Page 105 of Vale of Dreams

Meriadec should be heading back to the fake farm. If the prince wakes and starts searching for me, that’ll be the first place he looks.

Somewhere in the distance, a screech rends the air, maybe the death cry of fallen prey. Whatever it is, it sends my horse veering sideways in a panic. My heart races, and I lean down to soothe him with soft whispers. I manage to get him back on track, following behind Ysolde.

I’m not shrieking out my own death cries yet, but I feel nearly as hunted as that creature. At any moment, we could hear the earth-rumbling sound of a Fey legion charging after traitors.

Our disguise won’t hold under close scrutiny, and Raphael and Ysolde aren’t glamoured like I am.

Something snaps to my left, and I reflexively reach for my bow, but there’s nothing there, just the sounds of the night. I lean closer to my horse as we ride. “Nothing to worry about,” I whisper to him, trying to reassure myself. “There’s no one after us. You’re a good horse.”

He snorts, his ears twitching. I’ve fallen behind, and I spur him on to catch up with the other two.

Dawn breaks, coral blooming in a lavender sky. Rose gleams off icicles and blushes over the snow.

Exhaustion burns through me, and our horses slow to a canter down a narrow trail.

Somehow, I’ve ended up in the front, and I glance back at the siblings. They look as tired as I feel, slumping over their horses. Turning around, I see a churning, icy river ahead, flecked with amber in the morning light. I pull my horse to a halt.

Raphael stops by my side. “Well, fuck.”

“What?” Ysolde mumbles behind us.

“I don’t think you know this area as well as you think, sis,” Raphael says. “You’ve led us to a river.”

The water is clearly too deep for the horses to cross, and we’d probably all freeze to death if we tried.

“We’ll have to find a point to ford.” I swallow hard. “Maybe if we ride upriver for a few kilometers…”

“We don’t need that,” Ysolde says, urging her horse forward. “I know exactly where we are, and it’s where I wanted to be. And there’s nowhere better to cross up or down the river for at least half a day of riding.”

“Then how do we cross?” I ask. “Do you have a hidden raft or something?”

“No. Give me a minute.” She inhales and shuts her eyes.

I exchange glances with Raphael. He frowns, and his expression doesn’t reassure me. What’s going on right now? It looks like she’s fallen asleep on her horse.

And then, to my utter shock, I see the water in front of us grow shallower, rushing away in either direction. Impossibly, a gap appears, wide as a horse, and in that gap, the water seems to be draining.

My jaw drops. “Holy shit.”

“You have water magic,” Raphael says, his amazement mirroring mine.

“Yes,” Ysolde says. “It developed late. I didn’t know until my early twenties.”

“You’re like a Fey Moses,” I say in wonder.

Ysolde glances back at me, frowning. “What is a Mo-zets?”

“It’s an ancient story,” Raphael tells her. “The humans say a man parted the sea once. And he also summoned a rain of frogs, I believe.”

“Why would anyone want to rain frogs?” Ysolde asks.

“Well, it was one of ten…you know what? It’s actually a long story,” I say. “I’ll tell you all about it one day.”

She scowls at us. “I cannot control frogs, nor do I want to. And I wouldn’t be able to part an entire sea. Mo-zets sounds very powerful.”

“I suppose he must have been,” I say. “But this is seriously amazing, too.”

She pulls her horse ahead of us. “I can push the water to a point. Follow directly after me. If you stray too far, your horses will be swept away by the current, and you’ll both drown in glacial water. So, don’t do that.”

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