by Lisa Shearin
We were both doing everything we could to make our pasts up to her—especially me. She had given many pieces to Calida, but none of them had resembled “flames captured in stone.”
I didn’t remember my mother wearing such a stone, but then she had worn only a few pieces, not being much for socializing with the previous regime.
Barrett leaned over the table next to me. “Sir, may I recommend you examine one drawer at a time. The entire collection would be a bit overwhelming all at once.”
“There’s more?”
“Of course. The Nathrach ladies have always enjoyed their finery.”
He didn’t mention Calida, but I knew he was thinking about her, as was I. She had been exceedingly fond of jewels, but only the smaller, more understated pieces, which meant I’d never seen some of these pieces in my life. Not all of the jewelry had been maintained. If it was attractive and wearable, it had been kept clean and polished. Garish pieces had been left to gather dust and tarnish. I shifted through a tray of bejeweled castoffs.
“Some of these are quite…large,” Agata noted.
“And gaudy,” I muttered.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“They do speak for themselves, don’t they?” Agata said.
“Loudly,” I agreed. “I assure you we have good taste, at least the last two generations do.” I picked up a pendant with a ruby the size of a goose egg. “How would a woman even wear something like this?”
“The better question is why she would want to,” Agata said. “Though it could be nice on a sword pommel.”
We went through drawer after drawer in the jewelry cabinet, and chest after chest. Nothing looked like it was or ever had been flickering with flames. There was much that was bright, shiny, or sparkling, but there wasn’t a flickerer in the lot.
I was getting discouraged.
I glanced at Agata. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Do you sense anything from any of this?”
“Other than the Nathrachs at several times in their history had questionable taste in jewelry—no, I don’t sense anything. That being said, many gems of power are activated only by touch.”
I took in all the pieces of jewelry, most set with more than one stone, the chests stacked with multiple trays, and sighed. “We’re going to need coffee.”
Agata nodded in agreement. “A lot of coffee.”
Legend said the Heart of Nidaar was like flame contained inside of a stone. It didn’t say what color the stone was, which wouldn’t really have mattered in regards to what we were doing. I wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned—no pun intended. Or untouched.
“Do you think the shard would react to me?” I asked, shuffling through a small pile of loose stones, turning them this way and that, looking for the telltale flame.
Agata was doing much the same. “Unless you have gem talent, it shouldn’t. Do you have any gem mages in your family?”
“Before tonight, I would have said no. But tonight I discovered one of my ancestors had not only sailed to Aquas and returned, but also may have brought home a shard of the very rock we’ll be searching for.”
Agata turned an opal the size of a hen’s egg in her fingers, gazing at the light playing in its sparkling depths. “Ignorance can be enlightening.”
“I’m not enlightened yet.”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Can you speak in anything except idioms?”
She gave me a hint of a smile with her eyes still on the opal. “Only time will tell.”
I nodded toward the pile of jewelry and gems she had already examined. “Is there magic in any of those?”
“These? No.” She pointed tentatively at a small chest that she’d set off to the side. “Those in there, on the other hand, you might want to consider getting rid of. Cursed. Nothing big, but in the right environment and wrong hands, they could be nasty. At the very least, securely lock them away from the, shall we say, inexperienced and dangerously talented.”
Like Talon.
“Duly noted and done.”
I looked in the last chest.
Empty.
What we had spread on the table before us was all there was, and none of it flickered like trapped flame.
“That’s it,” I said.
“What’s it? You found it?”
“No. I meant that’s all the jewelry.” I waved my hand to encompass what was on the table. “This is all there is. No shard.”
Agata didn’t hear me, at least not entirely, but her head tilted to the side as if she were listening.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Agata held up one hand for quiet. After a few seconds, a slow smile spread across her face. She got up from her chair, walked around behind me, and peered down into the last chest.
“It’s not empty,” she murmured. “Not quite.” She reached inside.
I stood and looked in.
The chest’s interior was black, and so was the thin box Agata pried out of a hidden compartment in the bottom. She carefully placed it on the table and opened it.
There it was. Actually, there they were.
Cushioned on a bed of black velvet were a pendant and a ring—both set with stones in which firelight flickered from the depths. Both appeared to be made of gold and featured a dragon as part of the design.
Agata lifted the pendant out of the box by its golden chain.
The pendant was a small disk about an inch in diameter, and a quarter of an inch thick. A serpentine golden dragon completely encircled the gem, gripping it with its four claws. The disk appeared to be a slice from the Heart of Nidaar.
I picked up the ring.
The band consisted of the golden body of a dragon. Its four claws gripped the gem and its mouth was open as if breathing fire into it. Though the detail was exquisite, the gold—if it was gold—was dull, and the rough-cut stone cloudy. I reached for the polishing cloth and went to work on both.
I was soon rewarded with a warm glow, as if a tiny flame had been trapped inside, caught in mid-flicker.
I carefully picked it up and held it to the light.
