Chapter 5 Brook #2
“Well, no.” Brook tightened the arm around Aisling’s waist to anchor her. “That’s the idea.”
“I didn’t know you were invisible to yourself when you did this.”
“Yes. I completely disappear. Isn’t it lovely?”
“I rather miss seeing you. But yes, it is, otherwise.”
“Mind if I lead?” Brook asked, already taking the first steps of a waltz.
Aisling, already following, laughed and said, “Please do.”
Brook led her carefully at first, dancing past gossiping elves and papier-mache clockwork décor.
Aisling was light on her feet and gave the loveliest little trill of a laugh when Brook twirled her around and then back again.
She felt tiny in Brook’s arms, and yet even unseen her presence was soft, inviting, warm, sweet.
Calming even here, in the middle of the very thing Brook had spent her life hiding from: a formal party where so very much was expected of her.
Brook danced them around the pavilion’s edges, then brought them to a close as the music stopped. “Shall we reappear?”
“Yes, please!”
She dropped the invisibility spell to find Aisling flushed and bright-eyed. Aisling said, “There you are.”
“Here I am.” Brook leaned down, tilting her head.
Aisling went up on her toes—and then someone shouted, “Ash!”
Aisling winced. Then pulled away from Brook reluctantly, saying, “Darra. Hello.”
“Darra!” Brook let Aisling go and turned on her heel, hand already out. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Darra, a good-looking elf in a rumpled suit, with hair just as red as Aisling’s, took the hand and shook it. “You have?” They glanced at Aisling.
“Brook, my sibling, Darra. Obviously. Darra, this is my intended, Brook.”
“Britheue Fyreham-Graymalkin,” Brook said.
“Right, it’s so long I forgot,” Aisling deadpanned.
Brook laughed and bumped her with her hip.
Darra’s smile lit up the whole pavilion. “You never said, Ash!”
“Well, now I’m saying.”
“Come meet Mum and Dad—they’ll be so pleased.
Not that Aisling needs to get married, of course, but you know how parents can be.
They like to know that their elflings have someone to take care of and to take care of them, once they’re out on their own.
I’m sure I’ll understand once the twins are born. Did she tell you about the twins?”
Brook followed Darra but not before shooting Aisling an amused look. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from the golden child of Aisling’s family, but it certainly hadn’t been this chatty, cheerful thing.
“Mum, Dad, look who it is,” Darra said.
Aisling’s parents were, unsurprisingly, short. They wore good, sturdy suits with clever little gear-shaped embellishments, and the mother wore spectacles that made her hazel eyes appear very large and round. She said, “Sorry, who—oh! Aisling!”
“Songbird!” her father said, smiling hugely.
Aisling flushed.
“Do you sing?” Brook asked.
“She used to sing all day, when we’d have her in the workshop. I always said it inspired some of my greatest work,” her mother replied. “Hello, Ash.”
Aisling cleared her throat and said stiffly, “Mum, Dad, this is Brook. My intended.”
Both parents paused, as if some spell had frozen them in time.
Aisling shifted from foot-to-foot, her tail lashing behind her with nervous energy.
“Really?” Her mum finally asked. “Is it true?”
Aisling’s face screwed up tight, like she’d just tasted something awful. She opened her mouth—
“Of course it’s true!” Brook rushed to say, with a little flourish and a bow. “Would she lie about a thing like that? Hello, Mum.”
Aisling’s shoulders slumped. Her tail wrapped around her own waist, settling there. As if she didn’t trust it. She shot Brook a grateful look.
“Well, then!” said her dad. “Who are your family, Brook? Where are you from?”
“She’s a Fyreham-Graymalkin,” Darra said—clearly they knew what the name meant.
“Sounds familiar…” her dad murmured.
“Nobility?” Mum guessed.
“Emberleigh royalty,” Darra filled in, grinning.
“Cousins only,” Brook added with a little bow of her head to indicate humility or some other such nonsense. “But your daughter will be in the best company, I assure you.”
“You must have resources,” her mum said.
Aisling rolled her eyes.
“Mum…” Darra laughed, though.
“Indeed, and the Fyreham-Graymalkin resources will proudly support Aisling’s brilliant innovations, both in baked goods and technology. You’ve seen her oven? I wouldn’t be surprised if she swept the food competition and the Innovation Awards,” Brook said confidentially.
“Really?” asked her mum.
Aisling was turning an alarming shade of pink, which rather clashed with the green and bronze of her dress. Brook took pity on her. “Aisling, sweetness, would you get me another drink while I assure your family that you’re in good hands?”
Aisling shot her another grateful look and slipped away.
“Now, about those resources…” Brook began, leading the conversation onward.
As they chatted, Brook decided Aisling’s parents weren’t greedy.
The way they asked about Brook’s intentions felt rather businesslike—which was to be expected at a marriage market, after all.
But then Darra said, “I know it sounds like we’re worried about money—the truth is, though, she’ll never be happy if she doesn’t have someone supportive of her work.
She’d wither away without it, so we just want to make certain… ” and then trailed off.
“Well, the good news is I’ve done more work in the last three days with Aisling than I’ve done my whole life, and I’ve never been happier,” Brook admitted.
And then realized the truth of it. The actual truth, that she’d had somewhere to be, someone to help, something to do, and she’d enjoyed it
“Oh, that’s lovely!” said her mum.
“It is, isn’t it?” Brook murmured, rolling the idea over in her mind, mapping the shape and feel of it.
“I always thought she’d be lucky to find someone who’d tolerate her—ah, single-mindedness,” her dad said with a chuckle. “Like Darra here did.”
“Not that Minala doesn’t care about the work! She’s just got her own,” Darra interrupted.
“Yes, of course, lovely girl. Good connections, very supportive,” Dad agreed. “I only mean that there are different ways of supporting someone with a brilliant mind, and the hands-on method is harder to find.”
“Is it?” Brook wondered. “Harder than finding someone with good metal or magic sourcing, for example?”
“That was my experience,” Darra admitted.
“Of course, we found each other,” Mum said, patting Dad on the shoulder affectionately. “But it’s a very developed field—there are lots of us who work with engines in Copperford.”
“Huh.” Of all the things Mama had claimed would recommend Brook as a wife, being actually hands-on useful to another elf’s life goals had never been mentioned.
What an idea.
The conversation turned to marketplace gossip—yesterday’s caber toss was apparently quite the event.
After some time, though, Brook glanced around to see where Aisling had gotten to.
Her heart soared when she saw her, beautiful dark red hair against expensive silk, talking to a stranger in the crowd.
And then she realized that was no stranger. Not to Brook, anyhow.
It was Sunny, and he was handing Aisling something.
“Excuse me, I have to, uh—” Brook moved quickly, darting through the knots of people watching the dancers whirl about the pavilion. Whatever was happening, she needed to stop it. And now.