“More than two dozen perished fighting the alien, Ashure,” Nali gently chided.
Ashure’s expression was instantly contrite. “Sorry, I still remember them suspending me—never mind,” he muttered.
Nali looked at Asahi and gave him a slight grin. “Ashure upset a group of goblins once. They might have put him in a cage and hung him over the cliffs,” she explained.
Ashure picked up a piece of fruit and waved it at Nali. “There was no ‘might have’—the beastly, dirty creatures not only did it, they made sure it was placed at the entrance to the harbor so that every arriving ship saw me hanging out like a piece of laundry to dry in the wind,” he growled.
“If I remember correctly, there was no clothing involved. They left him as bare as the day he was born. You shouldn’t have argued with them,” she said with a shake of her head and another grin before looking down at the map again. “The alien came out here from the tunnels and headed in this direction.”
Asahi followed the direction she was tracing with her finger, and focused on a mountain, the top obscured by clouds.
“What’s here?” he asked.
“A very special place. It isn’t on ordinary maps,” she confessed.
“Well, the alien appears to be heading in that direction. What’s so special about it? Is it possible that the alien could know something about it?” Asahi pressed.
“I don’t know how it could. Few of the locals are even aware of it,” she said, looking at Ashure again.
“There is Fairy magic protecting it,” Ashure added.
“Yes, and my own. Only those true of heart can scale the mountain, and even then, there is no guarantee they will survive,” she explained.
“You still have not told me what is there,” Asahi calmly pointed out.
Nali sighed and ran her finger over the cloud cover on the mountain. “Unicorns,” she murmured.
Asahi blinked, frowned, and shook his head. “Did you say—unicorns?” he asked.
Ashure nodded and grinned. “Yes, unicorns—with a very playful sense of humor,” he confirmed.
“Unicorns?” Asahi repeated with a skeptical look at the map.
“Unicorns,” Nali and Ashure confirmed at the same time.
The four of them left the village an hour after sunrise. Nali, Ashure, and Asahi planned to search for signs of the alien at ground level while Pai flew overhead. After a brief discussion, they had decided to follow a winding road that passed through the valley and mountains.
Reese had provided a transport powered by one of the Thunderbird feathers. Ashure took the wheel before Nali could get to the driver’s seat. She silently chuckled at the excitement on Ashure’s face. When it came to anything of Nali’s that could move fast—be it this electric transport, one of the many airships, or her fire-breathing horses—he wanted to try it.
The vehicle had a convertible top. It hovered two feet off the ground and could easily pass over most obstacles. Asahi stored his duffle bag in the aft storage area. Nali added Pai’s smaller sack before she walked around and slid into the passenger seat. Asahi sat in the seat behind Ashure. Pai set off into the air.
“I talked to Reese while you were retrieving our belongings,” Nali said as she twisted in her seat and faced Ashure and Asahi. “He has set up extra security with multiple teams to keep an eye out for the alien. If the alien stays on the course we suspect it is traveling, we can move ahead of it and make sure the residents have ample warning to evacuate.”
“I hope they will be safe,” Ashure replied. “Ross Galloway, a human from your realm, said the alien inhabited spiders on the Isle of the Elementals. I would rather not have to deal with what it could achieve with some of the unique insects, arachnids, or reptiles on this Isle,” Ashure muttered.
Nali’s expression darkened at the looming threat to her monsters, but she quickly schooled her features and changed the subject. “Ashure and I were discussing the reason his mirror worked without triggering the alien compared to the Goddess’s Mirror,” she said.
“What was your conclusion?” Asahi asked.
“His mirror uses a magic spell, whereas mine—mine comes from the Goddess herself,” she softly replied.
“So perhaps there is a connection between the Goddess and the alien. This Goddess—has anyone ever seen her in person? Has anyone ever seen what she looks like?” he asked.
Ashure glanced uneasily at Nali before looking back at the road in front of them. Nali knew he was mulling something over, and she waited for him to speak. After a moment, he breathed a lengthy sigh.
Nali had a feeling that she knew what he was about to share. Neither he nor Tonya had fully explained what had happened when Tonya lay on the brink of death—mortally wounded by Bleu LaBluff. He had been Ashure’s right-hand man until Bleu betrayed him. Nali knew the experience had been very traumatic for her dear friend and had never pressed him for details. In the end, the how wasn’t important. What mattered the most was that Tonya had survived.
“Tonya described the Goddess who saved her. She looked—yes, she looked like the entities in the caverns,” Ashure soberly replied.
“Then it would appear,” Asahi said grimly, “that it was your Goddess that the alien consumed. If not your exact Goddess, then one of her species—and now it can access objects created with your Goddess’s power.”
Nali nodded and remained silent as they continued along the road. She stared ahead and absently caressed the silver mirror that Ashure had handed to her earlier while the men continued to talk.
Turning the mirror over, she studied the old willow tree and the fairies. Her fingers trembled when she saw something that she had missed before. Partially obscured by the hanging branches of the willow was the figure of a woman. Nestled
