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V ahly woke and thought, yes, perhaps she had died.

No, the pain was still there. Definitely there.

So why was the world like a dream? Beams of golden light drifted through a canopy of oak leaves to touch the exposed roots of trees larger than any she ever could have imagined.

Larger than two dragons wide, these oaks spread their limbs over a gently undulating ground of curling ferns, bronze-hued flowers, and carpets of moss thick as winter wool.

The air held the scent of sage, mint, and sun-warmed leaves, and despite the pain in her shoulder, drew her into a peace that sang through her bones and told her that all would be well.

She breathed the place in, taking in the smell of forest earth, black and full of last year’s autumn. If it weren’t for the gaping wound, she’d have been happy to stay in that spot, lying on the ground for eternity.

“Vahly?” A deep voice spoke behind her.

She turned her head, nose swiping a clutch of tiny mushrooms, to see an elf. Something stirred in the back of her mind. She knew him. Didn’t she?

“I’m Arcturus. You’re Vahly. We came here to find out how you can rouse your powers as Earth Queen.

Do you remember? Are you hurting too badly?

I don’t know why we’re here, on the forest floor, beyond the court and alone.

I don’t recall the circumstances. But I have a mighty knot on my head and I’m guessing we were injured on our way here. I think I came to find you…”

Vahly thought about sitting up, then decided against it when pain lanced through her shoulder. “Yes,” she croaked. “You came for me. I found you in the Fire Marshes.”

A shock ran through her. She was speaking elvish.

“How am I speaking elvish? I grew up with…” She tried to finish the thought. “I grew up with dragons. Yes, dragons.”

Arcturus smiled and put his large, strong hands on Vahly’s wound. “You did, yes. And you learned elvish in your studies as a child.”

“Of course. Yes.”

“I’m trying to heal you, but my own injuries limit me.”

He closed his eyes. It was only then Vahly noticed how their outer edges tilted upward slightly and the way a pale purple hue tinged his eyelids. She imagined if she ran a fingertip over the sensitive skin there, it might feel like velvet.

Then his magic began to work.

Pinpricks of heat skipped along Vahly’s wound, the sensation oddly pleasant. She looked down, moving her shirt and the edge of her vest aside. The wound was closed, but the skin remained puckered and sensitive to touch.

“Thank you, Arc. The pain is no longer screaming Toss this human off the nearest cliff please and be done with it .”

Arc chuckled, a low sound that suited his good nature. “You lost a great deal of blood.” He helped her up. “You’ll still need to take it easy. We’ll hurry to the court and someone there will complete your healing.”

“Good plan.”

He placed a hand on her arm, and the gentle, intimate brush of his thumb over her wrist threatened to overwhelm her. Her breath hitched.

“You can also ask King Mattin all your questions.” Arc paused, his brow furrowing. Pieces of sunlight and small, violet shadows swam around his head and fingers. “I remembered something.”

She shook off her strange feelings. This was progress. “Good! What?”

“I’m the King’s cousin.”

“So you are a royal.” He looked the part with his strong features and powerful build.

Ferns and various types of grasses covered the forest floor.

Vahly bent to run her fingers over a light green grass soft as feathers.

As they walked, the ground rose subtly. Arc held Vahly so she didn’t fall when she stumbled, because she was still lightheaded.

A circle of shimmering mushrooms and slender flowers gave way to a sandy path of flagstones bordered by what appeared to be an herb garden.

Lavender bushes taller than Vahly boasted purple buds, mint reached over earthen pots, and pale yarrow flowered between patches of sturdy rosemary and dusky sage.

Orbs of light floated over the plants, edging every leaf in gold.

It was so lovely that Vahly’s pain faded to the back of her mind again.

The path turned beneath more towering oaks.

The greenery was so thick, it was like being inside a cave, yet the light was nothing like a cave.

Soft and bright at the same time, it limned Arc’s hand and forearm as he helped her along.

If she’d thought he was beautiful before, now he was beyond words.

This was truly his home, where he belonged, and his magic-suffused flesh and bone shone with the truth of it.

“The garden. It’s perfect.” She paused to pluck a sprig of lavender and inhaled the pure scent. “How do you keep the sunlight here, like this?”

The spheres of light over the garden floated on the breeze like soap bubbles.

The outer surface of each orb was clear as glass and each one held a shining sun of its own inside.

