Page 32 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Ais shrugged. He supposed they’d both seen stranger things. Still, here in the mortal world—
He shook his thoughts away, pressing his hands to Aislinn’s middle. She braced her hands against his shoulders, letting out a seething sigh as his magic slipped into her muscles and skin, knitting flesh back together until only shiny pink marks remained. They’d fade within the week.
Her companion’s eyes widened.
Aislinn inhaled, pulling down her shirt, and leapt up on the ledge, spritely as ever. Beau followed.
“This is Prince Caerwyn,” she explained, gesturing to her companion. “Caerwyn, this is my brother Beau.”
Beau blinked at Caerwyn. He had not been expecting someone so… well formed. “Oh my, you’re very pretty.”
Caerwyn blinked back. “Um, thank you?”
“He is not very—” Aislinn started, only the rest of the words got stuck in her mouth.
Beau beamed. “You’re trying to say he’s not pretty, and you can’t, can you?”
“Do be quiet, Beau.”
“Ha!”
“I hate you.”
“You should come with us,” Caerwyn said, cheeks tinged faintly with red. He pointed along the ledge, which Beau now saw led behind the waterfall, leading under the rock. Clever.
“Sure,” said Beau. “Wait—my horse. My cat!”
“You brought a cat with you?” Caerwyn asked, as Beau clambered back across the river to grab his mount’s reins. Hecate was already sitting on the saddle, cleaning her paws.
“I think so,” Beau remarked, dragging the horse across the river. “I’m not entirely sure.”
“That’s definitely a cat.”
“Is it?”
Beau tugged the horse onto the low part of the bank and pulled her up the path. She required lots of coaxing to get her through the cave, but Caerwyn took to the other side of her, whispering in her ear.
The tunnel under the waterfall quickly opened up to reveal a cottage nestled at the foot of a cliff, together with several outbuildings—a mill, a forge, a stable, a cowshed—all neatly spaced out beneath the shadow of the mountains.
“Ingenious,” said Beau, noting how the buildings merged with the wilderness, how they’d used the river to their advantage, how everything was planned and packed. “Really, quite lovely.”
“Hey, Beau?”
“Yes, sister dearest?”
“Thank you. For coming to get me.”
He shrugged. “You’d do the same for me.”
“True. I would have been quicker.”
Caerwyn tugged the horse away to the stable, letting out a low whistle to alert others of their presence. Within seconds, it seemed, half a dozen dwarfish faces had appeared out of nowhere.
“And who might this be?” said a steely-faced dwarf with a metal arm.
“This is my little brother Beau,” Aislinn explained. “I wish I could say he was an idiot, but he’s actually annoyingly smart. Also, he can lie, so watch out for that.”
“Icanlie,” Beau said, grinning, “but I don’t usually.”
