Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities) (6 page)

Biana nodded.

Fitz waved, and Keefe told her to have fun with her sparkly
horse as Alden held his pathfinder to the light. “I’ll be thinking of you, my friend,” Alden told Grady. “And, Sophie? We’ll talk soon.”

The light pulled them away before she could ask why.

Grady stood there, staring into space, like he wasn’t sure where to go now. Or maybe he wasn’t ready.

“You don’t have to come today,” he told Sophie after a second. “It’s not an easy thing to do—”

“I know.” She wrapped her arms around him, wishing she could squeeze away the sadness in his voice. “But I
want
to come.”

Grady sank into the hug, and an extra second passed before he pulled away, his eyes blinking back tears. He cleared his throat and took her hands. “Well, then, we’d better get ready.”

S
OPHIE FIDGETED WITH THE SATIN
sash of her emerald green dress and wondered for the tenth time if she should change. It felt wrong to visit a cemetery in something other than black, but Edaline had told her the tradition was to wear green—the color of life.

“You look beautiful,” Grady said as he peeked his head around the door to her bedroom.

She smiled. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

“Thanks. But I truly hate these things.” He tugged at his green velvet cloak as he stepped into her room. “Whoever decided we should wear capes was an idiot.”

He didn’t have to tell her. She’d hated the capes from the
moment she’d seen her ridiculous school uniform with its stupid elbow-length monstrosity. But capes were the mark of the nobility, and even though Grady and Edaline had tried to separate themselves from that life, the Council would never let Grady fully resign. His ability as a Mesmer was too rare and important.

“Need help with yours?” Grady offered.

Sophie nodded and he grabbed the silky green cape from where she’d left it on her bed. Grady draped it across her shoulders and gathered the ends at the base of her neck. She reached for the blue halcyon clasp she used for school, but Grady stopped her, holding out a yellow-diamond-encrusted eagle soaring with a ruby rose in its talons—identical to the broach securing his own cape.

“The Ruewen crest,” Sophie whispered as he pinned it through the thin fabric.

Her Foxfire uniform bore the same seal over her heart, identifying her as part of Grady and Edaline’s family—but having him give her the clasp, especially considering the day, made her feel choked up.

Grady cleared his throat. “Are you sure you want to—”

“I’m sure.” They’d been doing this for sixteen years. She wasn’t going to let them do it alone anymore.

Unless . . .

“Do you not want me to go?”

“We
always
want you with us, Sophie. I’m just afraid you don’t realize how hard this will be.”

She reached for his hand, twining their fingers together. “I know. But we’re family now, right?”

“We definitely are.” He pulled her in for a hug, stroking her hair as he whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She thought about adding “Dad” at the end, but the word stuck to her tongue.

“I guess we should probably get going. I’ve already informed Sandor that he’s not coming with us—”

“He’s not?”

“Only elves are allowed near the Wanderlings. Even the Councillors leave their bodyguards behind. So he’s agreed to entrust you to our care for the next few hours.”

“Whoa—I can’t believe you got him to agree to that.”

“He protested. A
lot.
But I reminded him of what I can do.” The seriousness of his tone gave Sophie chills.

She rarely thought about what being a Mesmer really meant for Grady. But total mind control was definitely a powerful thing.

“And, I agreed to carry this, in case I lose my focus,” he added quietly, removing a small silver weapon from an inner pocket of his cloak.

Sophie felt all the blood drain from her face. “Where did you get a melder?”

She’d never forget the way Dex had collapsed to the ground, paralyzed and seizing up after the kidnappers blasted him with one. Looking at the palm-size gadget now, it was hard to imagine
so much evil coming from a sleek, curved handle connected to a triangle of silver with a single button in the center. She hated seeing it in Grady’s hand.

Grady shoved it back into his cloak. “The Council insisted I keep one in the house as a last resort. Don’t worry, I have no plans to use it.”

She hoped not.

Then again, no one ever
planned
to be attacked.

“Where’s Edaline?” she asked, changing the subject before she could relive any more nightmares.

Shadows seeped into his features, and he closed his eyes a second longer than a blink.

