“Urgency appears to be a factor in controlling the Lightning,” Dara said. She sounded utterly calm despite the thickening tension in the room. Tamri had no idea how she did it. “A powerful need to protect Sel and your work from harm may have been enough. That’s not necessarily malicious or monstrous.”
“Urgency,” Latch said. “That sounds familiar.”
It sounded familiar to Tamri too. She had told Dara about her desperation as she flung the Lightning bolts aside in the cavern, the powerful need to stay alive. The thought brought it all rushing back. For a moment her body quivered, and her ears ached as if thunder was battering her once more. A hot metal taste seared her tongue. White light flashed and flickered before her eyes.
The sensation departed as quickly as it had come. Tamri wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, hoping no one had noticed her reaction. The wind was still howling outside the workroom. The unsettled weather was putting her on edge.
That’s all it is. The weather.
Tamri tried to pick up the thread of the conversation.
“Let’s talk about the last day,” Selivia was saying to Latch. “When did you become aware again?”
“When I hit the ground,” Latch said. “I get these dreamlike flashes of the rest of it, but I know how it felt to land on the stone floor after Tamri pulled me free.”
Everyone turned to stare at Tamri then, making her flinch.
“Did the Lightning try to pull you back?” Dara asked.
“Maybe,” Latch said. “My teeth felt like they were being jarred from my mouth, and everything was swimming around me. I’m not sure what was real and what wasn’t.” He looked up at Tamri. “Did you shout at me to wake up, or was that in my head?”
“I shouted it,” Tamri said. “I couldn’t carry you out by myself.”
She remembered shaking him awake beside the Lightning chasm. For a second, she’d thought a large eye was blinking at her from its incomprehensible depths. That massive ball of Lightning had thrashed wildly above them, incensed that she’d pulled Latch free, and all she could think about was getting away from it. Jagged Lightning bolts had hit her as she fled, singeing her hair, making her nerve endings fizz and spark. But the Lightning didn’t strike with the same precision after Lord Latch was no longer directing it.
“Tamri showed remarkable bravery,” Dara said. “And she realized something I failed to see. The Lightning reacts defensively. We made it worse by attacking with Fire and Watermight. We’re lucky she was there.”
Tamri scuffed her boots on the floor, a hot bubble of pride welling up in her at the Fire Queen’s words.
“What about afterwards?” she said, trying to direct the group’s attention back to Latch. “Do you remember leaving the cavern?”
“That’s in flashes too,” Latch said. “More like the early days. I remember a final glimpse of the cavern, a bit of the tunnel, and then a cloudy sky. I understand a Cindral dragon carried us to safety, but I couldn’t pick it out of a flock. And then I saw Sel.”
He turned to his betrothed, smiling for the first time.
“You said something to me.” Selivia didn’t return his smile. “Do you remember what it was?”
“All I remember is your face.”
Prince Chadrech snorted.
“You said ‘none of us are safe.’” Selivia glanced at Tamri then back at Latch. “We’ve been trying to figure out what you meant.” They had debated that phrase for hours. What would make them unsafe? The spreading Lightning? The thunderbirds?
Latch considered this, rubbing the back of his neck. His arm looked thin, as if he still hadn’t regained all his weight and muscle. “I don’t know,” he said. “The island was a dangerous place. Perhaps that’s all.”
“The Lightning looked as though it was spreading outward from Thunderbird Island when we sailed away,” Dara said, watching Latch intently. “The weather has been like this ever since.”
As if to punctuate her words, thunder rumbled outside, and wind rattled the workroom door. The Stewards covered their papers reflexively. Tamri rolled her shoulders, feeling a prickle along her spine.
“You think we unleashed it somehow?” Latch said.
“The Lightning certainly never left the island before you started meddling with it,” Chadrech said acidly.
Latch whipped around to face the Crown Prince. “You’ve made your opinion of my actions clear enough, Your Excellency,” he said angrily. “If you have more to say, why don’t you—” Suddenly Latch winced and shut his mouth. Based on Selivia’s very innocent expression, she had just kicked him under the table.
“I believe Rosh has a theory about how the Lightning behaves without a Wielder,” Selivia said, deftly steering the conversation away from Latch and Chadrech, who were staring daggers at each other. “Rosh?”
“My theory is that the Lightning is like the Air,” Rosh said. “It issues from the earth and moves around at random, unlike the liquid forms of Fire and Watermight. Sensors can use the Air only if they coax it to them in large quantities. If no one does that, it will not become concentrated enough to harm anyone.”
“I still think its actions are deliberate,” said a bespectacled scholar named Melloch, who had also been at Thunderbird Island. “The Lightning has its own agency.”
“Then why have we never encountered it outside the East Isles?” asked Captain Boorn of the Wielder-soldiers.
“Maybe we have,” said Quell. “It’s possible more records of the Lightning were destroyed than we first realized.” From her tone, the Archive Steward took this as a personal affront.
“Maybe the Lightning has always been around,” put in another scholar, chewing on the end of a feather pen thoughtfully, “and we never realized it.”
“Impossible,” Melloch said. “It feels distinctive. You weren’t there.”
Another scholar spoke up. “Then maybe we should all go to Thunderbird Island and—”
“No.” Prince Chadrech slapped the table with a sharp crack, shocking the scholars into silence. “I forbid it. The power is not worth the risk.” He rounded on Dara, and the scholars leaned out of his sightline as if it were the path of a crossbow bolt. “We have given you every resource to address this problem. We must contain the Lightning immediately.”
“We will, Your Excellency,” Dara said. “And if some of the Lightning has escaped the island, we’ll capture it again. But we can’t act rashly. We know how the Lightning affects Wielders who get too close to it.”
Everyone turned to look at Latch again. He accepted their scrutiny with a tired sigh. He might regret consenting to this interview so soon after regaining consciousness.
“We all agree the Lightning needs to be sealed up,” Princess Selivia said, forcing a bright tone with visible effort. “Shall we get back to figuring out how?”
The Soolen scholars and Wielder-soldiers didn’t move, watching the prince closely after his outburst. Tamri held her breath.
At last, Prince Chadrech slouched back in his chair and propped his boots on the table again. “You heard the princess. Get to it.”