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Chapter Seven: Cloud Silk and a Kitten
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2021-08-03 10:27:56Miasma could not stop talking. Ilyria laughed to see her so animated and lively when she had only known her as sweet, sleepy, charo-loving Miasma. Now she was buzzing with talk of the trinkets and gadgets she planned to buy. She held onto Ilyria’s arm as they walked, her other arm looped through Flame’s, a girl with coppery hair and skin pale as goat’s milk. She wore a gold and silver striped mask, like a tiger. Ilyria thought their names were a little obvious, but she could see how they were easy for the clients to remember. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing the three other market goers and behind them, Bonbon and their guardian.
Ilyria caught her breath.
It was just a moment, but something about it caught Ilyria’s attention and with her attention came that slowing in which she could conjure the glamour. Now though, she had no need of a glamour, only a closer understanding. And it came more quickly perhaps because once you saw it, it was obvious.
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Ilyria felt as though she had been waiting for this moment all her life. Her eyes locked onto his and she stepped forward. The Lightning Bird folded her toward him, his arms strong and steady. She felt the heat of his body and his fragrant breath on her face, “Don’t be afraid, Ilyria,” he whispered to her as her body become light and they left the ground. Her eyes never left his. She heard the powerful whoosh of his wings as they rose high up into the night air until they were enshrouded in the chill damp of the clouds. Only then did she look down below her to where Idixat was only a place of scattered lights in the vast indigo velvet of the desert. She felt unafraid, even when he wrapped his legs around hers and changed their position, holding her close to him in a lover’s embrace as he flew them both away. Ilyria believed she must have fallen asleep in the arms of the Lightning Bird as they crossed the night sky, as improbable as that seemed. Yet she woke in the warmth of
Last Updated : 2021-08-05Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Nine: A Voiceless Song
Dirk looked directly at Ilyria. She reached again for the sensation of flickering shadows as she had done all those nights ago, desperately searching for the glamour that would conceal her but feeling it slip away from her like sand. He saw her, there was no doubt. His eyes widened and his lips parted to call out to his henchmen, but something seemed not quite right. Slow. It was all too slow. Her own movements felt trapped in thick honey, each breath came and went as measured and inexorable as the tides of the desert. Her panic, her terror of moments before felt as far as the moons. She tore her eyes away from Dirk and saw that Madame Skia had pushed herself up on one elbow. She had raised up her face to the sky and her usual thick mask of make-up wavered like a thin veil over her face. Through the veil, Ilyria saw a face of such heartrending beauty she thought it would forever be seared into her memory. Madame Skia’s mouth was open as she sang without voice.
Last Updated : 2021-08-07Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Ten: Not Justice
Thassa and Ilyria followed Madame Skia to her office. This time Ilyria looked carefully for even one clue to Madame Skia’s identity. Madame Skia, like Thassa, had a story and Ilyria was more than curious. Her life may depend on her understanding. Thassa was the last to enter, he closed the door behind him. Light and air streamed through the upper vents in the room and there was a feeling of pervasive calm that was not charo-induced. Ilyria took a breath. “You said I might be able to help? What do you mean? Help with what?” Madame Skia sat at her desk, her hands fluttering. Her fingers were pale and soft. Yet Ilyria was certain she had large, calloused hands with long red nails. Ilyria had the dizzying impression of seeing two things at once. Perhaps the clue to who Madame Skia was, was not in her office, but in the odd feeling that Ilyria had that whatever she thought she was looking at, it was not the real Madame Skia. “First
Last Updated : 2021-08-09Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Eleven: A Dance for the Princess