Flames danced inside.
I didn’t even need to move the ring. The flames inside the gem flickered with tongues of fire as I held it perfectly still. Agata had said that there hadn’t been any description of the size of the gem, or even if there was more than one, but these had to be it. Two pieces of the Heart of Nidaar.
Neither looked like shards to me, but Shard of Nidaar sounded more impressive than Lump or Slice of Nidaar.
“I’ve never seen the Heart of Nidaar,” Agata was saying, “but these certainly fit the description.” She examined the pendant in her hand, holding it by the chain, being careful not to touch the stone, at least not yet.
“How do we determine if it is?” I asked.
“The legend said that one of the things the Heart of Nidaar powered was the city’s lights.”
Our eyes went to the lamp on the table. A small, but strong, lightglobe provided the light, which was then reflected around the room by small clear crystals. I waved my hand over the lamp, extinguishing it. I tossed an expectant glance at Agata.
“There’s no time like the present,” I told her.
“Especially with us leaving the day after tomorrow.”
I felt Agata’s shields go up on everywhere except where her fingers now held the disk’s golden frame. If the rock decided to get nasty, she could quickly cut contact. I knew that hadn’t worked with the Saghred, but that had been the entire stone. This was a very small piece of the Heart of Nidaar, or might be. Agata Azul was one of the best gem mages there was. She knew the risks and how to protect herself against them.
I felt Agata gathering and focusing her power. Not much, just enough to activate whatever power lay dormant in the disk. The flames flared where Agata’s fingertip touched the surface. She showed no sign that it hurt. She touched the pendant’s stone
to the lightglobe.
Nothing.
That was disappointing.
The lightglobe suddenly blazed with light.
And exploded.
As did every other lightglobe in the house, judging from the loud pops and crashes.
We shared a wide-eyed look.
“That answers that question,” I said.
Kesyn’s testy voice came from behind us. “I can’t leave you two alone for one minute.”
Chapter 16
Now that it wasn’t in contact with the lightglobe—because it’d blown it up—the stone disk reverted to its neutral state.
I still held the ring, though now by its gold band. I wasn’t in any hurry to touch the stone again. Or I should probably say the Shard of Nidaar, because there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that was what we had.
Kesyn indicated the ring. “Does the legend say how dangerous it is to have that little nugget of boom anywhere near you?”
Agata shook her head. “The legend only refers to the Heart of Nidaar. Other than its existence, and that it was taken out of Aquas by Kansbar Nathrach, there’s no mention of the shard’s capabilities.”
I probed it with my magic.
No reaction.
“You were holding your breath,” Kesyn noted.
“Can you blame me?”
“Not really. I would advise not putting it on.”
“I have no desire or urge to do so.”
“Prudent.” Kesyn glanced at Agata. “I told you there’s hope that he has more sense than he used to.” He indicated the ring. “May I?”
I gave it to him. “By all means.”
Kesyn examined it, turning it this way and that, frowning the entire time. Even from where I was sitting I could see the flames inside.
“Well?” I asked. “What do you think?”
“Doesn’t seem to be evil.”
“That was the impression I got. In your reading on the shard, were there any ill effects from wearing it?” I asked Agata.
“No.”
“How did this ancestor of yours die?” Kesyn asked.
“He committed suicide, so it was said.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not. When he returned from Aquas, he was interrogated by the Khrynsani. Soon after his release, he was found impaled on his own sword, and the king confiscated his house and tore it apart.”
“Sounds familiar.”
“Yes, it does.”
Kesyn handed the ring back to me. “So the disk and ring themselves are probably safe. It’s just having the things that can get you killed.”
“I think we can safely say both of these have the same capabilities as the motherstone, only on a smaller scale,” Agata told us. “Once we’ve landed, we should be able to use it as a compass of sorts to find Nidaar, and once in the city, to find the motherstone. I’ll use the time on the voyage to attune myself to it. If I’m to use it to locate Nidaar, I’ll need to wear one of them. I’m thinking the pendant, since the ring was clearly made for a man.”
“You might want to try it on here and now,” Kesyn told her. “We’ll have your back if it gets nasty.”
I tensed. I knew how the beacon to the Saghred had attached itself to Raine. She hadn’t been able to take it off until she’d found the Saghred itself—that is, if she wanted to continue breathing.
Agata slipped the chain around her neck.
Nothing happened.
“Do you feel different?” I asked.
“No. But for it to be effective, I’ll need to wear it next to my skin.”
“I had a feeling that would be the case.”
Agata pulled back the neck of her tunic. “Here goes hopefully nothing.” She dropped the disk down the front of her tunic.
Immediately, the disk’s glow became visible through the cloth of her tunic.
“Aggie,” Kesyn said in warning.
Agata remained completely calm. “No need for concern. I’m merely injecting a small portion of my gem magic into the disk.” She smiled down at the disk, almost fondly, and put her hand over the outside of her tunic, as if she was holding a kitten. “Bonding with it, if you will. It has no intention of harming me. I assure you, it’s quite benign. This has happened before. It just means the disk has accepted me. That’s good. We should work well together.”
