“We will stay at the Inn.” For some reason, my stomach squeezed at the thought. Yes, we would be staying at inns together. What did I think was going to happen? “We will need to travel as, well, we couldn’t pass for brother and sister so…husband and wife.”
Now my stomach was really doing flips. Flips and dips and all kinds of other flutterings.
“But I’m a human—” I started and didn’t finish. I didn’t have to. Humans and elves did not marry, not like they used to, before The Great Darkness. Before that fateful winter six hundred yearsbefore. If, indeed, a human and an elf did get married, news of it would spread throughout all the lands bringing both excitement and fear. It would make history. Change the world.
“No, of course,” Elden nodded. “Which is why I must ask permission to alter your appearance. Not that I do not find your appearance…” He cleared his throat. The king seemed to find the mane of his horse quite enthralling. “It must be done.”
I squirmed, my cheeks heating for no reason.
“You can do that? Cast a charm on me to make me appear as an elf?”
“It is more of an illusion,” Elden explained. “I can alter my own appearance, my very being, but on others? My powers work as more of a visual alteration. You will stay the same muddy haired Little Baker beneath the illusion. I would never dream of altering you too far.”
Now my neck was heating, and I found my horse’s mane to be just as appealing. “Do what needs to be done.”
“I will only alter the color of your hair and the shape of your ears,” Elden said. “The rest of you will pass.”
“Thanks for that.” I grumbled, but found myself smiling beneath all the flutterings.
I chanced a glance at the king, who was also smiling that little side smile I’d somehow grown fond of.
Then the king unexpectedly asked, “What is your favorite flower?”
My favorite flower? My heart jumped at the question. Was he going to present me with a flower? My cheeks flushed even more.
“Um, bluebells,” I answered truthfully. “My father would bring home bunches of bluebells in the spring that he gathered on his delivery rounds.”
The bright indigoes and purples would pop in our kitchen for weeks on end, as he brought bouquet after bouquet every fewdays. Sam had given me the last bluebell of the season only a week before. I didn’t have to look in my cookbook to see that same flower pressed there between the front pages. Yes, to me, bluebells would always mean home. Love. Comfort.
Elden dismounted his horse in a glade between wild pine trees and twittering birds. A stream rushed nearby and several bees buzzed happily on their rounds.
“Bluebells. Interesting. Human folklore warns that if you pick one, you could summon the fairies or worse, be trapped in their world forever.” He mused. “Let us hope we don’t come across any of those sprites on our journey. Though they do tend to stay near their homeland during the colder months.”
“Are you telling me that fairies are…real?” I blinked in surprise.
“Of course.” He knit his eyebrows in confusion at my ignorance. “They are beautiful, but dangerous creatures.”
I could say the same of the elves.
He held his hand out to me. “Give me your hand, Little Baker.”
A shiver trembled through me. How many bluebells had I picked in my life? Maybe this was my punishment. Not with the fairies, but trapped in the land of elves forever. I stopped Sapphire beside Braddock and dismounted. I placed my hand gingerly, timidly, in his. My heart sputtered wildly, the connection between us electric. His hands were warm and callused from his time in the gardens, but he held mine in his, almost reverently.
“The first pillar of magic is intent. Your intent is your will, but more than that, it is a forced will. It must be demanded. As the kudzu vine grows and devours everything in its path, blanketing over any trees and shrubbery in its path, so too must be your will. Your intent. You must will it for the magic to come to pass.” Elden swallowed. “You must clear your mind of all ofyour feelings and doubts and push the true intent of your magic to the forefront of your mind, allowing nothing else to surface, or the magic will weaken and flow out of you like a gentle mist. Its power will defuse, the potency lost.”
I nodded as the electricity between our hands continued to build.I will not be overcome.I felt like a child trying to outrun the lightning.
“What happens to that unfocused magic? Does it cause harm?” I asked. Elden had claimed he was not a good teacher, but I was enthralled. I needed to learn all I could from him as I attempted to harness my magic along this journey.
Elden bit his bottom lip in thought. “Scholars believe it is absorbed into the wind and carried up into the glowing stars.”
“Beautiful,” I breathed.
“The second pillar is touch.” Elden raised our joined hands.
“Touch?” I breathed. We stood so close to one another, though I had to crane my neck up to look at him fully. Time slowed to a crawl.
“Your connection to the physical world is every bit as important as your mental connection. You need to feel the essence of the objects you are infusing with magic. Touch will bridge the gap between your mind and heart, connecting both to the physical items. You must force your will, your intent, into the physical.” He swallowed and closed his eyes. “Bluebells it is.”
