Kingdom of Sea and Stone

by Mara Rutherford

  “And what if Ceren realizes what you’ve done? He could kill her, Nor.”

  It was the very same point I’d made to Zadie, but she’d had a counterargument. “Ceren knows he would never get my blood if he killed Zadie.”

  “And if he drinks the blood right away? He’ll expect a vision.”

  “Which is why I’m going to be there, hidden. If he won’t wait until Zadie is back with our troops, I’ll cut myself the moment he drinks it.”

  She shook her head again but finally scooted over enough for me to sit on her bed. “I don’t like it. I know you want to protect the Varenians, but we both know they wouldn’t do the same for you.”

  I lay down next to her. “Would the people of Galeth heal you if you were the ailing one?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Exactly. And yet you work for them anyway.”

  “At least I get paid.”

  I turned to face her. “You know that’s not the reason you do it. I know in my heart this is right, Adriel.”

  She sighed, resigned, and reached onto her nightstand for the leather book. “There’s a spell written in Penery. My mother only taught me a few words in the language, but I found a book in the library that helped me translate it.”

  I sat up. “Really?”

  She nodded and handed me the book, opened to a page near the end.

  I scooted closer. “What does it say?”

  “‘Two hearts beating now as one; the bond must break to come undone. Free them from the spell they’re under. What was made now tear asunder.’”

  It was possible I had skimmed over the spell when I didn’t recognize the language, though the page itself didn’t look familiar, and once again I had the feeling it had kept itself hidden on purpose. “You drink our blood and say those words?”

  She nodded. “I believe that’s all there is to it.”

  I sighed and lay back down. “If only I could have gotten Ceren’s blood. It would have saved us from having to make the exchange tomorrow. Our only hope is that Talin can get to Ceren while he’s exposed on the field. If I’m right, he’s already weakened, and his hold over his soldiers should be slipping.”

  She was quiet for a long time, and I felt my eyelids growing heavy in the silence. “There is one more thing I wanted to talk to you about,” she said finally. “The dreams you and Ceren shared?”

  I blinked sleepily. “What about them?”

  “From everything I know of blood magic, it stands to reason that Ceren drinking your blood connects him to you mentally. And it follows that you can create that same bridge by cutting yourself. But the dreams... Nor, a blood bond can’t be formed in just one person’s body.”

  I shook my head, too exhausted to make sense of what she’d just said. “So?”

  “So, you would have to have Ceren’s blood in your system to complete the bond.”

  She still wasn’t making sense. “Ceren never gave me his blood.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  I thought back to my time at the castle. The only time I’d seen him bleed was the night I escaped. There was no way I had his blood in my system. “I’m sure.”

  Adriel curled onto her side. “I suppose I’m wrong then. You know, I could come to the field with you tomorrow for moral support.”

  I turned to face her. “Thank you for offering, but I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe.”

  “When are you going to learn that this works two ways, Nor?” She shook her head. “You can’t always be the one riding off to face danger. There are a lot of people who would be devastated if something happened to you, including me.”

  I knew there were people who would miss me if I was gone, but there was something about hearing Adriel say it that made my heart clench. She wasn’t a relative or a lover; she was simply a friend. The best friend I’d ever had. “I’m sorry, Adriel. I know it’s selfish to always want to be the one who goes ahead. I think I believed that if I made sacrifices on behalf of the people I loved, they’d see how much I loved them, too. And there was the very real possibility that if I didn’t jump first, I’d have to see if anyone else would jump for me.” I couldn’t meet her eyes anymore. “I think I’m afraid of what would happen to me if I were the one left behind.”

  “We have that fear in common.”

  I glanced into her blue eyes and remembered what Ceren had said on the field about how my desire to be loved was my greatest weakness. Maybe he was right. But everyone needed to be loved, even Ceren. He had allowed that need to twist into something ugly and hateful, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a weakness. I just had to figure out how to use it against him.

