Soul Stone Mage Complete Collection Boxed Set

by Sarah Noffke

  She was mostly aware of her own ragged breath and the stillness of her mother as she held her. The crowd in front of the stage was only a distant blur as she pressed her mother closer to her. Gran’s hand rubbed Azure’s shoulders. “Dear, there’s nothing more we can do right now.”

  Azure cried into her mother’s shoulder, aware that the queen’s hung limply to the side. “No! I can’t be too late,” she moaned between sobs.

  “You did all you could. Now we wait.” Gran spoke softly next to her ear.

  “But she has to be okay,” Azure said.

  “And I will,” a voice murmured.

  Azure pulled her head back and looked down. Her mother’s eyes had cracked open and her chin was now angled down as she tried to keep her head from lolling to the side.

  “Mother!” Azure said, hugging her tightly.

  The crowd burst into excited whispers.

  “Emeri, let me get a look at you,” Gran said. Azure loosened her grip on her mother. Sari stared down at her daughter, a quizzical look on her face. With her withered finger she pulled one of the queen’s eyelids down, looking at the whites of her eyes.

  “Well, I daresay you gave the people of Virgo quite the scare,” Gran said, amused relief in her voice.

  “Will she be okay?’ Azure asked, her eyes intent on her gran, the smartest witch she’d ever known.

  “For now, my dear, but she needs to rest,” Gran said. She snapped at two of the cabinet members at her back. “Take the queen to her chambers.”

  The two wizards pushed in, taking Emeri from Azure. The queen looked strange as they carried her away, her sudden weakness making her appear like a limp doll. No one had ever had to carry her, to help her.

  “Now, my dear Azure, I think the people of Virgo deserve an explanation of where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to,” Gran said with a smile in her voice.

  Azure nodded and stood. She pulled in a deep breath and let it out just before she turned to her people. A sea of faces stared at her, some she’d known all her life, and some strangers. Still, the crowd of colorful witches and wizards were Virgoans, and that meant they deserved the truth.

  At the side of the stage Azure saw Monet, Ever, and Gillian staring at her with strange expressions on their faces. Monet looked as if he was seeing her for the first time. Ever and Gillian both held their chins high, proud expressions on their faces.

  Azure centered her chest and faced the crowd, then lowered her hood and cleared her throat.

  “My fellow Virgoans, I have returned to my place of birth with many updates. You all know that I’m half human and half witch. My mother, your queen, informed me the night of my coronation that my father was from the Land of Terran. Queen Mother Sari,” Azure looked at her gran, “told me my mother’s soul stone could be found in that place. I therefore ventured into the Land of Terran, knowing, as you’ve witnessed, that my mother would die without her soul stone. While there, I learned that my father was the emperor of Terran. When his people discovered I was his child, he was stripped of his crown, much the same way I was stripped of mine. His own people, led by the Duke of Terran, imprisoned him and me.”

  The faces that stared at Azure were drawn, none of them displaying emotion in response to her words. She pressed her soul stone between her fingers. In her blood, she felt the power the blue amethyst loaned her.

  “I broke my father out of prison, and with the help of those men there,” Azure indicated Gillian, Ever, and Monet, still standing several feet away, “I stole the queen’s soul stone back and we escaped from the Land of Terran. As you’ve just witnessed, my mother will recover and hopefully grow stronger, now that she has her soul stone. Whether her magic will ever be restored is unknown. However, the people of Terran, and specifically the Duke, are responsible for the virus that infected the queen and her cabinet members. Furthermore, while the journey through the Dark Forest—”

  Gasps around the crowd cut Azure off.

  “The Dark Forest.”

  “That deadly place.”

  “She went through the Dark Forest.”

  Witches and wizards whispered to each other in urgent tones. The eyes of the crowd widened, and in unison many heads tipped forward. She had their attention.

