Page 24 of Skysong

‘Not to say that youaren’t… that,’ she said hastily. ‘I mean – I didn’t mean …’

For the first time since Oriane had met her, Andala seemed flustered. Two points of colour had appeared high on her usually marble-white cheeks.

‘Look, I used to thinkbothof the birds were a myth. And then you showed up, and you’re …’ She paused, apparently at a loss as to what, precisely, Oriane was.

‘It’s all right.’ Oriane forced a smile. Her mind was still whirling, but she couldn’t help feeling deflated. Something inside her had leapt with joy at the thought of there being someone else – someone like her. Perhaps there was, despite what Andala said. Perhaps the legends were true.

‘But people are looking,’ she said, following the thread of her thoughts aloud. ‘The king is looking for the nightingale?’

‘Was,’ Andala corrected. ‘I had heard he was looking for the nightingale … But instead he found you.’

Oriane sat back in her chair, watching faint ribbons of steam twirl up from her tea.Instead he found you. Had the king’s guards expected83the nightingale the day she’d been discovered? How had the king known she was the skylark instead?

She settled on a different question. ‘Why was he searching for the nightingale in the first place?’

Andala shook her head. ‘That I don’t know. All of a sudden, he seemed hellbent on tracking it down. It was supposed to be a secret, but people in the palace talk. That was how I found out. The kitchen gossips said he was sending search parties out everywhere – to the city, to the woods. But no one was ever clear on why, not even Kitt.’

The hairs on Oriane’s neck stood on end as a flash of fear shivered through her. What was it the king really wanted? Why she was really here?

For a while, they both sipped in silence, the background chatter of the teahouse fading as Oriane lost herself in her thoughts once more.

‘Why didn’t anyone tell me before?’ she asked eventually. ‘About the nightingale.’

A crease appeared in Andala’s brow. ‘I don’t believe many people know about the myth anymore, or think on it very much if they do.’

‘You knew it. You didn’t mention anything.’

‘Why should I have?’ The frown had taken over Andala’s whole face now. ‘I am your maid, Oriane. I am here to see to your dress and turn down your bed in the evenings. Nothing more.’

The words hurt. Oriane could not pretend otherwise. She did not know what she had done to provoke Andala’s ire. The woman’s abrupt changes of mood confused her, even sparked a flash of indignation. It was exhausting, trying to keep up with who she was from one moment to the next. Oriane finished her tea, her eyes cast downward, frustration and a strange sharp sadness warring in her chest.84

When she eventually looked up, Andala’s face had changed again. She no longer appeared impatient or angry, but as tired as Oriane felt. Her eyes were closed, their long lashes stark against her skin. They fluttered open as if she’d sensed Oriane watching her.

‘I’m sorry,’ Andala said, and looked as if she meant it. ‘I’m not—’

‘Ahh, you’re finished.’

Kitt had entered the teahouse unnoticed by either of them. He stood beside their table, a large book cradled in one arm, a paper-wrapped parcel balanced atop it.

‘I was hoping you might have saved me a drop,’ he said, peering down at their empty teacups, ‘but there’s plenty more to see, so we really should move on. Are you ready?’

Nodding numbly, Oriane began to rise, but Andala beat her to it.

‘You two go on without me,’ she said, her chair scraping on the flagstone floor as she stood. ‘I really should be getting back – there’s work to do before the hour gets too late. I’ll be fine without the carriage,’ she added, pre-empting Kitt, who had opened his mouth to speak. ‘I don’t mind the walk. I’ll see you both back at the palace.’

She left, as she so often did, without a backward glance or another word.

With a shrug and an apologetic half-smile, Kitt led the way out of the teashop. Oriane followed in silence. She kept a keen eye out for the man from the Order of the Sky – whether to avoid him or to ask him questions, she wasn’t sure. But he was no longer there. The only sign of him that remained was a handful of trodden-on leaflets, littering the lane like petals discarded in a game of forget-me-not.

Kitt resumed his commentary on the features of the city as they made their way through the rest of its streets and laneways. Grateful as she was for his thoughtfulness, Oriane barely heard a word. Her mind was on other things. The man in the alley. The Order85of the Sky. Andala’s ever-changing demeanour, compelling and unpredictable as the sea. The phrase that kept wheeling around her head:wingedgoddesseswhomaketheworldturn. And the persistent image of another bird, one with a magic song like hers, who transformed, in her mind’s eye, into a woman with a featureless face.

86

Chapter 11

Oriane knew about the nightingale. And Andala had been the one to tell her.

She’d answered Oriane’s questions so calmly, as if a tempest of panic hadn’t raged within her from the moment she’d spotted that man in the alley. She could have lied to the skylark, pretended she knew nothing about what he’d said. But for reasons she had no hope of fathoming, she’d told the truth – or part of it, at least.

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