WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

13. Unity

13

Unity

Dori blinked at me.

Then, she very dryly said, “Let me get this straight. Some people in this world can transport another person from one kingdom to the next in the blink of an eye, predict the future, apply a tattoo that helps you recognize your true love at first sight, and completely glamour one’s appearance to make them look like someone else entirely. But my superpower is understanding freaking birds? Are you serious? How the hell is that in any way fair? If I’m going to be plagued by a dark curse, I at least want one of the cool powers to go with it.”

“You might be able to do more than just understand them,” I started. “Maybe you can communicate with them completely, like they can understand you back. Here, quick...”

Taking her arm, I dragged her to the edge of the coop, where we could see into the cage. She flinched at the sound and pulled her face away.

“Say something to them,” I encouraged, ignoring her aversion. “See if they can understand you in return.”

Dori cast me a disbelieving glance. “Really?”

I lifted my hands in a shrug. “Hey. If you know what they’re saying, why shouldn’t they be able to understand what you’re saying?”

“Okay, fine.” She blew out an irritated breath, muttering to herself the whole time. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I swear, your world just keeps getting stranger and stranger.” Then she lifted her hand, waving to the cage in a lame, uncertain way. “Um. Hi, birds,” she called, projecting her voice forward. “I’m Dori. Doria Baquet. And I come in peace.” Then more quietly added, “Please don’t swarm and break through the cage to kill me, like in The Birds movie. Please, please, please.”

A second later, all the squawking and chirping and cooing and cawing ground to a halt, and every pigeon and raven in the coop turned to look at us. Another dozen poked their heads out of the holes that led to the inside portion of the coop so they could fix their attention on Dori as well.

“Okay, that’s creepy,” I decided, inching a step closer toward Dori.

“You’re telling me.” She grabbed my hand and gripped it hard. “What do we do now?”

Finally, one raven flew down from a higher perch to land on the branch right in front of us on the other side of the mesh wire. When it cooed, Dori jumped, her fingers flexing spasmodically around mine.

“What did it say?” I whispered eagerly.

“Well, they definitely understood me,” she whispered back, still staring at the bird and offering it a tight smile before she spoke to me out the side of her mouth without moving her lips. “She wanted to know if I was here to save them.”

“Oh boy,” I murmured with a wince as I glanced around at all the birds staring at us. There had to be dozens upon dozens of them.

This might get complicated.

“What do I say?” she asked, still trying not to move her mouth as she smiled at the bird before lifting her hand to wave at it again.

“Why not ask them what they need,” I suggested on a shrug. “Maybe we can help them with something.”

“Right.” She nodded, huffing out a relieved breath. “Good idea.” Then, lifting her voice again so all the winged creatures could hear, she called, “What can we do to help?”

In response, all the birds started squawking in tandem. Most of them flew forward to the front of the coop to get closer so they could caw out their grievances in our faces. The racket was so loud, I winced and covered my ears.

Dori’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head slowly as she backed away. “I—I—I shouldn’t have asked that. Why did I ask that?”

“What’re they saying?” I called above the noise.

She shook her head, expression wild with worry. “Everything! Each one wants something different. But mostly, they just want to be free.” Glancing at me with her mouth dropping open with incredulous fright, she said, “How the hell are we supposed to help all of them?”

“Well, we can’t just free them,” I stated the obvious. We’d have no coop left and no way to communicate long distance in a timely manner.

But then I turned my gaze to the dozens of aggrieved birds and started to feel bad for them. They hadn’t exactly been asked to lead this life, had they? So I ended up adding, “Can we?”

Dori cringed when she looked my way, not sure how to answer, either. Inside the cage, the door to the interior of the coop suddenly flew open, and an enraged man came storming out.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he yelled, flapping his arms to get the pigeons and ravens to scatter. “What’s going on out here?”

When he spotted Dori and me standing outside the cage, his frown grew as it narrowed on us. “What do you two think you’re doing, riling up my birds? Quit taunting them.”

As he marched our way, I drew a rolled-up piece of parchment from my pocket and thrust it at Dori. “I’ll take care of him. You see if you can find a volunteer who’d be willing to deliver this to Olivander at the library for me, will you?”

“Um, sure,” she said.

As soon as she took the message from my hand, I spun toward the coop’s caretaker. “Hello, fine sir. We weren’t taunting the birds, I assure you. We would never. It’s just that my friend here has the gift of feathered gab and can communicate with them, so she was merely striking up a conversation when they began to fill her in with their life stories. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears that many of these birds don’t wish to remain here in your employment.”

“Huh?” he asked, c*****g his face toward me as if he were hard of hearing.

I stepped closer to the cage and lifted my voice. “I think you need to fix the accommodation and care of some of your workers in order to give them more incentive to want to stay on and serve you.”

Stopping just on the other side of the wired mesh, he scowled. “You saying I don’t take care of my beauties properly? Well, let me tell you a thing or two, little girl. This here is the nicest and cleanest coop in the entire kingdom. No bird is fed and taken care of as well as the birds under my care.”

