Page 65 of Ash and Feather

So I picked up the recipe I’d written out once more, and together, step-by-step, we found a way to keep moving.

Chapter 17

Dravyn

It had beenfour days since our return from the mortal realm, and every day had brought more challenges, more impossibilities, more weights that were steadily tipping the mortal realm toward war.

I’d spent most of the morning in my office, nursing a goblet of wine while poring over records of previous conflicts in Avalinth, until the God of Winter interrupted me with a report I’d been waiting on—one filled with more bad news from that realm below us.

I reluctantly put my notes aside, drained the last of the wine, and went to pass this news on to Karys. I couldn’t keep it to myself; as much as I wanted to shoulder the burden alone, I’d promised her I would keep her informed of everything I could—the good, the bad, the in-between.

I found her in the main gardens, braiding a crown of flowers that she was attempting to place on Moth’s head.

Unsurprisingly, the griffin was not being particularly cooperative; he already had one string of battered blossomshanging from his beak. More scattered the ground, seemingly crushed and ripped apart by his paws. A few were burned almost beyond recognition.

I paused at the garden gate, watching them, wishing I didn’t have to interrupt the quiet scene with more talk of war and ruin.

Karys ultimately proved more stubborn than Moth, successfully adjusting the string of white and blue flowers so that it balanced perfectly on his head. She sat admiring it for a moment, assuring the griffin of his handsomeness and sternly commanding him not to ruin her work.

She kept her back to me as she called, “You know I can feel you standing there—and sense your troubled thoughts—even if you don’t speak, right?” She glanced over her shoulder, not quite meeting my eyes. “You have bad news?”

I moved closer, leaning my back against the wall she sat beside, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

Moth sprang onto the top of the wall and paced it, preening before me, tilting his head this way and that to make certain I saw what he was wearing. Now that the job was done, he seemed less interested in eating the crown and more interested in showing it off.

“We’ve successfully scouted the place you mentioned to me,” I told Karys. “The area where your old friend Cillian is supposedly hiding out.”

“Stillwind, you mean?”

“Yes.”

She stood, dusting the dirt from her pants, her expression unreadable.

“Stillwind is the name given to the region as a whole, but in the center of it is a military post long used as a training ground for the Galithian army,” I explained. “Mindoth’s Keep, it’s called. Valas sent one of the spirits who serve him into the mortal realm yesterday, and they spent the night watching the place.”

“And what did they find?”

“The grounds of Mindoth have been on high alert for weeks, dealing with intruders and the occasional covert attack…mostly cloak-and-dagger antics, for the time being—but if things continue to escalate as they currently are, a full-scale battle seems imminent.”

She picked off a white blossom clinging to her sleeve, tracing its delicate petals as she said, “We need to stop that battle from happening.”

“Ideally, yes.”

“How?” Her voice was quiet, her gaze intently focused on the flower.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t spoken to anyone other than you and Valas about the matter yet. But it’s part of our duty as Marr to be aware of Avalinth’s major problems and conflicts…so the other middle-gods must be informed of what we’ve learned, at least. After that, we’ll have to decide, once again, whether to intervene. And to what extent.”

“Another council?”

“Maybe. Unfortunately.”

She shuddered visibly at the prospect.

I didn’t blame her.

“…For now, let’s just go for a walk,” I suggested. “There’s something I need to check on—something that I’ve been wanting to show you. We can talk more on the way.”

She agreed. We followed the well-worn path through the garden, beyond the vine-wrapped trellises, alongside fountains lined with colorful glass tiles, and finally past the stone walls and out to a point where the packed dirt trail gave way to wildness.

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