City of Fire (City Trilogy (Mass Market)) (5 page)

“Did your griffin cause accidents like mine?” she asked, hoping to find some defense for the scolding she knew her mother would give her later.

The prince regarded her as kindly as if she were his granddaughter. “Well, my fellow was rather excitable so it could get quite messy sometimes. I think there were always some of my clothes drying on a clothesline every day. Lucky for me”—he smiled—”my father said a griffin was the best way to learn responsibility.” He added, “But it took me a while.”

Lady Sudarshane closed her eyes as if she had a headache. “Please, Your Highness,” she begged. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Now, now.” Prince Etre chuckled. “Where would we be without our furry, feathered friends, eh?”

The cricket suddenly flung itself free from Prince Etre, but Kles twisted his head away from Scirye’s restraining hand and darted his beak forward to snag the insect adroitly. “Mine!” he said as he happily crunched it.

“Goal!” Prince Etre cheered. “You can be my Number One whenever we play air polo.” The Number One was the main offensive player on a polo team.

Kles clacked his beak to show his pleasure. “I’d be honored, Your Highness.”

Prince Etre never did anything by halves, especially when he was enjoying himself. Flinging off his cap, he declared, “This is the most fun I’ve had since I became Consul.” He winked at Lady Sudarshane. “And I was so afraid that I’d be stuck at another stuffy ceremony.”

“I’m glad Your Highness is so … um… open-minded,” Lady Sudarshane said with her usual delicacy.

“Well, mustn’t loaf on the sidelines while the first chukker’s still going on.” Despite his rheumatism, the prince got on all fours and then, laughing like a small boy, he joined the others scrambling around the room.

Lady Sudarshane rounded on her heel and stared down at her daughter and the griffin. “I don’t want either of you moving from this spot. Do you understand me?” she demanded.

Scirye and Kles nodded, uneasily contemplating their future. Prince Etre might have forgiven them but Scirye’s mother was another matter.

“And, young lady,” Lady Sudarshane warned, “we are going to have a good long talk later. A long, long talk.” Then, hitching up her costume, she got down on her knees, and with as much dignity as she could muster, she crawled after the Consul.

Leech

As soon as the museum’s doors swung open, Primo and the boys surged into the museum with the rest of the crowd as a film crew recorded their entrance. In his short, hard life, Leech had never been part of an event as big as this and it was strange to share the same excitement with so many people. In fact, he had never had much in common with anyone except his buddy, Koko.

Light fell through the huge stained-glass panels in the ceiling, coloring the marble tiles of the lobby floor. Leech always enjoyed that initial moment when he first went into the museum. On the outside, the building seemed as massive and strong as a fortress, but inside it was so elegant.

On previous visits, they had always gone to the Chinese gallery
first, and Leech slowed, looking forward to going inside but also dreading it.

He was surprised when Primo headed in a different direction, following the signs and banners to the Kushan exhibit instead. “Don’t fall behind, boys,” the man ordered.

Koko deliberately settled into a stroll as he pulled out a silk handkerchief that he had found or stolen long ago. Always fastidious, he licked a corner of the handkerchief and rubbed at a spot on his shirt. “What’s the rush?” he muttered to the smaller boy.

Lately, if Primo wanted to do one thing, then Koko insisted on doing the opposite. It was getting hard to please both.

“It wouldn’t hurt to humor Primo,” Leech coaxed, deliberately picking up his own pace.

With a skip, Koko caught up with Leech. “Why do you keep doing what he wants? He’s not our boss.”

“He’s our friend,” Leech said. “After all, he rescued us from Big Hat and his gang.” Six months ago, Koko and Leech had been cornered in an alley when Primo had appeared. Though the odds had been six to one, Primo had been a whirlwind, knocking the gang members to the ground. That act alone would have been enough to earn Leech’s undying loyalty because up until then the only one who had been kind to him had been Koko.

However, from the first moment that Leech had seen Primo, the boy felt as if there was an even greater bond between them than friendship. When Leech had tried to talk about that feeling to Koko later in private, his friend had become jealous so Leech had never brought it up again. But it still puzzled him.

“So let’s give a thank-you card and go our own way,” Koko grumbled.

“And he’s teaching us how to fight,” Leech said.

“Okay,” Koko admitted, starting to drag his feet again, “but we’re just using the mug. We’re not buddy-buddies. Not like you and me,
right?” Koko had made it clear to his friend that he put up with Primo only for the free fighting lessons and food.

Leech hesitated a moment, remembering their first visit to the Chinese Gallery. As soon as he had crossed the threshold, he had felt strangely at home, and yet it was impossible because he had never gone near the museum before this. The farther they went into the gallery, the more the sensation had grown until Leech stopped before a tall, narrow painting of a golden tower—Primo had called it a pagoda. Storm clouds and lightning lit up the surrounding hills as a boy stood before the pagoda’s doorway. But it was hard to tell if the boy was taking shelter in the pagoda or about to run away.

Primo had been watching the boy closely. “Are you all right?” Primo had asked when he saw Leech shiver. “You were smiling just a moment ago.”

Koko was always protective of his friend so he looked about for a thermostat. “They ought to turn up the heater in this dump.”

Leech realized that it wasn’t the gallery that was so familiar: it was the scenes in the paintings.

“I’ve been there,” the boy said in a puzzled, frightened voice. “I know I have.” The memory, if that’s what it was, must have been a horrible one and yet he had not been able to take his eyes away from the picture.

