The prospect of being able to do something—anything—to help someone lifted her spirits. Her first challenge was to imagine the stone walls around her in her mind, without closing her eyes too long. She could trust Raina to stay with the other horses, but if she began riding around with her eyes closed, surely Torian would suspect something.
Grandmother Carah?
Emariya fought back her apprehension, reaching through her mind while fingering her locket.
I’m here, child. Forgive me, I have been so preoccupied with keeping your mother contained, I’ve
not been able to watch over you as I wish.
Apologize not, Grandmother.
Emariya’s eyes popped open as Raina veered to the side beneath her.
Torian cocked his head to the side, giving her a long look. “Everything all right, My Lady?”
Offering the most reassuring smile she could summon, Emariya nodded and let her locket drop back to her neck.
Can you speak to Blaine?
Emariya thought toward her grandmother, while forcing her eyes to stay wide and hopefully innocent-looking.
I thought things had improved between you two? And look where you are going!
At her grandmother’s reprimand, Emariya glanced around. She’d nearly guided Raina into the back of Rink’s mount.
They have. But they’ve gotten worse between him and Jessa. I’d like to know why so that I might
try and help, and my grandfather suggested I practice my gifts.
Don’t make excuses.
Emariya sighed. Was she that transparent? Her great-grandmother grew silent, though Emariya thought she still felt her near. Just when she began to think Carah must have decided not to participate, Blaine jerked his head sideways to look at her. It only took a moment before he recovered, turning his head back to gaze with disinterest at the green hills in front of them. She couldn’t be sure but she thought the corner of his mouth remained turned up in a slight smile.
Blaine says that he is a stubborn curd and she is a pretentious snob.
Emariya couldn’t help it, her jaw dropped open and then she snorted with laughter. On his own mount Blaine shrugged as the rest of their party turned to eye Emariya.
So what did he really say?
She hides behind a prim and proper curtain as it meets her own convenience.
So it has something to do with their stations?
Are you carrying on a conversation with me, or using me to pass messages? They aren’t the same.
Emariya sighed.
Messages. Tell him that I’ll talk to Jessa. If I elevate her, it will solve the station
complication.
He says that he cares not for that complication. It can easily be looked past, if he so chooses. What
he can’t look past is her being so unwavering.
Jessa has always been exactly that. She has very definite opinions of what is and isn’t all right.
He says that until she is willing to truly partner with him, she is not an acceptable choice to stand
at his side. He has to think with more than his heart. The woman he takes as his own will someday help
guide Sheas, and there is no room in that for such pretensions.
He seemed awfully pretentious not so long ago, when we shared his hearth at Sheas Harbor.
A sharp burst of pain exploded behind Emariya’s eyes, preventing her from hearing Carah’s response.
“Close your connection!” Blaine shouted.
The pain twisted through her stomach, leaving her slumped over Raina’s regally arched neck.
Strong hands reached out, snatching at her reins. It was only moments before they came to a stop, but each step jolted through her, flashing into her head in agonized waves. Torian’s arms were waiting as she slid from the saddle, not caring as her skirts swirled upward in a tumble as she clumsily dismounted.
“What happened?” Torian’s voice, laced with worry, renewed the throbbing.
“We were...communicating...I think her mother was trying to use the opening.” Blaine’s boots stopped before her, and Emariya belatedly realized she must have sunk to the ground. The pressure had begun to fade, but in its place exhaustion threatened to claim her. “Can we camp here for the night?” she whispered, leaning into Torian’s solid chest. The familiar crisp scent of him drifted around her.
Torian stayed by her side as their companions tended the horses and built a fire. “Why were you taking the risk?” An accusing edge crept into his voice.
“I don’t know,” Emariya sighed. “I keep failing with the fire. And I was worried about Jessa.”
“Me?” Jessa dropped Emariya’s pack at her feet. “I brought you your things.” Jessa narrowed her eyes. “Now, why are you talking to him about me?” She jerked her head toward Blaine a few yards away, helping Rink with the horses.
Emariya closed her eyes, trying to find a strength that had abandoned her. “Because you won’t talk to me about him, you won’t talk to me about anything.”
