“Wait, Your Highness.” Fabin stopped him. “Please, allow me to do this.”
Nial's jaw clenched. The price of royalty was sometimes sending other people to risk themselves in your stead. Nial knew that. He grudgingly nodded and joined Everan, Erlandral, and me on the sidelines. Fabin took Nial's place and extended his hands in the same manner. He made a scooping movement with both hands, then lifted them. The earth below lifted with his movement—great chunks floating up and then to the side. Fabin excavated several feet of dirt in a few seconds.
“How deep shall I go?” He asked the mage.
“I think it will become evident when you've reached your destination,” Erlandral said dryly.
“In other words, you have no idea,” the Commander concluded.
“Precisely,” Erlandral confirmed without irritation.
Fabin looked surprised by the mage's guileless confession. His lips twitched as he set his focus back on the ground. He set back to work and a pile of dirt quickly started to form beside the Commander. He kept going. In my other sight, the yellow became more saturated.
“You're getting closer,” I said encouragingly.
Several minutes passed. The dirt pile grew taller than the Commander. The yellow thickened but then other colors bloomed inside it—sapphire, ruby, emerald, and citrine. I had never seen an aura like that before and I had a feeling that its colors represented the elements, not any kind of emotion or personality trait. This was Danu's asha.
Fabin kept digging. The hole had to be thirty feet deep. He shot us side-glances every few seconds, waiting for someone to tell him to stop. The rest of us stepped forward to line the edge of the hole beside Fabin, across from the heap of earth. So, we all saw it as soon as it was revealed.
“What is that?” Nial whispered.
Fabin's arms dropped limply to his sides and his jaw fell open.
“Dear Danu,” Erlandral whispered as he peered at a square of light.
Nial gestured and more dirt lifted away. Light filled the hole. It emanated from something that appeared solid and yet beneath its smooth surface, it moved, flowing with wispy currents. Within the light were glimmers of sapphire, ruby, emerald, and citrine, flashing like opalescence—the same colors I saw in the asha hovering above it. There was no neon/pineapple within the beautiful, glittering flow—that was merely a color of the asha, not a physical color of... whatever this was—but there were streamers of oily black. I dropped my second sight and the thick asha disappeared but the light remained. As did the darkness.
“Erlandral, what is that?” Nial asked again.
“I believe it's the magic of Danu,” Erlandral said reverently. “I sense andseethe elements swirling within it.”
“A layer of magic within the realm, like the molten core of the Earth,” I mused.
“Afoundationof magic,” Erlandral corrected me. “This is the collection of energy we donated to create our realm.”
“Then what are the black ribbons trailing through it?” Everan asked.
Erlandral went silent, only shook his head.
“That shade of black means sickness,” I answered for him.
“What does that mean?” Nial asked, his eyes wide, urging me to say anything other than what I did.
“Danu is dying.”
Chapter Nine
Following my grave announcement, I was swept up in a whirlwind of activity. Everan grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the cave while Uncle Nial hastily filled in the hole with great shoves of his magic. Commander Fabin contacted my grandfather through the comm-unit in his breastplate and by the time we were in the carriage and heading back to the North Castle, a meeting between the monarchs of Danu had been arranged. The knights who'd been close enough to hear my dire conclusion had been sworn to secrecy for the moment. No one wanted word of Danu's dying to get out.
Everan and I remained in the Northern Kingdom where the meeting would be held but Ever sent word to his steward that he should be notified of any unusual occurrence in the South. Several hours later, we walked into the same meeting room I'd entered that morning but this time, all of the royals of Danu were there and no courtiers or even Commander Fabin. I avoided Queen Elisande's gaze—we had some bad history—but made a beeline for her heir, Prince Varian.
Varian wasn't Elisande's son. The only reason he was the Prince of the East was that I had taken all of the original Prince's asha along with the magic it contained and gave it to Varian. Royal status in Danu is determined by magic, not birth. Because of this, during the brief amount of time that I'd held the magic, I was the Princess of the East. But Everan had been invited to my crowning and absconded with me during the celebration—long story.
“Varian!” I hugged the prince warmly.
“Amara,” Varian whispered as he lowered his face to kiss my cheek. He stepped back and added, “It's good to see you.”
Varian, like most Danutian men, was strikingly handsome. He had a muscular build like Everan's, gained from the years he'd spent as a soldier. Those soldier-muscles were covered in silk and velvet now instead of the cotton and leather Varian used to favor and over his braided, auburn hair, he wore a slender silver circlet to announce his status. His eyes used to be a combination of two shades of blue—a deep sapphire base with spokes of teal over that—but now they were a uniform pale lavender. Their color spoke of his princely status even more than the crown on his head, but I still missed the blue.
