Chapter 21

L ily's unspoken outrage lasted right through the time it took Ember to have a warm bath and get changed into a fresh outfit.

"I apologise," Ember said, when Lily had finally tweaked the last lock of hair into place. "I should have called you, like you said. I was just fed up, I guess."

"You also insulted one of the prince's mistresses and she threw you off a waterfall," Lily said. "And then you nearly died after being attacked by a scylla."

A thought struck Ember, and she said, "Does my behaviour reflect on you?"

To her chagrin, Lily, tight-lipped, nodded. "They'll say I'm not looking after you properly."

"And I'll say you are! Besides, I suppose I'm one of the prince's mistresses now too, so that must mean something."

She bent and called to her puppy, which she'd decided might as well be Rufus, and when he darted to her, wagging his little mop of a tail, she buried her face in his soft fur. "I really am sorry, Lily. I'll tell the prince it was my fault. If he asks," she added. After what Ashe had told her, she was unsure whether Cole would care.

She played with Rufus for a time, and after he fell asleep in his basket, leaned on her elbows at the windowsill, gazing over the twilight gardens. She would do some painting, she decided. Her nerves still jangled from the events of the day, and she longed to lose herself in the simple art of creation.

Lily accompanied her to the forest and when they got there, she asked a servant for her easel to be set up by Alena's pool of water, thinking that the surface ripples and reflections and silver light might prove to be a wonderful source of inspiration. On impulse, she asked for another easel for Lily. Lily protested, but Ember encouraged her to choose a brush and start painting.

"Just paint anything," she said. "You can splash it, smear it, make fingerprints, anything."

The brush dangled from Lily's fingers as she considered the canvas, and then she shook her head. "I cannot." She didn't sound sad or frustrated. She just said it. "It's not possible for me."

Ember frowned, unsure of what to say. "It might bore you, just standing around watching me paint." She didn't like to point out that she would feel uncomfortable having Lily stand over her shoulder while she worked, but Lily seemed to understand what she was getting at. After extracting a solemn promise that Ember would call if anything happened, she wandered off and Ember got to work.

The waterfall that slowly appeared on her canvas was what she remembered of the Falls, but without it in front of her, she couldn't hope to replicate it. She thought she might have the essence of it though, a tumbling column wreathed in rainbows and mist, crashing into a silver pool below. There was none of the fear as she had fallen along its length, just a sense of grandeur and wonder. Perhaps this was therapy, she mused. Feel the fear and paint it away.

She lost herself in her work, intent on making the water look as real as possible, when a violent stirring in the pool startled her. Up popped a green scaly head, which resolved itself into the figure of Alena. She stepped up onto the bank, shaking the last drops of water from her dress. Ember wondered if the cosy grandmotherly form was a glamour put on strictly for her benefit, and she was grateful. She couldn't chat idly with a lizard as tall as she was.

Alena studied the picture closely, eyes narrowed. "It reminds me of something, but I can't think what." She gestured, and the water jerked into motion, tumbling down the rocks. "That's better. It's the Falls, isn't it?" but at Ember's strained expression, returned the painting to its static self and added somewhat tartly, "If you don't like the glamour, then why do you wear one?"

Ember glanced down at her skirts, momentarily forgetting she had already changed out of the ones that Ashe had conjured for her. But had those not been real? Had she been walking around in just her underwear without knowing it? She'd passed a good few fae as she'd returned to the castle from the Falls, but they'd all avoided her as usual. None had smirked or whispered behind their hands, and besides, Lily would have said something.

"Not your dress, dear," Alena said. "That thing around your neck."

Ember's hand flew up to her gold and diamond necklace. She remembered how its appearance had wavered and changed in her bathroom mirror, but it remained reassuringly cold and unyielding under her fingers, like smooth metal, not leather. She tried to unfasten it at the back but couldn't manage it, and eventually Alena removed it from her neck with one careless crook of her finger.

It tumbled through the air and landed on the mossy grass, diamonds winking in the light. But then it flickered, transforming into a collar, like one a dog would wear, of black leather studded with flat beads of silver. She blinked, and it became a bejewelled chain of gold again, but the leather still showed underneath, as if the gold were merely painted over the top.

"Very good," said Alena, with approval. "Humans can't usually unsee a glamour."

"It was a present," Ember said, a bitter twist to her mouth. "I thought it was diamonds. I've never had a diamond anything before."

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Alena. "Diamonds are as plentiful as dust. Can't humans make them in laboratories? A diamond's only value is its marketing campaign."

Ember let out a surprised chuckle. What on earth would Alena know about laboratories and marketing campaigns? But her fleeting amusement didn't lessen her confusion. Cole had given her a collar as a gift. Why? Because he considered her a pet? A little dog to keep amused with toys and attention?

Alena watched the play of emotions across her face. "Cheer up. Look. I'll give you a much better present. What do you think of this?"

She made a pass in the air, and a paintbrush appeared in her hand. She handed it to Ember. It was surprisingly heavy, and the bristles were soft and full.

"Fallen baby centaur eyelashes," said Alena, watching Ember stroke the bristles. "Full of magic. Now you can make your own glamours."

Ember gasped, her eyes widening. "Seriously?"

"Try it!" Alena urged. "Run it along your waterfall."

Ember did so and gave a cry of delight as the water flowed down into the pools below. She swept the brush the other way and smiled, delighted, as the water changed direction and ran up the cliff face. "Can I glamour something else?"

She bent to the grass and carefully painted a stylised daisy, and there it was, in the peacock colours she had imagined, growing from the earth as though it had sprung from a tiny seed. She stepped back and admired her work. "Can you see that?"

"Yes," said Alena, unimpressed. "If you glamour it, you can decide who will see it as real."

"Thank you." Ember was deeply touched. "I think this is the nicest present I've ever had."

It was true. Ember hadn't had many presents in her life. She admired the brush a little longer and then placed it carefully in her pocket, not wanting to get it mixed up with her normal paint brushes.

"Alena," she said, changing the subject. "Someone told me that Earth is getting warmer because the kingdom hasn't yet chosen a Sword. Is that true?"

"All the kingdoms play a part in Earth's fortunes. If there is strife in the Kingdom of Skies, expect cyclones and storms on Earth. The Seeds spread pestilence and disease; the Sands pollute Earth's atmosphere. The Stones influence your politics and governance."

"And what about the Shields?" said Ember, thinking of the fallen column at the heart of the forest. She felt instinctively that its presence was vital to the fae, although she couldn't articulate why or how. Just as she had painted their column as complete, the kingdoms seemed incomplete without it.

"The Shields are aligned to human progress," Alena replied. "When the Shields fell, human enlightenment came to a halt."

Ember frowned. "What do you mean? We progress. Stuff gets invented all the time. Computers and apps and things."

"Progress of the human spirit. Prejudice, phobias, hatred. All grow unchecked without the Shields' protection."

"Oh. That's not good. For us … and for you."

"The Swords instigated it. The Swords finished it. Step wisely, little one." Alena toed the necklace with a graceful foot shod in shimmering green. "You'd best put that on again, before they discover you've seen through their trick."

Wearing the necklace was the last thing Ember wanted to do, but she complied, fastening the catch with begrudging fingers. Although the necklace hadn't changed in size, it felt too snug. She swallowed, resenting its press against her throat.

"This place isn't safe for you," Alena warned, dissolving molecule by molecule. "But come and visit me again… if you don't die."