Chapter Nineteen

There was a woman sitting in the wicker chair, her bare toes digging in the bed of pine straw. She was tall and willowy with a baby's pink skin, flawless rosebud lips, and wide teardrop eyes. Her flaxen hair hung in abundant billows to the ground. It was her only garment.

“You have troubled dreams, Abigail,” she said in a serene, musical voice. “Do you know what they mean?”

“Not really,” I said. “Nothing good, I imagine.” I was less alarmed by the presence of this strange, denuded woman than I should have been. It was not that she had appeared suddenly. She just was, and wherever she was, she belonged.

“Perhaps not,” she said with an amused twist at the edge of her mouth, “though even the darkest dreams occasionally betoken the dawn to come. Yours are not the darkest by far that I have seen.”

I thought of shadows, and mirrors, and lightless passages in the earth. “They are not the nicest ones either,” I said. The woman nodded and streams of light flowed down the tresses of her hair.

“I know that well enough. It is why I have come to speak to you. I wish for you to understand that for most who live and die dreams mean nothing or less than nothing. For those who live in our world, whose eyes have been opened, they can mean a great deal.”

I was sitting up in the bed now, still wearing my clothes, but I felt a chill pricking its way up my arms and neck. “What do they mean?”

Her smile fell away. “Some dreams are only us talking to ourselves. They are to be learned from, not feared, however dangerous they seem. The others,” she said, “are messages sent to us by those who walk the Mirror Roads. They can be good or bad, friend or foe. You must be cautious of them and grow accustomed to realizing which is which.”

“How can I tell the difference?”

Her lips did not move, but her eyes smiled. “You will learn as you grow. For now, do not fear the Shadow. A Shadow is not truly of the dark, as they would often have us think. You cannot have Shadows without light to limn them.”

This struck me as terrible advice, but I couldn't fathom a use in arguing. The glowstone was dimming of its own accord, but the woman’s hair and skin still shone as if she sat outside on a sunny afternoon. She seemed to be examining my face with her stare, and I did not like the knowing look she had.

“What do you…?” But even as I spoke the glowstone went completely dark. The woman was left alone in her own radiance for only an instant before she winked away, leaving behind her a tinkle of careless laughter like the smell of a new rain.

My limbs were wool, and I was blinking away shades of green like skeins of fuzz. I was lying on my back, and the quartz was as dim as it had been when Esme left. Sometime during my sleep the sheets had all been mounded at the end of the bed. My temperature ran too high for me to need any type of blanket, even in Numia.

I was alone. The encounter had obviously been a dream, but the memory of that woman and her words did not fade as my nightmares tended to do. She was sharper, her voice clearer in my mind than I had any right to expect, even if we had met while I was awake. I would definitely have to ask about her and what she called the Mirror Roads. First I surveyed the room.

Something akin to a mosquito net protected the bed from too many stray needles. The magic light was useful, glowing at a touch, but certain amenities were still missing.

I went outside, if a tree counts as inside, and was glad to find Li sitting cross-legged near the entrance, looking out over the lake. I didn't want to ask him this, but at least he was alone.

“Li?”

He looked at me expectantly, absurdly gorgeous, making this all the harder. I shifted on my feet, lowering my voice though no one was around. “Where are the bathrooms?” I whispered.

He had the grace not to laugh, or even smile, but I could still feel him being amused at my expense. It was a natural question to ask, but still, I wish I could have done without. He directed me to a very discrete stand of trees a little ways distant, far enough that it would not make a pleasant journey in the middle of the night.

“We are so not staying here,” I grumbled to myself as I set off at a pace I hoped was not too eager. I supposed that if we were staying, I wouldn't have much say in it. The experience that followed was not as terrible as it could have been, but I still missed certain aspects of civilization.

When I returned, Li had not moved. It was unsettling how still he could be. Even when I dropped down beside him, he didn't so much as bat an eyelash, as if he was looking into another world. It was still early in the afternoon, but the ridges and peaks all around us would bring twilight before long. Only a handful of people were scattered around the lake.

“Where did you go this morning? Do you have your own tree house here on reserve?”

Li started at my voice, coming back to earth. “No,” he said. “I'm sorry about that, but I needed to be by myself. I needed to recuperate.”

