I gazed into the blue-white depths as easily as I looked at the sun. The noorestone buzzed louder in the back of my mind, now that I was actively aware of it again, but I pushed past the din as I stared into the center of the stone at the bright spark that was the fire of Noore. It flickered and crackled, bending in a way that smaller noorestones didn’t.

That was the instability. That flicker.

I tore my eyes from the noorestone to find Apolla watching me. “I had it brought over last night.”

Then it had been casting its unstable shine on these poor dragons for hours. Washing out starlight. Ringing in their ears.

Apolla didn’t notice my concern. “Originally, the ship we took it from had three of these. One landed in my city. I thought it only right to take this one to heal my dragons.”

Her dragons.

My chest went tight, but I bit my tongue. We were already at odds, and she already knew too much about me, and she already had all the leverage. Besides, I was going to have to disappoint her again, and I needed to measure my words carefully.

“Are you ready to heal them?” Apolla’s face was gentle as she gazed up at the noorestone-lit dragons. “I’ve been told they don’t have much time.”

A telltale knot of anxiety tightened around my heart, but I had to tell her. “Your Eminence, I’m afraid I cannot heal them with this noorestone.”

Her eyebrows raised. “I can have a second brought immediately, if that’s what you need.”

I shook my head. “That’s not it. The problem is the giant noorestones themselves. They’re too unstable. That’s why Paorah wanted to use them as weapons: he’s already destroyed one of our own ocean-crossing ships in a test of their destructive potential. One of your spies told me that.”

“You said you needed to wait for the giant noorestones to get here before you could heal the dragons. Now you say the giant noorestones will not work.”

“I thought they would.” I closed my eyes and exhaled. “Until the other day, I believed a noorestone was a noorestone, unstable or not. But these are different. They’re noorestones, but wrong.”

“How?”

How could I explain the not-quite dissonance to her? The way I’d known the moment I felt the fire that they would never heal the dragons? The sight of that flicker deep within the heart of the crystal? “Imagine you needed water, but the only water available was salt water. Ocean water. Would you drink it?”

She pressed her lips into a line. “We have magic that removes salt from water.”

“If you have magic that can make this noorestone stable, then I will heal the dragons with it. But right now, it would be toxic to them. It would kill them even more quickly.”

“You’re saying this stone is like salt water.”

“Yes.” I let the mask of Hopebearer drop. Let her see the truth in my eyes. “Dragons hoard noorestones in their dens. In my home sanctuary, the smaller species play around the ancient ruins that have still-lit noorestones embedded within the walls and spires. That’s why we brought the noorestones for Crystal and LaLa—because dragons need them. They help dragons heal and, I think, live longer lives.”