Page 89 of Somewhere down the Ley Line
They simply stood there as it receded, staring at each other as if there was nothing else in the world.
“Ugh,” Mia groaned from somewhere nearby. “Disgusting. I’ll be up ahead.”
Mia’s words startled them both out of their daze. Felix blinked, trying to get his bearings. Isolde shook her head as if to clear it, then gave him a small smile. “Well,” she said softly, “I suppose the only conclusion we can draw here is that you’re… something special.”
He rolled his eyes. “Right, sure.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “What, you think this is some kind of coincidence?”
Felix squirmed under her analytical look. “I don’t know, Isa. I don’t know what to think about any of this.” He didn’t want to be special. Special meant scrutiny. Expectations. Responsibility. He didn’t want any of that.
Her face softened. “Alright. I understand. We’ll have to… see what happens.”
They joined their waiting companions up ahead and continued on their way. Isolde was quiet for hours, and Felix could have sworn he could hear her mind creaking and churning with wild theories when he listened closely enough.
31
Answers in the stars
The blurry shapes of the Veilcrag Mountains grew steadily larger on the horizon all day. Although they did not find another keep to spend the night in, it turned out the ruins of long abandoned structures littered the Surgelands. At sunset they reached the remains of some kind of stable or farmhouse. It no longer had a roof, but the crumbling stone walls shielded them from the wind that relentlessly blew across the landscape.
Felix cleared debris from the largest open space in the centre, arranging a circle of stones for a fire. Leif sat nearby, playing with Biscuit.
Isolde leaned against a wall, staring off into nothingness. The distant mountains were faintly visible, the twilight sky silhouetting them in purple. She wondered, not for the first time, what might wait for her at their feet. Salvation? Destiny? Doom? Revelation, or nothing but more questions?
She had come a long way since their hasty departure from Azuill. She was no longer stumbling blindly in the dark, uncontrolled and terrified, praying for answers nobody had. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared. So much was a mystery, and today had created almost infinitely more. Her gaze lifted to look at Felix, crouched by the fire. She was glad he hadn’t lied to her about Mia, or talkedaround it. Not that she had expected him to, but it still removed that tiny piece of needless doubt from her mind. It strengthened the thread of trust between them.
But everything else… Mia could not influence him. Isolde’s own magic had barely affected him, even when she put enough force into it that it would have pushed back a much heavier person. Instead, it had created this strange connection between them again. Just like that first time she had reached out, to see if she was right about everyone having some kind of magic.
She had never tried reaching out to someone else in that way. What if itwasbecause of her; and anyone she connected with would grow to resist magic? She should test it. But then, that connection had been… intimate. She couldn’t imagine looking into Mia’s mind like that, or Leif’s. Certainly not Luella or Garren. The thought alone made her cringe with discomfort. A person’s inner memories and thoughts were private, and invading them was wrong. But with Felix, it felt right.
But what if it was something unique to him? If she wanted to find out, she’d have no choice but to try. Isolde sighed deeply.
“Everything alright?” Felix asked quietly.
“Yes, sorry,” she replied, pushing the palms of her hands into her eyes. “I’m fine. I just… wish I had more answers, or fewer questions. Or someone who could answer them, at least.”
Felix poked at the fire with a stick. “Well,” he said, his voice low, “if we run into people with answers, chances are they want us dead.”
Isolde let her hands fall from her face and looked over at him again. The firelight flickered across his features. “Good point,” she said wryly. “Maybe we’d better stay away from people with answers.”
Leif reclined on his back nearby, Biscuit curled up beside him. “My father used to say the only people with all the answers were either liars or dead. The rest of us just muddle through life doing our best not to make things worse.”
“Wise man,” Felix said.
“Sometimes. He also regularly fell into the pond after too much mead.”
Isolde and Felix burst out laughing at Leif’s matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ve never really thought about it like that before,” Isolde said, once the mirth wore off.
“Like what?” Felix asked.
“That there is no one who has the entire picture,” she said. “Everyone is pretending. Some people just pretend better than others.” She looked up at the sky, where the first stars were visible.
Felix rose to his feet and walked around the fire to sit down next to her. He was like a comforting wall of warmth at her side, and she leaned in and let his presence ground her.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Felix said, “the only person actually qualified to give you answers would be another leytouched. And since you are the only one…” He shrugged. “We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”