“Oh, ok.” Not really helpful. “Esme said you’re not a wizard.”

He raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Did I ever say I was?”

“No,” I frowned. He hadn't, but things had seemed to be pointing that way. “It's just that the things you can do make me think of Timothy.” Thinking of Timothy was not something I wanted to do. Whatever he may have done, I would not wish on him the kind of justice Malice would deliver. I would not feel guilty about freeing the Fae, which had been right , but if it had gotten him killed...

“I do not have their power,” Li said. “I do not have the raw, shapeless ability that wizards and sorcerers know. I can do many things, some even they cannot, but I am more limited than they.”

“So what are you then?”

“I am your friend. That is what matters.”

I sighed. It looked like I wasn’t going to get much more out of him. Not that I wouldn't try, but I could see Esme and a young boy approaching up the hill and decided to save my questions for later.

“You're awake!” Esme called. “I thought you might need this.” She was carrying a carved bowl that she handed to me when they drew close. It contained dried fruits and a salad of partly recognizable green vegetables. There was also a small container of spicy sauce that was probably meant as dressing. As soon as I smelled it I realized I was starving but had been too caught up in my new surroundings to notice. I thanked her and devoured.

She spoke to Li as I ate. “Everyone knows you are here now, so a calling is not really necessary. We will need to hold meet when the sun sets. My children are anxious to hear what befell the sorcerers.”

Li nodded. “I understand.”

The boy Esme had brought was trying to hide behind her skirts. He was cherubic to the extreme, with a head of perfect blond curls and striking blue eyes. He couldn’t have been more than ten and eyed both Li and I warily. Could this be one of the children Esme mentioned? She looked to be around thirty herself, when she wasn't smiling, but I knew by now that ages were not easily discernible, especially since she had claimed to be a wizard. Li looked at me, which happened to be exactly what the boy had been waiting for. He launched himself from behind Esme, pouncing on Li, who without turning his head caught the child in mid-leap.

“This is Gregory,” he said to me. “He is an awful, awful boy.” Gregory, for his part, broke into hysterics as Li flipped him over his head so that he landed on his feet behind Li.

“You catch?” the boy asked me in his high voice.

“I eat,” I said raising my bowl in defense. He would have probably knocked me over if I had given the slightest encouragement. Esme smiled, but her voice was stern. “Now that you have seen him, Gregory, you must go to Ajax as you promised.”

“I didn't promise,” the cherub protested, sounding outraged.

“You swore a solemn oath on the honor of Mr. Waffles. I remember it clearly.”

“Not Mr. Waffles?!” Li sounded scandalized.

“Yes,” Esme's face was winter stone, “Mr. Waffles.”

The golden child hung his head. “Ajax never catches,” he said sullenly, but went all the same. We all three watched him go, and then two burst into laughter.

“Who’s Mr. Waffles?” I asked.

“His doll,” Li answered, as soon as he was able. “He is named after the way he walks.”

“Oh.” I said, but decided to stave off any further laughter by not wondering aloud whether or not the doll actually walked. Some things are better left a mystery.

Esmerelda, First Daughter of the Naiad, sat down before us, completing the triangle. Somewhere, she had stolen an air of gravity and woven it naturally over herself while I wasn't looking.

“We have matters to discuss, Lialanni.”

He hummed to himself. “Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings...”

I stared at him. “Alice in Wonderland?” I couldn’t remember Li making a reference to anything out of the ordinary world, and here he was quoting classic children’s literature.

He smirked at me. “Lewis Carroll,” he said, “was an excellent wizard.”

“What!?”

“No one but a wizard could be so pleasantly mad.”

Esme observed this exchange with marked confusion. Then her doe's eyes narrowed sternly. “Lialanni, forgive me, but I need to know what you plan to do. Not all of my children are as glad to see you among us as I am. There is unrest.”

Li quieted a share of his joviality, but still looked playful. “I am not certain, yet, how long we will stay. There is something that needs to happen before we go.”

Esme closed her eyes, purposefully relaxing. “I know I cannot force you to give me anything. Your counsels are yours to keep, but do you understand the position I am put in, as First Daughter, to have you here?”

