Page 149 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Caer raised a shaking hand. “I would really like to know about Aislinn’s stuffed horse,” he said, “but I would also like to know: what on Earth is going on here?”
“I was in the vines,” Dillon explained. “I was there, I was part of them, and I wasn’t alone.”
Silence followed, punctuated only by the steady drip-drip of the water. The cat meowed from the rocks.
“The vines,” said Aislinn eventually.
“Yes.”
“You were… in them?”
“Yes.”
Beau pursed his lips. “Most people think the vines hold the soul of Titania, the First Queen,” he said. “Or a part of it. What if it’s more than that?”
“You think that every soul in Faerie—”
Beau shook his head. “No,” he said. “Maybe noteveryone. But what did Father say he buried Dillon in?”
Aislinn’s eyes widened. “Thevines,” she said. “They didn’t just preserve your body, they preserved your soul, and when Caer’s magic woke your body, it joined you back together.” She clapped her hands to her mouth. “You were truly there? The whole time?”
He nodded.
Her eyes gleamed. “I’d hug you, but I’m a bit naked right now.”
Dillon suddenly realised that they werealla bit naked right now. The water covered everyone up to the chest, but that was still… a lot of naked bodies in fairly close proximity.
And Luna’s.
He was very grateful he was no longer capable of blushing, even if that also meant he was incapable of other, considerably more fun things that required a rush of blood.
“I had a dream like this once,” said Beau, who, unlike the others, was making no attempt to hide himself beneath the water. “My sister wasn’t in it, though.”
Aislinn’s lip wrinkled. “Beau?”
“Yes?”
“Stop talking.”
“Right. Yes. Very good.”
Minerva coughed. “I think this is probably a good time to return to our pools and get dressed again. Are we in agreement?”
Their sojourn in the hot springs cut short, Minerva insisted they fit in a few more hours of travelling, and they set off once again before setting up camp in a small, easily defensible cavern. They had long since run out of settlements and houses, and Aislinn could not shake the feeling that they were very, very deep indeed.
She kept glancing over at Dillon as they sat around the campfire. He seemed to have recovered from whatever had overtaken him in the pools, but the revelation that Dillon had been in the vines, watching their lives for their entire childhoods, was bewildering to say the least.
No wonder she’d felt drawn to him. It was more than her parents’ stories. It was the feeling of familiarity and home that his presence brought. She’d always been connected to the vines. Of course she was connected to him.
Something crept into the entrance of the cave. Aislinn stiffened, but paused when she beheld the creature—a small, round, tubby thing with large amber eyes and a mane of firelight. It looked like a bear cub dipped in flames.
She whispered for the others.
“Lava lion!” cried Luna, clapping her hands in glee. “Oh my, it’sso cute!”
“Is it dangerous?” Aislinn asked.
“Completely benign,” Bell reported. “Usually very friendly, too. Come here, little fellow. Have a gnaw on this bone.”
