Quests Volume Two Read online

  Mostly because as god-given monarch, he didn't have friends or people he could really trust. But he immediately liked both cousins and wanted them in his private council, therefore they were very welcome to stay at the palace with him.

  "He has married Vijay's daughter, Anjali!" Raykim enthused as they recapped the meeting in their room after sunset. "Can you believe she forced her husband to divorce her because he preferred men?"

  "Well, she had obviously had enough of that in Jevina," Keneith commented, amused. "Now don't go around seducing Arquon royalty, will you?"

  "I won't," Raykim promised. And then his wings popped back out and his hair turned blue again, with his pointed ears sticking out. "I guess I'm tired," he said with a sigh. "I'm going to lie down a little..."

  "Sweet dreams," Keneith said.

  He blew out the lamp himself and went to the terrace bathed by moonlight. He stared at the stars, wondering what life would still give him. After twenty-five years with Kristine Clawicon, he sort of missed female company. Maybe he could try to have a relationship with a Human... one that could last, not like the previous ones...

  ***

  Raykim found it funny to play the magician's assistant. He also found some of Arquon's traditions fascinating. Like the fact that the king must cover his face upon leaving the palace. That he was considered a semi-god, but had no real power. That religion was actually stronger than him, and his priests handled everything.

  Of course as court wizard of a kingdom that was mostly at peace, Keneith didn't have much to do. So he entertained the king's guests and family – much like he could have done if they had followed Hinrik's idea of an itinerant circus – with the assistance of his apprentice. Raykim was as good as him with fire balls, and he could make them even while keeping on his mask of humanity.

  The more he kept his wings hidden, the more he got used to his new looks, and the less it drained him. Soon he'd be able to keep the morphed appearance all the time, although he still liked to fly, therefore sometimes at night he sprang out his wings and went for a short stroll in the sky.

  And he could wear Human clothes now, and had the money to buy them. He liked clothes more than Keneith and soon became the most elegant young man of the court.

  Princess Aysha was still at the palace. She was the king's youngest sister and he hadn't found a proper husband for her yet. Her doe eyes never left Raykim when he was in the room, and she often danced for him, the sensual southern dances that involved lots of hip movements and breast-enhancing moves.

  Raykim couldn't keep his eyes off her. Whenever he entered a room, no matter how crowded, he searched for the princess's face. He felt a strange attraction that he couldn't name, and didn't dare express it. But Keneith noticed something.

  "She certainly likes you," Keneith told him as they sat in a corner of the great hall one day.

  "But what about the virginity thing?" Raykim asked, worried. "Or breeding? What if she's another Harsha?"

  "Well, that's on you, Raykim. Do you really like her? Do you want to spend years with her? Or just please her because she asked nicely?"

  "She didn't ask!" Raykim protested.

  "Then she's not another Harsha." Keneith grinned.

  "No, she's prettier." Raykim pondered. "And she can dance better. And..."

  "You really like her. Fine. I will ask Kushan for you," Keneith promised.

  Raykim waited while his cousin spoke to the king. He noticed Aysha stared at him, obviously eagerly awaiting the outcome too. As if she knew they were talking about them. Raykim smiled tentatively at her and she flashed back her dazzling smile. She was very pretty and Raykim wouldn't have minded seeing her naked. He felt confident enough that he wouldn't lose his mask. Or maybe he'd reveal his true looks to her.

  Keneith came back to sit near him.

  "Apparently the princess has already asked her brother if she could have you," he said. "Kushan is very torn, because you are not noble. But at the same time, he doesn't know who to marry her to, so he might make an exception."

  "Do you think it would help if I showed them my wings?" Raykim asked. "I feel like such a pretender to seduce a princess like this!"

  "Not here in the great hall," Keneith replied. "We shall meet them later in the king's chamber, and I will let you improvise. Remember your wings or your pointed ears might repel her instead of attracting her."

  "I know. If she's still willing to sleep with me as myself, I guess I can spend a few years with her, can't I?"

  "I guess she deserves it, yes," Keneith answered with a smile.

