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I reached out and knocked on the tree trunk three times. The third time, there was a noise to the left of the path and we turned to see Grieve and Chatter slipping out from behind a bush. They were older--grown-up, but they'd always been polite and nice and never did anything to make us uncomfortable.
I never thought of them as boys. Boys were loud and obnoxious and only wanted to follow their girlfriends around. Grieve and Chatter never said anything about girls, and they were . . . well . . . different. They weren't human, we knew that, or magic-born. They were Fae and seemed so very exotic and dangerously strange. We knew all about other Supes in the area, but mostly met others like us.
Grieve motioned for us to follow them and held the bushes aside as we slipped off the path and into the woods, avoiding the ravine as he led us into a clearing to the left.
Another moment and we were sitting by a small pond where the trees opened up and the sun actually shone down, scattering light through the branches. I clambered up onto a tree trunk and took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of mushrooms and moss. Rhiannon shyly hopped up beside me. She liked Chatter better than Grieve. He made her laugh.
"Our time together is coming to an end," Grieve said, kneeling beside the tree trunk. He had a sad smile on his face and looked like he was going to cry.
"How come?" I didn't want our visits to stop. Grieve and Chatter had taught us how to make friends with the Elementals and coax them out to play. At least, sometimes. It didn't always work, but he said that the more we practiced, the better we'd get at it.
"Cicely, your mother--" Chatter started to say, but Grieve held up his hand and shook his head.
"Stop. We're not allowed to tell her," he said. "Cicely, everything will be all right. It's just that we won't be able to talk to you much longer. Not for a very long time. Years, maybe. And Lainule--you remember the beautiful woman who came with us to talk to you last time?"
I nodded, proud of my memory. "She's the Queen of Rivers and Rushes."
"That's right, you've done well. Anyway, Lainule wants to make sure you have a friend who can help you send messages along the wind. She says this is very important. Do you understand? And you must remember: You can always contact our people through the wind and someone will be there to help you, even if you don't see them."
I stared at him, my lower lip trembling. Somehow, even at my young age, I knew he was saying good-bye and it made me want to cry. But I forced my tears back because when Grieve said something was important, he meant it. He was a prince--he'd told me so. And I'd seen him get angry before--not so much at us, but at Chatter. An angry Grieve was fierce and unpredictable.
After a moment, I nodded. "You need to teach me to talk to the wind, right?"
"Right. You can already hear it speak, but you need to learn to talk back, to send information on what we call the slipstream. And at your age, to do that, you need to befriend a wind Elemental. I know some of this won't make any sense for a while, but I'll try to teach you the easy way to communicate with the creature. She'll always be there to help you. You have to promise me something, though."
"What?" I would have promised him anything.
"Promise me that you won't forget this. The magic we've taught you. Promise me that you'll keep practicing, even if you're a thousand miles away." He squatted in front of me and took my hands in his, smiling softly. "And when you're older, come back. Come back to me . . . to us. I'd like very much to know how you turned out." There was something in his voice, almost a promise of a future to come, and it made me both incredibly sad and yet--happy.
I gazed into his eyes as the smooth silk of his voice slid over me. The funny-looking man with eyes so clear, so blue, that they looked like twin oceans against the olive skin of his face . . . Grieve was kind to me, and I knew he'd never hurt me.
Solemnly, I nodded. "Promise," I said, "cross my heart and hope to--"
"No," he interrupted me, his eyes glowing. "Don't finish the rhyme, Cicely. Too many nasty creatures listen to the wind. They listen to secrets whispered in dark halls, to promises made in secret, to oaths and alliances forged. Don't ever promise your life--not for anyone."
"Okay," I said, a little afraid. I'd never seen him look quite so imposing. It was as if he'd shed a cloak and he looked even less human than usual. His chin was sharp, his cheekbones ridged, and his lips were full.
"Now come with me, and I will introduce you to your Elemental, and teach you to speak." And he set about the ritual that bonded me to Ulean, and taught me to harness the wind and call it to my command.
Anadey remained silent as we spilled out our secrets about Grieve and Chatter, and how Chatter had taught Rhiannon to conjure fire, and how Grieve had taught me the ways of the wind.
"Then, Krystal took me away," I said. "And nothing was ever the same. But I remembered, and I kept my promise. Ulean helped me, and eventually, things began to happen. She warned me when we were in danger. The wind would grab a paper out of my hand and I'd go chasing it and bingo, there'd be a twenty-dollar bill in the street just when we were running out of food. And sometimes, the breeze tripped people who threatened to hurt me, like this one guy . . . He was about to beat the crap out of me and a sudden gust caught up a nearby garbage can and hit him from the back with it, giving me time to run."
"You came back before, several times, then left again. Why?"
I'd thought about her question a thousand times. "My mother needed me. I couldn't leave her out there alone--she was so . . . helpless, so fragile. And I wasn't ready, I guess. Wasn't ready to turn my back on wandering. To commit to the life that I knew would be waiting for me here." And the last time, at seventeen, I wasn't ready to commit to Grieve, as much as I loved him. But I didn't want to say it aloud.
"And now, the wind has brought you home. You, and Ulean." Anadey looked like she wanted to say a whole lot more but she kept her silence.
"We went looking for Heather today, just to the edge of the wood. And we were attacked. Twice--well, I was attacked twice. But Rhiannon and Leo fought off the first creature that threatened to choke me. When I returned,
I found Grieve. But he was much changed." I gave her a condensed version of what had happened, including the difference I'd noticed in Grieve.
"The creature you describe is a tillynok, but they're usually peaceful. Something must have set it off. And the snow Elemental--they're not known to play tricks on humans. Unless they're bonded, like your Ulean, they usually just ignore us. A strange magic has taken over the forest."
"What about Grieve? What about the Indigo Court that he mentioned? That Rhiannon envisioned?"
"I don't know," Anadey said.
