Page 31

A scream jerked Vahly to a stop, her boots sliding in the pebbles and scattering debris into the wildflowers. Her heart beat hard against her ribs. Who was that? A female. That was certain.

Holding her breath, she listened.

Arc called out, his words unintelligible and twisted with pain or terror or both. His voice lifted again. “Go, Vahly!”

Sweat poured down Vahly’s neck.

Mattin must have figured out Arc was no longer spelled. He would have Canopus kill him.

She had to keep going.

But this was Arc. Never before had Vahly considered a mate, but with Arcturus …

A sob caught in her throat. She squeezed her hands into fists and her nails dug into her own flesh.

Her feet began to run back to Arc, but she pulled herself to a stop, tears rolling off her chin and down her neck.

This is what it meant to be Touched. To save everyone, she had to sacrifice. She had already lost so much.

But she had to lose him too, to give up her chance at love and a family of her own. A shudder shook her hard.

To be a queen, she had to fight on.

The night swallowed her up as a rise in the ground brought her past the place where Mattin had broken the bowl.

Pulse knocking furiously in her throat, she hurried forward.

A root tripped her and she landed on her palms. Rocks bit into her skin.

Jumping up, she finally saw the stones that stood guard over the Blackwater.

She never should have gone on without the Lapis. This was a mistake. A horrible string of deadly errors.

Amona? she called inside her head, trying to use the Bond with her mother. Mother? I lied. I’m sorry. I need you. I’m in the Forest of Illumahrah. If you don’t come quickly, this may be the last you hear from me. I love you.

No answer came. The breeze turned cold and goosebumps ran over Vahly’s arms.

“Nix?” Vahly’s voice spilled into the night. “Nix, things didn’t go as planned. As usual.” Her throat seized up as she forced herself to keep going.

But there was no answer.

Slowing, she approached the spring. As she crunched over the rocks and across soft, damp ground, her heart eased into a peaceful rhythm despite all of the day’s horrors. The air was holy, perfumed with jasmine, clean water, and a scent that reminded her of beeswax candles.

The tall stones, fashioned with rude tools and chipped at their edges, cast shadows over the spring. Leafy vines and moss in varying shades clung to the pool of sparkling Blackwater.

Arc had told her this spring was the origin of all creation.

Stay alive, she thought. For me, Arc.

The depths of the spring were still as glass, and flecks of sapphire, ruby, and amethyst refracted the starlight, drawing Vahly closer. A shiver danced over her shoulders, then down to her fingertips.

She kneeled and breathed in the power of the place. Eyes closing, she felt its effect immediately. Her muscles relaxed and her stomach tightened, not with fear, but with excitement.

She’d hoped there would be something near the spring that she could use to ladle the Blackwater out, but there was only a scattering of pebbles and a fair amount of large, flat rocks. Perhaps she could use one of the leaves from the vines to draw the Blackwater from its bed.

Leaning over the spring, she plucked the largest leaf she could find and bent it to create a dipped space in the middle.

The Blackwater slipped over the leaf’s edge in fingers of glittering black that reminded Vahly of Arc’s eyes.

She trembled, half expecting the leaf to burst into flames and take her along for the ride.

But the Blackwater remained in the leaf, shaking slightly from Vahly’s nervous grip.

She lifted the leaf, then tipped the contents to pour the liquid into her cupped left palm.

As the Blackwater left the leaf’s surface, it shimmered into nothing. Not a drop made it to her hand. Ice filled Vahly’s stomach.

There was a sound to her back, on the trail leading away from the feasting grounds.

She froze, leaf still lifted, and listened.

Only the night insects and a gentle breeze greeted her ears. Where was Nix?

Turning toward the spring again, she set the leaf near her knee. She just had to do it. To plunge her hands into the Blackwater and pray the Source blessed her instead of wiping her off the face of the world.

The guard stones watched her, silent. What had they seen here over the eons? The creation of this isle, Sugarrabota, and all of its dragons, elves, humans, and simplebeasts too. From this very spot, the entire world had spilled into being.

Vahly wished Nix were here. She wished Arc were here.

The names of the ones she loved flickered through her mind.

“Amona. Helena the healer. Nix. Dramour. Kemen. Ibai. Arcturus. Baww.” She whispered their names like a chant as she reached her fingers toward the shimmering surface of the Blackwater.

The water cooled her fingertips. It wrapped around her palms. Cloaked her wrists and forearms.

There was no pain. No dissolving. Only the beat of her heart echoing the lapping of the Blackwater against its borders. Her mind stilled, cleared.

Breathing in the perfumed and holy air, she cradled the Blackwater, lowered her face, then poured the Source of all creation over her brow, cheeks, mouth, and chin.

The cool liquid smoothed its way down the column of her throat and seeped into her clothing, wetting her collarbones and dampening the loose strands of her hair.

