So Silver Bright Read Online Free PDF Page A

slightly to land upon a sand-scattered rooftop. When Bertie found that her legs wobbled more than a dish of blancmange, he held her arm most solicitously until she gathered both her strength and her bearings. Without slippers, her bare feet managed to locate every bit of broken shell and rough tile as she made her way to the low balustrade that encircled the roof. Over the course of their short flight, they’d reached the center of the Caravanserai. The sigil-etched entrance portal winked at them in the distance, and torchlight marked the twisted path that led away from the outer wall, away from the White Cliffs, away from the goddess-haunted waters seeping in from the beach. When a flock of birds took wing, their silhouettes were outlined against the moon.
    Bertie tracked their upward journey, her gaze coming to rest on the night sky. Without warning, fresh disappointment settled in her throat, thick and cloying. “He’s not coming back, is he?”
    “Your father?” The hesitation in Ariel’s words came as something of a surprise. “I … don’t know.”
    Bertie swayed a bit, unconsciously mimicking the velvet-draped elephants walking trunk to tail on the road just below them. When she spoke, she couldn’t keep the pleading note out of her voice, hard as she tried. “You know every breath of wind that stirs as a friend, Ariel. Couldn’t you search him out for me? Deliver a message?”
    His slow exhalation was like a hand skimming over her bare arm. “As the Mistress of Revels commands, but I would beg one favor first.”
    “And that would be?”
    “I want you to tell me you love me.”
    Had he betrayed a glimmer of amusement, some hint he was teasing her, Bertie would have laughed and welcomed the release of tension, but there was nothing in his expression to suggest he spoke in jest. “Why would you ask for such a thing?”
    Ariel deftly edged around the question, around her. “We both know it to be true.”
    “I don’t deny that it’s true,” she said, though the admission was made treacle slow. “I just wonder why the words mean so very much to you all of a sudden.”
    “Indulge a poor fool who would have an even playing field before the scenery shifts about him again.”
    Bertie wished she could employ a cavalier delivery that would indicate he was a ridiculous boy for demanding such a thing of her, but the words came only with great reluctance, as though she pulled stitches from some part of her soul to give them over to him. “I love you.”
    The three words separated them for an infinite moment, then Ariel stepped forward. He stood close enough that Bertie’s curls discharged blue-white static electricity every time they made contact with the longest tendrils of his own silver hair. A new flavor of panic coated the back of her throat when she saw the haunted look in his eyes.
    “I thought there would be more to it than this,” he finally said.
    Frost settled on Bertie’s bare shoulders and upturned face, and she almost welcomed the cold as her cheeks went numb. “More to it than what?”
    Tiny bits of wind rushed over Ariel’s shoulders, carrying incoming fog that swirled about him to create the illusion of wings before the imagined feathers were dispersed. “Have you ever seen a falcon, hooded and jessed for the hunt?”
    Bertie’s lips were so dry that she thought they might crack and bleed when she answered, “No.”
    “You wear a light glove, milady, but you’ve no need of straps to bind. It’s love that tethers me to you.” He tilted his head back; though the muscles in his throat worked, he couldn’t seem to swallow, and his next words were hoarse. “Do you have any idea how much it pains me to remain at your side when my soul longs to be airborne?”
    The question hit her as hard as a physical blow to the middle. The cravings in her heart of hearts were probably nothing at all compared to what he must endure every moment he spent upon the ground … at her side … by