Claus

Twenty-Six

Outside the train's windows, waves lapped against the island's seawall. The Mediterranean stretched out before them, a mix of a turquoise blue and teal. The island was on the other side of the train, but if luck had finally taken pity on her, Mother Nature would be on it, and if Faryn succeeded, she'd ask her for sanctuary and be able to enter Ruhnerium in safety. She'd find her mother, make sure she was okay, and then clear her own name. Then she'd be able to return to Oxford, perhaps even before the Hilary term started. She'd finish her degree and enter the human world, where no one would know who she was.

         Clíodhna tugged on a sweater and slipped into her boot. "If Harumi attacks Faryn, do we fight back?"

         Reaching for her bag, Faryn tensed.

         "She's not going to attack her," Peter said, sounding aggravated. "She'll just have someone else do it for her."

         Cassian caught Faryn's eyes, and she quickly looked away, tugging her bag's strap onto her shoulder.

         Since the train's tunnel remained underneath the water until right before it pulled into the station, there wasn't an opportunity for the two of them to have left the way they had boarded. They were going to have to risk walking out with the other passengers and really hoped Jack hadn't gotten wind of their plans.

Usually, Acurial train officials didn't care about checking out disembarking passengers, but that was before one of the most beloved Acurials might have been murdered.

         Even if she were discovered, Cassian could get the two of them out, and then all she'd need to do was reach Mother Nature.

         Faryn pulled up her hood, following Clíodhna and Peter out of the suite and leaving Cassian to do one last check for any stray belongings. Two passengers who were exiting their suite at the other end of the cabin, also wore cloaks, their hoods up. The cold plus the sea's breeze would be brutal for some.

         Faryn bowed her head.

         Get to Mother Nature. That's all she had to do. If she did that, Spring the Beauty couldn't touch her.

         Cassian stepped out of the suite, and the four of them disembarked without any problems.

Her eyes swept over what she could see of Antimonia. Was there a more perfect place for a Court named after one of the most beautiful men from any mythology that existed? Despite the cold, every plant was in its fullest bloom, the trees the lushest of greens as if the skins of limes and guavas had bled onto each leaf. The flowers shimmered with a dewy glow as if an invisible glasshouse covered each plant. Ocean lavender grew in clusters along the shore and creamy dark pink wax flowers, the white of their rings bright, swayed in the breeze.

The air smelled of flowers—how one imagines them to smell and not actually how they do. There was no cloying sickly scent. Rather there was a lushness, a lightness, to the air as if it were perfumed. And it was intoxicating.

The station was situated before a small town made of white stone buildings trimmed in awnings of purples and greens. Beyond the town was a stone road, lined with purple and blue wisteria trees. It led upward, winding its way up a hill. Faryn kept looking upward, letting herself take in Peter's court's domain.

The Court overlooked the island beginning with rings that were made of the same stone as the town and had been built in layers that led upward. In each ring were gardens as if a rainforest had been planted in every nook and corner. These gardens were the most magnificent on Earth—a reborn Hanging Gardens of Babylon. If it weren't for the danger she faced, she'd have happily allowed herself to get lost in them for hours. Even from down on the shore, she was awed by their beauty.