The Frozen Moon - By J.D. Swinn Page 0,7
in the mood to go knocking on his door, especially if her theory proved wrong, but she didn’t know where else to look.
When she reached his door, she hesitated, letting the invisibility spell drop from around her. What if he was still sleeping? Were Talar and Wyd sleeping here too? Maybe I should just go wait for her in our room. Before she could follow through on any of her thoughts, the door swung open, revealing Max standing behind it in a slightly wrinkled white t-shirt and blue pajama pants. “You know, when you use invisibility spells, you actually become more visible to other Markbearers.” His comment was confusing, but she was too tired, she would ask later. She surveyed him again: he had thin bags around his eyes, he hadn’t gotten quite enough sleep, and his short hair was rumpled. She had the urge to reach up and smooth down the pieces that went astray, but immediately thought better of it. She almost stammered, something she rarely did, but his cool blue eyes were so piercing and disarming that she was taken off guard.
“Uh,” she began, not sure if her question would seem absurd, “is Nameh here?”
“Tall girl, dark eyes, white-ish hair? Yeah, she’s here; I think she’s torturing Wyd right now, but if you’ll wait a moment…” He was quite witty, she thought. His presence and casual jokes were pleasant and refreshing. He turned back into the room as if to confirm his theory; he gave a small nod and let her pass. Nameh stood from where she had been seated on the bed and extended a mug to her. She peered into the contents and was overjoyed at the sight of the steaming brown liquid. It was just the way she liked it, lots of cream and sugar with a little foam.
“I annoyed Wyd into conjuring it.” She twisted her face into a thoughtful look, “I wasn’t sure how else to get coffee without going through the lobby, and it’s much too early for a teleportation spell.” The perk in her friend’s voice was surprising; she had always wondered how she managed to run on such little sleep.
“It’s also much too early for a conjuring spell, so you’re welcome,” Wyd half-muttered in a tone that had an attempt at displeasure, but failed entirely.
“Thank you,” Mira said with an apologetic look.
Talar was lounging on a bed that she was fairly confident hadn’t been there the day before. Guest beds, she assumed; likely Wyd’s handiwork.
“Now that everyone’s here, we may as well get down to business. We can’t very well stay here much longer, now that none of us are really Guardians anymore.” Talar’s words gave her a painful shock, she hadn’t thought of it in this way before. She felt as though she was abandoning a lifestyle, an oath. “But I know of a place that takes in Upperworlders who don’t have anywhere else to go. There’s quite a…motley crew of creatures there.” He laughed a little at this thought. “Werewolves, vampires, faeries; I actually met a centaur there once.” He added his last thought with an absent minded interest. Mira’s curiosity heightened at the mention of a centaur; they didn’t frequent urban areas, but they had always fascinated her. Centaurs were one of the few remaining groups of Children of the Spark who were considered purists. They believed that their place was outside the realm of humans, and therefore mostly existed in their own cities in less inhabited parts of the world. She had dreamed, as a child, of visiting far off lands to see all of the distant and rarest magical creatures. There were dwindling numbers of banshees in the Himalayan and Appalachian mountains, and mermaids in all of the world’s oceans; there were centaurs in Central and South America, and phoenixes that bathed in the fire of Hawaii’s volcanoes. But most of all, she longed to watch the fierce and beautiful griffins fly over the skies of Nepal; it was one of the few places where they could live in peace. It was a sort of crazy dream, but one that she hadn’t entirely given up on.
“My vote is for leaving today,” Nameh’s voice cut in, “the sooner the better. We’re not getting any closer to finding the Relic just sitting here. That is still the plan, right?” The room was silent, leave it to Nameh to ask a perfectly simple question at just the right time, and leave everyone speechless. After a moment, Max