Once in a while, the contained, sunny luminescence shifted slightly.

Miniature rays hit the glassy barrier before scattering into a crowd of tiny, golden stars.

Arc's eyes sparkled, and he graced Vahly with a genuine smile. “Watch this.”

He lifted the arm that wasn’t holding her up, his muscles churning beneath his seemingly polished skin, and his fingers moved in a pattern that reminded Vahly of braiding.

The purple shadows around his thumb and index finger expanded like spilled ink.

The tendrils spun through the air, slow and sure, until the shadows from his thumb met up with the ones from his finger.

The light faded behind this weave of darkness, and suddenly twilight had descended onto the ancient forest.

Vahly gasped, taken aback by this strange magic. She reached for the mint, beyond where the weaving had stopped, but the plant joined them in the sphere of twilight, or rather, the darkness expanded to include it. Even the insects chirruped inside their nighttime.

“Would you like to embrace the day again?” Arc’s eyebrow lifted. He seemed to be enjoying this power of his.

He spread his hands and the purple shadow of near dark reversed itself, drawing back into his thumb and forefinger. Pinpoints of illumination spun from his fingers then and suffused the air. The twilight fled, and in its place, the warmth and ease of sunlight blanketed Vahly’s shoulders and head.

She pointed to the half moon, half sun image on his surcoat before continuing their progress, this time on her own and without his aid. “I’m beginning to understand this. What else can you elves manage with your mysterious magic?”

“We hold the power of air and so the wind sometimes speaks to us, tells us stories. If I were wholly well, I could work the wind and ask it to carry me a good distance.”

“Great. I’m the only highbeast on land who cannot fly.”

“And the only one capable of keeping the rest of us alive to do the flying.”

“We’ll see.”

Arc nudged her gently with an elbow. “During our journey here, you claimed to enjoy making bets. Care to wager on yourself?”

A laugh bubbled out of Vahly. “I’ll do that.” It was a dark joke, but funny all the same. “I bet one piece of lapis lazuli stone the length and breadth of my palm. Now what exactly are we betting on regarding me?”

The corner of Arc’s mouth lifted as he watched the path wind eastward under their feet. “That you will wake your magic and become a true Earth Queen.” He met her gaze then, eyes full of mischief, and held out his forearm. “I believe in you.”

Vahly rolled her eyes to hide how much his statement touched her. “But if I’m betting on myself, then you'd be betting against me.”

“It’s not what I would choose,” he said, “but someone must spur you to cheer yourself onward. We will make a heart promise of this bet.”

“You’d risk your life on a bet? I knew there was a reason I like you.”

Arc gripped her forearm.

“Fine,” she said, agreeing. “I promise to pay you one lapis lazuli stone the length and breadth of my palm if I don’t manage to wake my powers.”

He repeated his own version of the promise.

She returned the hold, curling her fingers around his arm. The tingle and sizzle of a promise made warmed her heart.

She held two now.

Both simmered there, deep inside, and if she broke them, they would sear their way into the organ that pumped her Touched blood through her veins and kill her in seconds.

But she couldn’t remember what the other promise involved.

Her palms began to sweat.

“Arcturus. I made another promise. I can feel it.” Her fingers tapped her upper ribs where the oath sat waiting. “I can’t recall anything about it.” She shook her head, the ground unsteady beneath her boots.

“You must’ve made an oath to the matriarch who raised you.”

Yes. Amona. Her mysterious injury and the blood loss truly had messed with her head. She’d completely forgotten about Amona.

Breathing slowly to dispel panic, she walked beside Arc and focused on the fact that she would soon get the answers she needed to save Amona and the rest of the Lapis from the Sea Queen.

“How do you think I received this wound? It almost looks like I angered an archer.”

Arc nodded. “I don’t understand it either. Perhaps you fell from a precipice and landed on a broken tree limb? My mind can’t bring it forward. But we’ll be at the court soon and we’ll get all of our answers from my kynd.”

Vahly forced herself to be content for the moment. It wasn’t like she had a choice.

The canopy of great oaks clustered even more thickly and shadowed an area bordered by vines.

Slim white flowers graced the trailing vines and tangled at the foot of what appeared to be a high-backed throne.

The throne looked as though it had simply grown out of the towering oak above it.

The tree’s gnarled limbs cascaded inward to form a seat.

The light and shadow shifted. A male elf sat on the throne.