Had he touched it, though?
The barge glided on a gentle wave and landed on the shore.Saeldian swayed against the sudden stop and hopped down to the black-pebbled beach. Kell’s boots crunched behind them, but a few steps later, they looked back.
Lorzok and Jubilee were still on the barge.
“What’s the matter?” Saeldian asked.
Jubilee lifted one foot but couldn’t move it away from the edge of the barge. “We can’t get off.”
“What do you mean?”
Lorzok took a few steps backward and then tried again. His feet wouldn’t move past the edge either. “I have the same problem.”
They were ashore with Kell, and their partners couldn’t join them? Saeldian shrugged away the feeling of hourglass sand trickling down their spine. “Don’t worry,” Saeldian said. “We’ve got it. Relax. We’ll be right back.”
“No! This is weird!” Kell said. “Why can’t they get off the barge? See if you can get back on and off again.”
“We should just do it. We don’t have time for experiments,” Saeldian said.
Kell hopped back on the barge. “Just once. Come on.”
Saeldian heaved a great sigh and boarded.
“Now you two go first,” Kell said.
Jubilee flexed her knees but relaxed back into a standing position. “Can’t.”
“I can’t either,” Lorzok said. “I think you’ll have to go without us.”
“What’s going on?” Kell asked.
“It doesn’t matter. We can’t just hop on and off this barge trying to figure it out.”
“But—”
Saeldian had already landed on the shore. “Come on. I have to do the spell, and I might need you.”
Kell sighed in exasperation and joined Saeldian onshore. “I don’t like it. Why just us?”
“I don’t know. The island thinks we need it to be just us?”
Saeldian wanted to take the words back immediately, but Kell looked back at Lorzok and Jubilee. “Possibly. But if that’s true, why does it need to be just us?”
Saeldian was not going there. “We don’t have time for philosophy. Let’s go.”
Kell grumbled, but he joined Saeldian on the path.
All of the trees had had a full crown of leaves yesterday. Saeldian and Kell now walked through a carpet of them, gold and orange and deep, earthy red. A single oak leaf lay on the crystal lid of Jadiris’s casket, just over his heart. At his head, the long oval fey-rose gem rested in its setting.
“Gloves,” Saeldian said.
“Right. I’ll get that out,” Kell said. “Get the real gem ready. There’s a polishing fleece in the bag.”
He knelt and slid on fingertip gloves made from silk while he inspected the setting. “Wait, I don’t think this is—have you polished that gem yet?”
No.“One moment.”
Saeldian’s gloves were a thief’s dream—hand-skived kid, and thin as a promise. They used a polishing cloth to wipe away fingerprints and set the gem back on the bag.
