The Centaur Queen (The Dark Queens #7)(16)

Looking over my shoulder, he pointed with his chin. “Several large craters where none used to be. And there was a village on the maps only half a mile from here. But I see no smoke and hear no sounds.”

I shrugged. Having spoken with the fairies at length, I already knew the landscape of our world had changed. The people too had been affected. Families had been torn apart. Brother no longer recognized brother, wives and husbands were separated, and some had even died.

It was all very tragic, but I had a task to accomplish, and I could not do that by dwelling on the sadness. So I pushed on, regardless of my feelings in the matter, because I had no choice.

Much of the terrain that’d been fixed in my head from poring over the maps was simply altered, or in some cases, gone completely.

“How do we know Gnósi is even there anymore?” he asked.

“We don’t.” I rolled my wrist. No sense in sugarcoating the obvious truth. “But geographically, north, south, east, and west are as fixed today as they were before. Of that, at least, we are certain.”

Scattering the leftover seeds and berries he hadn’t eaten to the right of him, he dusted off his hands with short, angry claps. “And so what? Just because direction remains unchanged doesn’t mean Gnósi remains. What if we’re searching for a ghost?”

He cared too much.

Not that I didn’t care for the fate and plight of those I’d never know, because I did. But it wasn’t as personal for me, not the way it was for him. I was fairly certain I knew why at this point. Petra wore his heart on his sleeve.

“I’m not convinced everything is as dire as the fairies believe,” I said softly.

That stopped him. He visibly inhaled before slowly exhaling, and hope flashed through his moss-green eyes. I did not want to encourage that kind of belief in me, did not want him to think I was infallible. Would that it were so, but I was most certainly fallible, and had been many times in the past.

“You think so?” he asked in a breathless rush.

My stomach kinked into a massive knot. I frowned. “Do not mistake me, Petra. There will be challenges ahead. Of that, I have no doubt. But yesterday I bathed in a stream.”

He frowned, obviously confused by my sudden change in subject.

“It was once part of a great tributary chain of rivers and lakes, but no more. Naught but a stream. But the remnants of what it used to be still remained. Like a ghostly footprint, it’s still there if you know where to look.”

“And you know where to look?” His voice was deep, full of unnamed emotion, and my heart squeezed for my friend.

“When I was below the water, I opened my mouth and let its coolness rush over my tongue.”

His nostrils flared.

“Do you know what I tasted?”

Grunting, Petra cleared his throat twice before answering in a sharp burr. “What?”

“Salt.”

His mouth turned down, and I knew he still didn’t understand.

“That body of water once had a tributary that led directly toward the ocean.”

“A stream is freshwater,” he said, and I grinned. He was no centaur, but my friend was bright all the same.

“Aye, that it is. Salt could have remained behind only if it’d once been there to begin with. We will find Gnósi, one way or another. But I believe that the gateway to the world of the ancients would not have moved. It seems only Kingdom has been affected.”

“Are you better enough to head out now?” he asked, and I startled because I’d forgotten all about my little fib.

He looked much better, and there was a sudden buoyancy to him, so I knew he’d make it to our stopping point for the night without dying. Stretching out my leg, I hemmed and hawed and finally declared myself all better.

Petra’s lips twitched. Surely, I had made a fool of myself, but it was worth it to see him better.

With the spry movements of a satyr, he hopped quickly to his feet and held a hand out to me. I could have gotten up without his help. I’d done it all my life before I’d met him. But I slid my hand into his, feeling the slightest bit lightheaded when his callused palm rubbed against my own.

Once I was up he released me. But I swear I felt the touch of his hand in mine for the next twenty miles.





Chapter 5


Petra

We arrived at the stone dwarf mountains. To call them so was a misnomer. There was nothing miniature about them. The mountains were slate-gray, jagged ranges grouped together and spiraling high into the heavens.

Many of Kingdom’s most precious and semi-precious stones could be found within a hundred-mile radius of where we stood. The particular mountain Ty and I found ourselves on was mostly shale, loose rock that could break off at the slightest touch, making this a treacherous pass to navigate for most anyone.

My steps were surefooted as I guided us through the perilous terrain. We had to make it to Agua Veneno before nightfall. Otherwise I’d lose my way through the windy, twisted trails that had led many an unwary traveler to their deaths.

A gasp sounded behind me, and I heard an avalanche of gravel and large slabs of rock plummeting down the cliff’s face. A bolt of terror gripped my heart so swiftly that I went hot all over.

“Ty?” I barked as I swiftly turned, heart banging so hard in my chest it made me breathless. All I could picture was her crushed, broken, or dead.