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Chapter Twelve: Enchantments and a Kiss
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2021-08-12 21:58:23Ilyria lay sprawled against the tiles, frozen with shock. The enchantment which had sprung up around her when she first took the Princessโs hand had fallen away but her body shivered as if it were still in that cavernous space with the Princess and the eyeless man.
The music had stopped, the flautist paused with the flute a breath away from his lips, his eyes on Ilyria. His tranquil absorption had been replaced by a greedy attentiveness. He lifted his arms and Ilyria saw he wore chains on his wrists. These he rattled as he opened his mouth wide to reveal the tongueless space within. The cry that emerged was that of a wretched half-creature, a bleating, savage sound that echoed within the walls of the Princessโs chamber. Ilyria expected the guardians to rush into the room.
Then she remembered that they were forbidden from entering. Instead, she felt hands at once soft and strong dig into her shoulders and haul her up from the floor. The asceticโs face w
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Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Thirteen: An Unlikely Ally
It was a moment without breath or movement except for the beating of their hearts and the soft strokes of the dress as it wound itself around Ilyria and Astrapi. The light from Astrapiโs wings glowed luminescent around them. Ilyria surrendered to the warmth of Astrapiโs mouth, to the ripple of muscles beneath his skin and the way her own skin sparked with sensation. He was just a boy and she a girl and if he had asked her then to stay with him, Ilyria would have answered yes with everything she had in her. But he didnโt and slowly awareness returned to Ilyria that they were not alone and not safe. She pulled away and Astrapi released her from his arms. His own eyes seemed to echo her own need. They stared at each other for a long moment, neither seemingly knowing where to begin. A clatter jarred them from their reverie. โThe merchants,โ said Ilyria. Astrapi dropped his wings and they stood surveying the scene. It was still much as they had lef
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-16Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Fourteen: Boots
Thassa was waiting for her outside the palace gate, as the ascetic had said. When he saw her, he seemed to sag with relief. Then he removed his hooded cloak and placed it around her shoulders. Ilyria had felt dress tiring. Now it was little more than fading rags. She wondered if it might revive with a wash and thought that perhaps with magic cloud silks, anything was possible. โThank you,โ she said, feeling terrible for him as he stood there, his scarring exposed. But neither did she look forward to walking through the streets of Idixat with her tired dress falling off her body. Even with Thassa at her side. โYou have managed more than we could ever have hoped, Ilyria,โ he said, โallow me to get you back to Madame Skiaโs house safely.โ โBut I didnโt,โ said Ilyria, โThe Princess is enchanted.โ โYes,โ said Thassa, โBut you saw her. Which no one else has done in many months. Donโt talk now, we will speak with Madame Skia shortly.โ Madame Skia was
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-17Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Fifteen: Between
Ilyria looked closer at the shimmering feather in Thassaโs hand. It was at once like water and like mist, pale and dark. She felt that if she looked at it long enough, it could transport her away, perhaps even to Zarmej. When she looked up, Thassa was watching her. โIt is from the Lightning Bird,โ he said, confirming her fear. โBut you said it was from Vatra,โ said Ilyria. He had made a mistake, surely? โThe place of fire, Vatra, it is the home of the Lightning Bird.โ โNo,โ she said. After all, she had seen his aerie, across the desert sands, a place of clouds and silence. Not fire. โThat cannot be.โ โWhatever you have seen, Ilyria, it was what heโitโwants you to see. The Lightning Bird cannot stay long here. Whenever it retreats, it is to Vatra. That is where the companions are. I am sure of it.โ Ilyria grasped for a meaning but all that she could come up with was what she knew Thassa was thinkingโthe Lightning Bird had had a
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-18Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Sixteen: Fire and Pain
