“Don't give it any suggestions,” Everan cut me off.
“I wasn't going to.” I grimaced. “I just want to know if that”—I motioned to the tree—“is the heart.”
“It's not,” Everan said confidently. “It's like the mountain that contains the Heart of Fire; the tree protects the heart.”
“Then how do I get to the heart?”
“Do you have to see it to heal it?” Ever countered.
I considered this. “I suppose not. I only need to see its asha.”
I dropped into my second sight and gasped. I had expected to see that strange yellow and it was there but it was far thicker than it had been in the Vicanesse Mountains. In the cave, the yellow had been sheer, a stain over the base aura. But with this tree, itwasthe aura. The color had consumed the asha and thickened into an opaque pus. Oily black spots of sickness pocked the neon/pineapple like boils and the whole thing roiled as if with toxic fumes.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered—all other curses failing me.
“My sentiments exactly,” Everan muttered as he took my hand. Then, in a steady voice, he added, “Take a breath, Shalani. You can do this.Wecan do this.”
Even though Everan could see ashas now, he couldn't interpret them nor could he affect them as I could. All he could do was lend me his support—emotionally and magically. But that was nothing to sneeze at. I could very well need him to help me with the heart.
“If this is happening here, why aren't there more shriveled trees in Raeventar? Why did the earthquakes hit the Earth Kingdom? For that matter, why is the Heart of Earth here instead of there?”
“You know why the hearts are here,” he said gently. “The Gods guard them and they live in the South. As for why we weren't hit first by the weakened Earth magic—even though the heart resides here, it is aligned with the Northern Kingdom—the Kingdom of Earth—and its magic flows there first. Now, stop stalling, Shalani. You need to heal the heart and you must do it now. That poison will soon spread through Raeventar and then beyond.”
“I want to heal it. The question is how,” I whispered to Everan.
“What do these colors tell you?” he asked me.
“The neon yellow is panic and the pineapple is inciting; it can speed a metabolism. So something between panic and activity? And that oily black is sickness.”
“Very well, so we'll need a color to calm the panic, one to slow a metabolism, and one for healing sickness.”
I blinked at him. “Well, when you put it like that, it sounds easy.”
Everan laughed. Then he sobered and added, “I am with you. Just focus.”
I took a deep breath and considered the colors. To counter panic, I would go with calming amethyst. It had worked on the mountains, after all. But to slow a metabolism, I would need another shade of purple—plum. So, to reverse them both at once, I'd need a shade somewhere between amethyst and plum. It made complete sense to me. Purple and yellow are complementary colors so, of course, they would cancel each other out. As far as healing went, that was harder. When I heal a body, I need to know what's wrong with it so I can choose the correct color for the injured body part. Usually, the aura can help me diagnose that. But with the heart... Wait. The answer was in the question. The body partwasthe heart!
Except that was tricky too. The only color with connections to the heart is red and that's mostly the emotional aspect, not the actual muscle. Concerning the heart itself, the only thing red could do for it was make it beat faster and that wasn't what this heart needed. So, what then? The heart is a muscle and the color green strengthens muscles—the shade spruce, to be specific. Plus, green is the color of Earth magic. It was perfect! And green should go first. I wanted to take care of the sickness before it spread.
“Okay, I think I'm ready,” I said to Everan.
He squeezed my hand supportively. I focused on the spots of oily black and spruced them up (sorry, I couldn't resist). It worked; spruce consumed the sickness, then vanished into the thick yellow like a pea dropped into thick soup. But there was so much black. I narrowed my focus—and therefore my magic—into a point and injected spruce into every black boil like a syringe full of penicillin. Over and over, I speared the black with spruce until sweat rolled down my back and my hands began to shake. Everan squeezed my hand to remind me of the power available to me. I could feel it pulsing from his palm, ready to be taken. But I had only begun to heal the Heart of Earth. If I had to pull on his power now, I might not get through the yellow. I decided to stay the course on my own.
I didn't try to fuel myself from the oily black. I'd learned my lesson from the mountains and also, I wasn't sure feeding on sickness was such a good idea. Concentrating on the black spots individually helped a little. I was able to take little breathers between. It went a lot slower than a normal aura sweep would take but this wasn't a normal aura. It wasn't the size of a mountain but it might as well have been, it was so saturated with color. By the time I finished clearing the blackness, I was nearly drained, and I knew it would take much longer to scrape through the layers of yellow that remained.
I let go of Everan's hand and fell forward into a bend, my palms pressed against my knees to support me. I panted, the breath sawing out of me as if I had just run a marathon, and tried not to vomit. Then, as I stared at my feet and Everan rubbed my back, something miraculous happened. The dry, powdery dirt beneath my boots moistened and darkened into rich soil as blades of grass burst through. Wildflowers sprouted and bloomed and the scent of decay blew away on a fresh breeze. I allowed myself the briefest of smiles.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and straightened warily. Bargests emerged from the treeline, hundreds of them. They came forward, their stares focused on the tree. I followed their gazes and felt my eyes widen as I watched the trunk fill in like an inflatable pool toy and the branches rise toward the sky like arms raised in jubilation. Tiny buds appeared on those rejoicing limbs and then unfurled into broad leaves. The knights behind me made sounds of wonder as the tree—this keeper of the heart—blossomed into its former glory. The Bargests gave a growling shout that turned into a triumphant howl.
“You did it!” Mahar declared. “You healed the tree! Our queen has done what even the God of the Forest could not do! Hail, Queen Amaranthine!”
The Bargests took up the cry and my name echoed through Raeventar.
Chapter Eighteen
“Stop!” I shouted.
The meadow went silent, every eye focused on me in shock.
