Page 55 of Quicksilver

The other way. Another way. Come. Come!

Hearing the quicksilver whispering inside my mind was disconcerting to say the least. It wanted me to know there was another path to it, it seemed, and it was willing to show me the way. But I had a choice before me—therewasstill time. I could turn around and go back up to my room and pretend as if my frantic flight through the palace had never happened. I could spend my days in the library with Layne and Rusarius, reading dusty books about Fae customs and the Alchemists who lived thousands of years ago. Kingfisher was only given leave toremain here within the palace walls for a week. He would be gone in a couple of days. Someone else would take his place in the forge, experimenting with me. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to deal with him every day...

It came as a shock that the idea of Fisher leaving didn't actually make me happy. He annoyed the hell out of me, but he was a known entity. The thought of sharing the forge with someone else made my ribcage feel tight. Who would they replace him with, anyway? Gods, what did it even matter?

Iwasn’tstaying.

I made to move, but a large group of guards turned around a corner, and I was forced to duck into an alcove and hug the wall, doing my best to disappear into the shadows as they marched by. The fox stared at me, his ears tipped in black swiveling as he listened to the sounds around us. His body, much thinner than all of his fluff would suggest, shook like a leaf inside the bag.

As soon as Belikon's warriors had moved off down the hall, I darted out of my hiding place and skirted along the edge of the hall, praying that the soldiers still standing by the tunnel entrance didn't see me. Mercifully, one of them had turned to talk to the others, and their attention was drawn elsewhere. I ducked around the corner as quickly as I could, my slippered feet not making a sound.

Ahead, ahead...

I didn't need the voices to tell me where to go now. I knew instinctively. That didn't stop the quicksilver from whispering to me, though.

Ahead. Yes, come. Come!

The fox keened, scrabbling around inside the bag, but with the top cinched around his neck, he couldn't get out. “Stop! It's for your own good! I swear, I'll find a way to get you out of here and take you somewhere safe, but please stop wriggling.”

He didn't. He was a fox and had no idea what the fuck I was asking him to do, but at least he didn't bite me again.

This way. This way.

I was already turning left at the fork in the hallway.

Ahead. Yes. In. Go in...

The door at the end of the hallway looked innocuous enough. I wasted no time debating what might be on the other side of it. I turned the handle, flung it open, and went through it. Cold, bare stone greeted me. A tunnel, much smaller than the one the soldiers were guarding, with a roof so low I had to scoot down as I pressed forward into the darkness.

I had no torch, but I was used to traveling through underground tunnels in the dark. I'd had plenty of experience with that back in Zilvaren, when I'd routinely snuck into Madra's underground stores to siphon water. Rusarius had said all of the tunnels lead straight to the quicksilver, so I knew I'd find it eventually.

Yes, come. Come. This way...

A few minutes. That's all it took.

One last turn and I found myself standing in a vast, high-ceilinged cavern. Torches burned in sconces here, mounted to the dripping walls, throwing light out in all directions, which was a blessing. Statues of ancient Fae and other strange creatures twenty feet tall stood around an enormous pool at the very center of the cavern. The air felt heavy here, too thick to draw down into my lungs as I slowed to catch my breath. There was a sound, too—a constant ringing, the pitch so high that I couldn't actually hear it. It was as though I could feel it rattling at my eardrums. The little fox in my arms whined, trying to duck his head back into the bag—apparently, he could hear the ringing tone, and he didn't like it one bit.

“Shhh. It's okay. It's gonna be okay, don't worry.”

Come,the pool beckoned.Be with us. We won’t hurt you.

A cold sweat broke out across my brow when I fully took in the pool. It wasn't just big; it was enormous, forty feet wide and fifteen feet across. The expanse of brightly shining silver made Madra's pool look like a puddle by comparison. Its reflective surface was smooth as the surface of a mirror. But a mirror's sole purpose was to tell you the truth. It didn't differentiate between good and bad. A mirror had no desire to soothe your troubles or deceive you. It was glass and nothing more. This pool of shining silver wasawake and full of lies.

My feet moved toward it, carrying me forward. I'd made it halfway across the smooth stone cavern floor before I'd realized what was even happening. “Gods...” I could see my breath down here. The huge columns supporting the black rock ceiling sixty feet up were slick with ice. The chill that nipped at my skin wasn't from the cold, though. It was more than that—a sharp, probing presence that prickled at me, trying to worm its way inside.

Here. Yes, come here. Come with us...

I stole myself, regaining control of my feet. If I was going to approach the huge expanse of silver, I would do so on my own terms, damn it. In the bag, the fox whined, eyes rolling, panting anxiously. The cursed thing wouldn't stop wriggling. By the time I'd reached the pool, he was thrashing, desperate to be free.

“All right! All right! Gods!” At the wide, raised stone lip that formed the pool's edge, I set the bag down and untied the chord that was keeping him trapped inside. As soon as I pulled the bag open, the fox leaped out and bolted, a streak of white fleeing into the shadows. “Bye, then,” I called after him.

At least he would have a decent chance of finding his way outside of the palace down here, without running afoul of Kingfisher's blade. He had better night vision than I did, and he could smell fresh air from a mile away. He'd be out in the snow, back where he belonged, in no time. He wasn't built for Zilvaren.The heat. The sand. I hadn't really considered how I was going to feed him or find enough water for him. Yvelia was his home. Better that he stayed. Sadness still welled up in my chest as I stared after him, though.

Come. Come. Come....

The voices were insistent. The pull the quicksilver exerted on me intensified, like there were physical hands shoving me, pushing me, pulling me, urging me to step into the pool. And I wanted to. I'd give it what it wanted. But there was one thing I needed to do first...

Yesterday, when Kingfisher had forced me to activate that quicksilver, he'd said it was a test. One I'd passed. I had no idea if he had set me that test or if the quicksilver itself had, but there had been no pain when I'd activated the silver earlier. Only...a key turning in my mind. A lock popping undone. A stream of energy, invited to flow.