There wasn’t anything Kell could say, because he’d rather die than tell Saeldian the reason.
Because he’d tried before.
Kell could find whomever he wanted to find, so long as he’d met them at least once before. Essanderon had given the knack toKell when he was very small and afraid of being lost. The better he knew someone, the easier it was. But he had barely been hungry on the first day of his exile when he had sat alone and reached out, only to find nothing.
He’d guessed that meant he couldn’t find them if they weren’t on the same plane. Where was the Feywild when you were in Faerûn? That was logical. That made sense. He couldn’t find them until he made it back.
But the other possible reason, which he’d never admit aloud, was that they were all dead. He couldn’t tell Saeldian that.
“Hey,” Jubilee said. “Keep it down. Someone’s coming.”
“Excellent,” Saeldian said. “We can ask them for directions to Eightbridge. Since Kell just wants to stand here all day.”
“The sky is a beautiful clear blue, and everywhere is peaceful,” Lorzok said. “We are safe.”
He didn’t sound like he believed it.
Kell sighed. “Look at how everything has changed. We can’t clash like this in the truewild.”
“So don’t be an ass when we’re trying to figure out what to do,” Saeldian said. “We need someone who knows how to get to Eightbridge, and now someone’s coming. Or maybe your brother just happened to be out for a walk. It’s the Feywild. It does whatever you want.”
“It does whatever you feel,” Lorzok said. “And you two feel like a duel. Will you please center yourselves?”
“I’m fine,” Saeldian said. “No reason to be angry when you’re right.”
Kell took a deep, deep breath, held it, and counted the seconds before he had to let it go.
Saeldian marched off but made it only a few steps before a woman with long white hair in a traveling robe with a sturdy walking staff strode up to the party. “Forgive me, good folk, but I couldn’t help but overhear. Are you lost?”
Chilly air curled around the back of Kell’s neck. Saeldian froze, caught in mid-step. Long tendrils of moss drooped from the tree branches, swaying desperately for something to touch. To grab. All around them, the air took on the smell of slow-moving water,and the ground under Kell’s boots went soft as the traveler came closer.
This woman was no mere wanderer. She ambled closer, only her smile visible in the shadow beneath the wide brim of her pointed hat. She carried a staff and wore a humbly cut but spotless traveling robe.
Kell stood up straight and bowed before the traveler, as courteous as a bard acknowledging the noble whose purse would provide. “Good morning. We were just discussing breakfast.”
Saeldian said nothing.
The woman drew closer. “You are hungry? I have a little to spare.”
This close, Kell could feel it. Incredible power, heavy with possibility, scented with charms and lightning and the smell of a just-burned match—all of it balanced on the tip of a needle and ready to fall on them for good, for ill, for whatever she wanted.
“A witch.”
Saeldian barely let their breath make the sound. If Kell hadn’t stepped directly in front of them—when did he do that?—he wouldn’t have heard them at all.
A witch. Witches weren’t wizards, though they could learn a spell through study. They weren’t warlocks, though they might have mentors. They weren’t sorcerers, though they could make magic happen because they wanted it to. Witches gained power however they could. However they wanted. He didn’t know whom he’d met, but he knew better than to owe a stranger in the Feywild a favor.
“I mean that we were discussing our favorite breakfasts. I’m fond of eggs,” Kell amended.
“Smoked fish on toast,” Jubilee said, following Kell’s gab as smoothly as she did Saeldian’s.
“Fresh fish, clearly, is the finest breakfast there is,” Lorzok said, no slouch in going with a subject change as Kell’s partner either.
“And your opinion?” She waited, cocking her head, as Saeldian struggled to make any sound at all.
Kell filled the silence. “Eggs. They also prefer eggs.”
The white-haired woman’s face turned concerned. “Are you well?”
