I am glad to hear you are well and safely returned to your home. I assure you that I have not forgotten that our search for the Myrgonite stones is what led us here. But I fear it has become more of a threat to our kingdom than an aid. Everness is flourishing well now, and I believe it is in the best interest of the kingdomif we do not meddle any further with this stone. The less people know, the better. As there are some who might be willing to kill for it.
I have taken your advice and started a journal, though it is an effort to keep it hidden. No one must discover what is written inside. I think I know what one of the objects is, but I cannot be certain yet. Riona is a clever woman, and with each day that goes by, I lose more of her. I don’t know how this will end but I fear it will not end well.
The letter ended abruptly, and Elara and I looked at each other with widened eyes.
“This means the diary must be real.”
“And that the answers to the Myrgonite objects are in there,” I added, and Elara looked at the letter again.
“We have to find that diary.”
Chapter 10
Elara
My foot tapped on the floor of the council room.
After my discovery in the study last night, I knew I needed to call a meeting as soon as possible. But not with the council. If my guesses were correct, this information could be too valuable to share with people I wasn’t sure I could trust.
I’d asked Rhen to call everyone here first thing this morning and now I was waiting for them to make their way to the council room.
I rubbed my hands together. A servant had yet to come and light a fire and the room was freezing.
My head jerked up as the door opened and Cai walked inside, and a little bit of relief settled over me.
“You’re here,” I said, trying not to sound too surprised. He looked tired and I wondered if he’d managed to fall back to sleep after the two of us had retired to our rooms.
Cai gave me a small smile and took a seat next to me at the table. “You doing okay?”
I nodded and he placed his hand atop mine on the table, and I immediately felt better.
“Cordelia left for the country today.”
Cai gave a slow nod, and I knew he was thinking about Jack.
“It’s probably the best decision for her.”
“I know.” I sighed. “I’m just going to miss her. But hopefully we can visit her once this is all over.”
“Yes, hopefully,” he said but his expression suggested we probably wouldn’t live to see the end of the war.
I squeezed his hand.
Anesta arrived next.
As a lady of the court, she didn’t really have much to do with the political situation of the kingdom. But this was about more than armies and land. If the diary truly contained knowledge about what the Myrgonite objects were, we needed to find it as soon as possible, before someone else did.
Anesta looked uncertain and I couldn’t blame her. But she was my friend. And this affected all of us.
Rhen entered next, looking slightly out of breath. Alastor followed shortly behind, and I gestured for them to take a seat at the table. Gwen and Lance were the last to enter the room. Poor Gwen hobbled in with a walking stick to support her injured ankle.
Cai wasn’t too happy about allowing Lance to join the meeting, but I convinced him that Lance knew more about Everness and its history than any of us. He’d grown up in this palace. If anyone knew something that could be valuable to us, it was him.
Though, after what Lance had put us through, I didn’t blame Cai for his hesitance. Lance was once almost as eager as Aries to get hold of those stone objects. His motivations were never entirely clear, as Lance was also a fantastic liar. I had to tread carefully in how much we chose to involve him.
Once everyone was seated, a servant had lit a fire and the room was starting to heat up a little, I motioned for Rhen to close the door for privacy.
“Thank you for meeting me here on such short notice,” I said, somewhat nervously folding my hands together. Everyone looked at me expectantly.
