“What’s happening, Jostein?” I asked him.
He slowed to a stop, sighed, and tugged at his long beard. “Truth be told, Astrid, I have no idea. The sunstones have stopped working. Even the ones we’ve yet to mine. We can’treplace any of the faded ones because there’s none to replace them with. I don’t understand why this has happened or how to fix it.”
“I have an idea,” I said grimly. The thought had been rattling around in my brain all the way from The Wet Beard to the arena. The sunstones had never failed us before. They’d burned brightly for so very long. There was no reason they should suddenly fade like this. Not unless something had changed.
And something very bighadchanged. Only one thing had, really.
The only problem was, I didn’t want to be right about this. Because it meant both the end of Tormund’s dream and mine.
Jostein arched his brow, waiting for my thought.
“It’s the Everstone,” I admitted. “I think removing it from the tunnels has caused this. It must be what powers the sunstones. It must be what has kept our community thriving the way it always has. And if we don’t find it and put it back where it came from, well…then I think life as we know it is over. We’ll have to move on to somewhere else.”
I looked up at Tormund. He nodded, his lips set into a thin line. He’d come to the same conclusion I had.
“Ah, yes.” Jostein shuffled his feet a bit. “About that. The, ah, Everstone prize isn’t really the Everstone.”
Tormund swore. “I bloody knew it.”
Jostein gave him a look. “The one you sawisa powerful gemstone, but it’s nottheEverstone.”
“What do you mean?” I asked with a frown.
He heaved a sigh. “Rockheim wanted the Everstone. They traded their emerald one for it. I didn’t think it really mattered. This new gem is powerful enough. What do we need the Everstone for?”
“To power our whole bloomin’ community, Jostein!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the arena. “You just gaveaway the source of our light, our heat, and the only way we’re able to grow food down here in The Deep. Can that new gemstone do any of that? What’s its power, anyway?”
Paling, he stared down at his feet. “I thought it was fairly impressive, Astrid. It can give its bearer endless gold.”
My stomach bottomed out. The dragon and her lair. “Endlessgold coins, perhaps?”
He lifted his eyes. “Yes, I suppose. If that’s the form one wished it to take. A truly great prize for winning the Fittest Under the Mountain, don’t you think?”
“Well, everything makes a lot more sense.” Throwing up my hands, I walked away. I knew Jostein had meant well. To him, the gem was just a gem. He hadn’t known the consequences of removing it from our world. And in his eyes, endless gold in the hands of one of our own was probably a good thing, as long as they weren’t a greedy bastard like Galinn. And as I thought back to the first trial, I recognized Jostein had been all too willing to remove him from the competition when given the chance. He’d wanted someone else to win it. Maybe even me.
Still, none of that changed the facts. The Everstone was gone. And if we didn’t get it back, the light would be gone forever.
Tormund rested his hand on my shoulder. I looked up into the concerned eyes of the only person in the world I wanted to see right now, strangely enough. He’d understand how I felt more than anyone else. He knew how important this was.
“Are you all right?” he murmured.
“I’m really bloomin’ angry.”
“Understandable. He gave away the one thing he knew could set you free.”
“No, it’s not about that.” I shook my head, my bells jingling. “He should have talked to me about the Everstone, but not because of that. Giving it away was a big decision, and he just made it all on his own. I know he’s the one who runsour community, not me. But…I’m just shocked he would hide something like that from me. From all of us.”
“I don’t want to defend him. He did a dumb thing. But he can’t have known the damage it would cause the sunstones,” he said. “That said, I fully support whatever you want to do. If you want to throw something at him, I’ll hand you a rock.” He grinned. “I hope you’ve been practicing your aim.”
I giggled. I couldn’t help myself. The tension and worry and anxiety of the past few days was finally catching up to me, and I sorely needed a release. And right now, Tormund and his dumb jokes felt the perfect source of that.
“Ah, that’s a nice sound to hear.” He tweaked my chin, winking at me. “Should I make another innuendo to keep it going?”
My chest warmed. “I actually wouldn’t say no to that.” Then I sighed. “I suppose it’s time to go home and start packing up my things, what little of it there is.”
He looked at me for a long moment, then asked, “Why would you go and do a thing like that?”
“The Everstone is gone. The northern dwarves will have to move. To where, I don’t know, but we can’t stay here. I suppose some of us will go up top. Others will head south to Rockheim. Maybe that’s where I’ll go, too. They’re the ones with the Everstone, after all. I bet their sunstones work just fine.”
