The lights of the palace of Telmirra loomed ahead through the dark woods. I recalled how Hollin had described this place to me so long ago-an attractive city with gardens but no gas or electricity or other modern amenities.
Telmirra, in fact, hardly seemed like a city, surrounded by miles of woodland. I assumed the residential and shopping districts were removed from the palace so the nobles could have forest to roam in, but it gave it the feel of a storybook castle one might stumble across, except that it wasn’t stone like a storybook castle, but wood. Elegant silhouettes of spires and neatly stacked stories were dark against the moon, but golden light shone through windows.
Five of the Green Hoods had accompanied us, including Keyelle and Esmon. We stayed off the paths, and when we heard horses pounding nearer, we crouched behind brush. A rider on a lovely white horse, much like the one the jinn had ridden, was heading the way we had come, followed by four more men. They carried magic lanterns, casting a soft light that caught the fair flax and copper tones of their hair but did not reach us. I hunched still lower.
“That’s Prince Tamin,” Esmon whispered. “They must be coming for Calden. I hope he’s had enough time to put distance between them. That means we have to hurry.”
“Do we have enough time?” Keyelle’s eyes gleamed wide in the moonlight.
“Yes, yes, let’s just go,” I said. I could hardly bear looking at the palace where Erris had grown up, knowing I might be so close to finding him. I crept forward, and the Green Hoods moved with me.
We hovered at the edge of the woods, taking stock of the situation. A guard roamed the side of the building, and perhaps more looked from the darker windows-we had no way of knowing. The guard paced, occasionally glancing up at the moon.
“How do we get past him?” I asked.
“A diversion?” Annalie said.
“Nothing that will attract too much attention,” Keyelle said.
“King Belin invited people from all over the realm to this feast,” Esmon said. “Do you think we could just pretend to be late-comers?”
“Not the way we look!” Keyelle said. “Glamours?”
Esmon shook his head. “No, they’ll be trained to see through them, or what sort of guards would they be?”
“I could divert him with my spirits,” Annalie said. “Diverting one man is easy. If there are more guards watching from the windows, then I can only give you that long. But I might be left behind, and I won’t be able to help you find Erris.”
I shut my eyes a moment, almost in prayer-begging my magic to become a beacon to Erris. Familiar frustration crawled over me-that I had to study magic on my own, that I had no teacher and few books, that even if I wanted to learn magic in a proper way I would be forbidden from practicing. I had to grope and claw my way through each technique, learning more often from desperation than proper instruction.
The first spell I had ever done had come with my breath. I had learned to move and summon heat and fire, even to warm Erris. I could so imagine how it felt to share my own warmth with him, the warmth of my life. I had touched him then. If only I could connect with him now.
If our hopes proved right, he was alive here. He would have his own warmth and life. Could I feel it? Could I find it?
“Nimira?” Annalie said. “Are you all right? What do you think?”
“I can’t feel him,” I said, feeling as frustrated and angry as the first day I tried to move flame. I kept thinking how the jinn had tracked Erris, and how jinn magic was supposed to come from fire. Of course, he was a jinn, and magic came easily to him, but it maddened me, how my own powers didn’t come to me.
The jinn. I had felt his magic once. Could I draw from it? Even if I could just sense him, maybe he would know where Erris was. It was terrifically risky, considering he was the same person we had come to fear, but I needed to take some action. I didn’t want to die, but we were here. Something had to be done.
I closed my eyes again, inhaled and exhaled, and reached for Ifra.