With a last screech, the scarlet bird navigated the hanging vines to dart through the broken windows and out of the temple. Plum glided down to Celeste as if none of it had even happened, offering up the letter.
“You don’t have to be so territorial,” she said gently. “I know you’re the best mail carrier around, no proof needed.”
The wyvern dropped the parchment and then landed right atop it in her hands, rolling himself over to his back for belly scratches.
Reeve yawned with a stretch from his spot on the sofa. His tunic rose and exposed a sliver of taut stomach, and Celeste thought about giving him a scratch too before quickly averting her eyes.First thing in the morning? What is wrong with me?She plopped down beside him but left plenty of space. “I’m sorry you missed the sunrise.”
“It’s expected after a battle.” He rubbed at an eye. “We tore into Syphon yesterday.”
“But we didn’t catch him.” She eyed the satchel sitting across the chamber, the apotrope inside still empty. At least he hadn’t visited her in her dreams again—that would have been exceedingly awkward while she slept beside Reeve.
We slept next to one another.
Celeste blinked about the temple in the gentle morning light. They’d read out of the book of fairytales and discussed the improbability of children surviving a trip to the Everdarque, told one another of their own visits to the plane and harrowing escapes, and then, at some point, fell asleep. Celeste hadn’t ever woken up beside a man before—they always sneaked away in the night.
Well, it wasn’t likethatanyway.
After giving him a good rub, she set Plum between them and opened the folded parchment, reading the letter from Geezer aloud, “Dearest Midnight and the Holy Man,”—she snorted out a laugh—“I’ve returned from the depths of my dwelling and found something I must show you. I’ve actually found a number of things including two mummified trow, a deck of cards much too large and strange for gambling, an assortment of candies that change taste rapidly, wait,”—she flipped the parchment over—“it’s very much a lot of rambling until…here:Please visit at your earliest convenience, Geezer, S.D.”
“That was a lot of words to say very little,” Reeve observed and then stood with another muscle-flexing stretch. “Shall we?”
She stared at his middle guiltily before tearing her eyes away. “Now is as convenient as it will get.”
After dressing and brushing out her hair, Celeste took a long look at herself in the bathing chamber’s glass, eyes darting from deficiency to deficiency, though she ran out of time before she could pick out them all. It was a useless practice since there wasn’t much to change about her too-big eyes or spindly limbs or sallow skin, but it was a good reminder that Reeve’s affection likely came from a place of pity rather than attraction. She had told him everything, and while it had been a comfort, his sweet nature wasn’t to be confused with anything lasting.
Theyhadkissed, but they had also been underground and under the influence of torn planes and potential death, so it hardly counted. Sleep could often clear one’s mind, and Reeve had probably decided the kiss was a mistake anyway. Maybe it was even an affront to his god.
On the walk into Briarwyke they discussed neither the night spent beside one another nor their traded histories, and the kiss? Unsurprisingly, that did not come up either. There were plenty of strained words exchanged about the greenness of the trees though, and the fresh quality to the air with the passing of the night’s storm.
Reeve had not yet been to Geezer’s illusion-filled home, and while it wasn’t mundane to Celeste in the least, watching the holy knight cross the threshold into the over-stuffed front room was delightful. He touched everything, asked question after question and barely waited for the answer—ones which Geezer couldn’t really recall anyway—and he caused three times the mishaps with his curious prodding, none of which Geezer commented on, only righted with that strange, sourceless magic.
Braver with Reeve at her side, Celeste finally asked Geezer how he did arcana without relying on some element.
But Geezer predictably shrugged. “I think I just forgot the source, so I don’t use it anymore. I’m sure it’s locked in my brain somewhere, and maybe someday I’ll remember, but for now my arcana just sort of happens.”
Celeste was correct in thinking that, at the very least, some sort of illusion was necessary to hide the source of a mage’s arcana, but it would have to be a very big illusion, and Geezer so effortlessly cast, that she couldn’t imagine he was keeping up anything permanent. But just because she couldn’t imagine it didn’t mean it wasn’t real
Regardless, Celeste was eager to see Reeve’s reaction to the gorge they would have to cross, but when they went through the archway, the open bridge over the mountain pass was replaced by a humid and heady swamp. Reeve’s instinct was to immediately attempt rescuing an overturned cart in a tar pit, but Geezer assured him it was all an illusion, and the knight reverted to having his fun there too, marveling at the bubbling waters and the eerie outlines of creatures floating within.
He wasn’t deterred when they ended up in the sitting room, this time outfitted with three chairs rather than two when Geezer snapped his fingers. Reeve didn’t make use of a chair though, instead poking at a row of arcanely suspended hourglasses as Geezer rooted around in a massive rucksack.
Zak swooped in and landed on Reeve’s shoulder, and then the bird proceeded to flap his wings and peck at Reeve’s ear as if he were defending the place from an intruder. He flailed, hand knocking into one of the higher shelves, and a crystal was dislodged from a spot well above his head. Reeve scrambled, but caught it just before it smashed to the ground, and the bird took off, scooping up a small stack of parchment from under where the crystal had been as he went.
They both watched the creature circle the room, squashed up parchment in its beak, then fly to one of the hanging tapestries and claw at it. At a loss, Reeve looked to Geezer, who was still rummaging in his bag, ignoring the ruckus. The bird, however, was having none of it, and again attacked Reeve, herding him over to the tapestry by way of flapping and clawing.
Celeste hopped up from her seat and hurried over, pushing the tapestry to the side, the only thing she could think Zak wanted. Still carrying the parchment in his beak, the bird ran headlong into the door revealed behind.
Reeve handed the hefty crystal off to Celeste and pulled open the door, and then the bird flew itself right out of the room and into the jungle revealed beyond.
“Ah, here it is!”
Reeve swung the door shut again, and the two spun around guiltily as they plastered their backs against it.
“Right under the pinecones and beside the ice pick.” Geezer was cradling a small box and staring at it adoringly.
“We let your bird out,” Reeve blurted. “It was an accident.”
Celeste elbowed him, but he didn’t budge.