“It’s possible,” Primo said kindly. “In China, people believe that they’re born over and over until they get things right.”

That seemed as good an explanation as any for what Leech was feeling about the paintings and especially about Primo. The boy had torn his gaze away from the painting to face Primo. “Is that why I thought I knew you when we first met?”

Primo had glanced from the painting and back to the boy. “Who knows? But maybe we’re working out some debt from another life. Perhaps I did something wrong to you in a previous life so I’m trying to make up for it now.”

“What was it?” the boy had wondered.

“I hope it was nothing terrible,” Primo had said, giving Leech the saddest look the boy had ever seen.

Leech tried to comfort him. “Well, you’re being a good friend in this life.”

“After you ran away from the orphanage,” Koko reminded him, “you would’ve starved if I hadn’t shown you the ropes.”

It had taken the rest of the week to assure Koko that Leech was still closer to Koko than anyone else.

Leech was
trying
his best to keep at Primo’s heels as they moved straight like an arrow toward the Kushan exhibit.

At his side, Koko nudged him. “I don’t know why I bother with you.”

Leech twisted the iron band on his arm the way he always did when he was bothered. The only decoration on the plain surface were two disks. It had been in the same basket in which he had been found at the orphanage. It was the only clue to his past, and the boy had clung to it no matter what, even though he had been teased about wearing such odd jewelry.

“I don’t know either,” Leech admitted. His first eight years at the orphanage had been pure misery. He had been a target of every bully because he was small for his age and also smarter than the other children. The experience had left him like a beaten puppy, insecure and yet eager to please.

Seeing how uneasy his friend was, Koko relented. “You and me, we’re a team now, aren’t we? You’re the only one I ever trusted with my big secret.”

Leech grinned slightly at the memory. “You were so afraid that I’d be shocked. But you know what, buddy? I felt honored. I never had anyone trust me like that.”

Koko slid his arm around Leech’s shoulders. “So, pals to the end?”

“Of course,” Leech assured him. “Anyway, I thought you’d be the one in a rush to see the Kushan exhibit. They say it’s full of gold and jewels.”

“Now you’re talking my lingo.” Koko laughed.

The boys caught up with Primo just as he was handing their tickets to the guard at the entrance to the Kushan galleries.

Leech had expected Primo to stop and examine the first room of the Kushan show, but Primo strode on as if late for an appointment. It was Koko who wanted to linger when he saw the glitter of gold and gems in a corner. “Whoa,” he said, his mouth making a little O of amazement.

Leech caught hold of his friend and started to drag him along. “Come on.”

Koko tried to dig in his heels. “We’re here to look, aren’t we?”

“We’ll come back later,” Leech promised.

Koko studied the glass covering the case. “I wonder how thick this glass is?”

Leech knew that certain gleam in his friend’s eyes and leaned in close. “No, Koko,” he said in a fierce, low voice.

“No, what?” Koko whispered back.

“No to stealing anything here,” Leech explained in exasperation. “We’ve quit that,” he added, “at least for a while.”

“Says you,” Koko said defiantly. “A guy’s got to stay in practice and they leave all this stuff just lying around.” He waved a hand airily at a jeweled crown. “Gold’s meant to be spent.”

Leech nodded toward the man plowing a way through the crowd ahead of them. “Primo wouldn’t like it.” He nodded to the two museum guards. One, a beefy human, was dwarfed by his partner, a green troll whose too-small uniform bulged on his huge frame, and
whose arms were so long they stretched out of his sleeves and brushed the floor. “And neither would they.”

“You’re turning into a regular pill. You know that?” Koko complained as he jammed his hands into his pockets.

They sped through room after room, trailing Primo as he searched for something. Finally, they came to the last and largest chamber. Over the doorway was a banner: “Kushan, the Crossroads of the World and of Magic.”

Primo adroitly sidestepped around the huge golden statue of a majestic woman riding a lion, and the boys slipped around her as well. Despite the noise in the room, Leech thought he heard a chirping sound. “What’s that?”

“Crickets,” Primo said. “It must be sound effects.” He scratched his head. “But I couldn’t say why.”

“Goal!” a man cried. He was dressed in a funny costume with a gold-edged sash as he crawled across the floor with something in his cupped fingers. He didn’t seem to notice that he had knocked Primo to the side.

A woman, in an antique outfit herself, scurried on her knees after him. “Excuse me.” She smiled politely up at Primo as they passed.

The trio watched the man move on, crying “Goal!” in between chuckles. The woman stayed at his heels, apologizing to anyone he might have bumped.

Leech stared at the spectacle surrounding them. Half the room seemed to be in costumes or at least fancy dress, and they were all scrambling about on their knees. “Are all openings like this?”

“Just the fun ones,” Primo said, but he seemed just as puzzled as the boys.

The rest of the crowd were spectators like themselves, trying to see the exhibits as they dodged around the crawling hunters.

“Do you think someone lost their keys?” Leech wondered to Koko.

But his friend was standing with his mouth open in ecstasy. The lighting made it seem as if there were dark circles around his eyes, but the eyes themselves shone as brightly as the gold and silver and gems sparkling at them from all sides. “Shut up. I’m in heaven,” he murmured.

“Lady Tabiti at last,” Primo said. He marched determinedly toward a dais in the center of the room.

“Come on,” Leech said, seizing Koko’s wrist. He towed his still stupefied friend behind him. “And quit drooling. Someone will slip and fall down.”