Page 216 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
The largerdealan-dhescongregated upon the drooping boughs of a willow, drinking nectar from its blossoms, which sparkled like dewdrops in the sunrays breaking through the jungle canopy. His intrusion caused a commotion of fluttering, but he mustn’t have proven too bothersome; few ventured to fly away.
A senior bydealan-dhèstandards, an iridescent blue flyer fluttered off its meal and landed on Pete’s shoulder. The creature eyed Pete in question:How can I be of service?
Pete already had his folded letter in hand. “This must reach the Spring Palace posthaste.” He slipped the note into a velvety pocket hidden by a design on one of the messenger’s wings. “Give this over to Briar Hawthorne’s hands only.”
The creature’s black eyes blinking in what Pete surmised as accord, it took wing off Pete’s shoulder to soar away on its errand. Pete watched it rise, calm settling upon him. Whatever fate awaited him, at least word reaching the Spring Palace meant Shorty would be all right.
That was all that mattered.
Suffice it to say, Pete’s heart dropped to his bowels when a shadow tether lashed his messenger from the sky. Time slowed, thedealan-dhèplummeting to the ground like a maple seed. Pete’s letter with it.
Pete pounced to procure his message, but a foursome of more tethers hog-tied him before he got close enough. The air shimmered around him, a restriction spell laming his own shadows. He toppled to the ferns with a roar, one thousand butterflies frenzying into the canopy.
When the colorful storm cleared, Pete found himself staring up at the jagged grin of a Leprechaun. The belated smell of myrrh choked his senses as the breeze whipped into his face—an odor he’d have detected long before then if he hadn’t imbibed an entire pitcher of Myrrdin’s cider!
Blast you, boyo!
“Jolly pickled to see you, McKenna!” Dando exclaimed, cheerful as a butcher inviting a pig to supper. His crimson tricorn cast a sinister shade over his heat-freckled, sweat-streaked face. “Been looking for you.”
Thirty-Five
Amy
“Saveyourbreath,Myrrdin.”I marched toward the edge of the time pocket, where the prophet waited with Morus. There to talk sense into me, I supposed. Too bad I was sense-proof. “That jackass isn’t sacrificing himself for me. No way, no how.”
Another serene smile graced Myrrdin’s slender lips. “I’m under no misgivings that you can be stopped, Amy. I’m but here to aid you in your quest.”
“Oh.” I stalled before the slender feyr and his ugly, wary-faced henchman—whose wounds had healed since I’d last seen him. “Help me how?”
Myrddin offered me a linen sack. “Provisions for the road.”
Goddess, I was a moron, setting off into the jungle without food or water. I cringed at myself, accepting the bag. “Thanks.”
Myrrdin’s nod said to think nothing of it.
I pursed my lips. “You’re really not going to try to stop me?”
“It’d be fair lunacy not to,” Morus groused.
I considered the Kobold. Sure, he’d returned my MulBerry, but I still didn’t trust him.
“I see no reason to stop you, child,” Myrddin said. “Although Pete expressly begged me to keep you here at all costs.”
“Hm. And I suppose that when he told you his dumbass plans, you didn’t try to stop him either.”
“O’ course not.” Morus scowled at Myrrdin. “That’d have taken too much effort.”
“A wasted effort, more like,” Myrddin returned. “Pete’s almost as stubborn as our dear queen here.”
“Almost,” I agreed. “When you talked to Pete, did he tell you anything that would help me find him?” I knew my disadvantages in this chase. “Pete taught me some ways to track people, but we—uh—we’ve never tested my ability to actually do it.”
Sharing a pointed look with Myrrdin, Morus exhaled. “Well, I suppose that’s whyI’mhere—I can track him for you—so you don’t waste precious time trying to find him yourself.”
My arm hairs stood. “Is time precious already?” Not just for my sanity, I surmised.
“Oh, why yes, Amy.” Myrrdin’s brows rose. “Pete means to rush to the Shadow Palace to foil Gentian and his harbingers’ hunt.” He paused, mouth tightening.
I gulped. “He won’t make it there, will he?”
