Her leg still wasn’t right.
“Just tell me. Did you see the healer?” I asked for the second time.
“Is she this stubborn with you all, too?” Merelda directed the question at Callen, who escorted us across the garden. One look at Callen’s handsome face and sparkling green eyes, and Merelda had wriggled her brows at me. It didn’t help that he, too, carried her down the stairs.
Callen chuckled. “It really depends on the person. I call it selective stubbornness.”
“And who is she the most stubborn with?”
They traded a look that was completely at my expense. So what if Harthon brought out my stubborn side?
“I amconcernedfor your health,” I gritted out.
She gingerly lowered into the chair. “I’ve told you, my health is just fine. The terrain was hard on my legs. I’ll be okay after more rest.”
And she calledmestubborn.
I slid down the wall beside her, tipping my head back against the stone. Yet again, rays of sunlight were streaking through the clouds, warming my skin.
What a wonderful, lucky gift it was to share skies like this with her. Because the hazy sunlight was still an anomaly. More often than not, the clouds were a thick blanket above.
She took a deep, indulgent breath. “Sunlight. Lavender. Leaves,” she listed wistfully. “Reminds me of my childhood. Who would have thought such beauty would be found in Princeps Harthon’s home?”
It certainly went against his image. “He’s not as bad as he’s made out to be.”
“That became fairly clear last night, dear.”
I toyed with my lip, my mind on something other than the man that normally consumed it. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
Merelda considered this for a moment. “Would you have left today if I wasn’t here?”
“No. The plan was always for tomorrow.” Guilt nibbled at me. “Harthon offered me a few extra days last night, but…I cannot take them.”
I still knew it was the right decision, but admitting it to Merelda felt awful. She extended her hand down to me, and I took it.
“Good.” She squeezed.
But it didn’t feel good at the moment. She’d gone through terrible trials because of me, and now I was abandoning her. “There’s a disease that’s killing the potato crop, and it doesn’tlook to be slowing any time soon. In fact, it’s spreading. And with every day, this land gets worse.”
Her fingers squeezed again. “You don’t need to explain. The world is suffering. We need the resources beneath the Domus, and we cannot afford to wait.” She looked back and forth between my eyes, admiration in the way her lips wobbled. “I’m so proud of you.”
Those five simple words had tears burning my eyes.
“How did youreallyknow it was me, when you heard the rumors of themagvis?” I asked.
She’d claimed it was motherly instinct, but there had to be more to it than that. The possibility that I—a nobody-villager who never wanted to leave home—would be standing beside a renowned Princeps as an all-powerful being was just…unbelievable. She and Marsik wouldn’t risk traveling across Koerlyn’s lands and facing Harthon’s reputation without evidence that I was really here.
I knew I was right when she mulled over my question.
“Itwasmotherly instinct, guided by a dream from years ago.”
“A dream,” I repeated.
“It was a dream I’d forgotten about until I heard of the woman with the amethyst eyes in that tavern.” Sighing, she released my hand. “You were maybe ten years old when it came to me. In it, I was in the woods. They were alive, almost like this garden. Themagviswas there, with white hair and those colorful eyes.”
I waited for more, but that was all. “Did she say anything?”
She lifted a shoulder. “She might have, but it was so long ago, all I remember is how she looked. That, and the fact that those woods were alive and vibrant—just like they were before the Domus appeared.”
