“I could tell because you weren’t bickering.”
Saeldian laughed. “That’s fair.”
“What happened?” Jubilee asked. “How did you fall behind?”
“It was my fault,” Kell said. “I thought I saw someone I knew was dead, and then we tried to run, but it chased us.”
“Were you afraid?” Shuahn asked.
“Terrified,” Kell said. “Saeldian could fight.”
“It was an awful creature. If a beetle was a person, only somehow worse than that.”
“That wasn’t what I saw,” Kell said. “It was Ikariel.”
“A meenlock, I think. You’re lucky there was only one of them. You’re lucky we found you,” Shuahn said. “If you can’t keep up, you’ll just have to join hands and form a chain. You must stay together. And you must hurry. If it was a meenlock you vanquished in battle, it wasn’t far from more.”
“It was very kind of you all to turn back and search for us,” Saeldian said. “I’m ready to move on.”
“Good,” Shuahn said. “Stay close. No remembering.”
Again, she set off without looking back to watch the others scramble after her. Jubilee didn’t let go of Saeldian’s hand. They stretched the other out to Lorzok, who grabbed for Kell’s free hand. Together, they hurried to keep up.
“You’re here,” Shuahnsaid. “Hearthaven’s Repose is between those two trees.”
“Those two trees” didn’t belong among the wide, tall, needled evergreens. They stood bathed in a rare beam of light in the shaded wood. One of the trees, the one gamely holding on to long saw-toothed leaves that were colored like flame—deep gold, warm orange, and scarlet—stood in a circle of gently fallen leaves. The other held stubbornly to still-green leaves, the branches heavy with oval pods. Some of them had burst and dropped hard-shelled seeds. Their trunks leaned toward each other, making an arch to walk between.
“You have brought us to the place you promised,” Lorzok said, “but how do you propose we return?”
Shuahn nodded to Kell. “That one won’t need my help to return. He found you when it counted and led you right to him. You should become a wilds walker, young Kell, once you’ve settled in a bit.”
“I’ll ask you about that when we return,” Kell said. “But are you going back? Now?”
“There’s a friend not far from here I’d like to visit. Your little adventure with the meenlock gave me an excuse to drop by. Get inside now, before a redcap stumbles by. Success in your goals,” Shuahn said, and loped away much more quickly once unencumbered by slow-paced mortals. Timtim wiggled restlessly in Lorzok’s arm. Once he was on the ground, he hopped toward the two trees and paused to look behind him.
“I hear you, Timtim,” Jubilee said. “Let’s go.”
“Stay in sight,” Lorzok warned. “Don’t get lost again.”
It was only a few steps to the trees. Dried leaves crunched under Kell’s boot as he stepped beneath the ash tree’s crown, but he stopped to stare.
The tree was a woman.
The trunk Kell had thought was twisted had a man’s figure growing out of it, bent to reach to the other—a woman, who also stretched an arm that ended in fruited almond pods. The tips of their branches didn’t touch.
One step beyond them, Kell felt the border shivering through him as he crossed into night, where fireflies danced along the forest path to lead them to the light of a full moon reflected on the surface of a lake, with cottages gathered around its shores.
An elf with a veil of glorious autumn leaves over her long russet hair stood at the end of the path with one finger to her lips, asking for silence. Kell bowed his head to greet her. She returned the greeting, and the ethereal layers of her gown fluttered as she led them to a raft. She stood at its head while everyone boarded, and Kell tried not to overcompensate for its gentle bobbing as everyone settled.
Timtim did one of his excited hops where he twisted in midair, then rushed around the woman’s ankles before planting one adorable paw on her knee for pets. She touched the tip of his horn so a star floated above it, and Timtim hopped away proudly.
The barge sailed itself along the moonlit water to a small island lit with lanterns. People carried those lanterns, outlining their shapes as they gathered. A ceremony, probably. But what kind?
When the raft bumped against the pebbled shore, Kell had to take only three steps to realize that it was a vowsworn wedding. Two young women, a dark-skinned elf and a satyr with short-cropped curls, stood on either side of a crystal casket, hands clasped above it as they vowed themselves into a marriage held fast by magic. The magic of the ceremony wove around them, thanks to another eladrin holding each word of their vows.
Kell had heard about this only in stories: couples defying an unsanctioned match by sneaking away to marry with an oath of devotion, vowing over a monument of proven lifelong love—usually a grave where lovers lay buried. Not a single casket like this one. Not unless…
Kell’s heart fell. The lovers clasped hands over the casket of the magic-weaving eladrin’s beloved. Terandis had said that Hearthaven’s Repose was a sanctuary of grieving what you lost, and what you still loved and couldn’t stop loving. Who would know better about loving someone forever than an archfey who had made a domain with their lover’s grave at its heart?
