I began to tremble. A bead of sweat ran down my temple and fell off my chin. Everan was immediately there, slipping his hand into mine. But again, I resisted the temptation to take what he offered. I wanted to keep my men as a last resort because I knew they were stronger than anyone in that glade. If the Bargests failed to sustain me—and I dearly hoped that didn't happen—then I'd need something even stronger than them. I'd need my lovers.
So, I squeezed Everan's hand in gratitude but focused on the bloom of ashas to my left. I latched onto the first ones I saw and sucked in their energy. Once I had one asha, it was easy to move onto similar ones nearby and I was able to sweep across the Bargests smoothly, taking gentle sips as I continued to concentrate on the heart's asha. My weakness vanished under a tide of vigor. I grinned and pushed harder.
Again and again, I took tiny pieces from the ashas of the Bargests but I didn't need much to get through the yellow. When I reached the glowing, sparkling, pure, emerald green of Earth's Heart beneath, I nearly cried out in relief. But as soon as it was revealed, our connection reversed. I don't know how else to describe it. It was like flipping a switch on a vacuum. One second, I was pushing color into the asha, and the next, it was pulling asha out of me.
The heart fed on me as I had fed on the Bargests except it did so much faster and without mercy.
I gasped and stumbled. Everan kept me from falling but I swayed on my feet even with his support. My vision swam and my mind raced in panic as I automatically latched onto the ashas around me to keep from passing out. They filled me and revived me briefly but then flowed right through me and into the heart. It was sucking up asha as if it were starving for it. With that speed, I couldn't control how much I took from the Bargests and they began to drop to their knees, one after another, in a graceful wave. Unlike me, they didn't panic; the strong helped the weakened ones back and then stepped forward to take their places. But that's because they didn't know what I had sensed—that the heart wasn't just taking asha, but also the magic within it. Life force could be refilled but I wasn't sure about magic, not when it was taken in such great amounts. I wanted to shout at them to run, but I could barely breathe. I managed to let go of Everan's hand and when he reached for me, I shoved him back, my eyes wide with terror.
“Amara!” Everan reached for me again.
“No!” I finally managed to scream. “Run! All of you, get as far away from me as you can!”
“Never!” Everan shouted. “I stand with you. No matter what it is, we face it together.”
“The heart is taking our magic too!” I tried to make all of them understand. “You could lose it forever!”
But no one listened. The Bargests continued to replace their fallen, and the heart continued to suck down their asha and magic through me as if I were a straw and they, the water it needed to live. I scrambled for a way to stop this, my thoughts running wild. And then I realized my mistake. The colors in the asha had been the symptom, not the disease. I shouldn't have been seeking a way to remove the neon-pineapple but instead searching for the reason why that color was there.Whywas the heart panicking? What was it trying to incite? Or even—why was its spiritual metabolism speeding up? All good questions that I should have pondered before blindly messing with the Heart of Earth's asha.
My vision went inward and I suddenly saw the Heart of Earth cradled within the roots of the tree. A glowing ball of green with roots of its own reaching into the soil. But I saw much more than that. To take my asha, the heart had to open itself to me. And it used that opportunity to reveal itself fully—to show me what I needed to know.
It gave me the answers to my questions. Well, some of my questions. I couldn't understand how it had happened, but the Heart of Earth showed me that it had been drained, not tainted. Something had sucked up its asha and the magic inside it just like it was sucking up ours. But the heart was pure energy and magic—both of which had been donated generously by the Danutians—and the heart retained the generosity and compassion of that sacrifice. In short, it loved its people because itwasits people.
The Heart of Earth had panicked when its asha had been stolen. It knew that the cycle of magical exchange between it and the people it loved couldn't be completed under such a deficit. So, instead of reaching for Danu and the Danutians to refill its asha and magic—and likely kill many of them in the process—it had revved up its energy and created a barrier around itself. It had attempted to cut itself off from Danu to protect Danu. But that shell was only a temporary fix. The magical exchange, although prevented, was still trying to occur. The magic inside the Danutians kept pushing and pulling on the heart through Danu's magic mantle and this pulled pieces of that asha-shell down through the heart's roots and into the Northern Kingdom. When the heart started to die, that death had started to seep out as well.
