Lilah stared at the man. Of course, the older woman had a mate. Why wouldn’t she? Valori just seemed so put together, too serious to have a mate. “Nice to meet you,” Lilah said.
“It’s my honor, Alpha. You are worthy of great devotion, as is your mate.”
Hells bells. Which mate did he mean? The one by nature or the one she’d chosen? Had to be Ferrus. Silvo was dead.
“Thank you, Fusecut,” she replied, then smiled. “Let’s see if we can get you patched up.” She glanced at Ferrus in his dragon form, holding the enemy back with assistance from the women, so she could safely work. “What do we need to make the men better?”
Valori bent lower over her mate. “I’ve never seen this injury before. It is surely dark magic winding its way to his source of magic.”
“Source of magic?” Lilah didn’t know there was such a thing.
Valori placed a hand on her chest. “Magic comes from the heart, Alpha. The heart holds the two strongest forces in nature, magic and love.”
Boy, she had a lot to learn. “Okay,” she replied, “how do we use those to heal your mate?”
The elder’s face paled. “I don’t know. This is different from anything we’ve experienced.”
Oh, fabulous. Was this going to be another it just works deal? She let out a deep breath and put her brain to work. A memory from the time they were in the village came to mind. “Valori, you said the rock is essential to your lives.”
“Yes, Alpha. We are made of it and will return to it when the Mother of the Mountain decides it is time.”
“Well,” Lilah said more to herself, “if it acts like stem cells for humans, let’s see if it will do miraculous things too.”
Lilah scooped up a chunk of rock and crushed it in her hand. She rubbed the dust over several scratches and examined the results. As the blood soaked up the powder, the combination settled deeper into the cuts. A spark flew up as a small flame disappeared under the skin. The base of the dark lines from those scratches that had webbed through every vein in his arm turned red then vanished.
Fusecut screamed and grabbed for his arm, but with Valori’s help, she restrained him. Valori gasped. “How do you know this?”
Lilah shrugged a shoulder. “It just works.” She glanced up at Valori staring at her, and they smiled. Turning her attention back to Val’s mate, Lilah noticed the fire that was eating the dark magic in Fusecut’s veins began to slow then stopped.
“Why isn’t it working,” Lilah asked. She thought she had it figured out.
“It is not strong enough,” Valori guessed.
“How do you make rock stronger?” The question was rhetorical, but Lilah said it anyway out of frustration.
“Yes, Muriel, go,” Val said. Lilah looked up to see the elder talking to someone behind Lilah. Then the young lady who made the beautiful sword hilts at the lava river darted up the slope. Before Lilah could ask, Val explained. “We have discovered that the leftover ash from burning metal out of the rock to make weapons has several beneficial uses.”
Lilah remembered Val saying the kitchen knives were higher quality than the soldier’s weapons because Muriel added ash to the mix when she made them.
“Just recently,” Val said, “we discovered that putting ash on the garden soil produces bigger and more crops.”
“Got it,” Lilah nodded. “You’re hoping the ash mixed with the rock dust will be enough to eat all the dark magic.” When she said those words, she felt in her bones that this was the solution to the cure. She jumped to her feet. “I’ve been to the mine. I’ll help Muriel bring ash up.”
Lilah dashed through the entrance into the big cavern where the arched bedrooms and most of the daily chores were done. She looked around and realized she didn’t know how to get to the right tunnel from here. When she and Daph stumbled upon it, they had come from the kitchen.
Shit. The only way to be sure was to get to the corridor that went past the throne room. From here to get to the king’s chamber was easy. In a fast jog, she headed along the path. Approaching the double doors with the magnificent dragon on it—which now made sense to her seeing that Ferrus was a dragon—she saw a body slumped to the floor. Was that the guard who stood at the doors?
Reaching the throne entrance, she checked for a pulse