Raewyn
Pharis figured out on his own that Kem was the Evanescer who’d transported us to Stormcrest, but there was no time for reprimands.
Besides, he knew as well as I did that she had done the right thing.
And she’d done it for his sake.
He summoned her, and she scurried into the receiving room, giving a curtsy to Pharis and a deeper one to Stellon.
“My Prince. Your Majesty,” she said, sounding a bit breathless.
He smiled. “Stellon, remember? I think anyone who’s disassembled me down to the tiniest particles and reconstituted me again should be on a first-name basis.”
She blushed and smiled. “Stellon then.”
The sensation of traveling by Evanescing glamour was so strange, I doubted I’d ever get used to it. But we needed speed, and it was nothing if not fast.
No sooner had we all linked hands than the four of us were standing on the outskirts of Hill Town.
It was decided that as the most human-looking of our group and therefore the least likely to alarm the village residents, I would be the one to inquire about the location of Caitriona’s house.
I knocked on the door of the first cottage I came to along the main road into town. There was no answer. At the second one, a young mother opened the door, curious children crowding around her skirts.
“Hello, may I help you, miss?”
“Yes, thank you so much. I hope so,” I said. “I’m in need of an Earthwife. I wonder if you can point me to where your village mother lives?”
She smiled. “Certainly. It’s that house there, the one with the green door.”
I started to thank her, but she added more information. “She’s not at home right now though.”
“Oh. Do you know when she’ll be back?” I asked.
The woman shook her head. “No telling. She’s gone up top.”
“Up top?”
She pointed to where the village’s main road turned and began a winding incline, snaking up the titular hill, which from my vantage point, looked more like a mountain. Near the peak, a single fire burned, glowing orange against the dark backdrop of the mountainside.
“The top of Star’s Rest. That’s where they do the rituals, you see.”
“Oh. Well thank you. I’ll wait for her return.”
I walked quickly back to a nearby copse of trees that concealed my tall, obviously Elven travel companions.
“She’s not home,” I told them, pointing to the mountaintop. “She’s up there. The woman said that’s where they do their rituals, meaning the Earthwives I guess. Caitriona must have taken Turi there for some sort of initiation ceremony.”
The thought of it sent fear hurtling through my veins like a stone sliding across a frozen pond. Would something like that change my little sister? Would it be painful?
Then I took a deep breath and reminded myself of my own words to Pharis.
Have faith.
It was the only choice at this point. It wasn’t as if I was going to give up on my little sister now.
Pharis nodded and looked at Kem. “Can you fixate on that bonfire and transport us there?”
“Somewhere close but not too close,” he added. “Don’t want to wind up in the center of an Earthwife ring.”
