Page 36 of Skysong

‘You don’t have to apologise to me, Oriane. You should have seen it all a long time ago,’ he murmured. ‘I should have showed it to you. I should not have been keeping you here like a prisoner.’127

‘You weren’t,’ Oriane said sharply. ‘That wasnothow I felt about my life here, Father. That wasn’t why I left at all. And it was the king who was holding me prisoner, in the end.’

‘What did he want with you?’ Arthur asked. ‘Do you have any idea of his plans for you?’

Oriane shook her head, thinking back on Tomas’s actions over the past weeks. ‘He seemed to be … waiting for something, I suppose. I don’t know what. I think when I went into the city, he thought I might not come back, and that whatever he’d been waiting for was lost.’

Arthur sighed. ‘It could be that he simply planned to reveal you to the people and be celebrated for it. The king who brought the skylark back into the world.’

Oriane thought on this. ‘Their faces when they saw me transform, heard me sing …’ she began slowly. ‘I think … I think I might be able tohelppeople, with what I do. It doesn’t excuse the king for keeping me there the way he did, but if that was the effect I’d have, out in the world …’ She could not disguise the enthusiasm in her voice.

Arthur must have heard it, because he smiled: a genuine smile, made stronger by the hint of sadness that lay around its edges.

‘You are so like your mother,’ he murmured. ‘Not a day went by that she didn’t wonder whether she was doing the right thing, hiding herself away like this. Not until we knew we would have you, at least. She could not bear the thought of you smothered by strangers who would not let you a moment’s peace. Not without her there to protect you.’

The reminder of Elidia’s story jarred something in the depths of Oriane’s mind.I’mafraidthatwhathetoldyouisnotentirelyaccurate,Terault had said.Theskylarkinquestion–shelived.It had made her wonder if her father had wilfully deceived her. But looking at him now, she could not believe him capable, could not stand that she ever had.128

‘She knew, of course, what had happened to all the skylarks before her,’ Arthur went on. ‘Your mother was prepared to leave this world the moment you entered it.’ He smiled again, and Oriane had never seen a sadder thing. ‘I was in denial, right to the last. I told her she would not get away from me so easily.’

Oriane let out a laugh, or was it a sob?

‘But she was right, as always. And so I kept the promise we made together before you were born. I kept you here, kept you safe.’ Arthur sighed, his eyes a world away. ‘I wonder now whether there could have been another way.’

Oriane moved to kneel beside her father’s chair, grasping the hand that rested on its arm with both of her own. He looked down at her, and through his glasses she could see his eyes had filled once more with tears.

‘I hope I have not done you wrong, Oriane. I hope I have not held you back.’

‘Never,’ she whispered. ‘Never. But perhaps therecanbe another way, Father. At the palace … someone told me a different version of Elidia’s story. One where she lived.’ She drew a breath. ‘Maybe we were wrong. Maybe the skysingers don’t have to stay hidden after all. Maybe … what happened to Mother won’t happen to me.’

Arthur’s brows drew together. ‘Skysingers?’

She told him what she’d heard of the Order of the Sky. ‘They believe there are two birds – two women. A skylark to call the day. And … a nightingale, to call the night.’ There was that feeling again at the thought of the nightingale: a flare in her chest, like a struck match.

‘I’ve never heard anything about a nightingale,’ Arthur said slowly. ‘Your mother never mentioned there being anyone else like her, either. If it’s true, she must not have known.’129

‘Can it reallybetrue, though? Surely we would have heard something about it, surely someone would have found her …?’

Arthur gave her a meaningful look. ‘Had anyone foundyouuntil a few weeks ago?’

He was right. Perhaps the existence of the nightingale was more likely than she had thought.

‘You should seek out this nightingale, Oriane,’ her father said softly, after a beat. ‘If she exists, perhaps she may know more than we do about your kind – your power, your fate. And when I die – and I will die one day, my girl, there’s no use protesting otherwise – when I die, I would hate for you to be alone.’

Oriane could form no response. She had never really considered the certainty of her father’s death – the inevitable fact that he would leave her one day, and that she would spend the rest of her lifetime alone in these woods.

Her parents had believed that they could help her live forever. But what use was a life as lonely as it was long?

She forced herself back to the moment, back to her father. ‘For the meantime,’ she told Arthur firmly, ‘I belong here. With you.’ She paused to take in the sight of him, grey-whiskered and thin. ‘Father, you look …’

‘Old?’

She started to protest that that had not been what she meant, but Arthur chuckled.

‘Iamold, my dear. We were not so young when we had you, your mother and I, and more than twenty years have passed since then. I have lived a good life, though. Two lives, really. One with your mother, and one with you.’ He put a callused hand briefly to Oriane’s cheek. ‘I have treasured both.’130

Oriane swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. He spoke as if he were already dying … It made her feel panicked, as if she were losing him bit by bit, and there was no way for her to stop it.

‘We should leave together,’ she blurted, aching todosomething, to protect him somehow – keeping him safe from the king was somewhere to start. ‘We should get out of here. They’ll be coming after me. I got a head start, but they have our direction from my letters. They will come.’

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