Page 88 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Caer swallowed. “Most of them it was very clear that they weren’tthemanymore, but maybe that’s not always the case. Mother was too weak to speak when she died, when she came back…” Silver rimmed his eyes, and for a moment, everything about him tightened. Aislinn reached across and pinched his sleeve, tugging him back to the present. “I might never know, right? Why I have these powers and why Dillon came back like himself and the others didn’t. I might never know what these powers can do. I should just… I should just learn to live with that, right?”
Aislinn barely hesitated. “If it matters to you, I swear I shall do everything in my power to find out the answers to your questions, and if none can be found, I shall be an ear for the rest of your life.”
Caerwyn stared at her. “Dangerous for you to make such a vow.”
“I don’t know,” Aislinn said, half under her breath, “I’d make worse ones.”
Caer looked at her sharply, as if she’d just made another, more dangerous confession, one that had obliterated all thought. He said nothing. Silence whistled in the space of words.
Finally, Aislinn spoke. “I’ve figured it out, by the way.”
“What?”
“Why you impressed me. I said I’d tell you if I figured it out, so I have to.”
“Oh?” he said, arching an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“Before we met, I’d painted a picture of you in my head of a spoiled mortal prince who couldn’t say boo to a goose, and yet you were smart enough to get a drop on me the moment we met. You didn’t like fae and I didn’t like mortals, but you weren’t afraid of me. You challenged me. And even when you must have been afraid of hurting me, when you had good reason to suspect the fae weren’t trustworthy, you helped me. I know precious few people that are as tough as they are good. So… that’s why.”
Aislinn clenched her jaw, trying to hold the last part in, but Caer’s cocky smile almost unravelled her. “Is there something else?”
Aislinn unlatched her jaw. “I’m also impressed by your incredible physique and your entire face and it’s extremely irritating and distracting butI really didn’t want to tell you that.”
Caerwyn barked a laugh and quickly stifled it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just… Look, if it helps, you really impressed me too… with your humour and skill but also how insanely beautiful you are. You’re a little alarming at times.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I just… I really wish I could touch you right now.”
“Oh?” Aislinn arched an eyebrow. “And what part would you touch?”
Caerwyn coughed, loudly and abruptly, causing the people in front to turn and stare at them.
“Sorry,” he spluttered, “just… dust in my throat.”
“Let us know if you need a break, lad,” Minerva said.
“I’mfine.”
Aislinn smirked in her saddle.
They stopped an hour or two later to refresh themselves when they reached an underground river. Blue-green crystals lined the walls, making ripples of light dance across the rock. The whole place hummed with still, pale colour.
“Beautiful,” said Beau, as he whipped out his notebook to make a few quick sketches, mumbling something about how he wished he brought paint. Dillon and Luna stared over his shoulder, gasping as he printed the scene with a few flicks of his pencil.
Aislinn lay back against the wall.
The wall moved.
She leapt up, drawing out her dagger. Caer leapt too. “What is it?”
She stared at the wall. It was made of petrified vines, but underneath, something was stirring. Something long and thin…
It slithered out like a snake, eyeless, bark-skinned. No animal. A vine—grey and wooden, but alive.
Aislinn holstered her dagger. “Hello,” she said, leaning forward to greet it. “You’re a long way from home.”
“Home?” Caer queried.
“I told you about the vines in Acanthia, didn’t I? They once ran through the whole of Faerie.”
“By the looks of things, they still do.” Beau put down his book and came over to inspect them. They hummed beneath his fingers. Aislinn could feel it too. They were alive as the ones back home, the ones they used to whisper messages through.
