Page 80 of Ash and Feather

“A guest?” I wondered, looking back.

“Two of them.”

I concentrated on trying to feel out their identities. They carried Sun Court energy, I thought.

“Keep your head up,” Mai said under her breath. “Don’t let them get under your skin. I’m sure they’ll try to.”

They emerged from the backdrop of bright sky a minute later—two of the Sun Court Marr, both shifted into beastly forms.

Cepheid, Goddess of Stars, came first. She was in the form of a great stag. I’d never seen her in this shape before, but the patterns on her body gave her identity away—inky black as a night sky with swirls of shifting lights upon it. Each point of hermassive antlers shimmered, too, as though she’d speared stars onto the ends.

The Sky Goddess, Edea, resembled a lankier version of the panther-like shape Valas often took. The coloring of her form made me think of clouds that were edged in gold from hiding the sun. A telltale trail of her cerulean-colored magic followed in her wake.

The two goddesses touched gently onto the ground, their shapes shifting into more humanoid figures as they approached us—though Cepheid retained a smaller version of the stag’s star-tipped antlers, and Edea’s cerulean magic still trailed after her, the shape shimmering as it swished and curled like a cat’s tail.

My mouth had fallen open, I realized. I quickly closed it and tried to avert my eyes. I wanted to appear indifferent, but it was hard not to be overwhelmed by their display of power. Hard not to wonder if I would ever manage to shift and move through the realms as easily they did…

This last part seemed unlikely after a day spent tumbling from the tower behind me, giving everything I had just to keep myself from crashing.

“We’ve come to speak with the ruler of this territory,” said the Star Goddess in her soft but unsettlingly powerful voice. “Where is he?”

“Dravyn isn’t here.” I lifted my chin. “You can speak to me.”

The two Sun Court Marr exchanged a slow, meaningful glance. They spoke to one another in the language of their own court, the words rapid and tense, their gazes occasionally drifting in my direction. They didn’t bother trying to hide their disdain.

Clearly trying to rattle me, as Mai had predicted they would.

I cleared my throat. Loudly. “You can sense the magic of your fellow Marr, can you not?”

They stopped their private conference. The Goddess of Sky gave a single, slight tip of her head.

“But you couldn’t tell Dravyn wasn’t here? You must have felt little difference in my magic and his before you arrived, then. So why treat me differently, now?”

Edea sneered at my challenge before turning away and scanning the palace in the distance, as if she didn’t fully believe Dravyn wasn’t here—as if I might have been hiding him somewhere.

The Star Goddess looked me in the eyes, at least. “A fair point.”

I glared back at her, refusing to back down, even as the silence between us stretched far beyond the point of comfortable.

“Very well,” she finally said. “You can serve as a messenger, I suppose.” Her gaze darted around the space, taking in the few embers still burning here and there. Were those yet more errant bits of my broken wings?

I wondered if Cepheid could sense my failed attempts at flight. Her magic gave her an eerie ability to see past, present, and future; what did she see when she looked at me?

“Tell your God of Fire that our court is not interested in the wars building in the mortal realm,” she said. “We have decided to let fate run its course without any guidance from our hands. Not that he needs us to help with whatever meddling he and the rest of your court intend to do.” She swatted at a floating bit of fire as though it were an annoying fly.

“Clearly, you have all the power you need, anyway,” the Sky Goddess added, nodding toward a cluster of my scattered embers with a smirk. “And it’s perfectly under your control, isn’t it?”

I didn’t reply.

I simply reached out a hand and curled my fingers into a fist. The motion—and the furious power simmering beneath it—brought all of the wayward embers flying back toward me, swirling them into a torch around my clenched fist.

I didn’t try to shape them into wings this time. Instead, I imagined a sharp point. I stretched out my fingertips until the fire stretched with it, creating a flaming blade twice the length of my arm.

I inhaled and exhaled a deliberate breath that brought more fire flickering into the air around me.

Without taking my eyes of the Sun Court goddesses, I twisted my wrist as if rebalancing my sword. The small movements drew the newly-summoned embers in tighter, solidifying and lengthening the flaming weapon.

The Sky Goddess tossed the thick waves of her shining black hair over her shoulder and averted her gaze, pretending to be interested in something in the distance.

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