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Nalini waggled her brows mysteriously. “My talents are amazing, I know. Wicket and I will gladly demonstrate more of my awe-inspiring abilities to you once we’re done talking to these two, if you like.”
“Hell yes,” Melaina answered, bobbing her head slowly. “I’d like that very much.”
I rolled my eyes before demanding, “Now show us your true form since you insisted on seeing ours.”
Turning to me in surprise, Nalini murmured, “I beg your pardon?”
“This is her true form,” Melaina argued, frowning slightly over the tone I’d used on Nalini. “I can see through any disguise a person wears, remember? She’s not disguising anything.”
Grinning proudly at Melaina, Nalini huskily agreed, “No, I am not.”
“So, you’re going to deny you’re the same person I met only weeks ago, the woman who was considerably paler and twice the size you are now, going by the name Mydera? Or I heard some of your people call you Mater. Mater Silvam.”
“It means mother of the wood,” Nalini explained with a regal nod.
“Or are you really the mother of the entire Outer Realms?” I countered. “Are you Corandra Graykey?”
“Of course she’s not Corandra,” Melaina huffed as if I were insane for even coming up with the idea. “Corandra would be over three hundred years old.”
“I turned four hundred and forty-eight this last June, actually,” Nalini answered, only to shrug when we frowned at her. “In case you wanted to send gifts.”
“What?!” Melaina shouted. “No, you’re not. It’s not possible. You can’t be hiding four hundred years of wrinkles from us. This is your true form.”
“Right you are,” Nalini told her with a charmed smile. “Whenever I change my identity, that becomes my new true form.”
“So Indigo’s right? Corandra Graykey really was your original identity?” Quilla asked.
Nalini chuckled. “Of course not.” Then she sighed. “Corandra was my third identity.”
“The two identities before that must’ve been on Earth, then,” I realized aloud.
Giving a gracious nod, Nalini answered, “In the old world, yes. I probably never should’ve become Bridget, my second identity. Biggest mistake of my life, but oh well. Live and learn, right?” She glanced toward Quilla. “He’s a smart one. That will provide good genes for the family line. I approve.”
Before Quilla could sputter out a coherent answer, Nalini returned her attention to me, asking, “How did you figure me out?”
“Your rant about Holly confirmed it, but your traveling companions initially pointed me in the right direction.” I tilted my head toward the boy and then the soothsayer. “Though, didn’t you have a third personal servant in Dimway? Spice was her name, wasn’t it?”
“Ah, yes.” Nalini sighed fondly as she nodded. “Lovely girl. She wasn’t invited for this trip.” Motioning to the filthy boy, she added, “Neither was this little stowaway, but he popped up on our tail long after it was safe to send him back to the forest with the others by himself, so we had to bring him along. Isn’t that right, Bewler?”
When she scratched him on the top of the head like one would a dog, he panted adoringly up at her. “The poor dear’s scared to death of grooming and hygiene. And clothes,” she explained as she stroked his hair. “Give him a bath, and he immediately strips back down to these rags and rolls around in the dirt again. So we’ve decided to just let him be him.”
Satisfied with his rubdown, Bewler suddenly surged to his feet and darted forward to sniff at Melaina, Quilla, and me.
“Hey!” Quilla started in offense, jerking a step back, but I caught her arm.
“It’s okay. He won’t hurt you. Let him search us.” I glanced toward Nalini. “We don’t have anything to hide.”
Nalini tipped her head in gracious thanks for my cooperation. “As I was saying,” she started again.
“You were looking for us,” I finished for her. “Specifically.”
“Yes,” she answered.
I lifted my eyebrows. “Why?”
A wistful sigh escaped her lungs. “Oh, if only I could answer that,” she lamented. “Life would be so much easier that way, wouldn’t it? But alas, I am forbidden. Dark magic binds my tongue silent, and I find I do not wish to die on this fine day.” Opening her arms, she smiled around the ferry. “The weather’s much too favorable, don’t you agree? I should think I’d like dark clouds, cooler temperatures, violent bolts of lightning and booming thunder to herald my demise. As if the Outer Realms were rebelling against my unfortunate departure.”
“Then what can you tell us?” Quilla demanded, obviously not a fan of Nalini’s flowery description of her own death.
