Page 113 of Elven Throne

Rippling with un-light. Dulled and pushed away by the power emanating from the completely different woman sitting in the same rocking chair.

Within the darkening light, the Peddler’s very skin began to glow. Most of it was dark, almost as dark as this lightless place around them, though her face was now speckled with dots of brightly glowing white and luminescent stripes of neon pink, yellow, orange, and blue.

This was new.

Rebecca tried to look around, tried to turn her head so she could look back at the others, but she couldn’t move.

Shit.

This had been a trap all along, hadn’t it?

Then the Peddler spoke, but it wasn’t with an outward voice audible to the naked ear.

Her voice wormed through Rebecca’smind,and all the while, her features maintained that gruesome, impossibly wide grin.

“No need to worry yourself, child. You are one of a kind and always have been. It only fits that your fortune is the same.”

Rebecca tries to pull her hand from the woman’s insanely tight grip but couldn’t.

She couldn’t move at all.

The Peddler’s fingers traced delicately across Rebecca’s open palm, every line burning with a searing heat despite no visible sign that she’d done anything.

“You too have many paths, each of them pulling you in a different direction with equal strength. The choice is, always has been, and alwaysmustbe yours to make. And yours alone. No matter which you choose, my dear, you willalwaysend up breaking the rules. Upsetting the status quo. Overturning everything that has come before.”

The woman leaned even closer, looking remarkably, giddily pleased.“Most people won’t be very happy about thatatall…”

Then, far more suddenly than the change had come upon her, the Peddler’s initial form returned.

The otherworldly creature grinning at Rebecca was gone, replaced by an aging blind woman sitting in her rocking chair.

The flames returned to their regular magical flickering along the walls.

Instead of throwing Rebecca’s hand back at her like with the others, the Peddler held on, gazing peacefully at her with those blind, milky eyes, staring just a little off-center of Rebecca’s face. She gently patted the back of Rebecca’s hand, and when she spoke next, her mouth moved the way it should, her voice fully returned.

“You know exactly what you have to do. Followthatpath.” Then she gently released Rebecca’s hand, sighed, and sat all the way back in her chair, rocking and rocking. “Well. That was certainly fun.”

When Rebecca tried to withdraw her hand, she found she could move again. Or maybe she’d never lost the ability at all.

No way to tell. She had no idea what just happened.

“That’s it?” Maleine scoffed behind her. “Really? If that wasmyfortune, I’d be pissed.”

The chair wobbled and groaned beneath her when Rebecca turned halfway in it to look back at the others and scan the hall.

Rowan and Maleine both looked completely unaffected by what had just happened, as if they’d never even noticed the change.

Maxwell remained his usual stony self, but when she met his gaze, his eyes widened questioningly.

He hadn’t seen it either, had he?

But she was sure he felt her confusion.

Rowan cleared his throat. “Is that…everything? You have what you need?”

The Peddler nodded, bestowing that kind, warm smile on them all once more. “Four have entered. Four have paid. The bargain is fulfilled.”

“That’s great.” Rowan’s attempt at a jovial smile fell desperately flat. “But, um…we still need to know where the records are…”

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