61. Dangerous to wander alone

Ada stood before the tomb of Min's mother for a long time. She wanted to think of some significant words to say for her, but nothing would come to mind. An emptiness had swept over her, closer and heavier than her cloak, and a cold draft shifted around her ankles, as though the dead were speaking with whispers too low for her to hear.

Her legs were stiff when she finally turned to go. Between the tombstones, the room was deserted yet again. Yue had not reappeared, and Ada could vaguely recall Hester announcing that she was leaving some time previously.

Ada wasn't certain of the hour, but the chill and quiet of the underground as she made her way back to the infirmary suggested she had spent a long time in the crypt. Sage-lights guided her through the darkness, but when she reached the bunk beds, she saw that everyone was asleep.

The mangy cat had curled up next to Min again, its front paws tucked beneath the girl's chin even as she moaned softly in her sleep. Ada wished she could comfort her, but she couldn't forget the image of the tomb and headstone, and thought perhaps Min's dreams would be kinder than anything she could say.

Climbing quietly to her bunk, Ada tugged off her boots but kept her cloak on, still shivering amongst the blankets. She almost sat on a small parcel laid in front of her pillow, and peeling back its wrapping she realised that Armestrong had packed her an arrangement of nuts, bread, and cheese for supper.

Ada's throat felt tight as she ate, and she set the parcel aside before she had finished the meagre meal. Something sharp jabbed into her ribs and, shifting back her cloak, Ada realised it was the iron dagger and Solen's silver knife, still tucked into her breast pocket. She had forgotten they were there, and a thrill of fear tensed her chest. Had the violence of Wysthaven made her numb to such things?

She removed the daggers and shoved them beneath her pillow, the heavy weight of the Gilded Book pressing them down into the mattress. Then, with her head on an elbow, Ada clenched her eyes shut and tried to slow her breathing. A sour smell from one of Hester's balms clung to her blankets, and from above there came an occasional shudder of old, crumbling rock.

Ada tossed onto her other side, counting sheep, although they all transformed into snarling dogs in her head. With a huff, she flung her blankets over her head and reached up to grab the Gilded Book. There was a soft puff from her mattress, and Ada looked down to see a single, fallen leaf of sage had kindled into a flame. It drifted up above the golden book as though carried by a breath, and then lingered in mid-air to dimly light the tented blankets.

Ada opened the Gilded Book in her lap and her eyes were struck by line upon line of meticulously inked handwriting. Hundreds of names had been scrawled down the first page, surname first, followed by a simple address, and then a date. The names were all entered chronologically, and as Ada riffled through the book, she saw some pages marked only a single day.

She stopped skimming the writing when she recognised a word. Bristol. Ada's fingers numbed, and she looked at more of the addresses below. York, Oxford, Cheltenham. They were all towns from England. From her world. The names of a thousand humans and their homes.

Ada's quick breaths were making the sage-flame flicker and, remembering the Stone Circle's strange magic, she thought of her home town and turned the page. Just as books had appeared before her in the library, the Gilded Book was now open on entries only from Little Crestbury. The dates were more varied here, but many of the earliest were recorded from centuries back. The later in time they were written, the more lines of neat writing had been added to the entries.

Weatherford, Martin, Ada read, Wishing Trade: one gold sovereign for a profitable harvest of wheat. Magic given: one flask of misting's water. Price on use: Weatherford's crop of cabbage to be wilted.

Then under that, Rice, Elizabeth. Wishing Trade: twenty gold beads for the recovery of a child afflicted with measles. Magic given: one liquorice root. Price on use: Rice to contract the illness.

At the end of the page, Clarke, Joan. Wishing Trade: one gold wedding band for her neighbour's homestead. Magic given: one flint and tinder. Price on use: Clarke to be disfigured by the fire.

Ada slammed the book shut, forgetting about the sleeping bandits, and the sage-light flickered out. Wishes and payments. The Gilded Book contained a history of the Stone Circle's dealings with the human world, like the diary of a money-lender who never missed a single penny.

Curls of smoke wove into Ada's hair, and at the scent of it, a painful nausea rolled her stomach. She was cold with sweat, her shirt clinging to her skin as she shoved aside blankets, grabbed the daggers and her boots, and then stumbled down from her bunk.

