“Wait.” Layla did an internal inventory. “Reginald’s earrings?”
“Ah.” Tempeste gave a rueful smile, then went to his briefcase. Opening it, he fetched out the earrings and handed them to Layla. “Here. I’ll keep the choker safe while you’re inside the Aviary.”
“Fair enough.” Fixing the pearl and diamond earrings in her lobes, Layla heard a vague surge of ocean sound in her ears before it died away. The earrings felt heavier today, as if something about her intimacy with Reginald last night had changed the weight of them against her skin. Layla frowned, touching one, then adjusting the bracelet at her wrist – wondering if everything just felt odd today because she was missing the choker to complete the set.
“Something wrong?” Tempeste frowned, watching her fidget.
“It’s nothing,” Layla dismissed, straightening. “Let’s go.”
“Certainly.”
Moving to the door, Tempeste unlocked it and they repeated their sojourn of the night before. Except today, the cliffside town of Manarola was glorious with morning’s first rays beginning to ease over the eastern hills, painting the colorful buildings in a golden glory. Tourists in hats with cameras were already up and about as Tempeste hurried Layla down to the quay, citing that he wanted to get to the cliff-walk before anyone interrupted them.
Soon, Layla was back on the grassy promontory, facing the ocean. White cruise ships passed far out in the aqua seas, colorful fishing boats trawling the near shore for a morning catch. As Layla stepped to the rocky edge and a brisk morning wind stirred her hair, she felt a sudden panic. The last thing she wanted to do was step off this damn cliff again, but she knew Tempeste had her back now, even if it was a fairly uncomfortable salvation.
Taking a deep breath, Layla set her hand to King Arini’s feather in its silken pouch between her breasts.
And then stepped off the cliff, into the abyss.
She stumbled. Where there had been nothing before, there was now an arching stone bridge leading from her promontory three hundred feet over the water and ending at a tremendous sea-stack out in the swirling tides. It hadn’t been there before, and as Layla gaped at it, she saw there was not one but five sea-stacks in tight formation at the end of the stone causeway, all connected by high stone bridges. An enormous fortress spanned all five sea-stacks, gulls wheeling around its towers in the golden morning sunlight.
Glancing behind, Layla saw the stone bridge ended in a grey mist behind her. Tempeste was gone; so was the headland and the town of Manarola. As if this place existed in a bubble, the same grey fog surrounded it about a mile in circumference, though the sky was blue above and morning sun smote the towers. As if the fortress was part of the human world but heavily hidden in a glamour by the mist, Layla began to walk forward on the stone bridge, marveling at the Aviary.
Because it was an Aviary. At once the solid stone of an old Roman fort but also supported by the whimsical magics of the Twilight Realm, towers soared up at impossible, broken angles, dangling in midair. Rope bridges connected these to the main halls, even higher stones floating in midair as if suspended in the sky. Enormous cocoons of what looked like nests dangled from these floating stones, swaying in the morning breeze.
As Layla watched, a magnificent bird with gold and crimson plumage launched from one egg-shaped nest, taking wing on the sea-air. Enormous as a lion but sleek and graceful, curling feathers streamed from its wings and tail and from its long crest-plumage – a Phoenix, in its Dragon-form. And then a second Phoenix followed from the same nest, launching into the breeze, this one a luminous silver-grey that flashed like a fish as it flew through the sky.
As Layla watched, they careened on the air, rolling and diving in movements that were at once serpentine and also eagle-like. A raptor’s screech split the morning air, with the deeper roar of a Dragon beneath it. As Layla watched, she saw a flash of sleek scales through the cascading plumage – the diving beasts like a primordial combination of Dragon and bird. They were the closest thing Layla had seen to depictions of bird-dinosaurs like the archaeopteryx, and as she stood on the bridge in stunned silence she realized they had plumage that brought to life Mesoamerican stories of Quetzalcoatl.
Layla blinked, wondering if those stories of the feathered serpent god had been Phoenix.