  “Yes. Because time was of the essence, I cut through the Dark Forest to pass into Terran. And, knowing the queen urgently needed her soul stone, my friends and I traveled back across the Dark Forest as well.” Azure lifted her chin, staring past the crowd to the hills of her people. “We faced many dangers and were almost killed. I tell you this because never, not once, did I regret the mission I’d taken on. You are my people, and our queen is my mother. I would do anything to protect you. To protect her. You may not want me as your queen because I’m half human, and you may reject me as Virgoan because of who I am, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”

  The crowd hung on her every word, not making a single sound. Azure turned to her gran, looking to her, as she always did, for support. The queen mother nodded encouragingly at Azure.

  Taking a sip of air, Azure continued her speech. It hadn’t been rehearsed, but what she had to say fell from her mouth by instinct. “The humans of Terran have depleted the forest around their land. I think they are running out of resources, and also trying to get the rogue dryads off their backs. That’s why I believe they got a potion from Charmsgood to restore the forest, and because of the long silent war between them and us, they killed him.”

  Loud gasps echoed through the crowd. “Charmsgood!” “Dead?” “It can’t be!” came the whispers from the audience.

  “We found Charmsgood’s body,” Azure said, motioning to her friends. “And I found the Duke of Terran with a potion that only Charmsgood could have made.”

  “They didn’t want anyone to know,” “Traitors,” “How dare he!” The crowd murmured their complaints.

  “Yes, and it is with great sorrow that I tell you of the Potions Master’s death. He didn’t die by accident. He was attacked by a harpy, and as I speak, harpies are circling the skies outside our border, having been sent to hunt us by the humans of Terran. However, I’ve made a partnership with the Orcs, a natural enemy of the harpies, to protect our borders,” Azure said, her voice clear and loud.

  She felt her gran step up beside her and put a comforting hand on her back. “That’s my gal,” the queen mother said proudly.

  Azure worked to keep her face blank, not showing any pride. “The humans of Terran, and more specifically the Duke, must be punished.” Her father’s words about the humans not all being bad trailed through Azure’s head. What if he was correct? What if the people were just misinformed? She cleared her throat. “I don’t know if all humans in Terran are evil, but I know they need to be stopped. We must protect ourselves, and protect our world. Therefore, I’m going to travel into the mountains to locate the rogue dryads. I plan to take them to Terran and help them enter that land. Terrans must be shown that their actions have consequences, or they won’t stop overusing. And the Duke needs to know that if he sets traps for us, we will fight back. I’m going to take the measures needed for us not just to stay alive, but to defend ourselves against the Land of Terran.”

  Azure stopped—that was all she could say at this point. The crowd stared, blinking at her. She took a step back, not knowing what to do after her speech. A figure she recognized as Evandar Harlan, the headmaster of the school, parted the crowd and stepped forward. One of his eyes was permanently half-closed, supposedly from a potions experiment at the school that went wrong long ago. He held up his fist, his long blue robe falling back on his arm. The babbling crowd fell silent at once.

  “I assuredly do not speak for all in Virgo. I only presume to speak for myself,” he yelled, his single eye bright. “But that being said, there are few as sad as me that our queen has lost her magic. I now understand why she was pushing for Azure to take the crown so early.” Evander looked at the crowd. “Many of us, including myself, opposed the princ
ess’ succeeding the queen due to her impure heritage.” Pointing his good eye at Azure on the stage, the old wizard’s mouth fell open, as if his thoughts hadn’t quite transferred themselves into words yet. After a moment he turned and addressed Azure. “After hearing what you’ve done and are willing to do for Virgo, I retract my earlier concern. Pure blood or not, I don’t know of a witch or wizard I’d rather have rule our land in your mother’s absence.”

  He turned back to the crowd. “Azure Vladar for Queen!”

  Azure’s mouth tightened to keep the emotion seeking to erupt inside.

  “Thank you, Evandar,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. “But I don’t think—”

  “Azure Vladar for Queen!” yelled a witch behind the headmaster.