“Well maybe it’s none of your business!” The girl turned on her heel, fleeing.
“They’ll work it out, don’t trouble yourself over it.” Torian stood, offering her a hand. His fingers closed protectively around hers as he pulled her to her feet.
Emariya thought of what she knew of Jessa and she wasn’t so sure Torian would prove right. Once her friend adopted a notion of right or wrong, swaying her became nearly impossible.
Despite Emariya’s best efforts to thaw the ice between them, Jessa and Blaine remained cool to each other for the rest of their journey to the Cradle. The night before they expected to reach the entrance to the home of The Three, Emariya could take no more.
Setting her jaw with determination, Emariya snatched Jessa’s arm firmly in her grip and ignored her friend’s startled protest, dragging her across the campsite. “Sit,” Emariya commanded, guiding Jessa toward a log already occupied by Blaine.
“What’s gotten into you?” Jessa brushed imaginary dust off her arm, glaring.
“Sit,” Emariya repeated.
Frowning, Jessa did as she’d been bid. She perched as far as it was possible to get from Blaine.
Blaine’s shoulders tensed and he began to rise.
“No, stay,” Emariya said.
“But—”
Emariya silenced him with a glare. “Tomorrow, we’ll be to The Cradle of The Three. And I pray that our plea is well received, and we return without issue. But I need to know that should that not be our fate, you, Jessa, are taken care of.”
Whatever protest Jessa had been about to make died on her lips. “Riya...” she whispered.
Emariya shook her head. “I’m only being realistic. We don’t know what to expect, and we must prepare for every possibility.”
“You can’t order me to be with him.” Jessa bit her lip.
Emariya seized the opening she’d been hoping for. She stretched herself to her full height. “As your mistress, I most certainly can.”
Jessa laughed out loud. “You’ve never acted as my mistress.” She smiled, not fazed in the least.
Emariya didn’t smile. “And yet, I am. But I permit you to behave casually with me, because it pleases us both. Is this not true?”
“Well, yes.” Jessa’s face betrayed the laugh she was struggling to contain.
“And would it not please you both to be together?” Emariya gestured toward her friend and Blaine.
Jessa’s jaw dropped. “It’s different,” she said, cutting her eyes toward Blaine.
“Not so different,” he said. “My people would accept you, just as Emariya has accepted you as more than a maid. But not if you can’t fully accept me.”
Jessa’s cheeks flushed to match her hair. “But what will people think?”
“You cannot care. You cannot ask him to risk his heart to you—and he has—all the while guarding your own. I’ll leave you two to discuss it, but neither of you may rise from that log until you’ve come to a solution that will satisfy the both of you.”
Without giving them a chance to protest, Emariya turned on her heel. Torian, watching from the shadows, caught her eye.
“Are you trying to solve the lovers’ quarrel?” he whispered, his breath soft against her ear.
“They have no quarrel, only foolish pride.”
His eyebrows lifted in amusement. Placing his fingers gently on her elbow, he guided her deeper into the shadows, farther from the others. “We’ll be nearing the entrance to The Cradle of The Three soon, tomorrow most likely. I think once we are there, it may be best if we go the rest of the way on our own.”
Emariya glanced back toward their campsite. Jessa’s and Blaine’s heads tilted together intimately, locked in intense conversation. Alara had begun fixing a meal over the fire and Rink sat soaking in the warmth with his knees hugged to his chest. He glanced her way and offered an easy wave. She returned it, then let Torian guide her even farther into the darkness. “Why so?”
“I believe it will be safer. For all of us. The current level of tension between Jessa and Blaine may disturb The Three even more than the visit alone will. And your grandparents are more weary than they would like you to know. We have no idea what lies ahead. I can only guess at this point, but I think The Three will test us somehow. I’d rather only have to worry about the two of us, instead of all of us.”
She wanted to disagree, but the strain of their journey was told in the stiff way her grandfather sat his saddle each day, and the tired lines around her grandmother’s eyes. “We should have left them at Damphries.” Her voice filled with worry.
