The apollo, p.15
The Apollo, page 15
Matteo couldn’t speak. He opened his mouth and closed it again, trying to string together words into a sentence that even began to capture what he wanted to tell her.
“The only way you are different from Miguel, from my father, is you pretend to be good when you aren’t. At least they know exactly who they are and don’t act like anything different.”
Her voice was steady. It hadn’t cracked even once until she said, “Matteo, I let you kiss me, and you still lied.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care!” she was screaming now, letting specs of spit fly into his face. “Was it worth it? Did you get what you wanted from me?”
“No,” Matteo whispered in response.
“Of course, you never did get me into bed with you, did you?”
“That’s not it, Avira.” Without thinking, he shoved his hand through the bars at her. She backed away, a look of disgust on her face. But then she saw the glint of gold hanging from his hand. A sparkling golden pendant with a falcon at the center, the falcon’s outstretched wings carved with hundreds of tiny brush stroke details, its eyes two diamonds.
“That is my mother’s.”
“She made me promise I’d protect you from any harm that came your way. She knew it meant she might never see you again, but she didn’t care. I promised her and I wanted so badly to keep it. So, no, I did not get what I wanted from you, from this. Because you are here, kidnapped by the Queen of the Shaheeni to be carted back to Alvanii like a prized sapphire.”
Avira’s face scrunched up. She let the necklace fall into her hand where she stared at it for a long, silent moment.
“Do you know why my father’s symbol is a falcon, Matteo?”
He shook his head.
“Because he thinks they look fearsome. But you know, Adipe uses falcons as her messengers because they are wise, graceful and loyal. It’s ironic isn’t it, that something so brilliant can be heralded simply for how it looks?”
Avira was no longer talking about birds.
“Don’t you want that too? Don’t you want to fly free like a falcon?”
“That’s just it, Matteo,” she said without making eye contact. “The most helpful falcons are the ones tamed and used for the good of others, the ones who work in partnership with a falconer. Maybe that’s what’s supposed to come of me. I want to do this. I want to do something bigger. I can’t spend the rest of my days hiding. I just don’t understand why you lied to me for so long.”
“Avira,” Matteo said, getting as close to her as he could. “If I’d have been honest with you, you’d have snapped my neck.”
Avira blinked at him. She relaxed and stepped closer to the cell, close enough to run her hand down his cheek, resting it on his shoulder.
“I always believed my adventures would happen alone. But here you are. Strange.”
he tensed up again and turned to go, keeping the pendant in her closed fist.
“Avira, wait.” She stopped to look back at him as he spoke. “Your mother would want you to wear that.”
Wordlessly, she slid on the pendant and left. The air felt so much heavier than it had before.
Avira knocked gently on Adipe’s cabin door. Fela opened it with a smile and escorted Avira back to the sofa where Mirjana was talking at a mile a minute about a novel she’d read from Alvanii that was ‘positively heinous.’
Adipe poured a cup of tea for Avira, not speaking at all until Avira said softly, “Let Matteo escort me. He’ll be helpful.”
And, sipping their tea in near silence, the three women all relaxed into their plan.
Chapter twenty-five
Not even an hour later, two guards came in to let Adipe know the ship was docking at her palace. It was no surprise to Avira that Adipe had her own private shipyard available to her at all times. She was, however, surprised when she, Adipe and Mirjana made their way to the deck of the ship. Shaheen looked nothing at all like she’d expected.
Avira had imagined Shaheen was a small city-state wrapped on three sides by a desert and bordering the sea. She’d heard stories about the rocky Shaheeni beaches, the luxurious bathhouses, and fragrant markets that dotted every corner. She knew Shaheen was grande. But the city that lay before her was more opulent than she could have ever dreamed of. Shaheen was built on a towering cliffside. The city stretched out in all directions, with tall villas and lush gardens visible from the sky. Avira let her mouth drop open as she balked.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“I thought my father was exploiting you? Using all your resources so you had none left!”