Ilyria and Thassa entered the palace through an unobtrusive gate further along from the palace gates. The guards there lowered their swords as soon as they saw Thassa, nodding their heads in deference. It was the first time she understood that Thassa was much more than Bonbon’s lover or Madame Skia’s unofficial security. Thassa carried real authority within the walls of the palace. She followed him into the first courtyard of the palace, looking around her at the bustle of activities taking place, relieved to be distracted from the horrors of the execution she had just witnessed. Here, people moved with purpose that felt joyful. They balanced trays overflowing with fruits on their heads; or aired bedding so overstuffed that feathers floated up into the air with each flap; or chased a small dog running off with a bone still dripping with gravy; or stole kisses in doorways; or sharpened kitchen knives while eying the kiss-stealers. She had to smile at the abundant life of it a
Last Updated : 2021-08-10Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Twelve: Enchantments and a Kiss
Ilyria lay sprawled against the tiles, frozen with shock. The enchantment which had sprung up around her when she first took the Princess’s hand had fallen away but her body shivered as if it were still in that cavernous space with the Princess and the eyeless man. The music had stopped, the flautist paused with the flute a breath away from his lips, his eyes on Ilyria. His tranquil absorption had been replaced by a greedy attentiveness. He lifted his arms and Ilyria saw he wore chains on his wrists. These he rattled as he opened his mouth wide to reveal the tongueless space within. The cry that emerged was that of a wretched half-creature, a bleating, savage sound that echoed within the walls of the Princess’s chamber. Ilyria expected the guardians to rush into the room. Then she remembered that they were forbidden from entering. Instead, she felt hands at once soft and strong dig into her shoulders and haul her up from the floor. The ascetic’s face w
Last Updated : 2021-08-12Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Thirteen: An Unlikely Ally
It was a moment without breath or movement except for the beating of their hearts and the soft strokes of the dress as it wound itself around Ilyria and Astrapi. The light from Astrapi’s wings glowed luminescent around them. Ilyria surrendered to the warmth of Astrapi’s mouth, to the ripple of muscles beneath his skin and the way her own skin sparked with sensation. He was just a boy and she a girl and if he had asked her then to stay with him, Ilyria would have answered yes with everything she had in her. But he didn’t and slowly awareness returned to Ilyria that they were not alone and not safe. She pulled away and Astrapi released her from his arms. His own eyes seemed to echo her own need. They stared at each other for a long moment, neither seemingly knowing where to begin. A clatter jarred them from their reverie. “The merchants,” said Ilyria. Astrapi dropped his wings and they stood surveying the scene. It was still much as they had lef
Last Updated : 2021-08-16Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Fourteen: Boots
Thassa was waiting for her outside the palace gate, as the ascetic had said. When he saw her, he seemed to sag with relief. Then he removed his hooded cloak and placed it around her shoulders. Ilyria had felt dress tiring. Now it was little more than fading rags. She wondered if it might revive with a wash and thought that perhaps with magic cloud silks, anything was possible. “Thank you,” she said, feeling terrible for him as he stood there, his scarring exposed. But neither did she look forward to walking through the streets of Idixat with her tired dress falling off her body. Even with Thassa at her side. “You have managed more than we could ever have hoped, Ilyria,” he said, “allow me to get you back to Madame Skia’s house safely.” “But I didn’t,” said Ilyria, “The Princess is enchanted.” “Yes,” said Thassa, “But you saw her. Which no one else has done in many months. Don’t talk now, we will speak with Madame Skia shortly.” Madame Skia was
Last Updated : 2021-08-17Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Fifteen: Between
Ilyria looked closer at the shimmering feather in Thassa’s hand. It was at once like water and like mist, pale and dark. She felt that if she looked at it long enough, it could transport her away, perhaps even to Zarmej. When she looked up, Thassa was watching her. “It is from the Lightning Bird,” he said, confirming her fear. “But you said it was from Vatra,” said Ilyria. He had made a mistake, surely? “The place of fire, Vatra, it is the home of the Lightning Bird.” “No,” she said. After all, she had seen his aerie, across the desert sands, a place of clouds and silence. Not fire. “That cannot be.” “Whatever you have seen, Ilyria, it was what he—it—wants you to see. The Lightning Bird cannot stay long here. Whenever it retreats, it is to Vatra. That is where the companions are. I am sure of it.” Ilyria grasped for a meaning but all that she could come up with was what she knew Thassa was thinking—the Lightning Bird had had a
