Bite Of Winter (Fae's Captive #3)(18)

“Nahcolite?”

“It’s the rock form of sodium bicarbonate.” I smile. “Baking soda. It’s naturally anti-fungal. So is lime. You need to load up with it from the walls of the waterfall, bring it over here, smash it until it’s a fine powder, and then lace the dirt with it. It might even be better if you mix it with water and add it to your irrigation system. There will be an eventual calcium buildup doing it that way, but better to do a clean-out every so often than have a fungal issue. It’ll take time, and you’ll likely lose these plants, but when you re-seed, the problem should have abated.”

“How do you know this?” Chatara is a mix of dumbfounded and wary.

“Trust her, Chatara,” Delantis calls. “The Ancestors brought her here for a reason.”

Chatara straightens, her doe-eyes sobering. “We’ll get to work immediately.” She takes a few steps away, then turns. “Thank you. If this works, you will have saved countless Vundi.”

“Happy to help. I just know fungi and minerals. You’re the ones doing the saving. I’m not the savior, um, person. Anyway, gotta go. Yep.” I try to cover my awkward by following Delantis up the stairs and back into the hallway.

I offer Delantis my arm again. She takes it, but she seems energized, her steps lighter than before. Even her gryphon prances along behind us.

“Now that we did our dirt, back to the prophecy.” I’m not about to let her get away with not telling me anything.

She laughs. “Tenacious. A good trait for a queen.” She turns those silver eyes on me, but trouble haunts the creases beside them. “Perhaps the prophecy was wrong. It doesn’t fit. Not with you.”

“Tell me the prophecy. Please.” I need more to go on than a necklace I can’t remove and a dark, sparkly aura. I need to know what connection I have to this world.

She pauses. “Prophecies are strange things. They never mean what they say or say what they mean. Keep that in mind.”

“It’s in mind.” Can’t she tell I’m on pins and needles here? “Spill it.”

“It isn’t pretty, but I will tell you. We owe you. And I sense that the Vundi will be even further in your debt once the fields are replanted.” She sighs. “This prophecy—few know of it, and fewer still believe in it.”

I bounce on the balls of my feet. “I’m ready. Hit me.”

“It was foretold long ago by a seer who could sense the coming of the great war that decimated Arin. She saw another conflict, one just as great, that would be heralded by the arrival of a particular creature. ‘A child of many worlds, clothed in light, will come home.’”

I chew my bottom lip. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“I’m not finished.” She gives me a wry smile. “‘On wings of death, the child will glide to sit on her throne of bone.’”

I frown. “Okay, that’s a little darker than I thought it was going to go, but we’re getting somewhere, I guess. Please continue.”

“The realms will bend—”

“I’m afraid it’s time for you to surrender, changeling.” Vanara appears ahead of us, my obsidian blade in her grip and resolve in her eyes. “The king beyond the mountain will have his due.”

I shout Leander’s name in my mind and hope he can find me in this stone maze. If he can’t, things are about to go terribly wrong.

“You don’t want to do this, Vanara.” Delantis glows, the white light flowing from her in waves.

Her gryphon wraps its large talon around my waist and pulls me back before standing in front of me.

“Step aside, crone.” Vanara brandishes the obsidian blade and advances. “The changeling bitch belongs to me.”





9





Leander





“The council came around in the end, at least. I’ll have to talk to the harvest master in Cold Comfort and figure out logistics, but we should be able to get enough food over the border to sustain them until we can figure out the crop situation.” Gareth leads the way back to our rooms.

“We should send an envoy to the farmers in the west, see if they can assist with the underground fields. Maybe the Vundi will let them in.”

“I can arrange that, though we may run afoul of the queen.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?” I turn the corner toward our rooms. “Besides, maybe Taylor has already figured out a solution. My mate is quite a clever alchemist.”

Beth stands at the door, her gaze on Gareth as she taps her foot impatiently. “About time. Where’s Taylor?”

“She should be—” The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and the feral howls inside me. I take off running.

“What is it?” Gareth follows at my heels.

“She’s in danger.” I draw my sword as I navigate the dark passages, each second an agony as I try to find my way to her. Her fear coats me like the tang of blood, but there’s something else crackling down our bond. Something cold and dark.

A shriek echoes through the dark stone hallways, the sound covered in pain and impending death.

“What was that?” Gareth keeps to my heels.

“I must find her!” I roar as I race past some wide-eyed Vundi carrying shovels, bowling them over as I go. She’s closer, but I can’t get to her, and the darkness is growing.