“Hurry! Over here!” Ez calls.
The three of us exchange a look and then sprint toward them. George has no problem keeping up with us; we haven’t been back to Castletree, but I wonder if it’s feeling healthier now that all our curses are broken. There even seems to be less gray along his temples.
“It can’t be,” Kairyn breathes and trails a hand over the rock, his manacles clinking.
We crowd around. Though most of it is still covered in ice, a large patch has thawed. As with the others, the boulder is made of what looks like iron, but running along the side is a glowing gold vein.
The top of the boulder has been melted away, seemingly by a spray of lava. It forms a bowl shape. And within shimmers a small pool of molten gold.
No…not gold. Its sheen is beyond any surface metal; it radiates like the sun itself.
“What is that?” Kel asks.
Ezryn’s voice shakes, as if he can’t get the words out. Then he says, “I think it’s mythkarite.”
“Mythkarite? The same ore that made the divine weapons?” Kel asks.
“Yes. Rafael, the first High Prince of Spring, traveled around the Vale with Aurelia in search of this very substance. From whathe found, he crafted the five divine weapons,” Ez says. “This…this is magic incarnate.”
George lets out a squawk and then bounces up and down, grabbing us each by the shoulders, even Kairyn.
“You in the market for a divine weapon?” Kel quips, raising a brow at his father-in-law.
“No, boy! But this…this is it!” George points at the small pool of melted ore. “This is what I need to fix the rose. The substance that can bind it all together. If it’s magic incarnate as you say, then we can do this.”
A shaky smile appears on Kel’s face, and he grabs George by the shoulders and kisses the top of his head. “You’re brilliant! If we have control of the rose?—”
“We have control over the goblins. Over any of Sira’s creations. We can help Rosalina from afar,” I whisper.
“And more than that, look. Veins run all through this boulder,” Ez says, then looks up at Kel. “There’s enough to forge a weapon. A weapon fit for the Sworn Protector of the Realms.”
“You could do that?” Kel breathes.
Ez shakes his head. “I…I don’t know. The melted ore at the top of the boulder may be enough to seal the rose, but it’s not enough to forge a weapon. We’d have to find a way to smelt the mythkarite. Besides, I’ve never studied the weapons. To work this ore would take a blacksmith with an incredible sense of the craftsmanship of the previous weapons. Someone with a unique mind to—” He stops, then looks to his brother.
All our eyes fall on Kairyn. His own widen, and he steps back, horns swaying. “I…I could try. Will a new Sword of the Protector help Wrenley?”
“If it’ll kill Sira, it will help us all,” Kel says.
Kairyn nods, and a jubilant energy fills the four of them. They slap each other on the shoulders, begin discussions on mining the ore, finishing the rose, but I drift away. They don’tnotice when I walk off, cloaking myself in the shadows of other boulders.
I turn to what was once the tundra. Far in the distance, I make out Dayton’s wolf. Running from me. From his destiny.
The landscape is filled with this new shiny rock, black as pitch. If I squint, it doesn’t look like rocks.
It looks like ash.
Yes, killing Sira is a start. But that’s only the beginning.
Her death will create a power vacuum. Aurelia, former queen of the Vale, will be free… but these are not her lands to rule anymore. The Son, of course, will have to die. He has grown much too powerful. And with the queen’s daughter at his side, they may be enough to topple even a god.
It’s a shame. But legacy can come in many forms. Conquered lands are, in many ways, better than sons.
A new world will be born from the ashes of the Enchanted Vale.
The world of the Green Flame.
The Prince of Thorns
