12: Voices
THE FIRST THING ABEKE NOTICED WHEN SHE WOKE UP WAS that it was not quite morning. The room was still blue-edged and black-shadowed, though birds sang thinly outside. The second thing she noticed was that the door was cracked open, and what looked like Uraza’s tail was disappearing through it. Presumably following the rest of Uraza.
As Abeke pushed herself up and blinked, trying to decide if she had seen the leopard leave, she heard a faint pad-pad-pad-pad and saw Kunaya’s dark form trot out into the hall too.
“Uraza!” hissed Abeke, shooting a glance at the lump that was Meilin’s sleeping form. This was not the place to go wandering. But the leopard didn’t return.
“Mwuwuh?” Meilin asked the room sleepily.
“Uraza’s in the hall,” Abeke replied in a hushed whisper. “I’m going to get her.”
“Mwuf. Need help?” Even half-asleep, Meilin sounded a little suspicious of Abeke creeping out of the room so early.
“I am all right!”
“Mwufay.” The other girl turned back into her pillow.
Abeke headed down the hall. She could smell the faint scent of bread baking — the bakers up early. Maybe that was what had lured the big cat out of the room. It took her a moment to glimpse the forms of the two cats disappearing around a corner.
“Uraza!” she hissed once more. But she didn’t dare to do it again. If there was a law against leaving your bedroom door open, surely there was a law against sneaking around while no one else was up. She had no choice but to slink after the two cats.
Closed doors lined the high-ceilinged hall, and every few yards was an alcove containing something unexpected and magical: a delicate water fountain trailing water over carvings, a cage of sleeping canaries, a pillowed chair with lion’s paws, a tree covered with white blossoms.
Uraza paused at the next corner, her lavender eyes keen. She wanted the girl to know that she wasn’t trying to be disobedient. This was no helter-skelter chase through a castle. This time, Uraza was leading her.
Crouching low, Abeke silently caught up to Uraza. Together, the two cats and the girl made their way past the black rectangles of closed doors. From the way the leopard stalked — pausing every few steps — it seemed she wasn’t quite sure where she was going or what she was looking for.
The hall grew lighter. Gradually Abeke realized she could hear the dull murmur of voices coming from inside one of these many rooms. From the thrashing of Uraza’s tail, this was what she had been looking for. They scouted back and forth, trying to get closer, until Abeke found a long, skinny room full of washbasins. Morning light came in a large window at the end, suddenly strong and bright. One wall was lined with animal-headed fountains, each faucet carved with a different species. Cloths, perfumes, and draping robes sat on a long shelf opposite.
Abeke pressed her ear to the washbasin wall, and suddenly the voices came into focus.
“Look,” said a familiar voice, “clearly Lord MacDonnell is a little crazy. But we aren’t going to be here long. All we need to do is find Rumfuss and then find the girl and get out of here before he does any more of his crazy ‘my castle, my law’ stuff.”
“How will we persuade Rumfuss to give up his talisman?” asked another voice. This one also sounded familiar, and had a Niloan accent. Suddenly Abeke knew who they were — and why Uraza had been so intent on finding them. Devin and Karmo!
“Give up?” Devin scoffed. “Look at our beasts! We’ll take it.”
They must have made it to Glengavin in the night! Abeke leaped back from the wall and out of the washroom. She needed to tell the others immediately.
But as she rounded the corner back to the hall, she was brought up short. She stood face-to-face with Devin Trunswick. Uraza stood nose-to-nose with his black panther, Elda. Behind him stood tall, dark Karmo, and beside him was his huge hammerkop stork, Impundulu. The bird’s head and beak were nearly as long as Karmo’s arm.
In just a second, Abeke had snatched a large glass bottle of perfume from the table beside her. Makeshift weapon. She had been paying attention in the training room back at Greenhaven.
“Ah, Abeke,” Devin said with a clever smile that he seemed to have learned from Zerif. He didn’t seem at all concerned by the prospect of getting hit over the head with a perfume bottle. “I don’t intend to murder you. We were just talking about you.”
“How did you get in here?” Abeke demanded.
“Glengavin is a hall for heroes,” Devin boomed, clearly mocking Lord MacDonnell. He gestured to his spirit animal, who thrashed her tail. “Elda makes me very popular in Eura.”
“Not in this particular corridor,” Abeke replied. She jerked her chin toward Karmo. “Who is he?”
“This is my friend Karmo,” Devin said. “He’s from Nilo too.”
I know, thought Abeke, with a pang of homesickness. I heard.
Karmo’s eyes were narrowed, as if Devin and he weren’t particularly friendly. He said, “I’ve come to see if I can change your mind. Come back to us. Come back to Nilo. Our people need us to be beacons of hope.”
Taken by surprise, she blinked. Was she the girl she had heard them talking about? “What? I am not coming back. I have seen enough to know who fights for what I believe in. The Greencloaks are the good guys.”
Karmo raised a dark, handsome eyebrow. He was the sort of boy that her sister, Soama, would have been silly over back home. “Are they?”
Abeke nodded. “I am very fortunate that they allowed me to switch sides. They understand the value of mercy, unlike your master, Zerif.”
Devin scoffed. “They would not have killed you, Abeke. You know that. You walk with Uraza. The Greencloaks want you alive.”
Abeke didn’t like this conversation. There wasn’t any chance that she would fight with the Conquerors again, but it awoke all kinds of unpleasant tangled feelings inside her. For a pained moment she thought of Shane, the friend she’d had to leave behind. “You won’t convince me, Devin. My spirit animal chooses the Greencloaks.”
“But is she right?” Karmo broke in gently.
“Of course she is! She’s a Great Beast!” The fierceness of Abeke’s reply made Uraza growl beside her. Abeke could feel the power of Uraza seeping into her, preparing her for a fight. Her nerves danced. Next to Devin, Elda dropped down, tail thrashing even harder, her black fur scuffed up threateningly. Impundulu clawed the floor with one foot. The atmosphere felt charged and dangerous.