Page 159 of The Shadow Wand

Another chain is looped over my head, and my ears give a painful stretch. I reach up to find them elongated, with long arcing points.

Another chain, and a brief sting courses over my eyes, a flash of silver momentarily bursting through my vision.

And then another chain that’s accompanied by a sharp pinch along my hands and arms. I look down to find both my fastlines and my rune marks fading to nothing.

I hold up one of my fastmark-free gray hands, astonished. “Does this mean...?”

“No,” Valasca cuts me off succinctly with a brief glance toward Lukas. “You’re still fasted.” She turns back to me. “And you’re still imprinted with Sage’s runes. It’s all hidden under the glamour.” She gives a few last taps on the chains’ runes, and the necklaces sink into my skin with a static prickle then flatten into tattoos of their design, the runes losing their bright glow.

Valasca eyes the crumpled camisole I’m now holding against my naked chest. “You won’t be needing any of that clothing.” She leans down and pulls a traditional Elfhollen pale gray tunic and gray pants from her sack, the edges embroidered with a geometric white-star design. She straightens and hands the clothing to me. “Put this on.”

I slide on the traditional Elfhollen garments, amazed to both appear like and be garbed like one of the Mountain Fae Elves.

“Is this permanent?” I ask Valasca as I button up the long, formfitting tunic, the Wand of Myth in the side of my boot now hidden under gray pants instead of a long black riding skirt.

Valasca shakes her head. “I can remove the glamour down the road. But for now, it’s best that you don’t look so much like the Black Witch.”

“How did you get hold of that glamour?” Lukas asks, seeming deeply impressed as I fasten my cloak over my new garments. “I wasn’t even aware that could be done.”

She turns to him. “It’s one of a kind. It belonged to Ra’Ven Za’Nor.”

Recognition rises inside me.

“Ah, yes,” Lukas says, returning Valasca’s loaded glance. “The Smaragdalfar prince who’s giving the Alfsigr so much trouble.”

Sage Gaffney’s love. The father of her baby Icaral.

Valasca’s mouth tilts up as she eyes Lukas shrewdly. “Mmm. He’s stirring things up a bit in both Realms.” She gestures toward my chest. “Ra’Ven used those rune chains to glamour himself as a Kelt for a few years while on the run from the Gardnerians and Alfsigr both. I pulled his glamour out of the necklaces and implanted a new one. And strengthened the binding.”

“But if we meet any Elfhollen,” I point out, concerned, “they’ll know I’m a fraud. I don’t speak their language.” I look to Lukas, remembering his fluency in Elfhollen and other languages.

“Ah,” Chi Nam says as she works on the fledgling portal, “we can fix that.” She straightens and surveys her work, the brightening arc of rotating runes now spitting out small veins of blue lightning. Seeming satisfied, she resheathes her stylus, grabs her staff, and walks over to take Valasca’s place in front of me, handing her staff off to Lukas, the ball of blue light still hovering over its top.

Chi Nam reaches into her cloak’s inner pocket and pulls out a flat, crystalline rune stone that’s marked by the most intricate Noi rune I’ve yet seen, a seemingly infinite number of rotating, circular designs marked inside it, the lines sapphire bright.

She reaches up to hold the stone just behind my right ear, then closes her eyes and murmurs a stream of Noi that’s unintelligible to me, save for a smattering of disjointed words.

Lines of warmth radiate out from the stone and fan out through my head to encompass my ears in a heated rush.

“Koi na vu’lon nishun ta’noi. Koi na vu’lon nishun ta’noi. Koi na vu’lon nishunderstand me. Tell me when you can understand me.”

I startle as the words of her Noi tongue morph into meaning.

“I understand you!” I blurt out, flabbergasted.

Chi Nam pulls the stone away from my head then steps back a fraction and speaks to me in Noi. “I’ve placed a koi’lonrune just behind your ear. So now you will understand all of the major tongues of both Realms.” She holds the crystalline stone up, loosely gripped in her palm, its sapphire runes rotating slowly, their bright glow now dampened as if spent. “These koi’lon are powerful. It takes years of concentrated sorcery to form the translation power embedded in them. And the power in this stone is now in you.”

I gape at her, not able to get over my amazement of being able to understand her.

Fluently.

“Place your fingers over the rune behind your ear,” Chi Nam encourages, seeming amused by my shock. “And think of a word you know in Noi. This will trigger the translation, and you’ll be able to speak Noi as well as understand it. Then say something to me in my language.”

My heartbeat quickens with excitement. I reach up and press my fingers to the rune, sounding out the Noi words fornoandthank youin my mind—nush and khuy lon. Then I take a deep breath and say, “I’m going to speak Noi to you now...” I suck in a hard inhalation of surprise. The Noi words are flowing right off my tongue. “I can’t believe I can do this!” I marvel in Noi, breathless. I glance at Lukas. “Are you going to mark him with thekoi’lon?” I ask, looking to Chi Nam.

“I speak Noi,” Lukas tells me in effortless, fluent Noi, amusement dancing in his eyes. He gestures toward my ear with his finger, continuing on in Chi Nam’s language. “And the koi’lon she used to mark you will have to be recharged with translations before it can be used again. That takes years.” He looks to Chi Nam. “You don’t have additional koi’lon, I’m assuming? With the tight hold your Wyvernguard keeps on them.”

Chi Nam shakes her head. “No. We’ll have to get one for you in Noilaan.”

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