  The king's apartment was the most private part of the palace. It opened on the concubines' garden and the queen's room was on the opposite side of the inner courtyard where the king was the only man allowed.

  Keneith and Raykim didn't set foot outside, though. Kushan and Aysha welcomed them on a thick carpet with a low table that held a bowl of fruits and a jug of fruit juice. They made small talk as they tasted a little bit of each as a snack, and then the king cleared his throat.

  "So, it seems that two young people have fallen in love."

  "In lust, more like," Keneith said. Raykim glared at him. "And Raykim is less young than you think."

  "And you are much older than you look," Raykim snapped. "I think it's time we told you who we really are." He stared at Kushan and Aysha who looked puzzled now. "We're both half-bloods, and we're cousins. Keneith is half-Human, but I'm not. I don't have a single drop of Human blood." He looked at Aysha. "Allow me to show you what I really look like," he said, taking off the silken top he was wearing.

  She nodded, eyes wide in wonder. Since he was seated, he leaned forward as his wings spread out until he managed to fold them without hurting himself. His yellow eyes remained on Aysha's face as his skin darkened and his hair resumed its cobalt blue color and his pointed ears peeked out of it.

  She gasped, but she didn't look away. She panted for breath as she took him all in. And then she smiled.

  "Gods, you're beautiful! Are you a semi-god?" she asked.

  "I'm a half-blood," he repeated. "Half-Sila and half-Fajrulo. Have you ever heard of the Magical Races? Or does your religion completely ignore them?"

  "Our religion puts the king in the main god's place," Kushan said, amused. Of course away from his court and with two foreigners and only his sister present, he was well aware of being just another ordinary man. "But we do have semi-gods with animal forms. There's the man with bird wings and eagle head, the woman who turns into a snake, and other creatures that are not completely human... much like you."

  "See how the southern kingdoms are much more civilized than the northern ones?" Raykim told Keneith who chuckled and nodded.

  "But!" Kushan raised his finger. "I have enough dissidents setting up other sects and stealing people from my ranks, therefore I beg you, don't show this face of yours to my court."

  "Of course, your majesty," Raykim answered. "I only wanted your sister to know what she was getting herself into. And also for you to know I might not have Human noble blood, but I am a most powerful half-blood with real magic, including, as you've seen, shape-shifting."

  "And I thank you for letting me learn your secret. So do you wish to marry my sister?"

  Raykim looked Aysha in the eyes. Her big doe eyes stared adoringly back at him.

  "Yes." He nodded slowly. "I do wish to marry her."

  ***

  Keneith was happily surprised to hear Raykim's decision to marry the princess of Arquon. He was about to remind his cousin of their long life spans or the risks of a mixed blood pregnancy, but then he decided to leave him to his obvious happiness.

  If I hadn't been so guarded, so scared of being hurt, I might have had this too, he thought on the wedding day. For the wedding ceremony Raykim wore the usual face everybody saw, but Keneith knew that as soon as he retired with Aysha, she'd deal with his real face.

  He was also amazed at the sight of her love. She genuinely liked his cousin. Raykim had been lucky – o
r maybe just smarter. Although Bellinda had never mentioned marriage, Keneith wondered again if he could have spent more time with her.

  Too late. She lived happily ever after with Hinrik! And maybe I should stop playing the grumpy old man and open up a little. Raykim is right, they are so welcoming here in the south, even if they don't know about the Magical Races...

  And so they spent fifteen years in the palace outside of Zarquon. Aysha had many miscarriages and managed to give birth twice, but neither survived infancy. Obviously interracial breeding wasn't always easy or painless. Keneith wondered if those women seduced by a Fajrulo in Human form actually survived the ordeal and lived to tell the tale.

  Aysha seemed determined to give Raykim a baby. She loved him fiercely and knew he was more long-lived, therefore she wanted him to have someone to remember her by. Raykim returned her love with all his being, like a Sila who had found his destinito, and remained by her side, but she was weakening.

