“It wants to be spoken to,” he said. He looked at her, then dropped the rock and took her hand. The floating water droplets glowed, casting ghostly spots on his face. “I tried to hate you,” he said softly.
“I know.” She looked up into his eyes. “I tried not to love you.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. Why? We were meant to dance. I saw it inside you. I’ve known it from when you first kissed me in the South Forest.”
Her heart ached. She wanted to nod, to agree with him. He touched her chin, then he kissed her.
She hesitated, then slid her fingers into his long hair and forgot about Lyndion’s rules. The prophecy could have them both soon enough. But she would claim this one sliver of a happy life. For this moment, she would have Grei.
A snort of derision floated out of the mist.
Adora broke the kiss and spun. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she gripped Grei’s hand hard.
Had Blevins followed them?
But Blevins would have said something stinging. Her skin went cold, and the fat man’s words danced in her mind.
She will find you, if she hasn’t already, and she’ll strike in the quiet.
Grei went silent, peering with her. Little hissing sounds came out of the darkness, like water droplets on a hot stove.
Adora shifted quietly to the balls of her feet, ready to run. She cursed herself for a fool. Seven years of training and this is how she had let this night unfold. She hadn’t expected Galius. She hadn’t expected Blevins. She hadn’t expected Selicia.
“Be ready,” she whispered so softly it was only a breath on his cheek.
“Who is it?” Grei asked her.
“Whisper whisper whisper,” a child’s voice said from right behind them, clearer this time, and Adora’s blood froze. That was no Ringblade.
She lurched into a sprint, yanking Grei with her.
“Run!” she shouted, shoving him off the path into the flat grass, pocked with little pools of water. If they could reach the stream, if they could only—
A figure rose up in front of Grei and struck him on the head. He collapsed in a heap.
The figure’s hair became fire, sizzling the water in the air. The slink shook himself, and hissing droplets flew to all sides.
“So this is the Whisper Prince?” He looked down at Grei with burning eyes.
Chapter 20
Adora
“And you are his takla?” the slink continued, using the Benascan word for “whore”. The floating droplets continued to hiss as they touched the slink’s burning skin. Despite his childlike voice, he was tall, with elongated arms and an over-long face. His sharp features were exaggerated as though sketched by a little boy’s hand. Thin eyebrows slanted upward over burning eyes. His skin looked like layers of smoldering coal.
Grei lay unconscious on the ground, and Adora faced the slink who had stood at the opening of the cave where Jorun Magnus had left her seven years ago.
She would never forget that elongated face. It haunted her nightmares. And now he was here again.
She clenched her fists, fighting her fear. Lyndion had prepared her for every eventuality the Order could think of, and she recalled his words now.
“When the Event occurs,” Lyndion said. “There will be those who seek the Whisper Prince. You must take him away immediately. Take him to the First Place, beyond the falls.”
“Who will seek him?” she asked.
“The empire, for one. We believe the emperor has a copy of the prophecy. He will be watching for the emergence of the Whisper Prince, even as we are. I don’t need to tell you what a disaster it would be if your father gets his hands on the Whisper Prince.”
“No,” she said.
“And the slinks,” Lyndion said. “If they find out about the Prince, they will seek to destroy him.”
“What can I do against a slink?”
“One thing only. There is a reason the Order is in Fairmist, a reason the Whisper Prince will rise here. Listen carefully...”
Lyndion’s words echoed in her mind as she faced the slink. She stepped two paces closer, and he watched her with amusement. She bowed her head and knelt in front of him.
He chuckled. “Where are you going so late at night? To mingle your foul human fluids?” His nose wrinkled in disgust.
“God of fire,” she intoned reverently. Every hair on her neck prickled as she made herself vulnerable to him. One quick stomp, and he could snap her neck. “We have long awaited you.”
The slink was silent, but she could hear the little hisses of water on his glowing skin. Hidden by her bowed body, she dipped her hands and forearms into the puddle over which she had placed herself.
To her left, she heard Grei groan. Thank the Faia, she thought. Wake up, Grei. Wake up!
She sprang to her feet, scooping as much of the water as she could directly into the slink’s body. His chest hissed and his glowing eyes went out, as did his flaming hair. He howled in rage, staggered back.
She spun, her feet digging into the wet grass as she launched herself at Grei. She yanked his arm, dragging him upright.
“Run,” she said. “Down the hill or we die!”
He squinted at her through his pain, but he stumbled forward. She supported him and strained to make them both faster. They had only seconds. They had to make the stream. If she could just reach it, they might have a chance.
“Tell me you have more than that little trick!” the slink said, his head bursting into flame in front of them. He lunged, seizing her arm. His claws burned as he dragged her forward.
“Water!” Grei shouted, grabbing the slink’s wrist. The slink yelled and yanked away, dropping Adora onto the wet grass. His arm hissed where Grei had touched it. Grei pursued, stabbing a finger at him.
“Water!” he shouted again.
She saw a ripple in the dark air between them, causing the glowing droplets to shudder.
With a snarl, the slink pointed back and the ripple of water exploded into steam. A gout of fire burst from the slink’s mouth. Grei screamed as his right arm was engulfed. His forearm burned like a torch, and he fell to his knees. He rolled onto it, trying to put it out.
