Chapter Eleven Lettle #2
It was large enough to steal the breath from Lettle’s chest but small enough to see the entirety of it.
A glade of blooming flowers basked in the fraedia light that hung in pockets around the ceiling.
Bees and butterflies moved between each blossom, some startling into flight as a rabbit pranced through the meadow.
She immediately looked around in magesight and what she saw confirmed her suspicions.
‘You have a magical boundary here too, just like Mosima,’ she whispered.
‘Mosima?’ Alder said, his eyes narrowing. ‘You have been there?’
Lettle pinched her lips shut, making clear that she would only speak again when he showed them the exit.
Alder gave her a sly smile that was so unlike her friend’s. ‘This way,’ he said.
An obeah slunk out from under a plum tree. He murmured to it in the human language and it moved away.
Alder saw Lettle’s gaze linger on the obeah and he said, ‘My brethren have always been welcome here, though few bound to the fae have discovered my location.’
He led them past a shimmering pool of water towards the far end of the cavern. It was only then that Lettle realised the mottled surface of the cave’s walls wasn’t stone, but books. Rows upon rows of books.
‘I’ve never seen so many books in all my lifetime,’ she breathed.
‘They took a while to garner,’ he said, smiling, and it was an expression she recognised from the Alder she knew. Both proud and unassuming at the same time.
Lettle’s hand automatically reached for the spine of one of the tomes, but Alder was there before her, his nails bared like claws to strike her away.
‘Those are not for you!’ His voice took on an otherworldly growl. It left her shaken.
I cannot let my guard down; this is not the man I once knew. The thought pierced her heart with a grief she was not ready to acknowledge.
‘Here.’ Alder pointed to a slip in the rock, calm once more. The sound of water coursed behind it and as Lettle drew near she could see the water rushing down.
‘That’s not an exit—’
‘That’s the waterfall in Caperly,’ Mia said, sweat peppering her brow despite her wet clothes.
Dart stepped forward, ducking his head through the gap. He returned drenched once more in freezing water.
‘It’s Caperly,’ he confirmed. ‘But I’m not exactly sure how you expect us to climb down from here. We’re behind a waterfall pouring hundreds of gallons a second.’
Alder held out his hand and a plant grew from the soil between his toes.
Lettle watched in horrified fascination as it grew thick and long, its bark woody but its branches flexible and thin.
With deft hands he manipulated and wove the plant into an object Lettle didn’t understand until he handed it over to Dart.
‘Silkvine,’ Dart whispered, turning the harness over in his hand. He held it as though it were glass. ‘You mean for us to use this to descend?’
‘There’s a ridge below that leads to a pathway into the centre of the city. But you must lower yourself down to it,’ Alder said.
Dart scoffed. ‘Come, Mia, we’ll figure another way out through the pool–this is too dangerous.’
Mia stumbled, her knees giving way. ‘Dart.’ He caught her before she fell.
‘We have no choice, Dart. Even if the stairs were still there this would be the better option. The quicker option. She needs help,’ Mortah said. She moved forward and inspected the harness. ‘Silkvine is strong, it will hold.’
‘I’ll go down first,’ Dart said.
‘No,’ Mortah replied. She looked at Lettle. ‘Will you be all right here?’
Lettle knew what Mortah was going to do and she nodded once. ‘Yes.’
Though Lettle wasn’t sure why she was so certain. She was in a strange land with a man she no longer knew, who had power she could not begin to fathom.
But he’s Alder, her mind said. I know who he is, even if he doesn’t know himself. And he wouldn’t hurt me.
Right?
‘Look after my stick,’ Mortah said, then she winked and lowered her voice. ‘It has bite.’ She reached for Lettle’s hand before pressing the walking stick into it, ensuring Lettle could feel the hinge in the wood.
Lettle met her eyes, conveying that she understood Mortah’s gift–a hidden blade.
I hope I do not have to use it.
Then, Mortah pulled the harness on. ‘You’ll know it’s safe when I remove the harness.’ Without a backwards glance she jumped out of the crag. She did not scream as she fell, but they knew she had stopped because the rope went taut.
