
“I’m not going to hurt her, mattaku.” That was Tobin. “I’m trying to help here, but it would be easier if she stopped running away.” There was another thump. “That hurt.” Tobin’s tall head crested over the bottom of the hill, leading a girl who was tied up with the chain he wore around his waist. She was beautiful, her skin dark like molasses but her hair was the colour of cherries, and her eyes were like fire. The dress she wore was tattered almost to nothing, and her feet were bare. Her beautiful hair was tangled and darkened with mats. “Cadacus, have you started supper?” The Cadacus shook his head as he began to unwrap several packages of food. Deakon was the only one among them that ever really ate so they never started cooking until Deakon was hungry or they had decided that he was to eat whether he liked it or not.
Behind Tobin and the beautiful girl was Josian leading another man who appeared to be tied up in wire. Where the girl was fire this man was ice, his hair which was easily as long as the girl’s falling to his hips, was white and his eyes were a very pale blue, he was thin with a long red bruise on his cheek, and like the girl his clothes were ruined and his feet bare. He was as dark skinned as she was. “Let us go.” The man screamed, he was older than Deakon, probably by as many as six years.
Deakon lowered his hood. “Hello, Kyo.” He said pulling the man’s name from the dead in the air like a feather, “Miho,” he bowed to the girl with the fiery hair. “I am Taira Deakon, and on my word, they will bring no harm to you.”
“Draima!” Kyo screamed shielding his sister behind him as the air around them began to crackle with fire. Suddenly the winged girl was there, he could feel her behind him, feel her fingers around his wrist as she raised his arm. The fire died to nothing. Maerian meant no harm to him, not this time, in fact she had saved him, this time.
“I’m not draimae.” Deakon said a little sadly as the other faded away from him, he couldn’t control the power as well as she could and he wondered if she always knew when he needed to. Sometimes she tormented him, sometimes she tried to comfort him, once she had even teased him playfully. She said she was his sister, he didn’t know if that was true, but he felt that it was, and sometimes she helped him. She always terrified him. “I don’t know what I am.”
“Deakon,” Tobin chided as he began to untie the girl. “Now remember, miss, no running away.” She stretched out her arms as if testing the circulation and that he hadn’t hurt her. “I told you I didn’t want to hurt you, but don’t think that I won’t, if you force me to it.”
“Vivikan Tobrettin Mikael D’Cevni.” The Cadacus growled in a dark tone, it was obvious he used Tobin’s full name to bring him to heel. “The child is half starved and half naked, instead of standing there issuing threats find them something to wear whilst I make some soup. Is it any wonder that she ran from you, when you give no impression of what it is that you want them for.” When the Cadacus spoke like that he seemed much taller and much meaner than he really was.
Pulling clothes from the saddlebags that he tossed to the girl and boy, “Cadacus, you and I are going to have a long talk after this. They are not the one I was searching for but I couldn’t leave the pair of them in there, it’s a mausoleum, I was trying to rescue them.”
“We can look after ourselves.” The man, Kyo, protested.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, pup,” Josian said sitting down, “you couldn’t have stayed there for long, we can help you and your sister to blend into a larger city where you can be as normal as your gift allows, all we’re trying to do is set you up with something to eat some clothes and some money.”
“And what do we have to do for that dubious honour?” The girl, Miho, growled as she pulled on a pair of Tobin’s trousers over the ruins of a skirt she wore. “I’m not a whore. I’ll freeze the balls off any of you who try.”
“And I’ll fry you.” Kyo added. Deakon made a mental note so although Miho looked like she was made of fire she controlled the ice tower, and it was Kyo who controlled fire.
“Cadacus, you talk to them.” Josian said, standing up and walking away. After a minute of looking at the two in despair Tobin joined him.
“You can trust them.” Deakon said. “It’s what they do.” He shocked himself with that statement. “They’re not natural, and they find others like them and try to make it better. You’ve been alone so very long, apart from each other.”
“Stinking dream witch.” Miho cursed.
“No,” Deakon protested, “I can feel your love for each other.” He smiled faintly, “and I can feel the dead around you, those that loved you and those that wronged you. They tell me so many things.” He crooked his head, he could half see them, the shadowy figures that flitted about them, some cursing, some blessing. He learnt everything from them. A woman with dark skin and black eyes had her arms around Miho and her head on the curve of her shoulder. Deakon knew that it was Miho’s mother. “You are safe here, with them. They won’t hurt you.”
