On the day of the expedition, the whole castle stirred. The Daeior spearmen were the husbands, fathers, and sons of the castle’s inhabitants. With a force larger than any before assembled, it was no exaggeration to say that everyone in the castle had someone marching. Kyprosa climbed a high tower and looked down at the people gathered below.
As Rosia reviewed the troops, she looked as though her leg did not hurt at all. His lips pressed firmly together, Jaeim followed his grandmother about, trying to learn whatever he could. Ordered to act as lord in Rosia’s absence, he had been tense for days. The quiet cousin who used to avoid Grandmother’s eyes to teach Kyprosa the way through the labyrinth garden, and confide that he hated spears more than anything in the world, was growing up too.
Jaeim’s path was the one Rosia had taken, the one his father, his grandfather, and his grandfather’s father had taken. To walk that path, he had to put on the bloodstained clothes the person before him had left behind. It did not matter if they did not fit, or if he hated the smell of blood. Could Jaeim become a Daeior lord, like a tiger, like a wolf? He would. He had to. Watching his grandmother go to war, dragging a leg that was growing numb to protect him, that responsible boy would become one in the end.
Kyprosa had been excluded from that path from the beginning, but she did not envy Jaeim. She believed there was another path for her. Beside the capital of the world, Fir Castle was no more than a toy. Just as it had been when she looked down at it from the snow bird’s back in her dream. But the snow bird was gone. What would save her now?
The castle gate opened. In the morning light, the spearheads reddened like ears of sorghum.
The army began to move. Spring flowers thrown by the people were trampled underfoot. The spring flowers, like drops of fresh blood, gave off a rank, cloying scent. It was something that had happened countless times before, so no one thought it strange. A few people fainted from dizziness. That too was familiar. The army receded into the distance. Kyprosa said no farewell. Rosia too would not have expected one from her.
Kyprosa went down from the castle with Orchidna and visited the rear courtyard for the first time in a long while. With the hunters gone, the hawk cages were silent. This was the path a shabby, skulking girl had once walked, but today it was passed by Kyprosa, conspicuously beautiful, and Orchidna, like a baby angel newly carved that day. The muddy earth, thawed to a sticky slush, smelled of iron.
There was nothing in the empty birdcage. The filth had been cleaned away, and, more importantly, only half the cage itself remained. Much of it had been dismantled to make weapons for this expedition. Standing where she always used to stand, Kyprosa looked up into empty space as she had when the bird was there. She tried to recall the bird’s sleeping face, which she had watched for more than ten years, since she first began coming here as a little child. She had seen it so often that she could picture it as vividly as though it were still there. Kyprosa murmured softly.
“Where would it be now?”
“Where is it? In the capital of the world, of course.”
Denny, who had suddenly appeared behind her, stood beside her and looked up at the cage. Kyprosa pouted.
“How would you know, Denny?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Am I not a wizard?”
“Yes. A wizard who catches rats.”
“That’s right. Shall I teach you how to catch rats?”
When Kyprosa did not answer, Denny spoke again.
“Did you know Landry wanted to go to the capital of the world too?”
It was the first she had heard of it. Kyprosa looked at Denny.
“So did he go?”
“How else would he have met me? But when I first met him, he was terribly homesick. So I asked what sort of place his home was, that he missed it so much. He said winter took up five months of the year, the snow piled up to your shoulders whenever it fell, and avalanches struck every few years. When the snow melted in spring and you dug through the thawing water, you’d find several dead people. I asked if he really wanted to go back to a place like that. He said he wanted to so badly he could hardly breathe.”
“If it were me, I’d never want to come back.”
Denny gave a faint laugh.
“Do you still want to go?”
Kyprosa had never told Denny she wanted to go to the capital of the world. When she did not answer, Denny gripped the half-remaining cage with one hand and spread the other, stroking empty air. Gold spread in the wake of his hand. It was as though he were unfurling a veil wound about his arm, yet there was no veil. Nor was it sunlight reflected from something. It was truly gold. A golden landscape.
“Look.”
Countless roofs surged against one another, vying in height. The tiles were purple, blue, and orange, faded by the sun. White spires and domes covered in tiles of five colors rose among them. Beyond the arches of a bridge clad in turquoise ceramic, a towering city gate rose, and an endless procession passed beneath it. Among horses with dyed manes, camels draped in silk hangings, and elephants carrying imposing platforms, carts bore cages holding strange beasts, and rare fruits gleamed. In a market where red and yellow awnings billowed, people in all manner of clothing flowed like waves.
“That is…”
“The capital of the world. The city of the great library. Delphinad.”
It was the first time she had learned what that name sounded like. Delphinad. It was a magnificent name, like music. Kyprosa moved her lips. She gazed raptly into the scene Denny described as he pointed.
“That blue place with the flag is the roof of the library. Behind it is the botanical garden. It is full of precious plants, each flower worth a handful of jewels. In that market over there, you’ll find goods from every part of the continent. If you have gold coins, you can even buy a dragon’s eyeball.”
Listening in a daze, Kyprosa murmured.
“Everything in Birgion’s Natural History is there.”
“Birgion was from Delphinad. Isn’t it only natural?”
“You really were a wizard, Denny. And Father too…”
“Raeven didn’t listen carefully to what I told him. After what became of him, I resolved never to teach anyone again.”
Denny pointed at the library.
“In there alone, there are hundreds who teach magic. Those who wish to learn must number a hundred times as many. Do you think drifting along with the crowd will make you a wizard? Countless people come with firm resolve, only to give up and leave. If you fail to achieve what you set out to do, you bring shame upon the home you left behind. Do you still want to go?”
Kyprosa looked at Denny. She stayed that way for a very long time. Only when Orchidna tugged at her hand did she come to herself and look down at her little sister. Then she drew that hand to her and gripped it tightly.
“I’ll go.”
Denny nodded. If there were those who stayed to protect, there were also those who went forward. All of them were children of the castle.
“I’ll send you.”
The snow bird Landry Daeior had captured was tamed by his granddaughter.
It had taken thirty-two years.
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