  * * *

  To Talin’s dismay, Talia agreed to the plan. Talin and his men had left at midnight, riding for the forest closest to Ceren’s camp, where they would wait until our signal. After another sleepless night, Zadie and I rode out in the morning with a dozen soldiers led by Grig. Zadie was dressed in my clothing from yesterday, while I wore the same leather armor as the soldiers. From far away, there was no reason Ceren would recognize me, especially with my hair pinned up tightly on my head. Zadie’s hair was down, which helped hide her features. Even Sami had been momentarily fooled when we showed him the disguise.

  “That’s him, isn’t it?” Zadie asked.

  Ceren’s pale hair was always his giveaway. The bloodstones in his crown glowed faintly, pulsing, I realized with a start, in time with my heartbeat. “Yes.”

  Zadie’s voice was tight with fear, and I saw her fingers start to lift to the star-shaped scar we’d painted on her cheek. “I’m starting to think this was a bad idea, Nor.”

  She was mounted on Titania, who fortunately was as calm and steady for Zadie as she was for me. I rode a borrowed mare who, while perfectly well trained, could never compare to my Galethian steed.

  “Just breathe,” I said to Zadie. “Don’t speak unless it’s absolutely necessary, but remember, Ceren has never met you before. He has no reason to think you would come in my place.”

  She nodded briskly. “It’s going to be fine.”

  “It is,” I assured her, though my scalp prickled with cold fear as Zadie continued forward while the rest of us remained behind.

  They stopped just a few feet from each other. I couldn’t hear their conversation from where we waited, but they dismounted simultaneously. Ceren barely glanced at one of his men, who raised his arm at what I could only assume was a mental command. At the signal, one by one, the Varenians began to emerge from the tented camp.

  I breathed a little easier, knowing he had held up his end of the bargain. Maybe it was wrong to deceive Ceren when he had been honorable, but I couldn’t care. Not when I knew what he was capable of.

  Mount Ayris loomed behind the camp, its peak shrouded in mist. It took longer than I expected for all of the Varenians to gather on the field. There were somewhere between four and five hundred men, women, and children, and I couldn’t make out individual faces, though I scanned the crowd for my mother and father anyway.

  I flashed back to when I’d returned to Varenia and how vulnerable the village had looked. Seeing all my people together as one, I had hoped they would look as strong as I knew them to be individually. But New Castle had taken something from them, just as it had me. Even from here, they looked like they’d been set adrift. How would we ever recover from this?

  Ceren took a couple of items from his guard, what I could only assume were a silver bowl and a knife, and my gaze snapped back to Zadie. My heart was pounding so loud I was sure Grig could hear it. I pulled out my own small blade and pressed it to my exposed wrist, ready to draw blood as soon as I saw Zadie turn to look at us, the signal that Ceren was about to cut her.

  When she turned, I immediately ran the knife across my skin. There was a long enough delay that I was convinced it wouldn’t work, but then light flashed across
my eyes and it was as if I were in Zadie’s head, with Ceren standing just before me. It took an agonizing minute for Ceren to gather the bowlful of blood, but when he had finished, Grig reached over and gripped my shoulder tightly to bring me out of the vision. I could see Zadie press a cloth to the wound in her arm, and then the signal was given for the Varenians to cross the field toward us.

  Zadie walked to Titania as our group began to move forward. But before she could mount, Ceren approached her. While she fumbled with the stirrup, he reached for her wounded arm and the cloth covering her skin.

  My stomach sank. We had known this was a possibility, but we had hoped Zadie would mount and leave fast enough. My gaze flickered between the Varenians moving far too slowly across the field and Zadie struggling in Ceren’s grasp. Grig shifted in his seat. From the corner of my eye, I saw a soldier lift the red flag that was the signal for Talin and his troops to attack.

  Ceren released Zadie, and I thought we might have pulled it off.

  But then his eyes flicked to us, and I knew something was wrong. I dug my heels into my mare’s sides and galloped forward while Titania raced toward us, Zadie clinging to her mane. Ceren wasn’t chasing her, thank Thalos.

