His mother didn’t fire off with a disagreement right away. She seemed to take the time to absorb what he said. “Perhaps. But strategically, we’re in a very vulnerable place. If the Knives ever become aware of our presence, they can surround this land and come at us from all sides.”
“They’ll never find it?—”
“And what if theapricumcomes here?”
Dread dropped like a stone in my stomach at her words.
“Because if it does, it’s over,” she said. “None will survive.”
Morco pulled his hand from mine and sat forward, arms on his knees, and slowly rubbed his palms together as he bowed hishead, deep in thought. “There’s no way to predict theapricum. We can’t make rash decisions based on its possible movement.”
“How often does it move?” I asked.
“It’s different every time,” Morco said. “When it was at Stonework, it was there for thirty years. The Knives arrived and claimed it for themselves. Within less than a year, it moved to a new location, happening to choose where we’d settled. We had to move before the Knives arrived. Since then, it’s moved at least five different times. And every time, it’s resulted in death and loss.”
“So it’s never lasted as long as it did in Stonework?” I asked.
“Correct,” his mother said.
“I wonder why…” I said it more to myself than aloud. I’d never encountered a flower like theapricum, a root system so extensive that it could capture the sunlight from the surface and shift to different bulbs beneath the soil.
“We’ll never know,” she said.
“If only all theapricumscould be lit, that would fix everything.” If all the area in the Depths could be illuminated, the Knives would stick to their fortress, and the Obsidians would stick to theirs. They would no longer have to fight over the one resource that mattered most. All plants needed the same ingredients to thrive, but since the flowers were on the surface, there was no way I could study their properties.
“Killing the Knives would fix everything,” she said. “And we will.” She turned to Morco again. “What shall we do?”
Morco didn’t seem to have an answer because he sat in silence.
“You’re Chief of the Obsidians, King of Stonework. The decision lies with you.” When she spoke to her son, it was full of reverence. Like she recognized her son as a man rather than the boy she raised, trusted his leadership and how far it’d taken them thus far.
He continued to rub his palms together, his mind so deeply retreated it seemed like his mother and I weren’t even there anymore. After a moment, he sat back against the chair, his muscular thighs apart, his heavy shoulders drooping under an invisible weight. “We stay and prepare. With the few men we have left, we only have one shot to succeed. Most of the mothers are so pregnant that a long journey would compromise their health, and if they give birth on the way, that could have dire consequences. There’s no way to know where theapricumwill travel when it moves, and as far as I’m concerned, it has an equal chance of traveling anywhere—or remain in place for the next thirty years.” He stared at his mother like he expected her to disagree. “When we’re ready, we’ll return to Stonework. We’ll prepare for battle, lay down lethal traps to reduce their army before they arrive, and from an advantage, we’ll make our final stand.”
His mother was quiet before she gave a slight nod. “The island is the safest location we’ve found through this journey. Hopefully it remains that way until we’re ready.”
13
MORCO
I walked her to her cabin near the Gathering. My cabin was closer to the Elders, secluded and free of the noise of conversation. If hers was loud and kept her up late or woke her up early, she never complained.
The glow of the fire became brighter as we approached her front door. My mind was heavy with our conversation, stained with the memory of Hanne’s despair.
She opened the door then turned back to me, seeing the way I stopped on the threshold. “Do—do you want to come in?”
She said she’d never done this before, and neither had I. The first time I had been with a woman had been her first time too. Every interaction after that had been with an experienced partner. I didn’t know how to handle something so delicate when I was the opposite of delicate.
I nodded and followed her inside.
It was dark in the cabin, so I tossed a few logs on the rocks and lit the flames, bringing the room into a gentle glow. The cornerswere illuminated, and the light was golden and warm. She had a small table with two chairs, so I took a seat.
She sat across from me, her fair face lit by the fire, little shadows under her prominent cheekbones. An even smaller shadow was visible under her bottom lip. And her eyes…were indescribable.
I’d never seen a flame rival her fire. Never seen a woman challenge her beauty.
When she couldn’t take my stare any longer, she flicked her eyes away for a respite.
The moment she’d said she was mine, she’d condemned herself to my intensity, so I refused to restrain it.
