Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,155
people hollering and running for the exit. The firebird laughed, then, the air shimmering as it soared up, singing and sounding very pleased at how things had turned out.
“That’s it,” Ken said. “I definitely want my own firebird.”
* * *
“I don’t think we’ve met before.”
Tala froze. She’d retreated to a small section of the Maidenkeep gardens, wanting time alone to process her thoughts. Still in her Mai-i dress, she was sitting on a small rock overlooking a koi pond, staring at the colorful fishes swimming, and had not heard anyone approach.
It was the multicolored cat. It hopped onto another stone adjacent to hers and settled down on its haunches.
“I thought you left,” Tala said slowly.
“A lot of people would like me to,” came the response, again from somewhere around them instead of issuing directly from the cat’s mouth. “Would you like me to?”
“I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of things about you.”
“Good things? Bad things?”
“Just confusing things.”
Something chuckled. “I wanted to personally thank you. The others could not have succeeded in getting Alex safely to Maidenkeep without your help.”
“I really don’t want to talk about that.” She didn’t want all that pressure on her. It wasn’t fair to be told that getting Alex or the others killed would have been her fault.
“Then let’s not.” The cat peered carefully into the water. Its reflection, a man with dark hair and green eyes, looked back at it. “I can understand not wanting to talk. I’ve been in this shape longer than I’ve been human, and I still don’t want to talk about the whys and hows of it. All I want to know before I leave is whether you’re committed to helping Alex adjust to his role here in Avalon. The kingdom is his to rule, but there are many loose ends needing to be tied. Traitors abound, pledged to either the Snow Queen or to their own greed. Maidenkeep had been enchanted to keep the worst spells out, you see. Its kings did not need to control the Nine Maidens in order for the Nine Maidens to protect the castle. Avalon could only have fallen to the frost if someone from inside had let them in, and knew the Maidens’ secrets.”
“I’m going to stay and help Alex,” Tala said. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever been sure of since leaving the Royal States.”
The cat nodded. The boy in the pond’s reflection nodded. “Then he’s in good hands.”
“Tally.”
Tala looked back. His father stood there, looking uncomfortable in a military outfit similar to what the Katipuneros had worn to the coronation. When she turned again, the black cat was gone.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Talk about you being a serial murderer?”
Her father winced. “I don’t know how to make it up to you.”
“I don’t know either.”
He’d protected her secret. She wasn’t technically beholden to Avalon’s laws, but he was. Surely there were heavy sanctions and penalties for withholding the Nameless Sword’s location to the liege they vowed to obey, and definitely for withholding the name of the sword’s new master.
But she couldn’t. Not yet. Millions of people…
“I can forgive you,” she found herself saying. “But I can’t forget. Not yet. But I don’t know how to do both right now. I’m sorry.”
A pause. Tala felt the lightest of touches against her hair.
“I’ll be here for you, whether ye do forgive me or not,” her father said, and she felt like weeping at how gentle his normally strong timbre had become. “As will your mother. We plan on staying here, make sure Alex gets settled in. If y’can’t stand to stay in the same house as me, I’ll find someplace else. Your mother agreed to that. I know I can’t change my past, but I can’t ask you to ignore it, and I will always wait until yer ready to talk. And I will always love you, either way. Know that, my lass.”
Tala waited until her father’s footsteps faded away before she stood.
* * *
The freshly staffed Maidenkeep servants had done their best to remove all evidence of the previous frost within its walls, but entry to this particular room had been forbidden to all. Not even Tala’s curse could offset the barriers that had now been placed in the corridor leading up to the Nine Maidens’ control room. The defensive spells in the outer barricade fizzled harmlessly against Tala’s fingers, but one was enough to sap her strength, and there were thousands more lining the hallway that she’d have to get through just