*

  Lily opened her eyes to an unexpected sight. Vetch sat at her bedside, his face lit by bright sunlight streaming through the window. The way it fell across his skin and auburn hair casted him like an oil painting, and made him as beautiful as ever to her. He had shaved, and the familiar ruddiness of his cheeks was returning with his health. The new scars he bore were less conspicuous. She smiled easily.

  Noticing her awake, he smiled in turn and then bent to kiss her forehead. As welcome as that warm touch was, Lily felt a pinch of reservation. Something strangely familiar pressed upon the edge of her mind.

  “Are we home?” she asked.

  Vetch shook his head, causing his hair to fall in his eyes. He brushed it back. “Home? No. You have only been in Slumber for four days. We’re still here.”

  Here. Of course. They were still in the home of Marigold’s nameless friend. Why had she thought they were home? Some lingering dream, perhaps. The gossamer threads of Slumber were lifting from Lily by the moment. The sensation of floating dwindled and her physical form returned to feeling solid. She pushed the bed quilt down and sat up. At the same time, Vetch stood from his chair.

  “I’m sure you’re hungry,” he said. “I’ll go prepare us something. Or ... would you rather I heat some water for the washbasin first?”

  The confusion on his face almost caused Lily to laugh, but it also reminded her of what had struck her as strange upon waking. “Where is Marigold?”

  “Not pleased to wake up to my face instead?” Vetch asked through a wry smile.

  Now, she did laugh. “Of course I am. Though you really must try not to add any more scars to it. No, I’m just surprised. Mari would have sensed I was near waking.”

  Vetch smiled abashedly as he fingered one of the newly healed cuts on his jaw. “She’s been in Slumber, so I took over. Her friend wasn’t pleased about it. Did you know she forbade me from being up here? I may’ve burned through what little goodwill I had left with her, but I insisted on watching over you. I hope you’re alright with that. I mean, back in the forest you asked me, when you needed to Slumber, if I would—”

  Lily nodded quickly. “Of course. I ...” She felt color come to her cheeks. He had watched over her in Marigold’s stead? Lily had almost forgotten she’d asked that of him, back when it was only the two of them, knowing how much they would need to depend on one another. He had not forgotten.

  A beat passed. Again, Vetch favored her with that smile of his. “I’ll bring hot water for the washbasin and then prepare us some food.”

  “Why is Marigold Slumbering?”

  “She ...” He paused a moment. “Actually, I can show you. You can see it from a window in the attic.”

  He indicated for her to follow and slipped out of the room. Lily swung her feet down to the floor and stood. She smoothed her nightgown and then loosed her hair and shook out the wavy tresses. It was only when she went to follow Vetch that she noticed she had on socks. She had been barefoot when she got in bed, and Marigold never put socks on her while she was in Slumber. Had Vetch done this? Had he feared her feet would be chilly? Why did such a simple gesture suddenly make her feel giddy with delight? She giggled to herself.

  At the end of the hallway, past the rooms reserved for sheltering mothers and their newborns, Vetch had set up a short ladder. He preceded her up it through a trap door into the attic. Lily followed. The space was little more than a storage alcove, cramped and dusty. They both had to duck in order to reach the clouded window. Vetch unlatched it, pushed it open, and moved aside.

  “There. If you lean your head out and look out that way, toward the castle ...”

  Perturbed, Lily squeezed by him and stuck her head out the open window. When she saw it, her eyes went wide and she gasped in disbelief. Black Crux Manor was completely enclosed in a Barrier that reached up into the sky. Immediately, Lily understood why she had thought she was home upon waking. It was because she had been sensing this Barrier. Up until this day, the only magic she’d ever felt of such magnitude was the town Barrier around Moonfane Forge. It had been a constant all her life, an aroma she associated with home. Waking to the sensation of this new Barrier that rivaled it in scale had fooled her into thinking she was there. Yet, while this Barrier was similarly massive, now that she focused in on it, she could sense how very different it was in every other respect.

  “Lady Iris woke, and so Marigold did that,” Vetch explained. “She’s trapped in there now, and all her sellswords with her.” He chuckled.

