Twyla stared at her in silence for several minutes before she spoke. “Do you really think you could harm him?”
Nocturne nibbled on her bottom lip. “Maybe.” She sighed. “It’s not the general I’m after though; only his influence over the other men would do me any good. It was his men who destroyed my home and killed my family—not him.” She rubbed her hands together to warm them, debating whether to voice the words hovering at the tip of her tongue. “I sometimes don’t understand myself. Considering everything he’s done for the king, how am I attracted to him?” She was instantly mortified that she’d admitted it out loud.
Attractedto thegeneral?
Twyla considered her question for a long time. “I think the legends could be true. That an alpha wolf will eventually choose a mate.”
“Mate.” Nocturne snorted a laugh. “It’s another word forprisoner, glamorized by the fact that magic is involved.” She ground her teeth together and stared at the setting sun until her eyes burned and watered. “If I’m the Wolf of Winter’s mate, they might as well hang me now.”
38
It was Avalon’s turn to watch over camp. Hadrian was snoring softly as she and Sable studied the letters in the book. Sable stayed mostly silent as Avalon concentrated, scribbling on the scraps of paper she’d pilfered from her room at the Ocean Palace.
They were beginning to get a headache. Every attempt at reading the book ended the same: with Avalon stuffing it back into her bag and clutching her head as she waited for the captain to wake up. If she didn’t know any better, she would think the book didn’t want to be read.
She had seen a terrible thing in her dreams last night, and for once it wasn’t Sable’s doing. Pale hands were weaving thread on the loom she’d seen in her dreams before. Three pairs of hands; Avalon wasn’t sure if they belonged to the same person or several. The dream went on and on, never changing as those claw-like fingers wove and wove. She had startled herself awake screaming, ripping at her skin until she was nearly bleeding, and Hadrian had pinned her arms at her sides.
She had sworn she was covered in spiders.
Avalon snapped the book shut, thethumpechoing loudly into the damp forest. Night birds cooed among the branches.
Are you alright?Sable whispered.
I don’t understand.Avalon sighed.No language has ever been this hard to decipher.
Perhaps you’re right—perhaps the book doesn’t wish to be read.
I’ll try again tomorrow,Avalon said. And then she pulled off the mask before Sable could say anything more. The moon stared coldly through the tangled treetops swaying in the wind, and Avalon stared back.
~
It took Avalon and Hadrian two days to reach Olchenna Valley. From there it would take them another three before they reached the Elven House, home of the Star of Midra.
On the second day of traveling through the valley, it began to rain. They took turns carrying the bag that held the book and the stones, telling stories as they walked, trying to pass the time without dwelling on what or who might be following them, or watching from hiding places between the sloping, grassy hills.
Still, Avalon sometimes couldn’t resist looking over her shoulder. She kept the mask on, conversing with Sable during pauses in conversation with Hadrian, when he wouldn’t suspect her silence. Even though he was on their side, Avalon knew he still didn’t fully understand her connection with Sable. Once, she had caught him lifting the mask to his face when he thought she was sleeping. When questioned, he’d told her he heard nothing. And afterward, when Avalon had asked Sable if she had been able to hear his thoughts, she said she hadn’t even detected that he’d put on the mask. Avalon wasn’t sure what to make of that. In her weakest moments, it made her wonder if she was crazy.
The rain picked up, and Hadrian and Avalon drifted into silence as they pulled up their hoods and hurried along. The damp grass squeaked against the leather of their boots.
Avalon,Sable began.Will you tell me what you know of Hilandria?
Avalon considered her question about the goddess.Most of the books containing information of the Old Gods were burned a long time ago,she began.Sable waited, her worry that Avalon had nothing to share a tangible thing. But the mortal princess had done plenty of reading in her countless hours spent alone as a child; her knowledge was her weapon.Ididfind several books in the basement of the library in Hilsian though. The castle library had none; I had to journey into the city if I wished to read books that had escaped the desecration years ago.
The tempo of the rain quickened until it was a roar, and thunderheads gathered above and broke in a strident symphony.
Everything I read of Hilandria suggested she was lovely, viewed as the most beautiful among the elemental gods, and among the High Ones, she was second only to Ismay herself. They say her skin smelled of cedar fires, and when she laughed, her eyes sparked.Sable listened with the same silent wonder as a child read a bedtime story.
Avalon went on.According to the legends, she was in love with Harlan, the God of Death. She would sneak into the Underworld to make love to him along the banks of the River of Souls, where his seed would not quicken in her belly. Nothing could be given life within his realm, and to bear a child was considered a great crime among the gods. The Underworld was the only place they could meet safely, and so it became their sanctuary.
Sable considered all of this.She doesn’t seem too bad,she said at last, her voice a whisper.
Avalon heard the uncertainty in her words, the fear of the unknown.You are still your own person, Sable. You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.
~
On the third day, when they crested a steep hill, sunlight broke through the clouds, but rain continued to fall in the bright light, transforming the valley into something from a dream. Even if everything failed, this was the one thing Avalon could never bring herself to regret: seeing so many different magical and hauntingly beautiful places since leaving the House of Ice.
Hadrian and Avalon made camp near a cluster of birch trees. The rain had died down as darkness fell, and they warmed their hands by the fire as the moon took its turn in the sky.