Studying him a moment, I tipped my head and ran my gaze over him, learning him—all his strengths, weaknesses, and passions—in a single glance. This coop really was his lifeblood, and he did honestly care about his charges.

Softening my tone to play on his weakness, I nodded. “Oh, sir, of course. This is by far the best coop I’ve ever visited. You should be commended for doing such a fine job.”

Dori shot me a funny look for my overdramatic gushing. But I ignored her, even as I motioned a hand her way. “It’s just that my magic-bearing friend here can communicate with them, and she couldn’t help but overhear a couple of their, er, more disgruntled comments.”

“Like what?” he demanded, casting a glare Dori’s way that made her lurch closer to me.

“Well…” I bit my lip and cringed. “To begin with, one of them has a broken wing that needs to be attended to.”

“He’s right there.” When Dori pointed the injured bird out, the caretaker zipped his attention that way and stepped toward the bird in question.

“And many require more food,” I went on as he carefully caught the bird and picked it up to examine the wing. When he turned our way as if in shock, I cleared my throat and ended with, “And, er, most of them would like more freedom.”

He snorted. “Freedom? I can’t just let them all go free. They’d never come back. I’m trying to run a business here, you know.”

“Of course, sir. And what a valuable business it is, to be sure. I don’t know how I would’ve survived these last eight years without this very messaging service.” Dori sent me another look, letting me know I was laying the pandering on a bit too thick, but if it benefited everyone in the end, I’d tell the man whatever he wished to hear. And besides, it was the truth. I’d probably sent hundreds of letters over the years through the pigeon and raven messaging service.

“But I think we can make your business run even more effectively if Dori could translate for you some of their wishes, and then, with enough incentive, both you and the birds will come away better off from the compromise.”

“Well…” The man tenderly set the wounded bird down and scratched his head thoughtfully. “If you can really understand them,” he told Dori. “Then I guess I’d like to know what they have to say. But, uh, I don’t know either one of you women. How can I trust that they understand a word you’re saying? You could all be putting one over on me, and every last bird will fly away the moment I open the cage.”

“Alright, then.” I nodded to the man and held up a finger, motioning him to wait, as I jabbed my elbow Dori’s way and muttered to her, “Convince him.”

She sliced me with an incredulous glance. “What?”

I tipped my head toward the birds. “Ask them to do something so the caretaker will know they understand you.”

“Um...okay.” Dori cringed as she looked up at the birds. Then she clapped her hands to get their attention. “Everyone, listen up! The kind man here needs proof that you can understand me so that we can get him to listen to your pleas for better living arrangements. So—I don’t know. Can you all fly one direction in a circle above his head or something to show him you agree to talk over terms with him?”

The birds cawed and began to stir. In moments, every single one of them, except for the one with a broken wing, was at the top of the cage and flying in a circle above the man’s head.

“My God,” he murmured, gaping up at them in awe.

It really was something majestic to witness. The wind current it caused was massive, though, blowing my hair away from my face and whipping the locks around like crazy.

“Would you just look at that,” the caretaker called, lifting his hands and smiling as I hadn’t thought the craggy old man even could. “It’s a miracle. They do understand you.”

“Yep.” Dori grinned my way to share her pride in actually accomplishing something positive in helping the birds. But as soon as our gazes met, her eyes went huge.

“Your hair,” she mouthed, pointing to her own head.

I frowned in confusion and grabbed a lock to examine it, learning that all the wind the birds had created was washing out my glamour. Streaks of red could be seen through the black.

Whipping on my cloak, I flipped up the hood and took a small step back to get away from the wind.

“This is simply marvelous.” The caretaker was laughing in glee, oblivious to my hair changes, as the pigeons and ravens settled down. He hurried to the opening of the coop and threw open the door.

“Tell them that if half of them stay and take shifts, ferrying messages for me, I’ll feed them as much grain and worms as they want.”

Dori relayed the message, and exactly half the birds flew out, while the other half obediently stayed behind.

Many of the free birds swarmed around Dori, cawing and cooing. I didn’t need her to translate to know they were thanking her. She smiled at them and nodded, even reaching out to pet the feathers of a few before they took off into the air and were gone. Before the last one left, however, she asked it to deliver my message to the library.

“Thank you, my lady,” the caretaker gushed, coming to her with a reverent look. “Thank you. I’ve always wanted to know what they thought and how I could make their lives better.”

“I was happy to help,” Dori assured him, reaching out to take his hand when he reached forward to shake with her. But before they made contact, he glanced down and gasped.

Expression flaring with horror, he jerked his hand away and tripped backward from us, stuttering, “G-G-Graykey!”

Dori’s eyes widened before she hedged a wary step back as well. “What?”

One glance told me what the problem was, though. “Oh dear.”

Grabbing her arm, I flipped it up to show her that her glamour had faded in the wind as well, enough to reveal her mark completely.

