Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 3) (19 page)

Edaline crunched more flowers on the garlands.

“But they were still getting married,” Sophie reminded her.

“They were. And Grady and I struggled with it at first—not because we didn’t adore Brant,” she added quickly, going back to sorting through the trunk. “I’d just seen what my sister went through when she married Kesler. All the whispers and the stares and the friends who started avoiding them. Bad matches don’t happen very often, so when they do, they draw lots of attention. And for years after, Juline was afraid to have children, worried something would turn out wrong with them. That’s why Dex is your age, and the triplets are even younger. Fortunately, they’re perfect and healthy—and I’m so happy to hear that Dex manifested an ability! That will make everything so much easier.”

Something about Edaline’s smile made Sophie very aware again of the ring on her finger.

“Ah, here it is,” Edaline said quietly, lifting out a fragile headpiece—swirls of gold and silver set with amethysts and pearls and diamonds—and holding it up to the light. “Grady and I gave this to Jolie the day we finally consented to the wedding. We’d watched her yell at the matchmakers enough to know there would be no changing her mind. She loved Brant so much. But we still had one condition. We asked her to take the elite levels, even though Brant couldn’t be with her.”

That explained why Brant had written Jolie so many love letters while she’d been at the elite towers. And probably why he’d talked about feeling unworthy of her.

“She was so mad at us,” Edaline whispered. “Accused us of trying to separate them so they’d fall out of love. But I told her that this was what my parents had asked of Kesler and Juline, to prove to others—but mostly to themselves—that they belonged together. If they couldn’t survive two years of separation, how could they survive a lifetime of scorn? So she took us up on the challenge. Said she’d prove to everyone that she wasn’t making a mistake. And she definitely did.”

Edaline turned away, trying to hide the tears that had slipped down her cheeks. Sophie kneeled beside her, wrapping Edaline in a hug.

Edaline held on tight—so tight it was a little hard to breathe. Then she released her hold, clearing her throat several times before she dropped her arms and said, “I’m sorry. We’re not here to dredge up sad memories.” She stuffed the circlet back in the trunk, slamming it shut with a sort of finality. “We have more important things to find! Where do you want me to start looking?”

Sophie pointed to a row of trunks, and they both set to work. But even with Sandor’s help, they’d still barely made it through a third of the room by dinnertime. Edaline conjured up two plates of soggy purple leaves—which tasted uncannily like fried chicken—and they kept working while they ate.

They were just reaching the halfway point when Grady poked his head through the doorway. “Whoa—I can see the cloud of dust you guys are making all the way downstairs.”

“You’re home!” Sophie said, standing to give him a hug.

She froze when she got a better look at him. Thorny twigs were tangled in his hair, and his cape was caked with dried mud. But the four thin scratches on his left cheek were the most troubling, especially since one was still bleeding.

“What happened?” Edaline asked, sending several streamers crashing to the floor as she stood to inspect his injury.

“Nothing,” Grady promised.

“That doesn’t look like ‘nothing.’” Edaline touched the skin around the wound, making Grady wince.

“I’m fine, I promise. I’ve just been in the dwarven capital, trying to help them solve a mystery.”

“What kind of mystery?” Sophie asked, taking a step back as she realized his cape was caked with something other than mud—and whatever it was did
not
smell good.

“I don’t know if mystery’s the right word,” Grady said, blotting his cheek on his dirty sleeve. “It’s more like a
situation
.”

“What’s the situation?” Sophie pressed when he didn’t continue.

Grady stared at the red stain on his cape. “A large group of dwarves seems to have disappeared.”

TWENTY-FOUR

D
ISAPPEARING DWARVES?” SOPHIE ASKED, FEELING
foolish just saying it.

She was tempted to ask if they were journeying with a hobbit to reclaim the Lonely Mountain. But the blood on Grady’s cheek kind of killed all her jokes.

“How do dwarves disappear?” she asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out—though I can’t say I’m making much progress. Evidently they’ve gone missing one by one over the last year, and the dwarves didn’t think to mention it to us until they realized that thirty have vanished.”

“Thirty?” Edaline whispered.

“Is that a bad number?” Sophie asked.

“Not the number specifically. But last time we took a census, there were only three hundred and twenty-nine dwarves in the whole world. They’re solitary creatures, very scattered. So for thirty to go missing is . . . well, we’d definitely like to know what’s going on. Which is why I’ve been stuck crawling around their cramped tunnels for days, getting scraped and scratched and finding
nothing
. It’s like they vanished into the ground and never came back out for air.”

“What about the Black Swan?” Sophie asked. “They have dwarves secretly working with them. Maybe they have thirty?”

“I thought of that already. But I asked King Enki about them and he said the dwarves working with the Black Swan are all accounted for and checking in regularly.”

“So wait, does that mean they could take us to the Black Swan?” Sophie asked.

“More than likely—but don’t get your hopes up. The king wouldn’t tell me who they are, and we can’t force him. The guidelines of our treaty state only that the dwarves must work peacefully with the elves. And the Black Swan
are
elves, so the dwarves are well within their rights of privacy.”

“What does that mean, then?” Edaline asked before Sophie could. “Someone is
stealing
dwarves?”

“They might be running away. Or perhaps they’re all on a very extended vacation. Or . . . they could be getting abducted. We don’t know. And before you assume the worst,” he added, turning to Sophie, “keep in mind that mysteries like this happen way more often than we all realize. I’d forgotten just how much the Council deals with on a daily basis. This world is filled with complicated creatures and complicated problems. There’s always someone, somewhere, having some sort of crisis. This is just business as usual.”