Ilyria looked around. The place was simultaneously confusing and familiar. She looked down at her feet. They sank into the soft mulch of her fatherโs garden, the one he kept around the back of the kitchen right next to the wall that separated them from the city. She felt a soft touch on the back of her hand as Astrapi leaned in to kiss her. Before he pulled away, he whispered โDonโt trust what you see, trust only what you feel,โ then he spread his wings, and was away, over the kitchen wall. As she watched him, the kitchen wall before her shivered and faded, and she thought she saw beyond it to a hill on which colourful tents had been pitched with lights strung along the edges. A rich, fragrant smell drifted toward her from the hillโa familiar, intoxicating smell like a miasma. Chariko! Then Astrapi and the tents were gone and there was only the kitchen wall and the garden. Her fatherโs garden. He loved to work there, turning the soil, pulling out the invasive weeds,
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-19Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventeen: Miasma's Clue
Thassa did his best to allow himself to be led by Ilyria. But he would stop suddenly, or abruptly turn at any noise. Once, he stumbled and pulled Ilyria down with him. Her eyes flew open as she fell, her hands bracing for the fall โฆ โฆ and she found herself kneeling at the door to Dariaโs chambers where she was conducting a meeting. Ilryia, had been twelve and spying through the keyhole because her twelve-year old self had already begun to mistrust her mother. She knew they were talking about eliminating a competitor. โI will invite him for a drink,โ her mother was saying. The merchant laughed and said, โYour drinks are a health tonic, Merchant Daria, but not a good one.โ He didnโt notice that her mother was not laughing as well. Ilyria suspected he should watch his drinks too. Then the merchant had begun to walk toward the door. Feeling the same terror in her body though she tried to tell herself this was not real, Ilyria stumbled backwards again, as
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-20Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Eighteen: A Whisper and a Story
She found Astrapi playing with the kitten. For a moment, she just watched the unlikely pair. Astrapi was crouching down, his wings flowing down his back, relaxed and trailing into whisps of mist across the tiles of the courtyard. He was teasing the kitten with one of his own strange feathers and the little kitten was enjoying lunging at it, her sharp teeth closing on air each time she thought she had finally caught it. They were both completely engrossed in their play. โWhat are those things on her back?โ asked Ilyria finally. Astrapi started and turned his head. โIโm not sure,โ he said, โShe is something new that Iโve not seen before. Ilyria,โ he said, standing up and leaving the kitten to her conquest of the confusing feather. โCome away with me. For a little while.โ Ilyria thought, โWill you tell me about the First War? And about Izben?โ Astrapi smiled, his head tilting to one side and in that moment, Ilyria thought he really did look bird-like. โI
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-23Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Nineteen: Love and a Map
Once Ilyria had drawn Astrapi inside the cave, she turned and walked to the bed where she had woken the first time he brought her. The light from thousands of fireflies on the cave ceiling, flickered off Astrapiโs skin as he followed her. He stood before her and like her, seemed to be holding his breath. โIlyria,โ he started to say, and she heard the question there. She put her finger against his lips. It was no longer the time for talking. She thought briefly of the night weeks ago when she was to be married to Dirk. She would have had to have this moment with a man she loathed. She was sure of what she wanted. She wished she was wearing the midnight hued cloud silk dress. She wished it would show her in its way, how to act. She wished she had perfumed her body with oils. Instead, she stood in front of Astrapi in a simple tunic she had changed into after helping to clean the House. What would the dress have done? Something complicated that involved slapping her legs
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-24Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Twenty: Dirk Returns
Ilyria froze. It could not be. Surely this was not her mother? The exquisite Daria Agrio? Ruin of souls. Torment of men and women. The old woman reached out a hand for the wall to steady herself. She looked up and Daria saw her eyes were pale and glassy. She seemed drugged, ill, dying even. She did not see Ilyria, or anything at all. Yet the lines of Dariaโs beautiful face were still there, stark beneath the withered flesh but still recognizable. What had Dirk done to her mother? Say something, she told herself. This is your mother. But the nausea had returned, and she found herself unable to hold onto her thoughts. Something about a mother. Whose mother? My mother, this is my mother. Ilyria clutched the map to her chest as if it might still hold some of the protective magic from her fatherโs chambers. And maybe it did, because her head cleared a little. Her mother opened her mouth and Ilyria saw that all her pretty white teeth were gone, leaving only