“Can you take it off?” I asked. “Or should I say, will it let you take it off?”
Raine hadn’t been able to.
Agata lifted the chain from around her neck along with the disk. The glow dimmed, but not completely. I got the impression it was pouting. Then she put it back on, and the glow brightened.
“You’re still breathing,” I noted with no small measure of relief.
“Very well, in fact.” She put the chain back over her head, dropping the disk back down the front of her tunic.
I glanced down at the ring. “It appears to be my size, or close to it. And since I’m not a gem mage, there should be no danger of the thing biting me. I don’t see any reason not to try it on, do you?” I asked Kesyn.
“I don’t like it, but can’t think of any.”
I quickly slipped the ring on my finger.
Nothing.
That was good, disappointing, and not unexpected.
Good that nothing happened, though disappointing, but expected since I wasn’t a gem mage and there was no Heart of Nidaar nearby for it to track.
I took the ring off.
Still nothing.
That was definitely good.
I put it back on with the intention of keeping it there.
Kesyn stared intently at me for a few moments. “Feeling evil?”
“No.” I would have added “of course not,” but I was rather surprised—and relieved—myself.
“Well, if you start feeling evil and find you can’t remove it…” Kesyn grinned and pulled a small knife out of his robes. “I’ll just cut your finger off.”
I looked at him.
“What? Which would you rather lose, boy? Your mind or a finger?”
“Neither, if I can help it.”
“You’re going to start wearing it?” Kesyn asked.
“Let’s just say I don’t want it going anywhere without me.”
*
After replacing the shattered lightglobes and helping Barrett clean up the mess we’d made, we put everything back in the chests and secured them in the armory vault in my bedroom. Seeing my armor and weapons reminded me of a few more things I needed to pack.
It also made me very much aware that with her house burned to the ground, Agata Azul had nothing to pack—as in nothing to wear.
“This isn’t a proper thing for a man to ask a woman—especially when they’ve just met—but necessity is more important than propriety right now.”
“The only clothes I have are the clothes on my back.” She paused. “That’s what you were getting at, wasn’t it?”
“Um, yes, it was. I don’t know whether the assassins at your home were after you or me—or after you because of me; that is, me asking you to go to Aquas to find the Heart of Nidaar. Regardless, I feel I am indirectly to blame for your loss, and wish to remedy the situation. When we return, I want to have your house rebuilt and refurnished. At the moment, we have the rather pressing need to get you some clothes.”
“We leave the day after tomorrow. Even the best palace clothiers can’t work that kind of miracle.”
“They can’t, but if you will make a list, and make it complete, Barrett will take care of everything in our absence and have your wardrobe replaced by the time we return.”
Agata smiled, enjoying my discomfort. “And in the meantime…?”
“All of us will be traveling light—”
The smile didn’t fade. If anything, it broadened. “Naked is a bit too light in my opinion.”
“What I’m getting to is that you and my mother appear to be the same size. I know she wouldn’t mind if you took enough from her wardrobe to see
you through the expedition. And being a mortekal, she has ample clothing suitable for where we are going and what we’ll be doing once we get there.” I started down the hall. “I’ll show you to her room and then to your guest room for the night.”
*
Talon arrived an hour later via mirror from my parents’ estate. We’d both had a long day. I told him he needed to do two things now: a bath and then to bed. The only bath he would get between here and Aquas would be if it rained on him, and on board the Wraith, his bed would be a hammock.
I fully intended to go straight to sleep myself, but stayed up longer than I should have. When I finally made my way to my bed, I overheard voices from Talon’s room.
“It’s my last night in Regor. I should be out with my friends. Instead I’m—”
“In the finest mansion in the city,” Barrett said, “bathing in a tub that once graced the imperial baths of Kaleh, sipping hundred-year-old brandy from two-hundred-year-old crystal, and eating what took hours to prepare all because your father said you might enjoy it before being subjected to ship’s fare. But why would you want this when you could be surrounded by young men and women who are not your friends vomiting ale into a disease-infested gutter?”
Silence.
I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“I’m an ungrateful brat from the Lower Hells, aren’t I?” Talon said.
“Yes, young sir, you are. But we have hopes for you. Will you be needing anything else, sir?”
“Aside from good manners, I’d like a few more of those cherry tarts. They’re very good. In fact, I’ve never tasted better.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll relay your compliments to the cook.”
I continued to my own room, grinning broadly. I was really going to miss Barrett.
Chapter 17
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
Barrett’s voice filtered down to me through the remains of a nightmare that included the mage who had attacked us last night, but instead of a demonic zombie horde were multiple copies of Sarad Nukpana and Rudra Muralin. Agata wasn’t the only one trapped with me. Talon was there as well.
Needless to say, I was relieved to wake up.