Windburn (The Elemental Series #4)(46)

With a casual flick of his wrist, the Ender swatted Tom, sending the fairy flying our way. He tumbled end over end and I caught him mid-air. “That’s not very nice. He might be a drunk and out of his mind, but you shouldn’t swat fairies. It’s bad luck.”

The Sylph’s lips didn’t even twitch. So much for breaking the ice. Tom groaned and I held him carefully. “I wish to speak with the queen.”

“Why?”

I made sure to keep eye contact with him. If Tom had been right and Terralings weren’t going to be allowed into the Eyrie, it was time to improvise. “We wish to visit the library. We have seen the Pit’s few books, and the Rim’s. But we have heard the Eyrie boasts the finest knowledge in all four families.”

“Scholars?” The Ender pulled back. “Perhaps your story would be more believable if you weren’t wearing a Terraling Ender’s uniform.”

Damn, the cold was making me sloppy. “An Ender cannot also be someone who seeks knowledge?”

“Not when your king is missing. We have sent the information requested, which is more than we had to do.” He stepped back.

“Wait. Please take the message to Queen Aria. Tell her I wish to speak with her.”

His gray eyes locked onto mine. “She will not see you—and I will take her no message from the lips of a Sylph-killer.”

The gate slammed shut and I let out a breath. Apparently my reputation had preceded me.

“What are we going to do if he won’t let us in?” Peta asked.

“Well, we have someone to help us, don’t we, Tom?” I held him around the waist and plucked his sword from his hands.

“What?” He slurred the word. I wasn’t sure if it was the drink, or the blow from the Ender.

“You want to get into the Eyrie, yes?”

“Yes!” He pushed at my hand. “Hey, let me go.”

“Not yet.”

Already the plan formed in my head. A secret entrance that Tom would show us; we’d sneak in, find my father and be gone in a flash. Yet that was not how things played out in the least.

The gate opened once more and an old lady peered out. Now, to say an elemental was old was usually a hard thing to determine. We aged . . . well. My father had perhaps a thousand years behind him and he had barely begun to gray.

This woman, though, she was stooped and her white hair trailed to the snow. She wore a pale blue dress dotted with tiny white crystals that caught the light, and a crown rested on her head seemingly made of gossamer silk and spider webs. Milky, unseeing, eyes turned toward me. “Child of the earth. The mother told me you would come. Here, do not mind my Enders, they are protective.”

Behind her, the tall Ender glared at us. “My queen, please do not do this. You said your death would come in through the front door. She is the one who killed Wicker.”

That was the truth. I’d killed Wicker when I’d ousted Cassava from the Rim. Not that I was going to tell them and confirm the accusation.

“Truly, you were there?” She faced me but her words were for him. “Ender Boreas, please do not spread rumors. I cannot abide by them. And if she was the one who killed Wicker, then so be it. He chose his path and it took him from us. He was banished for a reason.”

That was news to me.

His whole face shut down. “As you wish, my queen.”

She held a hand out to me. “Come. You three must be cold and hungry.”

“What about Tom?” I asked, holding the fairy out to her. “Is he not one of yours?”

Ender Boreas snorted, but the queen held out a trembling hand. “Tom, in trouble again, my old friend? One day you will end up at the ends of our world, I think. Perhaps as far as the Valley of Death.”

“Aria, I cannot stay away from the berry wine. It loves me too truly.” He gave an awkward bow as I transferred him into her palm.

She put him on her shoulder and went back inside. “Let them pass, and do not molest them.”

Peta pressed herself against my leg as we walked through the doors. We said nothing as we followed the queen into the Eyrie. The mountaintop was ringed with a platform at least a mile wide. Seemingly supported by clouds, our footing was anything but certain, and that made me nervous. It would be nothing for any of the Sylphs to take exception to us and toss us into open space. I put a hand to the gem hanging from my neck, remembering it was there for the first time since we’d left the boat on the beach in Greece.

Here and there the wind gusted over us, once with enough force that I had to lean into it to keep from being shoved backward. Peta’s fur ruffled in the hard wind. She blinked up at me. “Some of the strongest winds in the world reside here.”

I was sure she didn’t only mean the natural forces of air.

Ender Boreas kept pace with the queen. Where he was tall and muscled, she was petite and frail. Then again, she was stooped with age. If she stood, she might have been as tall as me. More than once I’d been mistaken as having Sylph blood because of my height.

We were led along open streets paved with nothing but thick clouds, past buildings that hovered, always a few feet above the footing we stood on.

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.