Part 10 (1/2)

He made sure to keep his face blank as he let her draw him toward the wall. He wasn't Alin, after all.

She stood distractingly close, so that he could feel the heat from her body. ”Simon,” she said, ”how did you become a Valinhall Traveler?”

Simon blinked. That was not at all where he had expected*or hoped*this conversation would go.

”Well, uh, after what happened, I wanted to find a way to fight Travelers. So I found a Valinhall Traveler, and I convinced him*”

”How?” Leah interrupted.

He wasn't quite sure what she was looking for. ”I just begged him, mostly. I'm not entirely sure why he agreed, to tell you the truth.”

Leah waved that aside. ”No, I mean, how did you find a Valinhall Traveler? I mean, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't know how to go about finding one. Other than you, of course, but you know what I mean.”

The direction of her questions was becoming clear, but Simon still wasn't sure why she was asking. Besides, he didn't want to talk about the night his father had died. Then again, Leah had been captured by the Endross Traveler, Cormac, and left in Overlord Malachi's hands for weeks. Somehow, he felt that she deserved to know the story.

”Do you know what happened to my parents?” Simon asked.

She shook her head, and her blue eyes focused on him as though she meant to memorize his every word.

”We were making a delivery through Latari Forest,” he said. ”I was just a kid. We ran into two Travelers, and they attacked us. They killed my father pretty much immediately.” He skimmed over the details, to spare both of them. This was nothing he wanted to re-live.

”Valinhall Travelers?” Leah asked. She sounded confused.

”No, just regular Travelers. One of them was Naraka, I think, and the other one summoned this glowing mist.”

”Asphodel,” Leah said.

Simon stared at her.

She raised one eyebrow without changing the rest of her expression. ”I've spent half my time talking to Travelers since I got here,” she said. ”Not everybody locks themselves in their rooms. Keep going.”

He could accept that. It certainly sounded like the sort of explanation Leah would normally give: unashamed and commanding.

”Anyway, my father died, and my motherathe Asphodel, I guess, fed her a bunch of mist. That's what broke her mind.”

Images floated up to the surface of Simon's mind, and he s.h.i.+vered. Just a little. Leah put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

”A Valinhall Traveler saved me,” Simon went on. ”I didn't know what he was at the time, of course, I thought he was just an incredible swordsman good enough to take on Travelers. Then, when the attack on Myria ended, you were gone, Alin went off to save you, and I was left with n.o.body. I had to do something, so I decided to go find the only man I knew could fight Travelers.”

Leah nodded along, clearly absorbing the information. ”So you found him,” she said.

”Not him, but another one. He took me in.”

”What were the tests like?” Leah asked.

”Tests?” Simon asked. Maybe she meant the way the Valinhall rooms tested him. But no, there was no way she could know about that.

”The compatibility tests,” Leah said, as though it were obvious. ”The Travelers I've talked to here say that everyone has to pa.s.s a test, to see if you're compatible with the Territory. There's no way to know if you can Travel, otherwise.”

Something was going on with Leah.

First, when he had seen her in Malachi's tower, she hadn't seemed like a prisoner. She had an explanation for that, and ordinarily he would accept it, but Malachi hadn't spoken of her like a captive. If anything, he had suggested that she was holding him captive, which made no sense at all.

Second, there was the way she was acting now. She had tried to hide her bracelet when she saw him, and she had worn that bracelet every day of the past two years. Now she showed knowledge of Traveling that even he didn't have. Even if she had spent all her time in Enosh asking questions, why was she so eager to learn? How had she learned so much so quickly? She spoke as if the things she knew were common sense.

What do you think? he sent to his doll. Only when he received no response did he realize that he had forgotten to take a doll from his room in Valinhall. He had dropped Lilia off when he stopped by the bedroom for his cloak, sure that the Nye would have washed and returned it. But the cloak was nowhere to be found, and he had to backtrack to the bathroom, where his cloak and Azura still lay where he left them. After that, he had been in too much of a hurry to think of swinging back by his room for another doll.

Then again, what was wrong with the Nye? They had never s.h.i.+rked their duties before. The Eldest was probably angry with him, for some unknowable reason, and wouldn't allow the others to serve him until Simon made up for whatever it was he had done. That was probably it.

Simon realized he had gone too long without speaking.

”Oh, sorry, uhahe fought me. We had a fight in the forest, but he said I was terrible.”

Leah twisted her bracelet around her wrist, lost in thought. ”Combat ability?” she said. ”I suppose that makes sense.”

Something Kai said floated back to Simon. ”I don't think he let me in because of the fight,” Simon said. ”He said he could teach anyone. I think he just wanted to make sure I wanted it bad enough.”

”No,” Leah said, ”you have to be compatible. He must have known you were, somehow.”

She sounded certain, but the more Simon thought about it, the more sure he became that he was right. ”I don't think that's how Valinhall works,” he said. ”You don't get anything in Valinhall just because you're suitable or you need it. You have to earn it. If you're skilled enough and determined enough to pa.s.s the tests in the House, then I guess you're compatible. I think anyone can try, if they want.”

Leah stared at him for a long time, chewing on her lip. ”No compatibility test. I suppose that would make sense,” she said at last. ”They sayawell, never mind. But that would make sense.”

In Simon's pocket, his caged acorn began to vibrate. Leah glanced at his buzzing pants, and then back up to Simon's face, and then at his pants again.

”Would you like me to leave?” she asked politely.

Simon's face heated, but he pulled out the shaking acorn in its golden cage. ”Alin needs me,” he said. ”Do you know where he is?”

Leah's gaze sharpened. She took him by the arm again, and began to guide him down the hall. ”I believe he's finis.h.i.+ng up his speech. I'll take you there. Did he say why he needed you?”

Simon held up the caged acorn, which was hurling itself against its bars with animal ferocity. ”You know as much as I do,” he said.

”They say the Grandmasters are meeting today,” she added, as they walked.

”That could be it,” Simon responded. She pressed up against his arm as she guided him down the hallway, and he was torn between moving a proper distance away and pretending not to notice so that she would stay that way as long as possible.

Better not to react, he told himself, and stayed where he was. He got the impression that Caela would have just laughed herself sick.

”When you find out, let me know,” she said. ”I need to know whether or not I should be worried.” Then she smiled at him, which at close range had a devastating effect. He caught himself wondering if she would be impressed by the powers of a Traveler.

Without thinking, he spoke. ”You've been different lately.”

Her face didn't change, but he recognized that it had become a mask to hide her real expression. ”It's not like we've spent much time together, Simon.” She pulled away from his arm, almost casually.

Well, he had started this. He might as well go all the way. ”No, I didn't mean that. You just seem more confident since we left the village, not less. I have no idea what I'm doing, and Alin's only pretending, but you almost seem more comfortable outside the village than you were when we lived there.”

Leah kept her gaze focused on the end of the hall. ”I lived most of my life outside of Myria, after all.”