House of Eclipses by Casey L. Bond

25

Garbed in a fitted dress that was royal blue bordering on purple, I locked my room and stepped across the hall to knock on Caelum’s door. He’d intercepted me on the way back from Citali’s and asked if I would come and get him after I was finished dressing.

He yelled for me to come in, so I did, leaving the door open behind me for propriety’s sake. Caelum was in the bathing room. “I’ll be right out.”

“Take your time.”

I took the opportunity to wander around his room, quickly realizing it was outfitted much like my suite with the same colors and glassy walls. His bed was enormous and far too large for its single intended occupant. His armoire was similar to mine, and where my furniture was pale wood, his had been painted white. At the window, Lumos’s light waned. It was almost moonset.

“What could you possibly be doing?” I asked with a chuckle, trying to determine how much longer he would be.

I was curious if our rooms were exactly the same, down to the secret hiding place tucked in the wall. Could that be where he kept the crown? I didn’t want or need it now, but Citali did. If I knew it was here, I could ask Beron to place a guard at Caelum’s rooms after we left.

I drifted across to the wall, feeling along the tiles until one came unhinged. Reaching my hand inside, I discovered the space was bare.

I closed it just as I heard his footsteps, then rushed back toward the entry door. My heart thundered and fire forked like lightning through my veins.

If he would have caught me, he would think I meant to steal it. While that was why I initially came, it wasn’t what I wanted or needed now. Now, I needed to keep Citali at bay until I dragged her back to Helios with me.

Caelum finally emerged from the bathing room with his dark hair sleeked back, wearing a black tunic, pants, and boots, looking like a dark king.

Ironically, the only thing missing was his crown.

I smiled as I drank him in, watching the muscles I had memorized earlier flex as he walked. He carried a rectangular box. “I was hoping you’d wear this.” Flipping it open, he revealed a silver chain dripping with moon diamonds shaped like tears, the mirror to my sun diamonds.

I gasped. “I can’t accept such an extravagant gift from you, Caelum. I appreciate the gesture and I’m touched that you went out of your way, but this is too much!”

“Then accept it from my mother. She had this made for you.”

“How did she commission it? She’s not here.”

He looked down, looking almost shy. “She had it made years ago, before I even wrote to your father. Beron saw it in a dream and my mother wanted me to give it to the woman who captured my heart.”

The phoenix in my stomach flew circles. “I haven’t agreed to marry you. I’m not even sure I can.”

His lashes fluttered. “I know that, but I want you to have this… regardless what happens. It, and my heart, belong to you.” He removed the necklace from its blue velvet nest. “Please?” he asked, holding an end in each hand.

I couldn’t speak. A knot the size of one of the tear-shaped diamonds filled my throat. Matching tears filled my eyes. I turned so he wouldn’t see, lifted my hair, and presented the slender column of my neck.

He fastened it and brushed his cool fingers over my skin. “Thank you.”

I turned around to face him. “It’s I who should thank you.”

He shook his head and took my hands in his. “My heart is yours, Noor. I can’t help but feel even closer to Lumos after knowing you, because I now know what it’s like to love and want something you might be forbidden from having. I want a life with you. I want nothing more than that.”

But we had responsibilities and duties greater than our wants and needs. We were servants, vessels of the gods, subject to their wills and not ours.

Lumos’s light disappeared from the room and we were plunged into darkness.

Dinner was held in one of the smaller dining rooms. Caelum and I stopped to pluck Kiran from his room before the three of us made our way down the hall. The room held a simple table, long enough to comfortably accommodate twenty or so people. Pale wood chairs were tucked in all around it. None of them were occupied, though a few people stood conversing in the room. A tall candelabra stood in the table’s middle with at least a dozen lit candles, casting golden light over the room. Beron strode in behind us, merging with our small group.

