“I did indeed speak, Madame. You need not inquire to Hesper about my abilities. I can answer those questions for myself.” His beak opened and closed. I could feel the earth beneath my feet, but surely I dreamt.
I looked down at Warty, and he understood the question in my eyes. Does he talk, too? But he shook his head and let out a small huff. At least one thing in my world could remain the same.
Talking creatures weren’t unheard of, but I’d certainly never met one before. Usually, they were a bit more… magical than a run-of-the-mill crow. But I supposed Edge wasn’t that, not really. He appeared like a crow, but his feathers didn’t catch thelight like other birds. He almost absorbed the light around him, making him a pulsing dark shadow more than anything else. A shadow bird fortheshadowherself. Fitting.
“After dinner, please fly Warty up to the nearest tree and rest there for the evening,” Hesper ordered Edge. He bowed his head low. She walked over to the fire where the rabbits were cooking away. She sliced off a bit of raw meat and gave it to the crow. Warty turned his nose up at it, but Hesper had come prepared. She dumped out a small pouch full of mealworms onto the rock. Warty was elated.
“How did you do all of that? The rabbits, the worms? You were gone for barely a few moments,” I asked, mystified and—once more—slightly aroused and ignoring it.
“I’m a huntress, princess. I can track down a criminal as easily as I can find a few worms for a hedgehog.” She returned to her work at the fire.
“How?” I asked, crossing my arms, meeting her fierce gaze. “How can you smell magic? How can you hunt so swiftly? How are you traveling with Eldrene’s Forest Train? How do you have a shadowy crow that talks?”
Hesper’s gaze raked over me, erupting fire across my skin.
“Eat first. You’re like a deadly, frantic pixie when you don’t sup. And then I will tell you.”
I drained the last bit of broth from my third bowl of stew, my journal sprawled haphazardly across my lap. A bit of dinner had splashed onto the pages, but that was no matter. It would add character… to a book that would never see the light ofday. I had tried to write during supper, but Hesper kept staring at me, and I found it quite distracting.
I crumpled up the pages and tossed them into the flames. Hesper caught them before they could catch.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Stoking the fire,” I replied.
“Did you write on these?”
“Yes; famously, that’s what paper is for.”
“Why turn them to ash then?”
“Because they aren’t good,” I quipped back. Why did she care?
“Hmm” was all she said as she placed the crumpled paper to the side of the fire. Maybe she’d use them for kindling during the night.
“So what’s your deal then?” I asked, leaning back on my elbows. My belly was full, my writing was done for the day. And now it was time for a proper interrogation.
Hesper laughed, shaking her head.
“You make it sound as if what I am is a problem.”
Well…
“I am fae,” she said calmly, stoking the fire and looking entirely unbothered.
My mouth hung open.
No one had seen nor heard of a fae in centuries. They had all resided in the legendary kingdom called Starfall, a place that existed just above the land itself, caught between moonbeams. But it was lost to time, as were the fae. Rumor was that the kingdom moved to another realm after the Prince fell into darkness.
“But that means you’re—”
“Five hundred and eighty-three,” she conceded.
Oh.
“And you’re from—”
“Starfall, yes,” she finished.
