up Nana’s perfume bottle, removed the cap, and sniffed it. “But don’t worry,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the smell. “It’s eight years until wedded bliss, so a little flirtation is fine. Just don’t get caught snogging, and whatever you do, don’t bonk.”
“Listen, I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” I padded to the bed.
“Right-o,” she said. “If you need me, I’ll be on the couch.”
“Okay.” I yawned and slipped under the covers, tugging the curtains around the bed closed. As I drifted off, I thought about Pop and hoped Deidre was taking good care of him.
The dream came when I closed my eyes, on the edge of sleep. The wizard from the tapestry, Taurin, sat at an enormous wooden desk, writing something with a quill under the glow from a candelabrum. He didn’t look so much a wizard as he did a king.
“Pardon my intrusion, Taurin.”
Taurin looked up. “Ah, Athela, do enter.”
Clutching a burlap sack to her chest, she hesitated before gliding to him, her elaborate dress trailing behind her. Her delicate face wore concern. “I wish to speak of thy son.”
“Barnum?” He sounded surprised. “He’s been dead for months, what have thee left to say?”
“My father has done a terrible deed that involves Barnum.”
Taurin straightened. “Go on.”
Athela seemed to look directly at me. “May we have privacy, please?”
“Of course, milady,” the voice belonging to the body I was in said.
The man marched out the door and stopped just around the corner, where he hid in the shadows to view Taurin and Athela through the open door.
“I wish to speak of the four creatures my father calls the Tetrad. The havoc they have created with the elements was inhumane. The earthquake, storms…fires…so many dead…so many…women and children… infants.” Each word was drenched with tears and her voice got softer until the last word was barely a whisper. “It is my father’s doing. He should be held accountable for such atrocities.”
Taurin stood, came around the desk, and handed her a silk hanky. “Thou art not to worry about the Tetrad. We have entombed it within a mountain.”
She took the cloth and wiped her eyes. “My father used me to lure the beast. How could he risk…he knew the man-lion creature would be distracted by me. I recognized him straight off. It was Barnum.”
“Thou art mistaken.”
“No!” Athela shook her head. “He recognized me, as well, and he told me it was him. The other beings were his fellow warriors who died in the same battle. My father resurrected them and turned them into those creatures.”
“It cannot be,” Taurin muttered.
“Scry me if thou must. See for thyself.” She lifted Taurin’s hand and placed his open palm on her cheek. “Please,” she said, putting so much force behind the word that my heart broke for her.
Taurin spread his fingers across her face and lowered his head. Athela’s body trembled and her eyes rolled back. Taurin’s face twitched and twisted with a mix of sorrow and pain. It went on for several minutes before he let Athela go.
“It is the truth—Barnum—my son.” His eyes settled on Athela’s face. “Thou art with his child.”
“I am.”
“I must call on the Wizard Council.”
“Thou must not. My father has poisoned the Council.” She dropped the bag on the table, whatever was inside clanking together. One by one, she withdrew several metal rods the length of her hand and placed them on the table. “I found these in my father’s chambers.”
“The Chiavi,” Taurin said.
“Yes, all but the seventh. My father took the Chiavi from the other wizards. He will come for yours, then control the Tetrad. He wants to rule all the kingdoms. Thou must hide them from him.”
“My sons and I will suffer this. Mykyl will not care that thou art his daughter. He will seek revenge for betraying him.”
“A trusted servant waits with a carriage for me and I will leave this moment to—”
“Do not tell me where you will go. Tell no one else. Just go now, and do not ever return, for thy sake and my grandchild’s sake.”
Athela kissed his cheek and turned to leave.
As the man I occupied ran down the hall to get away before Athela came out of Taurin’s chamber, I knew he was heading to Mykyl to inform him that Taurin had all the Chiavi. I was also aware I’d hitched a ride in the body of the man who would later stab Taurin in the back.
The dream haunted me the entire night, and I barely slept. I dragged my tired