A Whisper of Wings (23 page)

“No one comes out here - only Shadarii and I. Shadarii is just down there, along the stream. I found her crying by the water. She’s heartbroken; even the pool spirits were weeping with her.” The grave grey eyes looked up at Kotaru. The girl finally huffed in impatience.

“Well? Are you just going to sit there all day not talking? It’s really very rude you know, even if you did rescue me. Shadarii says we should always be polite. She’s even polite to spiders, though I really don’t know why. You were terribly brave to rescue me! I should hope we could be friends.”

A tear slid slowly down Kotaru’s cheek. Kïtashii looked away as he wiped his eyes.

“You can’t be in love like that, you know. It really isn’t done. She’s spent weeks dreaming about you! Poor girl’s gone quite off her head. Now the two of you are crying in the woods.” Kïtashii propped her cheek upon her hand, lecturing to no one in particular. “I say, is this supposed to happen? It seems a very wretched business if it is! I don’t think I shall fall in love at all.”

Kotaru hung his head, and the little girl gave an impatient sigh.

“I suppose I shall have to wring it out of you! What did you do to make Shadarii cry? We can’t have you both weeping. The ground is quite damp enough as it is. Come along, speak up!”

The hunter looked at the little girl with awful, empty eyes.

“We-we met… I tried to tell her how I feel about her. All of a sudden everything went wrong! I-I don’t know what I did! I-I only wanted just to talk. I’d dreamed about our kiss for oh so long! All I did was beg to hear her voice…”

“I hurt! M’ heart feels like it bleeds. I canna’ eat, I canna’ sleep, all for the want of her! I don’t know what I’ve done! To think that I might have-have hurt her…!”

“Yes, Shadarii told me the very same.” The girl sighed resignedly. “Ah well, you’ll just have to stay in love with one another I suppose. I really can’t see any way of saving either of you now.” Kïtashii frowned and propped her chin in her hand. “I was once told that there is a great art to catching a precious bird. If one fails to grasp it hard enough, it will fly off and escape you. If you clutch too hard you will choke the poor wee creature.” She shot a sidewise glance at Kotaru. “One wonders whether you both snatched this thing too hard. All these tears and sighs, all this misery… Kotaru, do you even know anything about Shadarii?”

“I…” Kotaru hung his head. “No, nothin’ at all - exceptin’ she saved me. And… and that there’s something sad inside her. Something I’d give anything to heal.”

“You really ought to become friends if you ever hope to be lovers. You must learn to listen, Kotaru. Not everybody speaks the way that you and I do. Sometimes Shadarii’s way seems to say much more than words.”

“Oh my…! I-I’m not sure that I ever even gave the lass the chance.” He clutched his hand across his eyes. “Oh Wind forgive me! I’m a fool…”

“As to that, I surely wouldn’t dare to judge.” Kïtashii’s tone indicated otherwise. “In any case, I owe you a great debt for rescuing me. I shall try to set you both on the right path since I suspect that you really do care for her.”

“I care! Oh Rain how I care!”

“I know you do, otherwise I would not let you see her. But mark my words Kotaru! If you cannot face a voiceless woman - if you cannot respect her just because she’s different, then turn your back and go your way! If you hurt her, I shall tell Zhukora you were in the raid on the village! I recognise your Prince Tekï’taa as well. I should not like to be in your moccasins if she found out, so keep well away from her!” She looked up into Kotaru’s yearning, shame-filled face. “Oh get away with you! Stop looking at me with those bloody awful eyes. She’s downstream at the little waterfall. Go and talk to her, and for Rain’s sake don’t make more of a skreg of yourself than you have to!”

Kotaru shot off into the bushes as though a snake hung on his tail. Kïtashii watched him blunder through the trees and shook her head. With a snort of derision the little girl spread out her fine quicksilver wings and drifted off into the fog.

Shadarii sat amongst the rocks and wept, letting her tears stream down into the stream. Cry as she might, the pain stayed with her. Why? Oh why had she been such a fool? She didn’t even know him. She had built a whole fantasy romance on nothing! There was no way to tell him how she felt; no way to ask him the questions that she burned to know.

If I had a voice… I could make him love me if I only had a voice!

Shadarii croaked and tore at her throat, hating herself, loathing the world that had forced her to live without words to speak and songs to sing.

The girl’s head shot up as she saw Kotaru facing her across the stream. Shadarii stumbled back, and tried to flee into the bushes.

He caught her as she tried to scrabble up the slippery rocks. Suddenly her spirit seemed to leave her; Shadarii folded up into a little ball and wept, her orange wings trailing brokenly beside her. Kotaru hung his head in shame. He knelt beside her in the moss with his face bowed towards the ground.

“I’m sorry. Oh Rain I’m just so sorry. I’ve no excuse to offer you. I’ve done the one thing I prayed I’d never do.” Kotaru stared down at the dirt. “My Lady, I know I presume far too much, but if-if you can forgive a fool, I’d be grateful for a second chance. I never meant to hurt you.” Kotaru swallowed hard. “I’m an idiot, and I’m in agony, and I’m so desperately in love! Please, please just let me be near. Just let me stay, I beg you!”

Shadarii made no attempt to move; her fur trembled as she wept. Kotaru fearfully sat beside her, his hands shaking in his lap.

“Kïtashii says that you can speak in your own fine way, if someone will only take the time to listen.

“I’m listening, lady. Please, I want to understand. If you’d do me the honour of being my friend, t’would be more than a mere fool has the right to ask.”

