The Warrior Returns - Anteros 04 (51 page)

Then the air stirred beside me, and I smelled a familiar perfume.

Novari's voice came just at my ear. "There you are, child! Come with me. Novari will make you safe."

The temple dissolved around me, and a great wind lifted me up and carried me away. I bobbed on fast currents, like an insect clinging to a stick. I collided with clouds, bouncing from bank to bank, then was grabbed by the wind current again and hurled farther along Novari's sorcerous river.

Suddenly the wind ceased and I was falling from a great distance, the ground slowly floating up at me.

Then I heard a hunting creature's glad cry and the shadow of the Lyre Bird fell over me. She caught me in her claws, like a hawk swoops up a fish. Powerful wings stopped my swift descent. Then the wings flapped once, twice, and all dissolved again.

And I found myself standing in Amalric's garden.

The sun was bright, the flowers were blooming, and the fountain played sweet music on my mother's shrine.

A beautiful woman stepped out from the shadows of the trees. She wore a gown of virginal white with long floaty sleeves and a veil as delicate as mist drifting behind her in the breeze.

The woman came toward me, seeming very tall.

"Hello, Ernilie dear," Novari said in a voice as sweet as mountain springs.

"Hello," I piped, holding out my hand, which was very small. As small as my child's voice. Then I let that voice quaver. "You won't hurt me, will you?"

"Of course not, Emilie dear," Novari said, taking my hand in hers. "I'd never dream of hurting a pretty little girl like you."

"Really?" I said, tears welling up in my eyes. "You swear?"

"I don't have to swear, dear," the Lyre Bird said. "I'm Novari. The Lyre Bird.

"And the first thing you should know about me, is that
...
I
can never tell a lie."

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

Emilie
's
Revenge

novari peered down
at me, a sweet smile playing across her perfect features.

On the outside I was Emilie, delicate as a meadow flower. I had Emilie's innocent eyes. Her pearly milk teeth. Her child's translucent skin. But inside I was Rali Antero. With a false hand and single eye and cauterized soul.

But the Lyre Bird saw only Emilie when she said, "I've been waiting to meet you for
such
a long time, dear."

She posed before me, white gown dazzling in the sun. She had a tiara of daisies woven through her golden hair, and daisy bracelets encircled her slender wrists. Her sun-kissed skin was misted with the delicate aroma of lemony musk.

But I remembered the seductress and saw how the gown flowed about her lush figure, caressing every soft hill and hollow. I remembered her attempt at sorcerous seduction. Hot hands and lips bruising my body while I waited for my chance to kill her.

And here I was with Novari once again.

Waiting.

I looked about with childlike curiosity. Moments before I'd been in the center of a winter storm, but here in the villa of my birth, magic had banished all of winter's cares.

The garden was springtime warm and the flowers were nodding under a happy sun. Insects clung to their blossoms, sipping the nectar inside. Songbirds flitted among the trees, while an old gray cat crouched under mint leaves waiting to pounce. It had one eye, I noted, like my Rali self.

Then Novari said sharply: "Well, Emilie. What do you have to say for yourself?"

I ducked my head, pulling the blue-hooded cloak closer as if I were suddenly cold. "Was I very bad?" I asked.

Novari put a hand on a round hip and gave me a scolding look. "Well, you
did
interfere with my storm."

"I put it back the way it was," I piped in defense.

"But
really,
dear," she said, "you spoiled the whole thing." She waved in the vague direction of Galana. "Because of you, the storm ended too soon. It only lasted a few hours, instead of days. I wish you hadn't interfered, Emilie. It was quite naughty of you."

"People were getting deaded," I said. "That's why I inter— whatever you said I did."

"I suppose that's understandable," Novari said, features softening. "You do have such a delicate nature. I have to make allowances for that. And those
...
people
...
were
your friends, after all."

"Are they all deaded, anyway?" I said, lower lip trembling.

"No, my sweet," Novari said. "They aren't all
...
deaded. Your friends are alive. But I can't say much for their future. My troops are hunting them now."

"Why don't you just let them go?" I asked. "I'll tell them not to be bad anymore."

"Oh, I can't do that, sweetness," Novari said. "I'd like to please you. But I can't. Even if I wanted to, I can't. Especially now that they've gone and killed Kato, poor man."

