“Or we could call a spirit and fly.”
With a sigh, the other queen began rappelling too.
Despite the reminder of her losses, it was nice to be out of the palace, away from the courtiers and counselors, away from the minutiae of running Aratay. Only one problem lay before her today: healing the land.And I can do that.
She could have done it from a distance—as queen, she had the power. And Naelin certainly had more than enough power at her disposal. The other woman practically radiated strength. But for this first barren patch, Daleina wanted to do it in person, to show Naelin how it was done. “It’s a necessary training exercise,” she’d told Ven. As champion, he couldn’t object to additional training for the new queen, especially since Naelin had jumped from woodswoman to queen with barely any instruction.
He’d seen right through Daleina, of course. “You just want a break from the throne.”
“It is an uncomfortable chair,” she’d agreed.
“I’ll hunt for more pillows while you’re gone.” And to demonstrate, he’d notched an arrow into his bow and shot it into the nearest couch. Down feathers had puffed into the air.
Halfway down the tree, Daleina and Naelin switched from the rope to a ladder that had been built into the trunk, presumably for the villagers to descend to the forest floor to forage for berries and hunt for deer. It was easier climbing the ladder, and soon they reached the ground and waded through the bushes to the barren area.
It was as lifeless as Daleina had thought. Or, actually,moreso. She’d seen what drought could do, but even then, there was always a sense ofsomethingin the soil. Now, though, she felt nothing as dust swirled around their feet while they walked. Kneeling, she scooped up a handful of the dry earth, letting the dead grains fall through her fingers. Sitting on a rock, Naelin drank from her canteen. A few drops landed on the ground and were quickly sucked into the earth.
“When the spirit, or spirits, who belonged to this tree died, the land died,” Daleina said. “Bringing it back to life is more than just instructing a water spirit to bring rain or a tree spirit to plant a few seeds. We have totiespirits to the land—otherwise it either stays a dead zone or, worse, the spirits run rampant over it, like in the untamed lands. The trick is that all the nearby spirits are already tied to their own trees or streams or bits of earth, so they’ll need to be encouraged to claim more.” She caught Naelin’s expression out of the corner of her eye. The other queen’s lips were curved up in amusement. “What?”
She was definitely laughing. “Nothing.”
“This is serious. Homes could have been here. People could have died.”
“I know. It’s... For a minute, you sounded exactly like Headmistress Hanna.”
Daleina sighed. “Yet I’m young enough to be your daughter?” She was half Naelin’s age and had been queen for only a year longer than Naelin, but she was still more experienced. She’d attended the Northeast Academy, trained for months with Champion Ven, and fought spirits at the Coronation Massacre. It was hard not to wave those credentials in front of the older queen.
Naelin winced. “I wasn’t going to say that quite so bluntly, but yes.” She put her canteen back in her pack and stood. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Teach me how to heal the land.”
“Call to the spirits, the nearby ones. Draw them here. And then give them the land. Theywantto be connected to Renthia. They just can’t do it without a queen.”
“You know, that sounds pretty, but it doesn’t actually make sense.”
“Look, when you became queen, when the spirits chose you, what did you feel?”
“Besides regret?”
Daleina resisted rolling her eyes. “Yes.”
“Power. Lots of it. Like I’d been whispering my whole life and could suddenly shout.”
Good. Yes.“And...?”
“And I felt the spirits, all of them, across Aratay. I could see their thoughts and feel their feelings. Like they were... part of me now.” Naelin visibly shuddered.
“Exactly. You’re connected to them. Linked to them. We both are. That’s the difference between queens and, well, anyone else. So now you have to link them to the land the same way they’re linked to us.” If Daleina concentrated hard enough, she could feel cobweb-like strands that connected her to the spirits. All a queen had to do to fix the barren area was stretch those strands between a few of those spirits and the barren land. The problem was, she couldn’t explain it any better than that. Naelin either felt it or didn’t. Daleina was confident in the older woman, though—she was being honest with herself when she noted how powerful the other queen was. Naelin had started out much stronger than Daleina. When she became queen, that impressive power was amplified a hundredfold. “Just try. Do as I do.”
“But—”
“Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing here you can hurt.”All the dying is already done, she thought. “Come on. We’ll do it together.”
On her knees, Daleina plunged her hands into the dry dirt. She concentrated, reaching for the closest spirits. She felt them just beyond the circle: a tiny earth spirit burrowing with the worms, a tree spirit hidden between two nearby tree roots, a water spirit skipping through a stream. Gently, she called to them.Come play? Play here?
And then she felt awhoosh.
Uh-oh.
“Daleina?”
