The one that Saeldian had ordered from Master Quirkilious, they meant. “Do you care?”
Saeldian huffed. “Never mind.”
He didn’t know where it had ended up. There hadn’t been time to search for it. It wouldn’t have survived the swim in the Chionthar at the end of his escape. Maybe someone had rescued it from an evidence chest and now played a reel on it sometimes.
Maybe he should tell them that he still thought about that fiddle when he played his new one? No. It didn’t matter.
“All right, here we are,” Shuahn said. “Wait to drink it. I want you to understand what you’re doing before you do it.”
Saeldian touched the side of the thin glass cup to test its heat, then leaned over and sniffed. “This is a tea for sleep.”
“You know herbcraft?”
“Not really,” Saeldian said. “I can smell magic here.”
“Interesting,” Shuahn said. “I’d like to test that, but later. You’re right. The trial you face will be in dreams.”
“And we need to sleep?”
Shuahn’s laugh croaked. “Being drowsy will make it easier to accept. I’m taking you into the dream. Do you see that hourglass?”
Kell followed her pointing finger to where a mouth-blown hourglass with gray-lilac sand rested. She crossed to hold it in her hands, and it was nearly as big as her head. “I turn this over, andwe will be in the dream. You’ll meet a trial there that will force you to face what is in your heart.”
Saeldian took their fingers away from the cup. “I wouldn’t have to do this if Kell didn’t come along. Right?”
“Correct,” Shuahn said.
Saeldian looked at Kell. “You wouldn’t have to do this if you’d just stay here. You’re free.”
“You don’t want to face whatever you’d see? That’s interesting.”
Saeldian rubbed their chin. “So you’ll do it just because it’ll force me to do it? Isn’t that a bit immature?”
Oh, this was too good. The heat from Kell’s teacup seared into his fingers as he lifted it in a mocking toast. “Call me whatever you like. A way to make you face something in your life? There isn’t anything you could have said that would make me more ready to do it.”
He grinned right until the steam hit his nose and it was time to drink.
It was too hot. His tongue curled trying to get away from it, but he swallowed it down—grassy, dark, a little hint of mushroom and pungent valerian root. No honey, of course. Shuahn always liked things unvarnished. The heat spread like a fog as Kell covered his scalded tongue with smiling teeth.
“Drink up.”
Saeldian glowered, but they couldn’t refuse.
Kell enjoyed every second: The cup, perched on their fingertips. The futile way they blew across the top. Their first sip and swallow, then another, and one more, all the rest of it drank to the dregs.
Saeldian set the cup down and wiped their mouth with the back of their hand. “What now?”
Kell nodded. “Yes. What now?”
Shuahn spread her fingertips along the round glass. “I haven’t turned it over. You can go back to your rooms and get a good night’s sleep.”
Saeldian said nothing while Kell let himself roll around in this feeling he should not like so much.
“I’m not afraid to face what’s in my heart,” he said. “Go ahead and take us to the dream.”
Shuahn led themto the door on the other side of the house, this one low enough that Kell had to duck through it too. When he stood up straight, he saw the path away from the stream was paved in geometric five-petaled stones, with tough green vines persisting in its gaps. Just ahead, a surprisingly formal garden spread between the opening of two beech trees that had grown together. Shuahn passed through the gap and walked straight to a tall hedge maze.
Kell pinched his wrist, but he didn’t wake up in Shuahn’s green-filled parlor. This garden and its maze hadn’t been there. A quick glance behind him showed the humped bridge with Shuahn’s house roosting underneath. He couldn’t hear the water.
