He let the weight of his last word hang in the air amongst the crackling of the log in the fireplace. He leaned forward and splayed his claws on the table. “That is why I ask you to trust me. Everything I do is deliberate,Litlnadr.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Everythingshouldbe deliberate.”
Daigen let out a low laugh. “A little serpent with a mind like mine. Although we may think alike, our power manifests differently. I was formed in a time where I had to be discreet and unseen, so I developed an affinity for transformation.”
He smiled, revealing his fangs. “I don’t actually look like this.”
I examined him from horn to hoof. “Then wear your real face. Surely you cannot be any uglier than this.”
“This,” he stomped his hoof for emphasis, “is a delightful curse from the Great Sorceress of Nordingaard. She wanted meso ugly, so fearsome, that no mortal would ever seek my help again.”
So Fraleighdidhave a rivalry with Daigen. Even while held captive by the Hytons, she must have somehow felt threatened by his power. “What a shame she forced you to look like this forever.”
“I never said that.” Daigen’s smile grew bigger. “There is nothing more delicious than proving Fraleigh wrong, and since a certain little mortal sought my hideous face regardless of her curse, I finally have my opportunity to take the mask off…”
Daigen bowed his head slightly and his horns retracted. His hooves turned into feet and his claws became fingers. His red skin blanched into a pale white brushed with a lavender glow.
He opened his eyes—now violet instead of gold. His fangs had disappeared. Like Fraleigh, his features were too sharp to be considered beautiful, but he was no longer hideous.
A goat bleated outside. Dozens of hooves clattered on the rocks.
Daigen’s violet eyes shifted to the small window. “I also have a talent for transforming others. Those enchantments tend to be more…permanent.”
My stomach turned. “The goats are—”
“No, not them,” Daigen said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “But others…I’ve hidden in the rocks around the mountain and turned men into mice. Girls into larks. Hell, I turned a couple of Bloodstone boys into white bears a few decades ago.”
I folded my arms. “You robbed them of their lives!”
“It’s better than being giant food! Though I will admit my insatiable need to help others is one of my worst vices.” He sighed and sat down in front of his tools. “Anyone I turn into a goat runs away from me, those beasts outside just won’t leave me alone. My father was a herder, guess it’s just in my blood.”
I rested my hand on my fist as I listened. I never needed to ask Daigen who he was, he was just…telling me. Despite his power, it was hard to be afraid of a cursed and bitter soul on the mountain who liked to help people.
Maybe he had a point about answers coming to me at the right time. Had he tried to tell me who he was before I saw his true face and his quaint home, I would have never believed him.
I had only known Daigen for a couple of hours yet I stillhatedwhen he was right.
A sharp tap rattled the window pane and the glass darkened. “Se-ra!”
The ravens had returned. How did they find us?
Daigen groaned and picked up his tools again. “Here we go. They’re going to annoy us until they realize they can’t break through glass.”
I took in a breath—the smell of smoking herbs and charcoal dust hit my nose.
That smelled just like…it was impossible, but we were on Nordingaard, where the impossible had stared me in the face more than once.
My heartbeat quickened as I lifted myself from the table. “Just to make sure I understand you correctly—the Man of the Mountain’s tears behave like water and live in the air around us.”
Daigen lightly hammered his chisel against the crystal. “Yes.”
A raven pecked its beak on the window pane and the wooden door rattled—the other raven must have joined in.
I took a step closer to the door. “You also took a memory from the healing spring. Since the magic comes from intense emotions…the tears can carry memories too.”
Daigen blew the dust off the crystal and buffed it with his sleeve. “What a joy to hear that you’re finally using your brainand figuring things out yourself. See what you can accomplish without asking endless questions like a snotty nursery child?”
I had picked up on the memories floating through the air with my magic, but why had the tears carried memories of my brothers any time the ravens were near? Were they just harbingers of my grief, haunting me with the fact that my brothers were dead?