Adora screamed like an animal. She pulled her dagger and leapt at the thing, slashing wildly. “No!” she shouted. “No no no!”
Her blade clanked like it had hit rock. The slink caught her by the hair and yanked in a circle. “Enough of you,” he said, slamming her to the ground. He drew back his clawed hand, but stopped, his gaze jerking to the left.
Silver flashed between them, and the slink shrieked, stumbling away. Red fire blazed in the night, blinding her. She rolled desperately away from the heat.
Its flaming arm was still tangled in her hair, severed at the elbow, but it was no longer the burning-coal arm of the slink. Instead, it was the arm of a child, pale and slight, with pink skin and little fingers that ended in translucent claws. A gout of fire shot out of the wound. She yanked the limp fingers from her hair and tossed the arm away.
Rising to her knees, she blinked away the bright after-images.
Blevins’ huge form blocked out the fire and the slink, shielding her. Baezin’s Blade jutted from his fist like a shaft of moonlight.
The writhing monster on the grass had transformed. It was not a tall, imposing warrior with layered, burning skin. Instead, it was a little blonde boy. Its arm and part of its leg had been cut away. Grass hissed as fire blew out of the ghastly wounds.
“Let’s see how fast you are now,” Blevins growled.
The slink boy huffed as he scrambled backwards. His movements were a blur, but Blevins was faster, sword arcing downward, slashing the boy’s other leg.
It curled toward him, claws grabbing for Blevins’ arm as it keened.
Blevins blocked, stepped back and thrust, impaling the creature through the chest. Blevins withdrew again, his arm arcing high, and sliced the blonde head from the body.
The child’s shriek ended abruptly.
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br /> Flame shot out of the neck and chest, sending a column of fire a hundred feet into the sky, and Blevins spun away from the heat. His silhouette was a hunched blot against the fire.
The boy’s head rolled to a stop, hissing as the flames died.
Adora couldn’t breathe. Blevins glanced at her then went to Grei, who cradled his smoking arm. Blevins picked him up, carried him to the stream, and dropped him in the water. Adora leapt over the slick reeds and slid down to him as he spluttered to the surface. She held his shoulders and steadied him.
“Keep him here. I’ll be back,” Blevins said.
Grei grunted, holding his arm under the water.
“Shhh,” she said. “It will be okay.”
Blevins returned. He had removed his voluminous cloak, filled it with the child’s body, and slung it over his shoulder. He dumped the severed parts into the water downstream, and they hissed before sinking beneath the surface. He whipped his smoking cloak back over his shoulders.
“It was a child,” Adora said. “Why was it a child?”
“You are the one with the secrets. You tell me.”
She couldn’t think straight. There was something important about the fact that the slink had transformed into a child. The Order had never said anything about that. Why hadn’t they mentioned that?
“I wasn’t strong enough,” Grei said through gritted teeth. “It burned through my magic like nothing.” His whole body vibrated with pain. He kept his arm beneath the water.
“I should have let you both die.” Blevins growled, looking at Adora. “So now you’re going to tell me everything. No more secrets. Slinks don’t come to Fairmist. Why was it here?”
“For Grei.”
“Why?”
“He is the Whisper Prince.”
“A slink came to Fairmist because Grei bedded the Duchess of the Highward?” Blevins asked with a frown.
She hesitated, but she was off course here. If not for Blevins, they would be dead, and the prophecy would be done. She had made a botch of everything, and the Order was not here to set it right. Blevins was. She took a deep breath, then said, “The rhyme is a prophecy, and the Whisper Prince is part of that prophecy.”
“Whose prophecy?” Blevins asked.
She hesitated, then shook her head.
“Whose?” he growled.
“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t get that information.”
His black eyes flickered, and he rose a little higher. “You said the Faia saved you,” he said. “Who did they bring you to?”
“I owe you nothing, Magnus,” she spat. “But they trained me. They told me about the prophecy, that the Slink War will come again unless we stop it. Grei is the key. He can send the slinks back where they came from.”
Blevins stood as still as a statue, his squinty gaze fixed on her. “Because of what he did at the palace.”
“Because of what he will do when we reach the falls. He needs instruction.”
“From the Faia.”
“Yes.”
“When will the slinks go to war?” he asked.
“Soon.”
“Don’t be cryptic, girl.” Blevins showed his teeth like a dog.
“Don’t act like you care!” she shouted. She knew she should keep her voice down, but she couldn’t. “You sat by my father for years, watching the things he did, the evil he created. You made the Debt of the Blessed! What do you care?”
“I don’t answer to you,” he said.
“Yes you do,” she said. “Me more than anyone.” Her voice dropped to a venomous whisper. “Why didn’t they kill you?”
“Because I was lucky. Because I was better.”
“And you came to Fairmist to drink? You came here to—”
“I came to Fairmist to die!” Blevins pointed his sword at Grei. “And I was managing it until him. Until you,” he said to her.
“And you saved us instead,” she said. “Well, it makes up for nothing.”
His knuckles were white on the hilt of his sword.
