“Can you love them a little more slowly?” His stiff legs had not quite warmed up enough to match her lively, buoyant pace.
“Sorry!” Celesta slowed her steps. They reached the receiving room where they had met with Elsa and Lowen the day before and nodded to the guard on duty as they made their exit. The sky was just beginning to brighten, and streaks of pink and orange lit the eastern sky. “Where do you think we should go?”
“I don’t know,” Alex answered honestly. “I was hoping you would have some ideas. You’re more familiar with Faerie than I am. What was it Drosselmeyer said? ‘Where the heart of Faerie is reflected in mind and body’? Does anything about this place ring a bell?”
Celesta pursed her lips in thought and tapped her chin. “Nothing at the moment, but it has been a while since I’ve visited. Why don’t we walk back through the city and see if anything stands out?”
Alex narrowed his eyes at her. “You just want to go back to that tea shop you pointed out on our way in, don’t you?”
She blinked her eyes at him innocently. “Of course not. But if we do happen to go by, and if it happens to be around breakfast time, well…even us dancers have to havesomekind of sustenance. It’s in the first chapter of ‘The Care and Keeping of Your Pixie.’”
As was seeming to be happening more and more often, a smile pulled at Alex’s lips. “I didn’t realize you came with an instruction manual. That would have been helpful information to know, rather than justdancingaround the subject.”
Celesta stopped in her tracks and looked at him with wide eyes. “Did you just make a joke?” She reached up and put her hand on his forehead. “Are you alright? You don’t feel feverish.”
Alex brushed her hand away and kept walking. “Contrary to what you seem to think, I do have a sense of humor,” he said drily.
“I knew you did, somewhere, in that handsome head of yours. I just never thought I’d see the day…” She paused meaningfully, a mischievous, teasing light in her eyes. He was beginning to recognize when one of her groan-inducing jokes was about to come.
“Don’t say it.”
“...when your shell finallycrackedenough to let it out. In fact, if someone had told me a few days ago that you would willingly smile, I would have said they werenuts.”
“The sense of humor is gone now. Let’s go.” The adorable smirk on her face was doing funny things to his insides, and it was all he could do to keep an even expression on his face. “If I get some tea in you, will it make the jokes stop?”
“Oh, defi-nut-ly.”
He placed his hand on her lower back, guiding her gently down the street and doing his best to ignore the warmth that spread from the contact. “Then let’s go, Sugar Plum.”
They sat with their tea on a low bench underneath a large oak tree, watching as the marketplace slowly came to life. The morning air was still cool, though the bright sunlight and nearly cloudless sky promised a hot day ahead. The vendors called out greetings to one another, and though the scene before him seemed normal enough, Alex couldn’t help but notice the overhanging feeling of uncertainty in the air. He remembered what the guard Chrys had said the night before, that the people were still on edge after having Stahlmaus’ army camped outside their gates.
A small group of musicians set up and began to play. Their music was lively enough, but it lacked depth and true feeling.This must have been what Celesta meant by music without magic in it.
The memory brought another one to mind. “Celesta,” he began, looking at the musicians thoughtfully, “what kind of magic were those musicians doing who were with your army that night in the hospital?”
She looked up at him in surprise. “Creative magic. Why do you ask?”
“I thought I remembered feeling…braver. And stronger. And faster.”
“Yes. That’s what the song was for; it’s one of the reasons Fae rely so heavily on musicians during battles.”
“Could that work here?”
Celesta followed his line of sight, and her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“The people here, they seem so afraid and uncertain,” Alex explained. “Would a song like that help them?”
“It could,” she spoke slowly. “It might help them remember, at any rate, that they are not alone or defenseless. But Alex, even if it would work, those musicians aren’t capable of that kind of magic. They don’t know the right songs.”
Ah, yes. That particular limitation would be a problem. But if Alex were truly as capable as Stahlmaus seemed to think…
“What if I played? I think I know some songs that would do the trick.” He thought back to all of the cold, dreary nights around campfires that barely stayed alive on the wet ground. He recalled the loneliness of the days following his family’s deaths, and the hopelessness that had fallen over his company after month after month of fighting in a war that felt like it would never end and watching friend after friend die. It had been music in all those dark times that had brought their hearts and souls back to the light.
“You would do that?” Emotion shone in Celesta’s eyes, and he could see that, despite what prejudices she might have faced, she truly and deeply cared about the people of Faerie. “What about the mirror shard? I thought you wanted to find it as soon as possible.”
He shrugged his good shoulder. His hand was stiff, but still functional for holding the instrument. He had managed well enough the day before. “If I can help them, it’s the right thing to do. Besides, Drosselmeyer did say that my gift was always meant to be shared.”
Celesta set her tea down and hopped to her feet. She stretched her arms in front of her and shook out her legs as if limbering up. “Let’s do it.”