The Cadacus split open a loaf and carved out the contents before pouring the soup into the makeshift bowls and handing them the bread to spoon it up with. “Eat, you’re both thinner than Deakon here, how long has it been since you ate?”
“Three days.” Kyo said, “I caught a rabbit then. It was a bit scrawny but good.”
The Cadacus said nothing but brought more food from the saddlebags. “Just tell me when you’ve had enough.” The girl, Miho, smiled at him as she began to wolf down the food. “Are you hungry yet, chibi?” He asked Deakon. Deakon shook his head looking at the curve of Miho’s jaw that was almost exactly the same as Draima’s. He missed Draima terribly but in the back of his head he knew that she was happy, that she missed him and she thought of him often. She soothed him as often as the Cadacus did through the invisible bond between them. She was beautiful. “Do you want to get that bottle of wine out of Tobin’s bag?” He looked back at Miho, “do you want us to leave so you can change when you’ve eaten?”
“Thank you.” She murmured with a mouthful of the soup and bread.
Kyo lowered his head as well. “Thank you.” He scooted around the fire so he sat pressed against his sister raising the Cadacus’ eyebrow as he cooked some bacon on a piece of metal expressly used for that from Josian’s saddlebags.
“_They’ve been alone such a long time,_” Deakon’s voice was clear inside his head, “_and everyone else close to them they killed by mistake_” he smiled a little, he understood that, “_they found peace in each other_” The Cadacus raised an eyebrow and managed a weak smile for Deakon as if to say it just caught him unawares that the two were lovers but it was nice that they trusted Deakon and him to see that.
It was then that Tobin came blundering in, singing, obviously not wanting to disturb anything causing Kyo to jump up slightly and move away from his sister. “Are you two feeling nicer?” He asked.
“Shut up, Tobin,” Deakon said wearily. “They’re tired, hungry and desperate for a bath. They’ve been in Danev for nearly three weeks and it’s played havoc on them. Leave them alone, or you’ll answer to me.”
Tobin nearly laughed. “All right, chibi, whatever you say.”
“Why do you let him talk to you like that?” Miho asked. “He’s just a natural and you,” she stopped thinking, “you speak to the dead.”
“Because he was kind to me.” Deakon answered, “and it doesn’t hurt to be called Chibi, or pup, or Deak or any of the things they call me, its nicer than freak, or witch, or demon, or oni or youma or any of the other names I’ve been called.” It surprised him how vehemently he answered that.
“I’m sorry,” she said a little chastened.
“He’s like a brother to me, and Josian, though the Cadacus is like a father. I only had my mother before and she,” he stopped, “it’s nice having people to take care of me. They are kind to me. Kinder than they need to be truth be told.” He realised just how kind they had been as the Cadacus handed the pair of them more food. “But Tobin doesn’t like you running away from him, I did too. I thought that he was Seraphim.” Deakon said quietly. He had seen a Seraphim patrol when he was in the desert, Josian called them bumbling fools but it hadn’t stopped Deakon’s heart pausing in his chest. He knew what the Seraphim did to people like him.
“If you say we can trust them,” Kyo said, “then we will trust them, because we trust you, my Lord of Meirin.” They recognised his gift when even he hadn’t.
“Deakon,” he corrected, “just call me Deakon.” Kyo nodded his head, showing off his long white hair that was matted and thick with tangles. Like Miho he was beautiful but like Deakon he was lost.
Deakon looked at the pair before the fire, the way that Miho’s hair seemed to dance in the firelight as Kyo brushed out the tangles with a comb that the Cadacus had given them. Miho had cut Kyo’s white hair until it was close to his scalp. They didn’t like others touching them, but tolerated Deakon and the Cadacus’ kindness. Tobin and Josian they dismissed as natural. Deakon had learnt in Meirin that anyone without magic was natural but the way that Miho and Kyo said it they meant it as an insult. Any one natural was something to be despised. The dead told Deakon why. They had been persecuted. They’d been alone so long, with only each other. Anyone natural fell to their gift whether they wanted to kill them or not. So many dead swarmed around them, it was no wonder that they had gone to the haunted city of Danev. It had been two days since they had left Danev and in that time Tobin and Josian kept to themselves, and even Tobin’s usual teases of Deakon were missing, the Cadacus watched them all with a wary eye and Deakon found friends of a sort, with the twins, Miho and Kyo. They never spoke of their past, or the future, only of the present. It was refreshing in its way. He told them about Draima and his mother, he told them about Shiro and knew that they listened.
