Page 4 of Firebird
“It’s time,” I called over my shoulder.
The twins nodded and snatched metal zills from a basket on the shelf and fitted them onto their thumbs and middle fingers. I didn’t, as I needed my hands free for my part of the act.
“Right,” Lela snapped in her maternal tone. “Go, girls.”
On cue, the first lilting strains of Yoska’s lute carried from the stage. Then Rukeli’s soft rhythm, his hands sweeping on the tympanum, silenced the crowd. The hypnotic beat of the drum and the magnetic rise and fall of the lute riveted everyone’s attention to the stage. The four of us slipped into the shadow behind the stage.
Hanzi was there, sweat-drenched from his performance, but wearing his ever-present bright smile for us. A brighter one for me.
The twins leaped onto the stage before me and Lela, clacking their finger cymbals in rhythm with Yoska and Rukeli’s melody.
“Baft?!”called Hanzi with a wink, placing a firm hand on my shoulder and giving me a squeeze.
“I don’t need luck,” I answered with a smile before sweeping past him and up the steps.
Chin raised, body poised with straight back, one shoulder dipping lower, I glided onto the stage in bare feet, despite the chill in the air. Lela spun in a rhythmic circle down the center of the stage, her bejeweled blue skirt curving in arcs like a glittering ocean wave. Herbreathless beauty drew all eyes, while Kizzy and Kostanya mirrored her movements. A mesmerizing scene.
I smiled and kept to the back, swaying gently and clapping my hands in tune to the beat, trying to remain invisible while Lela danced her part, captivating her audience with each swing of her hair and swirl of her skirts.
Then… I felt him. His eyes were on me. My skin prickled with awareness. It was too much to withstand, to ignore. Cutting my gaze to the left, I faltered, my hands holding on a single clap.
Watching him from afar was entirely different than seeing him this close. He leaned against a wooden post, arms crossed in casual repose, expression blank. But his fire-gold eyes. They told me another story. One of heat and mystery and unmistakable interest. Caught in his gaze, like a hare in the wolf’s claws, I almost missed the shift in the music that was my cue.
Rukeli beat louder on the tympanum with one beat of his hand, then silence. Breaking from the centurion with a snap of my head, I took my first step forward.
The defiant spirit that had buoyed me up so many times before repelled any fear of this dragon in our midst. The tether I still held to him didn’t scream of fear at all. Rather, his essence was alluring. Exciting. That inner fire burned through my limbs, guiding my dance like never before.
With slow, precise steps I advanced to the stage dead center, swayed my hips, rose my arms heavenward. Rukeli pounded out another single drumbeat in unison to the stomp of my feet. My sisters clacked their finger cymbals slowly as I slid one foot forward and rolled my body.
Spinning to face the back of the stage and my sisters, I ignored Lela’s shake of the head warning me not to do it. There was one daring move I reserved for certain audiences. Not one with a Roman dragon standing in watchful attendance.
Best not to dazzle too brightly in the presence of one of them. Theyliked treasure. But the witch inside me defied the interloper in our midst. I ignored my sister’s silent protests as the music rose seductively.
I repeated the roll of my body from the ground up in slow repetition. With each wave, I arched my back farther and farther, bending my spine, my arms reaching and waving suggestively to the crowd appearing in my vision upside down.
My long hair brushed the stage as I bent, my blouse pulled tight over my upthrust breasts, one sleeve baring a shoulder. And still I contorted my body into an impossible arch.
When my head nearly brushed the floor, I straightened with a whip of my body to the beat of the drum. Rather than simply spin away, I gathered momentum and outstretched my arms, tumbling in a back flip where I stood. The audience gasped, then applause erupted.
The edge of my underskirt and fust? caught on my hip, baring the length of one bronze leg. The centurion’s gaze dropped, his phantom touch catapulting my pulse faster. I gripped the skirts in one hand and began to spin with swift, stomping footwork before I leaped boldly to the teetering end of the stage where he stood. The music was now a maddening frenzy, the audience clapping to the beat of the drum.
Angling my chin down over my bare shoulder, I locked my gaze onto the centurion, the black waves of my hair swaying with the melody. His dragon eyes simmered an otherworldly gold, reflecting the internal fire within. When his mouth ticked up on one side in a smoldering half smile, I faced forward and launched into a series of front tumbles, flipping so fast my skirts whirled in tandem.
Yoska and Rukeli played wild and fast, spinning me and my sisters into a whirl of skirts and flourishing moves. The music sped higher and faster into a sudden, dramatic stop where we each froze into a goddess-like pose, legs and arms intertwined, bodies curved, necks arched, and eyes shining bright.
Leaping from their seats, the villagers cheered. Small coins plinkedand rolled onto the stage. As was tradition, our finale dance was showered with pennyweight coins. Hanzi scurried onstage to collect them while we bowed and smiled, waving to the crowd.
I tried to keep from looking but my gaze cut to the centurion anyway. He was smiling. For a moment, I was caught by his welcome and attractive expression. He reached inside a pocket on his belt, then held up a coin to me. It looked bigger than the ones being tossed onto the stage. I held out my cupped hands and he tossed it. I caught it with a laugh, then Lela pushed me roughly toward the steps.
“Malina,”she hissed, as we stumbled behind the stage. “What do you think you were doing?”
“Giving the customers what they came for.”
“You know what I’m talking about. That was too… too—”
“It was nothing.”
“It wasreckless. As you always are.”
