"I speak for my king," Nicias replied boldly.

Darien laughed a little, finally breaking from formality. "You, Nicias, are the only falcon on this earth who would dare call a cobra your king while standing before the finest of the Empress's Mercy."

"And you, Darien," Nicias said, "are the only falcon on this earth who would be forgiven for treason as many times as you have been."

She gave a little bow. "I am as loyal to my Empress as I should be. Now, to answer your question..." Her eyes, as they lifted to mine, were liquid silver. "The Empress felt a falcon wake."

Nicias argued, "Hai has been awake for months. Why come now?" This time, Lillian laughed, a sound that made Nicias tense. Her voice was soft and musical but cold as she spoke to the man who could have been her prince in another world. "You misunderstand," she said. "It did not matter to the Empress when a mongrel dancer opened her eyes. She was perhaps glad of it, because she favored the cobra child, but that was all, and it did not trouble her when again your Hai fell and reawakened several days ago, save that she felt the harm done to royal blood when you, Nicias, tried to save her.

"What interests ona'la'Cjarsa."

Lillian continued, "is the shift in the magic she felt a day ago. A shift that felt like the birth of a pure-blood falcon."

"Then it isn't me you felt," I said bitterly, starting to turn away. My mother still had not even acknowledged her relationship to me, and I had no desire to speak with the woman who had once been Nicias's lover.

"Isn't it?" Darien whispered. "Hai...shm'Ahnmik'-la'Hai-ra'o'la."

She called me a falcon and her daughter, and those words made me hesitate. "You spin sakkri stronger than most of the Mercy, mindwalk as simply as breathing, and have survived Ecl. Your features betray your cobra blood  -  the black hair and garnet eyes are not of Ahnmik  -  but it is Ahnmik's magic that holds you."

"It is Ahnmik's magic that has always cursed me," I returned. My mother shook her head. She looked at Salem and asked him, "Do you know what my daughter has done for you, cobra?" When Salem did not respond, she asked Nicias,

"Do you, Nicias?"

Nicias turned toward me, but I knew he could not tell what it was he saw. Darien stepped forward and took my hand. "Your magic will never be as powerful as it was when it danced to Anhamirak's flame... when it was sparked by that which you gave to your king." She looked back at Salem and, almost angrily, informed him,

"Would you tear open your soul and give it to another, cobra? That is what my daughter has done for you  -  given to you that which her father gave to her. Anhamirak's magic

-  the magic our poison destroyed in your blood."

Salem's eyes widened. Instinctively, hearing my mother's words, I tried to call upon my own serpent form  -  And found nothing.

I tried to draw across my skin the black scales  -  And found nothing. Desperately, I sought any magic I had left with which to change from this form  -

And screamed as my body tried to return to the broken, battered falcon I had lost when I had fallen from the sky above the white city years before.

Nicias caught me, sheathing his blade to hold me in his arms, his magic reaching out to soothe me.

One last try. I reached this time for the magic that came from Ahnmik. I felt it ripple through me, rubbing against Nicias's power like a cat seeking attention. He jumped, startled, and I pulled back.

He glanced at Lillian, then back at me. "Darien is right. You feel like a pure-blood falcon now."

Lillian smiled a little. "At least I made a lasting impression."

"Like a knife blade," Nicias snapped. Then he dropped his gaze, shaking his head. "You were acting under orders."

"Mostly," Lillian replied. "If it makes you feel better, my interest in you wasn't all feigned."

"That doesn't really help, and it doesn't make me trust you now. Either of you," he added, turning to Darien, "no matter how you might have helped me in the past. You felt a pure-blood falcon wake. Cjarsa felt her wake. Now what do you want with her?" With very few exceptions, a falcon was not allowed to live off the island. Nicias had been granted his pardon because he was Araceli's blood. His parents had sacrificed their magic and their falcon forms to stay here. "What would Cjarsa ask of me?

Will she let me stay?

