Every year, the week following the Ardin’s Pride festival was one of vacation for all members of the Moriss Tipley Troupe, and, like most of her troupe-mates, Madilaine Savannon had opted to return home for those fifteen days. Although, in actuality, the Savannon clan retained two main properties, in two different cities of Dhanen’Mar, in addition to their many lesser holdings scattered all about the country.
The first lay in Fortunia, the home city of Commerce. Here, the Savannon males, all born to this Patron, more or less ruled the entire city while led by the family patriarch, Lord Eward. Dwelling with them in Fortunia were their wives and children, as well as any number of cousins and other relations who came from their own holdings either to discuss business matters or simply to visit. It was rare for any less than two hundred Savannons to be housed in the city at any given time, with all lodged inside the tall structure of their House known as the Golden Towers.
The Savannon’s second established seat in Dhanen’Mar lay in Kohtala, the home city of Ehle, the Patron of Destiny. It was here the powerful females of the line dwelt, all born to Destiny, and many of them powerful diviners. Their home was a great, towering spire bearing the simple title of the Diviner’s Spindle. Near its summit was a great, open-air balcony, where these women could stand and observe even the farthest reaches of Kohtala. The diviners presided over and protected their city, and the populace loved them for it.
Madi’s parents and brothers resided in Fortunia, but it was here in Kohtala she’d been raised, sent to her great-grandmother, aunts and cousins, once her gift began manifesting strongly enough to make her family suspect she carried the potential of a diviner. From the time she was seven did she dwell and train here, and grow into the woman she’d now become.
Upon her eighteenth birthing-day she had announced her intention to leave Kohtala, to perhaps join a troupe and gain the opportunity to offer her services to those living in all parts of Dhanen’Mar. Her great-grandmother, as well as her favorite aunt, Serena, had enthusiastically approved the idea. Others had not, going so far as to take the matter to Eward in Fortunia. He agreed that a Savannon’s talents were not to be put upon display like some cheap parlor trickery, or for so low a cost as Madi would receive for her services. Almost all of the family shared his view, and the affair grew extremely ugly.
Madi refused to bend on the issue, stating that she felt this was something she was meant to do. Eward countered by threatening her with an exile and disinheritance from the family. Danetria Savannon then made the decision to step in.
Danetria, at the time, had seen one hundred and one birthing-days and was a diviner of unprecedented power; and because of this, she remained the one Savannon even Eward would not tangle with. She was also his grandmother, Madi’s great-grandmother. And after she decreed that Madi be allowed to see out her desire, with no further threats and no recriminations, Eward had finally backed down and sworn to adhere.
Madi had not seen her Uncle Eward since, choosing to spend the sole week a year she had free with her fellow diviners here in Kohtala. The year before, her parents had journeyed from Fortunia to Kohtala to visit with her, but they had not yet appeared this week. Madi was disappointed, but unsurprised. No doubt Eward had by now gotten word of her arrest in Tyrell, and was plotting out ways to deal with her. It was very likely that her parents’ absence was somehow his doing.
She was presently standing on the balcony near to the Spindle’s point, a clear fifteen stories above the ground. It was Thirteenth-day but quickly closing in upon Fourteenth, a shift from Love to Magic. The night air was warm, but carried a strong breeze blowing in from the western coastline, which she could easily make out beneath the waxing white moon. The stars were bright and the sky clear. Staring out across the city, she was pondering the message she’d received from her troupe-master, Moriss Tipley, just a few hours earlier.
Typically, she would be departing from Kohtala in the next day or two, traveling toward whatever city Moriss had decided his performers were to reconvene in. This year, however, it appeared as though she, as well as all her troupe-mates, would be granted an extra week to remain with her family. The reason was due to what had occurred the final night of the Ardin’s Pride festival, both in Tyrell as well as at the Tulan ball.
Reavis had made it from the melee at the Tulan estate relatively unscathed, but a couple of their troupe-mates had not been so lucky. One of their tumblers had broken an ankle while trying to get free of the fight, and one of the musicians an arm.
The situation in Tyrell had been met with even worse results. A dancer had been raped, a flute player beaten so badly he still remained in a comatose state, and a story-teller had been deprived of his very tongue. Stunned at reading this news, Madi could only be thankful none of her troupe had been killed.
