The cave is darkening. They’ve let their magic lights dwindle. Praseep’s set aside his book and is talking to Danam, both of them close. Danam looks intent, his shoulders tight, while Praseep looks like someone broke his favourite yakan figurine and threw all the shattered pieces off the edge of a cliff.
What are they talking about? I strain my ears to hear, but Vilpur’s playing a shrill little tune on a stringed harp barely larger than his hand and I can’t hear anything over it. He begins to chant softly as he plays, and again I’m reminded of the hermits of Dragon Mountain. I used to love to listen to them chant, losing myself in the heady thrum.
I shake my head, I don’t want to lose myself here. I want to hear what Praseep’s saying to Danam. But my ears aren’t up to the task. I’d need super-hearing to manage over the noise in this cave.
I freeze. Super-hearing? I can hear the snow sing on the mountain above us, I can sense the beat in Danam’s chest. Why can’t I also ‘hear’ what he hears?
I lick my lips and close my eyes. For a second, I let myself focus only on my breath, slow and deep, in and out. Then I extend my mind towards Danam. I sense the grit on the cave floor, still seeping the faint memory of a night of celebration last winter where the walls of the cave danced in time to the people. I hear the strong echo of our arrival. And then I’m there, between Danam and Praseep.
I hear Praseep’s voice. I’m so excited the connection wavers and I have to focus again. ‘You will not have long to study, but the Princess believes in you,’ Praseep is saying. ‘I do too. You are proving yourself on this trek.’
‘I am?’ Danam sounds hesitant.
‘Trust yourself. By the Stone, I know it is hard when the powers wake in you, but understand you have a gift, and that is a precious thing. I can help you, for what it is worth.’
‘Are you a … Protector too?’
Praseep is silent for a moment. ‘Not like you will become. I wished it, but wishing only goes so far.’ He pauses, then continues quickly. ‘To be Protector to Princess Rishala is the highest honour one like us can aim for. A Cloud Dragon. Many have tried, but none have passed the Tests. When the Seers told us to travel to the edges of the Dirt to find her Cloud Dragon, we couldn’t believe it. But now look. By the Stone, I think we have found you just in time.’
Danam clears his throat. ‘What is this “Stone” you talk of?’
‘You don’t know?’ Praseep sounds like he’d be frowning, but I dare not open my eyes to check. My connection’s tenuous and I’m tiring already. ‘The Stone was a sapphire amulet that brought the Old People the power of a peaceful mind. But it was stolen.’
‘Who stole it?’
‘You did. Well, your ancestors.’ Praseep stops, and when he speaks again his voice is harder. ‘That’s what caused the Great Split.’
‘What’s the Great Split?’
‘You don’t know that either? What do they teach you down there?’
Danam murmurs something about gotal health, but Praseep ignores him. ‘Once long ago we were one people, the Old People, and we were happy. Then there were two sons, twins, born to a Queen. The eldest was destined to be King, but the other was apprenticed to the farm. Jealousy grew between them, until the summer the first was to be crowned. The Stone had been brought to the Midsummer Altar to recharge – you will see the Altar when we get to SkyCity – but the Stone went missing. The Seers were consulted, and they said it had gone to the lands where the second brother lived. The Dirtlands. When the new King accused the brother of stealing it, the brother accused the King of hiding it. They argued and they fought and it was a bitter time, but the second brother would not return the Stone. The Old People split, the borders were declared. And the Stone was never seen again.’
‘That hardly seems a good reason,’ Danam says.
‘You don’t know of the Stone, so how can you say? Your King must hold it.’
‘We don’t have a King.’
‘Then who rules you?’
‘Each village rules itself. My grandfather is an Elder in our village, but he has never mentioned any stone. I think the old King did hide it.’
‘Why would he? With the loss of the Stone, we lost our peace of mind, our …’ He stops and sighs. ‘No, the Dirt-Brother stole it.’
‘Are you accusing my people of theft?’
‘As you accuse mine of deceit?’
At that point the Princess intervenes to stop what appears to be working up to yet another argument over a stone neither boy has ever seen. Vilpur’s music twangs discordantly, and I open my eyes.
The connection breaks immediately, leaving me reeling with fatigue and understanding. No wonder the Ice-People look so similar to us. We’d been one people once, until the loss of the Stone. So, where is this Stone Praseep speaks of?
It takes until the stars sing in the deep of night before I can sleep.