Chapter Text
The trees grew close as fabric weave, and Miles could walk no further into the forest's depths. He peered through the trunks, brushing aside the thick, thorny ferns with his gloved hands. In the dim light, he could make out only a few pale orchids. Not a creature stirred within, but the air tasted of heat and heaviness. Beast magic. The palace of the birds was close.
"Looking for something?"
Miles leaped back, stumbling over a tree root that nearly brought him to the ground. He drew his sword and glared up at the where the voice had come from.
A girl stared back from the trees. At the sight of his blade, she rocked back into the man standing next to her, who put a steadying hand to her elbow.
Not a girl, Miles reminded himself. Not this far into the forest of the birds. He narrowed his eyes when the shadows behind her resolved into wings, which fanned briefly to keep her balanced, but didn't otherwise react. Dark wings, her black hair, the loose white robe and beads around her neck...She could only be one of the little black speaker birds, a raven or a crow. Not a particularly dangerous beast, for all that the public found their constant chatter to both the living and the dead frightening.
About the true nature of the man-shaped creature to her right he could discern nothing. Not another crow, certainly, for all that it had similar coloring.
But how much threat could there be in a crow and crow's companion? He lowered his sword point. "I seek the kingdom of birds," he said.
With a grin, the crow spread her wings and arms wide. "Well, you're here! You've been here for a while, actually. Ever since way, way back by the edge of the trees."
"I think he meant that he's looking for the palace," said the man. He smiled down at Miles. "Right?"
Miles nodded stiffly. He sheathed his sword, but kept one hand twisted in a rune for icecalling. One could never be too careful with beasts, even if this one seemed soft.
The crow squinted, then jumped a few branches closer. "And what does a hunter want with the palace, huh? You planning on going after our king?"
Miles grimaced. Of course a bird's vision would pick out the hunters' braid on his coat sleeves. "I'm not here on that sort of business. Not today."
The crow puffed out her cheeks and seemed about to say something, when her companion chuckled. "Blunt," he said with a grin. "But honest. I appreciate that." With an abrupt movement he leaped forward, hopping from tree to tree until he was only breaths above Miles's head, where he crouched. Up close, his eyes were very blue. Miles squared his shoulders and did not look away. "So, what do you want?"
Miles inhaled and made a stiff bow. "I have come to beg a boon from the King of Beasts."
A beat. "Aren't you in the wrong place, then?"
"Wrong place..." Miles blinked, straightened his spine, blinked again. "I...what? You said this was the kingdom of birds!" He craned his head to glare at the crow.
"Whoah, you don't need to get so scary! I wasn't lying This is the kingdom of birds." She stretched out a wing in demonstration. "But if you want the king of the beasts, you're going to have to go to the kingdom of beasts, duh." She shrugged, feathers rustling. "I don't know why you'd want to, though. Place is a mess right now, ever since the tiger got taken down."
Miles gaped at her, then at the man, who nodded. "But, the phoenix! The phoenix is the king of beasts!"
"Er." The man coughed sheepishly. Why was he blushing? "Only king of the sky-beasts, really. The land-beasts have their own. There's no emperor of all the beasts or anything."
"Ooh, emperor! That sounds cooler. You should use that one. "The crow puffed out her chest, feathers flaring. "Emperor of Birds. Much better."
The man sighed. "We're not an empire, Maya. An empire would be..."
The crow—Maya?—waved her wings to cut him off. "It's a matter of coolness, Nick. Coolness. Don't get so bogged down in details." The man made a face, but Maya was peering down at Miles, eyes wide. "Wait, you thought he was king of allll the beasts? Phoenix?" She burst into laughter, her whole body shaking with it until she tipped right off her branch and had to flick into bird shape in midair. The man sighed, but held out an arm for her to perch on. "Can you believe that, Nick?"
"Aren't you a little too amused by this?" said the man mournfully. Maya cackled louder.
A distant part of Miles's brain noted that he had been correct, and the girl was indeed a crow. The rest of him was frozen, processing the conversation. Because if the implications were correct, then..."You're the phoenix?!"