“Oh. I’ll get her,” Sophie offered.

Grady didn’t protest as she moved past him and headed down the curved staircase to the second floor. Even with the sunlight streaming through the crystal walls, the hallway leading left seemed to be shrouded in gloom. Sophie hurried to the end, where there were three narrow doors. Doors that were always closed.

The center door was slightly ajar.

“Edaline?” Sophie whispered, not wanting to startle her as she tiptoed into the quiet bedroom.

Sophie had only been in this room once in all the months she’d lived there—and only by accident. But it looked exactly the same. She suspected it had been exactly the same for the last sixteen years, though the room felt dim and dusty—like
someone desperately needed to flick on the crystal chandeliers or pull back the faded lacy curtains and let in some light.

Edaline didn’t say a word as Sophie crossed the soft carpet and sat next to her on the edge of the canopied bed.

“Grady and I are ready whenever you are.” Sophie’s voice echoed through the silent room.

Edaline swallowed as she nodded, then turned to face Sophie. She sucked in a breath when she spotted the broach.

“I don’t have to wear it if—”

“No.” Edaline stopped her from unfastening it. “You
should
wear it. I’m sorry. It just surprised me because it makes you look even more like her.”

The words were strange, prickly things, and Sophie never knew what to do when Edaline said them. She knew Edaline meant them as a compliment, but Sophie couldn’t help wishing that she didn’t have to be the shadow of someone else. Or worrying that the similarity had anything to do with why they adopted her.

She followed Edaline’s gaze to the framed photo on the desk across the room.

A carefree Grady and Edaline stood with their arms around a slender blond girl—Jolie, when she was about Sophie’s age.

Jolie had Grady’s light hair and Edaline’s bright turquoise eyes. She was striking and graceful and smiling, with rosy cheeks and gleaming white teeth.

Sophie walked over to the floor-length dressing mirror in the corner and tried to see the resemblance.

“My goodness you have strange eyes,” a high-pitched voice announced.

Sophie whipped around. “Who’s that?”

“Vertina.” Edaline gave a sad smile and made her way over to Sophie. “I guess you’ve never seen a spectral mirror before?”

Sophie turned back to the mirror, gasping when she noticed a tiny face in the upper left side. A girl with shiny black hair, pale skin, and sapphire blue eyes. She looked like she was about fifteen, and she had that snotty
I am older and cooler than you
glare that Sophie had seen a
lot
of back in the human world when she was stuck as the twelve-year-old high school senior.

“What is it?” Sophie whispered.

“It?” the tiny girl snapped, her pretty face twisting into a scowl. “Who are you calling ‘it’? You’re the one with the freaky eyes.”

“Hey!” Sophie still wasn’t totally comfortable being the-only-elf-with-brown-eyes, but she wasn’t about to let some mirror-girl insult her.

“Now, now, Vertina,” Edaline said, placing a hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “That was out of line.”

“Sorry.” She didn’t sound like she meant it, though.

Sophie reached up and touched Vertina’s face, half expecting it to feel like warm skin. All she felt was smooth, cold glass.

“Get your smudgy fingers away from me!” Vertina huffed, ducking under Sophie’s hand. “It’s bad enough I’m up here
alone all the time, gathering dust like some common piece of furniture.” She turned her tiny face away, her glassy eyes staring somewhere beyond them as she whispered, “I miss Jolie.”

“Me too,” Edaline said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Sophie pulled Edaline back, and when they were far enough from the glass for their reflections to disappear, Vertina vanished.

“What was that thing?”

It took Edaline a second to answer. “Spectral mirrors help you get dressed or style your hair.”

“Is it alive?”

“Just a clever bit of programming. A novelty that never caught on because people realized they didn’t want their mirror to tell them they looked tired or out of fashion. Jolie loved hers, though. They became friends. She even used to come back to visit Vertina on her rest weekends from the elite towers. They were that close.” Her voice broke again.

“Come on,” Sophie said, leading her toward the door. “Grady’s waiting for us.”

