“Lorcan!” Lulath cried, waving his arms. “You come down here right now!”
“Lorcan, here, boy,” Celie called. She pulled a pouch of dried figs from her sash and waved them at the griffin. “Your favorite! Come down!”
Now the other griffins began to squawk, wondering if they, too, needed to be upset. Lulath, Celie, and Lilah all gathered around the coach, trying to coax Lorcan down with promises of various treats—and the occasional threat of no treats if he didn’t comply. Barking erupted from the coach, and Celie opened the door to see Lulath’s dogs peeking out of their traveling baskets. Lulath had said that he would take them so that Lilah needn’t worry about his griffin and his dogs, but Celie suspected that he just couldn’t have parted with Lorcan and his girls all at once.
The four little dogs leaped down from the coach and turned to look up at the roof. Lorcan leaned his head over the edge and screeched at them. JouJou yapped fiercely, and Lorcan pulled back.
“I’ll put them back in their baskets,” Lilah said.
Just as she stooped to gather them up, Lorcan leaped down from the coach. Nisi barked now, and he cowered before the tiny, bow-bedecked creature. She strolled over and climbed up onto his back. The others followed, sitting on his legs and rump. Lorcan looked at Lulath and made a piteous noise.
“You’ll have to leave the girls.” Lilah sighed.
Celie set their travel baskets down by Lorcan. Then she picked up JouJou and stuck her under one arm so that she could take hold of Lorcan’s harness with the other.
“It’s going to be all right,” she told Lulath.
He hugged Celie, then turned and tenderly kissed and hugged Lilah.
“It is best, Father, that I leave quickly, I think,” he called in Grathian.
Lulath mounted his horse, and so did the soldiers who were guarding the party. The tax collectors hurried to get inside the coach. Celie supposed this arrangement was better for everyone: the girls would help keep Lorcan under control, and the tax collectors wouldn’t have to share the coach with four dogs.
The court gave a cheer as the horses left the gates, and Celie and the Glower family joined in. As soon as the gates closed, Celie led Lorcan and the others to their garden. Lilah brought Juliet and Dagger, Pogue came with Arrow and Rufus, and soon Queen Celina and Lady Griffin joined them.
“Here we all are,” Rolf said, rather glumly.
The dogs played on the grass, and Lorcan joined them. Celie stayed within reach, ready to leap at his harness if he showed signs of trying to follow Lulath now. Lady Griffin, who normally didn’t pay attention to Lulath’s girls, since she was not allowed to eat them, positioned herself nearby as well, and kept one eye on Lorcan in a motherly way.
“I think we’ll be all right,” Celie said. “We can do this.”
“We don’t have much of a choice,” Lilah pointed out.
“The good news is, I don’t have to sit here moping,” Pogue said. “I’ve got to get back to the ship to help.” Then he made a hasty bow toward Queen Celina. “If that is all right with Your Majesty?” he quickly asked.
“Yes, of course,” she said, smiling. “You know how much we appreciate all the hard work you’ve done, Sir Pogue.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Pogue said. He straightened and turned to Celie. “Do you want me to leave Arrow?”
“Please,” Celie said. “I may need him to sit on Lorcan.”
Bright Arrow was younger than Lorcan, but already bigger. In fact, he was nearly as big as Lord Griffin, and showed no signs of stopping soon. He ate twice as much as Rufus, and was muscular and sleek at the same time. He looked exactly like one of the fighting griffins depicted on the tapestries back in the Castle.
“If you children are engaged here,” Queen Celina said, “I believe I’ll go to my lesson with the Royal Wizard. He’s teaching me all about poison,” she said brightly.
“Mother!” Lilah said, shocked.
“And the antidotes,” their mother said, waving her hand. “Don’t fuss, Lilah.”
Lady Griffin got up to follow Queen Celina out of the garden. As she passed, she carked some instruction to Lorcan, who ducked his head as though chastened.
“Stay here, Lady Griffin,” Celie coaxed.
The griffin queen gave her a superior look, and Queen Celina looked over her shoulder. “No,” she said. “Best to let her come with me. She’s half wild herself.”
They lined up the rest of the griffins, and Celie tried to teach them commands involving a short word and a hand gesture that would make the griffins pounce, or strike with a talon. It was actually quite fun, especially when they tied cushions to Rolf and got him to be the villain the griffins would attack. Lulath’s girls watched from the safety of their baskets and swished their plumed tails and barked in approval from time to time.
By the time they’d exhausted the griffins—and Rolf—Celie was very pleased. They’d all learned some of the commands, and she was convinced that Rufus was a prodigy. He grasped the commands much faster than the others and was always ready to jump on Rolf when instructed. He was also older than the others, but she pushed that thought aside. Rufus was the best griffin, and that’s all there was to it.
“I’m going to go show Pogue,” she said, calling Arrow and Rufus to her with a flick of the wrist, a command they had just learned.
“Want me to come?” Rolf asked.
“If you want,” Celie said, but she looked at Lilah as she said it. Juliet and Lorcan were curled up and looked like they might be falling asleep with the girls piled on top of them, so Lilah mouthed that she would be all right.
Celie hopped on Rufus, and Rolf got on Arrow’s back and whistled for Dagger, which made Lorcan stir but not wake, fortunately. Together they flew down to the shipyard, thus avoiding having to call for a coach and footmen and possibly put on new clothes. It was much easier to do things with her brother, Rolf, than with pretty much anyone else she knew, except for Pogue, and she said as much when they landed.
“Ah, yes,” Rolf said, nodding his head. “Pogue.”
“What about him?” Celie demanded.
“Oh, nothing,” Rolf said innocently. “Except that you’re getting to be very grown-up, and Pogue . . . well, here he comes,” Rolf said, smothering a laugh with one hand.
Celie turned to look. Pogue was headed toward them, as Rolf had said, clapping for Arrow, who ran to greet his person. Pogue had his hair tied in a topknot the way the Grathian sailors did, and he had taken off his shirt in the heat. Celie felt her cheeks go warm.
She wasn’t sure where to look as she told Pogue about the griffin training and put Arrow through his paces. Then Pogue offered to show them the work that had been done on the ship that day.
“If you recall,” Rolf whispered as they followed Pogue to the ship, “I once predicted this would happen. And now it’s going to be nothing but sighs and playing with your hair and Lilah teaching you how to flutter your eyelashes.”
Celie’s entire face was burning now. “Ugh,” she said. “That’s not . . . he’s my friend!”
She jumped onto Rufus’s back and flew up to the deck of the ship.