Page 26 of To Scale the Emerald Mountain

Something alights in my bones. My skin is positively buzzing. My very cells are calling out and demanding to know more.

I swallow audibly and tell him in a choked whisper, “No, I can’t say that I have.”

My words don’t sound convincing, despite them being the truth. Locane must think so too because he leans into me further, a sudden flash of something dark crossing over his face.

“Are you sure?” The question is thrown at me as more of an accusation.

“Yes, I’m sure. Well, I mean, no. I’m not sure. But I’m sure I can’t recall anything about any gems,” I stutter, suddenly overtaken by the need to explain myself. Crippled by the need to appease him. “If I have heard of them, I don’t know. I don’t know,” I finish weakly.

Locane’s face quickly shifts back to neutral as he loosens a stiff breath. “Of course. It has been difficult tracking down a lot of this information. I have only found one ancient book, nearly impossible to read, mentioning them at all. And even so, their existence is not expressly stated.”

“Well, what are they?”

“There are five: emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond, and amethyst.” Locane pauses dramatically and studies me, searching for recognition. “The five gems created by the gods with magic supposedly stolen from Ellhora.”

“Magic stolen from the willowbane tree?”

Locane’s eyes widen a fraction, and I cringe at the slip.

“And what, Ellya, do you know of the willowbane tree?” he asks, deathly calm.

A sheen of sweat breaks out over my lip as he assesses me with cool eyes. The intensity of those dark depths unnerves me to my core.

“What?” I spit defensively. “Why shouldn’t I know of the willowbane tree? Nana said it’s a popular place in the Gleisheon Territory. I’d venture to guess that ‘popular tourist destination’ and ‘big dark secret’ don’t generally go together.”

“No, I’d say they don’t. And I didn’t say you shouldn’t know about it. I simply asked what you do.” His expectant eyes rove over my face, intently waiting for an answer. Waiting for me to give something else away.

“Just that it sprouted and grew where Ellhora landed. And that it was essentially the beating heart of this planet—holding all magic and life of the earth. And that it was poisoned by the gods during the Original War,” I tell him, desperate for the intensity of his gaze to die.

“Yes, it certainly was poisoned.” He cradles his chin between thumb and forefinger, stroking gently, deep in thought. “Anything else?”

“All I know is that Nana had doubts about some of the stories about Ellhora.” Red splotches of shame stain my cheeks as I share pieces of that memory that I vowed to keep to myself.

Locane moves his hand quickly away from his face to cradle my chin. I gasp in surprise.

“And what did she doubt?” Locane asks, eyes jumping back and forth between mine. I jerk my head, trying to dislodge his hold, but he only grabs tighter. “Answer me!”

“She just told me a nursery story about our smaller moon and Ellhora creating our world. She keptsaying ‘they say,’ and it just sounded like she didn’t really believe any of it,” I explain, panicked. “She didn’t really tell me anything. I swear.”

Locane exhales sharply and releases my chin, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I take in a deep breath, not realizing that I had barely dared to breathe.

“Of course. She’s too insightful not to doubt,” he mutters quietly to himself, something akin to disdain dripping from his words. I knit my brows at him, the muttered statement insinuating he knows more about my grandmother than he has let on.

I’m about to confront Locane when he suddenly lifts his head to me, face serene.

“It always amazes me the pretty lies people are so willing to believe simply because they’ve heard them enough.”

I gape at him. “What does that mean?”

Locane gives me a scolding glare. “What would make you, personally, doubt the stories our history books tell us about the tree? About magic?”

Thinking hard about everything I know of accepted history, I separate it from the gems of the gods Locane is telling me about. I shake my head, brows narrowed. “If the lifeforce and magic of the earth were solely tied to Ellhora and the tree, why didn’t it all die when the tree was poisoned at the beginning of time, stolen magic or not?”

Locane smiles wide and laughs. “And do you know what our history books don’t tell us?”

I shake my head. “What?”

“They say nothing about the gems forged into the earth, about the method in which the gods gave their magic. Why does no one question this?”