  And when the third and last offspring came out of her womb stillborn, he took her with him. He had small bat-like wings on his back, which might have been too much for his mother. The stillborn baby vanished in a burst of magical flame, making the midwives run away screaming instead of giving Aysha the much needed assistance.

  Raykim had just turned a hundred when Aysha died in his arms, leaving him an inconsolable widower. Suresh had taken his father's throne, married and started his own family. His queen had been pregnant at the same time as Aysha, but while little Kushan and his mother survived, Aysha and her son didn't make it.

  It might have been the mixed blood, the late pregnancy – since Aysha was no longer in her prime – whatever the cause, Raykim didn't blame anyone. Still, Keneith thought it was time to leave Arquon and see if they could find someone else in Akkora.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Raykim lost his smile with the passing of Aysha. He had known all along that she wouldn't live as long as he would, but fifteen years were even less than expected. He didn't curse the Immortals for giving him happiness only for such a short time, though. He simply shut down and became nearly mute.

  He'd lost a piece of himself and would have to learn to live without it. He felt maimed and the "missing limb" was what hurt the most. He guessed he'd learned the true meaning of sorto for the Sila – a suggestion that Air gently put into his mind and that was sort of comforting. His mother had lived many years after losing her destinito, after all.

  Keneith dragged him away from the Arquon palace and they headed for Akkora. Raykim couldn't be bothered to shift shape anymore, although clothes fit better on a Human body, therefore he kept his wings hidden most of the time. He stopped cutting his hair and didn't care if people stared at the unusual blue or the pointed ears.

  He was the quiet shadow of his cousin, having lost all interest in anything and anyone. Keneith suggested he went to the Sila for some time, but he didn't feel like it. He only wanted to mourn his short-lived Human wife and the children that didn't survive.

  Agharek, the capital of Akkora was on a river shore, built in gray and red stone, with black or white marble decorations. It was surrounded by a luxuriant forest on three sides and the river on one side. It had walls mostly to keep the jungle out of its paved streets and neatly trimmed gardens. Its fluvial port connected it to the sea and the town of Akulina in the south, or north to the towns of Lakresha and Leland.

  King Kunal welcomed the cousins to his court and Prince Mansoor soon became very fond of Raykim, who in spite of his subdued feelings, noticed how his sister Neena eyed Keneith. He wondered if she saw Keneith as a father figure or as a man – which meant she liked them much older than her.

  "What do you think of the Akkoran princesses?" Keneith asked him. They shared lodgings again, as they did when they had reached Arquon, or Lakeshi, or Amrendra a lifetime ago. "Anyone that could take Aysha's place?"

  "It's too soon," Raykim answered. "What about you? Will you find someone?"

  "I don't know," Keneith answered. "When you were married and happy, I admit I envied you and thought I should find myself a wife too. But then your heartbreak... I don't think I could handle that."

  "My heart was broken because of my Sila blood," Raykim replied. He flapped his wings to remind his cousin of his other heritage. "You are half-Human. It can't be that bad. I mean, for me it was like losing my destinito, it almost killed me. You don't have that."

  "Oh. I hadn't thought about that," Keneith mused.

  "Because you don't know about Sila things." Raykim smiled ruefully. "Don't be afraid to let your Human blood fall in love."

  Keneith sighed.

  "We're not the same, Keneith," Raykim insisted. "I am weaker for some things. You are older and wiser and... you don't have to be as unlucky as I am."

  "We should have brought Aysha back north. Or maybe to Mount Flora. The Genn would have helped her to live longer," Keneith said.

  "It wasn't meant to be," Raykim replied patiently. He realized they had switched roles now: he was the mature one and Keneith was being childish. He smiled briefly at the thought. So many years to get to this. Him trying to parent his elder cousin. "I'm fine, Keneith, I'll survive. And I'll fall in love again, eventually."

  Keneith nodded and stared at him. He still had black hair and didn't look much older than the day Raykim had met him. Raykim often wondered if he'd ever see him with white hair like Humans.

  "So do you want to stay here for some time?" Keneith asked, looking worried.

