“Thank you!” said Anders, trying not to hurry as he pocketed the scrap of paper. “You’re the best, Bryn.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, looking mildly surprised at his enthusiasm. “Old Vallenite’s really interesting, because the verbs... actually, that reminds me of something I wanted to look up.” A moment later she’d forgotten about him, shivering and turning up the collar of her coat, then pulling one of her books closer with an absentminded expression.
“Thank you,” Anders said quickly, hurrying back to the table where his friends were sitting.
He knew the answer to the riddle. He’d heard it on only his second day at Drekhelm.
They’d gone to the gardens in the cave that opened onto the mountainside, after he’d spoken to the Dragonmeet. Mikkel had said they were created by a dragon called Flic more than five hundred years before. A genius, who could make plants grow in the most unlikely of places.
Ellukka had said that Leif had taken her to see a waterfall once, with plants growing everywhere.
Everything in the riddle made sense.
From deep within and light on the air—the river feeding the waterfall could come from deep within the mountain, and the spray itself would be light on the air, wouldn’t it?
You’ll find this hiding place straight through / The ice-cold veil of a mountain fair—so the piece of the scepter would be hidden behind the waterfall itself, the white, watery veil falling down the side of the mountain. That was going to be cold. And wet.
Where rót meets rock, as it was taught to do—now he knew arótwas a root, it all came together. Where roots—plants—met rock, as Flic had taught them to do five hundred years before, planting them in unlikely places and keeping them alive.
He sat down with the others and started to whisper what he’d figured out—he was most of the way through when Nico and Krissin came to sit at their end of the table, forcing him to stop abruptly.
Theyneversat so close. Were they trying to overhear?
Everyone arrived except for Theo, who was in the archives pulling some books he needed, and the class settled into work. There was no lesson from Leif today, and no wonder, after the way the last one had ended.
Anders pretended to practice his reading, while turning over his newest problem in his head. How were they going to get to the Flic Waterfall? It was even farther from Drekhelm than Holbard or the Skylake had been, and they couldn’t keep sneaking out. Sooner or later, they were going to be caught.
But Rayna had always been there with a quick story when they needed it, and she didn’t fail him now. The class had been working for only a few minutes when she pushed back her chair with a scrape that gained everyone’s attention and stood up.
“Leif,” she said. “On behalf of the class, I’d like to apologize for our argument the day before yesterday. You were right to show us there are better ways to discuss our problems. It’s been a little difficult lately, but we shouldn’t have let that get the best of us.”
There was a round of blinking from most of the class, who had never heard Rayna speak about anything so humbly, and even Anders—who knew from her terribly sincere tone that she was up to something—wasn’t sure what was coming next.
“The apology is appreciated,” said Leif, in his usual calm manner. “And accepted. I understand the cool weather and recent events have made things difficult for all of you. Is there something I could do that would help?”
Rayna was ready and waiting.
“Flic Waterfall would be the perfect solution,” she said, without missing a beat. Anders had to stop himself from flinching—it felt like telling a secret, having their next destination mentioned out loud like that. But of course, nobody else knew that, which was what Rayna was counting on.
“Flic Waterfall?” Leif repeated, brows lifted in surprise.
“We need a break,” said Rayna. “Ellukka said you took her once, and that it was a wonderful, memorable experience.”
Easy, Rayna, Anders thought.Don’t lay it on too thick.
She was still going. “It’s also a place of historical significance. It has stories associated with it, it offers opportunities for science and art—there’s something for everyone there.”
At the next table over Bryn started to shift in her seat, ready to point out that there wasn’t really anything to do with languages that could be studied there, but Ferdie—who was in the same boat with medicine but clearly sensed the opportunity for some time off—discreetly elbowed her in the ribs.
Leif looked around the classroom, examining the students’ faces. Anders was pretty sure pleading was written all over his and his friends’. And as he snuck a quick look around, he realized almost everyone was giving Leif some version of big eyes and innocent expressions, even those who didn’t know the reason for Rayna’s request.
Leif nodded slowly. “All right,” he said. “It is a point well made. We will go as a class tomorrow and stay there overnight. If we bring a communications mirror, we can be contacted if we’re needed.”
Theo chose that moment to arrive from the archives, and he was startled to find himself walking into a room full of cheering Finskólars. He set down his books to join in the celebration willingly enough, letting Ellukka whirl him in a circle.
Once they all sat down again to work, though, with warnings from Leif about paying attention to their work ringing a little too cheerfully in their ears to be serious, Theo was quick to lean in and impart the news he’d brought back with him. “I saw Hayn,” he whispered.
Anders immediately leaned in closer. Theo hadn’t been able to get hold of Hayn the night before to tell him of their success—he’d found a quiet time in the archives, but Anders and Rayna’s uncle hadn’t been in his workshop so late.
