Page 15 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“Are you… a family?”
Fort snorted, but Luna just smiled sweetly. “Alldwarves are family,” she explained. “It is our way. None of us are blood relatives, though, if that’s what you’re asking, though Bell and Min are married.”
“Can you tell me what you’re doing on the surface?” It was rare to find dwarves in the mortal realm, though she’d heard of it happening. You might find them in parts of Faerie—usually integrated into other small communities, lest the rest of the world forget about them entirely.
“Yes,” said Fort and Luna in the same breath, and then grinned at one another, saying nothing more.
Aislinn thanked her stars that she didn’t have the same burning curiosity that Beau did—the lack of answers would drive him mad.
Beau.
Aislinn could still count the number of times she’d spent a night away from him, other than the two years she’d known before he was born, the years that she didn’t even remember. The longest she’d ever been apart from him was when she’d been hunting that rogue giant with Cassandra—
And, well… that hadn’t worked out.
Her midsection ached. How long would it take him to worry? Or her father. Hawthorn could be a bit…dramaticwhen it came to defending his family. Her mother would probably assume she could handle it, but even then…
“I don’t suppose there’s any way I could get word to Afelcarreg Castle, is there?”
Fort and Luna went quiet for a moment.
“We’d prefer not to let the King know where we are,” said Fort shortly.
“I know you’re probably worried about your family—” Luna offered, voice soft, “but—”
“I wouldn’t tell them about you,” Aislinn added.Not by letter, anyway.“I just need to let them know I’m safe. If I can’t get a letter to them, maybe I could enchant a bird, or something—”
“Have to catch one, first,” said Fort. “But we’ll ask Diana, maybe.”
“Diana?”
“Our hunter. She won’t be too long now.”
Aislinn set her mind to peeling the potatoes, trying not to move her middle too much. Fort and Luna both seemed to understand this, and set themselves down in places where she wouldn’t have to turn. Luna chatted merrily, teaching her a couple of dwarven ditties and giving her a lesson in folding dough. Fort retrieved her weapons for her—clean and newly polished.
“I’ll need your word that you won’t use these against us,” she said.
Aislinn promised. “I won’t use these weapons or any others against you, unless first attacked or under threat of my life, at very least for the duration of my stay here.”
“Fair enough,” said Fort. “Useful, that—the not-lying thing. Makes things easier.”
“And harder. We’re a naturally distrustful bunch.”
Fort shrugged. “Can we make you promise not to take Caer back against his will?”
Aislinn paused. She had given Owen her word, if he was alive, that she would bring him home. There was no time limit on that, but… “I won’t take him back to Afelcarreg against his will,” she said, specific with her words. She could still take him elsewhere—halfway, maybe. Or she could get him to return willingly.
Although why would he want to?
Unless it was to murder his stepfather. She could help him do that, and still uphold her side of the agreement. If he was the rightful king, he might prove a better ally than Owen anyway. At least he hadn’t objected to a woman being armed. Although, when he’d found out she was fae…
The sound of hooves followed by a loud bray came from the outside.
“My horse!” Aislinn tried to stand, but pain spiked through her.
The door opened. In walked Caerwyn, accompanied by the rest of the dwarves. Snapdragon pawed the ground in the yard behind him, tied up to a fence post.
“Princess,” he said, his features tight, “you seem to have lost your horse.”