  “I want to see it up close,” Lily whispered. She slipped back from the window and went down the ladder. She heard Vetch close and latch the window before following her.

  “Do you want to eat first?”

  “No. I’m going to look at it straightaway. Come, if you like.”

  She didn’t have the words to alleviate Vetch’s confusion. She couldn’t explain why she needed to go there right this instant. She just did. On the way back to her little room to get dressed, she caught sight of Mage Marigold Slumbering peacefully in a bed in one of the other rooms. Lily paused there for a moment to look in at her. Then, she hurried to her own room and shut the door.

  A large crowd was gathered on the street before the first bridge leading up to Black Crux Manor. People milled about with seemingly no purpose. Some carried on conversations; others simply stood and gawked up at the towering golden prison. None ventured up the first bridge.

  “It’s been like this for two days,” said Vetch at her shoulder. “The crowd hasn’t dwindled since the Barrier appeared. It’s all the town talk’s about.”

  Lily stood worrying the sleeve of her borrowed robe. Despite Vetch’s assurance that all the people who had pursued them were now securely trapped within the magic’s bounds, she still felt exposed out in public in Black Crux town.

  There was humor in his voice as he added, “I didn’t witness it myself, but I heard from a couple people that Lady Iris spent much of the first night out on the bridge, flailing her arms at the Barrier in vain.”

  Lily nodded distractedly. She could sense Lady Iris was in Slumber again. It was difficult to pick her out behind the powerful magic, but if she concentrated, she could find her—a banked cinder of magic in some central chamber of the castle. She was of no more a concern to Lily.

  What was a concern to her was this unimaginable Barrier surrounding Black Crux Manor. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. The closer she came to it, the stranger and more impossible it seemed, yet she couldn’t place her finger on why.

  Vetch spoke again. “What do you think? I’m satisfied we can move about freely now. Marigold saw to it that we’ll be able to travel without being hunted down.”

  Lily could tell he wanted to be away from this place as much as she did. But she had already come this far. She wasn’t leaving without satisfying her curiosity first.

  “I’ll be but a moment,” she told Vetch, and strode across the street. She pushed through the throng surrounding the first bridge and went out onto it.

  Closing her ears off to the comments and jeers from some of the onlookers, she crossed the bridge and approached the Barrier. Still wholly golden and sparkling in the morning sunlight, it neatly bisected the bridge just before the first gatehouse. The gatehouse itself was unoccupied. What need was there for guards with a Barrier present?

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  Standing before it, Lily looked up, squinting her eyes against the sun to see how the magic rose high above the highest towers of the castle. Below the bridge, it thrust down into the earth at the bottom of the jagged gully.

  Being this close, Lily was awestruck by the strength of the magic before her. It took her breath away in a fashion even Moonfane Forge’s town Barrier had never done. And, yet, what she sensed from it was boundless and incomprehensible. That it was greater than any Barrier she’d ever encountered was undeniable. Yet, no matter how hard she concentrated on it—even when she pressed the palm of her hand to the Barrier and tested her magical sensitivity against it—she could not discern why. What had Marigold done?

  The sound of footsteps caused her to turn. Vetch paused a pace behind her. Looking at him, she flattened her lips uncertainly and shook her head.

  “I don’t understand this Barrier. There’s no end to it.”

  Vetch swept his eyes up and down the great span of the Barrier, but then his attention was caught by something beyond it. Lily followed his gaze and saw the band of surly looking soldiers coming out of the manor. They were accompanied by some other folk, people dressed like nobles or officials of some sort. They all of them began the march down the upper bridge, the soldiers taking the lead.

  “Looks like we’ve attracted their attention,” said Vetch. “Have you seen what you needed to see?”

  “Not entirely,” Lily admitted, “but I doubt I could, even given endless time. Let’s go.”

  She didn’t care that she turned her back on the approaching group, not even when they raised their voices and ordered her to halt. She no longer worried about whether she and Vetch could make it home safely, not after what she had seen this day. No one from the castle—soldier, mage, or otherwise—would ever get through this Barrier for as long as it remained.

