I wouldn’t be locked out of yet another place by a damned wall.
The roots crawled up the side of the lower mountain, pulsing like a vein. They reached the top of an outcropping, a space in the sheer rockface that stuck out like a ledge, and stopped.
I looked up, squinting into the midafternoon sun. “Can we access that?”
Kiyan and the Viceroy followed my gaze. Above us, the mountain stood like a shroud over the valley.
Kiyan walked over to the foot of the mountain and place his hands on the fading golden threads of my magic still winding up the rock. It felt strangely personal watching him rest his hand against it, nearly as intimate as his hands on my body this morning. I bit my lip, my face heating as I looked away.
“It looks like we’ll have to climb up there.”
“Climb?” The Viceroy asked, frowning up at the mountain.
We hadn’t talked much during the journey, but I could feel him giving me probing glances when we had stopped to feed the horses. It had been unnerving.
I thought of my last adventure in climbing, and how much my muscles protested. Already they were screaming in refusal this time around. I felt the rise of irritation in my chest.
“I don’twantto climb, but right now it’s the only option that makes sense. Do you have picks? Shoe clamps? Anchor hooks?”
I knelt down, opened my satchel, and sorted through what I had that could assist. I had a slim rope, some hooks, but nowhere near enough the level of equipment I would have as an excavator.
Kiyan stared at me. “What are you doing? I couldn’t begin to understand what you want to use those for.” He looked back up the mountain again. “But I could get us up this rock.”
“I’m sorry?” I followed his gaze up the sheer rock face to the towering table of the mountaintop above us. “We’ve been riding across this damned country and you are now telling me you have the power of flight?”
He rubbed his chin. “Not flight, per se. But as my magic is concentrated in the natural world, I could lift us up to the top.”
“If you have a plan that doesn’t involve me having to climb up there or having us fall to our deaths, then let’s do that.”
Kiyan flexed his hands in preparation.
The Viceroy stepped forward, his eyes gleaming.
“I’ll have to take Reza first.”
But the Viceroy shook his head, picking at his nail. “You two go on ahead, find the crown. We’ll set up camp here.”
I darted a glance at Kiyan.The Viceroy wasn’t coming?
“I’ve heard the Queen has deadly traps lying in wait for those who disturb her vault. I’ll let you two do what I brought you here for.”
In other words, he didn’t want to risk his skin.
Kiyan frowned. “Sir, do you think it’s wise to stay here, given the rebel activity?”
The Viceroy smiled. “You know I would welcome such an attack, Kiyan.”
Kiyan’s jaw flexed as his mouth pulled into a grim line. Then he nodded brusquely and walked over to me.
As I’d seen him do before, he brought his hands up, and, with whispered words, vines grew from the ground like eels, curling out from the forest floor and wrapping themselves around our legs. He placed a hand on my waist, and the other twisted in the air, commanding the plants around us.
I felt a spike of panic as they curled around my body, around my hips, and along my arms. It felt almostintimate, just as it had when he’d touched my magic against the rock, and especially when the vines curled around our joined bodies and pressed us closer together.
It was as if these weren’t plants that wound around my legs and hips, but hishands.I shot Kiyan a look, but he was focused on calling his magic. Sweat beaded along his forehead and his mouth was curved down in concentration. His chest heaved heavily against mine, labored, like he’d been running.
Conjuring this much magic was taking a toll on him.
Reza limited our magic, and we can only do a fraction of what we once could.
