Page 44 of The Mirror and the Curse

Hadn’t she hoped for exactly this? But the idea of dancing in the gazebo with Fidelio now seemed all wrong.

“Actually, I’m terribly thirsty,” she said in a brisk tone, and hurriedly collected her abandoned costume. “Where’s Raquel?”

He gestured toward the ballroom. “In there somewhere. Eddi, I realize now how stupid I was to accept this costume from her. She didn’t tell me it matched hers. I didn’t invite her to the ball, and we’re not together or anything.” His voice sounded so earnest and worried that Eddi relented a little.

“It really isn’t any of my business.” Recalling his expression when he danced the cha-cha with Raquel, she kept her voice friendly yet cool. “You don’t need to explain your choices to me.”

“But I want you to understand,” he protested. “Eddi, I know we’ll all be wrecks tomorrow after this party, but would you take a walk with me in the gardens in the afternoon? Maybe we could have a picnic lunch. I’ve never solved the maze—actually, I’ve only ever seen it once—and I thought it might be fun to try it. Just you and me.”

His eagerness to make things right between them and the hint of little-boy-lost in his wavering voice somehow took the starch from her spine. “Okay. I guess we could do that.”

Could she solve the maze again without Kammy’s help? Doubtful.

As they crossed the lawn together, Eddi realized her knee was sore. Yet she hadn’t felt any pain while she and Kai were dancing. No pain whatsoever.

Now, even her heart hurt.

Eddi woke early despite a restless night and lay thinking over her options for the day. She really needed a ride. Due to hair appointments and primping for the ball, she hadn’t so much as seen White yesterday. He probably thought she’d abandoned him. Beyond that . . .

Last night, as soon as the prince escorted her into the ballroom, she had limped to the ladies’ room to check her knee, finding a nasty scrape on her shin and a purplish bruise on her puffy knee. A visit to the resort nurse and a supply of ice packs followed.

She now threw off her covers, unwrapped the cold pack, and stuck both legs straight up, pulling her sore knee close enough to study its mosaic of gray and purple. Bending it hurt a bit, but when she cautiously stood up it wasn’t so bad; the toe Fidelio had crushed hurt nearly as much. Nothing serious enough to preclude a morning ride. A walk in the garden that afternoon? That she wasn’t so sure about, for assorted reasons.

After a slow walk down the hill to the stables, she stopped by the tack room and filled out a flight plan. The summer-staff kids generally got an extra two hours of sleep on Sundays, which meant Kai and his parents took up the slack. But the office out front was closed, and she saw only a few kids loading up hay or pushing loads of manure to the dung heap. No sign of the three dwarfs.

But that was no big deal, she told herself. She would track down Kai after her ride.

When Eddi entered the stable and a wave of happy affection greeted her, she nearly burst out crying. Her breakthrough with White at the apple meadow hadn’t been a fluke. Even if everything else in her life went south, she had his love and affection. As soon as she entered his stall, he gave her a horse hug, pressing her close to his shoulder with his head.

“White, you are just . . . the best ever.” While hugging him back, rubbing his ears, and murmuring loving nonsense, she blinked back tears, mostly of happiness. She didn’t have to face the rest of her jumbled emotions just then. She and White would leave it all behind!

The sky was brightening when they took off from a dew-sparkling pasture. With no other guests around, their launch site really didn’t matter. Eddi told herself she didn’t care that Kai hadn’t shown his face. He was undoubtedly busy. They would talk later.

But when her mind revisited their dances in the gazebo, presenting every detail and sensation with lifelike veracity, a kind of terror burned in her belly, and she mentally ducked away.

According to resort rules, she and White couldn’t explore the mountains on their own, so they simply circled Faraway Lake. When White made a banking turn, Eddi could see his bright reflection in the lake’s glassy surface; as he wheeled around the tropical island, she looked for sirens, but the usual sunbathing rocks were empty but for a few birds. When something large broke the surface near the island’s north shore, White’s wings missed a beat, then pounded the air to ascend quickly. Eddi questioned him mentally but received nothing more than urgency and fright.

Not until they flew east along the lake’s north shore did she catch a glimpse of what had frightened him: a long serpentine being rested just beneath the lake’s glassy surface. There could be no mistaking it for a sandbar; even as she watched, a huge, weedy head surfaced briefly, and black nostrils opened to spew vapor and inhale fresh air before the entire creature sank out of sight.

After all these years, Eddi had finally glimpsed the lake monster of Faraway Lake! She tried to share her excitement with White, but the horse shuddered beneath her at mention of the creature. “I’m sorry,” she spoke aloud inside her helmet. “I guess it is pretty frightening, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have harmed us.”

White wasn’t so sure.

“Well, it’ll make a great story to tell our friends! Kai and Flurry had better believe us. White, thank you so much for flying with me this morning. I really needed this to clear my brain.”

Her horse inquired why. Or, at least, she sensed his curiosity. But what could she tell him? When memories of dancing with Kai flashed through her head and heated her cheeks, she realized, too late, that White might sense them.

Sure enough, a strong sense of approval filled her mind even as the horse circled the landing field. He still radiated satisfaction when she left him grazing in one of the pastures, slung his saddle band over her shoulder, and took the scenic route back to the barn. A summer-staff girl working in the main barn addressed Eddi with respect. “Good morning, Your Highness.”

Eddi returned the greeting with a smile. “Good morning! I see the main office is closed still. Can you tell me where to find Kai or Cog this morning?”

“Oh, they all three left the resort for the day—Tea went too, I mean. Visiting family and friends, or something like that. They’ll be back late tonight. Ben and Jeralee took charge of us today, but they don’t know much about horses, so we’re handling things on our own.” She grinned. “Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, no, that’s all right. It can wait until they return. Thanks for the help.” Eddi moved on, feeling an inexplicable pinch of concern while she stored White’s gear in the tack room. Would one of those “friends” be that Toressa girl Tea wanted Kai to like? She couldn’t help remembering how coldly Kai’s mother had looked at her that day, standing right over there by the door.

And in the far corner was the secret entrance to Kai’s room. Somehow she liked knowing that no one except Kai could enter it. “Outa luck, Toressa Warmane!” she muttered.

And then cringed. How juvenile was that? Why did she even remember the dwarf girl’s name? As if it mattered!

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