Her eyes lit as she smiled.“Very true.”
She reached out to caress the purple leaves with affection.He swore that the velentha branches stretched to greet her.His imagination was proven correct when the rustling of leaves wound around her still hand as if to hold onto her.
“Any luck on your new project so far?”he asked hopefully.
Celina and Morgan had secretly entrusted Alayna with the extra drug vials they’d brought back from the fortress to study.She’d been analyzing them, trying to determine what they were made of and how they might be countered.
The military was doing their own research, but no one was currently comfortable trusting them exclusively with the precious vials they currently had.Not with Alison still in a position of authority where the drug investigation was concerned.They’d tried to force it under Morgan’s lead with the impact to the refugee program, but Alison’s reconnaissance division was equally involved.
Alayna glanced over at him.“Not that anyone else might agree as progress, but I think so.It’s just a matter of time, Connor.We’ll figure it out.”
“I had a hard time with an interrogation earlier,” he confessed.
“Hmm,” she murmured, not pressing him for more information.“And you felt drawn to the velentha grove?”
“Yes.”How did he explain his affinity for the trees?“They always ease the burden I’m carrying.I’ve spent so much time in Eldridge over the years, I guess they’ve grown on me.”
Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she studied him.“You know, your father liked to do the same with the weeping kostana trees.”
“You knew my father?”he asked, surprised.She would have been very young, probably no more than eight or so when he died.
“We met a few times in the cold weather greenhouse.I don’t know if Celina ever told you, but I struggled a lot when I arrived as a refugee.Didn’t speak for a long time.The plant mages they tried to pair with me as mentors didn’t really want to work with a child so young, let alone one who had problems.I used to sneak away from their lessons and hide in whichever greenhouse we were working in.”
She paused to trail her fingers through the leaves of another velentha tree, as if she was giving them all equal attention.
“Your father came in one day.He was very upset, and from my hiding spot, I watched him do what you did just now.I could feel the trees respond.They wanted to help him, to draw him in.So, I helped them connect to him.It was the first time I willingly used my magic after arriving in Calderre.He may not have been able to feel the plants, but he felt me.”
She smiled, remembering.“Looked straight at me through the foliage.When Vikram, the plant mage who was my assigned mentor at the time, came searching for me, he lied and said he hadn’t seen me.Small to him, but significant to me.He told me once that the weeping kostana trees reminded him of home.Helped him feel less alone when he was missing his family.”
Connor vaguely remembered his father describing the garden his grandmother had kept, including the trees that produced the unique kostana spice his father so loved.The trees thrived in the cold climate of the north.Their branches weeping with light pink blossoms unless they were coaxed into canopies.Though they grew easily enough at higher altitudes, they weren’t naturally prevalent in Calderre.
“I never knew.”It was comforting though, to think that his father had struggled sometimes.Had been drawn to nature to unburden his emotions from time to time like Connor was.
“Velentha trees grow best in the shadows.Maybe that’s why you feel so drawn to them, besides the familiarity.”
“Really?”
Alayna nodded.“The ones you’re used to seeing in Eldridge are a bit different from their ancestors in Zamyra.Smaller and less hardy.True velentha trees grow robust in the southern rainforests.The gold veins actually glow in the right conditions.I can’t completely duplicate the effect of the rainforest canopy here in the greenhouse, try as I might.”
He’d always wondered why they were grown in the rainforest greenhouse rather than the more moderate climate of some of the other greenhouses, including the Refugee Garden that contained exclusively Eldrin plants.
“Do you remember them from before?”he asked.
She had once been a refugee from Zamyra, secreted out of the realm when she was Opal’s age and her magic put a death sentence over her.
“Yes, there were a number of them near our village.They like the areas that aren’t overly dense but are still shadowed by taller trees.I used to sneak away to look at them sometimes.Even then, before my magic woke, I used to hide among the plants and fall asleep.”She held out her hand.“Try something for me?”
Grateful for the surprising reprieve, he let her take his hand and press it against a section of trunk just below where it began to branch out.The bark beneath his palm was a cross section, letting him feel the different sections twining together.
“Raise your magic with mine and direct it around and above the tree.”
Warmth tingled where her palm touched the back of his hand.He felt her energy bubbling beside him.It was gentle, yet distinct.The feeling of rain drops on his skin.
Concentrating hard, he let his magic fill him and imagined it rising to blanket the two of them and the little grove of trees.He let the magic billow like a cloud instead of tightly cloaking to hide them.The dark clouds to her misty rain of magic.
To his delight, it worked.Creating a shadowy canopy above and around them, darkening the dim room further.He’d never used his magic that way before.
Flickering started in his vision.Little sparkles of gold growing brighter and stronger as they held their magic over the trees.The lentha nectar in the crevices seemed to glow, the light shining from within the tree.The gold veins running through the leaves and the trunk of the tree glittered.
