Calder swallowed. “I ... Ihave, but—”
“I’ll bring you to the Wildling newland,” Isla said. “Our healing elixir is made from a flower. Perhaps if it was boiled, made into a tea, that could help them as well. I can show you.”
Calder agreed, and that was when she told him and Zed about her starstick. The look the Skyling gave her could only be described as withering.
The three of them went through the puddle of stars.
At Isla’s request, Wren showed them the patch of flowers where the healing elixirs came from.
“These are magnificent,” Calder said. Isla hadn’t ever seen them in their original form before. They were deep violet in color, with sharp petals. Beautiful. Vicious.
“The flowers are so rare, we use them only in emergencies. We’ve never tried them for sickness,” Wren said. Her eyes darted to Isla. “We ... we have only been able to find a few more additional patches.”
They didn’t have many to spare.
Isla sighed. This was the hard part of ruling, she decided. Was it better to use a portion of the flowers now, to ensure the help of the Vinderland warriors, knowing there would be less healing elixir later, which could save lives?
Though ... having more warriors would save lives too, wouldn’t it?
She closed her eyes tightly and decided. “Let’s test with just a few flowers. If we see meaningful results ... we can determine how many we would need to heal all of them.”
Calder nodded. Wren began to pluck the flowers. The moment they were pulled from the ground, the color became darker, almost black.
There was a rustling in the woods by the patch and Zed froze. He looked up, and up. His hand inched toward the weapon on his belt.
“Don’t you dare,” Isla bit out, before breaking into a smile.
Lynx. She had missed him.
He bowed his head begrudgingly, as if acknowledging he had maybe missed her too.
She jumped as high as she could and threw her arms around his neck. That was apparently taking it too far, because the massive leopard shook her off.
When she turned around, Enya, Calder, and Zed were gaping at her.
“That is the largest cat I have ever seen,” Enya said.
Lynx uttered a sound that made it clear he did not like being referred to as a cat. She placed her hand against his side. “He’s a leopard, thank you very much,” she said. Lynx didn’t even acknowledge her.
Zed narrowed his eyes at Lynx. “I ... I don’t think that’s a leopard.”
“Of course he is,” Isla said. “Look. If you squint, you can see the patterns.”
Calder stepped forward to get a closer look, and Lynx bared his massive teeth. The Moonling held his hands up. “Never mind. I can see from here. Very pretty.”
Zed just shook his head. “Are there more of them?” he asked.
“More of what?”
He motioned at Lynx. “Yourleopard.”
She looked at Lynx, whose eyes slid to hers. Somewhere deep inside of herself she knew that meant no.
Was that part of the connection between Wildling and bonded?
“No. Why?”
Zed shrugged. “We could use creatures like that. The Skyling vote’s in a few days. I’m not holding my breath.”
