Venick came closer. He cocked a half-smile. “I doubt I’m allowed outside the palace.”
“You are if I say that you are.”
“And you thinkI’mthe fool.”
Ellina made an impatient noise. “It is early. We will not be seen.”
Venick’s grin broke fully free. “And what will we be doing, while we’re sneaking around the palace grounds?”
Ellina smiled in answer. “You will see.”
???
It was a garden of stone.
Venick had seen similar such gardens sprinkled around the grounds from his window’s vantagepoint. Paths were hammered into the earth at hard right angles, the rocks chiseled and arranged in geometric patterns. Some areas were flat, others sloped. Sand gathered in the corners where the wind blew it.
Venick looked back up at the palace. It was the first time he had seen it fully in daylight. The sun was low in early morning. It illuminated the castle, drawing the towers high and wide, the white-washed stone gleaming like torchlight.
They went deeper. Statues began to appear. There was a figure of a mother elf and her fledgling arm in arm. Another of a man holding something. A book, maybe. Yet another of a young woman with a crow on her shoulder, her stone face roughened by time. The palace sat silently in the distance. Everything was quiet. But peaceful, like the quiet of sleep.
They rounded a corner, and the ground became a mirror.
Butnota mirror, not quite. Venick blinked, unable to understand what he was seeing. Until he did. It was a pond. The water was pristine, still as glass. It reflected the palace and the sky above in perfect clarity.
“It is an everpool,” Ellina said. “You step inside and ask it your questions. Sometimes, it gives you answers.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“You are human,” she replied, not unkindly. “Come. Let me show you.”
Ellina slipped out of her shoes, then shrugged off her robe. She wore only a thin shift underneath, cream-colored and ribbed. She looked down at herself, then gave Venick a glance. Heat fanned his cheeks, and he felt a sudden stitch of nervousness as he did the same, unbelting his sword and removing most of his outer layers.
“Like this,” she said, and took his hand.
The water was warm despite the air’s chill. It pulled on Ellina’s shift. The hem became sheer silk. Then she dipped under, and Venick could see nothing of her. The water’s reflection was too bright.
She broke the surface and the pattern rippled. “Now you.”
He waded in deeper. The bottom of the pond was smooth, like the scooped-out inside of an egg. He stepped slowly, then eased himself under. He opened his eyes underwater but saw only blackness. He resurfaced, pushing his hair from his face.
“There are everpools scattered all around the elflands,” Ellina said. Her expression was measured, but her voice was quick. Excited. “No one knows where they came from. There is no record of elves digging them. And then there is this.” Ellina cupped her hands together underwater and lifted them, but they came up empty. “It is impossible to take water from an everpool.”
Venick mimicked the motion, watching the water run over the sides of his cupped hands, leaving their center empty. He met Ellina’s gaze in fascination. “And my questions? You said the water would answer them.”
“You have to ask them first.”
He was aware of her nearness. He could count her spiky wet eyelashes. Her eyes were golden jewels. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Because you are going to teach me how to swim.”
That surprised Venick. “Oh?”
“Yes.”
But he was still unsure. “You haven’t wanted this before.”
“I want it now.”
