This wasn’t the strangest situation he’d ever been in. That had been the tower, of course. But this qualified as pretty strange. He was off to find a heartstone with a stone singer and his braaken, and everything felt surreal. Like one of those paintings his father had been so fond of and had hung all over the house, giving Mercury nightmares when he’d been a child.
He followed along as they left the apartment buildings. There was a short opening outside, and they started into a tunnel that looked like it went right into the side of the mountain. It was damp in there, and a chilly, constant temperature. He thought, at least he wasn’t up in the ocean in the north like where he’d been brought up.
“I’ve been thinking about this stone for quite a while,” Kami mused. “Ever since you introduced me to Mercury, in fact. I’ve been working at this. I can feel it. It’s getting close finally. It’s been moving.”
“Moving? Really?” That seemed like an odd way to put things.
Kami looked back at him with a nod. “They kind of have a will of their own, you know? Like, seriously.”
“That’s weird.” Cool, though.
“Sometimes the stones move through the veins of the earth themselves. That’s how we get some strange stones where we don’t expect them. Sometimes they have to be called, and when I met you, I felt this calling, and I’ve been begging it to get here.”
Talon seemed so pleased by this. Mercury could feel it in his bones. “Thank you, Kami.”
Kami shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“But you didn’t have to do it,” Talon pointed out.
“I don’t have to do anything. Iamdoing this.” Kami just kept moving, and Mercury shivered at the chill. It was plumb cold down here. “This is your mate. He needs the appropriate stone.”
“I am his mate, and I want to have the best stone for me. It doesn’t have to be a fancy stone; it just has to sing.”
Kami nodded at that, and then showed him a pendant he wore around his neck on a chain. It held a beautiful but small stone in its clawed grip. “This is my heartstone. Goes with me everywhere. It’s tiny but it’s incredibly powerful, and it’s mine.”
Mercury squinted at it, amazed, because it did have this inner fire that shone from the stone, even in the gloom of whatever cave they were trekking into. Dragons had pretty decent night vision, but Talon had still pulled out a flashlight so that they weren’t losing all their depth perception. The lack of natural light could flatten one’s vision out.
“It’s lovely. Do you think mine has to be from the sea? It was from the sea before.”
Kami shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. No, that’s not what I’m hearing at all. This is a mountain gem. Something special. Something that my best friend’s mate deserves. It’s just so far away.”
Mercury felt his cheeks go pink, and he blushed, so pleased. So honored. He wasn’t used to having friends. Well, he supposed he still didn’t.
Talon had friends.
He had Talon, so he had Talon’s friends. He wasn’t really Kami’s friend.
Not yet, he told himself, he wasn’t Kami’s friend yet.
Hailee, you’ll make friends. I swear.Talon’s mind was a sweet touch, gentle.You’ll meet people. I think that you and Lake could probably get along very well. Elowyn, too.
I hope so. I very much like to make friends.Very much.
At least he thought he did. He was fairly sure he did. He hadn’t actually done it, but he was sure he was capable.
He wasn’t a stupid dragon, just very new at so many things.
Talon’s warm hand landed on the small of his back, and he didn’t have to worry so much about feeling silly when Talon was touching him.
You’re not silly, hailee. You’ve just been isolated so much of your life. Everything is new, but that makes you wonderful.
I love you too.He grinned because it was all new and fascinating, and he liked these caves.
Kami looked at him all of a sudden. “Hey, if you held on to us, and I thought about where we needed to go, could you take us there and bring us back?”
“I can try. I don’t know. I don’t have my stone, but I did it before. With a stone, I can do it three or four times without being too tired.”
Mercury thought he could do it. He wanted his stone. Kami knew where his stone was.
