Wystwood

91. Valley of free folk

When Ada and Min returned to the kitchen, she saw Solen in Diane's chair with her arms around her shoulders. Lark was there too, the plate before him stacked high with pastries, and he was sobbing into the tablecloth. But at the sight of Ada wavering in the doorway, Raeph sharply elbowed him.

"Oh, Ada!" Lark said, dropping the damp tablecloth with an aggressively nonchalant sniff. "It's not what you think! It's just... have you ever seen such beautifully laundered linens?"

Raeph groaned as Lark's eyes spilled over once again, and then Solen was on her feet and rushing to the door. She gathered Ada into a hug so tight that she was sure she would stop breathing.

"I can't believe you're both going to leave us!" Solen cried, and over her shoulder, Ada saw Raeph give her an apologetic grimace.

"Not today," Ada said. "We're all still together today."

Summer swelled the apples on the tree in the courtyard and Ada put off leaving Wysthaven for more days than she cared to count. She helped Diane sort through her house and then clean the emptied rooms. Even though it would take time to sell the more extravagant items, she worked with Lark to draw up a plan for the Bonneville and smuggle a collection of Diane's finer crystal decanters into his pillowcase.

She helped a number of newly homeless fae move into Diane's rooms, and tried her best to calm their unease when they saw she wasn't fae herself. Soon afterwards, the upper-class fae began to emerge from their homes, having run through their food stocks. Diane helped them, too, and Solen stood proudly by her side when she was elected onto the temporary council who would act in place of the Lady of Wysthaven before a new ruling system could take shape.

The Stone Circle joined the council meetings, though Ada hadn't seen Edmere since their last moments in his office. Perhaps he had been so occupied with the name of the Saltsworn that he hadn't prepared for the Circle's rise into Wysthaven without it. Even so, members from the Circle could roam the street freely, as well as Cast as they pleased without the Hounds to stop them. It was easy to identify them in the marketplace, for the rest of Wysthaven remained apprehensive about Casting themselves.

Min didn't seem to notice and Cast so openly and with such delight that it made Armestrong nervous every time they went out. But when the woman's panicking reached its peak, Min would simply Cast a Veil and slip off into the city for hours on end. On one such afternoon, Ada sat with Armstrong in a teahouse at the edge of a market square. The basket between them was filled with papered cuts of meat and dried herbs, but tucked at the edges were a selection of slightly crumpled maps.

Every time Ada went to the markets, she would look for maps that marked the valley beyond Wysthaven, later pinning them to one of Diane's billiard tables so that Raeph could plan his journey out of the city. There was a surprising array of maps sold in the markets, some drawn in such recent decades that their ink paths were still vivid between their sketching of wystwood forest. Despite the Lady's best attempts, it seemed that those in the Stone Circle weren't the only fae to preserve fragments of their past.

"Min said she wants to return to the Stone Circle." Ada sipped her mug of chamomile tea and it tasted as warm and sweet as the summer's sun.

"True enough," said Armestrong. "And she won't be dissuaded. But don't you worry about that child. I'll stay by her side until the day she demands that I leave her be. She won't be wanting for company after you've returned is all I can say."

"I know you will," Ada said, staring down at the stray flower buds bobbing in her tea. "But there's something else I should've told you. The morning she fell from Wysthaven's tower, when we pulled her out of the canal there was... on her head there was salt from the water. A ring of salt."

Armestrong sat very still, her fingers rigid and red around her steaming mug. "Salt?"

"Yes," Ada said, not wanting to say the word aloud. "But no one else can know. It's only you, Raeph, and I who do, and we can't risk anyone finding out, for better or for worse. Min's life has already been so drastically changed, and when you think the time is right, you should tell her who she is. But not now. Let her have what's left of her childhood. If she wants to Cast, don't force another restraint on her after the last has only just been removed."

"I won't breathe a word," Armestrong muttered. "But stars! If nobody knows, maybe it's best we don't go back to the Stone Circle."

"Edmere still wants her name," Ada replied, shuddering at the thought of his pale eyes glittering down at Min. "But he's too taken up with musings on power to suspect a child, no matter how gifted. In time, though, he may come to believe it."

Armestrong was shaking her head. "It's too dangerous to go back."

"If Min wants to, you should let her. She's lived so long fearing her magic, she deserves to be somewhere it's encouraged," Ada said firmly, her mind returning as it did so often in her nightmares to Hester on the banks of the canal. "The Stone Circle is made of more people than just Edmere. It's where her mother called home, so perhaps it will be a home to her, too. A home for you both before the Bonneville is rebuilt."

With a great sniff, Armestrong dabbed at her eyes with her patchwork apron. "The Bonneville will always have a room open for you, Ada."

"Thank you, truly."

The days drew ever longer and lighter, with even the night stars shining soft and silver after violet twilights. On a balmy evening, everyone was lounging around after dinner and swelled on food and wine and laughter. The windows were thrown open to the night and the moon was framed between silken curtains like a pearl in a midnight sea.

Ada lay against Raeph's chest, tracing the lines of his arms as his long fingers wove plaits through her hair that gradually unravelled without ribbons to keep them in place. They hadn't spoken about the maps he had unpinned from the billiard table, nor the leather knapsack that waited, packed and ready, next to the door. He only hummed a low tune beside her ear, his glass of wine discarded as if he wanted nothing to cloud this moment in his mind.

Diane untangled herself from Solen's limbs and went to sit on a tufted stool, the golden harp standing silent before her until she brushed her fingertips across its strings. It was the sweetest, most sorrowful sound Ada had ever heard, like honey rain falling from the heavens. In seconds, Diane had caught up with Raeph's song, playing the notes by heart.

Ada was just wondering if it was a known lullaby when a gentle voice joined with words of wind and salt and magic. Lark was curled in an armchair, eyes closed and arms tucked against his chest, but he sang as clear as the ringing of bells. The tune became quicker, and soon, Min was twirling around the room. She snatched up Ada and Solen's hands and they spun together in a ring, their laughter only seeming to add to the wild spirit of Lark's song.

Ada danced until her head was reeling and Raeph's arms were wrapped around her waist to keep her steady. She felt his hot breath against her neck and turned to find his lips, warm and waiting. Their friends played on and the song seemed it would never end so long as the kiss continued. Ada trembled and looked up to see Raeph's eyes, deep and dark and endless in the moonlight, and she knew that the time had come for her to return home.