CHAPTER SIXTEEN（Untitled）Branikk

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Branikk

Huge slabs of flat granite line the wide riverbank, dotting its surface so it looks as if you could get across by jumping from rock to rock.

On the largest one right in the middle, stands an artifact such as I have never seen. Baskets hang from the rim of a huge circle of a thing, taller than the tallest trees of the surrounding forest. Every surface glows with a riotous mix of the colors of the brightest of flowers, and as it spins, the baskets rise up out of the shade of tree cover to burn even brighter in the evening sunlight. Strange pipe music plays, louder than the sound of rushing water, even though no musicians are in sight. Perhaps they're crammed into the base.

"You got your magic to work!" Excitement wars with pride in my chest. My bride is truly powerful!

"I what?" Grace says, her voice sounding faint.

"By the goddess, what is that infernal thing?" Aurora asks. "And when will it stop making that horrible racket?"

"It's a recording of a calliope," my bride says. "It's supposed to be a happy song."

"I don't care what it's supposed to be." The unicorn's hoof strikes a rock with a resounding crack. "It's an assault on my ears, and I will skewer the person making it if they do not cease."

I slide from her back and lift Grace down, her body pliant as she continues to stare at the contraption with a dazed look on her face.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's a Ferris wheel, and not just any Ferris wheel. It's the exact model as the one I maintain at the carnival." She turns puzzled eyes to me. "How did they get it here? There aren't any roads. There's no sign of the trailers used to haul it."

I'm a magical being. Magic has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, a connection to wood I felt even as a toddler when I made my first decorations on the walls of my family's heart tree cottage.

I can't fathom what it must be like to grow up in a world without magic, how hard it must be to believe in something you've always been told is impossible. Clearly, my bride still struggles with it. I didn't even realize at first that she didn't believe.

"You know what I'm going to say." I offer a small smile as I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. "Magic. Your magic."

She spins back to face the Ferris wheel. "I need to see it close up."

"We can do that." I want to see this thing too, this machine. If my moon bound spent her time working on such as this, I would know it so that I might know her better.

"I'm not getting any closer until you make it stop that racket," Aurora tosses her head. "Besides, there are water nymphs in that river."

The music of my bride's creation drowns out their burbling voices, but now that I pay more attention, I notice their water-foam hands lifting from the frothy rapids to beckon to Aurora. Water nymphs love unicorns, even though the equine fae despise them, perhaps because unicorns despise them. Like many fae, nymphs have a strong mischievous streak.

"Come." I gesture toward one of the wide, flat rocks that extend from the bank. "We can use the rocks to make our way across."

Water pounds into the upstream side of the rock, sending a constant splash of wetness across the top. I stay close by Grace's side, ready to catch her if she slips. Yet I needn't have worried. My bride is strong and good with her body, and her practical human boots give her traction.

The first rock ends several feet short of the next slab of granite. Water boils through the narrow canyon they make, several yards of river condensed to only a few feet of width. Water wets the surface of the other rock, turning it a dark gray that promises slickness.

Grace doesn't hesitate, leaping across and windmilling her arms to keep her balance when she lands.

I follow, quick on her heels, hands braced to catch her.

Nymphs wait for us at the next break in the rocks. Their translucent faces rise out of the surface, their long water hair pouring continuously down the sides of their heads like little waterfalls. They hold effortlessly in place, as if the rushing current means nothing to them, their magic giving them complete freedom of movement in the water. High, burbling voices, playful as a brook skipping over stones, call out to us as they lift entreating hands. "Come play! We'll have such fun today!"

Grace crouches and reaches out to them, allowing their foam-flecked fingers to feather over hers. She turns wide blue eyes up to me. "They're real! I can feel them!"

"Of course they're real," Aurora yells from the bank. "The damned things tickle my stomach every time I have to cross a river!"

This time when my moon bound jumps the gap, a nymph leaps from the surface to wrap a hand around her ankle. "Come play!"

Adrenaline floods my veins. The nymph's intentions might be harmless, but Grace can't fight the river's raging current. She'll be pounded into the rocks and swept downstream.

I lunge, catching Grace around her torso right as she's jerked toward the water. We sail forward, my boots hitting the other rock hard. Only long years of warrior practice allow me to keep my balance.

Once I set her down, Grace whirls to look up at me, her cheeks flushed. "That was incredible."

"Anything to keep you safe."

"Thank you." She scowls down at the nymphs. "I see why Aurora doesn't like them now."

"I don't think they're malicious," I say. "They're simply oblivious to the fact that not everyone can move in the water as they do."

There's a wider gap between this rock and the one that holds the Ferris wheel, and even more nymphs wait for us. It's a wide slab of granite, but there's not a great deal of clear space around the large base of the contraption, and the sides of the large wheel rising above us hang out over the river.

"Hey!" Grace calls out, pointing to where one of the baskets rises up over the water. "Why don't you catch a ride into the air so you can dive off?"

With delighted cries, the mass of nymphs surge toward the place she indicated. As the next basket crests the lip of the rock and rises up over the river, a brave nymph leaps and clings to its bottom. Water covers her body in a continual movement that resembles the flow of a long robe. The great wheel continues up and out, and when it's a good twenty feet above the river, the nymph pushes off, flipping in the air in a perfect dive that strikes the water with barely a splash. The water nymph surfaces, waving a translucent arm and giving a triumphant cry, "It's great fun!"

The nymphs yell with excitement, and two leap up to grab the next basket.

"That worked even better than expected." Grace grins and gestures to the nymph-free gap.

"Your idea is brilliant." I smile back. My bride is a practical problem solver. I love it. "You not only got them out of our way, you did so in a fashion that gives them something fun to do instead of threatening them. You have a kind heart."

"Nah, I'm just used to dealing with kids," she says. "The easiest way to keep them out of trouble is to give them something else to do."

"You're too modest."

Pink flushes her cheeks, and one corner of her lips lifts in a wry smile, even as she glances away. She looks uncomfortable yet pleased, and I would guess she hasn't been praised for her accomplishments nearly enough.

I vow to make up for it. My bride deserves to know exactly how amazing she is.