The Reluctant Queen (The Queens of Renthia #2)(42)

"Not in my experience, which is considerable."

He was trying hard to sound soothing, she could tell, and that impressed her. She didn't know why he wanted her as his student so badly, especially when she refused to become an heir, but sensing spirits did sound both harmless and useful. "All right, I'll try it."

Crossing her legs, she sat on one of the roots. She felt the bark dig into her thighs, through the fabric of her skirts. She felt the damp morning chill in the air and breathed in the heavy, wet, mossy taste of the forest floor. Birds were chirping in the trees above, and a few bushes rustled nearby, most likely squirrels. Concentrating, she tried to do as he said-imagine that she was part of the woods around her, that her arms extended into the trees, that her thighs poured into the earth, that her lungs expanded to breathe in all the air.

Half of her kept listening for Erian and Llor-she heard the captain giving Erian instructions, and Erian answering with questions about how to hold her arms and her shoulders, adjusting her foot position in the crumbled old leaves and pine needles. In between the roots, Llor was babbling happily to the wolf, telling him all about his collections back home: he liked to collect rocks, feathers, and interesting sticks, but Mama didn't let him bring the best sticks into the house because they were too pointy, which was endlessly disappointing. Mama was fine with rocks, he confided, as long as they weren't too big, and fine with feathers, as long as he found them himself and didn't try to pluck them from any birds. He even had an eagle feather that was as long as his arm, but he'd had to leave it behind when they left. He promised to show the wolf when they went back sometime.

She shook her head. "I can't do it. My children-"

"Don't block them out," Ven advised. "Embrace them, and then stretch farther. Pretend you're listening to them and making charms at the same time. You've done that, right?"

That she could do. She was used to splitting her attention between her own tasks and her children. It was how she went about every day. She'd never tried to reach beyond, but she supposed that the champion was right-in theory, it shouldn't be too different. She stretched her mind, and felt the quivering of nearby spirits. It was so simple and easy that she gasped. I can feel them.

There! A wood spirit, above, skittering along a branch.

To the east, an air spirit flitted through the trees, rustling the leaves, drawing a breeze behind it.

Below, an earth spirit burrowed.

She could feel their size and their mood, the same way she could feel an itch on her arm. It was shockingly easy, a parlor trick, a matter of concentrating on the "crinkling" in the air and bringing it into focus. She wondered, traitorously, why she'd been resisting so hard. If she'd known this . . . If her mother had known, when the spirits came for her . . .

"You'll practice this every day, until it becomes second nature."

Naelin nodded. She disliked the way they seemed to crawl on her skin, even though they weren't nearby, but that was a slight sacrifice for the boon of knowing where they were. She rubbed her arms, feeling the gooseflesh, and pulled her awareness back to their camp.

"With practice, you'll be able to expand your range," he said. "A queen is aware of every spirit in her country. She's granted that awareness in the coronation ceremony. In the ceremony, she links herself to all the spirits in Aratay and can awaken that link whenever she chooses. It helps if you have practice beforehand, so the sensation doesn't overwhelm you." Shaking her head, she opened her mouth to say that she was never going to be queen so this was a moot point, but then he said, "Daleina was always skilled at sensing spirits, even before Coronation Day."



       
         
       
        

He'd been there, at the massacre, she remembered. She could see the memory of it in the way he looked out at the forest, as if he were seeing that moment and looking at another set of trees. She had the urge to reach out to touch his arm, to comfort him, but she didn't.

She didn't argue when he told her to practice more. She kept at it for nearly an hour, until Llor began to clamor that he was hungry and she realized so was she. After breakfast, they continued to travel, and she continued to practice.

Naelin caught the champion shooting her glances every few minutes, as if she were a puzzle that he wanted to solve. If she hadn't been so busy helping Erian and Llor keep up and "feeling" out the spirits around them, she would have asked him what he found so fascinating. She didn't consider herself fascinating at all. Don't read too much into it, she cautioned herself. At some point, he'd realize she was too difficult a student and came with too much baggage, and he'd go find himself a child to train, one who wanted this. Until then, though, she'd absorb any trick that would keep them safe.