“Auriel, do you know where the green shard is?”
He nodded. “It’s buried deep. I went for tombs, keys, and riddles when I hid the indigo and the red. But for the green,” he smiled self-deprecatingly, “well, let no one accuse me of only having one trick. For mine, I chose nature as my accomplice.Nature and sheer brute force. I used my magic to create a hole, deep inside the mountains of Korteria, as far as the human lands. I buried the shard inside it, and then I closed it up.”
“And it’s in Korteria?”
He nodded. Then Rhyan was here. But …
“Did you do anything else when you hid the shard?” I asked suspiciously.
“Well, one thing,” he said, averting his eyes. “I made it so no one could use magic to reopen the hole. I guess back then I was kind of inspired by the way magic couldn’t touch akadim. I wanted something else magic couldn’t touch. And I put it in a place where magic was weakest.”
“West,” I said.
Auriel nodded. “The place can be accessed by anyone, human, or Lumerian, if the spot is known. But you’d have to fight nature, and dig.” He frowned. “The hole I made, and the force I used to close it was extensive. Even for me, even at full strength. It would take months, and an immense amount of digging from an entire team of Lumerians with God-like energy and muscle. And that timeline is generous, and only believable if you had a team working day and night.”
“What about a month?” I asked. “But instead of strong Lumerians digging, it was a horde of akadim? Including one who had living memories of you. And remembered where it was buried.”
Auriel’s mouth dropped open. “Fuck. Fuck! That’s what they’re doing. They’re using Rhyan to locate it, and the akadim to dig out the shard. We need to go. Now.”
Chapter
Thirty
LYRIANA
My heart was hammering, the pieces of the puzzle all coming together. The silence of the akadim, Aemon and Morgana’s plans, and the green shard being hidden in Korteria. That was why Rhyan had been made Arkturion.
I eyed Auriel carefully, my body tensed. “We should leave now,” I said, ready to run, ready to race toward the shard. Toward Rhyan.
But Auriel shook his head, and pulled out a map we’d acquired on one of our outings. “The mountain is at the westernmost Lumerian border, as far as you can go before leaving the Empire.” He pointed.
Even more conveniently closer to Vrukshire than we were now. My heart pounded.
“Shit. That’s why we haven’t heard of any attacks,” I said. “Because they’re in the mountain.”
“Exactly. And more than that. Akadim can survive a month without feeding. They can outlast starvation by years if they have to.”
“You think Morgana and Aemon are starving them?” I asked uneasily.
Auriel nodded. “They would have to, to keep them on schedule, to dig as deep as I buried the shard.” His mouth tightened.
I frowned. Akadim were insatiable. Morgana and Aemon might have them under their thrall—but they were still a horde of starving akadim. They’d riot. They’d mutiny.
And if there was food nearby, then they were feeding. They were just doing it quietly.
I pointed beyond the border, feeling sick to my stomach. “They’re going to the human lands—where there’s no magic. That’s who they’re feeding from, who they’re … attacking. And killing. And … Fuck—they’re probably also building their army with them too. Using them to dig.” All these innocent people, losing their lives, being turned into monsters, all so they could be enslaved and used by Aemon in his war.
Auriel nodded grimly. “Damn.” His eyes reddened and he shook his head. “Lifetimes pass. Some things never change.”
“They did this last time?” I asked.
Auriel’s gaze met mine, and there was something heavy in his aura. Like a rain cloud that needed to burst. “You still don’t remember?” His voice shook.
I shook my head, my eyes watering. “I’m sorry.”
He exhaled sharply. “This was exactly how they gained the advantage over us back then. Numbers. They sent ships beyond the continent, ships that were completely empty. They’d return with humans. Food for their army. Food that became the army.”
My stomach twisted.