  Instead, he turned to face the Varenians. I scanned the horizon for some sign of Talin’s troops, but I saw nothing in the camp. And then I watched in horror as red jewels began to pulsate on every single Varenian neck.

  “What’s happening?” I shrieked as Zadie and I reached each other.

  “It’s a trap,” Zadie breathed, dismounting from Titania just before I leaped from my mare into Titania’s saddle.

  “I can see that! Are you hurt? How is your arm?”

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry about me. Where are Talin and his men? Shouldn’t they be here?”

  I looked across the field, where the Varenians stood in even rows, knives and other makeshift weapons in their hands, waiting for Ceren’s command. Grig and his men had pulled up their horses and circled back to us as soon as they realized what was happening.

  Where was Talin? He should have arrived by now. What if Ceren had spotted them and they’d already been defeated? What if Ceren had seen through all our plans and beaten us at our own game?

  “I’m so sorry, Nor,” Zadie said. “I wanted to help, and I’ve only gone and made things worse.”

  “You’re wrong, Zadie. Ceren was planning this regardless of which one of us came.”

  Grig and his men had clustered around us. “We should retreat to Old Castle. We can’t defeat that many people, regardless of their lack of training.”

  The thought of even trying to fight people I’d known my whole life, including small children, was horrifying. I was about to turn Titania back toward the castle when I saw one of the Varenians step forward from the others.

  He walked to Ceren and knelt down. I couldn’t make out the man’s features, but he was fair-haired. Not Father or Kristos. As we watched, Ceren pulled out a blade and ran it across the kneeling man’s throat. He collapsed onto the field without any sign of struggle. Zadie screamed, but I was frozen with fear. The other Varenians hadn’t even moved.

  Ceren turned to look at me then, and I felt something horrible pass between us, something I had no control over. He wanted me to know what he was capable of, that this wasn’t a game. I clutched at my head, wishing I could tear him free of it.

  Suddenly, a rider burst out of the trees behind us. For a moment, I was afraid Ceren had planned an ambush, but I recognized the horse immediately as Xander. What was Talin doing behind us?

  He reached us quickly, pulling Xander up alongside Titania.

  “What happened?” I demanded. “Why didn’t you attack?”

  “I’m sorry, Nor. We watched in the early morning hours as Ceren brought out the Varenians from the bottom of the mountain and led them into the tents. But when we saw they were wearing the bloodstones, we knew that if we attacked, Ceren could order them to do anything. We sent a scout to warn you, but I’m assuming he was intercepted.”

  While Talin spoke, Ceren had called another Varenian forward, this one a woman.

  Zadie gasped. “Thalos, is that—”

  “Phaedra,” I said, recognizing her by the bright red, curly hair that went down to her waist.

  “No!” I screamed as Ceren once again lifted his blade, slashing her throat. I had despised Phaedra for what she did to my family, but she was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She meant something to the people in her life, and she didn’t deserve to die this way. No one did.

  Zadie moaned and turned away. “I can’t watch. Someone has to do something.”

  Talin looked up at me, despair in his eyes. “If I send my men in to attack, we could lose all of the Varenians.”

  I nodded, a numbness washing over me at the realization of what I had to do. There was only one thing that was going to make Ceren stop this madness.

  Talin must have seen the resolve in my face. “Wait, no. Nor, that’s not what I meant.” He tried to reach for me, but I had already moved out of his grasp.

  “Nor!” Zadie cried, her voice full of anguish.

  I glanced at Ceren. This time, the man kneeling in front of him had bronze skin, dark hair, and a noble forehead. Father.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said to Zadie, to Talin, to myself. I had sworn I would never again be a prisoner, that I wouldn’t go back to New Castle if my life depended on it. But Ceren was right. Love was my weakness, and I could not stand by and watch my father die. I gripped the reins and squeezed Titania with my heels, and she broke into a full gallop, the protests of Talin and Zadie lost in the rush of blood in my ears.

