Page 60 of The Mirror and the Curse

Eddi’s heart gave a bound, her relief was so profound. “Yes! Is he your friend?”

“Sure!” Then a frown. “Well, not exactly afriend—I should be so lucky. I mean, I know his cousins. Our families are mostly friendly, and I know Kai rides a fterotó around.” She took a step back toward the hole-pocked cliffside and beckoned to Eddi. “Olis must be wondering what’s keeping me. C’mon. Somebody will come to rescue you, but you might as well have tea while you wait. Do you like macarons?”

Eddi barely kept her jaw from dropping. “I do. Very much.”

“I got some just for the occasion.” She chuckled gruffly. “Some of our neighbors look human enough to sneak into stores at night and purchase sweets, but baked goods are a special treat—harder to come by.”

Eddi took a step toward her, then wondered if this might be foolish. Could this friendly but very ugly girl be enspelling her? Luring her into her lair with the promise of macarons? “I . . . um . . . I appreciate your gracious offer, but I really should stay in the open until help comes. I shot off my flare gun just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh. Well, that’s no problem.” The pasty-faced girl motioned with one thick-fingered hand, and a stone table appeared on a level spot just down the hill from Eddi’s boulder, laid for tea and complete with a plate of colorful macarons. Chairs immediately joined it, along with a girl who opened her mouth and emitted a piercing squeal that made Eddi grateful she hadn’t removed her helmet.

“Sorry, Olis. Guess I should have given you warning. This human girl is stranded here, so I thought we could share our tea with her. This is—” She broke off and gave Eddi an inquiring look. “I’ve got the worst manners anywhere. Forgot to introduce myself! I’m Xiretta, and this is my good friend, Olis, who is very shy.”

Olis stared, her face rather unusual looking but pretty and framed by a straight, thick mane of golden hair. Something else about the girl seemed odd, but Xiretta distracted Eddi by asking, “What’s your name?”

“Eddi. Pleased to meet you, Xiretta and Olis.”

“I thought Eddi was a boy’s name,” Xiretta stated in her blunt way.

“Yeah, I hear that a lot. It’s short for Edurne, which means ‘snow’ in my native language.”

Xiretta nodded. “Your flight suit is white as snow. I think you’d be safe to take off your helmet. We’re not that high up. By the way, Olis doesn’t speak Common Tongue much at all, but she’s still good company.”

Eddi smiled at Olis, then squinted at her a little as she followed Xiretta to the table, sneaking glances instead of staring. Were thosehorse hoovesunder the . . .? Comprehension struck her like a slap. Olis was a centaur. A girl one. She wore a tee shirt and jacket on her human torso, but the rest of her reclined on the ground, legs folded to one side. A golden tail that matched her mane flicked away a fly.

“You sit here, across from Olis, and I’ll sit next to you. Do you like green tea? I prefer black, but Olis likes green things to eat. And orange things, like carrots. And apples are red, but we’re not allowed to visit the magic meadow too often. Have you been there?”

“Yes, once. Kai took me.”

Xiretta’s expression softened. “You’re so lucky! Poor Toressa would probably cry if she clapped eyes on you.”

“Toressa Warmane? You know her?” Eddi asked without thinking.

“Do you?” Xiretta asked in surprise.

“No, but Tea mentioned her once.”

Xiretta sighed and rolled her eyes. “Tea and Fringa—that’s Toressa’s mother—are distant cousins, and they made plans for their babies to marry someday. Toressa can’t let the idea go, poor kid. Not that I blame her. Half the humanoid females in these mountains have crushes on Kai.” She raised one hairless eyebrow with a speculative grin. “And maybe one genuine human . . .”

Was it that obvious? Eddi did her best to conceal her reaction to the teasing, but Xiretta was too busy filling three plates to notice anyway. Mostly Eddi felt relieved that Kai didn’t have a girlfriend on the side. Which was dreadfully selfish of her, but just then she didn’t care.

The cheery hostess babbled on in this way for some minutes while Eddi’s mind wrapped around the reality of sitting down to tea with a centaur and a . . . something magical. A troll? A hag? Xiretta wasn’t a dwarf, for sure; she was taller than Eddi. She didn’t seem evil; the cinder sprites liked her, and they were supposed to be good little creatures.

“So tell me,” Xiretta said while pouring tea into a chunky cup made of some faceted stone. “What exactly do you do at Faraway Castle?” Before Eddi could answer, she handed over the heavy teacup. “Don’t worry, it’s magicked to stay warm. Lots of humans visit the place, we hear, but none of us are quite sure what the attraction is. Anyone can see mountains and lakes and all without paying an arm and a leg. What’s so special about it?”

Eddi found herself at a loss when she tried to put the resort’s appeal and worth into words. To stall for time, she removed her helmet and gloves—Xiretta was right, the atmosphere was thin but adequate—and then nibbled at a macaron. “It, um, it’s a place for a bunch of people to be together and play games and have parties and eat great food and just . . . relax for a while. I’ve met most of my best friends in the world at Faraway Castle. When we’re here, we can just be ourselves.”

“Who else would you be?” Xiretta asked with genuine curiosity.

“No, I mean, we can act normally and not put on airs because someone might be watching.”

Both Xiretta and Olis blinked, their expressions uncomprehending. “How do you put on airs?” Xiretta asked. “Like a coat? I guess hot air would be cozy on a winter night, and maybe a cool breeze on a hot summer day. Human magic sounds amazing!”

It was Eddi’s turn to stare and blink. Uncomfortable, she flipped her braid back over her shoulder and dragged both hands over her cold cheeks. “That’s not . . . I mean, ‘putting on airs’ is just an expression. It means trying to behave like someone important.”

“I always thought people who visit the resortareimportant.”

Eddi’s forehead wrinkled. “Well, yes, most are. They’re royalty or nobility—kings and princesses and dukes and suchlike. Or else billionaires or actresses—famous people who need a place where they can go without being hounded by media people. They can come to Faraway Castle and just be . . . people.”

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