  Returning to their temporary safe haven, Lily wanted to see to Marigold, but Vetch would not stop fussing over her until she had sat down and allowed him to cook them a meal first. She humored him and ate, though she barely tasted the food.

  Following that, she went to her teacher. Marigold Slumbered in one of the subdued little sleeping chambers on the second floor. She looked as she always did in Slumber, peaceful and reposed, with the quilt pulled up under her chin and her long silver hair tied up in a bun. Her face was relaxed. The quilt rose and fell with her breathing.

  But while things looked normal on the surface, Lily’s sense of magic told her different. The monumental Barrier trapping their enemies up in the black-stoned castle troubled her. When she had told Vetch she sensed no end to it, she hadn’t meant its scale. It felt as if it would never fade. But that couldn’t be possible. All magic faded. Even the town Barriers Marigold cast around Moonfane Forge—which could last for months—still gave a practiced mage a distinct sense of slowly wearing away over time, akin to how a piece of fruit slowly withers. This was true of all Barriers. And, yet, it was not true of the one surrounding Black Crux Manor.

  Not as far as she could tell, at least. But, then, she could hardly understand at all what she had felt when she touched it. It was too far beyond her comprehension. She hoped she was mistaken. But now, sitting down and observing her Slumbering mentor, she feared she was not.

  Placing her hand on Marigold’s shoulder, Lily concentrated on the magic she sensed from her. Marigold’s powerful magic had long been a part of Lily’s awareness, a comforting and ever-present companion at the edge of her senses. That magic was still there, but it was withdrawn and cradled deep, like it hibernated. It was nothing like Lily had sensed from her before, even in Slumber. That it defied her understanding in the same way the Barrier had chilled her.

  “Oh, Mari ...” she whispered.

  “She knew she wasn’t going to wake from this, didn’t she?” Vetch’s voice was soft and full of sympathy. Lily had not even heard him enter the room. “When I saw the look on your face this morning ... and then recalled some of the things she said to me before she did it ...”

  “I don’t know,” Lily said, too quickly. “I don’t know enough to be sure.” Even to herself, she sounded unconvinced. It couldn’t be, could it? Marigold was too wise and too cautious. She would not have chosen to cast a spell she knew would result in her never waking. Would she? Lily could not imagine so. Yet ... what if in the direst need, to ensure the safety of she and Vetch? Lily looked down at her Mage-Matron. “Ever-Slumber ...” she whispered.

  A creak of the floorboards drew Lily’s attention. Marigold’s nameless friend stood in doorway. The two women shared an acknowledgement, but when she spoke, it was to Vetch.

  “Ah, here you are. You sure have taken to roaming my house as if it’s your own.”

  “We won’t trouble you for much longer,” Vetch said.

  “No, you won’t,” she replied. “You’re healed up enough now. And Lily’s awake again.”

  “... Yes,” Vetch confirmed. Lily knew what the woman would say next before she opened her mouth.

  “It’s time for you to go.”

  The way she said it was not impolite, but the message was clear. They were no longer welcome here. In truth, the finality of it was a relief to Lily. She was ready to leave.

  “We’ll start making preparations,” she said. “I wish we could pay you for sheltering us. We had gold, but I had to abandon our packs at our inn room when the soldiers came looking for me. I’m certain our things are long gone now. We have nothing to our names.”

  The woman looked long at Marigold, before saying, “I did this as a favor to an old friend. We’re square.” After a moment’s pause, she added, “If you want a way of thanking me, make certain the both of you forget about this place, so it can stay a refuge.”

  “We can do that,” Lily agreed. She returned her attention to Marigold. After a moment, the floor creaked again with the woman’s retreating footsteps.

  Lily straightened out the quilt covering Marigold and tucked it a little more evenly around her shoulders to keep her warm. She bent and kissed her forehead.

  “We’re going home, Mage-Matron. Home to Moonfane Forge.”