  “Ceren!” I screamed, but he was already looking at me. The knife was still raised to my father’s throat.

  Titania flew across the field like an arrow, and within what felt like a handful of heartbeats, I was pulling her to a halt in front of Ceren. My father didn’t register my presence, but Ceren had at least moved the knife away from his throat. I tried not to look at Phaedra and the blond man, who lay in pools of their own blood.

  “I’m here. You got what you wanted.” My hair had come loose as I rode across the field, but I was grateful for the armor. It made me feel less vulnerable. “Let them go.”

  Ceren glared up at me. “Why should I? You lied to me, Nor. Though I must admit, I never expected you to put your precious sister in harm’s way.” He tapped his chin with the tip of the knife. “The elders were right, you know. She is prettier than you.”

  “Enough!” I screamed, grateful that my voice wasn’t as weak as I felt. “Let them go, or so help me I’ll cut my own throat, and you’ll never get a drop of my blood again.” I raised my sword and pressed it to the skin at my neck until I felt the bite of steel.

  “Oh, very well,” he said. “No need to be so dramatic. I’ll let them go. But none of this ‘one bowl of blood’ nonsense. You’ll come with me to New Castle and remain there as long as I have need of you.”

  I wanted to cry at the thought of going back to the dungeon, but I lowered the blade and sheathed it. “You’ll let all of the Varenians go, alive and unharmed.”

  He gave a mocking bow. “Of course.”

  I glanced back to my party. Talin and Zadie had ridden forward a bit, but they had stopped when they realized they wouldn’t catch me. At this point my safety was in question if they came closer. Ceren would get to me long before they did.

  “I would have kept my end of the bargain, you know.” Ceren waited for me to dismount and approach him. “If you hadn’t sent your sister in your place, I would have let the Varenians go.”

  “I will never again believe a word you say.”

  He grabbed me by the arm and began to lead me back to the castle.

  “Wait.” I tied Titania’s reins into a knot so she wouldn’t trip and took her head between my hands, pressing a kiss to the w
hite star in the center of her forehead. She nuzzled me, expecting treats, but I released her, making the signal that Roan had taught me. Without hesitating, she turned and galloped back to join the others. Even though it was exactly what she’d been trained to do, a part of me wished she would have stayed.

  Ceren pulled me roughly toward New Castle and my father rose silently, following behind us. I glanced back at him helplessly. When we were through the tented camp and had begun the climb up the stone steps carved into the mountain, Ceren turned and ordered his guards to remove the bloodstones from the Varenians. Alys was there, I knew. She would see her mother’s body any second.

  When the screams began, I pressed my hands to my ears. Realizing they were free, the Varenians began to run toward Talin and Zadie. Not one turned to see Ceren and me watching them from above.

  I nodded toward my father. “And now him,” I said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. If I let him go, I’ll have no guarantee that you won’t try to sneak out or hurt yourself.”

  I had thought I was numb, but his words hit me like a knife in the gut. “You promised you’d release them all!”

  “And I will release him. Once he’s safely tucked away in the dungeon.”

  I swallowed back the lump rising in my throat. “You can’t do this.”

  “Or what? You’ll abandon your father?” He clucked his tongue. “Of course you won’t. I know you better than anyone, Nor. Remember that.”

  I wished I could be numb, but fear and shame filled me as I resumed my climb up the mountain, wondering if maybe Ceren was right.

  27

  The climb up the stone steps carved into Mount Ayris was just as grueling as I remembered, though at least I wasn’t as weak as I’d been the first time I’d made the trek. I was grateful Ceren didn’t attempt to speak to me as we walked. I may be at his mercy, but I didn’t have it in me to be cordial.

  I glanced back at Father occasionally to make sure he was all right. Though he breathed heavily with exertion, his expression remained neutral. He wasn’t injured, as far as I could tell, but he was thin and clearly weakened from his time in the mountain. I had to fight every instinct in my body to turn and embrace him. I had wanted so badly to see him, but not like this.