Oh.Isla wasn’t expecting that. She supposed all rulers had lost someone close to them the night the curses were spun. This seemed different. “A partner?” she guessed.
He nodded. “His husband.”
Isla felt a knot in her chest. She didn’t know Azul very well, butthe thought that he had lost someone so close to him made her hurt in an inexplicable way.
“Was he also Skyling?” she asked.
He shook his head.
It made her think of Oro’s brother, and the wedding the curses had destroyed. Two rulers were set to marry for the first time in centuries, a chance to bring the island together. She didn’t want to ask directly about King Egan, but she did say, “Is marrying between realms common on Lightlark?”
“It has become more common” was all he said.
She frowned. “How does that affect power, then? Children ... are they born with just one realm’s ability?” She looked at him. “They don’t get both, do they?”
He shook his head.
She waited expectantly, wanting a better explanation.
The king sighed. “They are born with one power, Wildling.”
Interesting.Isla opened her mouth, another question ready, when Oro gave her a look that silenced her again.
Fine.
Though he was the one who had ended their conversation, not ten minutes later did he say, “The entrance to Wild Isle is near.” He murmured the words, as if not really meaning to speak them.
Isla stood still. She knew Wildlings had their own isle on Lightlark, of course. She had even searched for it during her snooping. But she hadn’t found the bridge anywhere.
“How do we know the heart isn’t on Wild Isle?” she asked, suddenly desperate to see it. Oro had kept walking, and she raced to catch up. “Surely most of the plants are there.”
The king looked over at her. “You said so yourself. The heart needs a willing, nurturing host to survive.” He shrugged. “All the nature on Wild Isle is dead.”
Dead.The word was a rock to the chest.
She shouldn’t have expected anything different. But it still hurt to hear it spoken.
A moment passed. “What did you think of them?” she asked, even though she practically knew the answer, given the way he had sneered at her during their first dinner together. “Wildlings.”
He frowned, and Isla readied herself for a string of insults that she might just slap him for. “They were my favorite realm, besides Sunling,” he finally said.
She scoffed. “You can’t possibly mean that.”
He peered at her over a shoulder. “I saidwere,Wildling.”
“Why?”
They kept walking. The trees began changing. Thinning. Until they entered a clearing.
“Wildlings were advisers in our court,” he told her. “When I was a child, they taught me to wield a sword, how to pick the right berries. They were loyal. They were good.”
Isla just stared at him. “And now?”
“And now ...” They walked into another set of woods then, made up entirely of coffiners. Hundreds of them. “Wildlings are all the things they say.”
They spent the entire night peeling back bark, peering into each coffiner tree. Oro did so without having to use a knife, thanks to his Starling abilities. Isla used her hands and a tiny dagger she had sneaked onto the island, disguised as a bracelet. With each cut of her blade, she winced, waiting for the tree to retaliate. But none of them made to hurt her. Isla moved quickly enough that she hoped Oro wouldn’t suggest she unmask her powers for the task. Every hour that ticked by, she worried even more, waiting for him to say the words.
At the end, he finally did. “This would be easier with your abilities,” he said, frowning.
