Coalition 02.5 - The Kingbird (6 page)

They continued on, keeping the children in sight with an effort. They at last reached the goal, the ledge called the lookout, where one could stand and look out over mountains as far as one could see. To their left they looked out over Lake
Geron
, a small sapphire set amid the rocky peaks. Dare called out a caution to the children to stay back until they checked the edge. It appeared to have endured as always and was as solid as ever under their feet.

As soon as they turned their attention to the view,
Dax
wished that they hadn’t come at all. Because from here the magnitude of the damage done by the Coalition was clearly visible. The land was scarred, in places still blackened, as if the original invasion had happened days instead of years ago. Trios was recovering, but it was a slow process and many places were still uninhabitable. And while her resources were nearly infinite, much was now inaccessible thanks to the rubble left behind.

Dax
knew it was a constant battle for Dare. So many had died at Coalition hands—only a quarter of
Trios’s
once thriving population had survived. The desire to repopulate was strong, yet until they were able to support a larger populace that was inviting problems. So while Dare was not the sort of leader to make decrees about people’s personal lives, he led by example; Lyon was his only child, and he had explained to the people why.
Dax
had followed with only
Shaina
, and that had pounded home the message. The people had responded in kind, realizing they must proceed slowly.
A sad thing
,
Dax
thought.
Dare should have a flock of children to bring up in the noble tradition of his house.

While he himself, he thought wryly, probably should have foregone it altogether. But that would mean never having had
Shaina
, and for all that her life would not be what he had hoped and imagined for her, he would not have missed the presence of his quicksilver girl in his life for anything.

He thought once more about telling her, of revealing the truth he had kept hidden. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Especially now, when she was delighting in simply being a child.
Shaylah
, as wise as her mate, had been right; this was needed, by all of them.

Perhaps Dare most of all
, he thought as he looked at the king.

In the act of shifting his gaze something caught his attention. He looked up, thought he’d imagined it, and then spotted it again.
Dax’s
eyes were used to the far reaches, and he tracked the slow, lazy circling bird easily once he had it. He stared for a moment, uncertain. It was far away, and high, and hard to tell. But then the bird banked, slipped toward them, and the distinctive tail shape snapped into focus.

“Dare,” he breathed, barely above a whisper although the bird was far too high to be concerned about them. Not that the regal creature would deign to notice their presence anyway.

Dare turned his head. “What?”

“Look. To the west. Seventy-five degrees above the horizon. Circling.”

It took him a moment, but
Dax
felt the moment when he spotted it, saw the jolt go through him.

“A kingbird,” Dare whispered. He watched for a moment, in clearly stunned silence. “I thought they were gone.”

“We all did.”

The big, majestic bird with the striking black and white coloring and V-shaped tail continued his circling, his massive wingspread catching every bit of breeze at that altitude.
Dax
felt his throat tighten at the sight. So much had been lost, so much damage done, and yet here it was, this magnificent creature that was a symbol of Trios, a symbol thought lost to her forever.

In that way he had of sensing things of import, Lyon abandoned their game of trying to name the mountains they could see from here and came back to them. Inseparable as always,
Shaina
followed; for all her being the one to usually lead them into mischief, it was as if she sensed when Lyon led, it mattered.

“What is it?” Lyon asked

Dare gave the signal for quiet, something they had been taught to obey from near babyhood, with the strictness enforced by the knowledge that someday their lives could depend on it. He crouched down beside his son and pointed.
Dax
swung
Shaina
up on his shoulders—her preferred spot. It took the two children longer to find it, since they had only seen the bird in pictures, but when they did they were properly awed.

“I thought the Coalition killed them all,”
Shaina
said.

“They thought they killed all of us, too,” Lyon answered.

The pride in his voice was unmistakable, and again
Dax
thought that this boy was going to make a great leader some day.

“Indeed they did,” Dare said softly. “And yet here we are.”

“And they are not,”
Dax
agreed.

“Someday they won’t be anywhere,”
Shaina
said confidently.

“If good people stand strong,” Dare said, watching the bird as it circled.

It was edging ever closer, each loop overlapping slightly until it was nearly overhead. Suddenly it shifted, with the slightest adjustment of guiding feathers slipped downward. Since even a kingbird was a bit small to consider them a meal, no one flinched, merely stared. The bird had apparently decided they were not a threat, and slid on an eddy of breeze down to barely twenty feet above them. Its curved beak and formidable talons were clear now, as was the slight cock of its head as it looked at them.

Dax
found himself holding his breath. It was unusual for a kingbird to acknowledge earthbound creatures except for prey. Even the children seemed to realize the power of the moment and stayed silent, watching as the bird came ever closer.