Moving forward, she found herself entranced by the beautiful creatures as more joined them in the dawn sky. Colored in incredible jewel tones, they soared through the blue, playing in the golden mists. Layla saw them dive beneath the sea, coming up with fish in their talons and curved raptor beaks; sometimes even small sharks seized in their cruel grips. As Layla neared the vaulted doors of the fortress, bound with gold that shone in the morning sun, she saw them crank open.
A sluice of birdsong flowed through Layla’s mind as the Phoenix King Falliro Arini himself moved out from the fortress. Stepping down the stone stairs, he took up Layla’s hands, kissing them in a wave of grace. “Layla Price. I felt you coming. Be welcome in my Aviary.”
“King Falliro Arini. Thank you so much for inviting me.” She responded.
“It is my pleasure.”
The Phoenix King’s golden eyes glowed in the morning sunlight as he regarded her, and Layla found herself soothed by his presence. Naked but wearing a cascading robe of midnight-blue feathers with a high collar that was open at the front, King Falliro Arini’s sleek cobalt plumage shone with a rich array of colors in the high morning. In his human form, he towered over Layla, nearly eight feet in height. His lean body was covered in a silky blue down, a crest of long cobalt feathers like hair fluttering in the sea-winds. His smile was bright, his chiseled features outlined by dark lines of feather at his cheekbones and temples, like Dusk’s Dragon-scales. Cruel black talons tickled her hand from his fingertips, the same jutting from his bare feet with their high arches and birdlike structure.
Listening to King Arini’s lovely birdsong in her mind, seeing him beaming at her with his perfectly radiant smile lightened Layla’s heart. For the first time in days, she felt safe and calm, and all at once it seemed impossible that he would have invited her here just to send her to her death in the ocean. As he smiled, clasping her hands warmly, Layla’s heart suddenly expanded. King Arini was a good man. She could feel he was an ally, and Adrian was right to trust him.
“I need to talk to you.” She spoke suddenly. “About Hunter.”
“The void-shadow.” King Arini’s golden gaze was deep with knowing. “I can feel questions moving all through you, Dragon Bind. I will answer as many as I may, though I sense your time here is short. Your friends are in danger, aren’t they?”
“Adrian’s been captured by the Intercessoria,” she breathed, her heart twisting. “They’ll release him if we give them everything we know about Hunter.”
“Then we will give them everything we know.” King Arini’s eyes glittered, wry but calm. “Come. Your body has not had a proper breakfast. Walk with me and see our fortress. And we shall speak of details to free your mate. This way, honored guest.”
Tucking her arm into his, King Falliro Arini escorted Layla toward the fortress. Walking on the balls of his feet like a bird, he moved up the stone steps, guiding Layla into an enormous vaulted receiving-hall. Though the old Roman fortress was half-tumbled, it had been repaired with magic, shimmering mirages of light and air shoring up every broken arch and tumbled wall. Set with banners upon all sides woven from colorful feathers, there were dream-catchers of feather and sea-bones dangling from every arch.
The effect was of a broken, abandoned palace that yet breathed with airy life. Gazing around the gargantuan hall, Layla saw more birds than she’d ever seen anywhere. As she watched, a pair of cliff-swallows zoomed in through one of the open-air walls, chirruping up to a high nook and feeding a clutch of viciously peeping chicks. Birds of paradise rested upon high ledges; peacocks strolled around the Greco-Roman tiled floors. A wall of vines held hundreds of parrots in blue-canary colors, making a ruckus in the bright morning.
Layla saw every kind of bird, seed-eating or fruit-eating or carnivorous, even a pair of golden eagles perching out on a dead tree branch over the sea, scanning the water below for breakfast. The Aviary had every kind of plant to support its teeming, beautiful life; fruit trees growing up through the cracks in the floor and vines winding through the broken walls. The vegetation shored the Aviary up as much as Phoenix-magic did, and the overall impression was of a ruined cathedral – sacked long ago and returned to life in the most beautiful way.
As Layla had that thought, the sun caught upon a high round window at the far end of the hall. The emblem of a screeching Phoenix with dark violet plumage was illuminated, made of stained glass as large as the famous rose windows of Notre Dame. Layla stood, overpowered by its glory, as King Falliro Arini paused by her side.
