Page 78 of Ash and Feather

“I asked if we needed to head back,” she said. “Valas will have gone to Mairu by now and told her what he told you. They’ll want to discuss what comes next; we shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

“We shouldn’t,” I agreed, my tone calm and even despite the sudden weight in my chest.

Neither of us felt like walking, but we both wanted to drag this trip out a little longer, I think—which ruled out transporting instantly back into the problems that awaited us at the palace.

I called the selakir instead, summoning the particular vein of magic I shared with the creatures, connecting specifically to that bond I’d developed with Farak over the years. He appeared, accompanied by a gust of wind and spiraling threads of fire, a few moments later.

Zell followed soon after, eagerly kneeling before Karys and allowing her to climb onto his back. The pair of them rocketed forward without hesitation.

Farak snorted at the sight, clearly disgruntled by the overzealous behavior, but he didn’t resist when I urged him into a gallop to catch up.

We retraced the path Karys and I had taken earlier, eventually making our way back through the valley full of the Watching Pools. Karys slowed Zell to a trot as we wound our way through them.

“Is it my imagination,” she asked, frowning, “or do several of the pools look different than they did a few hours ago?”

I swept my eyes over the area, eventually focusing on the pool in the center—the one that corresponded to my old kingdom. Karys was right; its waters had shifted to an even more ominous shade of dark grey, like heavy storm clouds.

“…More things we need to discuss with the others,” I said, nudging Farak back into motion. “Let’s keep moving.”

She nodded. Though she looked hesitant, Zell was already breaking into a run once more, his form becoming little more than a fiery gold blur as he swept up the far hillside.

Farak, perhaps sensing my unease, carried on at a much slower trot, occasionally tossing his head and fixing his shining dark eyes on me as if to ask,What is happening?

We reached the top of the hill overlooking the pools. I glanced back one last time, my eyes immediately finding the one in the center.

And I would have sworn its waters had already turned even darker.

Chapter 20

Karys

Three more dayspassed in relative peace and quiet. I continued to concern myself mostly with practicing magic, letting Dravyn focus on gathering and sorting through reports about the mortal realm and the things threatening it.

He’d left earlier that morning, his sights set on making his way into the training grounds he’d told me about—Mindoth’s Keep. I’d considered going with him, still unable to forget the state he’d been in after his last visit to his old kingdom. He’d insisted I stay and keep working on my magic, however. And I needed all the practice I could get; I couldn’t argue against that.

So Valas had gone with him instead, and I’d done my best to stay calm and focused on what I needed to do, while trusting that they could take care of things elsewhere. Dravyn wasn’t alone in that kingdom of blood and bad memories… That was the most important thing. He would be back soon. He would be fine.

He would be fine.

That still didn’t stop me from focusing my inner fire every few minutes, thinking of him and hoping I would feel his warmth reaching back.

In the meantime, Mairu and I had made our way to the outermost edge of the Fire Palace’s grounds. There was an observatory here, a tall tower made largely of glass. It had several balconies, as well as wide, decorative ledges that were easy enough to access by climbing through the countless windows.

A variety of prime launching spots, in other words.

So far, I’d only worked up the courage to jump from the second-lowest balcony and the ledges around it. It was proving helpful, though—necessity was an excellent teacher, as Dravyn had pointed out, so I simply kept jumping and forcing myself to further develop my wings on the way down.

I still hadn’t accomplished much in the way of sustained flight. I’d managed to not crash or break any part of my body, though. And after several hours of practice, my landings were becomingalmostgraceful. My confidence was soaring a bit as well, so I decided to chance a higher jump.

I pushed my worries about Dravyn and the mortal kingdom down and marched to the next highest balcony. To reach it required walking through a room that smelled of leather, old books, and ink. Diagrams lined the walls. Most featured what looked like the sky filled with different sized spheres—forgelights, I realized.

There were copious notes about different luminosities, angles, and more, all written in Dravyn’s blocky, heavy handwriting; this tower must have been where he worked on perfecting those creations of his.

It was oddly comforting, seeing these displays. So much of this realm and its magic seemed effortless…it was nice to know he occasionally had to take notes and experiment with things.

I pulled the doors open and stepped onto the balcony, squinting in the bright haziness. The sky was the color of watery milk and glowing softly, courtesy of one of those burning forgelights in the distance.

Heart pounding, I walked to the edge of the balcony and hoisted myself up onto the railing, one hand pressed against a column for balance. I made sure to step onto the rail left foot first—an old habit I fell into when I was trying to avoid catastrophes. Pointless, maybe, but I couldn’t keep myself from completing the ritual.

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