“He is.” Adipe sounded somber even through her pride. “Imagine what my city could look like if we were allowed to keep all of our wealth rather than just the sliver your father leaves for us.”
“Where does it all come from?” Avira said she still had not found where the city ended. It appeared to go on forever, past the horizon—an unending city.
“The Goddesses have always blessed us—riches from the sea and friends to the South. I used to pray that we could have alliances with Alvanii and Veronii too, but—” Adipe clicked her tongue.
Instead of a rope ladder, they stepped onto a large wooden platform with ropes on each end. Two guards then lowered the platform from the ship’s deck to a circle of stones in the center of what appeared to be a palace garden. There were fruit trees and flowering shrubbery. Mirjana nearly immediately disappeared, muttering something about wanting to see if any letters had arrived from her friends while she was gone.
Falcons darted everywhere above them, many of which looked as though they were carrying letters on their backs. Avira stared at them, mesmerized.
Adipe told Fela, who Avira had learned was the queen’s most trusted lady's maid, to find Matteo and pull him from his prison cell. He was to be bathed and dressed in traditional Shaheeni clothing before being brought before the queen to be given his orders.
“Is it true,” Adipe said, “that he looks like a true-born Shaheeni boy despite being raised in Veronii?”
Avira nodded her head and agreed that it was pretty odd. She blushed a little, remembering the night she and Matteo had made lemonade together and she’d pushed him too hard for the details of his childhood.
Adipe and Avira were escorted from the garden into the palace, which was the most illustrious building Avira had ever seen. It hardly felt like a home, but rather a grand temple. Each hallway was the size of a city street, wound around in circles decorated with intricate mosaic tiles.
At the end of one of the hallways, a great room with two massive mosaics, at least two stories tall, towering above a golden throne decorated in sapphires.
“Are those the goddesses?” Avira stared at the mosaics that stretched up the wall. She’d never seen the goddesses depicted like this, so incredibly human. Aurora, the goddess of the sky, reached out a hand toward her sister, Salicia. Her hair was done in such detail that you could see it evaporating into clouds. She was nearly naked except for the pink and orange scarves she wore wrapped around her body in intricate knots. Against the darkness of Aurora’s skin, the scarves almost looked like a sunrise.
In the mosaic, Salicia held her hand to meet Aurora’s, but they could barely reach her. Whereas Aurora showed nearly every inch of skin, Salicia was covered from the top of her head to the tip of her toes in blue robes and scarves. Her hair was covered though small white whisps peaked their way out. She was crying, blue tears running down her cheeks. Avira strained her eyes to see, but she thought that the tears might be made of sapphires.
“Why is she crying?” Avira asked.
“Because she cannot reach Aurora.”
“They’re close sisters, then?”
Adipe snorted. “Who told you they were sisters? No. They are in love. But they cannot be together, or our world will lose balance. That is why when the skies are angry, so is the sea. They watch one another and respond to one another. They are one.”
Avira’s heart felt fuller than it had in days. She’d never been taught about Salicia, the goddess of the sea, past the fact that she was fickle and not to be trusted. It felt different to know Salicia’s heart was a heart in love.
“They cannot hold one another so, instead, they protect each other. It is beautiful.” Avira couldn’t tell, but she thought she could see the glitter of a tear in Adipe’s eye. She didn’t ask, though.
“Come, I will show you to your suite.”
“Oh, I don’t need a suite! I’ve been in a shared bunk for the last month. I can handle it a little longer.”
“Nonsense!” Adipe silenced her. “You are a hero. We will treat you as such while you are here. Besides, I had one of my maids shop for an entire new wardrobe of gowns for you to pick from.”
Avira hadn’t missed gowns at all. She was so fond of the pants that she hadn’t immediately understood why Adipe’d bought any gowns. Then she remembered that she had to wear something when she was presented to Gavriel, and it was probably for the best that she looked like a proper Alvanian woman.