In front of us, the caretaker popped a small wooden tube into his mouth with a reed at the end and he blew, making a shrill whistle scream through the air.

Three quick blows, the signal for distress, he called for the royal guards to come immediately.

“That’s it,” I said, taking her hand and yanking us in reverse away from the coop. “Time to go.”

“But—”

“Run!” I shouted when I saw a pair of guards who must’ve been nearby turn down the street and spot us.

“They’re Graykey. Graykey demons,” the coop’s caretaker was screaming as he pointed after us through the mesh wire.

The guards shouted a warning and drew their swords as they started forward.

“Holy geez!” Dori grasped my arm. “You and Vander weren’t kidding, were you? Being a Graykey is a very bad thing in this world.”

“No, we weren’t. This way,” I instructed, pushing her into an open alley.

A row of homeless people sat against the walls. Digging my hand into my pocket, I secured all the gold coin I could wrap my fingers around and I threw the money in the air behind us, causing the younger, scrappier children to dart out and try to collect as much as they could, which efficiently blocked the path of the charging guards and let Dori and me gain ground, escaping them.

At the other end of the alley, I pulled her to the right, feeling Olivander nearby in that direction.

“Come on.”

We sprinted along the cobbled street, past confused pedestrians and between carts that were being drawn by horses, but it wasn’t enough to escape our pursuers.

I glanced back to find a new guard gaining on us. He’d drawn his sword as well and was preparing to swing it at Dori’s head.

“Dori!” I screamed. “Down.”

I pushed her hard, causing her to face-plant into the earth with a pained cry. Then I kicked out my leg, tripping up the guard as well. He had so much momentum put into this sprinting that he tumbled past Dori on the hard cobblestone, losing his grip on his sword in the process.

Jamming my boot heel down onto the hilt of the sword, I caused it to flip in the air where I caught the grip and flashed out the blade at a second guard who approached us.

We dueled for about three seconds before he heaved forward, trying to stab me through the heart. But I dodged, evading the thrust, and he leaped right past me.

Which gave me plenty of time to spin and kick him in the behind, making him stumble forward and land on the ground on top of the other pursuer. As he oomphed out a foul curse, I brought down the pommel of his sword as hard as I could against the back of his head, finally knocking him out cold.

Next to him, Dori was just now beginning to sit up but she froze to gape at the passed-out men before looking up at me.

“Where’d you learn how to do that?” she asked in awe.

I shrugged before reaching out a hand to help her to her feet. “The headmistress at my academy thought we should be prepared for every type of situation we might find ourselves in, so she gave us some battle training too.”

Shaking her head, Dori looked back down at the two men. “Just what the f**k kind of school did you go to?”

I smiled proudly. “The best.”

But I didn’t get to preen over my accomplishments long. One of the men on the ground groaned and began to stir before he shoved the one on top of him off, so I tugged on Dori’s hand. “We should go.”

And just as I said that, I sensed him.

Olivander.

My head snapped in his direction as a hooded figure stepped into the middle of the street, facing us in a confrontational kind of stance, prepared to take on any kind of trouble that came his way.

I smiled. “Come on,” I told Dori, tugging on her hand to follow me. “Hurry.”

Both men behind us shouted as they began to pick themselves up off the ground again. I broke into a run, heading straight toward my true love.

Dori sprinted along with me until she looked up and saw the hooded figure squaring off with us at the end of the block as he lifted a weapon. “Oh my God,” she cried, trying to stop us in our tracks. “That one’s got a bow.”

But I yanked her along. “Don’t stop. Just trust me.”

She sent me an incredulous glance but charged forward anyway, fleeing from the men behind us.

A second later, the hooded figure let his arrow loose. Dori yelped and covered her head with her arms, but the projectile flew past us and landed in the shoulder of one of the men pursuing us.

“Holy s**t,” she gasped, dropping her arms and glancing back just as we reached Olivander. “Did he kill ’em?”

“Just clipped him,” Olivander answered her as he nocked another arrow and let it fly. “Him too.”

Dori whirled and gaped at his face. “Oh,” she said, her shoulders sagging in relief. “It’s just you, Vander. Where did you come from?”

“Take the alley to my left,” he told me as he drew a third arrow with no time to explain his timely appearance to the earthling. “I’ll catch up in a minute.”

I nodded and took Dori’s arm, steering us into the alley that seemed to be empty before hustling us in the direction of the library.

“We’ll just keep our pace nice and steady,” I instructed in a low tone as I took the pouch of glamour from my pocket and sprinkled it over both of us. I gave Dori a bit extra, worried about her mark accidentally making another appearance, and I ended up turning her into a man.

Whoa.

Oh well. This was probably an even better disguise, anyway. I tossed the sword I’d taken from one of the guards aside to get rid of any incriminating evidence, and I hooked my arm through Dori’s to make it look like we might be a husband and wife out for a stroll.

“No one will suspect a thing from us,” I said, and I concentrated on getting her to the library in one piece.