Wayfarer by R.J. Anderson Page A

Empress gives up looking for you, and then try again. What about these Children of Rhys that Rob mentioned? They’re faeries, too, aren’t they?”
    â€œYes, but we don’t even know where to find the Children, let alone whether they’d be willing to help us. And we’re running out of time.” Her expression wasdesolate. “Even working together, Valerian and I can’t protect the Oak the way the Queen used to. If we’d done the wards properly, you’d hardly have noticed the tree at all when you came—but you walked right up and touched it. We might be able to hide from the Empress, but what good will that do us if we just end up being found by the humans instead?”
    Timothy let her go and stood up, shoving his cold hands back into his pockets. “I don’t know. But I can’t see you’ve got any other choice.”
    Linden was silent, her gaze on the floor. Then she said, “You’re not going to come with me, are you? You’re going to keep running away.”
    She didn’t sound accusing, only resigned. Timothy hunched his shoulders uncomfortably. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. I just don’t know what use I could be, especially if the Empress and her people do come after us. You might be safe in your Oak if you can keep up those spells long enough, but all they’d have to do to find me at Oakhaven is look through the window. They might even figure out that Peri used to be one of your people and decide to punish her, too. Is that what you want?”
    Linden looked stricken. “No!”
    â€œRight. So if you ask me, it’s better for everyone if I don’t go back to Oakhaven. Besides”—he tried to keep his voice light, but somehow the old bitterness crept in—“Pauland Peri already made it pretty obvious they didn’t want me around.”
    â€œOnly because they were afraid you’d find out about the Oak—”
    â€œBecause they don’t trust me, that’s why!” The words came out louder than he’d intended, and Linden flinched. With an effort Timothy controlled his temper and went on, “By now they should know what kind of person I am. But apparently they think I’m the kind who’d smash up a five-hundred-year-old tree for the fun of it, or stuff faeries into specimen jars and sell them for pocket money, or—”
    â€œOr hit someone and get yourself sent away from school?” said Linden.
    That stopped him. Timothy’s bruised mouth twisted in frustration, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
    â€œI know you’ve been hurt,” Linden told him quietly. “But you should know something else, too. Ever since the first time you came to Oakhaven, Knife—I mean Peri—has been telling me about you. She always said how clever and funny you were, and how much she enjoyed having you stay. But she also warned me, whenever you came, that I mustn’t come to the House until you’d gone. It’s not just you, Timothy—she doesn’t trust anybody with our secret. Because the secret’s not hers to share.”
    Timothy hesitated. Then he dropped down onto the bench beside her, staring at the floor.
    â€œI can’t go back,” he said heavily. “Not yet. Just…I’m not ready.”
    Linden didn’t say anything for a long while, and he wondered if she was angry. But when she spoke, her voice was calm:
    â€œThen you’ll just have to come to the Oak with me.”

Seven
    Timothy seemed so cynical and world-weary at times, Linden had almost forgotten he was only a little older than herself. But now the eagerness in his face made him look truly fifteen again. “You mean it?” he said. “But I’m…Can you really do that?”
    â€œI think so. It would just be a temporary change, of course, and I’ll have to keep renewing the glamour so you don’t