any ‘later,’” Donna said. She wasn’t trying to be a wiseass; it was simply a fact.
Cathal rested his hand on the sword hanging from his belt and sighed. “I will aid you on your quest, if you will accept my help.”
Donna’s gaze flickered to the sword. “Aid me with what? What exactly are you offering?”
“Help in securing what you need to stop the demon. Queen Isolde has the Ouroboros Blade. I cannot take it from her, but I can help you gain entry to Faerie. With the abilities you already possess, it should be possible.”
“Why would you help me?” Donna asked. She couldn’t help being so cynical. Too much betrayal—and she didn’t even know this man.
“For my son,” Cathal said, his voice low. “A son I never knew.”
They stopped by the lake, and Donna immediately wished she had some food for the ducks and swans. She smiled at herself for thinking about something so trivial, given that she was heading into Faerie to make a deal for a blade she’d only seen sketched in the Silent Book. But it really was beautiful on the Common, and surprisingly quiet. Sure, there were people walking by the lake, but it didn’t seem too crowded—which was probably a good thing.
Cathal pointed at a grove of jagged-looking trees just beyond a small hill. “There,” he said. “That will do.”
“Those trees aren’t evergreens, and there are still some people around,” Donna said, stating the obvious but wondering what Cathal had in mind in such a public space. “Not enough cover.”
“The people are few,” he replied. “I will glamour us to be unseen.”
She held up her hands. “What about these?”
Confusion crossed Cathal’s face, and then cleared as he realized what she meant. “The tattoos will not matter. We only need to be camouflaged, not entirely invisible. Your iron will look like sunlight through the trees.”
Donna shrugged. It sounded poetic, but what mattered was that they wouldn’t be seen. “Fine. What should I do?”
He told her, and it seemed to be mostly the same process as she’d used to open the door to Hell. It scared her to think of doing something like that again, especially after the way that experience had ended, but she was running out of options. And time.
She repeated his instructions back, just to check that she had it right. She was hardly an expert when it came to manipulating the first matter, and her lessons with Robert and Maker had been unceremoniously cut short.
When Cathal nodded, satisfied, they said their goodbyes. “I cannot appear in Faerie at your side,” he told her. “My queen cannot know I have spoken with you. I must take another path.”
“What should I do about the guards?” Donna remembered the knights talking about that, when it had looked like Aliette might be getting ideas about sneaking into Faerie. “The door is guarded, I know that.”
“I will distract them,” Cathal said.
“Thank you.”
“Be strong,” Cathal replied. “Good luck.”
I think I’m going to need it, Donna thought as she walked toward the grove. She could feel the thread of power inside her, warming her all the way through as it responded to her gentle probing.
She lay down on the winter-hard ground and prepared to travel across worlds.
Fourteen
Navin waited impatiently while Xan used the Magical Lockpick of Awesomeness that Maker had given them to open a back door into the Frost Estate’s kitchens. Grayson had told him this was the door that he and Donna had used when they were looking for the elixir last fall, on their way to saving Navin from the Wood Queen.
Maker was waiting for them at the small cluster of trees on the Estate. There was no way his legs would do anything but slow them down, and he could hardly bring his wheelchair on a stealth mission. The thought of that made Navin grin, although he wished he was sneaking around with Donna instead. He didn’t really want to hang out with Xan any more than the wingless wonder wanted to hang out with him. Their ambivalence was very definitely mutual.
But they had one very special lady in common.
And Donna needed Newton—the demon who was trapped inside a bronze statue of an alchemist’s head (for real)—so that she could find out how to get hold of a demon tear (for really real). This was all because she had to make the Philosopher’s Stone and save the world. It was impossible to make this shit up, it really was.
Yes, it was all ridiculous and very possibly