The Key & the Flame by Claire M. Caterer

Author:Claire M. Caterer [Caterer, Claire M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442457430
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

* * *

The Enemy of the Good Folk

Holly pulled herself up out of the shrub she’d been crouching in. She didn’t feel much like an Adept, with no wand and dependent on temperamental fireflies for help, but at least she was free. The Elemental bobbed ahead of her along the forest path, and more than once Holly thought she could hear the distant barking of dogs. Why didn’t she feel more grateful, instead of low and tired? She’d gotten away, and yet the knowledge that one of the boys was dead—please, let it not be Ben, but how awful, please let it not be Everett, either—gave her a cold, hollow feeling in her chest. She had failed them. Both of them. She wanted nothing more than to sleep.

“ ’Tis not much farther, my lady,” came the fiery creature’s voice through the dark. “Then thee must eat and drink, take rest.”

“I don’t even care about food. Just bed.”

“Nay nay!” The Elemental zoomed back in front of her face, burning very bright. “Her Ladyship needseth food and drink! Eat eat eat! Else she be died!”

“Okay, I’ll eat. Let’s just get there.”

“Follow, my lady! ’Tis not far!” The creature turned and led the way again, this time faster. Holly sighed. Her legs trembled beneath her.

There is a kind of desperate exhaustion that takes over when one is forced to trust strangers in a hostile place. Holly’s limbs ached from the climb down the vine, and any moment she expected to feel the hot breath of hounds on the back of her neck. And she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Even now.

Holly strained her ears against the cricket song in the woods. The knights had been in a hurry; where were the dogs? Then she had a thought.

“Ignata, you’re so small and . . . well, smart . . . ”

“Aye, mistress, truth ye speakest.”

“Maybe . . . I know this is a big favor. . . . But couldn’t you maybe get into the castle and get my wand back for me?”

The little creature turned and stared at Holly, her mouth agape.

“I know it would be dangerous, but that wand, it’s more than just a stick, it’s a key that can get me back where I came from, and—”

“An Elemental touchest not the stick of magic! ’Tis of the Adpets! Apdets! We touches it for only the brieftest of moments or we burn!”

“Okay, okay. It was just an idea.”

Ignata let out a long sigh, then turned around. “Ahead, my lady! We be arrived!”

Holly peered through the trees. The Elemental was heading for a small clearing in the wood. Maybe here at last was a bed.

In this she was disappointed. All she found were a few spindly trees and something that looked like an enormous anthill. It was nearly three feet high, mostly dirt, though grass grew on one side. Nearby were small rings of stones, as might surround a doll’s campfire. The mound had a hole near the bottom on one side, and another in the top, like a chimney.

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