Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities) (43 page)

“And your parents didn’t have any concerns with you going?” Grady asked Keefe. “You
did
tell them, right?”

“Of course I told them. Sheesh—you act like I’m some sort of troublemaker.” He winked. “Seriously though, they were fine with it. Well, once my dad was done asking me ten thousand questions to make sure I wasn’t heading off to recreate the Great Gulon Incident or something.”

Sophie’s stomach tightened. “You told your dad about—”

“Relax. I only told him that you had to fly with Silveny somewhere and your parents didn’t want you to go alone. I got your back, Foster.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“So, we ready to do this? What do you think, Glitter Butt?” He walked over to Silveny’s enclosure, letting her nuzzle his hands through the bars. “You ready for a Foster-Keefe adventure?”

Silveny nickered.
Keefe! Keefe! Keefe!

She’d been giddily chanting that since Sophie told her what was going to happen.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t wait till morning?” Grady asked. The last wisps of purple twilight were just fading into the starry night.

“The sooner we go, the sooner we’re back,” Sophie reminded him, checking for the fiftieth time that the charm bracelet was on her wrist with both charms attached.

Grady didn’t nod, and she could see the doubt blooming in his eyes.

“This is the only way to make me better,” she whispered. “And maybe if they do, I can heal Alden and Prentice and—”

“They’re not the ones who matter, Sophie,” Grady said, wrapping his arms around her. “I’m doing this for
you.
You have to come back. Stronger and healthier than ever.”

“I will,” she promised, trying to convince herself as much as him.

“Don’t let them do anything except fix you. And if there’s anything strange or scary, you run—make Silveny teleport you away if you need to. Just come home safe. If you don’t, I . . .”

“I’ll be home soon.”

She pulled back to look at him, but he strangled her tighter,
whispering, “I love you so much,” before he finally let her go.

“I love you too.” She almost called him “Dad,” but it still felt too soon. It was much closer than it had been a few weeks ago, though. Maybe it came down to trust.

Grady was giving her a lot of it right now.

So was Edaline, as she handed Sophie an overstuffed satchel. “Snacks and drinks, in case it’s a long flight. And you have your Imparter?”

Sophie nodded.

“You hail us the first second you can.”

“Of course.”

Edaline’s chin quivered as she pulled Sophie in for a hug, kissing her cheek and whispering that she had to be safe. Then she slowly let Sophie go, tucking a strand of Sophie’s hair behind her ear as she whispered, “I’ll miss you every second you’re gone.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

“Whoa, you guys are hardcore with your goodbyes,” Keefe said, shattering the moment. “My mom just told me ‘See you, son’ and my dad only asked if I’d checked how tight the pin on my cloak was so I wouldn’t lose a family heirloom.”

Grady frowned, and Edaline reached for Keefe’s hand, giving it a quick squeeze.

A bit of pink flushed across his cheeks. Then he cleared his throat and offered Sophie his arm. “So, you ready?”

“Probably as much as I’ll ever be.”

Grady opened the gate and Silveny trotted out, stretching her wings as she knelt to let them climb on her back.

Sophie’s palms turned clammy as she wrapped her arms around Silveny’s neck. And when Keefe wrapped his arms around her waist, a big part of her was tempted to jump off and forget the whole plan. But she remembered what the vision of Jolie had told her.

We have to trust.

This was for Prentice.

For Alden.

For
her.

“Better hold on tight,” she warned Keefe as she gave Silveny the order to fly. Silveny stood, flapping her shimmering wings as she galloped forward and took off, slicing through the chilly night air as they went up and up and then up some more.

Sophie’s eyes burned as she glanced down to see Grady and Edaline waving—but she blinked back the tears. She would see them again—and things would be right this time. Really right.
Fixed.

She held out the compass, waiting for the needle to spin.

Time to follow the pretty bird across the sky.

A
RE WE THERE YET?”

Keefe had already shouted that question over the whipping wind at least fourteen times. If he repeated it a fifteenth, Sophie was going to shove him into the dark waves below.

“No—for the millionth time. You’ll know when we are because we’ll stop flying.”

