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He looked somehow more real than usual, starlight from the window illuminating the lines of exhaustion in his face. Or maybe it was just because he was my size now, and I could see him a little more clearly.
When it became evident that neither of us was sleeping, I shattered the fitful silence.
“How did you even get here?” I asked.
He didn’t startle at the sound of my voice, didn’t turn his head, just grunted out a single word. “Pepper.”
I guess he didn’t feel like talking. But that left me alone with my thoughts going to traitorous places, like wondering at the risk of riding a bird when you didn’t have wings to catch you if you fell. Wondering if someone would do something like that on obligation alone, then catching sight of Edrich’s hardened features and cursing myself for falling down the same familiar rabbit holes.
“Is Uncle all right?”
He sighed, like even talking to me was a burden. I echoed his sigh with one of my own, but he eventually responded.
“Yes. He was riding Maggie. They should be here soon.” There was a note of finality in his tone, and I finally decided to take the hint that he didn’t want to talk.
Even if I did wonder why, when Uncle was on his way, Edrich came, as well. Risked his life to come faster, for that matter.
I thought about what I had asked him.Did you ever think about what it would be like if we were the same size?
It was all I thought about.
But here we were, and I had never felt farther away from him.
42
Edrich
Iwas awakened to the sound of a chipper voice that was decidedly not Lina.
“Let’s go shopping this morning!” The door thumped shut, and I wondered how I had slept through it being opened. In fairness, though, it had been a long night of churning thoughts and second-guesses before I finally passed out.
“Um… ” Lina’s groggy response was cut off by a scandalized gasp.
“Where is your other pillow?” the voice whisper-yelled, though I wasn’t sure why she bothered when I had tested the soundproofness of the room myself yesterday.
“I—” Whatever lie Lina was concocting, badly, she didn’t get the chance to finish, before a girl flitted around the side of the bed, looking down at me with interest.
Purple waves tumbled down around a pretty, heart-shaped face with delicate features. What I could see of her wings was a glimmering periwinkle, and they were rounder than Lina’s. Her most obvious feature, though, was the mischievous smirk she was shooting my way.
“It’s not what you think, Aster,” Lina said.
I stood up, trying to get my clothes back in order.
“Clearly.” Aster shook her head in mock dismay. “Since you’re both still fully clothed. Which is a waste, I tell you. An absolute waste.” She raked her eyes up and down my body.
“I—” I started to say something, though I wasn’t quite sure what, when Aster interrupted me.
“You might want to put that pillow back, though,” she chirped. “Mother’s nearly here.”
Sure enough, only moments later there was a lighter knock at the door. Lina shook her head, and I flung the pillow back on her bed just as the door was opening.
I hastily smoothed out my hair just in time to meet the Queen of Ellaria. An elegant woman entered, all shades of cinnamon and cream, and exuding the kind of warmth my own mother always did.
“Mama,” the girl, who I realized now wasPrincessAster, said cheerily. “Lina has been fortunate enough to find one of her companions, and it looks like the mushrooms are still working admirably to protect our little kingdom.”
The queen eyed me as I bowed, not distrustfully, exactly, but she did take in my rumpled clothes and bare feet.
“I see. I must apologize for the sentries,” she said, sincerely. “Old prejudices die hard, I’m afraid, though we are no longer in the habit of leaving those who are subjected to the gas out in the valley to be eaten.”