The bird made another pass, dropping lower. It flew toward them, with intent that seemed undeniable. The kingbird swooped so close
Dax
would swear he could feel the wind stirred by its mighty wings. At the last second it shifted again, this time shooting straight up in a move that seemed counter to the laws of objects in the air. Up it went, then, incredibly, it rolled and came back to nearly brush them again.

And then it was soaring, surging upward, and
Dax
got the strangest feeling that he knew what the bird was feeling, the sheer joy of the power of its own flight. Up it went, climbing ever higher into the blue, spring sky, until it was merely a speck in the distance.

“I think,”
Dax
said softly, “you’ve just been saluted, your highness.”

Dare’s mouth quirked at that bit of whimsy. “He did seem to be telling us something, but I doubt that was it.”

“He was telling us,” Lyon said solemnly, “that he’s still here. We thought he and all of them were gone, but they’re still here. Like we are. And always will be.”

“I think he’s telling us Trios is coming back, and to keep fighting,”
Shaina
said rather militantly.

For a moment the two men simply looked at these children they had produced. Then they looked at each other, each allowing a bit of the quiet awe they were feeling show.

“I think,”
Dax
said after a moment, “you two are too smart for your own good.”

Shaina
grinned, while Lyon merely smiled with that way he had of making you think there was great wisdom in that young heart.

“And I think,” Dare said as he looked into his son’s eyes, “that bodes very well for Trios.”

They made the return trip down the mountain more hopeful than any of them had been for a long while.

* * *

“OUR QUEEN,” DAX said teasingly as he added the log
Rina
handed him to the fire on the hearth, “doesn’t mind somewhat rustic living here, since at home she is amid utter chaos.”

“We do well enough,”
Shaylah
said. “The people need their homes restored first. Completion of the palace repairs can wait.”

“You deserve better,” Dare said.

“I am with you,” she answered simply. “There is nothing better.”

She had the pleasure of seeing him stopped dead. He swallowed tightly, and she thought tonight might be interesting, here in this place so removed from the pressure and toll of his daily responsibilities. Especially after he’d told her of the wonder of seeing that symbol of Trios, the kingbird, today. Somehow, in a way someone not born here probably couldn’t quite understand, that discovery had heartened him greatly.

“Well said,”
Califa
added softly, with a look at
Dax
that had him shifting a bit awkwardly, although he was smiling.

“We are the luckiest of men, are we not, my friend?” Dare said, recovering.

“Indeed.”

Rina
had withdrawn into the shadows to one side of the stone fireplace. She made no teasing remark about the love talk, as she once would have.
Shaylah
sighed, wishing she could ease the girl’s sadness.

Silence drew out for a bit before
Dax
shifted his gaze from the fire on the hearth to Dare. “You’re sure about that Council Hall cornerstone?”

“Yes. I want it to remain.”

“I would have thought you would want all sign of the Coalition’s destruction of the capitol cleared away,”
Califa
said.

“That was my first thought,” Dare agreed. “But we cannot forget the power and cruelty of the enemy. We can never tell ourselves they are not as evil as they are.”

“So you want it as a reminder,”
Dax
said.

“Yes. Almost everyone in
Triotia
passes that spot regularly. I want everyone to remember who we lost, and why.”

“I see your—”

Dax’s
words broke off at a loud crash from upstairs. The four parents exchanged rueful, knowing glances.

“I knew we should have sent them to bed,”
Califa
said.

“Whose turn is it?” Dare asked.

“Mine, I believe,”
Shaylah
said and got to her feet.

“A little leniency, I think?”
Dax
suggested. “We are on a retreat.”

“Agreed. I promise not to string up the little imps,” she said with a laugh.

She found them where they had been for the last hour, in the small yet seemingly full attic of the lodge. Dare had said he wasn’t sure of all that was stored away in there, but was fairly certain there was nothing lethal. Breakable was another question, one she feared had just been answered with that crash.

She negotiated the ladder to the attic quickly, calling out as soon as her shoulders were clear of the opening. “What are you two up to, or should I not ask?”

“Nothing bad,”
Shaina
answered swiftly, her voice allowing
Shaylah
to place them in the far right corner.

“Does that equal nothing broken?” she asked as she pulled herself up and to her feet.

“Um ... not exactly.” The girl’s voice was less certain now.

“It was my fault, Mother,” Lyon said as she approached. “I didn’t want her to fall climbing up there”—he gestured toward the rafters at what was apparently some kind of floating platform for the lake—”so I pulled over that chair for her to stand on.”

Shaylah
had to hold back a laugh. This was so typical,
Shaina
initiating the act that got them into trouble, and Lyon reasonably explaining their way out of it.