The ground didn't seem steady when she reached the floor, and she swayed a moment, looking at the bandits. Min's chest huffed up and down, the cat, now at the foot of her bed, watching Ada with bright yellow eyes. Ada stared back, and then took the Gilded Book and set it down on Hester's table. She needed to get out of the Stone Circle. She couldn't stay there, not tonight. Not after reading the things the fae had down to her kind. They had tricked them with hateful magic, not caring for their pain, just as they would trick Ada if she remained amongst them.

Ada staggered out of the infirmary, feeling a surge of guilt to be leaving Min behind. But she knew that Armestrong would take care of her, just as she knew that Wysthaven would be a far more dangerous place for the young girl to live. It would be better to leave her with those who would protect her, even if Ada couldn't say goodbye.

The scent of smoking sage was choking, small pockets lighting ahead of her as Ada half-ran through the underground labyrinth. She approached the antechamber, lungs straining to breath fresh air again. The ladder up to the compass was down the passage to her left, but Edmere would surely know she had gone, and even though he had given her freedom, he would undoubtedly be able to trace her steps into the city. Be able to mark her every move in the pages of a book.

Ada turned right instead, her vision tunnelling into pins of shadows as she hurried on, letting the sage-lights guide her. She smelt the damp before she felt it, narrow walls slick against her shoulders as she scrambled up an uneven stone path. The only chamber ahead was the crypt, and promptly, white tombs loomed ghostly in front of her. Ada shivered, eyes jumping from stone to stone. A cold draft slunk up her legs, and it was as though a whisper suddenly became clear. Deep beneath the city, closed off with rocks and ladders, surely the wind couldn't reach the Stone Circle?

The tombs lay silent, but memories came crashing into Ada's mind. How was it that Yue had just disappeared into the crypt? Ada had seen magic in Wysthaven, but never a fae apparating from nowhere. She felt the thin shifting of the air again, and stepped into the crypt, following the draft to the furthest wall. Petals crumpled from their flowers as Ada brushed past, but she didn't stop until her hands were on the damp stone walls.

A seam, so subtle Ada could only feel it, was drawn around the headstone opposite Min's mother. Cold prickled Ada's fingers as she blindly searched, but there was no opening in the rock, only the fine seam marked up from the floor.

Ada's fingers became more desperate, prying at stone as pieces crumbled away across her skin. She pressed down, gasping as her wrists gave way and her shoulder crashed into the headstone. The stone groaned as the headstone swung back, revealing a narrow gap behind its tomb and a dark hole beyond. In the shadows, Ada's breath puffed like smoke, and, pausing for only a moment, she slipped behind the tomb and through the hole.

Without her shoulder to hold its weight, the headstone slowly swung back into place, and Ada was left in darkness. A low ceiling forced her to crouch, and the walls were so close that their bare earth sucked at Ada's cloak. She crept forwards, no sage-lights sparking, though a deep beating sounding in the air.

Groping ahead, Ada searched for the source of the noise, her boots slipping in wet mud as the passage sloped upwards. The beating echoed all around Ada now, as though the earth was roaring in fury. She clamped her hands over her ears, struggling on until she walked directly into a bank of mud.

Ada spluttered backwards, almost falling over as she tried to rub grime from her eyes. She flailed to keep her balance, arms striking something hard, and her yelp was accompanied by a hollow thud. On her left was a square of wood, no larger than a door to a cellar, with a slat drawn across one edge.

Ada grabbed the wooden slat and heaved, a clunk sounding as the door swung open onto a mirror of water. Shadows skulked away from the light of the moon, and Ada looked out over a canal, lacewings fluttering towards the stars.

A bridge arched above the opening, too high for her to reach, but she could see the opposite bank and knew that cobblestones lay only a short distance above her. With shaking arms, Ada grasped up at the edge of a pavement and awkwardly dragged her body out through the door and onto the cobbles. She kicked one leg down to shut the wooden door, but the latch was too far for her to reach, so she slunk back into the shade of the bridge to catch her breath.

While the sound of water had been deafening below, not a whisper passed over Wysthaven's cobblestones. Across the canal, the skeletons of houses rose into the night from the burnt remains of the outer city, and ash limned the breeze that swirled over the waters. Ada gazed down into the canal, preferring to look at webs of algae than city cinders.

A tall form loomed above the water, and Ada's heart stuttered a beat as she realised someone was standing right behind her. She turned slowly to see a man blocking out the moon, his black hair appearing to weave into the fabric of the night and his eyes darker still.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you," said Raeph, holding out a hand to Ada, "that it's dangerous to wander around Wysthaven alone?"