Miho under the layers of dirt was beautiful, as was Kyo in his way, but Miho turned heads whenever they passed people which was getting more and more frequent as they left the desert. Tobin had met with some of the desert people to get more food, a pair of new horses and a set of dresses for Miho and now she wore a teal green silk blouse that highlighted the honey colour of her skin and black leather trousers that she had taken from Tobin, around each wrist she wore bracelets made of ice that looked like diamonds. Kyo was dressed in borrowed clothes from Josian as he was more of a height with him, standing half a head taller than Tobin. The clothes hung on him, because he was so thin, but it was better than the clothes that he had been wearing in Danev when Tobin had found them.
Everywhere they went people stared at Miho and Kyo would growl, the air around them growing hot. Miho wouldn’t even look at the people who made the catcalls, or whistles, she would ride on with her chin held high to show her beautiful profile. She knew what effect she had on men, and it seemed Kyo had the same effect on women, as did Tobin who flirted with the women, Josian who laughed with them, and the Cadacus who shooed them away. In their procession Deakon felt a little ignored. That was nice too though.
In front of the fire Miho looked calm, all the hatred of the naturals had vanished from her face as her brother combed out her long cherry red hair. She almost looked happy. The dead around her were mirroring her joy, some of them happy and some of them hissing hate and rage and pain at them. Kyo was murmuring something into her hair. Tobin was sat at the other side of the fire reading a book, pointedly ignoring the look that Miho was giving him, and Josian was grooming the horses for the eighth time that night. It was clear that those two didn’t like the twins at all. Kyo said something that Deakon couldn’t hear because Miho cast her head back and laughed in away that caused the teal silk to shimmer about her breasts and Tobin to briefly look up from his book with a single eye, shake his head and go back to reading.
“What are you reading?” Deakon asked, more to break the silence than because he wanted to know.
“It’s called the Akheniad.” Tobin answered. “This book is older than the Cadacus.” The Cadacus snorted at that but said nothing. “It’s about a great war fought over a beautiful woman.”
“Really?” Deakon asked, throwing back his hood, he had taken to wearing it almost all the time now, to hide his eyes though Tobin and Josian both assured him they weren’t that unusual.
“Well in the story there were three great cities, and they were ruled by powerful sorcerer lords. One day the Lord of one of the cities, Atalantis, found a beautiful woman in his city by the name of Onestra and he decided to make her the happiest person in the world. Every whim she had was to be fulfilled. But Onestra hated her lord, Selestin, and made demands each more and more extreme until one day she demanded a champion, a champion brave enough to kill the dragon of the gorge by the bay and bring her its head.” Tobin stopped for breath, “In one of the smaller cities, Amanitas, the Lady Aeka was married to a brave knight Menelaus, and it became a mark of honour for all the knights to go and try to kill the dragon, and they all failed, so Menelaus took up the challenge to bring honour to his wife and went into the gorge where after three days combat he killed the dragon, breaking his sword, and walked to Atalantis to present her with the head.
“On seeing Menelaus Onestra was driven to fury and demanded one last test, the Bav’ath’mordell’teraslyn, combat against the thirty. Menelaus killed them all, weary from his journey and became Onestra’s champion.” He paused again, closing the book with a breathy thud. “This story is really old, Deakon, I don’t think you want to know how it ends.”
“Did Onestra and Menelaus fall in love?” He asked.
“No,” Tobin answered quietly. “When Aeka had found out that her husband would not return to her she implored her lord for his return and he brought about his armies unto Atalantis, and seizing the weakness the third lord brought his armies to Aeka’s country and all for Onestra’s pride. She was captured towards the end of the war and sold to a man called Lysander whom she truly loved, and was killed by Menelaus at the end.”
“It is her corpse that hangs in glass in Meirin.” The Cadacus said quietly, “surrounded by the dragon her pride condemned to death.” Deakon remembered the woman’s body encased in crystal surrounded by the skeleton of the dragon, hanging in the stairwell of Meirin.
“What happened to Menelaus?” Deakon pressed, not sure he wanted to hear now.