“You’re no longer my hope. Grei is,” she whispered.
“I don’t want hope,” he growled.
“Then why not let the slink kill you?”
He shook his head, looking over her toward Fairmist. He was silent for a moment, then, “Where there is one slink, there are a hundred. A thousand. Not to mention every Highblade in the empire is looking for him.” He nodded at Grei. “And Selicia. That bonfire will bring them like hounds.”
“Then let’s go,” Grei said, his teeth clenched.
She turned. “How bad is it?” She asked.
He pulled his arm out of the water, and a gasp lodged in her throat. It was a horrifying claw, only charred tendons and flesh remained on the bones.
Her heart thudded in her chest, and she looked up at his face.
He shook with the pain. His breathing came hard through his nose as he stared forward, eyes tight. He forced his gaze away from his arm.
“Grei—” Adora began.
“Forget it,” he said through clenched teeth. He squinted at her, then at Blevins. “He’s right. We can’t stay here.”
“We should wrap your arm—”
“No,” he growled. His whole body shook as he cradled the burned arm against his chest.
“Grei—” She reached for his shoulder.
“Don’t touch it!” He snapped. He lurched out of the water and started up the path.
Blevins and Adora fell in line behind him.
Chapter 21
Grei
Grei could barely think for the pain. If he stopped, even for a second, the searing would devour him. The floating droplets got larger as they headed uphill toward Fairmist Falls, changing slowly from moonlit silver to soft yellow. Dawn was coming.
Adora had promised a Faia at the end of this race, and he needed to believe her. A Faia could fix the Debt of the Blessed. A Faia could fix his arm. A Faia could fix anything, if She wanted to.
The squishy grass gave way to waist-high, broad-leafed bushes as they reached the cliff that shot straight up to the Highward. To their left, Fairmist Falls roared, tumbling into Thiara’s Pool far below, creating the floating droplets that drifted into the city. They stopped at the edge of the slope that led down to the pool.
“Behind the falls,” Adora said.
“There’s nothing behind the falls,” Grei said.
“There is nothing for anyone else. For you, it will open.”
Blevins shifted impatiently, as though this was a waste of time. She shot him an angry look.
“I’m supposed to do something?” Grei asked. He gripped his upper arm with his good hand, squeezing.
“You have to concentrate—”
“I can’t concentrate!” he hissed through his teeth.
Adora’s cool hands touched his shoulders. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “And I will apologize a thousand times once we are safe, but Blevins is right. It is sheer luck that no other slinks have found us. We must make this one last step. The Faia is in there. She can help you. You can do it, Grei. It was what you were born to do. Open the falls and take us home,” she said.
Adora slipped down the grassy slope, nimble as a deer, finding niches and grassy shelves. Grei followed, leaning on his good hand. Blevins stepped lightly behind them. His gaze flicked all around, quick and efficient.
The floating droplets were thick now, some as large as apples. Water dribbled down Grei’s face. The roar of the falls was deafening, and his teeth chattered.
“Here!” Adora shouted over the crashing noise. The top of the falls glowed with morning light, barely visible through the mist.
In the midst of Thiara’s Pool, some thirty feet out from the crashing falls, was a flat rock. It barely stuck up above the waterline, creating an oblong platform that pointed to the very center of the falls. In the warmth of summer, young men and women swam out to it, playing games, splashing, sometimes hauling food in waterproof sacks to have lunch.
�
�Look!” Adora said, pointing.
Dodging the fat droplets of floating water were little blue figures, wings flicking like flippers. Each was two inches tall, distinctly humanoid. Their faces were flat with bulbous blue eyes, no nose and no mouth. Their heads sloped backwards to a point at the nape of their necks. Grei had seen them before, of course. Everyone in Fairmist who had visited the falls had seen a fyd. They were just one more curiosity in the city of Fairmist. They tended to gather around the falls or in the Wet Woods. Grei had seen them in both places, usually singly, sometimes in groups of two or three. But this was a swarm. It was as though they were waiting for something to happen.
“There must be hundreds of them,” Adora said.
Blevins looked around, shaking his head. He didn’t seem impressed by the fyds, and he didn’t look happy. “The sun is rising. We’re blind and deaf, cornered and on low ground. We cannot defend this spot.” He looked at Grei. Blevins had never seemed so large as he did now. His girth had always made him seem comical before, but now it filled the sky, dark and dangerous. “I’m going to a better vantage.” He headed back up the slope.
The fyds slowly came closer, hovering around Grei, their wings clicking.
“They sense you, what is in you,” Adora said. She took his hand.
“I’m ready,” he said, drawing his gaze away from the fyds. “What do I do?”
Water dripped down her face. Her hair was plastered against her head and shoulders, limp black and gold weeds. The creeping sunlight made the floating droplets glow like gold.
“Just listen,” she said, and began to speak:
A lost fair lady looked into the mist
The Whisper Prince whispered of love
The lady saw slaughter, and terror, and rifts
The prince, he whispered of love
Love came swimming along the lost road
Her heel painted with blood
The shadows came charging with wrath born of old
Their claws dripping with blood
With blood and from fire the shadows unwound
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