Page 119 of The Arrow and the Alder

Salt of sorrow.

Endure the fire.

Surrender light borrowed.

It seemed like nonsense—what was the heart of a star?—and yet despite what the council said, she knew her grandfather. He liked to disguise a lot of things behind a glamour of nonsense, and she could not let this go. The riddle was like a lock, she told herself. She needed only to apply pressure in the right place, and the rest should spring open. There must be something she’d overlooked—something obvious—but try as she might, she couldn’t make sense of it.

She was just about to say to hell with it and go to bed when there was a soft knock upon the door.

Seph frowned, threw her robe over her nightdress, and cracked open her door.

It was Alder, praise be to the saints!

His hair was in total disarray, and he looked like he’d ridden straight from Lord Hammerfell’s to her door.

“Alder!” She leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck.

Thankfully, his strong arms caught her. They wrapped around her tight, squeezing her against his solid body. Seph buried her face into his broad chest and breathed him in, all that wildness and earth. A smell that was so distinctly him. “I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon…oh, I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” His face nudged into her hair.

Oh, how her world felt right.

She pulled back and gazed up into his face—a face that had become so dear to her—and placed her palm to his cheek.

He flinched and closed his eyes.

Seph frowned. “What’s the matter?”

He smiled slowly, his eyes opening once more. “Nothing, I…” He placed a hand over hers, but more to stop her than to invite anything more.

He noticed her growing confusion. “Sorry. We’ll have more time later, but right now, I need to show you something.”

“Show me what?”

“It is a surprise,” he said with a wink and a smile that eased her worry and set a new kind of storm in her heart. “But we need to hurry.”

Within five minutes, she was dressed and very bewildered as she skirted Velentis’s dark and empty pathways with Alder. It was soon clear that he did not wish to be seen, and Seph couldn’t fathom what he intended to show her, and at this hour. His letters, perhaps? But his hand was warm and solid, anchoring the storm. She hoped that whatever he needed to show her didn’t take very long, because she wantedlaterto come quick, and preferably in her room.

It wasn’t until it became obvious that he was leading her up the path that woveoutof Velentis that she asked, “Alder, where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he said. “It’s just outside.”

Warning prickled at the back of her mind, but this was Alder. Certainly, he wouldn’t lead her into danger. If he needed to show her something now, in secret, she would trust him.

And she did trust him.

As Alder led her through the door, Seph felt the familiar wash of power, and cold night air kissed her face. All was dark, and Seph couldn’t see a thing, but Alder’s hand gripped hers tight.

“Just up here,” he said before she could ask, and he led her steadily up the embankment.

“I have no idea what you could possibly be showing me?—”

A little kithlight sprang to life, and Seph stopped in her tracks.

Massie stood before her, his pale, scarred face like a specter in the night. At least a dozen bone-masked kith flanked him.

“Well, hello, daughter of Light,” Massie drawled. “It is so good to see you again.”

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