The Faerie Prince

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

The Guild's Hall of Honor is a vast room filled with pillars. On each side of every pillar is a plaque where the name of the top guardian graduate is written each year. It isn't a room I visit very often, but every now and then I stop by to remind myself why I keep working so hard to be the top graduate in my class. And right now, before receiving my final assignment, seems like a good time.

I walk slowly between the pillars as I head for the plaque with my mother's name. My boots cause a faint echo each time they connect with the centuries-old wooden floor. Shadows flicker from the flames that burn perpetually in the torches attached to the walls. I thought it was a little eerie the first time I came in here, but now it evokes a sense of comfortable familiarity.

I stop when I reach my mother's plaque. There are ten names from ten different years. Hers is third from the top. Rose Hawthorne. Gold letters on dark wood.

"I've finally reached the last hurdle," I whisper, imagining that somehow she can hear me. "And I'm going to do it, Mom. I'm going to win the top prize." I reach up and run my finger across her name, feeling the raised letters. Then I drop back down onto my heels and head out of the hall.

Time to get on with the final hurdle.

I climb the stairs that lead to Tora's corridor. The last time I saw her, it was for a counseling session—the goblin in the park—and she mentioned she'd been asked to visit another Guild for a few days. Well, a few days turned into a few more, and a few more, and I ended up having all my assignments during the past two weeks organized by Honey's mentor, Tina. It's probably the longest I've gone without seeing Tora since the day I met her.

So when I knock on her office door and there's no response, I feel a definite sinking in the region of my heart. Where is she? She's the closest thing I have to family and I miss her! I push her door open and find the office in darkness, which is even more disturbing. Wasn't she supposed to come back last night?

I leave the door open to let some light in and sit down in one of the chairs. She must be here somewhere, otherwise I would have been told to see a different mentor. I lean back and twirl a strand of hair around my finger. My mind wanders back to the conversation in the lesson room before Bran arrived. I wonder who Ryn's seeing tonight and why he won't tell his friends about it. What doesn't he want them to know?

After several minutes of pondering the possibilities of Ryn's love life, I hear hurried footsteps in the corridor. A second later Tora strides into her office, a stack of papers clutched in her hands. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Vi." She dumps the papers on her desk. "I was called to an unexpected meeting, and—" She glances up at the ceiling. "Oh, the glow-bug. He squirmed out of here and all the way to the end of the corridor while I was away. Lonely, I think. I'm sure I asked someone to—Oh, thank you." She steps aside as two dwarves march in, one with a fat, yellow glow-bug in his hands. They climb onto Tora's desk, one gets onto the other's shoulders, and they secure the glow-bug to the ceiling. They climb down and leave without a word to either of us.

"And now they tell me I have to talk to the bug occasionally or he'll leave in search of a different room," Tora continues as the glow-bug slowly warms up to its shining state. "Honestly. I'm sure glow-bugs weren't always this sensitive." She sits down with a heavy sigh. "So, do you want the bad news or the really bad news?"

"Wow. Good afternoon. It's nice to see you too, Tora. It's only been, what? Two and a half weeks?"

A pink tinge colors Tora's cheeks. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She jumps up and walks around to my side of the desk. "I've been so busy since I got back last night that it feels like I never left." She leans down and puts her arms around me. I hug her back, tighter than normal, realizing suddenly that this is what I've wanted since the moment I woke up in Ryn's house and the reality of Nate's betrayal hit me. "Hey, are you okay?" she asks, pulling back. "Did everything go all right with Tina while I was in London?"