Chapter 19

An hour after the council session had ended, the there was a knock of the gilt door to our temporary chambers. I didn’t even have to tell them to enter because ever since we had been shown into these rooms they had been doing the exact same thing, they knock on the door and then walk in uninvited. It seemed to me that it was merely a formality. It’s lucky that I wasn’t walking around completely naked.

The door pivoted fluidly on its hinges. The woman who I had met earlier entered without the fan and procession that the others had insisted upon. I had learnt that her name was Calantha which apparently means beautiful flower in Greek, well that was what Lucius told me.

I smiled as she approached and gestured for her to take a seat. We weren’t doing much. Lucius was off talking to some of his ‘old friends’ with Ezekiel and Gabriel had opted for baby duty. Never in my life would I have been able to imagine that Arch angel Gabriel would be changing my son’s nappies. It looked even cuter because he had fallen asleep a few minutes ago with Danny curled up on his chest. Until today I didn’t know that he even slept. I just assumed that with them all being immortal beings they were on guard all night and didn’t need to sleep.

Calantha swept across the room and took a seat before me. The sound of her body made as she curved into the seat similar to when a tree creaks as it sways in the breeze. Glancing over at Gabriel I saw that his eyes were still shut as his chest rose and fell with each of his deep even breaths so I turned my attention back to the beautiful oddity before me.

“I know we have to be somewhere in a little while but I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.” My tone implied that it was more of a question but she only nodded in response. My lips pulled into a shaky smile as I glanced over at my son on the other side of the room and then kept them trained on his small body as he shuffled in his sleep before snuggling further into Gabriel’s chest. “Can I trust you Calantha?” I pulled my gaze away with reluctance only to see Calantha looking rather startled at my question but she responded nonetheless.

“Yes, human, I assure you that you can trust me.”  She replied her tone soothing me a bit so that I relaxed back into the chair.

“I need you to do something for me, I know you owe me nothing but I just…” I broke off as I felt tears swim at the edge of my vision. Blinking them away I lowered my gaze to my lap not being able to trust myself with the responsibility of looking her in the eyes without crying. “I need you to look after my son.” I lifted my head as I scurried from the seat and knelt before her, my hands wrapping around her twiggy ones. Resting my head on the back of her hands I just begged her over and over again in a whisper. Normally I would feel bad about lowering myself to beg but it was for Danny, there really was no other option. “Please, please, please.”

“Hush,” she whispered as I felt her take back one of her hands and her fingers stroked through my hair in such a motherly gesture that sent a tears back to my eyes. “What you ask is no great boon, I will protect young Daniel. You have my word.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in before my whole body sagged in relief. “thank you so much.”

Calantha grasped my shoulders and pulled me to my feet before sorting me out, her hands brushing away the tear stains and patting down my hair.

“There is the beautiful human I saw.” She smiled widely as she examined me in my entirety before stepping backwards and taking my hand. “Come, we must prepare you for the feast tonight.”

I gaped for a moment, my mouth opening and closing several times as she pulled me towards the door of the room, giving one last look at the sleeping boys before picking up my pace trying to keep up with her. She let out a throaty laugh before speeding up even more so that my feet were barely touching the ground as I tried to keep pace.

We went further into the palace than I had been yet, the decorations becoming more opulent yet more homely the further away from the entrance we got. I assumed that the less opulent side was for the formalities and this area that Calantha was taking me to was the personal quarters.

We stopped in front of a door made of what looked like green marble but when I questioned her Calantha informed me that it was jade. She gave me a conspiratorial smile.

“It helps to be related to the earth, you get all the minerals you want. You should have seen Murielle’s face when I told her that I wanted a green door. She said it ruined the aesthetics but as you can probably tell, my favourite colour is green.” Her green lips tilted up as she spoke making my own mouth curve into a smile. Reaching forwards Calantha pushed open the door and waved me inside. “Come on; don’t want to linger in doorways.”

