The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(72)
“Lah, but Jalo’s trustworthy.”
Charlie shrugged non-committally.
“Of course he is,” said Nell. “Think how much he’s helped us already! I just wish Eliza were here too. I’d imagined the three of us together over Winter Festival.”
“What about Julian? Did he go somewhere else for Winter Festival?”
Charlie asked this with studied casualness. Nell paused. Since getting on the train in Kalla she had not thought of Julian at all, except to babble embarrassing stories on the Crossing to keep Charlie awake.
“No,” she said slowly. “I mean, yes. He went home, aye. He lives in Bled. It’s not far from Kalla.”
Life at Ariston Hebe seemed impossibly remote, though she had left only a week ago. She had been so preoccupied with so many things, with sports and tests and hairstyles and Julian, but all of that had melted to insignificance the moment Charlie crashed into the backyard, half-dead.
“It seems so trivial, aye,” she said, with a disconcerted half-laugh.
“What?” asked Charlie. “Julian? I thought he seemed sort of...lah, trivial is a good word but praps it shouldnay be applied to a person.”
“No, I dinnay mean him. I mean all of it. School, everything.”
Nell watched the butterflies batting about in the sweet-smelling air and tried to imagine going back to school after Winter Festival, seeing her friends again, and Julian. But if Nia was not stopped the worlds would be changed. Without the Mancers, Tian Xia beings would keep on pouring into Di Shang. What would become of her safe and happy life at Ariston Hebe? Would the changes reach as far as Holburg?
“Your problem is you’re hooked on adventure,” said Charlie. “You’re never happier than when the worlds are in peril, aye.”
“That’s nay true,” said Nell, thinking how terrified she had been when it was just her and Ander in Tian Xia. She didn’t admit that to Charlie, though. “If any of us is really hooked on adventure, it’s you. Eliza says you cannay stay in one place for more than a day or so without getting restless.”
“Then it’s my problem too,” agreed Charlie. “I think you’re worse than I am, though.”
She punched him on the arm. He mimed pain, then said, “There’s no point picking a fight with me, lah. You know I could turn into a dragon and eat you.”
Nell laughed, and they stopped walking at a curve in the bridge to watch several luminescent swans glide by. They stood in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Nell was thinking about Ander’s surprising speech about her mother when Charlie said, half-reluctantly, “Did Eliza ever tell you that, when we were trapped in the Arctic, she saw my true form?”
Nell looked at him, startled. “No! I didnay know you had a true form. I just thought that you...lah, I dinnay know what I thought. I spose I nary did think about it.”
“I should’ve known she wouldnay tell even you,” said Charlie.
“She can keep a person’s secrets, aye,” agreed Nell, not wanting to pry further, curious though she was.
Then Charlie leaned a bit closer to her and said, “I want to show you. So I dinnay have anything else to say on the Day of Regrets.”
Nell stared at him, unsure how to reply. One moment he was Charlie, so very familiar, the way he stood, the slant of his shoulders, the curve of his mouth and the way his eyebrows pointed up just slightly at the tips. And then he wasn’t Charlie anymore. He dissolved into a luminous wave entwined with its own shadow. It was light and darkness and everything in between, snaking towards her, and in it she could almost see something happening, but it was something beyond what she had words or thought for. It slipped around her neck and pressed itself to her cheek, and it was like touching something that cannot be touched – the way water would feel if it wasn’t wet, or fire if it wasn’t hot. It crossed her lips and she inhaled it. As it streamed into her lungs the world was briefly changed, everything was different, and she felt within herself infinite possibilities of life and being. Then she exhaled, and the wavering billow took shape, became Charlie again.
For a long moment he held her gaze and she found herself unable to look away or speak. Then they both became aware of footsteps approaching rapidly.
“Enjoying the water promenade, I see!” said Jalo cheerfully.
Nell forced herself to look away from Charlie to the Faery. He was dressed even more splendidly than before.
“The King has decreed that an elite squadron of the Faery Guard will escort the witch and the rest of you to Di Shang and the Mancer Citadel, leaving at dawn tomorrow. A place has been selected for the witch to prepare her Magic and I’ve taken her there.”
“Why tomorrow?” asked Nell. “We should go as soon as Swarn is ready!”
“I’m afraid there’s no question of leaving tonight,” said Jalo solemnly. “It is the Festival of Light, when we swear allegiance to the King, and all Faeries must be present. It only happens twice a year. I’m sure it will be interesting for you.”
Nell wanted to argue but sensed it would do no good. In any case, she was feeling disoriented. “Thank you,” was all she managed.
“My mother Tariro owns a number of the Faery Mines, of which I’m sure you’ve heard,” Jalo continued. “Perhaps you would enjoy a tour? They are quite spectacular, really.”