Her smile widened. “Welcome.”
“IHAVE TOLDKaelan the truth of his origins,” Honey said to the willowy creature with the bone-white skin. The ragged hem of Ouda’s translucent gown fluttered as she bobbed above the ground.
“So the time has come,” Ouda said. Her gaze moved more slowly than her head, as if the two were experiencing a lag between them.
Damion edged behind her, walking in a slow, casual manner. As he passed, he murmured under his breath, “No shadow.”
Once Damion was on the other side of her, hands behind his back, already in his shadow’s vault, she allowed her gaze to flick to the dry-packed earth under Ouda. Golden sunlight pooled in the hollow and gleamed off of Ouda’s pale hair, but though the dead tree’s shadow fell gropingly over Honey, Ouda cast no shadow herself.
Pixies had an old saying, shadowless is soulless.
But Magda had never actually encountered a creature without a shadow.
Kaelan did not seem to fear the wispy creature. He strode right up to her.
“Is it true?” Kaelan asked. “Was I brought to you by a sylph? Was I stolen from my parents?”
“I only know what was told to me by the wind spirit who bore you to me,” Ouda said. “That you were the child of prophecy and hunted by the Elf King. That you must be hidden until you came of age. And...”
Ouda waved her skeletal fingers in a slow arc. From out of the hollow arose two swords, black, tooled sheaths dusty from disuse. They floated down before Kaelan and landed, crossed, before him. He knelt to inspect them.
“These were brought with you,” Ouda said.
Damion edged closer, his chin canting to get a better look at the swords.
“And you warned me not to fall in love with him,” Honey said, sagging.
This time Ouda’s eyes moved before her head, like an owl.
“Yes. I did,” Ouda said. Her eyes seemed to grow larger, or perhaps it was only a trick of the light. “You are quite devastated.”
Honey dabbed at her eyes with one of the sheer layers of her dress. “No, I’m not.”
“The sylph told you nothing more?” Kaelan asked.
“Two things more,” Ouda said, never taking her eyes off of Honey. “The first, that if you survived, you would have a hand in the new age of Alfheim and the end of the Throne, which is why I helped you. The King is poison and must be defeated. And the second, that when I gave you these swords, I would be freed from the magical bond the sylph placed upon me and I could take my reward for assisting you.”
Slowly, Magda began to release her blades.
“Reward?” Kaelan said, taking a sword in each hand and rising. From the way the handles of the blades knocked together, it was clear he had little experience handling swords.
“Yes,” Ouda said. “And your friends will do nicely for a start.”
Damion drew his swords. Magda took a step forward.
Ouda opened her mouth, and opened and opened and opened it.
Magda blacked out or felt as if she had. One moment she was about to rush the spindly white woman, and in the next, Kaelan smashed into her and both of them crashed to the dirt.
“Damn!” Magda grimaced as her shoulder crunched against the ground.
Kaelan’s green eyes were wide. He scrabbled to pick up the swords that had fallen between them.
Magda pushed up to her feet. Damion stood frozen in place, swords in mid-arc, brow like a hawk’s. Ouda drifted over to Honey and placed both of her hands on either side of the nymph’s face. The black maw that had been her mouth was almost as big as Honey’s head. The nymph, like Damion, was frozen, her heel fixed above the ground, just about to step back.
A high-pitched whine from Ouda’s throat needled into Magda’s ears, muddling her thoughts and stiffening her body.
Kaelan’s shoulder bumped into Magda’s as he regained his feet. The contact loosened her limbs and cleared her head.
