Ailan met Cora’s gaze, lips pursed. “I don’t know yet, and neither of us may like the answer when we find it.”
A chill ran down Cora’s spine. She opened her mouth to ask her to elaborate when Ailan tugged the reins and brought her wagon to an abrupt stop. Cora halted Valorre beside it. “What is it?”
Ailan’s gaze was fixed at the edge of the cliffside. “It’s here,” Ailan said, voice breathless. “We’ve found the tear.”
33
Cora dismounted Valorre and watched from the road as Ailan approached the edge of the cliff. The dark sea stretched out toward the horizon while the first blush of dawn slowly crept from behind the mountains in the east. Cora’s heart climbed higher into her throat with every step Ailan took toward the cliff’s edge. It triggered her instinctual terror to witness something so outwardly dangerous. But according to Ailan, the tear lay at the very edge.
Don’t fear for her, Valorre said, nuzzling her shoulder.She’s right. I can feel the tear just ahead.
Uziel shot up from the other side of the cliff, finished with whatever beast he’d taken to the beach to consume. He landed with a thud down the road. The rustling in the woods behind Cora told her Ferrah and the third dragon were nearby too.
The wagon door swung open and Mareleau emerged with Noah in her arms. Her eyelids were heavy with sleep and her silvery tresses were plaited in a messy braid down her back. “What’s happened? Did we—oh, devils.”
Mareleau’s gaze caught Ailan’s figure at the edge of the cliff. The woman stood with her hand outstretched, her patchwork petticoats billowing behind her on the early morning breeze.
Mareleau’s shoulders fell. “Don’t tell me…”
“Yep. The tear is inconveniently located at the edge of a godsdamned cliff.”
Not a fan of cliffs, Valorre added.
Ailan continued to reach into the air before her as she took another step closer to the edge, then to the left. She leaned slightly forward…
Her fingertips disappeared.
She whirled toward them with a wide smile. “It’s here. We can step through it.”
“Or maybe plummet to our deaths,” Mareleau said under her breath.
Valorre conveyed his agreement.Not a fan of plummeting to my death.
Ailan faced Uziel, who eagerly padded over to her, head low like an obedient puppy despite his massive size. She whispered something in the fae language to him, then stepped aside. The black dragon took her place at the edge of the cliff and charged forward without a hint of hesitation. His head disappeared first, then his sinuous neck. His enormous belly and hindquarters followed, then finally his tail. Now there was only sky. Ailan continued to watch the space until a black scaled snout protruded from nothingness. Uziel flicked his tongue and disappeared once more.
Ailan gave a satisfied nod. Then, angling her head over her shoulder, she spoke in her ancient language again. Ferrah darted from the forest toward the cliff in a blur of opalescent white, and a slightly smaller green dragon raced after her. Showing the same confidence Uziel had, they sprang off the cliff and disappeared beyond the Veil.
With the dragons gone, Ailan approached the wagon, lips curved in a frown. “There’s no way we’ll get the horses to step off a cliff. We’ll have to hide the wagon somewhere off the road and set the horses free. Considering the difference in the passage of time, it would be inhumane to tether them, not knowing when any of us will be back.”
Cora could agree with that, but…
“What about Mareleau?” she said. “We’re going to make her walk with Noah through El’Ara?”
There was one solution, of course. Once they were on the other side of the Veil, Cora could try to worldwalk her companions to the meadow she and Valorre had accidentally traveled to last summer. Now that they’d accomplished their goal of locating the tear, it was no longer necessary to travel by traditional means. Still, she resisted bringing the option up. If there was one way to make her return to El’Ara even more unwelcome, it would be to worldwalk there.
“I do have legs, you know,” Mareleau said with a withering stare.
Cora returned the look. “You also recently had a baby.”
“I can still manage to walk.”
I have a saddle. Valorre rippled with indignation.And I’m quite comfortable to ride. Everyone knows this.
“We won’t need to walk far,” Ailan said. “The Elvyn have woven triggers throughout the land that are set off by human intruders. A pathweaver will come straight to us.”
That made sense, for that was exactly how the Elvyn had found her and Valorre when they’d entered El’Ara the first time. But Garot had been unable to use his pathweaving in the Blight?—
The blood left Cora’s face as she realized there was another thing she hadn’t discussed with Ailan. She’d assumed her whispers had told her, but…