“Aeka killed him,” Josian answered, “when all was lost, she killed him then killed herself. Menelaus gave the people steel to fight in the war and the Paraiko overlords were overthrown, but Aeka was Paraiko too and so she killed him, and overcome with remorse for killing the man she loved she took poison.”
“I don’t like that story.” Miho said with a pout. “Everyone dies in it.”
“It’s a classic of literature.” Tobin said angrily, “it has survived over a thousand years, despite you not liking it. It has been made into plays, and an opera of note. There is not a child in Dathyl that doesn’t play at being either Onestra or Menelaus and some of the most famous works of art are of them. There is a window in the library of Halcyon that overlooks the sea of Menelaus stood on the dragon just before the kill and people have travelled all over the world to see it.”
Cadacus laughed at that. “Still touchy, Onestra?” He asked with a laugh.
“I haven’t been called that in years.” Tobin said fondly, “I’d almost forgotten how much I hated it, they all called me Onestra.”
“Why?” Deakon asked.
“Because I was Onestra in the Dathyl opera.” Tobin answered. “I was a holy triumph, and people came from all over to hear me sing.” That sounded like he was repeating what others said of him, he had raised his chin in a fair mockery of Miho’s proud carriage.
“I thought Onestra was a girl.” Kyo said quietly.
“Only men can sing in the Dathyl opera.” Deakon said, “and only teenage boys get to sing the female roles and then grow into the male parts. Everyone knows that.” The expression on Kyo’s face suggested that he hadn’t.
“I travelled the world as Onestra.” Tobin said fondly, “when plague struck Dathyl we took the show on the road, and I sang the _Setsunakutemo zutto_ for emperors and kings and even the angels wept to hear me sing.” He smiled to himself obviously remembering the person who had said that of him.
“If you say so yourself.” Miho snorted.
“People still talk about my triumph at the same time as the Great Sonneti or Machia, or,” he paused for a moment thinking, “Giulia D’Amour.”
“That’s a girl’s name,” Miho said.
“And she was a girl that pretended to be a boy pretending to be a girl.” Tobin said proudly, “she was Aeka to my Onestra. Vivikan D’Cevni is still considered one of the greats of the opera.”
“How old are you?” Kyo asked.
“Older than I look.” Tobin replied sharply. “And definitely old enough to know when someone is flashing her bosoms at me,” he gave a dark look at Miho. “And if you want to hear me sing I will if you ask.”
“I sing like an angel.” Miho snorted, covering her breasts with her arms as she folded them across her chest. “I imagine that apart from your ego you cannot say the same Master Onestra.”
“Try me.” Tobin’s smile was vulpine. Deakon had heard Tobin sing before, when he taught him the words to the women of Dathyl, but even then the Cadacus had said something about Tobin really singing. He wondered if he could get the chance. “Name the song, Miho, sing it, and then I’ll repeat it. We’ll let Kyo judge, especially as he is biased in your favour not mine.” He practically purred that, so convinced he was that he was going to win this. His smile was smug and he was lent forward, he closed his book and put it back in his saddlebag to give her his full attention.
“The Nocturne in E.” Miho said with conviction. The Nocturne was a famous enough song that Deakon had heard of it, but it was not lightly sung, the E in particular being in the upper octave and very few people even attempted it. He had heard the nocturne in c once, and then it was enchanting. To imagine it in the E it was written was another matter.
Miho stood, shaking out her hair as she stretched her throat and began to sing.
_The quiet city in the midst of battle
Falls into a brief sleep
Underneath the distant stars
Where you lie dreaming
I’ll send you my prayer in a song
Come here I’ll hold
Your sadness and your tears
until you’ve lost your pain.
If I am strong from living in conflict
I don’t care if I’m weak
Why do people hurt others
even though strength comes from love
even though anyone alone would be in pain
come here I’ll hold
your worn out love, your heart
until you forget your pain
goodnight, my love, goodnight on my heart._
Her voice was haunting, reaching the upper registers with a breathy murmur like icy wind through a tunnel. She closed her eyes as she sang and the air around them grew cold, as she reached up and then swooped down until Deakon was crying. She lowered her head and her voice at the last line before bowing to Tobin.
“Beautiful,” Cadacus said, “and Tobin.”
