Page 56 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
He came to stand in front of me, adjusting his glasses and smoothing the wrinkles out of his pants. Then he stuck out his hand. “It was wonderful to finally meet you, Maila.”
I accepted his hand, and he clasped his other over top of it.
“It took a lot of bravery to come here,” he said. “And it will take a lot of bravery to return.”
His words contained more than one meaning, and we both knew it.
“It was wonderful to meet you, too,” I replied. There was so much more I wanted to say, but the words stuck in my throat.
As if he could sense the emotion that was rising in me, George patted my hand. Like he was assuring me that he had seen it all, lived it all, and that everything would be okay somehow. Then he leaned in, so only I could hear.
“I do see what would make a bookworm from Cyllene so brave.”
I could feel my eyes narrow slightly as I tried to grasp his meaning.
“Being kicked out of the city by The Council is one thing. But we should all be so lucky to have a dashing young man steal us from our bed in the night.”
I followed his appreciative gaze to where Kieran stood. It was an effort to hide my smile.
“Be safe,” George said finally, stepping back to the others.
“I will.”
Finally, I turned to Nya. “I’m ready,” I said. Even though, inexplicably, it felt like my heart was breaking.
We headed back toward Cyllene the same way we had come, and we walked mostly in silence. Reality was lurking on the horizon, about to come crashing down, breaking the spell of this trip. And maybe breaking me, in general, if anyone had realized I was gone. The realer it all felt, the more I began to wonder which was the worse decision—leaving Cyllene in the first place or returning there now. At one point, I had the overwhelming urge to beg Nya not to take me back. But I stifled it and continued putting one foot in front of the other.
Nya’s subdued demeanor, on the other hand, seemed to be because her heart was heavy. Her thoughts were still with the family from this afternoon.
As for Kieran…I still didn’t understand why he was being so standoffish. Multiple times, I gathered the courage to say something to him. But each time I opened my mouth, the fear of his reaction kept me silent. I decided it was better not to know what he was thinking, than to have him confirm something I didn’t want to hear.
When we were halfway across the field that led to the walls, Nya twisted her backpack around so she could dig in the front pocket. She pulled out a glass vial filled with some sort of dark liquid. With the skies cloudy and starless, I couldn’t make out the color of it.
“This is for when we cross the wall,” she said. “And the trip through the city.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a potion. Before you ask, yes, it employs magic. It will make you drowsy and relaxed.” She tilted it back and forth, watching the liquid slosh around. “I know last time was rough for you, and we’re not going to have the option to stop and let you puke your guts out this time. We have to be quiet. And more importantly, we have to be quick.”
She wordlessly handed me the vial.
Maybe I should have been more hesitant. But she had trusted me not to poison her that time—it felt like ages ago now—when I offered her dinner, and I owed her that same trust. Not to mention that she had already had just about every opportunity under the sun to kill me, if that’s what she had wanted.
I popped the cork and downed the contents in two sips. To my surprise, it was tasteless.
When I was finished, I handed the empty vial back to Nya to stow away, then glanced at Kieran. His face was unreadable.
“Where do you all get this stuff?” I asked. I kept waiting for my throat to burn or my stomach to gurgle. Something to indicate that I had just ingested a magic potion. But it was no different than if I had sipped water.
“Sigrid,” Nya responded. “She’s an enchantress who took pity on us years ago and decided to join us. We would be lost without her.”
My mouth fell open. “You actually have an enchantress who lives with you all? In Ersa Estates?”
“We do.” Nya sounded uneasy. As if she already knew what I was going to ask next. “We would’ve taken you to see her, but she’s wary of strangers.”
I nearly laughed aloud at the irony in her words. But something told me it wasn’t just strangers in general, but me specifically that their enchantress didn’t want to meet. And that was deeply disappointing.
The Strangers had been so welcoming overall, I couldn’t believe it had never occurred to me that some of them may have purposely kept their distance during my visit. Why would everyone be so quick to trust a woman from Cyllene?
