Page 148 of Scourged
Aldric smiled. “I thank you for the kindness, but having lived most my life on the outskirts of the palace, I prefer to give our queen the respect she is owed.”
Mariah liked this man.
He turned back to his birds, trilling softly. A medium-sized red hawk landed on his glove, and Aldric quickly slid a hood over its eyes before setting it on a perch. He tied a small leather cylinder to its leg, just large enough to carry a handful of rolled letters.
“To Andburgh, you said?”
Mariah nodded. “Yes.”
Aldric extended a hand. “If I may have the letter? It should arrive in two days. Shaye here is one of my swiftest flyers.”
“How do they know where to go?” Matheo asked curiously, leaning against the roosts, fingers dangerously close to the beak of a sharp-eyed falcon.
“I assume, lad, that you’re familiar with Onita’s system of post.”
“Well …” Matheo shrugged. “I know there are aviaries just like this one all over Verith and through Onita. I know each city, town, and castle has a roost, and they can distribute letters quickly throughout the kingdom. But how do they do it? The birds, I mean?”
Aldric huffed indignantly. “Because they are bred to do it. They are trained to. The messenger hawks and falcons of Onita are no ordinary hawks and falcons. Maybe it’s our goddesses’ blessed magic or just the paths of nature, but they are born knowing where to fly when asked. Some are more stubborn than the others, but they know this land better than we do.”
“Okay, but … do they need a special language? Or do they speak the common tongue?”
Trefor’s question, and Aldric’s exasperated response, faded from Mariah’s ears as she withdrew the folded piece of paperfrom her pocket. She stared at it, heart hammering in her ears, before slowing unfolding the cream page and reading the words she’d spent hours agonizing over.
Mother, Father, & Ellan:
I hope all is well. I miss you. More than anything. The capital is magical and everything I hoped it would be, but … I need to see you.
Please consider a visit to Verith as soon as possible. There is so much I want to share with you, and I am bursting at my skin to speak to you again. I can have an escort sent to you within the week.
Write back when you get this.
I miss you.
Love, Mariah
P.S.,
Mom, I read the diary. Please come—we have so much to talk about.
“Your Majesty?”
Mariah glanced up at Aldric, mild concern etched across his face. The aviary had fallen silent but for the trills of the birds and the flaps of wings.
“Sorry,” she murmured. She refolded the letter, rolling it into a cylinder, before handing it to Aldric. The aviarist gave her an assured smile as he slipped it into Shaye’s scroll carrier, binding the ends securely.
“Shaye will take care of your message, Your Majesty. You can place your faith in her. She has never let me down.”
The hawk fixed a fierce yellow eye on Mariah, and Mariah could’ve sworn that she dipped her head.
She swallowed. “Thank you, Aldric.” Before any doubts could set in, she whirled toward the exit. “Matheo, if you get any closer to that bird, it’s going to peck your fingers.”
“Hey, we’re friends—ow!”
Trefor laughed. “No one’s fault but your own, idiot.”
Matheo glared. “Why don’t you go fu?—”
“Please, for the love of the gods, can you stop bickering? I need a shower.” Mariah cast one final glance towards Aldric and Shaye, who both still watched her with too-sharp gazes.