Tobin began to cough, shifting what was settled in his throat and then took a mouthful of hot kir from the cup he had been drinking, rather than standing as Miho had, he settled himself until he was kneeling with his back upright as if at the imperial court of Darie, and repeated the song, dropping not through two octaves like Miho but four, hitting the E a whole octave above her and two below. Then he cleared his throat and sang it again, slower and even more haunting than he had the first time. His voice was as clear as a bell, sending shivers down Deakon’s spine and the twin tears Miho had given him at the first rendition were replaced with a torrent, his mouth was dry as he listened to Tobin sing. It was obvious who had won. Even Kyo was crying.
“You cheat!” Miho said crossing her arms and her mouth tightening to a thin line.
“I didn’t have to,” Tobin said, “I sang for the imperial court, I sang for the Dathyl opera, I used to warm up with the Nocturne, do you want to try again?” He was smug about it. “I told you that I was a famous singer.”
“He sings like a naiad.” Kyo agreed, “but you, love, sing like an angel.” It was an appeasement, the naiads were the daughters of death but the angels were the daughters of god, and then Deakon remembered the song Tobin had sung to him when he attacked him that day in the snow, it had been about angels.
“I thought that we would have a problem with the Cadacus and Tobin in a pissing contest and now he’s picked one with Miho,” Josian murmured just loud enough for them both to hear. “Do you have to pick fights with simply everyone,” his frown was clear, “imperial bloody princess.” That was for Tobin’s benefit.
“Prince,” Tobin snapped, “imperial prince. Not princess.”
“I have seen the pictures.” The Cadacus said, “and he might just be right.”
“Traitors, the pair of you.” Tobin said picking up his book again, “princess.” He muttered but he wasn’t angry not really. Miho looked a little smug that they had quite successfully taken Tobin’s ego down a peg or two.
“Are you really a prince?” Kyo asked suddenly. Tobin looked up and nodded. “An imperial prince?”
“Barely.” Josian snorted. “His father was an imperial bastard and he was the last of twelve children, he was a prince, but only because the emperor adopted him.” Tobin stuck his tongue out at Josian at that.
“And you, Deakon, are you a prince?” Kyo asked, it was the way the others deferred to him, or deferred to him because the Cadacus did. They mothered him and he didn’t mind at all.
“No,” Deakon answered, “I am the son of the Aeris Baatorin and Taira Hatsuhara.”
Tobin blinked at that and Josian looked clear at Deakon. “Pardon,” Josian said.
“What?” Tobin asked.
“I am the son of Aeris Baatorin and Taira Hatsuhara.” Deakon repeated. “I thought you knew that.”
“No,” Tobin said, “I knew you were the son of Taira Hatsuhara, but not your mother. I only called on Aeris as one Aatorian in a strange land to another. I didn’t know she was your mother.”
“What difference does it make?” Deakon asked. “My mother is Aeris Baatorin, what does it matter?”
“Your mother is the sister of the king of Dathyl.” Josian replied.
“I know.” Deakon answered blithely, “she lived in Shiro simply because it was her husband’s place and her brother hadn’t approved of her marriage. But she said she loved my father and that it hadn’t been that hard a decision to make for him.” It was one of the few things Deakon knew about his father. His mother never spoke of him, around Shiro they feared him and called him a witch, but all Deakon knew was that he was a swordsmith who married a princess and died before he was born. His mother must have loved him well, though, to have remained so faithful to his memory.
“We spent too long away,” Tobin said, “we were away too long.” It was muttered under his breath. “That explains the golden eyes, you’ve enough D’Ittoro blood in you to warrant them.”
“And you pair,” Josian said turning to where Miho and Kyo sat together, “is this where you turn out to be the lost daughter of Jhenivere D’Aino and the prince of the sky?”
“No,” Miho answered, “our parents were millers.” She even smiled a little, “no one in particular really, but they loved us well enough to be princes.” Her father called her his little princess, the dead man had loved her well before Kyo had burned him alive one day in a small argument. Their mother had smothered under ice that Miho couldn’t control. The dead didn’t blame them though. None of the others had any dead about them, and the only ghost that haunted Deakon was Maerian.
“Maybe he’d be better off in Halcyon with his cousin than in Muchine.” The Cadacus said. It was a suggestion that the Cadacus had made to Deakon before, but every time he did Tobin cut him short.