The man—the phoenix—blinked owlishly at him, then rubbed at the back of his neck with the arm that wasn't full of chuckling crow. "Ah, yeah. Guess I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Phoenix." He winced. "Can you not say "the", though? It feels a little strange."
Miles didn't recognize the noise that emerged from the back of his throat, but it made both birds rear back in alarm. This the king of birds? This wide-eyed man, dressed in only a loose blue robe and a dopey expression? Obviously he'd made a wrong turn in the forest somewhere, and the crow had seized the opportunity to play a practical joke. No doubt the "phoenix" was simply a clever bit of foxfire. He'd been a fool to forget his lessons and trust in the words of beasts.
"I'm sure you think you're very clever," he bit out past the humiliation curdling in the back of his throat, "but I don't have time for this charade." Ignoring the crow's indignant squawk, he spun on his heel and stalked away, shoulders rigid.
Before he'd gone a dozen paces, the world exploded with light.
Miles dove, rolling into a crouch behind the nearest tree. With the hand not gripping his sword, he traced a rune and blew sharply across his palm, feeling ice creep over his fingers. Snarling and blinking spots from his eyes, he threw himself back around the tree.
And froze.
Brighter than a forest fire, the phoenix blazed above the trees. Its feathers gleamed the blue-black of obsidian, hazy at their edges with heat. With a ululating cry, it dove. Miles cried out and flung a sheet of ice skyward. It thawed a foot from the phoenix's curved beak, so that the beast landed in a deluge of scalding water. He stumbled and fell, hands reddening from the steam. The haze smudged the bird's outline. Miles scrambled away from the shapes he could make out, but the beast waved a wing to disperse the cloud and then it was in front of him.
From the ground, the phoenix loomed. Even were he standing, he thought the sweep of feathers on its skull might reach over his own head. For a long moment, the bird watched him
Then, inexplicably, it relaxed. The flared feathers settled, the heat eased, and the long neck curved back like a swan's to bring their faces to a closer level. "Sorry about that," said the bird, and though the inflections were odd, the voice was undeniably the man's same light tenor. "Sometimes when I flip forms too quickly, I can't control the flames as well." A brief burst of heat accompanied a shuffle of wings. A phoenix blush, Miles realized.
Hysteria bubbled in the back of his throat. He dug his nails into his fists until he could swallow it.
"But, well," continued the phoenix. "Proof enough for you?" It tossed its head, looking remarkably smug, then pinned him with its gaze. "So, first thing. You're going to have to apologize to Maya." It couldn't frown, with a beak, but it gave a remarkable impression of one. "Don't call my birds liars, okay?"
Miles gaped. When the bird only continued to stare, he raised himself into a more dignified seated position, and bowed shakily in the direction of the crow, which was watching from a safe distance in the trees. "My...apologies."
"That was pretty lame," she replied. "But apology accepted."
The phoenix snorted. "Okay, secondly. Have you hunted birds?"
Face death with dignity, Miles told himself. "Yes."
The phoenix merely cocked its head further to the side, and Miles reluctantly continued. "A roc who moved from stealing sheep to stealing children. A raven who imitated voices to lure people to their deaths. A harpy dealing in whitcrystal oil." He hesitated. "Are griffons part of your realm?"
The phoenix moved its wings in an approximation of a shrug. "Depends. Some of them."
"Then, a griffon, as well. They were all," monsters, "confirmed to be violent."
A long moment as the phoenix regarded him. Then it sighed. "I think I knew those birds. They were...not good. Did they at least get fair trials?"
Miles gritted his teeth. "They got as much as they deserved."
For an instant, the phoenix looked almost sad. "I see. Just promise me this. In the future, leave bird justice to birds. Give us that courtesy. Please."
Miles stared. Justice? For beasts? The idea would be laughable if it wasn't so sick. Not even his own father...
But, that was why he had come, for his father and for justice, so he nodded, stiffly.
"Well then." The phoenix nodded, and spread its wings wide, wider, impossibly huge. They blotted out the trees, the crow, the weak afternoon light, so only Miles and the phoenix existed in a field of blue.
"I believe," said the king of birds, voice low, "that you had come to beg a boon?"