Page 87 of An Honored Vow

My throat tightened with worry that now my idea wouldn’t work. I didn’t have the same control over earth and plants that Feron had from his countless years of practice.

I glanced at Nikolai, who nodded, leaning back against Vrail’s legs, his tears finally drying.

I knelt beside the patch of new grass, watering it with my own tears as I spanned my hand across the earth. The magic pulsed underneath me, steady and strong like a heartbeat.

Maerhal—alive once more, just in a different form.

I leaned so close to the ground that the blades of grass tickled my lips as I whispered a final goodbye to the Elf who had saved me in more ways than one.

“Biimaadizir roq waateyak miinawa, mikan.”

May you never live in darkness again, dear friend.

My magic anchored me to the ground as it penetrated the earth. Heat pulsed through my veins and into the roots that I could feel sprouting underneath me. A small silver seedling sprang from the earth, growing into a tree before our very eyes.

Within seconds, it was standing high above our heads, higher even than Davan’s tree—Nikolai’s son. The trunk was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Thin silver bark covered the thick trunk, fraying at some parts like a birch tree, but the inside was not blushed and wooden. It glowed with golden grain that spelled Maerhal’s name and all her foremothers.

Flowers sprouted from the leaves as they bore thick, round fruit wrapped in gold flesh. The blooms I recognized immediately.

Moonflowers.

Just as I had pictured. Maerhal had been given a second life as a tree that would glow bright under darkness. The light coming from the tree herself.

Nikolai stood in awe as he beheld the tree I had grown. The tree I had made. I did not need to be as well studied as Vrail or Feron to know that this was the only specimen of its kind. Though the shock on their faces confirmed it.

“Extraordinary,” Vrail whispered. She started positing questions about the magic to Feron, but I didn’t hear her.

All I heard was the rush of Nikolai’s arms wrapping around me in an embrace so tight it pushed the air from my lungs. “Thank you” was all he managed to utter, but it was enough. More than enough.

Syrra wrapped her arms around the both of us. Vrail flattened her palm against the dense bark and gasped.

“Maava?” Nikolai croaked, his eyes wide and terrified.

Syrra went rigid. Even Feron didn’t move as he stared at something behind me. I turned and my breath left my lungs. Maerhal was standing there. Her hair longer than I had ever seen it and her eyes filled with more joy than I could ever imagine.

I turned to Vrail. Her hands glowed bright where she touched the tree. “You did this?”

Vrail shrugged, her eyes as round as the suns. “I have no idea how.”

Maerhal laughed and it sounded like a song. “Elverath has watched your thirst for knowledge, your hunger for stories, Vrail. It has blessed you with a way to reclaim both.”

Nikolai took a cautious step toward his mother but didn’t touch her.

Vrail looked down at her hand that wasn’t pressed against the tree. “I can speak with the ancestors?” Excitement crinkled her eyes until they disappeared.

Syrra fell to her knees. “You’re well, sister?” she asked in Elvish.

“I am.” Maerhal smiled and nodded. “I am with our family now.” There was a small giggle and a child appeared from behind Maerhal’s legs.

A sob cracked through Syrra’s chest. “Aydar.”

The child beamed and twirled in her yellow robe.

Maerhal turned to Feron and me. “I would like to have some time with my son.” She nodded at Vrail. “Her gifts will grow, but for now we only have a short time.”

Feron nodded, and we walked out of the field together.

Tears clung to my lashes. “It’s true.” I cleared the tightness in my throat. “Once adiizrais planted, the dead join the ancestors. There is life beyond this.”

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