Sylphora disappeared into her well, leaving them alone in the forest. Fairies danced among the trees, but seemed not to bother them. It had grown very quiet, but for the occasional chittering of a squirrel and the breeze passing through the branches.

Hailey puzzled over everything Sylphora had told her about the fairy king and the kings of old. She hadn’t imagined that people have lived like that, with no protection from the fairies. She wondered how old the tale was that Sequana had told her. The idea that people would constantly lose children was horrible. Hailey wished the she didn’t walk away from Sylphora with more questions than she had come with.

He took her hand. It was warm and comforting and she was glad that she had brought him, even if Sylphora wanted to claim him as her own. “Are we going to walk all the way back?”

Hailey sighed. “As much as I would like to, we should return to the castle.” She loved the time she had with him, but they should get back. She had told the queen that she would work on freeing the princess and she was no closer than she had been this morning.

“Let’s go, then,” he said.

She longed for another moment to spend with him, but he was right. They should go. She found her portal glyph nearby and cast the spell that opened up into her bedroom. “Thank you for coming with me,” she said.

He smiled at her. “Anytime. Derrick is accustomed to me disappearing occasionally.” Sylphora had been right about him. He was beautiful.

He squeezed her hand and turned to go. As soon as he opened the door, a young man said, “There you are!” Someone found him just as he exited Hailey’s bedroom. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she realized what it must have seemed like they were doing. She refused to let it fluster her, and pushed her way out of the door behind him.

A man with dark skin and hair glanced at the two of them and cleared his throat. “Captain Montaigne is sending several of us to the shimmer. There’s been people coming in saying there is something going on in the forest.”

Hailey frowned. “Do you know what it is?”

“He said that it was probably visitors from one of the other kingdoms.” The young man shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“Should I go with you?” she asked Aaron. She had put off working on the princess’s spell for long enough and felt uncertain of what she should do.

“No,” Aaron said. “I’m sure that’s what it is, or maybe just people getting worked up over nothing. You said you needed to see to the princess.”

Hailey hoped he was right. Her room was next to the mage’s library. She took the key that she’d been wearing off her neck and opened the door to the mage’s library. The wall had been repaired, but she had no idea how to make the spell that protected it from magic, or how to recreate the door that had melded seamlessly into the wall.

She slipped inside and glanced up at the curved tower’s bookshelves. The upper shelves remained untouched, but half of the lower ones had been destroyed along with so many of the books. She needed hours to recreate what was here before, hours she didn’t have. Two of the walls, the dragon’s entry and exit points, had been replaced with stone, but the layer of plaster that would have gone over the top of it might not ever be replaced. The curved shelves that had painstakingly been put in had been smashed in. People had cleared away the rubble for the most part, but even now she didn’t like the idea of other people coming into the library.

This was her place, for now and she hoped that somewhere in here, she would still be able to find the answers to how to undo the spell.

Hours later, Hailey sat with a massive pile of books on the table beside her. Others lined the floor. There was no longer enough shelves to hold them all. The mage lantern above her head provided plenty of light to read by.

She flipped idly through A Practical Guide to a Mage’s First Spells. She had decided that since she had made no progress with more of the advanced books, it might be time to try a different direction. “Dismissing a spell,” That might have been the spell that Barinon had in mind. Could it be that simple? An easy dismissal of the spell that had held her trapped for so long?

Hailey looked over the first few movements of the spell, then turned the page to find the word of power that would tie the spell in place. The page was missing. Frustrated, she left the library. She would have to search through the massive stack of pages that she had collected from the rubble.

She stood and stretched her back and rubbed at her eyes. She opened the door and locked it behind her. “Afternoon, miss.” a servant said, hurrying past her with a basket of laundry.

Hailey nodded to her and decided to head outside to get some fresh air and let her eyes adjust. She was not accustomed to reading so much.

The warmth of the afternoon sun greeted her but her breath came in small clouds. She shivered. She would need her warmer cloak soon. Taivalon stretched out before her, a busy city. The beech trees had changed color and leaves began to fall. It was a beautiful time of year. She stood on the upper courtyard, the entrance to the kitchen below her.

Wagons came to and from the castle. Men chopped down trees, preparing for the winter. Past the kitchen, she could hear the thump of an axe. Someone must be splitting firewood, she thought.

A woman had parked her cart next to the kitchen and disappeared inside. She returned and began unloading several crates of food. Hailey almost didn’t recognize her for a moment, and then she saw who it was. Esmerelda had brought food to the castle and hopefully the two horses that Hailey had left behind.

Esmerelda finally noticed her and glared. Hailey turned to go. She wished that the other woman would be friends with her again, but it was probably not worth Hailey’s time to reconnect with this woman. Esmerelda had not even tried to reconnect with Hailey since she woke. She strode back to the castle.

From behind her, there was a loud crash and a scream. Hailey spun.