In his message, Moriss went on to explain that he was presently en route to Coeo, the home city of Healing, with all injured members of the troupe. It was his hope all would be treated and fully mended, although Madi retained some doubt in regard to the severed tongue. Even Healers had their limits.
But Moriss’s concern for his performers was evident, and Madi was glad they were all in his capable hands, being brought to those with the abilities to help them. He would send another note to confirm, his words had gone on to explain, but if all went well in Coeo, it was his wish for all members to convene upon the First-day of summer’s fourth week. Reading this, Madi quickly realized this would give them only two weeks of travel before needing to appear in Aralexia for the King’s Challenge. Moriss, unlike some other troupe-masters, never allowed them to miss this most popular event; thousands traveled to watch and gamble upon the combat, and this provided a very lucrative opportunity for all of his performers. Madi knew she would be in for another busy week, which would normally suit her just fine—the savagery of the Challenge failed to appeal to her, and she preferred giving readings to watching the matches. This year, however, would be different, and already she was extremely anxious.
She hadn’t been able to divine any explanation for the brutal events that had occurred upon the festival’s final day, events which, she now knew, had claimed a total of nineteen lives, including four Justice officers—three in Tyrell and one at the Tulan ranch—as well as one of the Tulans. Her lack of answers left her frustrated as well as paranoid. In desperation, she’d appealed to her great-grandmother, Danetria, just this morning for help. Danetria had complied and consulted her fortune cards. Her conclusions, to say the least, had been confusing, leading Madi to only more questions.
“I see many elements at work here,” Danetria had murmured, studying the cards. “I see Destiny, and Thieves, Revenge, War and Death. But above all else I see Magic, and I see Chaos.”
Madi fought off a grimace—Chaos, the one element she deemed her enemy, the one with the power to cloud and obscure any divination with its touch. The one she was meant to embrace but instead only ran from. Its very existence haunted her.
“I don’t understand,” she’d said.
“Nor do I,” Danetria admitted, her slight frown almost completely lost within the lines of her ancient face. “But this I can tell you; whatever happened in Tyrell was the result of a great convergence of persons and events. Destiny held the reins, but was infiltrated and corrupted before making its true purpose known. Many paths crossed that were meant to, but other connections were missed, and some made that were unplanned. Whatever Ehle’s ultimate intentions in Tyrell,” she went on worriedly, “they were not fully realized.”
Madi was horrified. “What can we do to correct this?”
Danetria shook her head. “There is nothing. The madness has passed; Destiny is once again in Ehle’s hands.”
“Until Chaos invades it again!” she exclaimed, aghast.
“Not just Chaos, Madi,” Danetria warned, tapping a gnarled finger upon the fortune card dead center of all those spread out before her. “It is Magic lying at the root of this. Chaos was present
, but not the greater cause.”
“How could Magic be responsible? A spell?” she questioned, frowning.
Danetria again studied the cards. “These are too unclear. Run and fetch my fortune ball.”
Madi had leapt to adhere, even while trying to contain her surprise. Typically, once one’s chosen method of divination offered up no more clues, they would not seek further answers from another. It was considered an insult to Ehle, who would allow her diviners to see only what she permitted.
Danetria, however, evidently saw enough in her cards to risk Ehle’s wrath by attempting another reading with a different divining tool. This had Madi making several very rapid conclusions, with the most important of them being that Danetria must have seen something very worrying indeed within her cards. There was simply no other explanation.
Madi sat silently for an interminably long time as her great-grandmother stared into the depths of her glass fortune ball. Unlike with the cards, it was also very clear that whatever Danetria was being shown, it had her extremely concerned. Madi could only hope this was something to be shared, and not a burden her great-grandmother would choose to shoulder alone.
Danetria’s hand was trembling when she finally blinked and sat back, and as she reached rapidly for a silken cloth to throw over the ball, obscuring whatever sights might still remain within its depths. Her breathing was quick and shallow.
Madi remained silent, waiting. Inquiries would do her no good; her great-grandmother would either speak, or wave her from the room. Thankfully, she did not have to wait long for the verdict.
“Listen to me, dear heart,” Danetria said, reaching across the table for Madi’s hand and gripping it tightly.
Madi made her own grip firm as she stared back. “What did you see?” she asked quietly.