“Thank you for coming,” Caelum said confidently as he strode to the table’s head, guiding me to the seat at his right hand. He held it out for me and waited until I sat, then pushed it in and took his own. Kiran sat on my right and Beron settled across from me. The others, whom I did not know yet, took their seats on either side of the table.

The room was quiet until water and wine were served, along with steaming plates of food – some of which I recognized from the platters served at the ball Lumina had hosted in the dusk lands, not that I had the time or a stomach solid enough to hold any on that particular evening. I’d been a bundle of nerves, worried that the plan to drug Father would go awry.

Kiran was quiet beside me.

Caelum cleared his throat and looked out over the table. “I’d like to introduce you to Atena Noor and one of Sol’s priests, Kiran.”

I glanced at the occupants who sat at the table. I recognized two men who looked identical with gray beards and hair, broad noses and kind eyes. They were sitting beside Beron, and had greeted me when I asked Caelum to come swimming with me. Beside them was a woman with hair the color of fresh blood. She wore furs around her neck and feathers in her hair. Beside Kiran sat an older woman, more matronly than the redhead across the table. She wore a woolen dress and shawl, and her darker hair was pulled tightly back into a bun at the base of her neck. A man sat beside her in a woolen coat. His hair was light, almost the color of dried reeds. He nodded toward me. “Atena.”

“This is my council,” Caelum explained, introducing each person by name. “They come from different regions and represent the people who live there and their needs, as I can’t be everywhere at once. The twins, Malcolm and Halstrom, come from the eastern villages.” The men dipped their chins. “Greta hails from the southlands – the coldest in Lumina.” The redheaded Greta nodded. “And the rowdy couple beside Kiran is Jenna and Landon, from the western plains.” The two waved at me and Kiran good naturedly.

“Do you have the opportunity to travel to the other regions?” I asked.

He nodded, a graceful smile blossoming across his handsome face. “I make a trip to each of them yearly.”

That was nice. My father never deigned to leave his palace.

“I’d like to see the snow-covered mountains one day,” I told them, nudging Caelum’s knee with mine and biting back a knowing grin. “If it’s safe, that is. Caelum believes my warmth might threaten them.”

The table erupted in laughter. “I can feel the heat wafting from you,” Halstrom, one of the ruddy-cheeked twins said with a jovial wink. “He might be right!”

Caelum grinned as we filled our plates and smaller conversations erupted up and down the table. This group of people was obviously comfortable with each other. Almost familial.

Beron pointed to a dish. “You should try it, Noor. It’s so spicy it makes me sweat.”

“I’ve never sweated,” I deadpanned.

His lips parted. “Seriously?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, not seriously. Of course I’ve sweated. Never from spicy food, but certainly from exertion.”

“But not heat?” he clarified.

I shook my head. “Never heat.”

Kiran was quiet beside me and I worried this was too much activity too soon after Saric’s passing. Then he reached out and selected some of what Beron suggested, scooped a bite of the peppered meat, and chewed. In seconds, his eyes widened as he reached for his water and gulped it down. “Wow,” was all he could muster once the water tempered the spicy flavors. Then he laughed.

I was glad to hear the sound.

Not to be outdone, I took a bit for my plate and chewed slowly while Beron watched with narrowed eyes, waiting for a reaction just as severe as Kiran’s or for sweat to bead on my skin. “You call this spicy?” I asked after primly swallowing it down.

The twins cackled and Malcolm slapped Beron on the back. He wagged a finger in my direction. “Don’t mess with this one!”

I glanced at Caelum to see him already smiling.

After that, everyone seemed to settle into comfortable, companionable conversation and dinner passed quickly. Caelum’s council members each told me it was nice to meet me and excused themselves until only the four of us remained: me, Beron, Caelum, and Kiran.

Kiran nodded to the door. “I think I’ll go to my rooms now if you don’t need anything, Atena,” he said quietly.

With his usage of my title, I knew he was erecting a wall between us. I’d built enough between me and those I cared for to recognize the distance he was placing between us with formalities. But this one, at least, was a necessary one for which I would gladly provide the mortar.

