Page 36

It was late when Green Man blew out the candle and we all settled into our beds to stare at the black ceiling. I didn’t join them. I stayed crouched just inside the door waiting for an ambush, the shard of iron gripped so hard in my palm that it bit into the flesh and left dark marks in the night-kissed outline of my hand. It would be another long night’s flight through black forests if this worked out.

I waited until silence was deep across the village before I tapped Green Man’s shoe to alert him.

“They’ll expect us to go out the back gate. We aren’t going that way.” I adjusted my stance and turned to them.

“The fences aren’t too tall. We could go over them instead of through them,” Violet offered.

“Could do that,” I said, considering her point. “I had planned on floating out to the edge of the fences in the lake and slipping around them.”

Emerald frowned and played an image of a hand slipping under the quiet waters of a still lake and bubbles following it.

“Does that mean you can’t swim?” I asked, and she nodded, her hand dropping like a stone.

“She’s too heavy. Made of rock and all,” Green Man offered. Emerald cast him a sidelong glance, and he gave a soft smile laced with the whisper of adoration. In the dim light I could just make out the outline of his rooted fingers reaching out to brush her exposed thigh.

“That makes sense. Though I didn’t know she was made of real emeralds.” I grinned over to my green friend. “Better be nice to me, or I’ll pawn you for rent money.”

Emerald’s face lit up with the joke, and she put her fists up in a mockery of a boxing match. We both snickered quietly.

I turned back to Violet. “Was there a specific place on the walls you thought we could go over?”

She nodded and traced a map on my palm and walked me through her plan. When she was done, I sent Goose out to scout our route.

“Okay, Goose says it’s all clear. Stay low, move from shadow to shadow if you can. Stay out of the light. Does everyone know where we are headed?” I heard the soft rustles of nods. “Okay, when we get out, split up. It’s easier to move and hide without a party. Goose go with Nothing. If she gets into trouble, come get me. The rest of you, if you get into trouble, scream at the top of your lungs, and we’ll kick this hive as hard as we can until we get to you.”

One by one, we flowed out into the night, going in different directions as the shadows allowed. It felt strange to be fully alone for the first time in a long time. It made the weighted razor within me bite and cut into the emptiness.

I pushed past it and made my way through the sleeping village. Someone had suspected I had not been fully honest. As I passed a pair of houses with a good view of the front gate, I saw four villagers crouched in the shadows, watching the torches on either side flicker in the night.

Finding the lower part of the garden fences was easy, finding a place I could hide to wait for the others was a little more difficult, but I didn’t have long to wait for them. One by one they crept into view and joined me. When we were all gathered, I helped Violet up and over.

We moved slow and low around the fence line, Goose in front of us brushing our path clear so that we didn’t accidentally step on any sticks. Even deep into the forest we continued our stealthy creep. Out here, we had both the villagers and the creatures of the wood to worry about.

Dawn broke over the high boughs of the forest with not a single sighting of either, and we relaxed against a large pine as Green Man examined the map he’d swiped from Pops’ stores when no one was looking. I could have spared him the trouble, but there was a small voice in the back of my head telling me not to reveal the book I had lifted from Emrys’ library.

“You know how to make sense of that thing?” I asked as Violet passed me a water skin she had liberated from somewhere.

“Believe it or not, I do. Before I was sold to the palace, my owner was a huntsman. Taught all of us how to navigate the world with nothing but some sticks and a little bit of luck. Having a map? It’s almost too easy. Question is, I don’t know where we’re going.” He lofted his bushy vine brows at me over the top of the map.

I sighed and passed the water to Emerald. “To the House of Magic.”

“Okay, see I knew you said that before but after hearing what that crazy Fae said, I was sure you were going to think better of it.”

Emerald snatched my hand to get my attention, and her whole body lit up with an image of melting butter on a hot pan. I shivered at the thought of melting. “I know. But he also said that only the daughter of the House of Magic could walk freely into the ruins. Well . . . isn’t that me?”

Green Man scowled deep into his vines and branches.

“I Don’t Know,” Violet started, the age in her voice almost too heavy for this. It was the voice a grandmother would use to warn someone of danger that only she knew of. “What you’re proposing is that we let you play chicken with magic itself. I give you a lot of guff for being dumb, but it’s because I see how smart you really are, lamb. Don’t do this. It’s too dangerous. For all you know, that woman in the dungeon was a prisoner of Mabh, forgotten and lost to the ages. She spun you some pretty little Fae tale to get you to release her from her prison. You don’t know she was who she said she was, let alone that you are who she said you are.”

I had never doubted her. She knew so much about me. She knew so many small things that were inconsequential. Things that even I had forgotten about. I frowned into the water skin Emerald had passed back to me. “I know you might doubt her, No One. But . . . for some reason I don’t. And I feel it in my bones. I need to do this. I made a vow to magic to do this. You don’t have to come with me—none of you have to—but I need to do this.”

Violet sighed. “Will you stop saying that? I know you’re Fae and all, but none of us think you’re making us do anything. We know we have a choice. And when and if we choose not to go with you, we’ll leave. Today isn’t that day. No matter how dumb your plan is.”

She turned her gaze to the others as if to get their agreement. Both nodded.

“Fine. Then the House of Magic is where I want to go.”

Green Man groaned. “Well, if we came out of that hell door into the direwood, then the only lake that is near it is here.” He set the map on the ground and pointed to the blob that was slightly blue. “To get to the House of Magic we have a few choices. None of them good. I’d recommend the path through the Abhartachs lands. It’ll spit us out into the mountains bordering the northernmost sector of the Witch Lands. The Cailleach had wide and well-cut paths through the mountains, so getting through them won’t be that arduous. On the other side of the star lines is Canai eter Duthracht. We’ll be approaching it from its back, but we’ll also have a safe retreat point if you start melting.”