kowlazovdi:City of Life Characters: Kelluko Goryë“Stop worrying,” Asha yawned, her yellow eyes narro
kowlazovdi:City of Life Characters: Kelluko Goryë“Stop worrying,” Asha yawned, her yellow eyes narrowed. “What’s the worst that could happen?”“Please do not ask me that question,” Kellu pulled his hood tighter around his face and kept pacing. “He might not show up, or he will show up and decide to turn us in to Rahni, he could arrive with an armed guard, we could be imprisoned as traitors, it could start raining.”“It could start raining?”“You know my joints ache when it rains. How am I supposed to fight or flee if my joints are aching?” In fact, Kellu’s knee was already in pain, but he couldn’t tell if it was an indicator of the weather or simply a remnant from his fight at the palace. He’d been trying not to think about it.Asha chuckled and extended her front legs around him to stop his path, her green scales glowing in the moonlight. “Calm, Kelluko.” He remembered the first time he’d met her, not as an egg or hatchling as most riders met their dragons, but as a battle scarred wildling. He’d felt so small and certain he was about to die. It was strange to think how much had changed since then that her presence made his soul rest. “Remember why I chose you, motakek.”Kellu took a deep breath and repeated the words she’d spoken all those centuries ago. “Brave, loyal, true.” They still felt like lies. Like the cosmos had made a terrible mistake and somewhere was a brilliant hero waiting for a calling that would never find them. He didn’t feel brave, he felt like a coward waiting to pawn his problem off onto someone else so that he could go home.Asha released a hot breath in approval, knocking his hood back off his head. “And if your joints do start aching I can always-” she sat up straight, head held high so that she was looking down on her surroundings. In a heartbeat her demeanour had changed from Asha, his most trusted friend, to Ashalaya, one of the last wild dragons born to the world. “We have company.”He turned around to see a man standing in the shadows, straight backed and staring at Asha not in fear, but in something close to wonder. “I’ve never been this close to a dragon before,” he said, too far from them for Kellu to get a good look at his face. “State your business, friend.”“I could ask you to do the same. It’s suspicious, you know, for a hooded man to be in this part of the city at night,” he gestured to the dilapidated buildings around them. It was true, Shainen’s lowest island was home only to those the rest of the city wanted to forget about. Those who had been dying or high when time had stopped and as such had remained that way, the only other people who went there were ones looking for trouble. “And with a dragon no less. Someone might think you’re trying to escape.”Kellu narrowed his eyes and instinctively tapped into his magic, increasing the durability of his body, and behind him Asha gave a deep, throaty growl in warning. “My name is Kelluko Goryë, and this is Ashalaya, we are riders of Shainen. I ask you again to state your business.”The stranger pushed his hands into his pockets and walked into the light. He had a young face, offset by the premature greying of his black hair. His dark brown skin contrasted by the vibrant cord of red silk tied round his throat; the symbol of the Barajan Doomsayers. Kellu felt the tension leave his body at the sight of it. “Oh, I know who you are Mr Goryë, and you too Ashalaya, your reputations preceed you. But that does not mean I trust you.” Kellu had to make a conscious effort not to gawk. For centuries this man had seemed more a myth to him than a real person, for him to suggest that he’d heard of them before was ridiculous.“Svi Svanderru,” Asha drawled. “What exactly about us isn’t trustworthy?” Kellu repressed a cringe at her tone of voice. It was the tone of a queen talking to her lessers. Svi’s black eyes twinkled with amusement, the corner of his mouth pulled into a slight smile. “Aside from the cryptic messages, the secrecy, and the insistance that I come here alone in the dead of night?”“Yes, aside–” Kellu gulped, “–aside from that.”“Well, I suppose nothing, then.”Silence fell between them all, then. Kellu guessed that for Asha and Svi it was more a challenge, a game to see who would relent first, but for him it was just uncomfortable. Words seemed to die in his throat as he frantically scrambled for something to say. Not for the first time he, rather selfishly, wished he’d told his sister of this burden. Nualli, bright and confident Nualli, would have known what to say to difuse the tension. But he couldn’t bring this to her, no matter how much his heart longed to. She didn’t deserve to have this weight on her shoulders. Slowly, Kellu extended a clammy hand and with the steadiest voice he could muster said, “Svi Svanderru, my name is Kelluko Goryë and I have information regarding a coup that took place two weeks ago.”The amusemnt vanished from Svi’s face, replaced by a serious look that made him look years older. Kellu wondered how old he’d been when time had stopped, whether he’d truly been as young as he looked or if it was his attitude that made him seem youthful. He seemed to assess Kellu, dark eyes boring into his soul and leaving him feel exposed. Then he turned his attention to Asha, not once balking at the size or ferocity of her.Whatever Svi saw when he looked at them, he would never know. But it must have been positive for he reached out and took Kellu’s hand in a firm grip, looked him in the eye, and said “I’m listening.” Keep reading -- source link