Windburn(53)

Ahead of us at the mountain’s peak was what I could only assume was the palace. Its spires were jagged, like lightning bolts reaching into the sky. Colored a bright gold, they reflected the morning sun so they glowed with its light.

I held my tongue, though to be honest, that was easy. The Eyrie was as stunning as the Deep in its own way. Certainly outstripping the Rim with its grandeur and glittering surfaces.

“Come, there is someone I want you to meet.” Aria held her hand out and I looked at Boreas. I pointed at my chest. He nodded, though the look on his face was grim.

“Stop making faces, Boreas. You’re much more handsome when you smile.”

He blushed and I couldn’t help but grin. I put my hand in the queen’s and she moved it to the crook of her elbow.

She leaned heavily on me as we walked up the last of the steps to the gates of her inner sanctuary. “Here we can speak without fear of anyone interrupting.” Blind though she was, she led without hesitation. The throne room opened to us, and I couldn’t help but suck in a breath. Pillars of brilliant white ice reached as high as any redwood to the open sky. A whisper of clouds curled over our heads and snowflakes floated to our feet. A dream . . . it looked as though we walked through a dream made entirely to dazzle the eyes and ease the soul.

Only my soul was anything but calm. The exterior of the Eyrie may have been beautiful, but I knew all too well how beauty could hide the ugly truth.

“Your home is . . . exquisite.”

“A home is not the place you live your life, child of the earth.” The queen’s voice was strong and firm. “Home is the place your life blooms.”

I hadn’t been expecting advice. She patted my hand. “I think you will understand one day. Rumors have come to us that you did some marvelous work in the Namib Sand Sea.”

I blanched. “How?”

“Oh, the usual. Spies. Spies are everywhere. Even mine.” She laughed and waved at me. “Fairies mostly, if you must know. Elementals don’t notice them, yet they are everywhere. Close your mouth, child of the earth. You will learn soon enough that in our world, very little is as it seems. You have been led on a merry chase, haven’t you?”

“The mother goddess,” I said before I thought better of it.

Aria blinked up at me. “Well, she is a goddess. She sees what we cannot, even the future as it should be. But that is not what I meant. I know you seek your father, but he is not here, child. Whoever told you he was, led you wrong.” She stepped away and toward her throne.

I glanced at Cactus. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. I dropped a hand to Peta. She flicked one ear, her voice low. “There is no way the Tracker was wrong.”

Aria turned and smiled at me. “I see a question in your eyes. Ask it.”

“May I look around? It is my father I seek, after all.”

“I cannot let you wander on your own. The Eyrie is dangerous for the simple fact that not all the footing is grounded. If you are amenable to a guide, you may stay as long as you wish.”

“Take it,” Peta whispered, “you will not get better.”

“Thank you.” I bowed at the waist.

The queen slid onto her throne and let out a sigh. “If you ever have the pleasure of ruling, child, may I suggest a rather comfortable chair? This one bites at my rear no matter how I sit.”

I laughed, as did Cactus. “I will keep that in mind, though I doubt the time will ever come.”

She picked up a staff beside the throne and tapped it into the rolling clouds at her feet. A high-pitched ringing bell resounded three times, like the tinkling of chimes.

Cactus reached over and touched my hand, then pointed behind us. The doors swung open and three Enders strode in. Two men and a woman. The men were built like most Sylphs: tall and slim, their bodies whip-like in their movement and structure. The woman, on the other hand, was shorter than me. Her body was solid muscle by the way she moved, but she was not the slender shape of the other Sylphs.

“A curvy Sylph? Since when?” Cactus let the questions slip out and I fought not to cringe. The woman’s face didn’t even twitch, but I saw the hitch in her chest from a breath of air being sucked in too fast.

I stared at him. “And since when have you known a Terraling woman to be my height, Prick? Do you think you have met every kind of woman this world holds?”

Idiot.

“Idiot,” Peta spit out.

The female Ender looked at me, and our eyes met. Understanding passed between us. I knew what it was to stand out in your home, to not fit what was considered normal. To say it was a challenge was something of an understatement. The elemental world was not forgiving of those who did not conform.