Did I want her to let me stay?

To see the white city again, to walk through it, not as quemak but with magic as pure as all the rest...

But I still did not have my Demi or falcon form, and even if my magic was untainted now, the rest of my body was not. I was too dark; my father's cobra blood was still too evident.

Still...

"Naturally," Lillian replied, "the Empress wants her own returned."

"No," I whispered. I had never thought I would say that word in this context, but it slipped off my lips. "Wyvern's Court is my home now. I have  -  " I broke off, about to say

I have responsibilities here.

I had worked so hard for the court that leaving would feel like abandoning it. If I disappeared now, without a word to the serpiente, my followers would forever distrust Salem. I needed to stay, at least a little longer.

And then a little longer. I knew how this went. I knew the Cobriana; one did not easily name oneself one of them only to walk away. Even Oliza's abdication had been for her people. If I didn't walk away now, I would never be able to.

"You have...?" my mother asked when I did not finish.

"Never mind."

"Our orders are to bring you to the city," one of the other falcons said. "Why are we even having this discussion?"

Lillian and my mother looked at each other, a meaningful glance that made Lillian sigh and say, "Please come with us willingly."

"May I have time to consider?" I asked, though I did not know why. I had no choices to consider except whether to fight or obey.

"Yes," my mother said, at the same moment that one of the others said, "No."

"Darien," Lillian warned.

"Yes, Lillian?" My mother's voice was falsely sweet.

"Hai," Lillian said, "please come home with us. Your place is on Ahnmik. You have power here, I know, enough that it probably makes the current monarchy nervous. How long do you think they will tolerate you  -  trust you  -  knowing that you once had enough favor to usurp the throne of their beloved  -  "

Suddenly I heard my mother's voice in my mind. I could tell by the way Nicias's gaze instantly turned to Darien that he heard her as well.

Perhaps you would be happiest if you remained in Wyvern's Court, she said. If I knew that for certain, I would have insisted that Cjarsa leave you alone. I believe she would have let me have my way; she wants me by her more than she needs you on the island. But it must be your choice. I have been little enough a part of your life as it is. I should not be the one to decide what you do with it now.

In that moment, it might have been nice if Darien had expressed a bias regarding my decision. It would have been comforting to know she cared, and it would have made choosing easier.

Instead, she turned her attention to Nicias to add,

Even you, Nicias, do not have that right. It is Hai's choice to make. And if she says no?

Nicias asked.

Let her look on the island with eyes not veiled by

Ecl before she decides.

As I did?

he challenged again.

My daughter does not have your naivete, Darien pointed out.

She knows how to use her power perfectly well. No one short of royal blood could use persuasion magics on her without her knowledge, and if they do, you are experienced enough to protect Hai, should you choose to accompany her.

"Darien, if you are plotting with them, at least let us hear it," Lillian said. "I would like to know why we are being punished if the Lady takes us to task for something you've said."

"Have I spoken a word of treason to you?" Darien asked me and Nicias.

"No," I answered, considering her words.

"That's new," Lillian remarked. "Hai, are you coming with us willingly, or do we need to carry you?"

Nicias grasped my hand. "Araceli told me once that if I returned to the island, it would be as her heir. Is that still the case?"

"Of course," Lillian answered.

"If I understand correctly, that gives me authority over everyone but Cjarsa and Araceli themselves. Including you."

Lillian nodded warily. "We will follow our Empress's commands before yours, but yes, even Cjarsa's Mercy would be held to your will unless she said otherwise."

"Then these are my terms. If Hai goes to Ahnmik, I go with her," he said. "Anyone who tries to use magic to manipulate either of us, or who tries to separate us without Hai's consent, I will consider to have acted against me  -  which, according to Ahnmik's laws, gives me every right to execute them. Or at least turn them over to you."

"A'le."

Darien answered. "As you wish, my lord."

