Warrior King New Worlds (Crystal Kingdom #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,13

something to offend them.

The woman standing beside her stopped chopping. “The men do as they wish. If they want to be stupid and not listen to us, then that’s their loss.”

“What do you mean?” Daphne asked. Valori gave the woman a sharp glance, and she returned to her work.

“It is of no matter,” the elder said then nodded her head toward her and Daph. “Give Lilah a chunk of rock.”

Daph leaned over Lilah’s shoulder. “Why are they doing that?” Lilah shrugged, as a fae went to a wall with several pockmarks. Her fingers sank into the hard stone like it was sand, and she scooped out a large handful. Lilah followed the fae’s movement toward her, and the small boulder the dainty hands set on the table in front of her.

Lilah looked up at the others. No one paid her any attention. What was she supposed to do with this?

Valori glanced at her. “Go on. Make you and your friend a cup to drink from.”

“What?” Lilah replied. “How?”

Valori responded with a scowl. “Split the rock in half.” Lilah lifted the rock and banged it against the tabletop. Giggles went around the work area.

Why did the old woman think she could mold the rock like they could? That was ridiculous. Despite the stupidity, she mimicked what the other woman did to dig the rock from the wall. She placed her fingers over the center of the stone and slowly pushed them down. The hard surface pressing against her tips gave, and she slid her hand through, splitting the rock.

Daphne’s jaw dropped, and she snatched half of the rock and pounded her fingers against it, unsuccessfully. Lilah dug her thumbs into the claylike material and hollowed out the center like she’d done as a kid with colorful sculpting clay. The soft material warmed even more against her palm, bending and stretching as her fingers demanded.

“How are you doing that?” her cousin whispered. She just shrugged. “Here.” Lilah took the other stone half and repeated to make another cup. After finishing the second dish, the first had transformed back into hard rock.

“Now, you can get your own water to drink.” Elder Valori nodded to the side where tall barrel-like containers sat. She and Daphne approached them, seeing water in each. She dipped her cup into the liquid then drank water tasting better than the day before in the forest.

“Bring two chunks of rock back with you,” the elder said.

Lilah handed her cup to Daph and dug out two handfuls of the closest wall. “Very good,” Valori said, “but we have a special a wall to take from. You can’t be all willy-nilly where you take from the wall strength.”

Lilah panicked, thinking the ceiling would cave in on top of them, and slapped the material back into place. Her hands sunk in up to her wrists. The ladies giggled again. Her face heated as she yanked her arms free.

Daphne led her to the place the other lady had claimed their cups. “Here,” she said. Lilah scooped out a couple holes, and they returned to the stone island prep area. Her head was in a tailspin. How was she able to do this? Nothing like this happened on earth. Though she never tried to make a mug from a rock.

“You know,” Daphne said, voice low, “Wren can make tree limbs bend to make chairs. Maybe you can bend rocks to make dishes.”

“Like that’s helpful.” Lilah rolled her eyes.

Daph shrugged. “I can’t do it.”

“Now,” Valori said from the other side of the work island, “crush one of those into dust.” One of the females looked up with surprise, noticing no one else reacting, then went back to chopping.

Lilah did as instructed and squeezed a chunk in her hand, picturing in her mind’s eye the stone breaking into pieces and turning to dust. As she gripped, the hard resistance gave, and the rock disintegrated in her hand.

“Cool,” Daphne replied to Lilah’s accomplishment.

Valori nodded to the other piece of stone. “Change that into a solid piece of metal.” This time, all the women stopped and stared at the elder. Valori's eyes never wavered from hers. Heads swiveled in her direction. Why were the ladies freaking out?

Having no idea how to transform rock to metal, she picked up the second chunk. Just like she had with the previous slab, she imagined what she wanted to happen. The room was so silent, she heard water trickling somewhere in the distance. The happy, smiling faces were frozen with gaping jaws and