“Good night, Priest.”

He stood and bent in a respectful bow before leaving the dining room.

Moments later, footsteps pounded down the hallway. An enormous man filled the doorframe, catching himself on it and breathing heavily. “Pardon the interruption, Lumin.” He bowed, then turned his attention to Beron. “Beron, sir. We have a situation.”

“What situation?” the Wolven asked frostily.

“The girl has escaped,” the behemoth panted, both from anger and exhaustion. His face was red and sweat poured from his brow.

“How could she possibly escape?” The legs of Beron’s chair scraped the glassy tile as he stood. He strode around the table and out the door.

Caelum released a weary sigh. “They’ll find her.”

I had no doubt. No matter how determined Citali was to defy the rules, or how desperate she was to claim the crown so she wouldn’t return home empty-handed, Beron’s anger fueled his wolfish senses. As if I’d predicted the future, I heard his howl from outside the House of the Moon.

Caelum and I jogged to the door, down the grand staircase, and stepped into the sand. Beron was still in wolf form, slowly circling Citali, who had the nerve to hiss at the enormous canine snarling and snapping his teeth at her. “I will not be caged!” she shouted, turning in a circle along with him. It was a dangerous dance she stepped.

“Citali!” I snapped, my eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness surrounding us.

“Your eyes,” she said disgustedly.

The fire in me must have ignited them. “You are a guest here, Citali. Show some respect.”

Her laugh was harried. “I no longer wish to be.”

I shook my head disbelievingly. “You want to return to Helios?”

She began to cry again, slapping a hand over her chest. It heaved beneath her palm. “I can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“I can’t go back to Helios yet! I. Can’t!” she shrieked, completely losing control. “I can’t and you know why.”

“Citali, I can arrange for a ship to carry you home,” Caelum offered kindly.

Her laugh was pitiful. She shook her head. “I can’t leave without it. Right, Noor?”

“What’s she talking about?” Caelum asked.

Beron calmed, wading into the waves where he turned from Wolven to man again. Caelum stripped off his tunic and tossed it to his brother, who tied it around his waist as he waded naked from the sea. Beron joined his brother, pooled droplets of brine dripping from his skin. “I’m curious to know what she’s talking about, too.”

He shook the water from his hair and gave Citali, then me, a lazy look that was far scarier than Caelum’s concerned one. It was like he was trying to hide how angry he was with Citali, and I knew soon, he would be angry with me. So would Caelum.

Citali was breaking. She was going to tell them about our directive for the crown.

I steeled my spine, hoping they could understand, and gambling that delivering the information myself would lessen the blow. “Your suspicions were right. Father asked us to bring him the crown of moonlight. That’s the real reason why he accepted your proposal – for one of us – and why negotiations went so quickly and smoothly in the dusk lands.”

Citali angrily swiped her tears away. She would regain control of her emotions eventually, then hate me for telling them. She’d say I ruined everything, that she hadn’t completely lost control, that she never would have told them. All lies she would have made herself believe.

“He wants Lumina,” Beron said, pinching his once-broken nose.

“He wants everything,” I corrected.

Citali seethed even as she cried, even as she struggled to catch a steady breath. She inched toward the sea. Her teeth chattered as if she was slowly freezing.

Caelum stepped closer. “I asked you – in the dusk lands, I asked you if you were after my crown.”

I stood up straighter as his chest bumped mine. “I told you that I was.”

“I thought you were teasing me,” he said softly. He rubbed his hands down my bare arms, his cool touch soothing the flame.

Citali stopped crying and flung a hand toward us. “You’re not even angry at her!”

He wasn’t, which she couldn’t understand. I’d told him the truth about who and what I was, just as I was telling him the truth now, and she still didn’t know about me, my heritage, or that in two days, I would become the new Aten.

She shook her head, disgusted. “I can’t believe this or stomach the pair of you.”