Last Updated : 2021-08-18
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Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Seven: One World
Ilyria woke to the smell of warm bread and blossoming plants, and another damp salty smell she could not recognize. She sighed and turned over. Her eyes flickered half-open as she felt Suluu’s warm body lying on his back next to her. Her hand lazily traced the contours of his smooth chest, delighting in the way his skin puckered beneath her fingers. He turned to look at her, his lips parted in a smile and his eyes hooded with his desire. “Hello,” he murmured, pulling her toward him, “You’re awake.” “I am,” she said, tracing her fingers over his lips. Then her stomach rumbled noisily, “and I am so, so, so, so hungry!” She sat up trying to recall when last she had eaten and suddenly a rush of images flooded over her. She sank her face into her hands. Astrapi, impaled. The Princess and Zlo’s blood dripping from the spines of The Shackled One. Madame Skia’s wounded body lying shrouded by the shimmering moon dust. The monster’s final moments. She looked up
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Six: Freedom
The monster reached out a nightmarish tendril, twisted and hard and riddled with fungus. The tendril scratched Ilyria under the chin as an overly familiar uncle might and she gagged on the smell of rotten animal flesh. “You don’t look like him at all,” said The Shackled One, “Lucky for you. We hated him for what he did to us.” “Us? There is more than one of you?” “Us,” said The Shackled One, and dark spikes shot out from its body, impaling the Princess and Zlo. A spike missed the Mogul only because Loulou had pushed him out of the way. They stood open-mouthed with dread and fear as the Princess and Zlo twisted and writhed on the spikes, howling in agony, their blood dripping to the ground beneath them. Thassa ran to the frozen pair and pulled them away. Think, Ilyria, what does it want? came Madame Skia’s question. Ilyria tried not to hear the howls of the Princess and her son. She looked around for Madame Skia the darkness was so com
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Five: The Shackled One
They all heard it making its way. The ground rumbled with its passage as the Sister Moon shone down with relentless brightness, Brother Moon no longer able to temper her cold light. And Ilyria saw her own fear reflected in the faces of her friends. Even the sirens cowered, and Madame Skia looked uncertain which was maybe the most terrifying thing of all. What could be worse than Zlo? Ilyria knew. It was the thing that Zlo feared. The thing that lived deep within his own dark tower. She looked at the Princess. The Princess knew too. Her face had turned so pale, it seemed to reflect that horrifying moonlight. Suddenly the Princess reached out one hand and the crowd of sirens parted around her as if she had sliced through them. She curled her fingers, and the Mogul was dragged through the mud toward her. He twisted and turned reaching out for Loulou. Loulou, her cheeks flushed, tried to follow but the Princess flung her away with a flick of the other hand. She lifted her summon
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Four: A Reckoning
Then the air was torn apart by a woman’s scream. It was filled with such rage that every one of them who heard it fell to their knees with their hands over their ears, desperate for it to stop. Zlo alone stood, his head bowed as the Princess appeared beside him. She was beautiful and terrifying in her anger. She appeared to float off the floor, her white robes billowing around her, her long, burnished hair streaming as though she were the wind itself. Behind her stood Nicos, his expression glazed. His hands hung at his sides. He appeared to see and hear nothing. “Fool,” said the Princess to Zlo, “I did everything to help you. I sent him away,” she tilted her head toward the Mogul, “I distracted the brothers and the stupid girl-child Magoses with their little quest. I sowed division and strife. I ensured the Laws were broken. All you had to do was make sure they,” here she swept her arm around to indicate Astrapi, the companions, Thassa, Miasma and Ilyria, “were all h
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Three: Moon Dust
