At nightfall, Naelin found another barren circle and fought them again as they tried to bond with it, harder this time.
“What’s going on?” Ven asked her quietly.
“They don’t want to go back,” Naelin said.
“Can’t blame them,” Ven said.
“But they’re spirits. They hate us. I thought...” She’d thought the spirits in the untamed lands were free, the way they wanted to be, but she’d been wrong. “They told me their creation story. It’s different from any I’ve heard.” She told him what the spirits had told her.
When she finished, Ven said, “Wish my sister were here to hear that.”
“They think it’s true.” She’d never felt sorry for spirits before, but when she’d told them about the untamed lands and about her plan to leave them there, she’d felt their fear. Like children, afraid of being abandoned by their parents.
They’d lost their Great Mother.
The queens, they’d said, were poor substitutes.
But we’re all they have.
Reaching out, she sent them a thought:I won’t abandon you there.
The spirits paused. As if all of them were holding their breath at once, she felt them listening to her.Is that what you’re afraid of? Being without a queen in the untamed lands?
Yes. Yes, it was.
I’m going with you.She pushed them the memory of Erian and Llor.I need to find them. Help me, and I won’t leave you alone. We’ll go into the untamed lands together, and I promise I won’t leave you behind. We’ll come back, and we’ll find you a true home.
A ripple went through the spirits. It was a mixture of fear and something Naelin had never felt in them before.
Hope.
The spirits agreed.
Braced between two pillars, Daleina stood at the top of the Queen’s Tower and tried to ignore Hamon and his mother bickering behind her.
“If she really wants to talk to me, she shouldn’t make me climb so many stairs,” Garnah was griping. “Also, she should provide a lounge chair at least. I don’t sit on floors.”
“This is the most secure place in Mittriel,” Hamon said.
“Pfft. Not so secure. Chop a few support branches, and we’ll all plummet to our deaths on the forest floor. Boom! Splat!” Garnah made a variety of squishing noises.
“Secure from spies, Mother.”
Daleina heard shuffling and the crinkling of fabric behind her, then a theatrical sigh before Garnah said, “Most likely, we’d be impaled on one of the lower towers long before we hit the forest floor.”
“Mother. Enough. Daleina didn’t call you here to murder you.”
“Delightful news,” Garnah drawled. “But I’d prefer to hear such assurances from Her Majesty.”
That was her cue to turn around and reassure Garnah, but instead Daleina sank her mind into the forest, reaching out to the spirits, soothing them.Safe. You’re safe. They won’t hurt you. Don’t hurt them. They’ll be gone soon.She felt the spirits twist and squirm—they wanted to hide or attack or chase or flee.Calm. You’re safe.
She couldn’t keep her spirits from following the swath of foreign spirits that clung to Queen Naelin. They hovered around their camp, watching the intruders’ every move. Ripples of unease spread across Aratay, from spirit to spirit. She couldn’t stop it, or even slow it. All she could do was try to keep it from building into anything more.
Do no harm.
Leave them be.
Watch, if you must. But just watch.
