Page 91 of Skysong

Leilyn dipped her head in return, then made to leave. She turned back with one hand on the doorknob.

‘It’s an honour to meet you, Lady Lark,’ she said, giving Oriane a small smile. ‘I’m glad to see you found your way out of the darkness.’ Then she was gone.

‘Skies,’ Andala muttered, looking annoyed with herself. ‘I didn’t even introduce you. I’m sorry, Oriane.’

But Oriane understood, and didn’t mind. She simply picked up the nearest map book. ‘Let’s start the search.’

The candles burned low as the evening wore on. Nell had brought them a sumptuous spread of food, which they’d devoured immediately; Oriane couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten anything at all. The innkeep had also left them each a pile of freshly laundered clothes, without comment or question. Oriane was grateful. She could not wait to bathe, to scrub the solstice ball and the weeks that had followed from her skin, to cast aside her gold dress and never look at it again.

The three of them scoured every map they could find. The sounds of merriment outside the library door faded from a dull roar to a distant murmur as they pored over page after page. The hours slipped by. And still they found nothing. No trace of Ile Deiale, no mention of its existence in all the dozens of books.

The spark of hope Oriane had felt before dimmed steadily, cooling and hardening into a kernel of fear.

Kitt slipped upstairs after a while, saying that he’d better check on Hana and Tomas. Oriane and Andala kept working. They sat side by side at the table, both exhausted, both unwilling to quit until they’d324found what they were seeking. The maps had begun to blur before Oriane’s eyes. She dug her fingernails into her leg under the table, trying to force herself to focus on the tangle of lines and shapes.

Just when she thought she might cry from pure exhaustion and ever-mounting fear, Andala spoke.

‘I found it,’ she murmured, her voice hoarse in the quiet. ‘I think I found it.’

Oriane sat upright, shifting her chair so she could look over Andala’s shoulder. And there it was: a tiny islet off the east coast of Cielore that hadn’t been there on any map they’d seen so far.

‘IleDeialeisasmallisletthreemilesoffCielore’seasterncoastline,’Andala read from a passage below the map. ‘Little is known of its geography, as it issurroundedbyseassotreacherousthatnovesselhaseversuccessfullylandedashore.And look here …The isle is believed by some to have been home to ancient gods,whodwelledingreat stone castles built upon its rocky surface.’

‘Somewhere nobody can find us,’ Oriane murmured. She felt fully awake now. She could not take her eyes off the map, off the little island like a beacon in the black sea. ‘This place certainly sounds like that.’

‘It does, doesn’t it?’

‘And it isn’t far.’ Oriane pointed at the map. There was only a thumb’s width between the tiny dot markedFenbrookand the short stretch of coastline off which the islet lay.

Her excitement faded as she reread the passage, the words and their meaning catching up with her. ‘But …’

‘Seassotreacherousthatnovesselhaseversuccessfullylandedashore,’ Andala repeated quietly.

Oriane sighed. Despair threatened to raise its head again, to unsheathe its claws inside her chest. ‘A dead man’s errand, then. We could not risk your friend in asking him to take us by boat.’325

‘No. No, we couldn’t go by sea,’ Andala said slowly. ‘But we could fly.’ A strange look came over her face: something bittersweet and tinged with fear. ‘I just need to hold my form long enough to cross the water.’

The hope that had been building inside Oriane came crashing down. Andala had said it herself: she could not control her transformations. She’d only done it once and feared she never would again. And even if she waited until nightfall, it sounded as if she could not be sure she would make it across.

‘But you should go.’ Andala was facing Oriane now, looking her squarely in the eye. ‘You can control your power. You’ll be able to make it. You have to go, Oriane.’

But Oriane was already shaking her head. ‘I will not go without you.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Andala said, though she did not sound entirely convinced. ‘I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, you need to get yourself to safety. That’s the most important thing—’

‘I can’t,’ Oriane murmured.

Andala made to protest, but Oriane shook her head again, vigorously this time. Pressure was building at her temples, behind her eyes.

‘I won’t leave you here. Not now I’ve found …’

She did not need to finish the sentence. Silence echoed through the little library.

Then slowly, tentatively, a cool hand reached out to fold itself over hers.

‘I will learn,’ Andala said. ‘I’ll learn to control my transformation, and when I’ve mastered it, we’ll both fly to the island. Together.’

‘Together,’ Oriane repeated. She liked the way the word sounded. A smile flickered its way onto her face, echoed on Andala’s.326

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