I had saved the heart from death but then cleared the protection it had set around itself. And beyond that thick shell had been a void. Voids need to be filled. Nature abhors a vacuum. This void had vacuumed in asha the second it was opened; the heart could not stop it from happening. And now, I had to find a way to contain the heart again. I didn't want to summon that neon-pineapple back—that obviously hadn't been the way to go. But it did give me an idea. If energy could be condensed into a shell like that, why couldn't I use a strong, determined energy instead of a panicked, inciting one? Something, that, were it to seep out into Danu, wouldn't hurt the realm or its people.
While I'd been distracted by the heart, Everan had wrapped himself around me and was pushing his power into me, trying to force me to take his strength. I pushed back and instead grabbed the poppy energy and walnut determination of the Bargests. I took the colors and kept them whole instead of transforming them into fuel. But I didn't keep them for myself. I pushed them into the glowing asha of the heart and by some miracle—or perhaps because the heart and I were connected and it knew what I was trying to do—the heart helped me rebuild its shell.
Poppy red melded with walnut into a rich mahogany that thickened into a rough shield. Just like the bark of a tree, this shell grew layers over itself. Layer after layer formed, with line after line of Bargests giving up their asha to create it—only asha now, thank goodness. But they didn't know that. As far as they knew, I was taking magic as well—magic that they might never get back. And still, they came forward and gave of themselves.
Tears were streaming down my cheeks by the time the heart and I were able to seal the shell around it. I stumbled forward as our connection broke and Everan caught me once more. His strong arms lifted me and cradled me against his chest. My breath came in gasps and my body shook uncontrollably but I managed to turn my face toward the Bargests.
“Did we lose anyone?” I whispered.
“No, Your Majesty,” Mahar answered gently. “My people all live. Some are weakened, but all have survived.”
“Thank goodness,” I said in relief. “The heart didn't take magic from all of you but I promise, those of you who lost your magic, I will find a way to get it back.”
“Just find a way to save our world and that will be enough,” one of the other Bargests said. “Magic means nothing without our home.”
“I'll do everything I can,” I vowed.
“Take my energy, Shalani,” Everan urged.
I was about to say that I didn't need it but then I realized that I was in the same state as those weakened Bargests. The heart had taken asha and magic from me as well—Earth magic. The Sidhe are born with pieces of all the elements inside them but one element dominates the others and manifests itself in their magic. Such as Everan with his fire abilities. But the other races of Danu are born with one element only. That's why the heart had sucked up the Bargests' magic so quickly. Not just because it was a void that needed to be filled but also because the Bargests had the perfect magic to fill that vacuum. They were an Earth race. I was technically an Earth Sidhe since my mother had come from the North. The Amaranthine Elixir had altered my magic but I assumed that at its foundation, it was predominately Earth. So, the heart had taken that piece of my foundation. It wasn't all of my magic, but it was significant.
Still, magic is not life force so the theft wasn't enough to continue to weaken me physically. My immortality kicked in and I took a deep, relieved breath. “I'm fine,” I assured Everan. “You can put me down.”
Everan set me on my feet carefully. Warily. “Are you sure, Shalani?”
“I'm fine,” I said again. Then I asked Mahar, “Will you watch over the tree for us? If it shows any signs of reverting to its previous state, we need to know immediately.”
“We will guard the tree and notify you if there are any changes,” he promised.
“Take this.” Sir Kevel popped his comm unit out of his armor and handed it to Mahar. “It's keyed to the Southern Stronghold. I'll advise them that you might be in contact.”
“Thank you,” Mahar said to the knight. Then he bowed to me. “Queen Amaranthine, I know this did not go as you planned but you still saved the heart, and we are grateful.”
