Heiress: Birthstone Series Book Two (26 page)

“Are you. . .?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I’m not sure who you’re supposed to meet
right now, but I’m currently banned from teaching you to fly until further
notice.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t hide the disappointment in my tone. “Then
why are you here?” I cringed inwardly the moment the words left my mouth.
They’d sounded colder than I’d intended.

Cole was patient enough to not look too injured. “I wanted
to apologize,” he said. “I shouldn’t have tried to interfere with your
training. You need to do what’s necessary to be prepared.”

I sighed and looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “To be
honest, I’m not sure how necessary any of this is. Can you believe the
Prosperity trainer tried to convince me to buy off the king? He said riches and
material success would get me farther than gems that gave me brutish
abilities.”

Cole guffawed loudly. “Sounds like he’s been pushed around
by some of the king’s Warrior Gem fighters,” he said.

“Lucky guys.”

Cole laughed again. “It can’t be that bad. It’s got to feel
incredible to be capable of so much.”

I shrugged. “Honestly? Most of the gems seem pointless. For
example, the Passion Gem. You can’t really think there’s any use for that.”
When Cole didn’t answer, I looked at him again. His features were stiff and his
skin had taken on a pinkish hue.

I inhaled sharply knowing I was about to embarrass him
further. “While we’re on that subject, why didn’t you react to the Passion
Gem?”

Cole rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes as
though tired. When he finally opened them, I read the panic in them. Before he
could answer, I felt a hint of his emotions slide over me through my Empathy
Gem. Admiration and a hint of jealousy. I wasn’t sure about the reasons for
either sentiment.

“Never mind. It’s really none of my business anyway,” I
said. I didn’t miss the way his shoulders relaxed in response.

“It was your first time using the gem. You probably just
needed some more practice.” His words came out strangled.

My lips formed a pained smile as I stared out at the
mountains in the distance. “I’m sure you’re right.” We fell silent as the wind
picked up and a frigid gust blew past us. Particles of snow and ice swirled in
the air, pelting and stinging our faces as they made contact with our skin.
When it passed, I felt Cole’s eyes on me once more.

“Do you miss the island you came from?” he asked.

I tried to suppress a sigh. “More than I can say.”

“What do you miss most?”

I bit my lip, understanding what he was really asking.

I locked my gaze on one of the tallest mountains. It looked
as though it had thousands of years’ worth of snow piled to a point on its top.
I wanted to topple it– to make the entire peak come thundering down in a
deafening avalanche of ice and snow until nothing was left but the skinny bones
of the mountain underneath.

“There has to be something,” Cole said.

“Sai,” I said. “I miss Sai.”

Cole was silent for several moments. I could sense him
gathering his courage before he asked, “Is he a friend or . . .?”

I met his eyes then. I knew he could see the agony in my
expression. He nodded as though he understood.

“I should be getting back,” he said. He took a step away
from me but halted when I raised my eyebrows at him. He ducked his head and
blushed. “Actually,” he began, “Gil told me I should invite you to some of our
battle games. He mentioned that you’d like to work on sword fighting and he
cleared time for you after midday meal for the next two weeks.”

I opened my mouth in surprise. “I – I would really like
that,” I stuttered.

“You can’t use the Warrior Gem, though. It wouldn’t be
fair.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I laughed. “Thank you.”

Cole met my eyes, a small smile gathering at the corners of
his mouth. Without a word, he turned and walked away. I watched him for a
moment before I whirled back around and beamed at nothing in particular. I
would need to make sure to thank Gil later.

I stood there a while longer before I heard someone clear their
throat behind me. I turned slowly and came face to face with a woman I didn’t
recognize. She was extremely tall and her muscles were well defined on her lean
frame. Her skin was a smooth brown and her hair hung in long, ebony waves. She
flashed me a bright smile.

“Tanerris,” she said, extending her fingers. I took hold of
them and bowed. “You must be Aylen.”

“I am. And what will I be failing at today?” I tried to
sound light but my voice arrived beaten and discouraged.

 “You’ll fail at nothing while you’re with me. There will
only be success today.”