She took up her skirts and trudged back to the House of the Moon. Despite her frazzled state, I knew she wouldn’t leave and wouldn’t stop looking for the crown she wanted so badly. Citali was a great many things, but she didn’t quit once she set her eyes on something. She might pause to catch her breath. She might cry. Panic. Rage. But she would not stop.

Panicked sobs tore from her frail form and I couldn’t help but watch as she fled.

I had no idea how to help her. That was the most devastating thing of all. Citali was terrified to tell me what she needed to rush home for, but she knew she needed to go back – crown in hand. The thought of Father hurting her or even Zarina like he had me soured my stomach. For as wretched as my sisters could be, we three were chiseled by our father’s cruelty, and all subject to it, I realized.

Caelum’s fingers trailed up and down, up and down my arms. “Walk with me?”

I nodded.

“Beron.” Something passed between the brothers and the Wolven angrily rushed after my sister.

Caelum guided us away from the House and we made twin tracks in the dampened sand as the waves reached out for our feet, never quite overtaking them.

“Truthfully, I suspected that you and Citali wanted the crown, or that your father did, or both,” he admitted when we were so far from the House, I could no longer make it out in the darkness. “That’s why I asked you then, and why I warned you that you wouldn’t find it.”

“Are you saying it doesn’t exist?” I asked.

“No, it does, but it isn’t displayed often. It was given to me the day he made me Lumin.” He paused as if collecting his thoughts. “Lumos doesn’t want people to feel that they should bow to me or that I rule over them. I’m a bridge to him, not an impediment. I don’t stand in his way; I foster communication between him and his people.”

“Beron didn’t see it that day?”

He shook his head. “My mother did. It was the only way I could convince her to go with me to the House of the Moon. I showed it to her and to the priests the day I was chosen, but Beron wasn’t home. He came home a couple days afterward. He had left to go on a hunt to find food for us and turned into the Wolven while he was in the woods. He came back from the forest and was terrified because he didn’t understand what was going on. He said the change was excruciating the first time. He thought the pain would happen every time he needed to shift, but it didn’t hurt after that.”

“Does he like being the Wolven?”

“Most days, he revels in it. But there is the occasional difficult day where the duty seems to be more burden than honor.”

My sister was making this one of the difficult days. Caelum stopped in a secluded section of shoreline where a few boulders lay on the sand, slowly weathering away by the pounding surf at high tide. I wondered how large they’d once been and where they came from. I saw no mountains here.

He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “She won’t find the crown. Let her look all she likes. As long as she doesn’t attempt to hurt or kill you again, she can search to her heart’s content.” His eyes held mine for a moment and suddenly a cool glow circled his forehead. A white-blue, scarred crown lay in his skin, not over it. It wasn’t made of metal, but moonlight. It was part of Caelum as much as the wolf was part of Beron.

I raised my hand and he lowered his head as I brushed a thumb over the crown of moonlight, feeling only his silken skin beneath. Smiling with wonder, I pulled his face to mine and pressed my lips to his. “It’s beautiful,” I told him.

“You don’t need my crown, Noor,” he said.

“I don’t want it.” Somehow, the thing I came here to find turned out to be the last thing I needed.

“The question is, do you want me, Noor?” he rasped.

I pressed my lips to his again, letting them slowly peel away. “Yes.”

With the stars glittering in the darkness all around us as innumerable as the grains of sand beneath us, the secrets between us fell away, leaving only caresses of flesh and his lips on mine when we gave ourselves to one another completely.

When Lumos reappeared and we walked out of our secluded, rocky place, back to the House of the Moon, I wondered if Sol had ever burned as hot as I had in those passionate moments. If Lumos had coveted her touch as much as Caelum coveted mine. If, like the gods who wanted nothing more than each other, we might be forced apart tomorrow. I only had today to spend with him – the way I was now - before I was transformed.

Tomorrow was my seventeenth birthday.