My adelphia’s room had been destroyed. The furniture had been slashed, the bedding torn, books and papers shredded and thrown everywhere. Red dirt covered the floor.
Io was crying about her pets—their cages and enclosures were all smashed.
Suri darted into the room and ran over to Io’s bed. She reached beneath it and pulled out Io’s ferret, Chara. Io let out a sound of relief and rushed over to hug them both.
“What happened here?” Zalira asked.
None of us knew.
“Someone intended to kill you all,” Xander said, practically growling the words. “You are acolytes from the temple and they wanted you dead, too.”
When I had volunteered to accompany Xander and his men to Lycia, I had considered not bringing my sisters with me. Whoever ordered this attack hadn’t realized that they’d come.
What if I hadn’t asked them to go? They would have been here. They could have been ...
I couldn’t allow myself to finish the thought. Suri found a tortoise near a trunk and handed it to Io. I was so profoundly grateful that I had brought my adelphia along and hadn’t lost them.
Then I wondered whether the person who had ordered the attack realized that I had gone to Lycia as well.
My heart started to pound loudly in my chest and I ran to my room, throwing the door open.
It was in as much disarray as Io’s bedroom. Red dirt and bloodstains on the floor. A fight had happened in here. How many guards had died?
“Luna!” I called and started looking for my lizard. I didn’t know what I would do if they had hurt her. I checked under the bed and it was completely clear. I ran behind my torn-up screen and started throwing open chests to search inside.
I didn’t see her anywhere.
Xander came into the room.
“I can’t find Luna,” I told him, my voice shaky.
He crouched down to peer under the bed. “I already looked there,” I told him. He didn’t immediately straighten up, as if needing to verify for himself that she truly wasn’t there.
My tunics and dresses were scattered everywhere and I kept picking them up and tossing them aside while calling for her. Xander went into the washroom to check.
When he came out empty-handed, my panic increased. What if the attackers had killed her?
Then I heard a chittering noise and went completely still.
“Under the bed,” Xander said, locating the sound before I could.
I dropped to my knees and saw Luna sitting there, in the middle of the space, blinking expectantly at me. She sneezed and I almost laughed, so relieved that she was all right. I reached for her, my hands shaking. I noticed that there were tiny silver flakes on my skin, as if she had sneezed part of herself off. Strange. I cradled her to my chest.
“Are you all right?” I asked, holding her up so that I could see her face.
She blinked slowly at me.
Yes.
“Where were you?” Both Xander and I had checked under the bed and she hadn’t been there. It was like she had just suddenly appeared.
“Are you ... talking to your lizard?” He asked the question as if I had taken leave of my senses.
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because I think she can talk back. And I understand how that sounds, but it’s the truth.” It didn’t even occur to me to hide this from him, which meant that my instincts where he was concerned were definitely shifting. A couple of weeks ago, I would have kept this information to myself. “I can show you. One blink is yes, two blinks means no.”
