“What happened?” I ask.
“I am not certain. He was in the heart of his biome. He should have been invincible there. But the Lightning Isles are treacherous.”
I squeeze the sides of the chair. “What’s the heart of the biome?”
“I’ll show you later. Tell me what you can communicate with Sophia.” He tilts his head and looks at me sideways. “Or is it just women’s chatter, like Sophia claimed?”
I smile. Rythar wasn’t fooled by Sophia playing weak. And I’m not fooled by him changing the subject. But I’ll play along. “It’s not voices or words, usually. It’s just images. Presences. I don’t connect to all my friends. Just Sophia. And Dana, a little bit. And Maya, but she’s locked away.”
“Jarrett is interfering with the connection,” Rythar says.
“Is he making Maya sick?” I ask.
His gaze goes back to the sky ahead. “He believes he is helping her.” Rythar’s hand hasn’t left my knee since we sat down, and his thumb is tracing the same small circle it traces when he’s working through a problem he can’t solve by punching it.
Not to stand behind me. To stand with me.
He said it before he knew whatwithwould mean. And somewhere below us, in the green, there's a place he's building for us that isn't ready yet.
"The place you're taking me," I say. "The one that isn't ready. What is it?"
His thumb stops its circle. "Who told you it is a place?"
"You did.There is a place I must take you.That’s what you said when we were behind the waterfall."
He grunts. His eyes stay on the controls, but the corner of his mouth is working at something.
"Is it in the jungle?"
"Everything I have is in the jungle."
"A second fortress," I guess. "A weapons depot. A really impressive bridge."
His eyes crinkle slightly at the corners. "No."
"How do you know that I’ll like it?”
Rythar takes a while to answer, but I wait. "Every biome has a heart," he says at last, the words quiet. "The place it grows from. The root under the root.” His jaw shifts. "Only the biome lordenters the heart. The jungle is making some changes to it for me. For us," he corrects. “That is why it is not yet ready.”
"Okay," I say, and look out at the green rushing below us. "I can wait."
"I know."
"Not patiently."
The corner of his mouth lifts. “There are other things that call to me now,” he says. “Things for which I feel impatient.”
I know just what he means.
CHAPTER 34
CIVILIZING
ELENA – RYTHAR’S FORTRESS IN THE GREEN REACH
Impatient diversionswith Rythar sounded fantastic, but I almost ruin everything after we land. I wince climbing out of the warship. My muscles have had time to stiffen.
Rythar sweeps me back to our room, then paces, hands balled at his sides.
