Seven Courts of Love and Magic

Chapter 23

Nyx

I was walking down a long corridor lined with tall columns that met at the domed ceiling, all painted a light shade of pink. The windows lit my path bright as I walked aimlessly around the palace, out of ideas. Zaria was in the garden and we were running out of places to look for the orb.

Then, something caught my eye. A flutter of movement in the corner of the window. I turned my head quickly, but saw nothing. Writing it off as my imagination, I kept walking, but then, again, a flash of gold caught in the reflection of the pale, shiny tiles at my feet. Whipping my head upward, I came face to face with a golden bird flittering in front of me. My eyes widened with surprise.

I reached out my hand, but it back away an inch, then another, and another. It wanted me to follow it, I could tell—so I did. It started flying down the corridor, slow at first, but then faster. Fast enough that I had to run to keep up with it.

It stopped suddenly and I braced myself with my arms to keep from crushing the bird between my chest and the hard wall. It stayed floating there for a couple beats of its shining wings and then shot straight up, high towards the top of the column.

With no explanation as to why the bird was leading me on, I could only watch as it flew. It must be trying to bring me to the orb, I told myself. I tipped my head back and watched him fly higher and higher. "You wanna play, little buddy?" The bird fluttered around in affirmative chaotic circles.

I glanced down the corridor, made sure no one was coming, and flew myself to where the bird stayed waiting. "Okay, now what?" After a couple excited flaps of its wings, it flew forward into an opening in the wall, stopping midway through. Realization dawned on me. "Are you crazy? I can't fit in there, not with these wings." I'm talking to a bird, I've lost my mind.

The opening was squared, roughly the size of my body. Someone like Zaria could fit maybe, crawl through, but the wings protruding from my back made it impossible to do what I thought the bird was trying to tell me.

He launched out of the hole, straight towards my face, and beat his wings angrily around my head. I swatted him away with a hand. "Okay, alright, I'll try." The bird calmed down.

With a sigh, I drew my wings in as close to my body as possible and kept them tight as I pulled myself through the opening of the hole. The bird squeezed in ahead of me and flew forward a few paces. "Okay, I'm trying. You need to go slow little bud, it's a tight fit."

——————

"Hold on, I'm sorry." Zaria holds up a hand, bringing me back into the moment. "You were taking instruction...from a bird?"

I glare at her. "You talk to your cat all the time."

"Yeah but—"

"Will you let me finish, please?"

"Okay, sorry. Go ahead." She motions with her hand for me to continue.

——————

The bird led me forward and I dragged myself behind him, wincing every time my wings got caught against the stone. "This better be worth it."

Luckily the path was straight, because I don't think I would have been able to make a turn. With a final grunt, and what felt like hours later, I reached hard, solid stone, with no room to move forward. I turned my head to the bird's golden beak. "Well?"

The bird landed on the bottom of the pathway, right beside where my arms were pulled tight beneath me. He jumped up and down on what I hadn't noticed earlier: another small hole and a latch. I let out a laugh. "Well what do we have here?" The bird chirped in triumph.

I pushed myself back a few inches until the hole was fully visible. I braced my hands on either side and brought my head down until my eye was aligned with the hole. Squinting one eye, I peered down into what looked like a room. The hole was small and I could only see the top portion of a bed and the wall above it. But clear as day, the orb was there, perched on a shelf. I turned my head slowly back to the bird. "You did it," I said incredulously.

He flapped around in ecstatic success and I couldn't help but laugh. I rolled over to my side to expose the latch and pulled it up, flipping it over with my arm. The bird flew down and away, I don't know where, but I lost sight of him.

I tried to ease my legs through the opening first but they wouldn't budge, not in the tight squeeze of the pathway. Steadily, I inched my body forward, ready to swing myself down. Then, I was falling...

——————

Zaria is standing over me, her arms splayed in frustration or anger, I can't tell. "You have got to be kidding me. You fell? Into his room?"

I put a hand up to my face to block the sun. "I didn't know it was his room! I could barely see through the hole." I get up to stand in front of her. "Listen, I saw a bed, and the orb, that was it. I didn't know that he was...that they were..."

"You fell into the room while Thesan and his lover were having sex, you can say it out loud."

Instinctively, I move forward, shoving my hand on her mouth and looking around anxiously. "Quiet down, someone will hear you."

She thrashes out of my grip. "I have to find Bita."

"You're going to tell Bita I saw her father—"

She starts walking towards the palace. "No, you idiot. I'm going to get her help, she can get us to his room somehow, we can wait until he's left. I don't care what you did, we need that orb."

I reach out to stop her, grabbing her arm. "We can't go back in there."

She whirls on me. "What?"

"He—well he basically banished us."

Zaria's mouth twists into a deadly smile. "Thesan banished us from the palace?" Rage laces through every word.

I swallow, suddenly very afraid to be near her. My voice comes out weakly when I say, "Yes."

She stares at me for a few painful seconds and then turns back toward the palace, foraging through the tall grass. I have no choice but to follow.