“What are you doing, bad boy!” Celie scolded. “You’re supposed to stay with Pogue and the ship!”
Pogue Parry, a knight and a good friend of all the Glower family, was coming after them with the parts of a massive ship that was Lilah and Lulath’s wedding gift from Celie’s father, King Glower. He was also bringing a wagon containing toys, harnesses, and food for the various griffins, as well as Rolf’s newly hatched Dagger-the-Golden, who was too small to fly for long.
Queen Amatopeia had sidled closer, and now she slowly extended her hand. She raised her eyebrows at Celie and waited for Celie’s nod before moving her hand closer to Rufus. Rufus sniffed her hand delicately, and then he lashed his long lion tail and squawked.
“He likes you,” Celie translated.
“Here comes my Lady,” Queen Celina said, pointing to the sky. “She’s the queen of the griffins,” she explained to the Grathians. “And we call her Lady Griffin.”
“Wondrous,” whispered King Kurlath.
The lithe golden figure circled above them twice before she landed beside her son, Rufus. The queen of the griffins had attached herself to Queen Celina after they had brought her from the griffins’ home world of Hatheland, where the Castle had also been built, centuries before. Lord Griffin—her mate and the king of the griffins—was bonded to King Glower, but even more so to the Castle, and so he had stayed home with the king to watch over the Castle and Sleyne. Queen Celina stroked Lady Griffin’s head, and then invited King Kurlath to be sniffed and approved by the griffin queen.
Lilah’s Juliet and Lulath’s Lorcan the Destroyer were not far behind. Rolf scanned the skies for his griffin, but Dagger had only just started to fly while they were on their journey and wouldn’t have been able to keep up.
Celie knew that Pogue wouldn’t have let a griffin as young as Dagger take off on his own anyway. The carts with the ship and the griffins were almost a day behind them at this point, since they had rushed ahead in the royal carriage to meet Lulath’s family. Only a strong flier with a good sense of direction could have followed them.
“Oh, they are the darlings!” Queen Amatopeia enthused. “But Lulath! Lorcan the Destroyer? What a name for this fine beast!”
“I am being this fond of our ancestor Lorcan,” Lulath said stiffly.
His mother just shook her head and shared a look with Lilah. “And this is being your darling?” she asked Lilah, holding out a gentle hand to Juliet.
Lilah proudly introduced Juliet. Even Celie had to admit that Juliet was a beautiful griffin: delicately boned, sleek, her fur and feathers a shining bright gold with a hint of cream at the tips of her wings. Rufus was more stocky in build, larger, and a darker gold, with copper-brown markings on his wings. Celie thought him to be the finest of all griffins, of course, but Juliet looked like an artist’s ideal of the animal.
The doors to the palace opened again, and a small gray-and-white dog sidled out. It took one look at the griffins and its puffy tail drooped. Rufus, meanwhile, saw it and hissed.
“No!” Celie grabbed Rufus’s harness. “Don’t you dare!”
“Oh, the horror!” King Kurlath said, throwing up his hands. “Will they be having the small dogs for eating?”
“No, because they know better,” Celie said, making her voice stern and looking at Rufus as she said it.
“They want to play with the dogs,” Lilah said, pulling back on Juliet’s harness. “But the way they play is too rough. They tear their toys apart when they play.”
“Oh, very,” Queen Amatopeia said, and apparently could think of nothing to add. Celie didn’t blame her. The entire palace was full of griffin chew toys.
“We can be taking the griffins to the gardens direct,” King Kurlath said. “And then we must be thinking careful of the dogs and the birds and where they are being.”
Lulath’s mother let out a small scream. “And where are being your only darlings, my son?” she demanded. “Where are being JouJou and Kitsi, Bisi, and Niro?”
“They are in the carriage,” Lilah was quick to assure her. “In their travel baskets. One of the servants is bringing them.”
“Are you thinking I would be giving up my darling girls? Even for so fine of a griffin?” Lulath looked mortally offended.
“It is being only a question,” his mother said, mollified. “Now, to be following this way, please!”
She led them away from the front doors and across the side of the courtyard to a high, arched doorway in a wall inlaid with beautiful pale-pink seashells. Celie made herself a promise to explore every inch of the Grathian royal palace and touch the beautiful shells that decorated it.
But for now she led Rufus through the arched doorway and into a long tunnel formed by an arching row of trees with purple flowers that dangled like grapes. She did reach out and touch the flowers, and Rufus snatched a bunch and then spit them out. Celie would have been embarrassed, but King Kurlath saw and laughed.
“They are the precious, are they not?”
Celie felt a wave of relief wash over her. She loved Lulath, and would never be embarrassed by anything she said or did in front of him—or anything Rufus did, either—but she had worried the whole way to Grath that perhaps Lulath’s parents were different. Perhaps they were very formal or very stiff in their manners, the way Lulath had first appeared to be, with his fancy clothes and fastidious habits. She had often wondered if Lulath’s stories about his family’s many pets were true (although now they knew for certain that he was not exaggerating when he talked about the dogs), or if he had been sent to stay in Sleyne because his family wanted to be rid of him.
Judging from the warm welcome they had all received, his parents hadn’t sent him to Sleyne to be rid of him. And they really did seem eager to add Lilah to their family as well. And of course they liked dogs; Celie herself was very fond of dogs, and Lulath’s girls in particular. But griffins were another matter—though it did look as if Lulath’s parents were prepared to welcome griffins into their home.
“Ah! This very garden!” King Kurlath said, throwing open another arched door. “Please to be thinking of it always and forever as your garden, our family of the Glower!” He swept forward and then turned to beckon to them with both hands.
The griffins didn’t need any encouragement. They jostled and squawked as they left their people behind and tried to be the first through the door. Finally the tangle of wings and talons was clear and the two-legged creatures could follow them. Celie let her mother and the Grathian queen go first, then Lilah and Lulath and Rolf, so she was last and couldn’t see anything for a moment, just griffins and the backs of her family and friends, who had all gone silent.
Celie didn’t know what had happened, at first. But then everyone began to wander slowly forward, and she was able to get a look at this very garden, which had just been presented to them.
It was breathtaking.
Banks of exotic flowers filled the garden with color and perfume. The close-cropped lawn was the color of emeralds, and here and there were stone benches or tables that were inlaid with shells the creamy white of the finest pearls. Across the garden was a low stone wall, and Rufus rambled over to it with Celie at his heels. When they got there, Celie gasped at what she saw.