“Not if you consider what’s been going on with the ogres,” Sandor interrupted. “Sophie uncovered some rather disturbing evidence yesterday, and I fear it might be related to your mystery.”

“She did?” Edaline asked—her expression a mix of hurt and disappointment as she turned to Sophie. “Why haven’t I heard about this?”

“Well, for one thing,” Sophie said, glaring at Sandor, “we don’t know for sure that ogres are involved. No one knows what any of it means.”

“You still could’ve told me,” Edaline said gently.

“I know.” Sophie stared at the dust motes swirling in the air while she explained about the aromark and the homing device and Lady Cadence’s effluxers at Foxfire. She even told them about the leak in the Black Swan. The only thing she kept secret were her theories about Jolie.

Grady’s sigh sounded more like a groan as he ran his hands down his face, smearing the blood from his cut. “I don’t think I have the energy to deal with any of this right now.”

Sophie didn’t either, honestly.

Ogres and goblins and missing dwarves?

Her life had officially turned into a fairy tale gone wrong.

“Hey,” Grady said, strangling her with a hug. “Everything always looks worse after a long day. Let’s all get some sleep and regroup tomorrow, okay?”

Sophie nodded, trying not to think about angry ogres and missing dwarves as she stumbled up to her messy bedroom. But as Iggy flitted to her pillow and curled up in a tangle of orange fluff, she couldn’t help feeling just as small as him.

Her world—and its problems—was so much bigger than she’d ever imagined. And she couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that this time no one could solve them.

“Hey,” Sophie said as she caught up with Marella in the Level Three atrium.

The locker-lined quad was humongous, decorated with glittering crystal trees and a giant mastodon statue in the center. But it felt strangely small when Marella didn’t smile back at her.

“You okay?” Sophie asked. “I couldn’t find you at orientation.”

Marella said nothing as she licked the sensor to open her locker, waiting until she’d grabbed all her books before she mumbled, “I’m surprised you noticed I was gone.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“No reason.”

Marella tossed the tiny braids she’d woven into her hair as she turned to face Sophie. She looked more like her old self again—except for the scowl on her lips.

“Is this about Biana?” Sophie asked.

“Why would I care about her?”

“I don’t know. You’ve been a little different since she manifested.”

“Oh, so you think I’m jealous?”

“I never said that.” Sophie kept her voice low, wishing they could have this conversation somewhere without so many staring prodigies.

Marella slammed her locker much harder than she needed to. “Good. And I don’t care that she’s suddenly in on all your secret stuff, either—in case that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t,” Sophie promised.

“Good,” Marella repeated. “Because I wouldn’t get sucked into your drama even if you wanted me too. It’s way too dangerous.”

She stalked away before Sophie could respond—not that she knew what to say.

Stina applauded.

“You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to like that Redek girl,” she told her minions as she followed Sophie over to her locker. “At least she’s smart enough not to let you drag her down with you.”

“No one’s getting dragged anywhere,” Sophie muttered.

“No—the Vacker losers are going voluntarily. And don’t even get me started on Dizznee.” She pointed to Sophie’s ring and mimed gagging. “So tell me, who’s going to be the next casualty? I mean, Dex already had one planting. And from what I hear, Keefe came pretty close to needing one himself. So who gets it this time? My money’s on Fitz. The healing’s on Friday, right? Anyone else think we might not see him after that?”

No one raised their hands. But Sophie could tell some of them wanted to.

Most of them, actually.

“Is there a problem, Miss Foster?” Dame Alina asked, striding toward them with a dramatic sweep of her cape. “It looked like Miss Heks was bothering you.”

Sophie had never seen Dame Alina in the atrium, and she glanced over her shoulder, wondering if there was some sort of surveillance camera she was missing. And the snotty smirk on Stina’s lips made it so tempting to get her in trouble. But that would only cause more drama, especially since everything Stina had said was technically true.

Being friends with Sophie
was
dangerous—and Sophie was just as worried about Fitz as everyone else seemed to be.

“We were just talking,” she mumbled toward her feet.

Dame Alina sighed, clearly not convinced. But when Sophie didn’t say anything else, she clapped her hands and ordered everyone to their sessions.

“Come on, girls,” Stina told her minions. She grinned at Sophie as she tossed her giant hair. “Let’s go find Redek and see if she wants to sit with us at lunch today.”

“Actually, you still have detention,” Dame Alina called after her. “And I think it might be best if you spend it with me today.”

“What?” Stina asked, whipping back around.

Dame Alina smiled. “I’ll be waiting for you in my office.”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I never said you did.”

Stina’s eyes narrowed to slits, but she kept her mouth shut as she turned and stomped away.

Sophie leaned against her locker, letting the cold of the metal sink into her flushed skin. “You didn’t have to do that,” she told Dame Alina. “I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are. But I still think it’s high time Miss Heks and I have a nice little chat. And you’d better get going, Miss Foster. You still have quite a long walk to your session, and . . .”

The bells chimed, right on schedule.

Sophie groaned, throwing her satchel over her shoulder as she raced down the hall. Her morning session was in the Silver Tower, and she’d picked the
worst
Mentor to be tardy for.

She was soaked with sweat by the time she pounded on the gleaming door, shouting for Master Leto to let her in.

“Are you okay?” he asked as she rushed past him.

She scrambled to put on her silver cape, feeling her eyes burn when she accidentally stabbed her finger with the pin. She squeezed them tight, ordering herself not to cry. But she felt a tear leak down her cheek.

“Here,” Master Leto said, taking her hand and cleaning the blood off her finger with a silky handkerchief.

She waited for him to let go, but he leaned closer, squinting at Dex’s ring before tracing his finger over her star-shaped scar.

“Looks like you’ve had an interesting few weeks.”