Shadow's master

“She's gone, Caim. She went north to investigate some problems we've been having on the border, but I suspect she really went to find you. You've not seen or heard from her?”

“No. But I've been…moving around. Did she intend to go as far as Eregoth?”

Hubert shuffled through a pile of papers. “Her last letter was sent from a village just south of the Wyrkan River.”

The interior door opened, and a young woman appeared, a candle in her hand. Her long, blonde hair fell over the front of her long nightdress. “Who is it, Bert?”

“It's all right, Ana.” Hubert went over to her. “Just catching up with an old friend. Go back to sleep.”

But the woman peered around him. “Won't you introduce us?”

Hubert made a strained smile. “Of course. Caim, this is my fiancee, Anastasia Farthington. Ana, this is Caim.”

“The Caim? I've heard a great deal about you, sir. I wish I could say all of it was good.”

“I wouldn't believe it if you had.”

“You're here for Josey,” Anastasia said. “But you're too late.”

“Yes,” Hubert said. “I was just telling him-”

“She's lovesick over you,” Anastasia continued. “Do you know she cried for days after you left? Do you know about the attempts on her life?”

A rush of red-hot rage filled Caim at the thought of someone trying to hurt Josey. “Who was behind it?”

Hubert rubbed his hands together. “A foreign sorcerer and a few locals. They've been taken care of, Caim. Really, it sounds worse than it-”

“Were they working alone?” Caim pressed.

“Well, that seems to be-”

“You're not sure,” Caim said in a lowered voice. He had to stop his hands from reaching for his knives. “And now Josey is off in the north where she could be targeted again, and without even the protection of the palace. Dammit, Hubert. You were supposed to look after her. Not let her go off on some crusade.”

“Josey is the empress of Nimea,” Anastasia said. “She can take care of herself.”

Hubert put a hand on the lady's shoulder. “It's true, Caim. The empress isn't the same girl you took from her foster father's home.”

Hands balled into fists, Caim turned and took a step toward the door. He stopped before he reached the exit. “You'd better hope so, Lord Regent. Because if she comes to harm, I'll hold you responsible.”

Caim created a portal in the hallway. The effort was almost more than he could manage, the pain incredible. As footsteps echoed in the room behind him, he stepped through and let the portal close before they could catch up.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Kit couldn't see through her tears as Caim disappeared through the shadowy gate. She had followed him back to Othir, hoping she was mistaken, but it was plain to her now that the mud-woman still had a hold on him.

Invisible, Kit floated up through the ceiling. It wasn't fair! She had known Caim for most of his life, long before he met the mud-woman. They shared countless memories. She'd tried to show Caim how much she loved him, how special he was to her, but it was clear she couldn't compete with the flesh. Without the ability to touch and hold him, their love was doomed.

The lights of the city glittered below her feet as she emerged from the palace roof. Kit could only think of one place to go. Swallowing her tears, she focused on a place far away, a place between this world and the Other Side. A quiet place. The world tilted around her to the sound of distant chimes.

The lapping of gentle waves greeted her arrival. Kit blinked against the crystalline sunlight washing over the pearl-white sand beneath her toes. Sapphire waters stretched to the hazy horizon. A little house stood farther up the beach on a sward of grass, shaded by a mesicante tree. An old woman wearing a large wicker hat worked in the garden behind the house.

With a hoot of joy, Kit wiped her cheeks dry and ran to the house. When the old woman straightened up from her plants, Kit waved and yelled, “Ealdmoder!”

Kit laughed. The warm sand felt good under her feet. She ran up the path of smooth stepping stones around the side of the little house and stopped before the arbor. The old woman squinted at her, and Kit held her breath until the old woman rushed forward and gathered her in her arms. She was taller, even taller than Caim, but slim as a cypress tree.

“Kitrine, child. I've missed you!” Kit's grandmother held her out at arm's length. “You're even more beautiful than I remember.”

Kit laughed and kissed her grandmother on the cheek. “Not as beautiful as you, Ealdmoder.”

“Come, dear. Let's sit.”

They went around to the back of the house. Nothing had changed. The garden was as immaculate as she remembered, with beds of flowers in every hue-roses, lavenders, chrysanthemums, orchids, lilies, irises, and more. The temperature was neither too hot nor too cold, but exactly right. The breeze was soothing and fragrant with the scent of growing things. It was a perfect day. Too perfect to be real. And it wasn't. Among Kit's people it was common, when they had lived long enough, to retreat to a personal world of their own making, designed in their own ideal of perfection. This was her grandmother's refuge.

Her grandmother pulled her down onto a wooden bench. “You've been away so long, I was beginning to think I would never see my favorite grandchild again. But I can see you've been crying.”

Kit rubbed her eyes with the back of a hand. “I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to go. I was upset and needed someone I could talk to. I thought…”

Her grandmother squeezed her hand. “You are always welcome here, Kitrine. Tell me what is troubling you.”

“It's-” Kit felt guilty all of a sudden. She hadn't bothered to visit since she went to the Brightlands, not once, and now she regretted not being a better granddaughter.

“It's a man,” her grandmother said.

Kit swallowed a sob. “How did you know?”

“Only a man can cause tears like that, child. Which family does he come from? Don't tell me he's lowborn. Your father would never-”

“He's a mortal,” Kit blurted in a rush, and then held her breath, watching her grandmother for a reaction.

The old woman stared at her for several slow heartbeats as the color drained from her face. “Kitrine, tell me you're joking. Child! You haven't changed at all. Oh, I don't know why you ever went to that dirty, drab world. It could only bring you sadness.”

The old woman sat back against the back of the bench, shaking her head. Kit exhaled softly. This was a mistake. I shouldn't have come.

“I'm sorry, Ealdmoder. I'll leave now.”

Her grandmother held onto her wrist. “No, stay. You have already disturbed my kwa. There's nothing to be done for it. But you can tell me about this…man.”

“His name is Caim, and I love him. I think I've loved him since the first time I saw him. But I can't have him because…”

“Because he is human and you are Fae.”

“Yes. I've tried to be…with him, but it's impossible.”

“Oh, my darling Kitrine. You are so young. You have millennia to find your true mate. You'll soon forget this fleeting obsession.”

Kit sobbed. “I love him! He's been my best friend, my only real friend, for so long, I would do anything for him.” She took a deep breath. “Ealdmoder, I want to become human.”

Her grandmother sighed. It was the most awful sound Kit could imagine at that moment, laden with