Then Moonstone lay inside Obsidian, an uneven rind of white thicker in some places and very thin in others.They’d just crossed the thin part—or so Cha assumed—and sat at the gates of Citrine.What else could that golden glow up ahead be?It sure wasn’t the rising sun.Probably “gates” was a misnomer, too.
“Is that Citrine?”she asked, letting go of the whole sleep inducement like she was one of Dy’s babies thing.
“Yup.”Dy passed a hand over her eyes.“I figured we should take a breather and discuss the crossing, how you want to play this.”
“Rough night?”
“Smooth sailing.No one else on the leys.Moonstone is a very weird place and I won’t be sorry to leave.I’m just a little tired.”
“You need a mom to give you a sleep inducement.”
Dy gave her a wry and weary smile.“I also figured at least one of us should be rested.You’re going to be on point soon.”
Warg barreled back through the doorway, warbling a greeting, then plastered his snout against the forward window, right in the center of the slobber circle he’d clearly been laying down for the entire trip.Katu followed with feline grace, giving Cha a full body slide of greeting before curling up near her feet.
“Warg likes it here,” Cha observed with some bemusement, rubbing the big cat’s head.Katu clearly didn’t like it so much.
“Yes, oddly so.I’ve been having a devil of a time convincing him he doesn’t need to go out there.
At the words, Warg tipped back his polka-dotted, spined head, and howled with ear-splitting volume.Both women clapped their hands over their ears.He just grinned at them, tongue lolling between yellowed, serrated teeth.“Warg isn’t from Moonstone, is he?”Cha suddenly wondered.
“So far as I know, no.And he’s not white, nor does he feel like Moonstone magic.But I don’t know where he, or the other lodestones come from.No one does.So…” She shrugged.
Cha squinted at the golden glow ahead.It looked like an orb.Maybe that was the entire realm of Citrine and they’d jump into it like a pond.Or more like a sticky egg yolk by the look of it.“You said humans have been to Citrine and survived, right?”
“According to legend, yes.There are some scholars who believe the ancient tales of golden courts and shining fae, the idea of the ‘summer’ court are actually Citrine.”
“A place saturated with yellow pixie dust instead of a land of gold,” Cha murmured.
“Not eternal summer, but intangible radiance…” Dy said, sounding as if she quoted something.At Cha’s side eye, she smiled softly.“An old poem.”
“Gotcha.What do you want the plan to be?”
“Honestly?To turn tail and run for home.This place gives me the creeps.”
“You could,” Cha offered.When Dy turned the full force of her baby blues on Cha, the sparking anger rising in them, Cha held up her hands.“You got me this far,” she pointed out, thinking of the weird daydream/non-conversation with Azul.Maybe she shouldn’t be dragging Dy into this mission of mercy and potential self-destruction.“Maybe the rest should be up to me and Katu.”
Surprisingly, Dy hesitated, seeming to consider it.“What about our plan to trade the agnicurnum?You wouldn’t be able to carry the crates in Katu.”
“I’m not sure that trick will work anyway,” Cha replied cheerfully, telling herself she wasn’t at all shaken by the prospect of Dy pulling out.“Probably I’m better off playing the besotted, lovelorn human crossing leagues and facing down enchantments and cruel sorceresses to find her fae lover.”
Dy snorted.“You can be a good actress when moved, but I seriously doubt you could convince anyone of that.”
Cha was closer to being that than Dy could imagine.“Let’s do that.You saw me to the border.I’ll transform Katu; we’ll skate down the ramp and be out of your curly, golden locks.”
Dy opened her mouth, but whatever she’d decided was lost to time as she straightened, getting thatlisteninglook she did when her sorcery tingled.“Law hounds,” she answered Cha’s unspoken question.Big Betty woke from her nap and revved to life.“The Moonstone fae forces.That was the other reason I put you to sleep.I suspected the Moonstone fae might have a way of detecting your presence in their realm if you were conscious.No coincidence they zeroed in as soon as you were awake.”
“How do they know I’m here?”
“How do the fae know anything?I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have some sort of tracker implanted in you during your stay with them.”
What an unpleasant thought.Though surely Azul would have taken care of any such device.Wouldn’t he?
Big Betty surged silently forward off the slow white on the side and raced into midstream on the powerful Moonstone ley line.The force of the line so close to Citrine threw Cha back in her seat.
“Warn a gal, would you?”
“Sorry,” Dy sang out, not sounding sorry at all.“I forgot that it would be a huge transition from the side ley to this.”Her magic sparkled in the air, like glitter from the Moonruby wand, except that it settled into Warg, who soaked it up like a sponge wiping away spilled brut rosé.Cha didn’t fully understand how the lodestone creature worked to ground Dy’s magic, but the excess magic felt as if it focused into the ley line in some way her ley rider senses could almost follow.