“More than I am capable of understanding at this time,” Danetria told her, shaking her head. “But there is something I can be certain of, and it is this; whatever Destiny began in Tyrell, its aims will be fulfilled in Aralexia at the time of the King’s Challenge. And you are a part of it, Madi. Your gifts…they will be needed.”
Madi felt her eyes widen, but her great-grandmother went on before she could speak.
“And this is why I cannot warn you away from Aralexia. For I see a great danger lying in wait for you there; one you will not survive if you do not remain careful, and observant to the signs.”
Swallowing over the sudden dryness in her throat, Madi asked, “What is the danger?”
Danetria was quiet a long moment. Then, looking to her squarely, she said, “You mustn’t read for the king, Madi.”
Standing now upon the Spindle’s balcony, gazing down at the city of Destiny, those words echoed again through her mind, just as they’d been doing all this past day and night.
You mustn’t read for the king, Madi.
A more terrifying statement she could not have imagined.
If King DeSiva requested that she read for him, there would be no way around it. To refuse would mean death. Yet Danetria had warned her that acceptance would also mean death, presumably due to whatever this reading would reveal. A king’s secrets—she wanted none of it, and the very idea made her shudder.
Of course, the most logical counter-step to this quandary was to simply avoid entering into the city of Aralexia, home to the king as well as being the home city of Justice. But the fortune ball had intimated that her presence there could not be avoided, for she was meant to aid those who would be in dire need of her services.
Danetria had had a few more interesting things to say regarding this.
First and foremost, she had instructed Madi to stay near to Oliveah, for apparently she too was somehow embroiled in this matter, and it was she who would in some fashion lay clear Madi’s own path in this.
Suspicious at the mention of Oliveah and her connection to whatever was transpiring, Madi had then mentioned what she’d glimpsed of Taleb, and well as what Sabian Reif had said of him during their brief conversation at Reif Manor.
“That one carries a heavy destiny,” Sabian had said, looking to the man in question. “Born of blood and alive only for the purpose of death.”
Worried, Madi had asked him to explain himself.
“Not this day,” he’d replied. “But my ghosts know things of that one even you would have trouble believing, diviner. Once the time has come and I am needed, you will know where to find me.”
Madi had found the entire conversation chilling, particularly as she’d so far found nothing unfavorable at all about Taleb, discounting her visions which seemed to coincide with Sabian’s warnings. She had been very careful in regard to what she’d said of Taleb when Oliveah had asked her opinion of him later that evening. She’d also measured her words when speaking of Nathon, for he too had produced a glimmer of insight, much less worrying than what she’d seen of Taleb, but no more clear.
Madi’s suspicions regarding the whole affair only proceeded to deepen as her great-grandmother then refused to speak about Taleb at all, saying only that neither Madi nor Oliveah had any reason to fear him, and that he did indeed have a part to play in Destiny’s plans. As did Nathon, evidently, but Danetria would speak nothing further on that either.
Her great-grandmother’s next warning had instructed her to stay alert for any unlikely allies. Namely, Thieves. Madi had accepted this with a shrug and a nod, knowing there’d be plenty of Thieves in Aralexia at the time of the King’s Challenge. She figured she’d probably have her purse cut a few times, but she’d make an effort to be friendly to any and all she encountered.
But it was Danetria’s final words that had perhaps been the most shocking.
“The man you know as Lendiv Vakli,” she’d then said, with utter seriousness. “When next you meet, you must trust to his every word. More lives than yours will depend upon it.”
Madi had been dumbfounded. Another connection to Oliveah—and to Taleb. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it all meant, or where it would lead.
But since her great-grandmother’s mention of Chaos, one further thing had been bothering her, and she now asked if one wearing its Birth medallion could be responsible for this influence of Chaos seen in the cards and fortune ball.
Danetria had shaken her head. “A single Birth medallion would not account for this. The Chaos I sensed is much greater than only that.”
Madi had been somewhat relieved to hear this, as she didn’t want to think the Jennite who’d saved her from assault in her jail cell was at all responsible for what had occurred. Her strange attraction to him—a fact she’d not fully realized until after she’d left him behind at the jail—perplexed her. But not because he was a Jennite, or even because he carried an air of danger about him. It was his Birth medallion she had issue with. Chaos, again, Chaos. It seemed she could never truly escape it. This had been the reason Taleb had ultimately convinced her to keep clear of him at the Tulan ball. She had made the decision then and there to remove Rydin Kale completely from her mind—an effort which had more or less proved successful until that morning.