  “Thank you,” Azure stammered, noticing that the people in the crowd had started to exchange looks with their neighbors, “but it wasn’t my intention—”

  “Azure for Queen! Azure for Queen! Azure for Queen!” the crowd shouted, first disjointedly and then in unison. They chanted for a long time as Azure stood facing her people, chin high and heart leaping with pride.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Man, you’re going to be a huge pain in the ass now,” Monet said, pulling his chin back and chugging his third glass of Dragon’s Hide whiskey. “If you ask me, it should be Azure for—” Pulling in a long breath, Monet blew a giant raspberry in her direction.

  “Jealously is by far one of the ugliest emotions,” Gillian remarked from the corner of the booth the four shared at the Ghoul’s Tavern. He, like the others, was clean and wearing fresh clothes.

  Azure had met them there after checking on her mother. She was relieved that the queen was sleeping peacefully. When she awoke, Azure would tell her what had happened with the kingdom of Virgo. Her mother would be relieved. That huge stress would be removed, so she could focus only on getting better. Maybe she’d make a full recovery and Azure would only serve as interim queen.

  “I just don’t get it. I tiptoed through the Dark Forest and risked all the lovely hairs on my head for the people of Virgo, and they’re not going to crown me as king. Pish, who needs these ingrates anyway.” Monet swayed from side to side, his empty tumbler still in his hand.

  “Well, you don’t have any royal blood. That might be one of the problems,” Ever said, taking a sip of his beer.

  “That’s true, but I have brains and charm, and the people of Virgo obviously want a leader who is less intimidating.” Holding up his glass, Monet waved it in the air, gaining attention of the owner of the pub. “Two more,” he called when the witch turned her silver eyes on him.

  “You’ve been cut off, Mr. Torrance,” Trixie Flourboy said from behind the bar. She was whispering with a few of the locals.

  Monet shook his head, the movement exaggerated. “They’re for the deputy queen, Trix. Which reminds me…” Leaning forward across the old oak table, he said, “Az, you’re covering the tab, right? I gave all my money to a charity that is saving a species of endangered three-eyed toads.”

  “There’s no such species,” Gillian declared, sitting higher.

  A long burp ripped from Monet’s mouth as he shook his head. “Not that you know of, dummy, because they’re endangered. Duh.”

  Trixie trotted over carrying a full tray of beverages. The witch was middle-aged, like Queen Emeri. Her long silver and gold polka-dot robes brushed the uneven floors of the pub as she moved through the space between the bar and their table. “I’ve told everyone in the tavern that if they approach your table, Princess Azure, I’ll melt their eyebrows off.” She set a large goblet holding a dark maroon liquid in front of Azure. “However, they’ve bought you several drinks, all things that are top-shelf and quite expensive. I have to do right by my patrons and deliver the drinks they wanted you to have.” Next to the glass of wine, Trixie set a steaming mug, a flute bubbling with white liquid, and a tumbler filled with a brown liquor whose legs reached halfway to the rim of the glass.

  “Those are all for me?” Azure asked, glancing at a row of patrons at the bar who all waved, since Trixie had her back turned to them. With a weak nod, Azure smiled at the jolly witches and wizards who held up their own glasses to salute her.

  “They are, and if you drink all that we might be burying you before the coronation,” Trixie told her, pointing a finger at the first glass. “We have thousand-year-old port, fairies’ golden nectar, moonflower champagne, and Light Elves’ cognac.” Her long pointy finger tapped the last glass as she smiled at Azure. Trixie wore her grape-purple amethyst as a single earring in her left earlobe.

  “I’ll take it slow,” Azure promised, raising the flute of champagne and mouthing “Thank you” to the witches and wizards at the bar.

  “Well, as soon as you clear those drinks, I’ll bring the next round.” Trixie gave her a devilish smile.

  “There’s more?” Azure nearly choked on the sip she’d taken, the bubbles buzzing in her throat.

  “Oh, yes. Everyone in the tavern has ordered you a drink. Queen Emeri never set foot in here, and you doing so speaks volumes. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always respected your mother as queen, but you might be the first approachable queen to rule Virgo in quite some time. Either that, or you just don’t know any better than to stay out of places that most royalty deem to be dirty,” Trixie said with a wink.

