Gabriel burst out laughing. “What happened to the little rebel? Do you think we’re going to get into trouble?”
“You look like bad boys to me. You’ll probably break it, and we’ll have to pay millions,” Adalasia said. “Not to mention, we’ll go to jail, and it will be in the news and draw unwanted attention to us.”
“There is that, Gabriel,” Francesca said, looking very serious. “The children would be mortified. What would their friends say? And those prison clothes, those colors wouldn’t suit you at all.”
“Vandalism of the Dodo Manege.” Adalasia shook her head, her blue eyes alive with laughter. “Such a scandal. What would your brother have to say?”
Sandu thought she was beautiful, standing with the moonlight pouring down over her, bathing her in silver while she tipped her head back, teasing the legendary ancients.
“He would tell me I was a lucky man to have two such beautiful women to ride a carousel with on an unexpected clear night in my beloved city.”
“I do so love a French accent,” Adalasia said sincerely.
Sandu groaned. “Don’t fall for Mr. Charming, Sivamet. He is every bit as ruthless as his twin. Choose your animal, and you can have your first ride on a carousel. It will be one of many firsts in beautiful, incomparable Paris.”
Adalasia pressed her body closer to his while she looked over her choices. Sandu stayed in her mind while she observed each one and read about them. The vulnerable giant panda, the extinct Barbary lion, the critically endangered gorilla, the Sivatherium, which was an interesting mix of a giant giraffe with moose-like antlers, intrigued her. There was an aepyornis, or elephant bird, which looked to her kind of like an ostrich, now extinct. A very cool-looking glyptodon, which was said to be the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, had a hard, armored shell and was a relative to the armadillo.
She stepped onto the platform. Sandu could tell she felt silly to be so excited. It made her feel like a child.
You are giving both of us this first experience. I think the child in us needs it. Pick wisely for us.
Adalasia sent him a genuine, happy smile, and he knew he’d said the right thing to her.
“There is the dodo, of course, the extinct bird. A really nice triceratops, with its three distinctive facial horns and bony crest. I’ve always loved dinosaurs. There is this giant armored horned turtle, Meiolania, now extinct.”
“Those aren’t your choice.”
“No, this is.” She pointed to the one labeled Thylacine. “The Tasmanian tiger. I guess I like the look of it, with its stripes and strange body.”
Sandu knew that wasn’t it. To Adalasia, the animal was lonely. Restless. She read about it, and something in her identified with it. He never wanted her to feel lonely again. She had as a child, watching other children play together, go to school, ride carousels at fairs. He could see those childhood memories playing through her mind as she seated herself on the Tasmanian tiger and flashed him a heart-stopping smile.
Francesca chose the elephant bird, with its blue feathers, looking like an oversized ostrich. Gabriel lifted his wife easily into the saddle and seated himself on the Barbary lion. Sandu had to smile. The two looked an elegant couple even on the carousel of long-lost creatures.
Sandu waved his hand to put a seat on top of the basket the panda was holding so he could watch Adalasia’s every expression as the carousel began to play the circus organ music and the animals responded by moving up and down. Adalasia whipped her head around to look at him, her eyes bright, laughter bubbling up, sharing her joy with him through their intimate connection.
Sandu had never thought to experience such a thing. Never. Those long endless nights of gray voids, an abyss of hell really, a bleak nothingness occasionally interrupted by a battle with the undead, there had been no hope left. He had forgotten joy. Laughter. Fun. Maybe he had never known it. Now there was Adalasia with her brightness.
You are very hard to resist when you look at me like that. There was laughter in her voice. She stroked intimacy in his mind, painted those caresses into the recesses where the scars of darkness were deepest.
You are not meant to resist me, ewal emninumam.
The animals rose up and down as the music played. Sandu looked away from his woman to the night sky once more. Bats were heavier in the air than he thought they should be, and his gut tightened. A slow frisson of alarm spread through his body. He was used to feeling the blankness from the undead. This felt different. A watching. A gathering.
Nicu. His brother from the monastery had an affinity with every creature that others didn’t. Deliberately, he used the pathway of the brotherhood so all of the guardians could hear. Reach for the bats. They feel off to me, as if they watch Adalasia. The Striga could be here.