Stepping into Calantha’s room was like stepping into another world. There were trees and foliage everywhere yet the place was still comfortable. The sweet scent of roses filled the room and as I glanced to the left I saw that the whole wall was covered in roses. A lattice had been attached to the wall and the stems of the flower were twined around the intricate woodwork.

The sound of water pulled my head in the other direction and I saw a channels built into the wall, tranquilly flowing down the wall before pouring over rocks at the base like a mini waterfall, flooding a small basin with water. The whole place was incredible, one natural beauty after another.

“How do all of the flowers survive down here without sunlight?” I questioned as I remembered science class, I was pretty sure that things that had green in them required the sunlight to survive yet all of these plants with a sunless existence were still thriving.

“We are of the earth, the surface plants have adapted without our constant presence but these ones thrive under our care.” She caressed the petals of a rose closest to her that was quite in bloom and before my very eyes the red shade of the petals darkened to the deep exotic red of the other roses before the petals opened into full bloom. “I have experimented and made a few of my own types of flowers. You will probably see some in the garden tonight, they are truly something to behold.” Her voice took a dreamy edge and for a moment I wondered whether she was truly talking about the flowers.

“Sounds amazing,” I replied lamely not being able to think of anything else to say.

“Yes they truly are,” she murmured before turning back to face me. “Now let’s get ready for tonight, there will be important people there and we want to dress to impress. Just wait until you see Donalbain.” Calantha paused as a dreamy sigh passed her lips and she clasped her hands together over her heart. “He is one beautiful tree.”

I bit my lip to keep from saying anything. A tree? I was curious but at the same time confused as to how a tree can merit a dreamy sigh but, in the end, I put it down to the difference in species as to why I can’t understand her infatuation.

“Sounds great,” I replied when she didn’t say anything else and she jolted as if she had genuinely forgotten I was there. I smiled. No matter the species girls never change.

“Oh sorry, come on we have to get you ready.” Calantha grasped my hand and tugged me towards a small screen made from bamboo. “Go behind there and undress, I will just go and get Hélène, she is the best at dressing people. “Before I could say a word I was pushed behind the screen and the only sound to reach me was the tinkling of water and the sound of her rapidly retreating footsteps.

With a sigh I ripped off the horrid clothing I was in, actually preferring to be naked than in those revealing clothes. My fingers stroked over my scars and I sighed. As much as I wanted to hate them I kind of felt proud, a complete opposite to earlier but they felt like my battle scars and after everything that I’ve been through lately it seemed like a fair deal. It’s not like I could get rid of them anyway.

Animated chatter brought my attention back to the matter at hand. Peeking around the edge of the screen I saw that Calantha had returned with another incarnation of beauty, only this time her  friend looked like she was a relative to a cat. Her eyes were green with the weird slit for a pupil just like a cat, the rest of her however apart from the cat ears and the tail were decidedly human. She caught me staring and smiled showing her pointed canines.

“Hi, I am Hélène. And yes I am part feline,” she paused, her brows furrowing before she shook her head. “No that’s wrong, felines are part me, I came first.” I laughed at her comment, the way she seemed to be chastising herself for saying she came from cats.

“It doesn’t matter Hélène, this is Savannah. We need to get her and ourselves ready for tonight; Donalbain is going to be there.” She waggled her green eyebrows at Hélène who got the same dreamy look in her eye as a purr issued from her throat.

  “Well show me the girl, time away from the delectable Donalbain is a waste of my precious time.” She waved her hands gesturing to herself as if that is explanation enough why her time was so precious.

“Savannah, come on out.” Calantha called so I peeked my head around and waved, not at all comfortable about standing in front of them in my underwear. Especially with my battle scars. “Come on, there’s nothing you’ve got that I haven’t seen.” The two of them chuckled so with a sigh I wrapped my arms around my waist so that I could hide as much of my body as possible and I slipped around the screen so that they could see me in all of my glory.

