The True Queen by Sarah Fine

Author:Sarah Fine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Elli

By midnight I have Livius and his promised stone crews, though they are a few men short, as two did not survive the most recent quake. All the men are dusty and glassy-eyed from the destruction in town. One man has lost his entire family, but unlike the mob in the square, he is loyal to the Valtia, or at least believes I might have the power to set things right.

The others just seem exhausted and wary, and when I tell them of my plan, they are incredulous. “Don’t we need the copper?” one of them asks. “My brother’s a miner who breaks his back each year to pull the stuff out of the earth!”

“But that’s the problem,” I say. “He was too good at his job. We bled the land dry, and now it’s dying.”

“Are you sure that’s the cause of these ground shakes?” This question comes from the grieving man, who has tear streaks through the gray stone residue coating his face. His question sounds like a plea.

I look over at Raimo, who is leaning heavily on his walking stick as he stands next to the rim of stone slabs that bounds the giant, deep fissure in the plaza. The old man looks somber and pale. Weak. We spent a few hours trying to heal Sig and Oskar, but finally Raimo’s strength gave out, and now our Suurin are walking around wounded, still trying to control the vast unbalanced power contained within their increasingly fragile bodies. I think Oskar knew it was scaring me to look at them, because he took Sig down the path to the shore with some muttered excuse about wanting to be close to the water.

Raimo stayed, of course. He is faithful and steady even when he’s horribly unsteady, as he is now. He hears the grieving stone worker’s question, and he sees my hopeful expression, and he looks toward the gash in the earth. “Our magic comes from that copper, so who knows what else grows from those roots? It seems the land itself depended on it. We ignored that possibility in our greed—and we assumed the supply was endless.” He chuckles. “We have made the same assumptions about the magic of the Valtia, that it will always remain here with us, that Kupari will always be its home. What if we were wrong?”

The stone workers gape at him, a new fear written on their faces. “You think the magic will abandon us now?” Livius asks in a choked voice. “Where would it go?”

“If we don’t find the Saadella safe and alive, losing the magic is a certainty whether it wants to stay with us or not,” I say. Lahja is an ache that nothing but her presence can soothe. The longer she is gone, the more I fear someone else has her.

“Even if we do find her, who knows?” Raimo replies. “The power may abandon us and go back to the stars, or to some other land where the people are more deserving.

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