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๋ฐ์ดํธ : 2021-08-25
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Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Seven: One World
Ilyria woke to the smell of warm bread and blossoming plants, and another damp salty smell she could not recognize. She sighed and turned over. Her eyes flickered half-open as she felt Suluuโs warm body lying on his back next to her. Her hand lazily traced the contours of his smooth chest, delighting in the way his skin puckered beneath her fingers. He turned to look at her, his lips parted in a smile and his eyes hooded with his desire. โHello,โ he murmured, pulling her toward him, โYouโre awake.โ โI am,โ she said, tracing her fingers over his lips. Then her stomach rumbled noisily, โand I am so, so, so, so hungry!โ She sat up trying to recall when last she had eaten and suddenly a rush of images flooded over her. She sank her face into her hands. Astrapi, impaled. The Princess and Zloโs blood dripping from the spines of The Shackled One. Madame Skiaโs wounded body lying shrouded by the shimmering moon dust. The monsterโs final moments. She looked up
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Six: Freedom
The monster reached out a nightmarish tendril, twisted and hard and riddled with fungus. The tendril scratched Ilyria under the chin as an overly familiar uncle might and she gagged on the smell of rotten animal flesh. โYou donโt look like him at all,โ said The Shackled One, โLucky for you. We hated him for what he did to us.โ โUs? There is more than one of you?โ โUs,โ said The Shackled One, and dark spikes shot out from its body, impaling the Princess and Zlo. A spike missed the Mogul only because Loulou had pushed him out of the way. They stood open-mouthed with dread and fear as the Princess and Zlo twisted and writhed on the spikes, howling in agony, their blood dripping to the ground beneath them. Thassa ran to the frozen pair and pulled them away. Think, Ilyria, what does it want? came Madame Skiaโs question. Ilyria tried not to hear the howls of the Princess and her son. She looked around for Madame Skia the darkness was so com
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Five: The Shackled One
They all heard it making its way. The ground rumbled with its passage as the Sister Moon shone down with relentless brightness, Brother Moon no longer able to temper her cold light. And Ilyria saw her own fear reflected in the faces of her friends. Even the sirens cowered, and Madame Skia looked uncertain which was maybe the most terrifying thing of all. What could be worse than Zlo? Ilyria knew. It was the thing that Zlo feared. The thing that lived deep within his own dark tower. She looked at the Princess. The Princess knew too. Her face had turned so pale, it seemed to reflect that horrifying moonlight. Suddenly the Princess reached out one hand and the crowd of sirens parted around her as if she had sliced through them. She curled her fingers, and the Mogul was dragged through the mud toward her. He twisted and turned reaching out for Loulou. Loulou, her cheeks flushed, tried to follow but the Princess flung her away with a flick of the other hand. She lifted her summon
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Four: A Reckoning
Then the air was torn apart by a womanโs scream. It was filled with such rage that every one of them who heard it fell to their knees with their hands over their ears, desperate for it to stop. Zlo alone stood, his head bowed as the Princess appeared beside him. She was beautiful and terrifying in her anger. She appeared to float off the floor, her white robes billowing around her, her long, burnished hair streaming as though she were the wind itself. Behind her stood Nicos, his expression glazed. His hands hung at his sides. He appeared to see and hear nothing. โFool,โ said the Princess to Zlo, โI did everything to help you. I sent him away,โ she tilted her head toward the Mogul, โI distracted the brothers and the stupid girl-child Magoses with their little quest. I sowed division and strife. I ensured the Laws were broken. All you had to do was make sure they,โ here she swept her arm around to indicate Astrapi, the companions, Thassa, Miasma and Ilyria, โwere all h
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Three: Moon Dust
