Chapter 16 #2
I want to ask what Vel means. I knew Riahn was angry about my presence in the Guard, but chosen female? Chosen for what?
I know Vel won’t tell me if I ask, so I file it away with everything else I’ve put under ‘deal with later.’
A flash of color catches my eye, and I look toward the gorgeous flowers growing along the road’s edge.
They remind me of foxgloves—bell-shaped, and clustered together on tall, slender stems—but they’re a vivid pink that I’ve never seen before.
As we pass, the bells nearest the road tilt on their stems and turn toward me.
“Are those flowers moving?”
Vessara glances to the side. “Yes. They’re just curious. They can sense that you’re not fae. Most things in Underhill will know that. It’s something you’ll get used to over time. But these are harmless.”
I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to anything here.
The path climbs upward after about an hour, the grass that framed it falling away to be replaced by a long ridge of pale stone. To one side, the land dips down in rolling hills, and on the other …
Water. Or, more accurately, what appears to be a sea. The water is almost black where it meets the cliffs, and lightens to silver where the sky touches it. A sky that is a blueish-violet without a single cloud breaking up the color. And no sun.
Where is the sun?
I look back over my shoulder, but the sky is clear from every direction.
How is that even possible?
“Where is the sun?”
“You’re in Underhill. Our world doesn’t work the same way yours does.” There’s laughter in Vessara’s tone. “Now turn back around. We’re almost home.”
Vessara points. I follow her gaze along the road where it climbs up the rise … and then I see it.
My breath catches.
Ahead, a keep rises from the cliff. The black stone is veined with silver that glints in the strange light, throwing it back across the dark water crashing below.
Towers climb out of the rock in elegant spirals, reaching toward the sky, while walls and arches curve from the cliff as though they were shaped there by the stone itself.
The closer we get, the more I can see. Narrow bridges link the towers above open air.
Terraces stretch out from the cliff face, with nothing beneath them but rock and sea.
Some parts of the keep are cut into the mountain, while others rise from it so seamlessly I can’t tell where the cliff ends and the walls begin.
Everything is so delicate-looking that it makes the palaces and castles of my world seem heavy and clumsy by comparison.
The road curves sharply, hiding the keep from my view.
When it appears again, my breath stalls.
The way forward has narrowed into an arched bridge, spanning open air between us and the keep.
Far below, the sea churns against the rocks, throwing up spray and the taste of salt.
On the other side, a pair of black gates stand closed at the center of a high wall.
I grip the saddle as Vessara’s steed steps onto the bridge.
Just focus straight ahead. Don’t look down. Don’t look—
I look down.
The bridge is barely wider than the steed beneath us, the stone smooth beneath its hooves.
One wrong move, and there’s nothing to stop us falling into the sea below.
My stomach churns, and my heart races fast enough to make me light-headed.
I take in a breath, then another, and force my attention to the gates ahead of us.
They’re huge, at least the height of six men, and black with silver running through them, like the wall around them. There are no guards standing watch. In fact, I can’t see anyone at all. But as we reach the other side of the bridge, the gates swing inward silently, revealing the courtyard beyond.
Vessara rides through without slowing.
My attention immediately latches onto the fountain directly ahead, where water spills from the mouth of a carved beast I don’t recognize into a round basin below.
It has the body of a horse, but the neck is longer, the head narrower, and two curved horns sweep back from its skull.
Its front legs are raised, hooves striking at nothing.
Even though I know it isn’t real, I lean back anyway as Vessara passes it, as if those hooves might come down if we get too close.
Around the fountain, the courtyard spreads out in every direction.
Passages run along the inner walls. Some lead to arched doorways wide enough for horses to pass through, others so narrow I’m not sure a child would fit.
Stairs climb around the towers to covered walkways above, crossing from one side of the courtyard to the other, before disappearing behind columns or curving out of sight.
I can’t stop myself from comparing it to the palace I grew up in.
There, everything has a clear purpose. The stables are beside the courtyard. There are paths leading to private gardens. The main doors into the palace itself are large enough that no one can mistake them for anything else. I can’t see anything that remotely resembles what I know here.
I’m still looking for the main entrance to the keep when Vessara brings her steed to a stop.
Some of the others have already dismounted, sending their steeds back to …
wherever they disappear to when they haven’t been summoned.
Vessara dismounts, waits until I’m also on the ground, then lets her steed dissolve into mist.
The only sound in the courtyard is the distant crash of the sea against the rocks, muffled by the walls rising around us. I look from one face to the next, waiting for one of them to lead the way inside. But no one is moving, and none of them are looking at me.
They’re staring at the keep.
Then Vel moves.
“Brael. Kaelith. With me. The rest of you, hold here until we return.”
They cross the courtyard, and walk toward one of the arched doorways.
“Where are they going?” I keep my voice low.
Vessara doesn’t answer me straight away, her eyes following the three of them until they disappear into the darkness. Then she turns to me.
“To see what has waited for us.”