A few gasps rolled through the hall.
I raised my voice again and let the flames surrounding my body grow larger. “Does anyone have any questions?”
When silence answered me, I glanced at Salor. “Anyone on duty to clean tonight is dismissed.” I turned to Broomden and made my voice thunderous. “Broomden and those at his table will clean the hall tonight. Meldrin and Shancy will make sure it is done. Everyone else will go home.”
Elves scattered. In less than a minute, the hall was empty, except for Broomden, his five little bootlickers, Meldrin, and Shancy. I toned the flames down just enough that they could see my face more easily. “As nobles in Hemlit, I expect you to protect the people around you. If you must spend your nights in my Dining Hall, make sure it is a safe place for everyone… or your new status will be worse than the servants who clean up your messes now.”
I blew a hot wave of air over Broomden and marched out the door.
Chapter 23: Callista
Iflipped through the yellow birds pages of the book I’d brought back from the library last week. As late spring settled on Sirun, the new species out my window changed every day. But this one—
This was the first to land on my window and whistle at me. And I had no idea what it was. I’d opened the glass hours ago because the weather was so warm—I hadn’t expected any of the birds to come this close.
I grabbed another book, trying to find one that matched the bright yellow bird with red dots along the edges of its wing. It looked like some kind of parrot—bigger than the songbirds, but not nearly as big as a hawk.
A light tap sounded on my door.
“Come in!” I called, continuing my search through the book. I only knew two elves who would knock that softly, and one of them lived in Bridgetown. It had been a couple months since I’d met Molanna, and Jolter hadn’t convinced me to cross thebridge to visit her yet.
But Salor lived here in the fortress and had come by to see me at least twice a week since we’d met. The only other possibility was Mylo’s wife, Corva, but she only came with Mylo. As expected, Salor opened the door… and froze.
“Callista! How did you get a callida to come to you?”
“A… callida?”
She stepped closer to me and whispered. “Your golden bird.”
I wrinkled my brows. “Did you just name it after me?”
She laughed. “No, though it might be appropriate. I think it means something likeclever.”
I sighed dramatically. “Well, not after me, then. Callista meansBeautyin a language my parents knew.” I wasn’t going to tell her it was the Mother Tongue, but she knew my father was a scholar and my mother enjoyed learning.
She clapped her hands silently. “That’s perfect for you.” Then she pointed at the bird. “Callidas are famous for being incredibly smart and gathering sparkly things for their nests. Some people think they can even understand language and pick out their favorite elves to follow around.”
I had lots of hair pins with glittery gems. At first I’d worried for Mylo when he’d brought me a dressmaker and so many accessories. Then, he told me the king had paid for it, and… I didn’t worry for him anymore.
Nor did I worry about giving away some of the pins.
I set three in my hand and started talking to the bird. “Hey there, I hear you like pretty things.” I stepped closer to it. “Can I call you Gaudi? It means something like ‘bringing joy,’ because it made me so happy to see you here.” I walked slowly toward it with the pins on my extended hand. “You canhave these, if you’d like them. My friend tells me you might.”
I stopped right in front of the bird. She rubbed her head against the side of my palm, chirped twice, gripped the pins with one of her clawed feet, and then flew away.
Salor rushed up to me, and we watched Gaudi disappear into the forest. “Wow,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Do you think she’ll come back?” I asked.
“I have no idea. I’d leave the window open, just in case.”
“I don’t think I’ll close it until it snows. Even then… I wonder if the king can enchant it to keep out the cold and let birds in.”
Salor shook her head. “I can’t imagine asking the High King to do anything.”
I chuckled. “I don’t really see him as a formal High King, and he’s usually happy to help.” I’d seen too much of the depths of his pain to be so formal. And sometimes, when we sat close to each other reading in the mornings, the air would charge, and I was sure that his heart pulled on mine. In those moments, it took all the strength I had not to throw myself into his arms, soak in his crazy heat and delicious cedar scents, and confess that I found him wildly attractive.
But, as close as Salor and I had grown over the last few weeks, I would not admit any of that to her. Or to anyone else. They were thoughts I had to keep firmly in my own head. “So what brings you up here this afternoon?” I asked.
