Priestess

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Mountains slowly replaced the flatlands. Massive mountains. Not bigger than the ones at Bondell, but those were angular mountains covered in pines. These squarish, naked cliffs stretched straight to the sky, stray juniper trees clinging to an outcropping here and there. But what amazed Ara the most was their color: rust.

“Are we here?” she asked as an eagle took flight from his Eyrie and let out a shrill cry.

“The Blood Mountains,” Coen answered nostalgically.

“I can see why they call them that.” They turned up the mouth of a narrow canyon. After the sparseness of before, she was surprised at how green and alive it was.

She followed Coen steadily deeper into the canyon before turning up a smaller ravine. Here, it was too steep and narrow to ride, so the two dismounted and led their mounts up a winding path.

Ara’s legs burned and her breath came short by the time they finally emerged into a hidden alcove. In front of them, a shallow pool gleamed like an emerald between high cliffs. Above the pool, a waterfall, the width of which might have been crossed by a true arrow, trickled and dripped gently.

Beside the falls, Lodan inched around a jutting boulder and then they were behind the water. On the other side, Coen traced a pattern across the stone. Suddenly it shivered and then swung outward.

Ara gaped. A door. So perfectly hidden that she would have walked right by it, never knowing it was there.

“Miners are expert at hiding what they do not wish you to see,” Lodan said.

A Fairone with the same piercing blue eyes as Coen stepped out. Though his features were sharper, almost harsh in their perfection, Ara immediately knew she was looking at Coen’s father. She had the undeniable feeling the he’d worked with the Light for a long, long time.

Unable to stop herself, she closed her eyes and ran a fifth degree Fragment across him. Like his son, Jarrer reminded her of salt water and teeming forests, but it was so much stronger! She felt that if she opened her mouth, sea water might rush in. If she reached out, her fingertips might brush across fat, feathered ferns.

“Coen!” He and Coen grasped forearms. “I hadn’t thought to see you for many a year.” But then he noticed Lodan and his face went slack. He couldn’t seem to look away.

Coen motioned for Ara to approach. “Ara Nightstar, Priestess of the Utheral Unicorns, this is Jarrer of Lourel.”

 What did he called me? But perhaps that’s who I am now—no longer Ara Kendrake’s daughter of the village Bondell. The thought left her feeling sad and resigned all at once.

She turned toward Jarrer, a greeting on her lips. But her words died there. The Fairone’s face had lost all color. Ever so slowly, his gaze left Lodan to rest on her. First, his eyes dissected her face, taking in her star and her build all at once. Then his eyes fell to her cloak.

She looked to Coen for an explanation, but he seemed just as baffled as she. “Father?”

With a deep breath, Jarrer bowed stiffly. “I welcome you, Ara Nightstar.” He turned to Lodan and made the Request sign. “And what is your name, Unicorn?”

“Will you answer for me?” Lodan asked Ara. “I do not wish to Enter, or have my mind Entered, by any but you.”

“Lodan of the Utheral Unicorns,” Ara said.

If Jarrer was offended at the slight, he made no sign. Instead, he gestured for them to enter.

The moment Ara stepped inside, she entered a forest carved from rock. The walls were trees and foliage that stretched back, just like a real forest. Forest animals peered at them from behind trees or nibbled on blades of rock grass.