Storm Born Page 0,30

colored, like a real-life Thomas Kinkade painting. It almost looked unreal, like Technicolor gone crazy.

There was also magic here. Strong magic. It permeated the air, every blossom, every blade of grass. It set my hairs on end. I didn't like magic, not this kind, not the magic that filled living things. That was a gentry thing. Humans had no magic within them. We took it from the world with tools and charms; it was not inborn with us. Feeling it so heavy in the air unnerved me, almost making it hard for me to breathe.

Suddenly we crossed an invisible line, and cold wind blasted against my skin. Snow lay in drifts along the side of the road - which stayed miraculously uncovered - and icicles hung daintily on the trees like Christmas ornaments.

"What the hell happened?" I exclaimed.

"The Willow Land," said Finn. "It's winter right now. Here, I mean."

I glanced behind us. A chilly, white landscape stretched back as far as the eye could see, no cherry trees in sight. I wrapped my arms around my body.

"Do we have to go this way? It's freezing."

"You are the only who is cold, mistress," noted Volusian.

"Yeah," said Wil brightly. "I can't feel anything. How cool is that? I bet those boots of yours won't protect you from hypothermia."

I rolled my eyes. Stupid spirits. All of them. Alive or otherwise.

"How much farther through here?"

"Longer if we keep standing around," said Volusian.

Sighing, I trudged along, pulling my coat tighter. I wore my usual one, the olive-green moleskin that went to my knees. I had put it on mainly to cover the arsenal underneath, and it had seemed too warm back in Tucson. Now it felt ridiculously thin. Teeth chattering, I followed the spirits, focusing mainly on putting one foot in front of the other.

In only a short while, we crossed another unseen boundary, and thick humidity slammed down on me, much like my sauna. Heat boiled around us, and this time I took off my jacket. In the fading light, deep green leaves rustled together, and cicadas sang in the trees. The flowers here were different than the delicate ones in the Rowan Land. These had richer, deeper colors, and their perfume was cloying. The minions informed me we'd crossed into the Alder Land. I cheered up, happy to find it wasn't winter here and that we were so near our goal.

Until we crossed back into the pink-treed valleys of the Rowan Land.

"What's this? Are we going in circles?"

"No, mistress," said Nandi. "This is the way to King Aeson's."

"But we just came out of the Alder Land. We need to turn around."

"Not unless you want to take days to get there. Your friend's body wouldn't survive that long." Volusian inclined his head toward Wil's ethereal form.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"The Otherworld doesn't lie like yours," explained Finn. "It's hard to notice if you haven't been here a lot. It's more obvious when physical. The land folds in on itself, and sometimes what seems longer is shorter. And what's shorter is longer. We've got to cut back through here to get to Aeson's. Weird, but there you have it."

"It sounds like a wormhole," I muttered as I walked again.

"Worms do not travel this way," said Nandi.

I tried explaining what a wormhole was, how some physicists theorized space could wrinkle and fold, making it possible to travel through those folds and end up on the other side more quickly. As soon as I reached the word "physicist," I gave up, realizing I fought a losing battle.

We soon crossed into the Oak Land, a breathtaking landscape of fiery orange trees and scattered leaves, enhanced by the burning orange sunset. Here, it apparently was autumn. I swore I could smell wood smoke and cider on the wind. Something else also caught my attention.

"Hey!" I stopped and stared off into the trees. I had just seen a sleek orange form dart by, its white-tipped tail flaring behind it. "It was that fox again. I swear it was."

"What fox?" asked Finn. "I don't see anything."

"Neither did I," added Wil.

"My mistress has gone mad at last," Nandi said on a sigh.

"Long before this," muttered Volusian.

"There was a fox watching me back in my world...and now I just saw another one."

"The Otherworld has animals just like yours does," said Finn. "It's probably coincidence."

"But what if it's not?"

"Well, it could be a spirit fox. Was it really big? Sometimes they're - "

Volusian cried a warning just before the horses came crashing through the