Edaline wiped her eyes, casting one last glance over her shoulder at the now silent mirror before she followed Sophie out to the hall.

They climbed the stairs to the fourth floor at a crawl. Edaline seemed in no hurry to get where they were going, and scaling the stairs was always a challenge for Sophie, especially in the low heels she’d decided to try. She was thirteen now—seemed like the time to switch to more mature footwear. If only she had the
balance to pull them off. She tripped so badly on the last step that she would have fallen if it weren’t for Grady’s quick reflexes.

“Still getting the hang of walking, huh?” he teased as he caught her with his free arm. His other hand held a red satchel, which he handed to Edaline.

“Hey, I can’t be perfect at everything,” Sophie retorted with a smile.

“True enough.” Grady held her hand as she climbed onto the platform under the glittering chandelier in the center of the cupola. Five hundred intricately faceted crystals hung individually from silver cords, forming a sparkling sphere. The Leapmaster 500.

Edaline fidgeted with the satchel she’d slung over her shoulder and Grady stared at the ceiling, neither seeming ready to give the command.

Sophie cleared her throat. “Where exactly are we going?”

A few seconds passed before Grady whispered, “The Wanderling Woods.”

The Leapmaster sprang to life, twisting until a single crystal lowered enough to catch the sunlight streaming through the windows.

Nobody moved toward the beam that refracted to the ground.

Sophie could imagine them standing like this every year—too sad to step forward. But this year she was there to help them.

Slowly, gently, she pulled them into the light.

S
OPHIE HAD BEEN IN QUIET
places before, but she’d never experienced anything like the silence of the Wanderling Woods. There was no chirping or tweeting. No branches creaking or rustling. It was like all sound—all life—had been sucked out of the scenery, leaving nothing but a thick, almost tangible emptiness.

Even the silver pebbles didn’t crunch under her feet as she followed Grady and Edaline down a winding path, which seemed to glow as she moved, shining the way to the narrow gateway ahead. A vine with white star-shaped flowers trailed up two gilded columns to an arched golden sign with looping, intricate letters that spelled out:

Those who wander are not lost.

“I’ve heard that before,” Sophie said, mostly to herself.

She racked her brain, needing to be sure it was her own memory, not something someone put there. An image of a short poem flashed in her mind and she stopped walking. “That’s from
The Lord of the Rings
. Well—not exactly. But it’s close.”

“
The Lord of the Rings
?” Edaline repeated.

“It’s a series of human books. And it has elves in it.” Elves that had some similarities to what elves really were, now that she thought about it.

“Are the books older?” Grady asked.

“I think Tolkien wrote them during the Nineteen Thirties or Forties.”

“That’s back before the Human Assistance Program was banned.” Grady smiled when her eyebrows shot up. “We used to send members of the nobility in disguise to try to teach humans our ways. The treaties had fallen apart, but we still hoped to guide them, bring them out of the darkness and into a new age of light. In fact, most of the great human innovations of the last few centuries happened under elvin tutelage. Electricity. Penicillin. Chocolate cake. But too many of our gifts backfired, and a few decades ago the problems escalated to a point where the Council had no choice but to terminate the program and ban all human contact.”

“What does that have to do with
The Lord of the Rings
?”

“Let’s just say there were some who couldn’t resist manipulating the legends about elves a bit.”

“So . . . you’re saying J. R. R. Tolkien met an elf, and that’s where he came up with some of the story?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. Though I’m sure he was only told bits and pieces. Do the books talk about the Wanderlings at all?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then he didn’t know what the statement meant.” Grady motioned for her to follow him. Edaline trailed silently behind as they crossed under the arch and entered the woods. “
These
are the Wanderlings,” Grady whispered.

It was unlike any forest Sophie had ever seen. The glowing path wound through a sea of carefully arranged trees, each one surrounded by meticulously groomed shrubs. No two trees were alike. Some were short and broad. Others tall and slender. Some had graceful branches that swayed in the silent breeze. Others looked stout and strong. There were leaves in every shape, size, and color. Some had flowers. One even had thorns. And at the base of each tree was a round white stone with a name carved in plain black letters.