Kingdoms Rise

Thirteen

It had been a week since they sent the letter, and they hadn't heard from Brennan. Mae was getting restless. She paced her rooms most days until dinner, which she began joining the rest where they dined. It was a nice distraction, however short.

But the dinners were not enough to take her mind off the threat that hung over her head.

She now found herself wandering through the halls of the castle once again. She wanted to go to the library and help look for any indication of where Sicilia might be.

Sitting and pacing around her room had done nothing to calm her, but maybe this task could to something to take the edge off a little. And this walk was not helping her. Her mind kept wandering back to the things that haunted her; the monsters that prowled in their soulless gaits; the knowledge that she didn't know where her parents were; the fact that the Brennan had Tegan and there was nothing she could do.

It frustrated her beyond belief that Brennan hadn't replied to their letter. Her mind came up with a lot of things he could be doing, and none of them were good.

The servants bustled past her as they went to wherever they were needed. Their padding footsteps created a steady beat for Mae to focus on, adjusting to her new Fae hearing by listening for the number of footfalls around her. She had guessed there were five based on what she heard, when she counted the servants she found that there were seven. She was close, but she wasn't used to distinguishing so many sounds from one another. She'd have to keep practicing.

She got turned around in the mass of halls and rooms.

Eventually, she found her way to the library. The doors opened silently as she pushed on them. Fallon sat at a long table surrounded other empty ones. He didn't notice her as she approached. Or so she thought.

"You don't have to stalk around the room, I heard you coming down the hall," he said without looking from the book he was reading.

She flushed deeply. "I came to help you read through the books.

He swept an arm at the books beside him, "Help yourself."

He still didn't look at her as she grabbed a few of the books from the pile and took a seat across from him. She groaned as she sat, sore from her training this morning—an outlet for her anger but not a distraction.

"Training getting to you?" Fallon had looked up from his book and smiled devilishly at her.

"I've never trained like this before. Vesta knows how to kill slowly, doesn't she?"

"My sister does like to push people to their limits," he laughed.

"Sister?" Mae asked in disbelief.

"You can't tell?" He didn't laugh, but the amusement was still there.

Now that Mae looked more closely she could see the resemblance; the same cheekbones; the same pert nose, hers more so than his; the eyes were different colors but the same almond shape; the same hair—thick and black.

"Huh, I guess I never looked too closely." She glanced over the paper that sat beside him. It wasn't a paper but a map, a map of Tilanyth. She hadn't seen a map of Tilanyth since she was a girl.

Fallon noticed her staring at the map and began, "I believe that Sicilia is somewhere in Asonia. Narrowing down her possible location is the hard part."