"Kato's deaded?" I gawked. "How?"

Novari shrugged. "I think one of your friends cut his head off. With an axe. A big woman, I was told."

I had to force myself not to smile.

"I don't really mind that much, sweetheart," Novari said. "Kato was no friend of mine. He thought otherwise. But men think all
kinds
of things. And their notions of friendship with a woman begin and end with their loins.

"But Kato
was
useful, I'll give him that. He was Director of Orissa, after all. Although there's plenty of candidates to take his place, I can't let poor Kato's death go unpunished."

Then she smiled, teasing. "But I'll tell you what," she said.

"What?"

"I promise you that when they catch your friends, I won't permit torture. It will be a quick death. Painless as I can make it." She clapped her hands delightedly, as if she'd just offered me the greatest gift. "See? Doesn't that make you feel better already?

"Can we be friends now?"

I frowned, as if considering. Then I smiled and said, "I'm hungry."

Novari burst out laughing. "What a delightful child," she said. "I just know that we're going to get along very well indeed."

Then she said, "Come, Emilie," and held out her hand.

I stared at her, hesitating, as if weighing a difficult decision.

"I don't bite little girls, Emilie," she said.

I gave a nervous giggle. Then, acting reassured, I took her hand and skipped along the path beside her. She led me to the familiar garden bench where I'd last supped with Amalric and Omerye more than fifty years before.

There were little trays of delicacies waiting, sweets and tarts and finger cakes. There were sweating pitchers of cold milk and fruit juices. Fresh fruit and cheese and small, covered pots of sherbets sitting on a bed of ice.

I scooted onto the bench near a sticky pile of sweets. I made certain I stayed in character, choosing a frosted date with the greatest of care. Then I nibbled on it delicately, brushing away any sugar crumbs from my cloak as fastidious as little Emilie ever was.

"This is good," I said.

"Why don't you take your cloak off, Emilie?" Novari suggested. "It must be awfully hot under there."

My Rali self chortled: You have no idea, woman. But my Emilie self pulled the cloak closer. I patted it like
it was an old friend, feeling th
e lump in the inside pocket—the pocket where the silver leaf and splinter were rolled up tight.

"That's all right," I said "I get cold easy." And then I said, dignified as I imagined a small child could be, "I do hope I am not being rude."

Novari laughed. "Such a little princess," she said. "So proper. So sensitive and sweet. I love you, Emilie. I really do."

And I thought: You always were too quick, Novari. You really rush a girl, don't you?

But in Emilie's high voice I said, "Why are you deading everyone, Novari?"

The Lyre Bird's smooth brow furrowed into a lovely frown of great concern. "You've been listening to my enemies too much," she said. "I'm not
...
killing everyone. Only those who deserve it. And even then only when it becomes necessary."

My face suddenly pinched up and tears spilled out. "You deaded my father!" I accused

"And I'm so sorry that I did, sweetness," Novari said, tears of sympathy welling in her own eyes. "I felt very cruel to hurt you so. But I didn't do it because I wanted to be mean. Novari isn't mean. She doesn't hurt things for pleasure. She hates to hurt people. But sometimes they make her hurt them.

"And that makes her mad. Really, really mad."

Lower hp trembling, I said "Were you mad at my father? Is that why you deaded him? And all the other Anteros. Were you mad at them, too?"

"I suppose I was, Emilie dear," she said. "I told you I can only speak the truth. Which means I sometimes have to admit things to myself that make me feel quite uncomfortable."

She sighed. "Such sorrow truth brings," she said "It's a heavy burden. You have no idea."

"Why were you mad at them?" I asked. "What did they do to you?"

'T don't want to say bad things about your family, dearest,"

Novari said. "But the truth is one of them tried to kill me long ago. Her name was Rali Antero. Your aunt I believe."

I nodded. "I've heard stories about Aunt Rali," I said. "She was a great warrior. And Evocator."

"That's the very same Rali Antero," Novari said with a bitter smile. "A hero to all." She added quietly, "Even to me."

"Why did she try to deaded you?" I asked. "Were you mean to her? Were you mean to my aunt
Rali
?"

I was amazed when I heard Novari sob. I looked up and saw her struggling to answer. Sudden tears running down her cheeks.

