Send Me Their Souls (Bring Me Their Hearts #3) - Sara Wolf Page 0,19
does not burn books it doesn’t agree with.” His eyes twinkle back at me. I raise my chin.
“Right. Regardless, this valkerax isn’t on her side, Elder. I’d stake my immortal life on it.”
“Why?”
“I taught it to Weep. It’s free of the Bone Tree’s command.”
“Ah.” He nods, chin in his hand. “Weeping. I’ve read of it in the rare Sunless War record. You are…capable of it?”
“I’d do a casual demonstration, but that’s against the spirit of the thing.”
“Can you teach any number of the other valkerax to do it, too?” he presses.
My laugh bursts out, and I just barely cover my mouth.
“S-Sorry. No. Not without a lot of drugging, underground dungeons, and dying on my part. It’s a frankly awful time. And a lengthy one.”
“Not feasible, then,” Fione muses, pulling out a notebook and a quill. She scratches something out.
“You thought of that already?” I tilt my head.
“Obviously.” She taps her quill on another sentence. “What about the Bone Tree? Can we go back to the mountaintop and destroy it, strip her of her source of power?”
She’s the Duchess Himintell right now. Strong spine, unblinking periwinkle eyes. Apple-cheeked, blushing-in-love Fione is nowhere to be seen. Malachite and I share a look as Lucien shakes his head.
“The Bone Tree’s gone,” Lucien muses. “That thing on top of the mountain is a shell—the entirety of its magic is inside her now.”
“In that choker around her neck,” I say. “Right?”
Lucien shrugs. “I can’t say. But it’s a physical symbol of her new power, certainly.”
“It’s feeding off her,” Fione says. “Her magic. Which means we don’t have much time to stop her.”
“There is a time limit either way, Your Grace,” the sage says. “When one takes into consideration the imminent loss of life from a valkerax invasion.”
My stomach turns uneasily. The dream last night…Varia was close to Vetris; she was in the grasslands. But she wouldn’t—her parents, the king and queen, are there. She wouldn’t kill them. She’s still Varia, and the Varia I know treasures the people she loves.
Even if they’ve betrayed her.
But her parents haven’t. She loves them. Vetris is safe. I’m not sure about anywhere else, but I’m sure Vetris, at least, is safe.
“How do you stop someone with the most powerful weapon in the world?” Malachite muses.
“Calvary-General Rodituller proposes two theories in his Recitations of Field Warfare,” Lucien says. “You either amass an equally powerful weapon of your own or you destroy theirs.”
An idea comes to me. Not a great one, but at this point I’ll take anything.
“It’s like the hunger,” I say. “The hunger binds me to Lucien. There’s a voice—I think it’s the same hunger—connecting the valkerax to the Bone Tree. If we could weaken that bond somehow, like white mercury does—not Weeping but a spell, or…something. I don’t know.”
“Yes,” Fione agrees dryly. “If we could undo an immensely powerful Old Vetrisian artifact with a spell, it’d solve many problems.”
“But there’s gotta be something, right? There was the Hymn of the Forest, and the Elder here has read books about valkerax and their connection to the Bone Tree. It’s recorded. Someone has to know something.”
“Elder?” Lucien looks at the sage. “Any ideas?”
He shakes his old, wispy head. “The books I spoke of said nothing of weakening such a bond. That is knowledge the world of Arathess hasn’t seen in a very long time—from the time of Old Vetris. I can think of only one entity who would know what you seek. The High Witches of Cavanos.”
“You really think they’d help us?” Malachite scoffs.
“Three enemies means two of them are friends,” the sage says. “Princess Varia is using magic against the world. Surely they’d want less of that.”
“The High Witches haven’t been seen in decades. Do you not have Helkyrisian witches who’d know something?” Lucien asks.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, Your Highness, Cavanos has always been the seat of magic. Witches in the rest of the world have not perfected magic as they have, through regrettably constant strife. Ildolia on the Star Continent is perhaps the only rival to Cavanos, but even their magic falls short, and you would find the journey too long, too allowing of Princess Varia’s destruction. Cavanos was the seat of Old Vetris, the very heart that beat outward the blood, and that legacy lingers in your witches.”
The sage leans back, smacking his chocolaty lips with an air of certainty.
“Yes. Yes, I’m quite sure. There is no better place to learn of the magic binding the valkerax than Windonhigh.”