“Hmm, I’m thinking vines and forest silk?” Already the two were talking animatedly about my outfit whilst I stood there pretending to have a clue what they were going on about.

“No remember Shania.” She clucked her tongue as she peered off in the distance before she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it, I’ll be right back.”  With that Calantha was gone leaving me standing there in my underwear with only a strange cat lady to keep me company. Not only was she part feline but she was incredibly beautiful. What the hell do they put in their water? I think I need to find me some of that magic stuff.

“So…?” I trailed off not being able to think of anything else to say. What could I say to a cat lady without getting pummelled to death because I insulted her by accident?

It didn’t matter really though because Calantha came back in a flurry of materials, many of which I had never seen before. I was ushered from behind the screen and the two of them got to work tugging, poking and prodding. When they finally paused and stepped back I was in a strange corset with sticks for the boning and the material looked as if it was made from a forest canopy. The lush greens and the dark browns blending together to make the most beautiful mosaic of colour across my torso. A thin wisp of material was expertly wrapped around my body, dipping and curving to accentuate my body whilst deftly hiding my scars. They had taken heed of my embarrassment and covered up the damaged side of my body but left the curve of my waist on the other side bare so that everyone would be able to see the exposed flesh.

As I looked at myself in the reflective pool that they were using for a mirror I realised that I no longer looked like myself. I had always been the pretty bordering on average person; I had a great body and a nice face but often dressed to downplay it because not all attention was not always good attention but right now… I took in a sharp breath and spun so that I could engulf the two women into a hug.

“Thank you,” I murmured as I squeezed them tightly until they started choking. My hair that had been in tatters due to the fire had been cut and brushed out and styled but the miracle is my hair is now all the same length and if possible it is longer than it was before. A fringe fell softly across my brow whilst my hair curled around my shoulders in loose waves. I looked like nymph with the strange glow to my skin and the green attire. I looked beautiful.

“No worries,” Calantha pushed my hands from her neck and then straightened anything that had come undone during our hugging session before turning to Hélène and checked her over. The two of them were dressed to accentuate and looked incredible; both of them opted for a green outfit though in different shades, Calantha a darker green whilst Hélène went a soft pastel green that went nicely with her blonde fur. The only way to describe them was stunning.

Hélène started to bounce around the room, her tail swishing back and forth whilst the two of us looked on. I leaned towards Calantha. “How old is she exactly?” I questioned not entirely sure because she looked the same age as me but as she pranced around the room right now she looked about 10 years old.

“She’s nearly 2000 years old, still just a child really, but she’ll grow out of it soon enough, just give it another 200 years or so.” My mouth dropped open as I looked back and forth I could not decide what was more incredible, that she was 2000 years old or the fact that Calantha must be more than that if she can call Hélène a child. Calantha caught my look and laughed. “I’m not much older, I’m only 10,000. I miss the old days sometimes, the Egyptians sure knew how to party.” She paused and added almost as an afterthought, “Though the Pharaohs were always vain. Seriously who builds a giant monument to their face and stick it on the body of one of the most magnificent predators I have laid eyes upon?”

Nodding, I just replied with a one word mumbled reply that even I didn’t know what it was meant to be. We were interrupted by a knock on the door before a woman who radiated power stuck her head around the green stone.

“Come on girls, the feast is going to begin soon and I do not want to miss the boys performance.”

Calantha and Hélène started to squeal before they grasped my hands and tugged me towards the door so fast that my feet barely touched the floor.

“Savannah, hurry up, trust me you do not want to miss this.” Then with a wink the two of them ran faster that humanly possible dragging me along with them. The only thought that stuck in my mind was that these two must really like food.  

Okay this is more of a filler chapter, it was meant to include the feast too but I might add some drama to the feast so that it merits its own chapter. I will be a bit MIA for until the 20th May because of Exams but then I will be back into the book. So please bear with me.