She would have foreseen Leap and Mavlyn’s arrival. Of that, Mavlyn was certain. But the real question was, would Quye help them?
“Come on,” Leap said, shaking Mavlyn from her reverie. “This way.”
He led Mavlyn up the winding city streets, switchbacking up the mountain toward the base of the temple. But instead of taking the main road that led to the front entrance, they cut through a neighborhood tucked right against the edge of a small forest.
The moment they entered the wooded area, Mavlyn relaxed. The scents of pine and loamy earth wrapped around her senses like a mother’s welcoming arms, the soft warbling of nocturnal birds a soothing lullaby. For half a second, she could almost imagine she was back in Domhain. That in just a few more steps, she would emerge in her backyard to the sound of her father hammering away in the forge, or her mother humming one of her folksongs as she prepared the venison stew she loved to make on cold winter nights such as this.
A twinge of guilt pinched at Mavlyn’s chest at the thought of her parents, who had to be worried sick. Her father had returned home from his travels shortly after Adara and Einar had fled Fenwood, and he and Mavlyn had fought bitterly when she told him she was going after Adara. Mavlyn understood why he hadn’t wanted her to go—he was no stranger to the dangers shadow creatures posed along the roads, and Mavlynwashis only child. Not to mention she’d been set to start at Talamh University in just a few days.
But Mavlyn knew it would be impossible to focus on her studies while her best friend was in mortal peril. And so, with the promise that she would travel with Mrs. Aeolan, her parents had reluctantly allowed Mavlyn to go.
Mavlyn wished she could hug them and tell them not to worry about her. Or at least tell them she was all right. Maybe Quye could help her send a message to them so they would know she was still alive.
But first, they had to get inside the temple without getting caught by the guards.
Mavlyn and Leap crept silently through the woods, which were tucked below a service road that wound around the back of the temple. Another fae might have climbed the cliff wall up to that road, taken it to the service entrance, and tried to sneak past the guards by posing as deliverymen.
But Leap wasn’t just any fae. He was a member of the air fae nobility, cousin to the Oracle herself. And as such, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.
“Here we go,” Leap murmured after searching along the cliff wall for several minutes. He pressed his thumb against a small green stone jutting out of the wall, barely larger than a coat button. A deep groan reverberated from the earth, and a rectangular section of the wall swung inward to reveal a stone staircase.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Mavlyn clapped Leap on the shoulder. “You were right.”
“Of course I’m right,” Leap huffed. “Quye used to sneak out of the temple all the time when we were kids. I would meet her here once a week and take her to play knucklebones with my friends.” A wistful look entered his eyes, and Mavlyn imagined he was remembering happier times, when his parents had still been alive and he’d been a carefree boy. “Judging by the look of these footprints, I’d say she still uses the entrance.”
Mavlyn cast a look at the boot outlines on the base of the dusty steps. “Yeah, but it looks like it’s been at least a week since she’s tried.” Opening one of the pouches at her belt, she pulled out a dried flower bud and placed it in the center of her palm. She held it up to the moonlight and allowed a tiny bit of magic to flow from her hand into the plant. The bud came to life at once, color flooding into the petals as they opened. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the bluish-white petals began to glow, absorbing the moonlight from the trees and reflecting it back into Leap’s shining eyes.
“A moon blossom,” he said in a hushed voice, reaching out to touch it. “Where’d you get it? They’re supposed to be rare.”
Mavlyn smacked his hand away. “I got this from Talamh University’s gardens when I visited for my exam last summer. It’s one of the rarest specimens I own, and it’s quite fragile, so keep your hands to yourself.”
“Fine.” Pouting, Leap stepped aside and swept an arm toward the staircase. “Guess you’ll have to lead the way, then.”
She grinned. “That was the idea.”
Balancing the moon blossom carefully in her hand, Mavlyn started up the staircase, Leap following close behind. The earthen door closed behind them with a groan, leaving them in total darkness save for the moonlight emanating from the flower in Mavlyn’s palm. Up and up and up they climbed, the staircase zig zagging through the mountain, until her breath came in pants and her legs trembled from the exertion.
“Finally,” she gasped as they reached a landing with a single door. While Leap pressed his ear against it to listen for guards, Mavlyn gently closed her fists around the moon blossom and focused her power again, this time drawing its essence into her body. The flower shriveled back into a bud, and she gently replaced it in its pouch.
“All clear,” Leap murmured. He pushed the door open, and they emerged into an empty salon. Mavlyn’s heart leapt in her chest at the sight of Quye sitting on a settee facing the fireplace, her white hair a curly halo around her head as she bent over a thick tome.
She waited for the Oracle to turn around, to tell them she’d been expecting them, to ask what had taken them so long, but the female on the couch didn’t move. Didn’t even seem to have noticed their arrival.
“Oi,” Leap said, his voice as loud as a whip-crack in the silent room. “No pithy comments for us today, Quye?”
Quye jumped like a rat whose tail had been caught in a trap, the book falling from her hands as she spun around to face them. Mavlyn’s mouth dropped open, mirroring the same shock on her face, but for entirely different reasons because —
“You’re not Quye.”
Leap was between me and the imposter in an instant, lightning crackling at his hands, an accusatory finger jabbed in the woman’s direction. “Who in the Shadows are you, and where’s Quye?”
“Guards!” the woman shrieked. She was a close copy, her slender, willowy figure and curly, snow-white hair almost identical to the Oracle's. But her eyes were heavy-lidded, her mouth too wide, and her high-pitched voice was absolutely nothing like the Oracle’s playfully sultry tones. “Guards,there are intruders in my room!”
The door crashed open, and four temple guards rushed into the room, swords drawn. They looked ready to lop the intruders’ heads off, but the one in the lead’s eyes widened in recognition as he stared at Leap.
“You!” He jabbed his sword in Leap’s direction. “You’re Lord Oren’s nephew!”
“Who, me?” Leap’s hands were suddenly behind his back, the lightning vanishing from his fingertips as though it had never been there. “No, no, I’m just a commoner. I came to ask the Oracle if she’d tell me my future.”