“I understand. They know what happened in the valley, or part of it, and they have connected those events to Abigail and me.” He touched Esme's knee and as her eyes came open. I felt a pang of jealousy. I chided myself for being stupid but that didn't make it go away.

“I would not endanger Numia willingly,” he said.

“I know that, Lialanni. I also know that if you saw advantage for the world in risking us, you would do it. The Guardians have always been so.”

Li leaned back onto his hands, appearing thoughtful. I seized the pause as a chance to interrupt.

“Could someone fill me in? This is all very nicely mysterious, but I'm new here.”

Li suppressed a grin, watching Esme, but the woman only nodded.

"I'm sorry. I forgot that you have only recently been born into this life, and that those traveling with Lialanni often know less than they would like. I will explain." She paused a moment, smoothing her gold fringed sash over her legs. "Your presence here endangers us. It is known that Malice hunts you, and she is known by nearly everyone with any connection to the magical world. We are not far from the Sorcerer’s ranch, so we had an uneasy truce with them, I suppose. But now they are gone, and there are no compromises where Malice is concerned. If she believes that you are here,” her eyes lidded again, her face darkening, “there will be suffering."

Now that she had said it, of course, it was plain. Malice was looking for me, and she wouldn't be discouraged just because I slipped away from her once. If anything, she would be more determined. It sounded like we would be known everywhere we went. Everyone was afraid of her. That would make finding a good place to lay low difficult.

"Where should we go?" I asked. Whatever Li thought, we couldn’t stay here if we were only a night’s journey from the ranch. Malice would be right behind us, wouldn't she? "Is she coming here?" If Li was going to ask these people to protect us, I wouldn't have it. That wouldn't be right. I had no real attachment to Numia, but I wasn't going to be the reason it went up in flames.

"We don't know where she flies," Esme said. “One of the Totem brothers is scouting now to view the aftermath. When he returns tonight, we will better know what we must prepare for."

"Totem brothers?"

"Men blessed by the Naiad." Esme smiled warmly at my bemused expression. "You will see what that means when Casey returns with his news. They are a shield for us against the likes of Malice."

"And the lumpen?" The word was silly, but at least it wasn't ‘Muggle.’

The woman laughed. She could shift from the gravity of an executioner to the likeness of a careless youth without any intervening stages, like she always had one in each hand.

"No. We have nothing to fear from lumpen. They can walk through Numia and see only a few gnarled bushes on the crags. We would be ghosts to them, and they to us. You would see them like phantoms if they were close, and they would see you not at all."

"Like being Sideways?"

She cocked her head at Li. "Already she learns? Perhaps she will be a wizard before the end."

Li had been listening to us both, a fragment of his smile still lighting his face, but his eyes were looking past us, past all of Numia. "It is just as she says, Abigail. There are layers to the world, like layers of paint on a wall. You cannot see those beneath without tearing free what lays on the surface, then slipping under. There are many layers, some neither of us know and none alive remember, but most are like Numia. Little worlds within worlds that you can walk over top of without realizing they exist."

I took this in. That meant, at least, there could be plenty of places to hide.

"So where do we go? We can't stay here. We can't let Malice destroy this."

Esme snorted. "We are not as weak as all that. Malice might beat us, yes, but even a dragon can slip. They are not gods. If that overgrown Wyrm wanted to come within sight of the Naiad, to violate her sanctity, she would see well enough what the Chosen can do."

"I didn't mean to say you were helpless," I retreated, even though I suspected they wouldn't be able to accomplish as much as she implied. I had seen my mother shadowing the valley, and Esme had already admitted her people were afraid. If she was a sort of priestess, as she appeared to be, she would have to see those duties as higher than any obligation she had to help Li, let alone shield me.

I shifted gears. "What is the Naiad?"

Esme rose to her feet, brushing the grass from her dress. "I would show her to you, if Lialanni agrees."

Though the way she spoke made it clear that her deference was a formality, a part of some custom I was not clued into, Esme was a woman who did as she deemed best. Li only laughed and helped me to stand beside him.

"When Casey returns," he said, "I will better be able to tell you what the future holds. For now, a look at the Water Mother sounds ideal."

Esme set off down the hill that dipped into the lake.

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