My brows furrow. “I don’t actually know. I guess I had assumed it was Mother Liana. Is that right, Teo?”
Teo looks over at us. “I knew that Estela was my mate from the moment I saw her. Liana and I chose the stone.”
“And how did you feel about that?” Thorne asks me.
“Sad, honestly. But I would be dead if they hadn’t done it. Maybe I wish I could’ve come down here, but I spend lots of time with the crystals. I’m a Fuegorra reader—still mostly untrained, but one day, I will take Liana’s place.”
Thorne looks back at Liana who is still chanting and swinging the thurible. He almost smiles.
“I can see it.”
We walk a few more paces over a bridge when I lean toward Teo. “What happens first?”
He holds my hand and whispers. “Well, as you saw, everyone received their hammers from the crafters before we started down this path. When we reach the Fuegorra Cavern, Liana will explain to everyone how to look for their gems. From there, one by one, she’ll use her magic to place the stones in everyone’s chest.”
“And what does everyone else do?”
“We watch,” he says, clearly amused by my curiosity.
Whatever he says next is swallowed up by gasps and exclamations coming from the head of the line. I push away from the line, trying to see the front. I only take a few steps when a small set of hands reach around my thigh, and I nearly jump.
When I look down, I squint, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dim room. As soon as they do, I clearly see Rila.
I’m so shocked, but Teo laughs.
“It seems you have a fan.”
Siya, Rila’s mother, comes hurrying up. Her braid is a much darker grey than most Enduares, and she has a round face that radiates kindness. I’m told that she’s a weaver with Arlet.
“My Queen,” she says with a bow. “My deepest apologies—I took my eyes off her for one second.”
The little girl hugs me tighter, and I give the mother a wave.
“It is fine. Walk with your mate. Teo and I will keep her out of trouble.”
Rila grins at her mother who smiles and thanks us tenfold before walking up to the head of the line to find Velen. Rila’s small hand slips into mine, and it reminds me of the younger years with Mikal.
There’s something about children that can heal bits of the soul. Their trust isn’t to be taken lightly.
It doesn’t take much longer for us to reach the glowing chamber at the end of the tunnel. The walls are as black as the moonless night, and flaming orange and red chunks of crystal are scattered throughout. None are as big as the column insideof the Scrying Grotto. Each one calls out a few notes before falling silent.
Once every person has piled into the dark room, the singing stops.
The stones aren’t silent, but I have this itch under my skin as if they aren’t talking to me.
“Listen for your match,” Liana’s powerful voice fills the room. “It will sing a melody that you will recognize instantly, just as clearly as I speak to you now. Be mindful of your hammer strikes, though. The crystal you break out now will be sported on your chest till the day you die—no one wants a lopsided oval like the one Velen cut twenty years ago.”
I look up at Teo, who is grinning. He winks at me and makes a crude shape with his hand, confirming that Velen did indeed have a phallic-shaped stone embedded in his skin.
The stone-faced singer. How… delightfully funny.
When Liana stops speaking, the same silence returns, only now accompanied by the unsure steps of humans who lack any kind of night vision.
Teo once told me that the Fuegorra would heighten my senses, and I suppose a part of that is true, but most of the space around me is still a mystery.
I pull on Teo’s arm, bringing him down to my level. “How does the gem attach to the skin?”
His lips brush my ears, and I shiver. “There is a magic that binds it there. It is almost like a fire that melds the gem with flesh, but as mentioned, it is painless.”
