| |
Isaut slipped out of the room in the quiet of the night. The corridor was dark, but she only needed to cross it to knock on Waltrand's door. He didn't answer, though, and the door was locked. Cursing under her breath, Isaut went back to the square room, simple but elegant.
Her father had told her it used to be Henriot's room, a right hand of the Teeth who had died during a mission. His portrait hung in the Hall of the Teeth with all the others, a stern-looking man with dark hair and obsidian eyes, handsome but cold.
It was comfortable, with well-made furnishings, including a small bed and a thick mattress, a wardrobe, a chamber pot and thick carpeting, but currently it felt stuffy, so Isaut went to the one window that opened on the outside world.
Below the temple mound, the flickering lights of Rainbow City looked like fireflies in the night. After a month-long stay, she had become familiar with what she supposed would be her new home.
The Temple of the Rainbow was one of the largest construction projects in the world. The hilly terrain covered a surface bigger than the monastery of the Fighting Nuns she had grown up in, and, by landfilling, it had been turned into a giant square platform that overlooked the plains around it.
The outer buildings formed a thick wall, with golden domes over the corners and above the main gate. The big courtyard was split by the temple proper and the two square towers flanking it, all roofed with golden domes.
The two-story buildings had flat roofs besides the domes since it didn't snow in the area. The east and west terraces were accessible from the two towers, the north terrace was accessible by a service staircase and was used by the washerwomen to hang the laundry out to dry, and the south terrace, split by the dome of the main gate, was sometimes opened to visitors and pilgrims for the bigger celebrations or on special occasions.
She had reached the compound from the paved road that led to the grand entrance, a stone arch through which even a dragon could step, and allowing the two-way traffic of wagons and carriages. She had gone through the main gate with a group of pilgrims who had then scattered into the first courtyard primarily used as a bazaar, with vendors selling souvenirs, sacrificial animals and food.
She had spent her first night on the compound in that area before she managed to get hold of her father. She only knew he was in the Teeth of the Dragon, the elite warriors who lived at the temple, and her mother had assured her she would recognize him because they had the exact same shade of red in their hair, although he had blue eyes and she green.
The buildings surrounding the first courtyard held guest rooms for pilgrims on the upper floor, and shops and food places on the lower floor, so she had paid for a room while she tried to figure out how to speak with someone in the private part of the temple.
The administrative office opening next to the west tower on the side of the large temple had given her a form to fill in, since apparently the Teeth didn't speak with pilgrims and visitors. She had to go through the priests and priestesses.
Finally the next morning she had gone through the temple proper, and entered the back outer buildings, which held the priests' and novices' living quarters, the refectories, the kitchen and the administrative quarters on the lower floor, while the Teeth lived on the upper floor, where there was also the library and the Hall of the Teeth.
A novice had led her to the High Priestess's chambers in the west tower, where she had met a woman who somehow reminded her of her mother since she had pale hair, pale skin, pale eyes, pale everything.
"I'm Isaut, daughter of Calivorra," she had said. "My mother abandoned me when I reached puberty, and I joined the Fighting Nuns of Inock to learn survival skills and fighting techniques. The only thing she ever told me about my father is that he's a member of the Teeth, and I've come to meet him."
The High Priestess had looked amused and asked how she thought she would recognize her father, at which point she had mentioned their common hair color.
"Ah, well, then, that would be Foulque. Let me call him for you."
Thus she had finally met the man who had sired her. He was pleasantly surprised to find out he had a daughter and looked impressed by her male clothes and the two swords on her back.
He remembered her mother, who had gifted him with a golden dragon before vanishing on him – the High Priestess told Isaut she was a powerful mixed-blood, did she want to join the Teeth?
Isaut knew only that they were the defenders of the Temple of the Rainbow, but also helped everybody across the Land of the White Birches. She assumed they were similar to the Fighting Nuns of Inock, but discovered the Teeth rode dragons, not horses. And they could do so because they had Immortal blood in their veins.
The eastern side of the upper floor held the Teeth's cells lined up on the corridor that went around the courtyard, fourteen in all, with a fifteenth door across from them to access the east tower and Waltrand's chambers, bigger and more comfortable – specular to Kassandra's antechamber and rooms in the west tower.
Since she was now an applicant, she was allowed to move into one of those cells until the day she was either admitted to the elite team or kicked out of the temple. Her father was in the first cell, and she was given the last one, which suited her, since she didn't feel too close to him yet.
The Teeth had twelve members at the moment, including their leader, One-eyed Waltrand, and their ages went from twenty-four to probably over fifty for her father, who apparently was the eldest and the leader's right hand.
Foulque was a half-blood, son of an Immortal of Darkness and a human, and he had joined the Teeth some forty years earlier. He was delighted to train her and had promised to pass his dragon on to her, the golden Aleazin-siak, but she hadn't met the beast yet.
She had met the leader of the Teeth, though. Waltrand was the most handsome man she had ever seen, and he made her blood run wild. Tall and well-toned, with a platinum-blond bob barely reaching his neck and parted on the left side to reveal the blind left eye and the scar that crossed it from the forehead to halfway down the chiseled cheek, he had an aura around him that attracted her.
She had found him irresistible from the moment she had first laid eyes on him, surprising herself. The Fighting Nuns were virgins who never thought about sex, but Waltrand made her feel things she hadn't experienced before. Despite the scar and the missing eye – replaced with a magic gem – she longed to touch him and taste him, and he clearly knew it.
He had allowed her in his chambers once, two days after her arrival at the temple, but ever since his door was closed. He didn't have another lover, he simply wasn't interested in anyone. Isaut suspected her father was aware of her crush, but he hadn't said anything.
Even the High Priestess seemed aware of what had happened, even though nobody ever talked about it. It had been a strange month, between studying and training with her father, and pining for Waltrand, wondering when she'd be allowed into the Teeth and if that would change Waltrand's behavior towards her.
It didn't look like he treated his team members differently, though. All the women of the temple seemed to be in love with him, and even a few men, but he ignored them all. The only two who seemed to be immune to his charm were Kassandra, the High Priestess, and Christelle, the youngest member of the Teeth who seemed to have a romantic relationship with her teammate, Mael.
Having grown up in an all-female environment, Isaut still had trouble dealing with men. She trusted her father and mentor, she loved Waltrand, but the other men of the team made her nervous.
She had noticed the women of the team behaved differently from the Fighting Nuns, clearly used to a mixed environment of men and women working together, hence she hadn't made any friends yet. And if it weren't for her crush on Waltrand and her curiosity towards her father, she might already have gone back to Inock.
She glimpsed a moving shadow from the corner of her eye and leaned out of the window. Something was flying towards the temple. And the closer it got, the more she could see the bat-like wings, serpentine neck and tail, and the four-legged body of a dragon.
She rushed out of her room again to look from the windows of the corridor and saw it land in the darkened courtyard. Someone jumped off its back, then it took off again. Isaut wondered which member of the Teeth had gone on a secret night mission alone, but nobody showed up on the floor.
Disappointed, she went back to her room and closed her door. Maybe she should get some sleep. She closed the shutter and slipped back under the bedsheets, closing her eyes and imagining gorgeous Waltrand lying next to her.