The Dryad’s face jerked to the left as if she had heard an inaudible sound. Her expression shifted from serene to alarmed in an instant. “Excuse me,” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. “I fear I have to leave.” And then she was gone, disappearing into the crowd, the odd sensation that had taken hold of me vanishing with her.
“Well, that was strange,” Briseis remarked after her customer had left, tucking away the handful of silver coins she had received.
“I’ve had enough of strange for today,” I scoffed, my thoughts racing. Had the Dryad probed my mind with magic? And if so, what had made her stop? Had she found something suspicious?
My gaze flicked up to the sky, worry rising within me as I noted how late it was. The sun hung low, casting long shadows across the market square. I would have to hurry if I wanted to be back at the farm before nightfall.
“Be careful,” I said to Briseis, squeezing her hand. “We will meet here again in a tenday.”
She gave me a concerned look, her eyes searching mine. “What are you planning to do?”
Mysterious magic users and unknown attackers—my visit to the village had done nothing to diminish my dark premonition. I could no longer allow my fear of the past to guide my actions.
“You are right,” I said, my voice steady. “We cannot ignore what Noctis’s presence here might mean. I will find out what he knows. And if he is serious about wanting to rein in Chaos’s destructive power… then I am going to get him to help us.”
CHAPTER
25
THE GOLDEN DAYS OF LYRHEIM
1800 years after the founding of Lyrheim
Rada
Ican’t believe I let you convince me to come here,” I grumbled toward my companion, using a wisp of Air magic to sweep the branches from our path as we stepped into a moonlit glade. “If Aramaz finds out about this…”
The shadows were deep here, the treetops so high that the silvery light barely reached the ground. Leaves rustled beneath the graceful train of my gown, my thin slippers sinking into the soft earth. I’d need more magic to clean the delicate fabric before returning to the feast.
Elodia had outdone herself with my attire tonight. The gossamer-thin white silk clung to every contour of my body before flaring out behind me. Bursts of golden thread concealed only what was necessary. My back was almost entirely exposed by the low dip of the dress—hardly suitable for an excursion into the woods.
“Since when do you ask for Aramaz’s permission before doing things?” Tanez asked, a spark of Light magic rising from her fingertips. Her diaphanous skirts, in shades of green from juniper to seafoam, fluttered around her. The outfit bared her midriff, revealingsmooth, tawny skin, her breasts cupped by hammered gold held by delicate chains. I supposed M’tar had enjoyed fitting those on her.
I ignored my friend’s provoking question, focusing on the dozen motionless forms sprawled across the forest floor, bathed in soft magical light. “We don’t make important decisions without consulting each other,” I said, stepping closer. “And this hasn’t been sanctioned by the Allfather.”
Tanez bent down, gently brushing back the burnished red locks of the figure at her feet, revealing small horns resembling those of a young buck. “Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission,” she said, glancing at me. “The Allfather has never forbidden you the use of your gift in every way you see fit, has he?”
“No,” I admitted. He had entrusted me with the power of the Flame of Creation, despite my endless struggle with control. It had been a long time since I had dared unleash it without Aramaz’s steadying presence to help me tame what lurked within me. And then it had ended in a catastrophe.
To distract myself from my doubts, I scrutinized the new beings my fellow Aurea had created. The forest lived beneath their skin, which ranged from the dark bark of mahogany over reddish chestnut to the lighter shades of oak, sometimes tinged with a greenish shimmer. Their hair echoed the leaves of the trees in autumn: bronze, red, brown, and yellow.
“You made them quite different from your Brownies,” I commented, noting their tall, lean bodies that looked ready to spring to life and dart through the woods.
“There are different sides to the powers of nature,” my friend replied, her lips curving into a secretive smile. “What nurtures one day might destroy the next.” Her smile turned menacing. “As my husband and those troublesome little nuisances he created will soon find out.”
I suppressed a sigh. Tanez’s ongoing conflict with M’tar had disrupted nearly every Council meeting in recent moons. With the Kritak threat still looming, it was a distraction we could not afford. “Couldn’t you ask M’tar to stop his Dwarves from felling your trees for their forges?” I asked her.
The Aurea of Earth shook her head angrily. “I’ve asked a dozen times. He had the audacity to say we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good. And…” A dangerous gleam entered her green eyes, making her look like one of the great cats of the south on the prowl. “That my trees would grow anew.” She shrugged, a self-satisfied laugh escaping her. “He didn’t find it as funny when I asked if he’d mind losing any of his body parts to my knife, considering they’d grow back as well.”
Well, I had tried. Appeasing my friend when she was on the warpath was never easy. Besides, I wasn’t entirely opposed to teaching stubborn M’tar a lesson. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that the other person the Smith had recently quarreled with was the Aurea of Darkness.
“Fine,” I said, taking Tanez’s hands. “Show me what you need.”
A wild smile lit up her face. We summoned our power, magic swirling around us in waves of glittering green and gold. This merging was far less violent than when Belekoroz and I clashed. I felt Tanez’s presence brush against me, bringing the rich warmth of dark soil and the enticing scent of blooming flowers with her. Closing my eyes, I breathed in deeply. My friend immediately opened her thoughts to me. For a moment, I struggled to adjust, getting lost in the pitter-patter of countless tiny insects beneath our feet, in the awareness of so much life around us.
“Can you feel the trees?”Tanez’s voice held the trill of melodious birdsong as it sounded in my mind, centering me once more. Iconcentrated on the giant trees around us. This forest was old—the first she had created—the steady pulse of her power living in every plant.
“You already made a connection,”I noted, seeing tendrils of Earth magic woven into a beautiful pattern between each tree and one of Tanez’s new children.
