Page 85 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“But why? Why would he let them stay? Help them?”

The seer lifts her whitish brows. “An act of altruism, maybe?” she suggests, repeating the very words the blacksmith gave Blair.

“No. What does he want from the Nefarians?” Blair snaps, scowling at the creature when she just shrugs again.

“Fucking tell me!”

“You know him better than I, Blair Alaric, don’t you?”she just asks back.

Blair flexes her clawed fingers, contemplating for a moment to cut the seer’s neck and make this woman her dinner before she relents. Not her fault Caryan’s everywhere she goes, in every breath she takes. She pulls her head back and lets out a long sigh, feeling her fury ebbing and giving way to bone-grinding exhaustion. All this useless fury about what Perenilla made her do. In truth, she’s tired. Just so fucking tired.

She stalks over to the kettle that dangles over the fire and peeksinside. Empty. Boiled down to the dregs. She sighs again and looks to the girl. “Are you hungry?”

The seer just shrugs. Blair looks back at her one last time before she stalks away.

***

She returns two hours later with a dead boar around her shoulders. She’d let her phantom wyvern’s claws close around the unfortunate grazing beast. It didn’t feel a thing before the wyvern’s claws snapped its neck. Then Blair had flown to the border forest, collected berries she wrapped in her cloak, and dug out some roots she found with her acute sense of smell.

She crossed a merchant’s path on the edge of the Black Forest on his way to Silvander and bought some boots, dried herbs and a leathery skin filled with honey wine from him. She glamoured herself to pass as an elf. If word spread that a witch had passed into Palisandre, all hell would break loose.

It’s a pity though that the elves had woven glamour-stripping spells around every major town. Otherwise, the witches would have long infiltrated the elven courts.

The glamour ebbs off as she soars back through the sky. Her wyvern screeches like a real one as its huge, clawed feet touch down in front of the den. To Blair’s surprise, the girl comes running out, her eyes wide as she takes in the whitish beast, half-translucent and half-solid, its rainbow scales glimmering in the moonlight.

“She is beautiful,” the girl remarks, her voice full of awe.

Blair squints. “How do you know it’s a girl?”

“I just know,” the seer retorts in that unnerving manner of hers. “Can I… touch her?”

Blair nods once, frowning as her magical creation nuzzles its snout against the seer’s outstretched hand before disappearing into thin air on her command.

“It’s just magic,” Blair mutters under her breath, stalking back into the den.

Later, they sit by the fire, the girl with her new shoes on and huddled in Blair’s cloak, spooning the boar stew with roots up like a hungry wolf.

Blair eats little of hers to leave more for the seer. She’d sliced the boar up, skinned it, and showed the girl how to prepare its hide, how to preserve its meat with salt she found in a burlap sack in a corner, along with some clay pots and weed baskets. How to cook out the fat and keep it too. Things she learned from Aurora and Sofya.

She grabs the wineskin and takes a hearty swig before she passes it to the girl, who takes it and drinks, scrunching up her delicate nose. “Ugh. That stuff is strong,” she mutters.

“Not strong enough,” Blair remarks, running her claws over the ground.

“Where did you find all the ingredients?” the girl asks, gesturing to the stew in her hand as if she hasn’t heard.

“My nose. And my claws.”

The seer eyes them as if seeing them in a new light. “I wish I could be like you,” she admits very quietly.

“What happened to you?”

“My father wanted to… use me for dark purposes. I escaped, and since then, I’ve been hiding out here.”

A growl of thunder rumbles outside and Blair looks toward the corridor.Great.Now she will have to stay the whole night or get soaked. She’s careful to hide her annoyance when she looks back at the girl though. She stretches out her legs, settling deeper into the mattress. If she has to stay, she might as well get comfortable.

“I am… I’ve always been so lonely,” the seer adds, like an afterthought, taking another mouthful of wine before she hands the skin back to Blair, who matches her.

She leans her head back and closes her eyes for a moment, listening to the rain. Then she says, “So have I.”

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