Kalona’s Fall by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast Page B

alone with his Goddess before the test, to show her what his own hands had created
     for her before he wielded magick and Water and put on the requisite public show.
    Kalona had never had to call Nyx to him before. She had just appeared, usually smiling
     and telling him to stop looking so serious and come gather flowers with her, or gaze
     at moonlit water with her, or kiss her, gently, just where her impossibly soft skin
     curved to meet her graceful shoulders …
    Kalona shook himself mentally. Thinking of kissing Nyx would not conjure the Goddess.
    Perhaps he should try calling her name.
    “Nyx?” His voice echoed back to him over the brilliant blue surface of the lake, sounding
     tentative and almost childlike. Kalona squared his shoulders and tried again. “Nyx!”
     This time the echo was more forceful, though it produced the same result. Nyx did
     not appear.
    “Think!” he commanded himself. “There must be a way to reach her without using Mother
     Earth’s element and bringing the whole crowd of them here.”
    As if his words had conjured a small part of that crowd, the little creature stepped
     from behind a nearby pine tree and spoke mockingly in its whispery voice, Goddess not called like servant! Goddess commands, not commanded!
    “You are one of Nyx’s Fey. I saw you beside her on the prairie.”
    As soon as Kalona spoke, the Fey skittered back behind the tree.
    “Don’t run away! I need your help.” Kalona pitched his voice to sound coaxing, soothing.
     The creature, moving with an odd, liquid grace, slid part of its body from behind
     the tree, peeking out at him. “Don’t be frightened. I will not harm you.”
    Not frightened, said the Fey, moving all the way out from behind the tree.
    “That’s right, you don’t need to be frightened of me.”
    L’ota not frightened.
    “L’ota? Is that the type of Fey you are?”
    The creature looked thoroughly offended. I skeeaed! Servant of Goddess! She name me.
    “So, you are close to Nyx.”
    Always.
    Kalona hid his smile. “If you are always close to Nyx, then where is she? I do not
     see her.”
    L’ota’s strangely shaped body rippled in consternation, changing colors from pale
     pink to crimson and rust. Not here. Otherworld.
    Kalona couldn’t contain his smile. “Are you here watching me for her?”
    No! L’ota exclaimed, her voice rising above its usual whisper.
    Kalona’s smiled faded. “She didn’t send you to watch me?”
    I watch for me, not for Goddess.
    Kalona’s brows lifted in amusement. “Why would you want to watch me?”
    You make Goddess sad. I want know why.
    Kalona felt as if the strange little Fey had driven a knife into his heart. “Nyx has
     been sad?”
    The creature’s elongated head nodded, making the pink fringe of fur on its head bob. I want know why.
    Kalona thought the creature didn’t sound particularly worried about Nyx, or even concerned
     that her Goddess was sad. It just sounded curious.
    “I want to know why, too. And I want to make sure she is never sad because of me again.
     The only way I can do that is to have her come here to me, so that I can fix the wrong
     I did that saddened her. L’ota, please go to your Goddess and tell her that I ask—no,
     that I entreat—she come to me.”
    The Fey went very still, and Kalona held his breath, waiting. When she finally spoke,
     L’ota surprised Kalona with her nonchalance.
    If you command I tell Goddess you here.
    “If I command you? That’s all it takes to get you to tell Nyx I’m here and that I
     entreat she come to me?”
    No matter. Not my concern. Only notice what commanded to notice.
    Kalona thought the creature thoroughly odd, but he said, “Then I command that you
     go to Nyx and entreat her to come to me.”
    L’ota’s body completely liquefied and she disappeared, leaving Kalona to stare after
     her and worry that he had, again, made a mistake.
    *   *   *
    “You found my favorite lake.”
    Her voice startled him. He’d been