I winced. “There hasn’t been very much of that lately. With
my other lessons, I’ve spent a lot of time losing control of the gems.”

“Yes but you’ve been using your gems individually. Your
instructors have been asking you to learn them apart from each other haven’t
they?”

I nodded in agreement. “Of course.”

“That’s only because it’s how they learned. They don’t have
other bloodlines, I’m sure.”

“And you do?” I asked her.

She tugged at the two chains clasped around her neck until
they pulled free from her clothing. At the end of one was a gem I immediately
recognized.

“A Prosper Gem?” I said, a note of dread hovering in my
tone.

“It can be a ridiculous gem on its own,” Tanerris agreed. 
“But each gem type is more than what it seems. You just have to understand its
potential.”

I studied the rich brown gem on the other chain. Besides the
gold veins that spider webbed from the glowing amber center, the color blended
perfectly with her skin.

“This is an Earth Gem,” she said, holding it out. I fingered
my own necklace and tried to sift through the multitude of desires and powers
emanating from it. I gave up moments later when Tanerris continued speaking.

“You may wonder what the Prosper Gem has to do with the
Earth Gem. Most would tell you there’s very little you could accomplish with
the two together. But I’m here to teach you otherwise.”

“How is this going to help me battle the king?”

Tanerris winked at me. “Aluce asked me to train you on just
the Earth Gem,” she said, her eyes aglow with excitement. “But I believe the
gems are most effective when you learn to understand their abilities and
combine them to get the results you want. Otherwise, when you use them alone in
the only way they were intended, their abilities are limited.” She smiled at me
then and touched my necklace. “I’m going to teach you to be the master over
your gems instead of allowing them to control you.”

“Did you speak with Calix?” I asked.

Tanerris gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “I spoke with
all your instructors. Calix was the most helpful, but I’d already decided I
would approach your training differently than the others.”

When I looked at her blankly, she laughed.

“The Earth Gem tribe learns how to use their gems
differently. It’s one of the reasons our abilities are so coveted. Most of my
tribe works for the king because we’ve become very successful in manipulating
our gems. We’re a valuable resource to the throne and there are few who can
replicate what we’ve discovered. I’m curious to see if you’re able.”

“Where should I start?” I asked.

Tanerris placed her hands on her hips. “Where every Earth
Gem child starts. Playing in the dirt.”

She instructed me to sit on the cold, packed ground. When I
obeyed, she stood behind me and told me to close my eyes.

“I want you to find your Earth Gem,” she said.

“Usually I’m given a new gem for practice. The ones on my
necklace are too powerful for first time use.”

“Just focus, Aylen, and don’t make excuses.”

With a sigh, I tried to get comfortable, knowing I would be
there for a while.

“Instead of sorthing through the different feelings you get
from the gems, concentrate on what the Earth Gem is about. Think about what
you’re sitting on. Try to picture what lies deep inside the soil and rock. This
gem gives the earth and everything inside it a voice. Let it speak to you.”

I tried. I closed my eyes and thought and listened and
imagined as hard as I could. But I heard nothing more than the dizzying babble
of gems.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I stood and dusted myself off. “Already
this isn’t working. There’s too much chaos to sort through and I think I’ll
connect to it easier if I just do it the way I always have.”

“No,” Tanerris shook her head. “That’s the easy way out.
Besides, you’ll just blow up that mountain over there.” She glanced at the tall
peak I’d been staring at before she arrived.

With a sheepish shrug, I mumbled, “It might be kind of fun.”

“Sit,” she said. When I obeyed, she plopped down beside me.
“Have you ever felt as though a gem just naturally worked for you?”

I didn’t answer at first. Instead, I remembered how the
first time I’d used the Sea Gem, it had felt like second nature and worked
according to my deepest wishes. Later, Aluce coaxed my natural instincts to
take over when she’d trained me in Vairda on a few gems, although later I
nearly lost control over them and myself. However, I recalled my mood on the
ship from Analar and the Weather Gem’s abilities had seemed to mold to my
emotions. I had made it work with very little force.