  “I don’t think this place is dirty—”

  Azure made to stand up, but a hand reached out and yanked her back into the booth. “Don’t worry, Princess. She’s not implying that you do,” Ever whispered in her ear. “You’ve got to learn to take compliments. In my mind, that one was of the highest you could get.”

  Pressing the glass to her mouth, Azure forced herself to drink to cover her embarrassment.

  “It’s true,” Gillian said, taking the tumbler of Light Elves’ cognac from the table. “A ruler has to be comfortable with her people to lead them. She needs to know what it’s like to be one of her citizens, or she won’t feel their problems. Know their struggles. A monarch removed from her community will choose the wrong solutions unless she understands what her people really want.”

  Monet picked up the mug of fairies’ golden nectar and held it under his nose, inhaling deeply. “Damn, Shorty. That’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at once.”

  The gnome’s face blossomed with red. He lifted the tumbler to his mouth to cover his expression.

  “I don’t think my mother ever had much of a chance to visit the artisan market or the pubs or anything like them. From my earliest memory, she’s been held up in the House of Enchanted. There are always citizens with complaints or requests, things to sign…” Azure trailed off, realizing that was going to be her role now. She’d come to terms with it before the first coronation, but at that point she hadn’t acquired a taste for adventure. Now, being cooped up in the ancient house would be against her nature. Much like her father, she wanted to explore Oriceran. She wanted to travel to new lands, bring back opportunities for her people. Could the queen of Virgo lead like that? She didn’t know, but she was going to have to figure it out.

  “Azure is having an ‘Oh fuck’ moment, everyone,” Monet said, draining his mug.

  “Probably a bit overdue,” Ever said, taking ownership of the glass of wine. “I propose a toast.” He held up the large goblet, waiting for the others to join him. He smiled. “To a queen who was born for the role, but also earned it by seeking to save her people.”

  “Cheers,” Gillian said, a bit louder than usual.

  “Cheers,” Azure said, in mostly a whisper.

  “Did anyone else just throw up in their mouth?” Monet asked as he attempted to keep his face serious.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The sun hadn’t yet peeked through the curtains of Azure’s room when she awoke. Spending a night snuggled in her bed would normally have been welcome after sleeping in Terran and on the beach, but her thoughts regarding the upcoming coronation had prevented her from resting peacefu
lly. After returning from the pub, she’d visited her mother and filled her in on all the details. Her coronation would be tonight. Queen Emeri didn’t want to put it off, afraid the people of Virgo might change their minds. They’d embraced Azure due to heightened emotions, but those could shift. And despite the upcoming coronation, there were many things that needed her attention.

  Pulling a piece of parchment from a stack on her desk, Azure scribbled a note. She kept it brief, telling Richard that she was safe, she’d be queen soon, and she’d send someone to him with provisions the next day. Azure didn’t like having to ask one of her citizens to endanger their own life to help her father, but wasn’t that a part of her power now? It didn’t feel natural. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be queen, she thought as she folded the parchment in half and then crimped the corners. When the paper resembled a flying saucer, she enchanted it using her wand. Flying saucers were hardly ever used in Virgo, but the technology did exist and could be used for traveling great distances, like across oceans.

  The paper rose from her desk and scuttled back a few inches, then zoomed forward and flew out her open window in the direction of the ocean, where hopefully Richard was still alive.

  Azure pulled her gray hood over her head and ducked out of her room. Not once in her already long life had the witch worn gray. Like most in her clan she preferred color in her clothing, but she’d be spotted in her trademark baby-blue robes. And today of all days, Azure needed to blend in.

  None of the servants who were preparing—again—for the coronation took much notice of Azure as she passed down the great staircase and through the front door. She paused in the doorway, staring up at the second-floor landing. Ever and Gillian had both taken rooms in the House of Enchanted. It was the first time in the history of the ancient home that an elf or gnome had slept there overnight—usually representatives of those species came for a council meeting and left when it was over. However, these were her friends, and they deserved to stay in a place that offered great comfort after what they’d done to further Azure’s quest.