A very calm older man waits for us at the top of the stairs. He has the military build that I’m used to seeing in all the fair-haired men on this cursed planet, but his eyes are brown. Streaks of gray hairs mix with his long blond ones. It’s rare to see it. They all live so long—thousands of years—it’s insane to think about how old he must be. Two thousand? Three? He fascinates me right away. He’s extremely amused with this situation, if the humor in his eyes is any indication. “So you found her,” he says by way of greeting to Kyon.
“I found her. I lost her. I found her. I lost her.” He gestures to me. “I found her.”
“If I’m lucky, he’ll lose me again,” I say absently.
This elicits a delighted bark of laughter from the older gentleman. “I wouldn’t call that luck.”
“Oh no?” I respond.
“No.” He sobers a bit. “I would call that tragic—for you both.” His eyes shift to Kyon. “You have visitors.”
“Do I?”
“Curious fools,” he replies.
“Ah,” Kyon says. “Thank you for entertaining them for me, Fulton.”
“Would you like to meet some of the Brothers, Kricket?” Kyon asks me.
“Not really,” I reply.
“Smart girl.” Fulton smiles at me in delight.
“Too smart,” Kyon agrees.
“Is there such a thing?” Fulton asks with an admiring grin.
Kyon addresses me. “Fulton is my mentor. He has been with me since my childhood.”
“I think of him as my son,” Fulton says with an affectionate glance at Kyon.
“Did you foster the ruthless spirit in him?” I ask point-blank.
“I cannot take credit for his iron will. It’s a trait he inherited from his real father and . . . from circumstance—”
“Kricket!” My name is screamed with a desperate fervor. Startled by it, we all turn to look behind us. Across the lawn, a young woman is running toward us. She’s soaking wet, having obviously climbed out of the river moat. She’s got a fanatical, frenzied look on her face. Armed men are chasing her. With her arms spread wide, she shouts, “Kricket! I love you!”
She’s tackled to the ground. One soldier knees her in the back while another secures her hands behind her with handcuff spray. She struggles, continuing to call my name. She’s brought back up to her feet where she has to be lifted off them to get her to move in the other direction away from us. She screeches at the top of her lungs, “I just want to greet her! You don’t understand! I love her! She’s the one! She’s the one!” The soldier uses a tranquilizer gun on her and she becomes unconscious.
“Your security has holes,” Kyon states as he turns to scowl at Keenan.
“I’ll make sure we find the breach in security and report it to you by tonight,” Keenan replies.
“Who was that?” I ask, startled. I stare at them. There was reverence in that girl’s tone when she shouted my name. She was desperate to get to me.
“You are beloved here, Kricket,” Fulton replies. “Some citizens have been waiting for you for a long time.”
“What do you mean?”
“She doesn’t know?” Fulton asks Kyon.
“No. And here is not the place to discuss it.” Kyon points to the yellow bird perched on the lintel above us.
Fulton nods. “Falla Kirk.”
“Go home, Falla,” Kyon calls to the yellow bird.
“Auden will be angry with me if I don’t tell him something useful,” the yellow bird says in a melodic feminine voice. The round shape of my eyes shows my surprise.
“Tell him to bathe more. That’s useful,” Kyon replies to the beautiful canary.
Kyon takes me by the elbow and escorts me through the doors. Inside we enter the first spire of the castle. The reception room is an enormous circle. The floors are made of blue glass with the Flower of Life pattern etched into them and repeated over and over. Silver pillars shaped like ancient trees grow up from the floor to a vaulted ceiling. The ceiling itself resembles a cosmic nebula of galaxies and stars—the same stars that reside in the sky above Ethar. Below the ceilings, there is a gallery with white archways overlooking us on the floor beneath.
As I walk the room, all of the exquisite panels on the walls project holographic landscapes of Ethar. They’re like altarpieces in the way they hang and take up large areas of space. Some of the landscapes are familiar to me because I’ve been to them in the Forest of Omnicron and seen them firsthand. I shiver