Tanerris must have read the look on my face because she gave
me a knowing smile. “Once you know what that’s like, it’s just a matter of
learning to coax what you want out of all of them by manipulating their
strengths. Gently.” She grabbed my hand and scraped my fingers against the
frozen, packed ground.  “Imagine a seed,” she said. “It’s lost, somewhere
beneath all of this cold, hard soil, waiting to come to the surface. It’s
waiting for its chance to grow into something beautiful. Who knows how many
years have passed since it has seen light and felt warmth? Only the earth
knows. Ask it where the seed is. Ask the soil to tell you where you can find
it.”

Before I asked the soil anything, I made a promise to ask
Aluce if the Earth Gem people had a history of insanity. After a few minutes of
mentally cursing the worthless training I’d received in Miranasch so far, I
wondered how much power my Earth Gem really had. Would I honestly be able to
destroy an entire mountain? And what would I find beneath it if I did?

Tanerris had raised an interesting question. How much was
hidden beneath the snow on these mountains? What would we find deep within the
layers and layers of dirt? How many seeds had been buried and left dormant in
the cold, dark soil? Et Loedin was nothing like the lush green of Vairda. If
something could grow here, how would it change the landscape?

As I pondered this, I realized my fingers were unconsciously
pressing into the ground. I opened my eyes but remained still. A soft hum deep
within the ground seemed to quiver beneath my fingertips. I heard and felt it
at the same time.

Snapping my eyes shut again, I concentrated on the soil. I
pictured its many colors and textures while I tried to imagine what secrets it
held. Then I asked it to show me a long forgotten seed.

I was surprised to see images of many, trapped in solid,
frigid earth. Through the soil, I could feel their various shapes and sizes,
and I sifted through them mentally until I found one I felt would grow if given
the chance.

“Bring it closer to the surface,” Tanerris whispered. “Ask
the earth to move it for you.”

I imagined the ground shifting and tumbling around it,
pushing it closer and closer to the top of the soil. I heard the dirt move
until I told it to stop when I felt the seed was close enough to the surface.

I paused, unable to decide what to do next, but Tanerris
didn’t allow me to remain lost for long.

“It needs warmth. What does it feel like to have the sun’s
rays touching your face? Picture a cloudless, blamy day you once enjoyed.”

That wasn’t difficult. I remembered what it was like to lay
on the warm sand next to Sai in Vairda. We would close our eyes tight against
the sun’s glare and smile as cool spray from the ocean showered around us. His
fingers would entangle mine in a mixture of skin, sand, and heat.

As the memories filled my mind, my entire body began to
warm, from the top of my head down to my protected toes.

“Now,” Tanerris said. Her voice was low and hushed and it
seemed to catch when she spoke. “Imagine the grandest, strongest tree you’ve
ever seen. How did it get that way? How did it start out? What makes it grow?
Picture every limb, leaf, groove, and branch.”

Her requests were becoming easy now and the images began to
flow. Deep in the Vairdan jungle, further than we were supposed to explore, Sai
and I had discovered an enormous, gnarled, old tree that reached higher than
any other on the island. Every branch was cloaked in thick moss and its leaves
were giant, glossy sunshades. We named it “Omnipotent” for its obvious strength
and life. We’d spent hours admiring it and finding places to nestle in its colossal
roots. Then we’d talked and imagined what the tree had seen in its lifetime. It
had remained one of my favorite memories.

I didn’t open my eyes but I smiled at the warmth, not only
in the air, but which seemed to fill my chest. Something inside me had shifted.
Though I had no idea what it was, I knew it felt right.

“Aylen,” Tanerris whispered. I felt her hand gently close
over my wrist. “You just used your Earth, Weather, Fertility, and Prosper Gems all
at once. And you were in control every second.”

My eyes fluttered open in. It took a moment to be able to
see against the bright glare of sunlight beaming down on us. When I was finally
able to focus, I saw the tree a mere arm span away.

It was nothing like the one I’d found in Vairda in shape or
color. Its leaves were so green they were nearly azure and its trunk was a
grayish hue. It was only slightly taller than me and its branches were spindly.
But it hadn’t been there before I’d begun my lesson with Tanerris.