“Anyway, the story ends with servants finding my cousin and my bride-to-be dead. Stabbed withmyknives. So, there you go. It must have been me.”
“But it wasn’t,” I say.
“No.”
“Yet you let everyone think it was.”
“People are much more likely to both avoid you and listen to you when they fear you.” He shrugs.
“That’s a lonely way to live,” I whisper.
“I told you. Time to work,” he says. “Sit on the box and don’t move. I’ll show you how I black out the room first, then you can try.”
I obey, but my head is swimming with the new information I gained. Even the secrets have secrets in Pendralia.
Forty
Brevan
Leaving my sister behind with the fresh guards took more strength than I thought it would. How many times had I left her before? It was something I’d been doing since she was so young that it became habit.
Sometimes I think I made a mistake bringing her here, but I know if we’d stayed on those godsforsaken islands, she’d be dead, and I’d be forced to live in a temple in an attempt to restrict my magic. There’s a good chance her powers would pass down if I were to have a daughter. It’s another reason why I handed Taylan those herbs and why I haven’t missed a day of my tonic since then.
My mother didn’t have the gift, but my father’s sister did. She was killed when the signs arrived, so we knew there was a chance Rosalyn would be like her. If I could have taken her place, I would have, but it doesn’t show in the male line. We can pass on that terrible curse, but we can’t wield that kind of power. Thestillborn boy my mother had before me was suspected of having the sight. Male children don’t even survive beyond the womb.
Sometimes I hate my parents for choosing to have children at all. But despite everything, I love my sister. Before the magic took her, she was so full of life. Being locked away changed her, but I have to believe that she’s still in there somewhere.
I’ve spent years researching and hunting relics to find the solution. There’s supposed to be a way to bind her power like mine was bound, but I have yet to find the relic powerful enough to grant her stability.
Most of the texts about people with her gifts were destroyed, but I’d found one book that was missed. It’s probably how the emperor knew to look for the signs and why he was so eager to take in a couple of shipwrecked orphans. The stone I need comes from the abandoned mines deep in the Shatterlands. While we can still get the rock today, the refining process to change the mineral into a shield for her madness was lost. My only hope is to come across one that wasn’t destroyed.
I slow my horse as I approach the stables. Caiden and I go back a long time. I need him to see reason, as he once did. If he knows there’s a way to help my sister, he might let me follow the leads I have. His father never let me out of his sight. The relic I wanted was promised as a compromise to get me to burn towns for him while I hunted the ones he wanted. But with a little time on my own, I can fix this. I can save her.
I’m exhausted and covered in dirt and blood. I can’t recall my last bath, but that can wait. I can’t risk Caiden sending in legionnaires to attempt to restrain, or worse, kill her, her while I’m not there to guard her.
My sister is the whole reason we even fled. People like her are killed on the Islands we called home. In Ashendune, they’re forced to spend their life in servitude working for whichever wealthy family can afford to buy them. If they everaccidentally alter the future and summon the monsters, they’re killed without hesitation. I had been aiming for Iskvaland, where magic is feared and anyone with natural gifts keeps it hidden. Instead, we were rescued by the Pendralian ship. Just as my sister predicted would happen.
“Where is he?” I demand when I reach the legionnaires at the side entry.
“I’m not sure, Sir,” one says.
The other, Greg—a longtime legionnaire who’s been serving since before I arrived—steps aside from the door to give us some privacy. I follow then lean close so I can hear him.
He keeps his voice low. “He’s been in the old barns with the empress for a few days. Rumor has it, she’s manifested something powerful from her visit to the temple, and he’s trying to help her control it.”
“Thank you.” I pat him on the shoulder, then change direction.
This estate was a farm before Caiden’s father killed the family who owned it and took the property for himself. He built the grand estate, but left some remnants of its old purpose behind, including a large barn in an ever-progressing state of disrepair.
Caiden had had the building reinforced as best he could without his father’s knowledge a few years after we first gained our magic. We’d unofficially used it as a training ground. A place to test our magic—alone—without the prying eyes of the legionnaires.
Nostalgia sits like a weight in my gut, heavy and uncomfortable. The barn was one of the last places the two of us had coexisted before…
I shove the memory away, then continue toward it. It’s far enough that you need to have a reason for going there.
Vines climb up the walls now, hugging the surface like an old friend. They’ll eventually claim the whole building and probably bring it to the ground.
I catch the sound of voices and before I can make out the words, the sound of her laughter sets my heart racing. Gods, I missed her. I’d give anything to hold her or have her wrap her arms around me. I’ll settle for simply seeing her face. That will help at least.
