Page 33 of On Silver Winds
“I’m sorry,” Adeline said finally.
The Queen shook her head. “No. That is entirely fair. I haven’t been myself for a long, long time. I suppose I can’t be surprised to hear that you’ve never known me any other way.”
She finished the soup in silence, and Adeline gathered the lunch things on the tray. She had reached the door when her mother called her name.
“Adeline, wait. It’s not too late, is it?”
When she turned, her mother was pale as her own bed sheets and her forehead shined with the effort of sitting upright. The Queen licked her dry lips. “It’s not too late for us to get to know each other now?”
Adeline didn’t trust herself to answer at first. She wanted to say that she wasn’t sure. That she’d had almost twenty-two years to get to know her. That it would take more than a fortnight to forget a lifetime of neglect.
She didn’t say any of that.
She set the tray down on the windowsill, moved to the bedside and gently coaxed her mother to lie flat. She smoothed the pale hair away from her face, and the Queen closed her eyes, sighing at the gentle touch.
Adeline took her hand.
“No,” she said. “No, it’s not too late.”
Chapter 12
Kai
“What’s the plan, Kai?”
Os crouched before him in the snow. He wasn’t smiling, but that in itself was not out of the ordinary. What mattered was that he looked warm. Well-dressed in wools and a long, thick cloak, sturdy leather boots. His lips were no longer blue, and his hair had finally dried, fluffy and blond as a golden pup.
Safe.He was safe. They were all safe. Weren’t they?
When Kai didn’t answer, Os threw a glance over his shoulder at Alun, who stood leaning against a tree, watching them. He wasn’t smiling either, and on Al, thatwasa cause for concern. He’d been standing there silent and unmoving for so long, a dusting of snow had settled in the waves and ridges of his tight black curls, in his long eyelashes. He looked like a fairytale Prince, ice and ebony.
Maybe they should have written the stories about Al, Kai thought. Maybe they would all be better off if Alun had been the one to meet Avette all those lifetimes ago.
At some cue from Os that Kai could not see, Al seemed to come back to himself, an imitation of his usual bright smile flickering into place.
“Isthere a plan, Kai?”
Kai looked past them both, looked out over the unmoving surface of the Laune in the distance, and the heaving bustle above it. A market, where their lost home should be. And below it, suspended in ice, the magic that once ran through the veins of every Merrow like wild waters through a river.
The smooth white scar across his palm throbbed, one vague and aching pulse. He flexed his hand like he could shake away the pain.
“How is Ceri?” He asked dully.
He pretended not to notice the look that passed between Os and Al. He knew he was being frustrating. They wanted answers. He didn’t have them, not yet.
It was Al who eventually answered. He shook his head, showering a thin spray of half-melted snow onto his shoulders.
“She’s fine, Kai. Bored, but fine. You know Ceri.”
He nodded.
“And – and has anyone managed to…?”
He let the question hang.
Os answered this time.
“To Wield?”