Just as Adipe began walking away from the throne room, Fela came rushing in with someone at her heels. The boy who trailed behind her was unrecognizable compared to the one Avira knew.
Matteo’s curls had been braided close to his head in little rows with small beads tied in. The beads weren’t jewels like Adipe’s, but they still glittered in the light. He wore a long silver kaftan that went down to his knees, matching silver trousers beneath that, and a pair of white sandals tied to his feet with various knots. He looked absolutely, indisputably Shaheeni.
Matteo bowed deeply to the queen, who said nothing in response. Avira half expected some of the queen’s quick wit or banter to accompany Matteo’s introduction, but Adipe was standing in silence, her dark eyes locked on Matteo.
“What is your name, boy?” Adipe asked, the tone of her voice severe and stern.
“Matteo De Luca.”
“Is that the name your mother gave you? De Luca?”
“No. I never knew my mother. My adoptive parents called me Matteo, and I took their last name.”
Adipe gave a knowing hmmm. She looked deep in thought, clearly knocked off her feet by the boy. Fela seemed to notice and quickly took control of the situation.
“Madame, would you like me to show Avira to her room?”
Adipe nodded. “Leave the boy with me. We have things to discuss.”
Fela scurried away, and Avira followed her closely, saying nothing to Matteo, who kept his eyes locked on Adipe. Once the two of them were down the hall, Fela turned to Avira and asked, “How does the queen know that boy?”
Avira shook her head. “She doesn’t. Not that I know of, at least.”
Fela gave a confused sigh and sped up her walking. Almost to herself, she said, “It was like he took the air right out of her lungs.”
Chapter twenty-six
Matteo had been planning to stay by Avira’s side for the rest of the day. But the queen appeared to have a different plan in mind. She whisked him out of the throne room and into a study with massive open windows looking out onto the garden. In the garden, a family of peacocks strutted around. It looked like something out of a storybook.
“Would you like some tea?” the queen asked him, pouring tea herself rather than waiting for a servant to come to do it for her. The tea she was brewing didn’t look the way Matteo was used to. It was far darker in color, and its leaves had expanded to almost fill the pot. Seeming to notice his apprehension, Adipe said, “It’s called pu’er. Artemis gave it to me as a gift from his travels in the Far East. It’s quite strong.”
She poured him a cup, no longer seeming to care whether he wanted it. Her hands were shaking a bit as she poured.
“Have you been briefed on your duties protecting the girl?”
“I have.” Matteo took a sip of his tea, which was still a bit too hot, and burnt his lips as he drank. She was right, it was intense. It felt like liquor going down.
“She has chosen to put her life on the line for our people. I can only pray you would do the same for her should something go wrong.”
Matteo tried to ignore the queen’s use of ‘our people.’ He didn’t even speak Shaheeni. It felt wrong to claim them as his own.
“With all respect, I’m wondering what the danger is for her. We’re giving Gavriel what he wants, aren’t we?”
Adipe shook her head. “He is a violent man. He might act out in anger if he suspects he’s being lied to. We’ve sent him a letter claiming to have captured her. If he learns that she is doing this of her own free will, or worse, that we hope to free her from her father once she’s back in Alvanii, all will be for naught.”
“And when you free her, won’t they assume it was you? Doesn’t that just put you right back where you started?”
“Maybe. I hope not. But if we are at war again in three months, at least we will have time to prepare.”
Now it was Matteo’s turn to shake his head. It felt like a far too risky plan to throw Avira right into the center. But he’d been given his orders, and he felt there was little space for him to argue.
A peacock in the garden had become fixated on pulling a golden plum down from the tree’s boughs. Matteo watched the bird pull the branch as far down as it would go and then tried to reach for the plum, letting go of the branch and sending it flying back out of reach.
“I must admit, Matteo,” Adipe said, “I did not wish to speak with you purely about our plans for tricking Gavriel Castillo. He couldn’t be further from my mind right now.”