“No,” Tobin snapped, “Halcyon’s a mausoleum, he doesn’t need that growing up. Muchine will suit him well enough, and Saara’s Darin, she will know things the army of servants in Halcyon won’t. He’s never met his family, and I don’t think barging in on them is the way to go, do you?” He looked much older when he frowned, “and the Baatorin have a long memory.”
“Tobin,” Josian said fondly, “read your book.” It was an order, Deakon could tell that much.
“Does it matter who my mother is?” Deakon asked, “because she’s not anything else, now she’s just my mama.”
“Hush, chibi,” The Cadacus said softly, “your mother is no concern of theirs, if you wish it I will arrange for her to move to Meirin, she might be happier there if what you tell me is true.” It was the Cadacus’ way of saying that the death of Deakon’s father had driven the woman mad.
“I don’t know.” Deakon said, “will they take care of her?” He asked suddenly, “and make sure that she eats.”
“I knew your mother when she was a girl.” Tobin said softly, “before she met your father,” again Deakon was reminded that Tobin was much older than he looked. “She was beautiful, now I know I can see her in you,” he looked up from the book he had taken back out of his saddlebag at the Cadacus’ instruction, “and she was so witty and happy. I remember being saddened that marriage had taken her from Dathyl.”
“She loved my father.” Deakon protested.
“I believe that.” Tobin said, “even,” he stopped himself short of what he was going to say, “I imagine she loved him truly. I met Taira Hatsuhara once,” he added, “he was,” he stopped looking for the word, “determined.”
“You thought he might be the A’setra didn’t you?” Deakon asked angrily, Kennichi had told him a thousand times his father was a freak.
“No,” Tobin said with a laugh, “I heard he was a master of the wakizashi and I wanted to see if it was true, it’s rare that two masters meet. We sparred, he beat me.” That was said with total honesty, there was a lie in there, Deakon knew it, but he didn’t know what it was.
“I didn’t teach you the katana so you could master the wakizashi.” The Cadacus said with a look of distaste.
“Truth be told I’m more of a master of the hatchet.” Tobin’s smile was apologetic and mischievous.”
“A hatchet is for cutting trees and preparing kindling, if you must insist on carrying one into battle then I disown you as my pupil, and I will take “Shion” from you and give it to Deakon.” Deakon wondered who Shion was.
“That is my sword,” Tobin said pouting, “and I have taken him into battle, you gave me it after,” he stopped himself from saying the word, “to make sure it never happened again.”
“I tease you, child.” The Cadacus said, “and so it has prevented such indignities, and it has avenged a thousand such I assume.” Tobin nodded, “then Shion will guard you into the last land. It was the sword of many a Senshisha.”
“Then why did you give it to Tobin?” Deakon asked, “if it was the sword of the Senshisha.” Tobin got up and brought the sword from the side of his saddle, it was beautiful, with a thumb print in the blade at the top, and another in the leather of the hilt. Kneeling as he had to sing he offered the blade, loosened in its saya to Cadacus to show Deakon.
“Mina had a sword made for me, made to suit me, she called it Ran, and I have carried it ever since.”
“She called it Chaos.” Tobin said as the Cadacus refused the sword. “because it was the emotion she said that suited you best.”
The Cadacus looked wounded at that. “It has been six hundred years but she still has the power to hurt me.” That was said sadly and Miho sighed, “nevertheless she had the sword made for me, and I had no use for Shion. I gave it to Tobin to protect him when I could not. I was teasing when I said I would give it to Deakon, he needs no sword other than mine.” That had hurt Tobin, they had a history they had said so many times but Deakon didn’t really know the details of it, and if he asked the Cadacus he knew that he would tell him, but for some reason he got the impression that it was Tobin’s place to tell him.
“I made my brother’s sword,” Miho said and a long spike of ice, shaped like a broadsword extended from her hand, “I am my brother’s sword.” She said proudly.
“I am her shield.” Kyo said taking the ice sword and watching as fire wrapped around it
“I am going to bed.” Josian said, “all this talk of weapons, those two’ll be up all night talking about tangs and weights and other truly boring subjects, are you going to share the tent with me tonight, Deakon?” Deakon nodded as the Cadacus started to explain to Tobin about the virtues of a broadsword over a hatchet in a battle situation starting with reach. “I advise you two do the same before they start talking about that bloody chain.”
“Binasu.” Tobin interrupted, “its called a binasu.”
“Long chain, heart shaped links, three hooks, its a chain with accessories, but still a chain, good night, Tobin.”
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