Page 109 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

“But what does any of this have to do with lepid and extinct plants?” Jaxus asked, not for the first time.

We’d been going in circles. I’d gone to examine the seeds in the archives, but I’d been told by the historians in the seed room, we’d lost the ability to grow many of them.

Lepid needed magic to thrive and because the ground had been so drained of it the plant had died out even before the Hundred Years War. I didn’t think the elders would allow me the last of the seeds to experiment, either. Even if I thought I had a lead on making a treatment for Nyx, they wouldn’t risk a guess with the last of what we had on a maybe. The elders were possessive over their collection, especially of practically extinct things.

“We are missing something, it keeps referring to two, but two what? Do you think we are missing half of the text? Half of what we need? I keep going over the old language in my head and deux is two. So why is there only one part?” Jaxus wondered.

“Do you think we are missing a second ingredient? Or maybe something else to go with the seeds? Was there something it was often paired with? Or prepared with?” I suggested.

“Maybe. Perhaps that’s why we are drawing a blank.”

“There were strange markings on the container the seeds were kept in. All the samples in the seed rooms are labeled, but this was different. They were carved into the bottle. They werelike sacred symbols, but nothing I’ve seen before.” I wrinkled my nose, trying to put it all together. I felt like I had all these loose ends, but none of them would come together. I needed to find a way to connect them, but there was just too much noise in my head. Then I had an idea. “Can we fly?”

He looked over the top of his book and smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

We had to trek back to the closest open space, but before long we were in the air and our magic was free-flowing along our bond. I hadn’t realized how much I missed this connection between us and since the soul-bond had been revealed it felt so much deeper than before. I tipped my head back, letting the air flow through my hair, fully immersing myself in the experience.

“What does the container look like?”Jaxus asked in my head, keen to use this clarity we were both feeling at last.

I sent a mental picture through our bond of the vessel. It was carved from carnelian, with a narrow top and wide base. It was more ornamental than most of the containers in the archive, with an elaborate carving on it’s surface.

Jaxus went quiet.“The engraving almost looks the top half to a really ornate skeleton key.”

“A bottle which is half of a key?”What an absurd idea. I turned the image over in my mind, trying to see what Jaxus was talking about, but now that he said it, I could kind of see it.“Why would it—oh!”Goddess. Could he be right? There could be two, and until we had both, their purpose would not be clear.

“Was there any information about it in the catalog?”he asked.

“I don’t know. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of thingslisted in the plant archive catalog. It would take days to go through them all.”

“I think we have to.”

“Back to the archives?”He sighed, turning back towards Calanthe.

I felt terrible asking for him to return underground when we’d only just gotten in the air after weeks of being grounded.“Sorry.”

“We will fly again. It’s important to chase leads as they come.”

He dropped us down close to the archives and we went right to the section devoted to preserving ancient plants and seeds.

“If this doesn’t give us a direction, what are we going to do?” Jaxus asked with an edge to his tone. He’d been off for days, and it was since we’d grown closer that he seemed to close off.

I didn’t want to read too much into it, but it felt like the closer I wanted to be, the further away he got, and it hurt. “Are you anxious to get back to the capital?” I asked, trying not to feel defeated.

For a few moments since we’d been here, we’d felt magical together, but for every high, there was a low. I hated to think it, but maybe we were just incompatible.

“I’m not anxious to get back. I’ve loved our time here, but I am concerned with the ravens that come.” He’d been getting them more and more from Nyx and showed me some of the notes. They were getting more irrational by the day. “I’m not sure how much longer we can put off intervening with him.”

“Surely Zaria would send a raven if he was much worse?” I reasoned.

“Would she know soon enough?” Jaxus asked, sitting back and shoving both hands into his hair. “Have you had any word from Zaria on the Dragon’s Bane or the priests?”

I shook my head. “No update.”

“It’s hard to be this far away.” It wore on him, but we couldn’t leave while we were so close.

“Do you want to go back without me?” I asked carefully, without looking up from the text I read.

“No, absolutely not,” he said, ending any such suggestion.

---