Matteo caught the woman’s eye. There was a glint of gold in her stare that he hadn’t noticed before. “What do you mean?”
“Tell me everything you know about your birth mother.”
“I already have.”
“No, there must be more. Did she leave you with any clues to who you were?”
“I’m sorry. No.”
“Does the name Hamida Al Amir mean anything to you?
Adipe sounded desperate, her voice breaking more and more with each word. Matteo even considered lying to her for comfort, but he did not know what she was talking about.
“Please,” he begged her, “I don’t know what you mean.
“I mean…” Adipe took a long deep breath. “I have seen your eyes before. I know your eyes. I have only ever seen such deep, stormy eyes once.”
“Who is Hamida Al Amir?”
“She was my best friend. And, in many ways, she was the greatest love of my life.” Adipe poured herself another cup of tea.
“My mother and father ruled together as king and queen. Their dearest friends were named Selene and Akram. Akram was my father’s closest advisor. They had two children, twins named Hamida and Alonso. They were exactly my age and my closest friends. I never had siblings. It is customary for the Shaheeni royal family to have one child and one child only. Hamida and Alonso were as close to family as I had.
“As time went on, I learned that my mother and Selene were planning for my marriage to Alonso. He would be my husband, and I would lead Shaheen as the sovereign queen. Only after I learned of my betrothal to Alonso did I realize the depth of my love for Hamida. I wanted her ruling next to me, not her brother.”
Adipe giggled as though there were a thousand memories flooding back to her and rushing over her like a river.
“I like to think she wanted that too. But I will never know. One day I woke up and Hamida was gone. She’d taken a glider and gone to see the world. Her mother and father worried for fifty days and fifty nights until finally a letter arrived on a falcon saying she had made it safely to Alvanii and she’d fallen in love with a wealthy merchant. I was crushed. I made my mother move my wedding to Alonso so we could be wed sooner. I thought if she got word of our marriage, she’d come home. I thought perhaps I could see her again if I just gave in and married Alonso. But she didn’t return. I married Alonso and a few days later a falcon arrived with a note for me saying she was pregnant, and they would be making a life for themselves in Veronii with their child.”
Tears were welling up in Adipe’s eyes.
“I never heard from Hamida again. I thought perhaps she’d just ignored me for twenty years but now I see. This boy in front of me, a Shaheeni boy raised in Veronii with Hamida’s eyes? It cannot be a coincidence.
“Alonso died of a fever when Mirjana was small, but I’ve never minded being alone because I prayed that someday Hamida would come home to me. Now I see that can never be. But Aurora brought you to me.”
Matteo could feel his face heating up. All his life, he’d wanted to know who he was and now it was being handed to him, and he didn’t know what to say.
“How did she die, Matteo?”
“I don’t know.”
She shrunk down into Matteo’s arms, and he did the best he could to comfort her. He could feel his kaftan growing damp from her tears.
“I am so sorry,” was all he could say. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”
Adipe snapped her head and looked straight into his eyes, “Do not apologize! You are here now. My Hamida’s son has come home to Shaheen, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
Chapter twenty-seven
Fela showed Avira to her suite, where a hot bath and a pot of tea were waiting for her. There was a wardrobe filled with six gowns, each one wildly different. Trying on six different Alvanian dresses, with their frilly lace and impossibly large hoop skirts, didn’t interest Avira at all. So, she flopped herself down on the sofa and stared out the window of her room into the gardens. She did this for a long time, letting the world turn around her.
A cluster of jasmine flowers hung right outside her bedroom window. Avira wanted so badly to reach out and pick it. She kept going back and forth as to whether or not she should. It was doubtful that anyone would be too angry with her. But it felt cruel to kill the flowers just because she thought they were beautiful. She stood and walked to them, taking the stem in her hands and pulling ever so slightly, but the flowers wouldn’t come free. Avira took this as a sign.
