“What are you talking about?”
“That wolf that almost ate you. That was him.”
My mouth hung open as shock tingled its way down my spine and the image of that ferocious, massive creature flashed before my eyes.
“He told us that he chased you into the barrens. He remembers everything he does when he’s like that, even if he can’t stop himself. I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so hard for him.”
I struggled to get the image of those huge teeth and strange talons out of my head and process what she was saying.
“Every morning, he’s so mad at himself. Not like today, though. He wasdestroyedafter what he did to Arabis.”
I’d seen it firsthand when I ran into him in the dining room. He had seemed lost.
“I really hope that whatever you concoct helps him,” Cylea said. “He’s so dangerous, unstoppable. If he gets loose here…” She gestured with her hands and shook her head. “I don’t even want to think of the casualties, of how it will affect him. We’ve been on the road ever since this started, and all along Arabis had been able to control him, but…” She trailed off, her expression pinching in worry.
“I can’t guarantee that it will,” I said, finally finding my voice and feeling the true bulk of the responsibility that had landed on my shoulders. “It could take many tries to find the right ingredients, the right doses. Maybe we need a different plan, a better one.”
“There is no other plan, Dani. He said that the beastwantsto get into the city and cause chaos, even if he goes beyond the walls and rides as far away as he can on Stormheart, he would make it back in half the time, and he would get in. We were counting on Arabis keeping him in check, but…”
“Witchlights!” I’d known the situation was bad, but having the image of that wolf in my mind drove it all home as nothing else could.
Cylea stopped in front of a heavy, arched door. The sign above it read The Sage Crystal and depicted a bearded, long-robed man holding a staff with a glowing green gem at its tip. In essence, a sage holding a green crystal. Very clever.
She paused as she grabbed the doorknob and glanced back at me. “This had better work, Dani. No one can find out about him. No one. Do you understand?”
I did understand. If his people found out he was an out-of-control monster, it would undermine his rule. No question about that, except… there was more. I knew there was more. Some other secret they hadn’t shared with me. Either way, I had no other choice but to help.
“I will do my best, Cylea, but I can’t guarantee anything. You have to understand that. I just learned about all of this today. I don’t doubt I can eventually come up with something to help him. That’s how much confidence I have in my skills, but you better pray I have a lucky break and I get it on my first try. Otherwise, you’d better hope those chains hold.”
She blinked several times, as if reassessing me. “Confidence looks good on you, Dani. You should wear it more often.” She turned, opened the door, and entered The Sage Crystal.
CHAPTER 20
TheSageCrystalmadeYalgrun’s Wares look like a vending machine compared to a superstore. The place was ten times as big, but it wasn’t the size that mattered. Not in this instance. It was the variety of ingredients and artifacts that made the difference.
“This place is amazing!” My gaze followed the length of a floor-to-ceiling cabinet with hundreds of tiny drawers labeled in perfect scroll. “I could spend days here.”
“We don’t have days. We have an hour, so we better go to Lady Thaciana directly.”
Cylea hurried along toward the back of the store, passing tables laden with wrapped herbs, dried mushrooms of rare species, dropper bottles filled with dozens of precious essences, tinctures, powders, rolled-up scrolls labeled with spell names, tiny mirrors, bones, mortar and pestle sets crafted from many different materials, candles, figurines, the works!
I’m in heaven!It certainly smelled like it. The combination of herbal scents was nearly intoxicating to someone like me.
Several attendants watched us go, their admiring gazes reluctantly switching from Cylea to me. They scanned me with distrust, surely unaccustomed to seeing humans this far from any trading post. Something in me wanted to shrink at their scrutiny, but I kept my chin up and smiled politely. If I was the first human they’d ever met, I considered it my job to give them a good impression of my kind.
“All the sunshine to you, Abin Manael,” Cylea greeted a female, who sported something I’d never seen on a Fae: wrinkles. If she were human, I would have calculated her age somewhere above eighty, but she wasn’t, so I didn’t dare try to put a number to it.
Lady Thaciana was sitting behind a wide counter, a shelf with hundreds of bottles behind her. She had lush gray hair that fell in loose curls to her shoulders. She wore a forest green dress with delicate lace around the collar and the end of the long sleeves. A brown sash adorned with silver buttons circled her small waist.
“All the sunshine to you, child,” she said in a gravelly voice like a smoker’s. Her green eyes and full attention quickly shifted to me.
A cat meowed, and for the first time, I noticed a feline perched across her shoulders, partially hidden by her gray hair. The cat’s hair matched hers almost to perfection, but not only that, his eye color also matched his owner’s.
Cylea cleared her throat. “Lady Thaciana, this is Daniella Sunder. She’s a friend of mine and a very talented healer. She’s in search of some ingredients and implements, and I told her this was the best place in Imbermore to acquire what she needs.”
“I thank you for such a generous endorsement.” Lady Thaciana gave a slight bow.
The cat jumped off her shoulders and onto the counter. It examined Cylea, then me. After another meow, it jumped to the floor and disappeared from view.