“Do you think Titania would see me?” I asked, twisting my hands together as I approached.
Hippolyta’s answer was dimmed by sadness. “I…I cannot say. If you are willing to try, I am willing to take you to her, though I cannot guarantee anything.”
“Youwillguarantee Marina’s safety, Commander,” said Oberon from behind me.
I looked back to see a muscle twitching in his jaw, then faced Hippolyta again. “I want to go now.”
She hesitated for a moment, exchanging a meaningful look with Oberon, before bowing at the waist. “As you wish, my lady.”
“Wait,” Oberon said, stepping forward and holding out his hand, which contained a writhing ball of shadows with a metallic, silvery core. It floated toward Hippolyta and she absorbed it into her own outstretched hand. Then, he turned toward me and offered up a second orb of magyk.
“This will allow you to travel through the Arden only once,” he said quietly. “Do not use it, except in an emergency. Tap into the currents of power, like I have shown you, and then simply picture the place you want to go and pull yourself there.” I held my hand out and the orb settled into it, soaking through my skin like smoke. It tingled for a moment, then a bolt of heat shot up my arm and spread through my body, making me shiver.
“Thank you,” I murmured. He hesitated for a moment, but then put his hands on either side of my face and pressed a brief kiss to my forehead.
“Swear you will not let anything happen to her,” he said to Hippolyta over my head.
“I swear it, my lord,” Hippolyta answered with another shallow bow. She led me out onto the balcony, then we faced one another and she gently took hold of my forearm. I gripped hers too and closed my eyes against the strange sensation of magyk travel.
Chapter twenty-eight
Flesh & Stone
When I looked upagain, we were in a part of the forest where the trees seemed shorter and more densely packed. I could hardly see the sky at all, never mind any direct sunlight. But beneath the low canopies bobbed magyk lanterns of golden-yellow light. They illuminated the sharp, serious planes of Hippolyta’s face, and I swallowed. She was incredibly intimidating—every inch a battle-hardened warrior—but like Oberon, an invisible mantle of sadness hung over her.
“Oh,little one,” she whispered harshly, before pulling me into a bone-crushing embrace. “I amsosorry…” I did not put my arms around her in return, uncertain exactly what was happening, but let her hold me until she stepped back, moving her calloused hands to my shoulders.
“I-I am not sure…”
“Of course, he wouldn’t have told you anything,” she snorted. “And of course, he’s been keeping you all to himself. Bitter old man.”
“I don’t understand,” I murmured.
Hippolyta sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, turning away from me slightly. “Lyric was…well, she might as well have been my daughter too.”
I kept silent, but recalled what Devil had told me about Hippolyta at the revelry—that she and Titania had a relationship beyond just Queen and Commander.
“I’m afraid you might have to…spell it out for me,” I said. Hippolyta began weaving slowly between the trees and I followed at her elbow.
“Did Oberon tell you that he and I were both born in the Pallasian Court?” she asked.
“I knew he was, but…not you.”
“Well, we were. I was just a lowly soldier though, not connected to the royal family the way he is, and I have lived in the Arden longer. When Titania first came to power, after our previous queen returned to the Huntress, she was quite young and, of course, inexperienced. She was not of royal blood either, but the Arden chose her nonetheless.”
I tripped over a tree root in my eagerness to keep up with her long strides. “Is that how it works? The Arden chooses?”
“Sometimes,” Hippolyta said with a smile. “When Titania came to the throne, the Pallasian Court sent an ambassador and delegation.”
“Oberon?”
“No, it was his cousin, Mariaat, who is now their king. Antenor’s father.”
“Antenor is a prince?” I wrinkled my nose.
“The spare, not the heir,” said Hippolyta, a wicked twinkle in her dark eyes. “Anyway, I was fortunate enough to accompany Mariaat as part of his guard. It is tradition for the Pallasian Court to…‘loan’ a military advisor to the Arden, since the folk here are much less inclined toward war and violence. Mariaat brought several loyal, experienced generals and captains with him, hoping to gain influence over the Arden’s naive new queen—”
“But she was hardly naive, was she?” I asked, grinning in spite of myself.
