Stone walkways and bridges had been constructed over the lake that flooded the bottom of the room. Amaia stepped from the ledge onto one of the walkways, which wrapped all the way to the center before shooting off to various points of the room. To different tunnels, different staircases, all of which I’d already explored. Most had been caved in.
She crouched to look down into the water. It wasn’t a steep drop. If she waded in, it would likely only come up to her waist. The moonlight reflected off the surface, and I peered down as she inspected her face in the water.
“It feels…” She trailed off, but the frown on her expression was puzzled. She stood.
“Whatdoyou feel?” I asked, curious.
“It feels strange here,” she decided on, looking around. “Like…something is waiting. But it’s not threatening. It feels…good. Welcoming.”
I inclined my head, drawing her away from the crumbling edge of the stone walkway.
“Some believe that the early Hartans used to live in these mountains,” I told her. “That they built cities inside them. Hartans are a mountain people, even today. So when they were banished from the Arsadia by the Elthika, many scholars inElysom think they made their home northeast of Karak, where Harta lies.”
She peered up at me, her green eyes darting back and forth between my own. “What do you think?” she asked.
“I think it’s a valid theory,” I told her. “Hartans are drawn to mountains. Like Elthika to heartstones. Whereas to the Karag…this place would feel like a tomb.”
“What is it thatyouprefer?” she questioned curiously.
I bared my teeth in a smile but didn’t answer. Which might have disappointed her, but I changed the subject back to common ground.
“There is at least one heartstone in this mountain,” I informed her. “Likely here. In this very room. Because it’s where the energy is most concentrated. That’s what you feel. Have you ever been near a heartstone?”
She shook her head. “No. There’s one in Dothik, but it’s deep within theDothikkar’s palace, below ground. The nearest I’ve been was with my face pressed to the gilded gates.”
I thought it a shame that the Dakkari were so stripped of their nourishment. Heartstone magic had seeped into Dakkar, evidenced by thethalaratrees, the trees which grew heartstones at the tips of their very roots. The magic had imbedded itself into the earth, the wind, the creatures, the people.
But like the Elthika, if one had heartstone magic, one would forever feel deprived of it if the heartstones all died out. Like a missing limb.
“If you know one is here,” she continued, “why not find it and take it?”
“The Elthika need it more than we do,” I told her. “The mountain too, for that matter. It benefits no one to go looking for it, though many have tried. Tonight it will benefit us.”
“I’m not understanding.”
“When we were both joined with Samryn a couple nightsago,” I said, “you were fighting me. Trying to shake me off like a net you’d gotten tangled in.”
“I…I didn’t mean to,” she confessed. “It was all so overwhelming. It’s new.”
“It would be beneficial if you could get used to my magic. To my touch. So you can recognize it. So you can let me in when I’m trying to help.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “That reminds me…”
There was something in her tone that had me crossing my arms over my chest. “Of what?”
“Syris told me something interesting today,” she started. “That bonds can be created if you join your magic with another’s. Bonds that can be hard to break. When were you going to tell me that?”
My lips pressed, my tight jaw ticking. “It’s an improbable risk,” I told her.
“But a risk nonetheless,” she countered. “One I didn’t know.”
I would give her that.
“Bonds can be broken,” I assured her.
“I don’t even know what thatmeans, Alaryk,” she said, bristling, throwing her hands wide. “I feel like I’m navigating this with half-truths. In darkness. Blind. I’m trusting you to tell me the truth. But how can I trust that you’ll keep me safe when all you care about is your Elthika?”
“It doesn’t benefit me to bond with you, Amaia,” I growled. “I alreadyfeeltoo much. I don’t need someone else under my skin! Believe me, I can control how deep we get before there’severa risk of a bond.”
