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We sit in silence for maybe half an hour as we make our way through some of the food we brought along.
“So,” I speak after the light in the grove has changed. The light is softer and gloomier and casts strange shadows across the space around us.
I follow the dancing shadows with my eyes as I continue speaking. I could almost believe that we aren’t alone in this little grove. I could almost believe that the shadows are alive.
“You use your magic well. Who trained you?” I wince at the bluntness of the question. Lorelai sighs and does not react the way I expected her to.
“My mother did.” Her voice is as soft as the light around us. “She had magic, too. She taught me how to use it as skillfully as she could, but she also taught me to hide it. Because she knew I would be killed for it.”
Something bad has happened to her,I think to myself.
Lorelai’s loneliness has bled off her from the moment I met her, though I don’t think she is even conscious of it.
She continues speaking, and I think I can finally feel her trust in me growing.
“I lost her years ago,” she says reflectively. “And I have lived without my father for even longer. And sometimes I think I’m over it, but then night falls and I am trying to fall asleep, and I have to rock myself asleep imagining that my mother’s hand is on my back.”
Lorelai swallows and her eyes harden, and I know she won’t cry.
“Or sometimes, I wake up early. It is winter, and I have to chop wood, and I have to pretend that my hands are actually my father’s, just so that I have enough firewood to get me through the winter.”
“Your parents did a good job,” I do not know why I feel the need to reassure her. I don’t think Lorelai needs my reassurance, either, because she is strong enough without me. “You’ve managed to survive a lot better than I would have.” I laugh drily. “And your mother did an excellent job with teaching you how to use your magic.”
I don’t say anything else, because I know that she might be thinking a thousand different things.
She might be thinking that when we arrive in Lodra, I’ll betray her and give her up because of her magic. She might be learning to trust me, but after centuries of human oppression, how much can she really trust me?
I still don’t know if taking her home to Lodra, to meet Zalith and the rest of the royal family, is a good idea.
Any other royal advisor would consider her, a human with powerful magic, magic that she is in complete control of, a threat to the royal family.
You just have to trust that she won’t do anything to Zalith or the royal family. She hasn’t said anything to give you a reason to believe that she’d be a danger to them.
“We should get going,” Lorelai tells me abruptly, and I can tell she’s realized how much of herself she unwittingly gave to me simply by answering my questions.
I nod in agreement, and we get back onto the equus and head back to the trail.
I don’t know why she hates the royal family so much, but there has to be more to it than what she has revealed.
And I am determined to get to the bottom of it before she does something she can’t undo.
Lorelai must regret telling me everything she did, because she keeps her now covered back, neck, and face turned from me and rides Storm harder and harder.
We ride throughout the night and most of the next morning without stopping. It is close to dusk when I see that we have finally arrived in Lodra. The royal castle is still some miles away, and as we continue riding, the light of the day continues fading away.
Lorelai only slows down around midnight when the equus trot through the gates of the castle.
We stop underneath the sweeping arches that curve around half of the castle, and Lorelai jumps lightly off Storm.
I follow suit, relieved to see that we’re alone in the little courtyard where we come to a stop.
“I don’t think we’ll meet anyone, so I’ll show you up to the room now.” Lorelai nods shortly, and I gesture at her to follow me.
“Well,” a voice shimmers from the darkness. “I’m glad you made it back with all your parts still attached.”
I tense up at the sound of the voice but relax when I realize who it is. “Lasta.” A smile stretches across my face, and I walk forward to the lumpy shadow that leans against the wall close by.
“I’m flattered by how much you care,” I answer him sarcastically.
