And she trusted him, she realized. She knew he would not bring her into harm’s way. Not intentionally, at least.
So she followed behind him as the light led them deeper into the woods, hoping there would be a bed wherever it led them.
Only one bed, ideally.
Chapter Twelve
SOURCES OF POWER
Alison
Genn smiled brightly at Keir, their teeth white and sharp. “Wonderful!” they said. “You’re such a marvelous dancer, I had to ask.”
Alison drifted back towards Mab. She wasn’t insulted by Genn’s rejection—Keir truly was the superior dancer. The pair of them moved beautifully together, Keir leading the fairy, who mimicked his motions perfectly.
“They’re a shameless flirt,” said Mab as Alison approached. She stood near the bonfire alone, the tap of her foot to the music sending ripples through the twinkling silk of her dress. “Don’t mind my sibling. Keir only has eyes for you.”
“How do you know who we are?” Alison asked. “How did you know we’d come?”
“There are many eyes and ears in the forest and the fields. We’ve known of you for a while—of him for even longer. We kept close watch on the situation with the vine, preparing to move the city if we had to.”
“Are we not in a different place? The light seems different here.” Alison wasn’t sure how the vine could have threatened this world, as different as it seemed from her own.
Mab’s eyes widened. They were the same deep blue as her hair, but they seemed to have a light of their own that flashed as she spoke. “Yes, this place is different, but it is connected to your world in a thousand different ways. You took one path, but there are many others.”
“And you were afraid the vine would take one of those paths,” said Alison.
“Not exactly. The vine’s magic was just a twisted bit of Keir’s mind. Easy enough to dispel, at least for us. What we feared was him. What he could have become, what it could have done to your world and ours. We were very glad when you came, Alison Lennox.”
She gestured to a pair of chairs from the banquet table, and they flew over. Alison took the smaller chair—although this place made the smaller races roughly Fulling height, it had done nothing to address her limited stature.
Even fairies were taller than her here.
“I have the answers you’re seeking,” said Mab. “About your magic and his, about how it came to be and what you must do to control it. Do you want to wait for him? Or would you prefer me to tell you alone?”
Alison knew this was a sensitive area for Keir, that much of his pain and trauma was tied to the old magic and that it caused him a great deal of distress. She certainly wanted him to hear whatever the fairies had to say, but she also didn’t think it would hurt to have her as a buffer, allowing her to share the information in a way he could process while causing him the least harm.
“I want you to tell me,” Alison said. “But what of the cost? We were warned your help would come with a price.”
“It does,” Mab admitted, “but the price is something you’re already planning to pay. We know the king is coming, and we know what they’re planning to do to this land. It’s the greatestthreat we’ve ever faced. We know that many of our kind—your neighbor Aras and his fine children, for example—prefer to live among the peoples. They prefer to live without our gifts, and we don’t blame them for wanting all of the innovations that make life bearable without magic. But we hope there’s a way to preserve this land, as much of it as can be spared. That’s all we ask of you. Use the knowledge we give you to protect our home. I believe that’s what you’re already planning?”
“It is,” said Alison.
“Good,” said Mab. “Although I dare say, the entertainment your lover is providing is possibly payment enough.”
Alison looked back to the bonfire, and several fairies and a dwarf were all taking turns dancing with Keir.
“Oh, dear,” said Alison. “I hope he doesn’t need rescuing.”
Mab laughed, and the laughter was bell-like, clear and bright. “I’m sure he’ll manage for a bit longer. Now, let’s begin with that magic of yours. What do you want to know first?”
“Where did it come from?” asked Alison. “Did he cause it, as he suspects?”
“Yes and no,” said the fairy. Alison suspected many of her answers would be like this. If there was one thing she’d learned of magic, it was that it did not like to fit into neat little boxes or within clearly defined lines. “Magic belongs to all peoples of the world, and to some of the creatures too. But it comes to some more naturally than others, whether through birth or experience.
“Imagine that all people are born with a reservoir of magic like water and a well with which to reach it. Some reservoirs are larger than others, and some wells are deeper than others. As the peoples of the world have turned from magic, most have found their wells too shallow to reach the reservoir within. But with time, exposure, and practice, one can dig a deeper well. This is what happened to you. Your experiences with magic have ledyou to break into your own reservoir, but the magic within was always yours.”
“Then Keir still has magic, too?”