“Okay, that’s how
I’ll
know when we’re there. But how are
you
going to know? Because it’s been a whole lot of stars. And ocean. And oh hey—look! There’s some stars! And ocean! And I’m kinda starting to wonder if that’s all we’re ever going to see.”

Sophie held the compass to the moonlight and told Silveny to fly a bit more to the left. “I’ll know it when I see it.”

She
really
hoped that was true.

Keefe fidgeted behind her, nearly knocking them off balance.

“Careful!” Sophie shouted as Silveny tipped up her wing to catch them.

“Sorry. I’m just trying to stay warm.” He fidgeted again. “Can we play a game or something? Oh—how about truth or dare? I can think of some
awesome
dares.”

“I kind of need to concentrate here.”

He sighed so dramatically Sophie could hear it over the wind’s roar.

“I’m guessing a tickle war is out of the question,” he asked. “Because you’re pretty vulnerable right now.”

“Try it and see what happens.”

“You
do
realize that just makes me want to do it more, right?”

“I’m serious, Keefe.”

“I know—that’s the problem.” He shifted his weight. “How about you, Glitter Butt—you as bored as me?”

Keefe! Keefe! Keefe!

“What’s she saying?”

“That you’re annoying and she wants to dump you in the ocean.”

“Well, I know
that’s
not true. Glitter Butt loves me. Don’t you, Glitter Butt?”

Silveny whinnied as he patted her side.

Sophie rolled her eyes.

Keefe shifted again. “Gotta say, Glitter Butt, you are not as
comfortable as I’d like you to be. We need to fatten you up next time so you’re softer.”

“Hopefully there won’t be a next time.”

“Aw, what, you don’t want to make this a regular thing?”

Sophie shook her head “It’s a little different for me, Keefe. There’s kinda a lot riding on this.”

“Like your health and your future and Alden’s health and stuff?”

“Which I
thought
you cared about—Alden at least.”

He was quiet for a few seconds, and Sophie thought he was going to ignore her. But then he leaned closer—close enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek as he said, “I know I crack a lot of jokes, Sophie, but . . . that’s just because it’s easier, you know? It’s how I deal. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I do. A lot.”

She was suddenly very aware of how close he was, and the way his arms were around her. She felt her cheeks flame and hoped he couldn’t feel the change in her mood.

“Are you scared?” he asked quietly.

She shrugged, not trusting her voice.

“You don’t have to be. I meant what I told Sandor. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She wanted to tell him he didn’t have that kind of power. Instead she cleared her throat and said, “Thank you.”

He leaned back, taking his warmth with him. But at least she felt like she could breathe again.

“So tell me about the Black Swan,” he said. “What are we up against?”

“I wish I knew. It’s not like they tell me anything.”

“Yeah, they do seem to like keeping their sense of mystery. Reminds me of someone else I know.” He poked her side.

She smiled at the joke, but it also hit a nerve. “Do you think I hide too much?”

Her voice had barely been louder than the wind, but Keefe still asked, “What do you mean?”

“Grady and Edaline think I keep too many secrets.”

“You do,” he agreed. “But I’m guessing you’ve sorta had to, right? I mean, look at the kind of things you deal with. I don’t really know how you do it.”

Sometimes she didn’t either.

She checked the compass again, steering Silveny back to the right.

“You can trust Grady and Edaline, though,” he added after a second. “You got good parents there.”

Parents.

Not
guardians.

They were slowly starting to feel like that.

“Things have been a little better with your parents too, haven’t they?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t intruding.

“Yeah. I guess. I don’t know. They only like when I do things
they
want me to do. Like this. My dad
loves
that I’m helping you—probably because everything you do seems to, like, change
the course of history and whatever. But it’d be nice if they could be proud of something
I
like to do.”

“Maybe it would help if the stuff you liked to do didn’t involve gulons or glittery poop.”

“Probably. But that’s way less fun.”

“Maybe you could just try . . .”

Her voice trailed off as a dark shape appeared on the horizon, silhouetted by the moonlight. Tall, rocky cliffs jutting out over the ocean. And when she checked the compass, the needle pointed straight to them.

