28
Hope
“The women in the North aren’t wasting time,” Ciaran muttered as he nodded approvingly.
“Neither is Indianna,” Hope said.
After Ayla’s silver ink message, a very excited, violet-colored ink had arrived from Indianna, begging Ayla and Nina to moure to the Crystal Clear Safehouse in Corentre, so she could perform a very, very long list of research that included nightmare sleep studies, ink and blood extractions for analysis, and many other tests with words she had never read or heard before. Hope hadn’t realized ink messages could be that long, but it was good to know.
Ciaran tilted his head, stepping towards her and placing a soft kiss on her lips. “Now it’s your turn to shine amongst my darkness, my beautiful.”
Her palm was on the back of his neck as Ciaran’s metallic arm held her waist, and she moured them to where the Speaker of Scales had pointed them to.
They landed on the central dune of the South Petal’s desert. Even here, there were white petals floating in the air, more dispersed than around the South House, as if the desert had less density, which was very much the case. There wasn’t a single soul, edification, or human- or magic-created item for miles and miles around them.
They were at the peak of the biggest dune, and all they could see under the bright sun shining in the post meridiem was petals and never-ending black sand forming dunes as if they were waves on the Radel Sea. If Hope was ever to realize and acknowledge the incredible dimensions of Thyrian Petals—of the land she was meant to Rule and command—it would be now.
Her deep inhale must have given her thoughts away, because Ciaran held her from behind, looking at the vast expansion with his cheek next to hers, whispering, “Yes. All of this is yours, Organ Mandor.”
She elbowed him in the ribs with a chuckle. “And all the shadow-wielders of this world are your responsibility, Darkness Commander.”
“But have you seen how big this is?” Hope wanted to roll her eyes, but couldn’t stop grinning. How could she miss how big this was when it wasallthat surrounded them? From here, the world was just Ciaran, sand, and sun.
Perhaps she needed nothing else to survive.
“Do you reckon all your shadow-wielders would fit here? I don’t think so. There are so, so many. And then at night, with no light pollution, you would get to see every single one of Llunal’sstars. Yes, the god of night and shadows that whispers directly in your ear.” She looked at him, trying to smile innocently until he inhaled sharply.
“So,” Ciaran said abruptly, holding on to her body tighter. “The Seizing Wind. Where exactly do we find it from here?”
They observed their surroundings for a while, Ciaran sending trails of shadows to different dunes to investigate, Hope analyzing their geographic position, the details and shape of each visible dune, the way the sun above reflected on them, and how the wind altered the grains of sand when she Gave it a stronger breeze or a smaller one.
A white petal landed in her eye, and she shook it with her hand until it continued floating. “Cardinals,” she condemned when she realized her mistake.
“South Cardinal, to be precise,” Ciaran replied as his shadows returned to him and he felt them to extract information.
“Exactly,” Hope insisted. “The creator of the Taking power. I shouldn’t need to Give any wind or anything to find the Seizing Wind and its treasures, if anything, I should have to Take.”
Ciaran turned to her, and she widened her eyes a bit. The contrast of his all-black clothes and the metal of his arm amidst the white petals in this this black sand desert was marvelous and extremely gorgeous.
“What are you going to Take? A dune? Sand?” he asked with his eyebrows raised.
She shook her hand, removing another naughty white petal that had landed straight in her eye, and she blinked multiple times until it stopped feeling teary. “These petals are highly inconvenient.”
Ciaran tilted his head. “They are beautiful. Too white for my taste, I must say. With my shadows around them, they look better.”
She nodded in agreement. “Everything with your shadows around looks better.”
Hope suddenly gasped and closed her hand, aiming to Take the white petals away, but not succeeding at all. It was hard to aim when there were so many literally everywhere. She tried again, and nothing happened.
She narrowed her eyes. “Odd.”
Ciaran walked right behind her and said, “Odd indeed that they are only disappearing behind you, forming a petal-free path to the—”
“South!” Hope finished for him, turning around and half-walking, half-running down the narrow path down the dune that had no floating petals in the air.
Now and then, she needed to Take petals again for the path to resume its course, and when they had climbed and gone down five extensive dunes—which was easier said than done—they found themselves in an enormous space where there was—
“Not a single petal. Hello, Seizing Wind.” Hope nodded as she narrowed her eyes. “There isnothinghere, so what the South Petal and South House Take—and hopefully the heart part of the Cardinal Queen—must be underneath.”