She’d also now had much more time to ponder on the full events of the week of Ardin’s Pride, and had come to a few interesting conclusions.
The message she’d received in error, for example. Reading it while standing outside her family’s shop, The Seeing Eye, she had smelled smoke. How that message connected directly to the result was still a mystery, but The Seeing Eye had burnt to the ground in the city’s riot. Mercifully, her cousins Mika and Haile had made it from the city unharmed, and were both now in Fortunia with Uncle Eward.
Also interesting was the fact that this message had specifically named two mages, those being Villian and Synna. And while those names had meant nothing to her at the time, Madi now knew them to be the two who’d performed the fire-show at the Tulan ball. Also was the mention of twenty Justice officers meant to be present. Given the fact of the Tulans’ stolen diamond and horses, she h
ad no choice but to presume that this information had been meant for some of the Thieves responsible for the heist.
She wondered if these Thieves, whoever they were, were also planning to be present in Aralexia the final week of summer.
The matter of her arrest continued to plague her as well, simply because she still had absolutely no memory of it. Hearing Reavis’s reiteration of the event, she’d been appalled at herself. Inebriated or not, she simply couldn’t believe she’d behaved in such a manner.
But all of these were now no more than minor concerns. Indeed, her full concentration would be needed to focus on just trying to figure a way of getting herself through the fifteen days of the King’s Challenge alive.
All of this made her very tempted to write a letter to Oliveah; for not only was her friend somehow involved in all of this too, she was also incredibly clever. But Madi was very apprehensive to trust such words to a messenger, or even to a carrier-crow which might be intercepted, so she tried to put the idea out of her mind. In was a slight consolation to know she and Oliveah would have two full weeks to plan once they met back up with their troupe, since they wouldn’t be due in Aralexia until the start of summer’s final week.
Plenty of time, she repeated to herself now, staring down at the city she loved more than any other. Kohtala seemed almost to glow beneath the starlight, the streets quiet and still below. Madi glanced at the moons and abruptly realized it was already past Second-hour. She had been out here upon the balcony for hours.
She turned from the view, intent on making her way inside and to her bed, even while knowing it was unlikely she would find any sleep this night. Sighing, she took two steps but then paused quickly as a slight movement caught her eye.
Her body stilled as her eyes closed in upon the form sitting on the balcony’s ledge. Its shape revealed it to be a bird, but any further details were lost to shadow. Birds were commonly-known harbingers in Dhan’Marian lore, foretelling a wide diversity of events—both well and ill—simply based upon their species and manner. Watching it, Madi was suddenly certain such a harbinger had come to her now.
Soundless, she turned and slowly stepped closer. Could this be the sign she’d been praying for? A clue that would tell her how to handle affairs in Aralexia?
She paused only a few feet from the bird, and as she did so, it suddenly unfurled and began flapping its wings, sending the sound of a rapid fluttering to her ears. Still perched upon the ledge, it screeched.
It was an owl.
Madi stared at it in horror. Of all birds, owls were known as the unluckiest of all omens—for their very presence gave the warning of death.
I am going to die in Aralexia, she just barely had time to think, and then the air suddenly exploded with movement.
Owls, screeching, flapping, and swooping, began appearing from over the balcony’s ledge, spilling into the air all about her. Shrieking, she swung her arms at them as they encircled her, some even nipping at her hair and dress as they dived. There were twenty, fifty, a hundred, unquestionably the largest parliament she had ever seen, and all closing in upon her, their cries and screeches deafening and their bodies blinding her as she tried to push her way clear of them.
A talon struck her face, and immediately she felt blood begin to flow. Another was biting into her finger. She screamed as complete panic took her, and began swinging violently at the creatures, feeling her fists connect with a few of them even as she strove to keep pushing her way toward the doors, her vision dizzy and obscured by so many feathery bodies.
At last she felt her arm strike the door, and her hand scrambled for the handle. Sobbing, she tumbled into the safety of the inner Spindle, slamming the doors closed behind her. Breathing raggedly, her entire body trembling, she turned disbelieving eyes back to the glass windows of the doors, her mind still fighting to accept what had just occurred.
With wide eyes, she saw the balcony was empty.
Chapter 15