Heirs of Prophecy - Lisa Smedman [73]
"Goldheart!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
The answer was obvious enough. The tressym was trying to get inside. She stood on her hind legs, wings folded against her back and forepaws scratching at the leaded glass. Over and over she pawed at it, then, when the people inside failed to promptly open the doors, she launched herself onto the rail of the balcony and perched there, wings flapping urgently.
"Gods protect us," Larajin exclaimed. "Let her in, Kremlar, before one of the guard sees her!"
It was Tal, however, who grabbed the key from Kremlar, sprinted for the doors, and opened them. As the tressym leaped down from the rail and padded inside, Kremlar trotted beside her, trying to herd her along by waving his hands in shooing motions.
"Don't let her near the furniture," he said in an anxious voice. "That chair cost me a hundred and twenty ravens."
Seemingly in response, Goldheart paused to knead the carpet. As her long white claws hooked its plush weave, tearing little tufts in the wool, Kremlar made a strangled noise and fluttered his hands more urgently. Goldheart looked up at the dwarf with wide, innocent eyes, then turned her back on him and walked straight up to Larajin and sat at her feet.
Yrrow?
Larajin stared down at the tressym. Was it just her imagination, or had Goldheart just spoken to her? Her ears heard a meow, but her heart heard a word: "Yes?"
A second meow, and again the echo of words in Larajin's mind: "You called for me?"
The air was thick with a flowery scent. Kremlar, who had fallen to his knees to pat the damaged carpet threads back into place, looked up and sniffed.
"That fragrance," he said, brows furrowed with the
concentration of a connoisseur. "Sune's Kisses, if I don't miss my guess."
Larajin heard all of this in a strange echo, as if Krem-lar's voice was coming from the bottom of a deep well. The only thing she heard with clarity was the voice of the tressym, who stood like a soldier at attention, wings neatly folded and forelegs stiff and straight.
"Yes, Lady?" she asked. "How may I be of service?"
This had to be Hanali Celanil's work. Larajin could think of no other reason why the tressym would suddenly develop human speech. She dropped to her knees and mirrored the tressym's pose, leaning forward on her hands.
"Goldheart, I need to find out where Leifander went- can you help?" As she spoke, a part of her mind registered the fact that her throat and mouth were making sounds like the meowing of a cat. Yet she could hear her words- and Goldheart's reply-as plainly as if they were speaking in the common tongue.
"He turned into a birrrrd," Goldheart answered with the faintest of growls. "A strange-smelling bird." A pink tongue darted out to wet thin hps. "He flew away."
"Could you follow him?" Larajin asked.
Goldheart's pupils dilated. "Chase!" she said excitedly. Her claws flexed into the carpet.
"Yes, chase," Larajin said, "but don't hurt him. Just follow-see where he goes, then come and find me, and tell me where he is. Can you do that?"
Larajin had no doubt the tressym could accomplish the task. No matter where Larajin had gone, in the past two tendays, Goldheart had been able to follow her- somehow even managing to include herself in the spell Larajin had cast to transport herself back to Selgaunt. The question really was, would Goldheart do it?
The tressym considered the request, then closed her eyes for an instant. It was the feline equivalent of a smile.
"I'll do it."
She rose, stretched, and rubbed her cheek affectionately against Larajin's arm, then turned and padded out onto the balcony. With a bright flutter of colorful wings, she launched herself into the air and was gone.
Tal, looking down at Larajin, uttered some garbled words. After a moment-when Larajin's ears had stopped tingling-she was able to grasp their meaning.
That creature spoke to you?" he'd asked, a perplexed frown on his face. "What did it say?"
"She's going to follow Leifander and tell me where he's flown to," Larajin explained. "I'm going after him."
Tal's face clouded.