Ariel a nodded. “Yes, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience,” she said, and smiled at my bewildered expression. “There are…a lot of things that need explaining,” she continued, and a shadow darkened her face.
“I have so much to tell you, Ash. But not here.” She slid back, out of my arms. “I have a place not far from here. Go collect Robin Goodfel ow, and then I can tell you both.”
A strangled noise interrupted us. I turned to see Puck standing several yards away, staring at Ariel a with an open mouth. His green eyes were wider then I’d ever seen them.
82/387
“I’m…seeing things,” he stammered, and his gaze f lickered to me. For just a moment, I saw hope f lare in their depths. “Ash? Tell me you see her, too.”
Incredibly, Ariel a smiled at him. “hello, Puck. It’s good to see you again. And, no…you’re not seeing things. It’s really me.” She held up her hand as Puck took a breath. “I know you both have many, many questions, but this is not the place to ask them. follow me, and then I will try to explain everything.”
Numbly, I collected my sword from where I’d f lung it discourteously into the briars, and we followed Ariel a through the mist and brambles, her spectral form gliding through the fog like a ghost. Each time the mist coiled around her pale figure, my heart twisted in fear, certain that when the tendrils pulled away she would be gone. Behind me, Puck was silent; I knew he was just as dazed, trying to come to terms with what we had just seen and heard. I was still reeling from the shock, from questions that swirled maddeningly in my head, and Puck was the last person I wanted to talk to.
We trailed Ariel a through a thick hedge, where the mist cleared away and the briars formed a protective wall around a snowy glen. Glamour filled the tiny space, creating the illusion of gently falling snow, of icicles that hung on branches and a chil in the air, but not everything was fantasy. A clear pool glimmered in the center of the clearing, and a lone elder tree stood beside it, its branches heavy with purple berries.
Shelves full of jars, dried plants and simple bone tools had been worked into the bramble, and a narrow bed stood beneath an overhang of woven thatch and ice.
Ariel a walked over to a shelf and brushed imaginary dust from between two jars, seeming to collect her thoughts. I gazed around the 83/387
clearing in wonder. “Is…is this where you live?” I asked. “All this time, you’ve been here?”
“Yes.” Ariel a took a deep breath and turned around, smoothing back her hair. She’d always done that when she was nervous. “Sit, if you want.”
She gestured to an old log, rubbed smooth and shiny with use, but I couldn’t bring myself to sit. Neither could Puck, apparently.
“So, how long have you been here, Ari?” he asked, and I instantly bristled at the casual use of his old nickname for her. He had no right to speak to her as if nothing had happened. As if everything was all right now. “Have you been here since…that day? All alone?” She nodded, smiling tiredly. “It’s not the Winter palace by any means, but I make do.”
Irritation boiled over into real anger now. I tried to stif le it, but it rose up anyway as the blackest years of my existence seemed to descend on me all at once. She had been here all along, and never thought to see me, to let us know she was still alive. All those years of fighting, killing, all for nothing. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded, and she winced as though she’d been expecting that question.
“Ash, believe me, I wanted to—”
“But you didn’t.” I stalked over to the elder tree, because I couldn’t remain motionless any longer. Her gaze followed me as I whirled back, gesturing to the glade. “You’ve been here for years, Ari, and you never came back, never made any attempt to see me again. You let me think you were dead!
84/387
Why?” I was near shouting now, my composure shattered, but I couldn’t help it. “You could’ve sent word, let me know you were all right! All those years of thinking you were gone, that you were dead.
Did you know what I was going through? What we both were going through?”
Puck blinked, startled that I would include him as well. I ignored him, however, still facing Ariel a, who watched me sadly but offered no argument. I let my arms drop, and my anger vanished as quickly as it had come. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered.
“Because, had I returned, you would have never met Meghan Chase.” I froze at the sound of her name.
Ariel a sighed, a gesture that seemed to age her a hundred years, and smoothed back her hair once more. “I’m not explaining it well at all,” she mused, almost to herself. “Let me start again, from the beginning.