Ilyria could not have said exactly when she had understood the truth of the relics. Had it begun when she realized that the map to the Lost Cities was really the knowledge of one man, Nicos? Or when Astrapi’s breath activated the perfect chord on the gold harmonicus. Could it even have been Zlo who pulled the scant threads of ideas together for her when he pointed to Fierce as a Nemachi device. Ilyria knew Fierce was a living, breathing creature. Had Zlo missed something? Having forfeited so much of his humanity for power, he no longer understood the value of that humanity. Now, as she watched Thassa’s slow, reluctant appraoch, felt his sorrow as he dug in his pocket and brought out the necklace to place it on the altar, saw his dejection as he walked past her back to where Bonbon waited, she wanted to yell out her understanding. She wanted to scream at Thassa that the necklace did not matter. Only his memory of it was worth anything. The things that bind us to
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-Two: True Relics
Astrapi fell, Bonbon fell. Sidian, Flame and Loulou, they all fell. But it was not with the bone-rending shatter that Ilyria, Miasma and Thassa anticipated. Thassa, with his arms outstretched was surprised to find them filled with soft, warm, living, breathing Bonbon. Ilyria cried out as Astrapi landed with the thud and slap of flesh hitting floor. Likewise, the other companions, released from their marble prisons, fell to the rumbling, caving floor with cries of surprise and pain. Except for Bonbon whose tears were of joy to be in her lover’s arms. Ilyria had no time to feel bad about her inaction for the white roof and shattered walls of the reception chamber fell away as easily as if the marble had no more substance than eggshell. The smell of the garden filled the space but instead of the intoxicating perfume of earlier, it smelled as over-sweet and rotten, like over-ripe fruit. She held her hand up to her nose. The marble floor beneath their feet dissolved into the dark
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy-One: An Old Friend
Ilyria kept her eyes on Astrapi even as she felt Zlo feeding off her pain. Her limbs grew numb and heavy as Zlo drew all that heartache from her. Ilyria willed Astrapi to open his eyes. Just show me you are alive, she thought, If I know you are alive, then I can do anything, I can … A soft hand on her arm and she groped blindly for Miasma. Miasma took her hand and stood on her one side and as she did so, Thassa took her hand on the other. She was not alone. Somehow, miraculously, she was not alone. She felt the blood return to her limbs and they tingled almost painfully with the returning pain. She would claim it back from Zlo. It was not his to steal. A rumble and the marble walls and floor shook. The three stood firm. “Look,” whispered Miasma, “They are all here.” Ilyria tore her eyes from Astrapi and looked around them. On the walls were each of her friends. Captured in attitudes of struggle, their faces bore the signs of their to
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Seventy: Early
Ilyria, Miasma and Thassa paused at the iron and gold gates. The Gates of Perception they were called. Ilyria had never been this close to them. As a child she had been told they were enchanted. Any person wishing to see the Mogul had to pass the test of the Gates of Perception. Those who did not come with noble intentions would be incinerated as they passed through. Perhaps that was why the three hesitated. The heavy iron had been wrought with gold into the history of the Moguls of Idixat. There was the first with his high, noble brow, hands aloft, providing benediction for the new city. There was his successor, the same noble brow, bending to drink the water from the underground river on which the city relied. There was his successor’s successor, digging the first spadeful of dirt for the city’s ramparts. And so on. Each Mogul’s face was rendered in gold, his body in iron. The arid land in iron, the city he drew from its earth in gold. It was a study of how a man was made
Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Palace
A woman at the back of the procession gave a long guttural howl. Every hair on Ilyria’s body stood on end. “Use the glamour,” said Miasma, “Help me, use the glamour.” “And do what?" said Ilyria, "Where do we even go?” Aerie? No then they would be too far away. They had to be in the Palace. Palace? What part of the Palace? The Princess’s chambers? The Princess’s garden? She felt for the token in her pocket already knowing it wasn’t there and that she wouldn’t use it even if she had it. The Princess, she decided, could not be trusted. Vatra? Yakip?No. They had to be here. “Make a run for it,” said Thassa, readying himself as if to do just that. The procession moved with purpose now, bearing down on them. Their fac
