Page 152 of A Dance With Fire
She found herself doing what he asked, picturing Mana. She didn’t know what it looked like, but she birthed its form. A thread of light interconnecting her and the other Elementals. They were one with Mana, the gateway to the world of magic that connected every living Fae. She imagined it glowing brightly, spreading through her body like the blood in her veins. She sent it outwards, tugged on the thread as if she could find five other Fae on the other end.
Then her hands released the stones and they bounced against the map.
When her eyes opened, she saw each piece on a different space of the map, each further away than the last.
“There you have it,” Weylyn said, coming up beside Shula. His long fingers traced against the map of Illyk, pointing to the mountains in Tuath where one of the stones landed. Where Castle Aileach was located. “This is where you are. The rest of the stones depict where the others are.”
Shula stared hard at the map, at the stones. Her body began to buzz in little aftershocks of magic, and then something strange happened. She started to see what she’d pictured in her mind. A silver thread spreading across the map connecting each stone. The threads transformed, became colors and figures that looked similar to the marks etched onto her back.
Her gaze darted around the map, taking in each location, each different city.
Ielwyn.
Dana.
Teg.
Vellm.
And the fifth stone, the fifth symbol, it wasn’t tied to one place. It moved along the map, jumping erratically from one end to the other.
“Is that the Valley of the Dead?” Clay demanded, leaning across the table to look at where one of the stones had landed in Vellm. “Are you fucking serious?”
The Valley of the Dead had a reputation as frightening as the Iron Mountains beyond the Ley Line. Shula didn’t know details except what she’d heard in whispers at the circus, and they’d certainly never traveled there.
It was home to murderers, monsters, and a vast expanse of cold, dry miles where not even nature thrived. To set foot there meant death.
“Dana is closest,” Valerio said. “We should go there first.”
“The Valley of the Dead,” Clay scoffed. “It’s suicide.”
“Maybe we should start in the west and work our way east?” Julius suggested.
But Shula drowned them out. The lights on the map brightened, flowing like a river of glittering starlight, pushing, expanding, molding, until a single line formed and pointed to the city of Teg. The light burned. Brighter and brighter. Voices raised around her, but Shulaknewthey were wrong.
She knew where they had to start.
Her hand slammed down against the map, right over the stone where Teg was. Where another Elemental was.
The sound shut everyone up.
“Here,” she ordered. “This is where we have to start.”
“Teg,” Valerio read. “Why? Dana is closer.”
“Call it a hunch.” She smirked. “Mana is telling me to go here. It doesn’t matter who’s closer. Mana wants us in Teg.”
And because every Fae believed in the magic of Mana, Shula knew no one would argue.
“Alright,” Valerio agreed. “Then we’ll go to Teg. We leave in the morning.”
Tranquility settled over her bones, a message from Mana that Shula had made the right decision. She didn’t know why, but it felt right. Whoever was in Teg needed them before the others, so it was there they would go.
“Who do you think it is?” Clay asked curiously. “Water? Earth?”
“I’ll know it when I see it.” But Shula had a feeling it was neither of those Elementals waiting for them.
Julius clapped his hands. “Excellent. Let’s celebrate with some Fae wine before we leave, yeah?”