Her tone was so careful, so neutral, it betrayed her pleasure. My mother was concerned with assuring my freedom of choice, but she was not nearly as unbiased when it came to my prince.

Chapter 23

I thought about all the times I had seen Nicias on Ahnmik... had seen myself there, though I had never imagined that I could be the woman  -  the pure blood falcon  -  I had often seen by his side. Now I understood.

"Milady." The falcon did not kneel to me, hut he bowed his head, his downcast eyes unable to conceal the terror within. "Please, forgive a foolish man his ill-conceived words."

Not incorrect, simply ill-conceived. If Nicias had not been nearby, his crass comments about quemak falcons would never have elicited any kind of stir.

"Do you apologise to me," I asked, "or to my prince?" Ahnmik's magic would not let him lie, no matter how much the mongrel in question wished it would. The man looked at his prince and cringed. The aona'ra was not in a forgiving mood.

* * *

Perhaps too late, my mind made the crucial connections between the many sakkri I had spun in my life. I knew what would follow if Nicias and I went to Ahnmik now. How many times had I seen it, dreamed it, wished

I could be that woman beside him?

The royal house would welcome us with open arms. Cjarsa would personally greet me. My mother would watch proudly as I took the trials  -  and passed, of course. I would be given a rank, and at last I would be able to begin formal study of the jaes'

Ahnmik magic.

Someone would be able to heal my wings; now that the cobra's taint was gone from me, anyone powerful enough would be able to force-change me and give me back the sky and, with it, everything I had ever wanted. I would dance at the triple arches once again. And Nicias... ah, my prince. He would be beside me. It would bother him at first when people were polite to me only because I had both his favor and Cjarsa's, but I had faced such disdain all my life, and I would convince him to ignore it and let things be. My mother  -  my Empress and I would convince this lovely peregrine to accept many things.

I cringed, and though I wanted Nicias's company very much, I said, "You don't have to do this for me."

"I will return to Wyvern's Court after you make your decision, no matter what you do," Nicias replied. "Ahnmik isn't my world and I don't want it. I just don't trust them to let you decide without coercion. If you want to go alone, that is your choice, but I hope you will let me go with you  -  if only to allow me the comfort of knowing that you are not forced to stay."

What if they try to force you to stay? I asked, keeping the words from the ears and minds of the Empress's Mercy. Cjarsa's orders to Araceli to let me live my own life aren't likely to have changed, he replied.

And if they have, I doubt your mother will fail to move Ecl and Mehay to get her way  -  as always.

As always indeed. But my mother wanted Nicias on the island.

I wanted Nicias on the island, too, but it was a selfish desire. I could not take him without eventually losing him.

In the end, Nicias was the only master of his fate; he would, or would not, go to the white city of his own volition. All I could hope to do was keep him from destroying himself for me.

If I went, I would miss him. I would miss Wyvern's Court, and even the Obsidian guild. I would regret not seeing Sive Shardae grow into the beautiful queen I knew she would become, and I would miss the cobra king to whom I had so recently offered my allegiance.

"Enough," one of the falcons snapped as I hesitated. "There is no room for negotiation. Hai is one of the Lady's subjects, and so is answerable to the Lady's commands."

"As are we all," Darien answered, and everyone knew exactly what she meant. Why? Why did I delay?

This world of snakes and birds was filled with such impossible, contrary fools; they struggled daily against the tides of Fate, even when it would be so much wiser to give in.

They burned with an incredible, desperate passion, which perhaps only Anhamirak's followers could truly comprehend. Certainly there was no equivalent among the longlived shm'Ahnmik. In the white city, there was enough beauty to make the most hardened heart weep. There were music that resonated in the soul and colors that the eye could hardly comprehend. Pure and crystalline and lovely, Ahnmik was clear of the grime and sweat of Wyvern's Court.

Without intending to, I let out a small sound. Nicias put a hand on my arm, but his eyes stayed on the Mercy, as if he was tying to discover what they had done to me.