  "Yes, I'm sure you can find someone here. Like, what do you think of Princess Neena?"

  Keneith gaped at him.

  "I think she's too young for me," he grumbled at last.

  Raykim chuckled. "Well, she seems smitten. Why don't you ask her if she sees you as a father or as a lover?"

  "We just got here!" Keneith complained. "Give us time, will you?"

  "Are you afraid?" Raykim asked.

  "No, I'm not!"

  "I think you are. Afraid of falling in love."

  This shut Keneith up. Raykim looked outside of the window. There was a starry sky overhead.

  "I'm going to fly a little. Don't worry, I won't end my life."

  He knew Keneith was worried for him. But he needed some time on his own, with Air and the clouds and the stars. The moon smiled at him with Aysha's face.

  ***

  Keneith lay on the bed, awake, waiting for Raykim to come back from his night flight. He remembered how he'd pushed Bellinda to accept she had fallen in love with Hinrik, how she'd been afraid to start a relationship.

  Now it was his turn to be afraid. And someone else pointed out to him that there was someone interested. Raykim had done with him what he'd done with Bellinda eighty years earlier. It had taken him some time to convince Bellinda, but Raykim's new wisdom had really hit him.

  Raykim was right. It was his Sila blood that had been hit so hard by the loss. Keneith had no Sila blood, although sometimes Humans grieved as much as Sila or Genn. Not him, though. He hadn't grieved ever.

  He'd been angry, sad, but never sorrowful. He had preserved himself from some feelings, after struggling with anger in his younger years. But then he'd grown very fond of his cousin, so he could love and commit to someone.

  Raykim had been in his life for eighty years, first as a needful child, then as a horny teenager, finally as a man, a peer, someone he could talk to about anything. Raykim was his cousin, therefore it was more a blood relationship, but he'd been teaching him how to have love relationships in the last few years.

  Maybe it was time he listened to his younger cousin's advice. He'd talk to Neena and ask her about her feelings. He doubted she actually saw him as a lover, since he looked the age of her father, but then... Bellinda was convinced she was too old for Hinrik, so...

  Raykim glided onto the balcony and went to lie on the other bed. Keneith pretended to sleep. He didn't want to resume the conversation just now. Raykim was just a shadow of his former cheerful self, and sometimes his new quiet jarred Ken
eith.

  He was aware Raykim had lost a piece of himself and wished he could give that back to him. But then, like Raykim had said, his cousin needed time. I don't have much time left myself. I'm a hundred and thirty-five, I can't expect to live nine centuries like the Fajrulo. Maybe two, two and a half, if I'm lucky...

  Not that he had a kingdom to rule, and he was well aware of his mixed blood, unlike Queen Amazonia, but still... He drifted off to sleep, thinking about the half-blood that had reigned for two hundred and thirty years before being killed by her people.

  ***

  Raykim just watched. He watched Keneith getting closer to Princess Neena. He watched them fall in love. He attended their wedding, an observer even more silent than Keneith had been at his own. He watched and waited, not bored, not tired, just letting life flow by.

  Neena successfully gave birth to three living children who looked completely Human, and Keneith showed excellent fatherly qualities. Raykim didn't bemoan his lack of Human blood or the fact that his sorto had tied him to a frail Human woman. Air kept whispering promises in his ears, but he barely listened.

  And then ten years were gone, Prince Mansoor became king, his brother Karan was appointed governor of the farthest province, Agharek. Karan and Neena were very close and King Mansoor hoped the presence of Keneith would help Karan in his government.

  Thus, upriver they went, two families with Raykim in tow, to Leland, a town so close to Mount Flora that Raykim decided it was time he visited the Genn living in its bowels. There might even be a Sila nest at the top, and he sort of missed company who could fly.

  As soon as he saw that Keneith was all set in Leland, he bid him good-bye and flew to Mount Flora. He found an opening, like the mouth of an extinct volcano, and glided into a city built in a huge cave. The square buildings were neatly stashed in one side of the cavern and it almost felt like a narrow valley because of the big opening above.