“What are you doing, then? What are you growing, if not bagrava?”
“I don’t see how it’s any of your business,” I say archly.
“I’m the crown prince. Everything is my business—especially if it has to do with my meddlesome wife.”
“I thought you weren’t going to address me as such.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to. But your actions now reflect on me, so I don’t have a choice. Now, tell me what you’re doing, or I’ll come over there and dig around myself.”
I let out a long beleaguered sigh. “I’m helping a friend who’s ill.”
“But you don’t have any friends here.”
“How would you know that unless you’ve been watching me?” I challenge.
Alaric sputters, and it’s even more satisfying than honey mead at harvest time. The sweet, sweet taste of victory.
“Run along, back to your important business.” I give another dismissive wave of my trowel, but instead of retreating, Alaric stubbornly perches on a chair near my planting bed and cants forward so he’s hovering over me.
His cloying scent invades my nostrils—the same hint of wind and leather I remember from the Tomb Flats, but now it’s accompanied by something spicy too. Cardamom, perhaps? The combination is far too heady and intoxicating, and I force myself to cough loudly.
“Must you sit so close?”
“I need a good view. I’ve never known a master gardener who’s also a healer. I must bear witness to such talent.”
“Fine.” I stab my trowel into the soil and breathe deeply, so the loamy scent covers up his stink. Then I push the dirt around, pretending to be busy, while I wait for Alaric to get bored and leave.
As expected, he sighs after just a few minutes. “Aren’t you supposed to use magic? Anyone can plant seeds and wait for them to grow.”
“EvenIcan’t grow something from nothing. The seeds must first be planted before they can be coaxed. But that never crossed your mind, did it? You think you’re above the laws of nature.”
“No,” Alaric says with surprising vehemence. Then he adds, more softly, “I don’t, actually.”
I bark out a laugh. “Have you seen this glass solarium? Your opulent palace? The entire Fortress is extravagant and excessive, carved out of the mountain without thought for the integrity of the earthorthe well-being of your own people—whose precious memories fuel your power.”
Alaric’s eyes darken, and he shakes his head. “You’re oversimplifying.Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it wrong. I can use my power to widen the mine shafts and provide work for my people while still preserving the mountain’s natural integrity. Just as I can reroute an avalanche to stop it from obliterating innocent lives and homes without redirecting so much snow that the rivers and water supply are affected. My power isn’t at odds with nature. I workwiththe earth—like you,” he adds, and the statement is so ridiculous, his expression so unexpectedly earnest, I want to tilt my head back and howl with bitter laughter.
His power is nothing like mine.Heis nothing like me. But before I say these things, I think better of it. I consider what my sister would do. An emotional outburst will help nothing. But seeing how Soren and Alaric’s powers work and govern the Fortress will make it easier to find and exploit their weaknesses.
“Prove it,” I challenge my husband. “If your power is truly in harmony with the earth—like mine—let me watch you work.”
Alaric appraises me with a furrowed brow. “My father wouldn’t like that.”
“And you’d never dream of upsetting dear old Daddy,” I goad.
“However”—Alaric narrows his eyes at me—“I’d be willing to take you to a jobsite, ifyou’rewilling to show me how your power works.” He jabs his chin toward the planter.
“It’s not bagrava, so why do you care?” I ask suspiciously.
He shrugs. “I find plants fascinating.”
“You’reinterested in plants?”
“Of course. They’re beautiful and strange. Something so foreign, up here on the mountain. My few trips to Tashir are the closest I’ve ever come to anything green, and I couldn’t very well plop myself in the middle of a cornfield and examine it then, could I?”
The thought of Alaric sitting in a cornfield is so ridiculous, I burst out laughing.
His cheeks redden, and the splash of warmth makes his face lookmore flesh than stone. Almost human. It’s so disarming, I don’t immediately look away when our eyes meet. But then Alaric opens his big mouth and shatters the illusion.
