Aoine's servants showed everyone to separate rooms except for John and Kestrel, whom she put together.
Ellerin and I decided to walk outside on the castle grounds, which included vast gardens that seemed to be untouched by the change of seasons elsewhere in Faerie.
We had walked in silence for several minutes when I asked, "You wanted to speak with me?"
Ellerin looked over his shoulder and murmured something. I resisted the impulse to ask if he could only cast spells at low volume, or if he was powerful enough that if he actually enunciated, he might blow a hole in the space-time continuum, whatever that meant here. The sounds around us hushed, and I again viewed the world as though I was inside a soap bubble.
His question, although phrased in a perfectly neutral and harmless tone, irk
