I thought about all the things Ama said I should look for: the sound of a person’s blood rushing through them like a river, the bright feeling of their life force like the sun, pain and sickness in various shades of black and gray. But there was nothing. Only her skin beneath my hand. I reached deep inside me like I did just moments ago in the pavilion. I thought of the way Ama’s power felt, like warm sun on soft grass.
I heard the beat of my heart and my steady breaths. I could feel my link to Shazeera like an unbreakable chain.
But there was no sunshine. No earthy sensations at all.
Only the cold, blowing wind.
Frustration surged through me so fast I felt dizzy with it. I couldn’t do it. My ancestral power was completely inaccessible to me, and I feared in my churning gut that it always would be. I opened my eyes to find that in the short time I had searched fruitlessly for my nonexistent earth magic, Ama had come to look almost worse than Mya. Her face, normally glowing with vitality, appeared dry and haggard. She shook from her effort, and all the color had drained from her skin.
When I met her gaze, her eyes had an edge of panic within them.
“I can’t call it back to me,” Ama said through gritted teeth.
The powerful scent of the earth intensified in the air around us, only this time, it couldn’t blot out the scent of blood. Not long after that, Ama began shaking violently. Not for the first time, I feared what would happen if Ama pushed herself too far. Dread knotted low in my belly, sharp and sudden.
Ama’s entire body vibrated with tension, and the effort she made on Mya’s behalf could be seen in every trembling muscle.
And then suddenly, Mya’s eyes flew open. Mya groaned and thrashed her head. The healing process hurt like being burned, but there had been no time to offer her medicine to numb the pain.
At the same time, my mother collapsed beside her in a heap.
“Ama!” I shouted as others rushed to help. I felt for my mother’s pulse, but it was so faint. My throat swelled as my eyes pricked with tears while Dani examined Ama.
Nafalla came immediately to my mother’s side, watching anxiously as Dani checked Ama over.
“She’s alive, but her power has been drained,” Dani announced. “Let’s move her to her bed.”
A son named Kai—another one of my cousins, who worked asour blacksmith and was consequently lean and strong—gently lifted Ama into his arms.
The wards,Shazeera said, and at that moment, a cry went out across the camp. My mouth went dry as my blood turned to ice water in my veins. Without the wards, the Eagle Riders finding us became more than possible.
It became inevitable.
As Dani and I flanked Kai, who was carrying Ama, Naomi strode toward us from Ama’s pavilion. “The queen’s wards have failed! We must leave immediately.” To another guard, she said, “Summon General Isa. Her battalion is closest, and she will want to personally escort the queen and First Daughter.”
“The queen will need time to recover,” Dani said, brows furrowed. “We can’t ask her to travel yet.”
“Can you heal her enough for travel?” Naomi asked.
“Possibly, but—”
“Then we must leave as soon as General Isa arrives,” Naomi said with a tone that brooked no argument. “We’ll leave the breaking down of the queen’s pavilion for last. Heal her as much as you can in that time.”
Before Dani could even agree, Naomi strode away, barking orders at the other sons and daughters in our camp that we had to leave immediately.
“Will she be okay?” I asked Dani, reaching out and touching Shazeera’s neck when she stood next to me.
Dani looked like she was having to bite back what she really wanted to say. “Her pulse is steady, but there’s no way to know how long she’ll stay unconscious. My power is limited, so I’ll have to call on the other healers for help. And even then, we might not be strong enough to replenish even the smallest percentage of her magic stores.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. That meant Ama wouldn’t be able to resume the wards anytime soon.
“Unless you think you can connect with your royal abilities and help the queen?” she asked with one eyebrow arched.
A bitter taste coated my tongue, like ash. “I would if I could.”
“Then I’ll have to do what I can,” she said before turning back to follow Kai and my unconscious mother back into the pavilion.
I clenched my fists at my sides as tears stung my eyes. Guilt threatened to drag me under like quicksand. This was all my fault. If I had been able to connect with my power, I could have given Ama the strength she needed to maintain the wards. Now she lay unconscious, and we were all vulnerable.
