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“Me too!” Starling enthused, shaking her head so her hair swirled around her shoulders. “I’m concentrating on keeping my hair this way. You’ll see. You’ll be proud of me.”
I didn’t quite know what to say. “Starling—you’ve been a friend to me. When I needed one. There’s nothing more important than that.”
I mounted my horse—blessedly nearly free of pain, since I’d taken the time to wish everything I could see or feel into faster healing—and added my wish to Starling’s.
“For you, my lady sorceress.” Blackbird, head bowed, held up something wrapped in a parchment paper cone. I took it and laid it across my lap, while my horse shifted and stamped. I missed being able to loop the reins around the horn, but this was more of an English saddle style. Good thing my riding teacher had made me learn, despite my protests that I’d never use anything but a Western saddle. Blackbird put a hand over the reins, to help steady the mare.
Inside the paper lay a single flower.
Both ostentatious and elegant, the blossom was as big as my head and looked like the Stargazer lilies I’d always loved. Except, instead of a pink throat spreading out to the tips of the ivory petals, this one was blue. Deep indigo ranged through teals to finish in twilight blues, with inky spots scattered throughout. The distinctive Stargazer sweet scent was threaded through with sandalwood. And some other scent, something redolent of mace, that reminded me of the taste of Rogue’s mouth. The petals seemed to glow with their own light, almost living flesh.
I knew it wasn’t from Blackbird.
From the way she blushed under my gaze, looking carefully down, I knew my stare had grown as hard as my heart felt.
“Lord Rogue sends his regards,” Blackbird said.
I seized her by the wrist and leaned down close to her face, the flower heady with scent between us.
“Why does he want a baby with me?” I hissed. The question escaped me unexpectedly, filled with the cold hate that had grown in the recesses of my heart. So many things I could have asked or said—this was what sprang forth.
Blackbird shook her head and tugged a bit. “I can’t say, lady.” She looked at me then, her bright eyes alien. Her wrist felt spidery under my fingers. I could see Starling over her shoulder, owl-eyed and pale. I loosened my grip so Blackbird could slip her hand out of mine. And I knew by the regret in her face that she meant she was not allowed to say, not that she didn’t know.
I nearly threw the blossom to the dirt for my horse to trample, but I hesitated. And she who hesitated was lost. I couldn’t destroy that beautiful flower. It had already seduced me with its spiced honey fragrance and outrageous blues.
The lily gave me pleasure, too, as we rode along, Darling behind me on his traveling pad. I already knew it radiated magic, Rogue’s magic, as distinct as the flavor of cinnamon, so it was no surprise to find the petals remained dewy fresh, even as the sun climbed overhead.
It occurred to me that having a piece of his magic could turn out useful. At the very least, I could study it.
My hatred for Rogue and what he’d done to me, what he planned to do, sat cold and solid in my gut. If he thought this would soften me, he was sorely mistaken. Perhaps a bit of my feminine heart was charmed by the gift. I liked flowers, particularly this one. I’d known women who took all that a man offered them—dinners and gifts and admiration—then left without a backward glance when they had exhausted him.
I could be that. To punish him.
We rode through more of Disney Ireland. Once we cleared the hill beyond Castle Brightness, I never saw another building. No farms, no towns. Just emerald meadows and chocolate forests. Some of the groves boasted birds. Other sections were conspicuously silent, like the place I’d “landed,” and I wondered what it meant. I made a mental note to check those places out sometime.
Puck cheerfully informed me that they marked the frontier. When I responded, “And after the frontier, there be dragons?” he frowned and said, “No, barbarians.”
Sometimes we passed a field of flowers that could be on a gardening catalog cover. The blossoms bobbed in exotic beauty, their fragrances tantalizing the air around me.
None, of course, could match my indigo Stargazer. I was sure Rogue would allow nothing less.
Our caravan passed the night in one of the velvety meadows. I perched on a boulder, Stargazer lily draped across my lap, at a bit of a loss, as everyone but me seemed to have a job to do. Even Darling had trotted off somewhere, and a short, stone-faced guy led my mare off as soon as I dismounted, after setting my saddlebags next to me. Puck sent servants to make me a pallet in the grass from a pile of blankets and to give me a platter of these kind of travel biscuits we’d been eating. They tasted of honey and sunshine.
I munched my biscuits and found myself missing Starling’s company as the gloaming deepened. I would have liked to stay in that great bed at Castle Brightness, pretend I was a princess and not a prisoner.
But then, I’ve never been much of a camper.
For lack of anything better to do, I crawled into my blankets. I set the flower next to me, where it would be safe. The others had gathered into various groups, sitting around campfires, singing and dancing in one cluster. Another group laughed so manically my skin crawled. I didn’t think I was really invited to join any of them. Not that I wanted to.
No guards seemed to be posted. We were far from any of the groves of silent trees, which gave me some comfort. Would there be anything I could do, should the Dog show up? Probably not. Definitely I shouldn’t think about him.
So I lay there and watched the stars brighten.
They spun overhead in stunning glory. As with everything here, the firmament was sharper, more radiant—and they were the same constellations I’d seen all my life. And no Southern Cross, either. This sky shone pure northern hemisphere, Earth perspective. Orion strode boldly high with Sirius trotting at his heels. Leo’s question mark exclaimed that this was, indeed, the late summer season. At the sight, my heart first leaped in grateful familiarity. Then the implications hit me. It didn’t help that Sirius shone with a green more emerald than any star I’d ever seen. Betelgeuse’s usual silver shone almost cobalt.
Was and not was. Neither here nor there, but somewhere else entirely.
I tightened the soft blankets around me and closed my eyes.Sleep now.
