THE RIGHT PLACE
ADELINE
Eiras uses his remaining coins to buy us some food in the town. Rizo is a small place, the streets muddy, the houses low and rundown, sheep and chickens wandering in the open fields behind them. People give us long looks, not even pretending to ignore us as we walk by. They stop whatever they’re doing—shoveling hay, hanging laundry, herding children—to stare.
I know. We’re filthy, weary, kind of bedraggled. A human girl and two fae men, as if that isn’t fodder enough for the wagging tongues. And we’re heading in the wrong direction, as far as anyone is concerned. There is no more road after the town, only animal paths and meadows, the ground already starting to lift into hills and the first steep slopes.
The Whispering Forest looms in the distance, dark and forbidding.
“Are you staying here?” Sedrig asks. “In this town? Or are you heading to a village or farm nearby?”
I bite into the bread Eiras gave me to hide my expression. It’s barely edible. “Yeah, somewhere nearby. Besides, they say the mountains are infested with dark fae.”
“Infested, huh?” Sedrig has refused our food and is munching on some jerky he has brought along. “Who says that?”
“It’s common knowledge.” I brush the crumbs off me and lift the satchel off the ground. “Didn’t you know why the mountains are dangerous?”
“Snakes.” He shrugs. “Even more wildcats. Wolves. Wyrms and draks nesting. The occasional bandit.” He catches my eye and smirks. “Okay, and the occasional dark fae.”
“Very funny. We should get going before nightfall, find a place to sleep. Where exactly are you heading?”
“A farmstead, not far from here. Soon our paths will split. Don’t you worry about me, human girl. I know the way.”
“We’re not worried,” Eiras rumbles, casting me a cautionary look. What is that about, I wonder? “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“Not afraid the dark fae will grab and eat me?” Sedrig arches his brows. “Those evil maneaters hiding in the mountains?”
I sigh. “Sedrig?—”
He jostles me, grinning, and I stumble, the satchel falling from my shoulder.
He snatches it up before I can move or speak. “Since your brother won’t help you with this, let me do it. You must be exhausted?—”
“No, don’t you touch that!” I make a grab for it but he steps out of reach. “Put it down!”
Unclasping the flap, he lifts it and peers inside. “Oh look, it’s a book. It’s like…” He frowns, shakes his head. “It’s like it’s talking to me. Can you hear that?”
With a yell, Eiras crashes into him, knocking the book out of his hands and to the ground. “She said not to touch it, you asshole.”
I rush to lift the book, pressing it to my chest and backtracking. “What’s wrong with you, Sedrig?”
“Why are you two reacting like that? I was only helping.” He shoves Eiras off him. “What’s the deal with that book?”
“It’s a precious heirloom.”
“You acted as if the book is dangerous.”
“Aren’t all books?” I mutter. “Come, Eis. Let’s go.”
My brother grumbles, shooting the other man a dark glare, but joins me. “Good idea.”
“Most stories are safe to read,” Sedrig goes on, jumping to his feet and brushing dirt off his clothes, “and their monsters stay in their pages.”
“You must be reading very boring stories,” I make myself say.
“Unless they are magical books, like the ones kept in the Library of Areon,” he goes on. “That’s a marvelous and perilous place. Have you ever thought what it might be like, the mythical library full of monsters and magic?”
Eiras and I exchange a quick, frustrated look.