"Mean to her?" she said. "Why, I offered her everything. I loved her, Emilie. She was the strongest and the most beautiful woman I have ever met. Rali was so sure of herself. Completely confident. Even when I had her locked in the dungeon."

Novari shrugged. "That was because of a little mistake I made. And I don't blame her for being angry about the mistake." She waved, vague. "People were killed. Things like that. But I tried to atone for it

"I wanted to make her my queen. My equal." She hesitated. "Well, almost equal. But close enough. And all I asked was that she share her power with me. The power of the Anteros."

"If you were being so nice," I asked, "why did my aunt
Rali
say no?"

The tears vanished and Novari became angry. "Because she was a fool," she snarled. "A fool! How could she spurn
me—
the Lyre Bird? I have suffered all the sorrows that women everywhere have suffered. Who could understand Rali's pain more than me? How could she turn her back on my own womanly pain? I am the embodiment of all such suffering. She knew that. I told her everything, Emilie. Everything! So she had no excuse."

She leaned closer, her perfume swirling all around me.
"1
am the creation of hundreds and hundreds of young girls just like you, Emilie. Girls who were degraded and tortured for the pleasure of evil men." She tapped her breast. "They're all inside of me, Emilie. The souls of all those poor girls. And they weep all the time.

"You can't imagine what it's like to hear them crying. Always crying. They're crying now. But how can I let them out? And still be
...
the Lyre Bird?"

"So you deaded her," I said flatly. "You deaded my aunt
Rali
."

Novari calmed herself. Then she nodded. "Yes, I did, Emilie. I killed her. But she tried to kill me twice. The second time she almost succeeded."

She shrugged. "I don't die easily. I'm not even certain 1
can
die. I suppose I'll find out someday."

"You can
liv
e
forever?
I asked, voice full of childish awe.

"I think so," Novari said. "And that's what I'm offering you, Emilie. You can live forever, too. And someday, when you grow up beautiful and strong, you can be my queen."

"If I say no," I asked, "will you deaded me? Like you deaded Aunt
Rali
?"

My question jolted her. She stared at me for a long time. Then she laughed, trying to make light of it, saying, "What a question for a pretty child to ask."

She rose and slipped onto the bench beside me. "You're such a dear, Emilie." Her eyes were wet. "So intelligent and perceptive."

She hugged me, and I pressed my face against the softness of her bosom. Her fingers touched my hair in an absent caress.

But when she answered, I noticed she tried to slip around my question.

"We'll have lots of time to talk about things, sweetness," she said. "You're upset now. Worried about your friends. I don't expect you to be convinced all at once.

"And we'll have all kinds of fun. I'll show you some magical games you can play. And there'll be lots of clothes and toys and presents. More than any little girl could ever dream of." Novari had never known such childish delights, so there was a wistful edge to her tones.

"And people will have to do what you say, Emilie," she continued. "Because you'll be a real little princess. Novari's princess. And whatever Emilie commands, all will obey." "Except you," I pointed out.

Novari laughed. "What a child!" she exclaimed. "Fired directly at the target."

She patted me. "We're going to get along just fine, sweetness," she said. "We'll have a wonderful time. You're going to love every minute of it."

"What if I don't?" I asked.

"Don't what, my sweet?"

"Love every minute of it?"

Novari paused, then said in a low voice, "Then I'll have to do without you, child. Like I had to do without your aunt Rali."

So there was my answer.

Circuitous as the route might have been, Novari had finally been forced to tell the truth.

Suddenly I hugged her fiercely, saying, 'Til be a good girl. I promise I will." And I burst into tears.

Unlike Novari, I could lie.

She comforted me and made soothing noises. So I hugged her harder still, covering the sorcerous tendril I slipped out and sent sniffing into the Otherworlds. Searching for the little demon monkey I'd cast there
...

And I heard him close by:

Chitter chit. Chitter chit.

He'd broken through the Lyre Bird's shield.

Chitter chit. Chitter chit.

I released him from the spell and he chittered wild joy and went scampering off into some monkey paradise.

Then I loosened my embrace and squirmed in Novari's lap as if I were suddenly restless.

She let me go, and I leaped off and skipped toward the fountain and my mother's shrine.