Torian’s hand lifted to turn her face up toward him. “They wouldn’t have listened, even if you’d told them to stay behind. They want to be here for you. And they needed to be here, to be with you I mean, to help you work on your skills. The more Stones that are around, the stronger we both are.”
A swift breeze lifted through the cover of trees, easing the sweet smell of spring pine toward the ground. They were running out of time. “A lot of good that’s done.”
His thumb stroked her jaw. “Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve made great strides in a short time.”
“I don’t know whether to hope that The Three take our gifts or not. I’ve made strides, but not enough. And if they take them away, all this practice is for nothing. And if they take them away...we...what if...” She bit her lip, unable to continue.
“
We
aren’t going to change. Gifts, pull, no gifts, no pull. We’re in this together. No matter what.”
Emariya leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. “No matter what,” she whispered.
Her heart rose, forming a lump in her throat as she allowed Torian to guide her mouth to his. His lips were persistent and unyielding, chipping away at her emotional armor. Her mouth parted, encouraging him to continue as she reached up, tangling her fingers in his dark hair. Having the silken strands coiled in her grasp anchored her into their embrace and a soft moan escaped between breaths as their kiss deepened.
“Emariya.” His plea came as a ragged gasp. Desperate. Hungry. Matched only by her own need for him.
Not wanting to break their kiss, she didn’t say a word, but she gave him her answer all the same.
His strong arms circled her, creating a safe, protected cradle as they sank to the ground together to allow their passion to soar.
Each kiss shoved the nagging worries farther from the forefront of her mind. If her fears came true and Torian’s feelings for her proved to be only a product of their gifts and the pull, she would cherish this moment to carry her through the rest of a life that would be empty and a mere shadow of what it could have been.
Emariya gasped. The heat that had begun in her chest as their lovemaking burned through her paled in comparison to the fires that surged around them. As their love washed over her, soothing and cooling her fears, their passion ignited a circle of very real, tangible flame. The greedy orange tongues licked eagerly over the dried leaves, twigs and dirt, lapping eagerly up, up and up as it reached toward the dark canopy of leaves overhead. Dancing, leaping and soaring, the fire encouraged them together, adding its song of crackles and pops to the crescendo building inside of Emariya. Tears sprang to her eyes. The enormity of her unintentional accomplishment didn’t go unnoticed, but she found herself unable to take it in until she lay still in Torian’s arms, resting her head on his shoulder.
Worried for the vulnerable spring growth, Emariya called the burning circle downward. With a final protest, the flames settled, lingering as a soft glow surrounding them, providing comfortable heat but not consuming the forest’s valuable resources.
“It would seem you started quite the fire. I knew you could do it.” Torian’s mouth twisted into a wry smile.
The memory of the fire he’d ignited deep within her left no doubt in her mind. A satisfied smile settled on her lips, protecting the tingle still burning from Torian’s kiss. “Not me,” Emariya whispered. “We. We did it.”
Emariya’s sleep-weighted eyes fluttered as Torian squeezed her shoulder.
“It’s time.” His lips grazed her ear as he whispered.
Instantly awake, in more ways than one, Emariya lifted her head to peer around after taming back a rebellious blonde strand. On the other side of the fire, her grandfather’s arm rested across her grandmother. Rink lay sprawled on his back, his arm slung chaotically over his eyes, but the ghost of an angelic smile gracing his lips promised Emariya the boy remained content. Sometime in the night, Blaine had slid off his log, and he now braced his back against it. Jessa cuddled against him, compliant at least in sleep.
Emariya rose to her feet, brushing the wrinkles from her gown. The night before, they’d agreed not to tell their companions their plan. It would prevent them from arguing needlessly over it. It didn’t take long, and soon the rest of the small camp had been roused from sleep’s clutches, a cold breakfast had been swallowed even if it hadn’t been tasted, and they rode toward The Cradle of The Three under a somber veil of anticipation mixed with an undeniable dose of dread.
The trees grew closer together while the riders drifted farther apart. Despite not telling the others of their plan, Emariya felt a heavy weight of anxiety hanging in the air between them all. Did they suspect that she and Torian intended to leave them behind? Would they feel as betrayed as she did, still wondering where Garith had gone, and why he’d not at least taken the time to say goodbye?