for a chat. There’s no time.”
Ryon kept signing, but Lysander wasn’t looking as he left. Ryon hopped down after him and ran ahead to block his path. “You don’t have to do this anymore.”
Lysander looked down his nose at him. “Do what?”
“Live like a dead man ever since you abdicated,” Ryon signed. “Why did you do that just because you can’t hear? Being king was what you always wanted.”
Dark anger burned like magma in Lysander’s eyes. “I told you—she forced me to.”
“Then why do you follow her like a dog?”
Lysander snorted. “Have you ever listened to a word I said these past couple of years? She has Illiana. She has killed innocents to control me before, and I won’t give her another opportunity.”
Guilt wormed though Ryon’s heart. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think Deirdre could ever threaten her own children.”
“You’re right. That creature is not my mother or the rightful queen. I will kill it at the first opportunity.” Lysander shouldered past him. “Get the kids out of the city. Now.”
39
KIRALAU
Kira set a cautious pace on the gravel road, mindful of the talking ball of fluff on her shoulder. Felix had received plenty of stares on their jaunt through Jadenvive, but here on the ground below the treetop village, people hardly noticed three foreigners and their trace cat kitten.
Except that bedraggled farmer, who gaped at Kira as if she had two heads. It didn’t help that Felix smiled back at everyone with an uncanny human-like expression and snickered at their reactions.
Kira looked up through the series of nets hanging above their heads and wondered how many people lived inside its dozens of levels. “Which way?”
Felix nodded toward a hog pen, which was the only direction Kira didn’t want to go. The troughs smelled of old slop and the mud of manure. A trail beside it turned off the road and delved into the city’s dark underbelly. Thin roads twisted around and under massive roots that tangled like the tentacles of some sea horror. Hovels clung to them like barnacles on the underside of a ship.
Kira turned as she was directed and glanced back at her brothers. Yeah, I’m friends with a fire-spirit. Don’t think I’m crazy anymore, do ya?
Lee looked like a kid in a sweetshop, but Tekkyn hung back with a wary expression under his hood. His hand seemed to be glued to his sword hilt and his eyes to the elemental.
But Kira felt immortal with Felix on her shoulder, even if his current form couldn’t appear any more harmless. It made it easier to gather her courage for the question she’d been burning to ask ever since she realized that Felix was the orange fox in the mural painted in her family’s gazebo.
“Do you know Lillian?” Kira asked, attempting to keep her voice level as a disheveled woman scurried by.
Felix’s body became stiff for a moment. “I did.”
Kira glanced off to the side at the fat-bellied hogs napping in the mud. “You don’t anymore?”
“She’s asleep, and has been for a few thousand years,” Felix said, his voice dropping an octave. “So no one knows her any more.”
Kira tilted her head. “But she’s a goddess, or a greater elemental, right? Gods don’t sleep.”
“Just because she’s a greater elemental doesn’t mean she’s any more of a god than I am,” Felix snarled. “Lillian is the primary elemental of Malo, and all of the four of the amos were sealed into prisons of stone a long time ago.” He flexed his claws into the fabric of Kira’s tunic as she strode on the uneven road. “Take a right after the goats.”
Kira swallowed and wondered what her brothers thought of this blasphemy. She made sure to give the right answer just in case. “She can’t be asleep. She answers our prayers.”
“Trust me, girl. The only one listening to your prayers is the creator.” Felix’s soft hair stood on end. “It’s a good thing that Lillian was locked away. She needed . . . to be stopped.”
Kira turned right and ducked under a tree root that arched over the road. She selected her next words with care. “The legend says that the white seven-tailed fox and a smaller orange fox were lovers.” She watched him from the corner of her eye. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
Felix’s claws dug into her skin, and Kira winced.
“Oh, sorry.” Felix retracted his claws. He took a deep breath and let it out, but the result was a heart-melting kitten’s sigh. “Yes, I was her mate. Not that I