Lettle leaned over the edge but she could not hear or see anything but water. Then the silkvine went slack and Dart pulled it back up.
‘It must be safe,’ he said. He still looked sick with worry as he helped Mia into the harness.
Alder was watching with his arms folded, his eyes glittering.
‘Lettle,’ Mia said as she stood on the precipice. Her voice was tight with pain. ‘Bring back Alder, all right?’
‘I will,’ Lettle said, before really considering what she was agreeing to, and if it was even possible.
Is Alder lost for ever? The thought was cold and unwelcome, so she pushed it away.
Then Mia jumped. Lettle could see Dart was holding his breath until the rope went slack. He gave Lettle a cursory nod before jumping after his love.
‘And then there were two,’ Alder said.
‘Three,’ she corrected him. Ajax stood by her side, an immovable protector.
Alder smiled as though indulging a child. ‘Indeed.’
She shivered. The drugs Mortah had given her had distracted her from her wet clothes, but now they were wearing off, she felt chilled to the bone.
Alder noticed and he ran his gaze over her clothes. In moments Lettle felt a warmth spread over her body as the clothing dried.
‘How did you do that?’
He didn’t answer her. The sound of rushing water filled the air. ‘Tell me then, what do you know of the book you cradle so tightly against your chest?’
‘I know it was written by Afa, the last human.’
‘Afa,’ the name caught in his throat. ‘I haven’t heard that name in a long time.’
‘Do you know of him?’
He looked like he might nod, but then he said, ‘No. Tell me, who is he?’
Lettle shrugged. ‘Growing up I had thought him a faerytale only.’
The Wandering Human had been her favourite story as a child.
She’d had few possessions, but that book had been one of them.
Yeeran had found it battered and bruised in the pocket of a soldier on the Bleeding Field.
Their father had read it to them so many times that Lettle had learned it off by heart.
‘With teeth of knives and eyes of fire, the fae killed every human, for humans were the most magical of beings,’ she recounted the words from memory.
‘Until only one human remained. Afa he was called. The last of them. Damned to wander the land alone. He travelled across seas, across continents, gaining knowledge wherever he went. The knowledge enhanced Afa’s power, and when he returned to the Fae Lands, he cursed the fae for what they had done, banishing them to Mosima, a land entombed in time. ’
‘A faerytale it is,’ the man said.
Lettle narrowed her eyes. ‘So, you do know Afa?’
Once more he didn’t answer.
‘Who are you?’
Again, silence. Her frustration was growing by the minute and part of her wanted to jump after Dart too.
But I’d be abandoning Alder. She couldn’t do that, not when they’d come this far. Her eyes threatened tears and she squeezed them shut.
‘That grimoire was not for you,’ Alder said. Lettle cracked open an eyelid.
He was watching her, examining her.
‘Well, whoever it was for, it’s mine now.’
This got a reaction from him: ‘No, it’s not. It’s mine.’ Lettle was learning he was a proud man, this new Alder.
‘This was found in Afa’s tomb.’
Alder laughed, genuinely amused. ‘A tomb indeed.’
Lettle shuddered. The truth was a spider along her back, crawling slowly to realisation. She felt the dread of its many legs. ‘The grimoire was found over thirty years ago. You would have been a child.’
‘It has been a long time since I was a child,’ he said.
Lettle shook her head, denying his words. ‘No, that’s impossible.’
‘Nothing is impossible,’ he whispered.
Lettle thrust the grimoire in front of him, opening the pages. ‘If this is yours, can you read it?’
‘I don’t need to read it.’ He looked to the water. ‘I can recite it in its entirety.’
‘How?’ She knew the answer, even as her brain rebelled against it.
‘I wrote it.’
Her teeth were chattering and it was no longer from the cold. Ajax sensed her distress and began to growl. ‘But this was penned over a thousand years ago.’
‘A thousand years? It feels like longer, I admit.’
Realisation was like ice down Lettle’s neck.
She stood up and walked towards Alder-who-was-not. ‘If you wrote this, then that means you’re…’ Her voice quavered into silence.
‘Say it,’ he said, his eyes hungry.
‘Afa.’
His smile was slow and more than a little frenzied. ‘Nice to meet you.’