A rush of pure joy suffused Vahly.

She opened her eyes. The Blackwater disappeared from her arms and hands. Touching her face, she realized her cheeks and chin were clean too. Had her body absorbed the Blackwater?

A strange sound washed through the night.

A quiet, but pervasive thudding.

Vahly put a hand to her chest. It sounded like a heartbeat, but it wasn’t her own. She moved, readying to stand, and placed a hand on the ground.

The drumming intensified.

She slammed down both open palms, her own pulse rate climbing.

The thudding remained constant, vibrating into her hands, and suddenly she knew.

This was the earth’s heartbeat.

A tear escaped her eye and ran down one cheek. She could feel the earth’s life under her hands. The Blackwater had not killed her. It had changed her.

Standing, head spinning, she listened to the world for the first time.

The slow scrape of leaves growing. Creatures digging through the dirt beneath her feet. Trees reaching thick boughs toward the blue hint of dawn.

She could hear the earth and everything in it.

Now, what could she do with this ability? Did she have any chance of fighting Mattin and Canopus and saving everyone from whatever dark magic they possessed?

Another scream ripped through the early morning. There was shouting and suddenly a crowd of elves rushed at Vahly.

Nix crashed out of the forest into the clearing beyond the spring. “I’m going to shift!” she shouted before calling up her fire.

Mattin appeared over the rise, the last of the night painting his face a pearly gray. He held out one hand, cloaked in purple shadows. The darkness stretched above the heads of all, and inside its swirling depths, Arc thrashed, two flashing knives drawn, but useless in the murky magic.

He lived.

Walking beside him, Canopus also held a captive in a hovering cloud. Cassiopeia.

Behind them, the rest of the elves wore faces of fear and rage. A wall of twisting darkness held them so they could not strike out at Mattin or Canopus who were outside the barrier.

Haldus, along with several others, shot arrows that bounced off the spellwork boundary.

Then Rigel, Pegasi’s mourning father, and Haldus, Arc’s sturdy friend, both drew throwing knives.

The blades flew, but connected with the barrier and fell to the leaf-strewn ground.

General Regulus’s face reddened as he tried his own air magic against the wall, light and shadow peeling away from his scarred hands and shaking Mattin’s barrier.

Vahly’s hands trembled violently as she drew her sword and stood her ground. Nix rose onto her hind legs beside Vahly, dragonfire rumbling and ready in her throat.

“Mattin!” Vahly’s voice was strong despite the fear lancing through her heart.

“Why do you fight us? We are all on the same side against the sea. Why wouldn’t you want me to gain what power I can to help you and your kynd survive?

It makes no sense. Have you spelled your own mind with this dark magic you’ve wrought? ”

Mattin thrust a tendril of the shadow holding Arc to Canopus who grabbed the tether. Canopus thrust the haze to the ground. Arc fell, his head banging sharply against the earth. Vahly felt it in her own neck and temples.

Rigel pounded fists on the magicked barrier, his gaze on Arc’s limp form.

King Mattin sneered. “Listen to the human with her arrogance. Your kynd always believe they are the answer to everything. We elves were the first kynd, the purest kynd. Our blood flows with Blackwater. Well, you were easy enough to fool. The lot of you. I have diluted the Blackwater your kynd used in their power ritual for generations. I was tired of your presumptuous behavior, your lording about as if you were the first instead of us.”

What was he admitting? He had weakened the earlier Earth Queens by twisting the ritual? “Is this about the bowl?

“Of course it is, fool. I spelled that bowl to diminish the Blackwater’s effect on your kynd.

I all but eliminated its ability to alter the Touched as well as the less magically inclined.

I tired of you traipsing through our lands like you owned the world.

You made all the rules and used our Blackwater spring as if it stood in your home and not ours.

We were first. And all I wanted was peace!

” Never had the word been uttered with such malice.

Nix roared. She was ready to roast him, but Vahly needed to understand what was happening. What if he could trap Nix too?

“Didn’t you realize you were aiding the Sea Queen by weakening us?” Vahly asked, her voice raw. “You are to blame for the rising seas. You are the reason no recent Earth Queens have had the ability to shake the earth and change the tides, to drive the waves back.”

Shame washed over his features, but he schooled them into a mask of vanity and rage.

Vahly thought perhaps he hadn’t realized what powerful results his actions would have on his own kynd’s future.

Only out of desperation, had he made his oath to the Sea Queen.

At that point, he had known it was too late to revive the power of the humans.

And the Sea Queen hadn’t known what he did with the bowl and the Blackwater. She had still feared the earth’s power.

But Mattin knew the truth. He had ruined the line of Earth Queens and only a deal with his greatest enemy, the sea, would save his kynd.

“Enough talk.” Mattin raised his hands, bunched his fingers, then released a thousand tendrils of purple shadow.