“Is that . . . ?” Keefe asked.

“I think it might be.”

She nudged Silveny to fly faster, keeping her eyes trained on the compass as the cliffs drew closer. The silver-white slopes of the rocky ledges came into focus, bright and gleaming in the pale moonlight, and Sophie felt goose bumps prickle her skin as she noticed a dark smudge toward the top of one of them.

A cave.

“That’s it,” Sophie whispered as a memory prickled her mind.

The dark cavern had a distinct curved shape, and she could see a perfect image of it in her memory. Which meant they’d always meant for her to find them someday.

She instructed Silveny to land on the ledge outside the entrance. Keefe tightened his grip on her waist as they swooped to a stop, and he helped Sophie slide down Silveny’s neck to the rocky ground.

“Okay, the legs are
not
happy,” Keefe complained as he took a few wobbly steps. “Remind me never to take up horseback riding.”

Sophie’s legs were throbbing too—but she was too distracted by the pitch-black entrance to the cave.

“So . . . I’m guessing we have to go into the scary black cavern of doom?” Keefe asked, sighing when Sophie nodded. “Yeah, I was afraid of that. I love that neither of us thought to bring a light, either.”

“You don’t need one,” a gravelly voice said from the shadows, making both Keefe and Sophie scream.

“Dude—that was
not
cool,” Keefe said as a hairy brown dwarf skulked out into the moonlight.

The dwarf laughed—a clunky sound like a spoon caught in a garbage disposal. “We need to get out of sight. Can you lead your horse inside?”

“I—I think so,” Sophie stammered, wishing Silveny could send her some of her calm. But the jittery alicorn was more terrified than she was.

Trust,
Sophie told her.
Come.

She followed the dwarf toward the cave, and after a few steps Keefe and Silveny followed. As soon as they were inside, the dwarf flipped a switch, and blue-flamed torches sprang to life all along the rocky walls that curved around them. The cave was much shallower than she’d expected.

“Won’t someone see the light?” Sophie asked.

“The cloaking is back up. I took it down when I felt you draw close, so you could find us.”

“You
felt
us?” Keefe whispered.

Sophie pointed to the magsidian swan on her bracelet.

“Whoa—dwarves are freaky.”

“I was not told there would be two,” the dwarf grumbled. “Only a girl and a horse.”

“My parents wouldn’t let me come alone.”

The dwarf made some sort of sound—a bit like a growl.

“I think he likes me,” Keefe whispered, earning himself another growl.

Sophie looked around. As far as she could tell, it was just a normal cave—smaller than the one at Havenfield, even. “Is this . . . it?”

“Until you eat this.” The dwarf handed her a plate with what looked like a cookie on it. A black swan. Written in some sort of icing were the words “
THEN LET’S REST
.”

“Tucked in the branches of your quiet nest,” Sophie finished, remembering the final line of the poem. “So . . . this is a sedative?”

“You cannot see where I take you.”

“Come on, isn’t this whole mystery thing a bit overkill?” Keefe asked.

“Don’t worry. There’s no cookie for you. You can stay with the horse.”

“What?”

“But he’s with—”

The dwarf held up his hand, silencing them both. “Only you.”

Keefe glanced at Sophie. “He’s like three feet tall and all fur. I think we can take him.”

“That would not be wise.” The dwarf stomped his foot and a crack split the ground, stopping just before Keefe’s toes. Another inch and he would’ve been swallowed by the gap.

Sophie cleared her throat and took a deep breath for courage. “It’ll be fine, Keefe. In fact, maybe it’ll be better. I don’t think Silveny would do well here all alone. Keep her company.”

“But—”

“There’s only one cookie,” she told him, picking up the tiny swan.

Keefe stared at the crack in the ground, then back at her. “You’re sure?”

She wasn’t. But she’d come this far.

Her head screamed at her to toss the horrible, revolting sedative away, but she shoved the cookie in her mouth before she could change her mind. As soon as the sweet, fruity flavor hit her tongue, her head clouded and she could barely swallow the bite.

“I’ll be right here when you—” Keefe called, but the darkness stole the rest of his words, leaving her alone in the black.