doors that opened to the warm night and the vast expanse of starlit sea. “Or hot tea? I can send for tea or dinner.”
Rynna’s eyelids flickered closed, and she slumped onto her side. I sat with her and tugged the knit blanket from the end of the bed up to her waist, stroking her hair and, for my own satisfaction, lightly tracing the velvety skin of her tapered ear.
“Don’t try to materialize,” she whispered. “Stay with me.”
I weighed the risks. Of course it was silly to think I could materialize to the middle of the woods, at night no less. Sometimes I tired of being the only powerless mortal in the group—but I couldn’t let my envy win out. I needed to learn elicromancy properly, patiently, as my friends had. Even Valory had continued to toil and study long after she failed to display a natural magical gift.
“I’ll stay here,” I promised Rynna. I looked out at the twilight, a deep dread climbing like wild ivy between my ribs. “I hope they come back soon, with answers. And in one piece. Or five pieces…you know what I mean.”
Rynna chuckled at my anxious rambling. That made me smile. Though she had seen me at my most vulnerable, I hadn’t seen her like this, almost childlike.
While she rested, I tried to resist glancing at her growth to see if it had spread. I hid the book again, deposited my crown in its velvet case, sent for tea and soup, and asked the cook to keep dinner warm for the others. They would be hungry when they returned.
The sustenance restored some hope and courage, but I couldn’t coax Rynna to swallow a single bite. I drank fragrant tea and curled up beside her as she slept.
When would they come back? What would they discover? Why hadn’t Valory resurfaced after leaving for her mysterious mission?
What if we couldn’t stop the invasion of Wenryn?
What if it spread through the whole realm unchecked, like the blight disease?
My dozing mind was cruel. Nightmares hounded me: Fabian and the others returning with horrific growths, blood seeping through lichen on a rotting tree stump, the drained pit in the woods deepening until it became a bottomless abyss.
A soft knock made me jerk awake. With a light leap and a few soft steps, I answered, expecting news of the boys’ return.
Falima stood outside, hands clasped and brown eyes wide. “I need to speak with you. Alone.”
“Have the others returned?”
“I haven’t heard any news.”
I blinked away the sleep in my eyes. “What’s the matter?”
Falima cast a wary glance down the hall and spoke in Erdemese. “It’s about the…gift that you received.”
I gaped in surprise. A typical lady’s maid knew her mistress’s secrets, but I thought I had managed to keep this one to myself. “You know?” I asked.
“Yes, and I’m not the only one,” she whispered.
“Who?” I asked.
Falima rocked a step closer and whispered, “We shouldn’t talk about it here.”
“Are you worried someone will hurt you?” I clasped her elbow. “Falima, what do you know?”
She grasped my sleeve. “Please, come with me to the terrace, where we can speak alone.”
With a last look at Rynna, I closed the door and followed Falima down the hall to the lounge. This was where Fabian and I ate our meals together when he was landlocked due to weather or business. Sometimes I read books or penned letters while he studied maps and newfangled nautical instruments. Occasionally, he forced himself to frown over administrative documents while I simplified their contents to tether his wandering attentions.
The lounge lamps had been extinguished, but I could easily navigate my way through the dark room to the moonlit terrace. Falima worried her small hands as we emerged in the night, the corner of her headscarf trailing in the wind.
A briny ocean breeze mingled with the spicy, clovelike scent of pink dianthus beds bordering the terrace ledges. The familiar fragrance dispossessed me of the fresh memory of Rynna’s more intoxicating one, so that as I drew even with Falima I wondered whether Rynna had truly come or I had dreamed her.
“What’s happening?” I demanded. Without the warm glow of the glass lanterns that usually lit the terrace, I could see nothing but Falima’s wide, fearful eyes. “Has someone threatened you? Tried to extort you? Give me their name. I’ll see to it.”
She hesitated. I shook her by the shoulders. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. Please, tell me!”
Falima parted her lips to speak, but her eyes darted over my shoulder.