  The following days were so filled with preparation and activity that Lily had not a minute to reflect on all that had happened since she and Vetch had arrived in Black Crux. In a way, that was a blessing. A mixture of anticipation and hope carried her from moment to moment. She longed for Moonfane Forge and a return to normal life—a life with Vetch.

  The weight she had carried on her shoulders since the attack on her home lifted, as it sunk in that she was bringing Marigold home safe and sound, just as she had set out to do. Though, there remained the shadow of not knowing when or if her teacher would wake from casting the very spell that secured their homecoming.

  When Lily had discussed her concerns with Vetch, his cheerfulness had become more reserved. Yet, he never ceased bolstering her with words of optimism and assurance, promising her that Marigold would be protected and well cared for until the day she woke. That confidence gave Lily strength.

  And so they went about preparing for the trek home. In between attending to Marigold and the animals, Lily traded some small Castings around the neighborhood for dried foods, animal fodder, and extra clothing. Vetch made some coin taking odd jobs around town, enough to furnish them some basic camping equipment and cooking implements.

  He had hoped to make enough to purchase a cart, for they realized they would need a way to carry the Slumbering Marigold comfortably for the duration of the journey. However, following their other purchases, the remaining funds did not amount to enough. In the end, Vetch simply stole one that had been left unattended overnight outside of an inn. It was better than tarrying even a single day longer in Black Crux than they had to.

  They departed Black Crux on a clear sunny day. Vetch drove the cart down the main road. In it, sheltered underneath a canvas canopy, was a makeshift bed upon which Marigold Slumbered. Lily took Fae by a different route through the woods outside town, so as not to attract unneeded attention. They met up further down the road, after the habitations and farms of Black Crux had been left behind. Lily’s spirits were high. At last, they were headed home. And for the first time in a long time, their travels were not fraught with danger and fear. The path ahead was clear and full of hope.

  Thus went the days traveling the road, and the nights camping beside it. They chose not to cross Lake Pasanhal by ship again, opting instead to follow the land route skirting its southern shore. In this way, they came to Pasanhal town. They stayed there only long enough to replenish some supplies, before continuing on up the way north toward Bannerman’s Wood.

  “I wish we had the coin to have stopped in the markets for a little while,” Lily said, as Pasanhal town faded in the distance behind them. “So, I could have bought you another nice townsman’s shirt to replace the one lost. You did look fetching in it.”

  In truth, he looked fetching to her even in the rough farmer’s shirt he wore presently. The days traveling under the fair spring sun had made his arms and neck tan. His unruly hair blew about his face, catching the sunlight. He had chosen to walk for a while in order to stretch his legs. He looked so carefree and in his element leading his horse and the cart across the landscape between town and forest. Lily dismounted Fae to walk beside him. He smiled at her.

  “I suppose the only one looking fetching in it these days is the innkeeper back at Black Crux,” he quipped. “If he’s managed to get the smell of manure out of it.”

  Lily laughed easily. “He can have it. And my riding skirts. And the makeups I bought. All of it. Even the coin. I return home with you.”

  “And I with you,” Vetch replied. “A treasure far greater than all the treasures in all the markets.”

  The words, so guilelessly said, stunned Lily. She felt heat come to her cheeks. Made speechless as only he could make her, she simply hooked her arm with his and leaned her head on his shoulder. No road or journey would ever be too daunting, she decided, so long as she had him by her side.

  A couple days into the forest, their supply of dried foods was nearly exhausted. Vetch had anticipated this and so had been working to fashion a rough bow, so they could supplement their travel fare with fresh meat. Lily had never hunted before, and Vetch admitted to being only a passable archer, but they stopped and made camp early one day in order to have daylight by which to try their luck.

  They were fortunate in tracking a deer. Lily crept around behind it and flushed it toward Vetch, using a quickly cast Barrier to direct it right to where he could take a clean shot. Together, they dressed the deer, and that night made a feast of fresh meat around the campfire. They sat shoulder to shoulder and ate and laughed. And then, when they were full and contented, they made love by the firelight, before falling asleep in each other’s arms in the tender spring night.