Shadarii slowly uncurled, peering out bit by bit from beneath her mop of hair. Slowly she sat up, scrubbing at her puffy eyes, then made a few weary motions with her hands.

Kotaru watched Shadarii’s posture, his antennae rising up in wonder. She moulded the ïsha all around her with an awesome, unconscious power. Her every mood, her every feeling were spread out across the aura all around her. She hung her head and tried to wave the man away.

<>

“Shadarii… I-I don’t pity you, but I need to understand you! Please let me listen. I’m here for you if only you’d lift up your face and see.”

She made a few curt signs with her free hand. Kotaru kept his mind open, waiting until she had finished before putting a meaning to the whole.

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“I want no one else. No woman has ever caught my heart before, and no other ever shall.”

She stared at him in disbelief, her breast heaving.

<>

Kotaru looked into her eyes and tried to speak his heart.

“Oh my lady, I know so much already. I know that you are kind, for you helped me when my hope was gone. I know you are brave, for you risked yourself to save me. I know that you are clever, for I have see the beauty of thy art. You stole my heart away with but a kiss, and now I’m lost without thee.”

Shadarii ran an adoring hand across his face. She wept, her whole face wracked with shame.

<> Shadarii sobbed in agony. <>

“All I know is that I will try to make you happy. I’m brave enough to take the risk if you’ll but take it with me.”

He took her face into his hands and slowly brushed the tears away. She closed her eyes, feeling dizzy at Kotaru’s touch. Despite herself she felt her body move up against him, and he wound his arms about her, cradling her quietly against his warmth. The girl began to feel her trembling slowly cease.

Her beautiful, tear-stained face peered up at her man in wonder. Shadarii looked up into Kotaru’s eyes and gently touched her heart, her lips, his mouth.

<>

Shadarii’s wings began to droop; her breathing gradually slowed and deepened as her lashes closed. Comfort was an utterly seductive drug. Safe in Kotaru’s arms, Shadarii simply closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Kotaru sat back in the sunshine and held Shadarii in his arms. Slowly he began to nod, his eyes drooping as sleep rose up to claim him.

***

Zhukora drank her tea with pure delight, savouring every precious scalding drop. Her body seemed more alive than it had ever been before. The whole world seemed crisp and new as she looked down across the village rooves.

Daimïru sat quietly beside the teapot, stirring in a spoonful of dried leaves. Her long blonde hair glittered in the sunlight, making Zhukora’s heart feel strangely warm. Zhukora broke a seed loaf in two and offered the larger piece to her devoted friend.

They ate their frugal meal together, enjoying the feel of sun across their fur. Finally Daimïru sat back and brushed the crumbs from her thighs.

“The village seems quiet this morning. Last night’s revelries have left the people tired. I’ve sent hunters to gather food to feed those villagers who hunger.”

“Good. You have done well, my love.” Zhukora smiled and swirled her teacup. “Is there any news to report?”

”The dancing girl Javïra spent the night with Tekï’taa. The Priests are attempting to gather yet more power. Other than that, all is quiet.”

Zhukora nodded, losing herself again inside the caress of a perfect cup of tea. She breathed a great sigh of anticipation and looked over at her friend.

“The priests are no stumbling block. I have a tool to deal with them when the time is right.” Zhukora’s tea had been fresh picked from high mountain streams that only she and Daimïru knew; it sang across Zhukora’s palette like a lover’s sigh. “The games begin in three short hours, Daimïru! Great things are finally afoot. Soon the flightpath to the future shall be ours!”

“The team will be ready. We match against the Sword-Tail’s ‘Rainbow Gleams’ at midday. And tomorrow - the ‘Orchids’.”

“Yes… The Orchids. Finally we can clear the first obstacle from our path.” Zhukora smoothed the white fur across her chest. “We shall win, Daimïru. We shall take the tribal title, and then we shall face the Vakïdurii team in battle. With their defeat we shall become heroes!” The huntress’ blue eyes gleamed with predatory lust. “The Wrens shall rue the day they were mad enough to come near our clutches! Finally Katakanii honour shall be avenged!”

Daimïru blinked.

“You-you suspect that the Vakïdurii were the ones behind the raid?”

“Oh yes, I know it’s them. Our vile King may sit and swap pleasantries with their ambassador, but I still remember the day our goods were stolen from us. I remember the day my Father trampled our pride in the dust!”

“Then we should strike! Drag them up before the clans and have them slain!”

“Patience my love! Patience. We shall make them pay upon the field.” The girl’s fangs gleamed like ice. “Oh yes… We shall make them pay in blood…”

The mood passed; there was tea to drink and another day to share. Theirs was a friendship strengthened over many precious years. The wind stirred, mingling black and blonde hair together in a single fragrant stream. Zhukora stared across the village towards a distant future.

“It will be a strange life for us now, my love. There shall be no more dawn hunts together. No more wild flights along the winding river. We shall have to travel from clan to clan, even tribe to tribe, keeping The Dream blazing in their hearts. We shall have to become people of the race, not of the clan. The lazy days of forest life are gone…” Zhukora sighed. “I can’t see that we’ll have time for jiteng anymore. But still, we’ll see the stars together as we camp out beneath the sky. I think we shall still find beauty in our lives.”

“A fine wind and my companion by my side. A vision to follow and a cause to serve. What more can I ask for? What could make me richer?” Daimïru drew a breath and let Zhukora’s strength flow through her. Finally she put aside her teacup and prepared to leave the lodge.