Not only did the convoluted Wood mess with her sense of direction, but with the sky so overcast, she couldn’t guess how much time had passed. She glanced skyward, then at Eva, who said, Been a couple hours. Hugh should have made it out by now.
Which told Pia exactly nothing. She took a deep breath and tried to ease the tension that had knotted the muscles at the base of her neck. Either shit would hit the fan or it wouldn’t. Apparently that was the story of her day.
Story of her life, come to that.
After thanking Linwe for the tour, Pia chose to go back to their rooms. The others played chess, did sit-ups and push-ups and napped. Johnny coaxed Pia into playing a game of chess too, but she knew little beyond the basic moves and she was too preoccupied to focus well, and he trounced her thoroughly. Afterward she went to her bedroom to pace.
Calondir did not grant her an audience. Neither Beluviel nor Ferion appeared. Pia did not hear anything from Dragos or about him. Beluviel did send a note of apology and promised to see Pia the next day, but other than that nothing at all happened for the rest of the day.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
NINE
The group had lunch brought up to them and by evening Pia couldn’t stand the sight of the apartment any longer.
They went to the main hall for supper, which was filled with quite a few more people than had been present at breakfast. Supper was robust winter fare, hot and filling: roasted deer, rabbit and pheasant, white and sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, loaves of chewy honey nut bread, pumpkin and cranberry tarts, baked apples and plenty of wine, beer and water.
Linwe joined them, along with a few of the other Elves that had traveled with them on the previous day, and the meal passed with plenty of lively conversation. Most of the people in the hall didn’t leave when they had finished dining. Instead a few fetched musical instruments, and soon the sound of flutes, fiddles and drums filled the hall.
After several people called out in encouragement, a slender male with a sensitive-looking face stood to sing a ballad in Elvish. Even though Pia didn’t understand a word of the song, the music and the flow of the lyrical words were haunting.
Pia watched and listened in silence. Everyone was friendly, the music was excellent and she had not heard anything bad, not from Dragos, Hugh or Calondir.
So that meant everything was fine, right? The evening should have been pleasant.
Table lamps and the firelight from both massive hearths gave the hall a warm, golden illumination. Sparks of Power from individuals glowed in her mind’s eye like fireflies lighting a warm summer night, and the wild, secretive Wood’s presence blanketed them all. She could sense so much Power, and it was all undiluted by distractions from technology like television, cell phones and street traffic.
A few especially strong glows seemed to shine in the distance. Perhaps those were Linwe’s “ancients.” Two of the glows might even be Calondir and Beluviel.
But underscoring everything was a sense of dread and anxiety she could not overcome. She had to force herself to unclench her fists. Then only a few minutes later she discovered that she had clenched them again. She ate because she was starving and eating was compulsory these days, but the food sat in her stomach like a rock. An unseen pincer gripped her by the back of the neck, causing a dull, throbbing ache.
Her tension roused the peanut whose awareness draped around her neck, his bright, loving energy unsettled. She put a hand over her abdomen, whispering silently, I’m sorry, baby. She tried to soothe him, but she didn’t really know what she was doing, and she was still tense and filled with dread herself. His presence sharpened until it felt spiked with invisible claws. For the first time since she had become aware of his existence, he felt dangerous.
Oh great, go ahead and scare the dragon baby, why don’t you? Knucklehead. She breathed deeply and evenly. Calm down.
She could just see how the future was going to go. If the peanut really turned out to be dangerous after he was born, Dragos might have to be the one to take care of him whenever he had a toddler tantrum. Yeah, it was going to be fun to get the answer to that question. For the first time that whole, rotten day she felt an evil, sneaking sense of cheer.
Gradually the baby calmed down again. As she turned her attention away from him she felt again the sense of something lying stealthy and quiet underneath all the other sparks of Power, and her fists clenched.
Realization struck. Yes, she was worried and anxious, and she missed Dragos horribly, but whatever the hell she was sensing, it wasn’t her own fear. It definitely existed outside of herself.
Had it always been there, only she had been too preoccupied to notice? Or had it crept in since they had arrived? The words dark and light didn’t seem quite accurate when describing nonphysical qualities, but that stealthy, quiet thing felt like the antithesis of those sparks of Power that glowed so brightly against her mind’s eye.