She met the woman as specified, midnight on a far distant isle. As she drew closer, she saw her: tall, thin as a blade, wrapped in a gossamer cloak of some lacy dark fabric. The heavy velvet dress she wore could clearly be seen through the mesh, but the veil over her face obscured all but her mouth. She was pale, though her hands were dark.
Emilly was not; she was wearing her priest's robes of red, her feet shod only in thin slippers against the spray-slick cobblestones, nothing else protecting her from the night.
She cast her eyes at the small twin cases at her side, stepping closer. She heard the soft rush of the waves onto the beach behind them, the echo of tidal waters lapping at the pier supports beneath them, and from somewhere more distant, the sound of a ship's bell. She had brought her own cases, of a sort--two carved crystal cylinders, sealed with arcane symbols, clutched to her chest.
"You have--" She swallowed, lowering her voice. "You have the guardians?" Murmured on the night air, barely disturbing the soft light wind from the shore.
The woman barely glances to her side. One single nod. Then her gaze lifts, hidden in the hood, but she feels it nonetheless, burning into the precious cargo she holds.
"You've brought them, I see," the woman said. It was almost a purr, soothing and threatening at the same time. She watched her dark lips quirk up in a brief smile. She swallowed, and nodded once, then took one step closer.
"You cannot, cannot reveal their origin to anyone," she murmured. "They must be treated as having no descendency." She looked down, her eyes haunted, at the tiny boy and tiny girl kitten in stasis....both discovered in the nursery. She looked back up, expression intent.
"No one must ever know--"
"Hush," the woman said, and she blinked rapidly, falling silent. What--had she done to--
She watched the woman reach out her hands, and she gave her the crystal canisters, her own arms trembling. The woman nodded once, and indicated with an inclining motion the two cases at her feet. She took one measured step back.
"Remember," the woman murmured. "They must be raised as normal cats, to let their powers grow unfettered. When it is time for the ritual, you will know. And you will gain two guardians for your heirs."
She swallowed and nodded, bending forward to pick up the cases. When she rose, she was the only one on the dock, and she hurried back to her ship, worried over how she would explain this to the Duke...or if she would explain it at all.
After all, they weren't the only kittens she had in stasis....whose only parents could be Cleo, Athena, or Enoch...
She hurried home, biting her lower lip, and carefully opened the small case in the Red Queen's tower. First out was a pale striped male, the name sinking between her eyes with a faint, thrumming chime: Śiva. All right. Shiva it would be.
The second in the case was a female, pale as moonlight, pale as bones. Her name entered her head the same way, but with the faintest scent of jasmine: Pārvatī. "Parvati," she whispered, setting the small kitten down.
And now, she would wait, and carefully raise her new charges. Her babies would need them...
(Continued in part XCIX.)
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