Ilyria could not have said exactly when she had understood the truth of the relics. Had it begun when she realized that the map to the Lost Cities was really the knowledge of one man, Nicos? Or when Astrapiโs breath activated the perfect chord on the gold harmonicus. Could it even have been Zlo who pulled the scant threads of ideas together for her when he pointed to Fierce as a Nemachi device. Ilyria knew Fierce was a living, breathing creature. Had Zlo missed something? Having forfeited so much of his humanity for power, he no longer understood the value of that humanity. Now, as she watched Thassaโs slow, reluctant appraoch, felt his sorrow as he dug in his pocket and brought out the necklace to place it on the altar, saw his dejection as he walked past her back to where Bonbon waited, she wanted to yell out her understanding. She wanted to scream at Thassa that the necklace did not matter. Only his memory of it was worth anything. The things that bind us to
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-Two: True Relics
Astrapi fell, Bonbon fell. Sidian, Flame and Loulou, they all fell. But it was not with the bone-rending shatter that Ilyria, Miasma and Thassa anticipated. Thassa, with his arms outstretched was surprised to find them filled with soft, warm, living, breathing Bonbon. Ilyria cried out as Astrapi landed with the thud and slap of flesh hitting floor. Likewise, the other companions, released from their marble prisons, fell to the rumbling, caving floor with cries of surprise and pain. Except for Bonbon whose tears were of joy to be in her loverโs arms. Ilyria had no time to feel bad about her inaction for the white roof and shattered walls of the reception chamber fell away as easily as if the marble had no more substance than eggshell. The smell of the garden filled the space but instead of the intoxicating perfume of earlier, it smelled as over-sweet and rotten, like over-ripe fruit. She held her hand up to her nose. The marble floor beneath their feet dissolved into the dark
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy-One: An Old Friend
Ilyria kept her eyes on Astrapi even as she felt Zlo feeding off her pain. Her limbs grew numb and heavy as Zlo drew all that heartache from her. Ilyria willed Astrapi to open his eyes. Just show me you are alive, she thought, If I know you are alive, then I can do anything, I can โฆ A soft hand on her arm and she groped blindly for Miasma. Miasma took her hand and stood on her one side and as she did so, Thassa took her hand on the other. She was not alone. Somehow, miraculously, she was not alone. She felt the blood return to her limbs and they tingled almost painfully with the returning pain. She would claim it back from Zlo. It was not his to steal. A rumble and the marble walls and floor shook. The three stood firm. โLook,โ whispered Miasma, โThey are all here.โ Ilyria tore her eyes from Astrapi and looked around them. On the walls were each of her friends. Captured in attitudes of struggle, their faces bore the signs of their to
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Seventy: Early
Ilyria, Miasma and Thassa paused at the iron and gold gates. The Gates of Perception they were called. Ilyria had never been this close to them. As a child she had been told they were enchanted. Any person wishing to see the Mogul had to pass the test of the Gates of Perception. Those who did not come with noble intentions would be incinerated as they passed through. Perhaps that was why the three hesitated. The heavy iron had been wrought with gold into the history of the Moguls of Idixat. There was the first with his high, noble brow, hands aloft, providing benediction for the new city. There was his successor, the same noble brow, bending to drink the water from the underground river on which the city relied. There was his successorโs successor, digging the first spadeful of dirt for the cityโs ramparts. And so on. Each Mogulโs face was rendered in gold, his body in iron. The arid land in iron, the city he drew from its earth in gold. It was a study of how a man was made
Ilyria and the Lightning Birdย ย ย Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Palace
A woman at the back of the procession gave a long guttural howl. Every hair on Ilyriaโs body stood on end. โUse the glamour,โ said Miasma, โHelp me, use the glamour.โ โAnd do what?" said Ilyria, "Where do we even go?โ Aerie? No then they would be too far away. They had to be in the Palace. Palace? What part of the Palace? The Princessโs chambers? The Princessโs garden? She felt for the token in her pocket already knowing it wasnโt there and that she wouldnโt use it even if she had it. The Princess, she decided, could not be trusted. Vatra? Yakip?No. They had to be here. โMake a run for it,โ said Thassa, readying himself as if to do just that. The procession moved with purpose now, bearing down on them. Their fac
