The Stones of Kaldaar (Song of the Swords Book 1)

by Tameri Etherton

  When the girls were gone, Taryn sat at her desk and read more thoroughly through the documents, becoming increasingly agitated. She hardly noticed Carina’s return or the sky lightening in the west. Only when Saeko tapped her on the shoulder did she realize she’d spent the entire night making notes.

  She cancelled her training that morning and sent messages to those she trusted most to meet in her rooms at ninth bell. When they started arriving, Taryn paced with the heightened anxiety of someone who hadn’t slept but was fueled with determination and caffeine.

  Carina and Timor, another of Taryn’s guards, stood beside her door while the rest of the group gathered in her sitting room. She looked at their faces—expectant, curious, questioning—and began.

  She indicated the anonymous notes she’d received, handing a few to Faelara to pass around. “Someone has been helping with my research. I don’t know who, but these clues have led me to this.” She held up the papers Tessa had retrieved from Celia’s rooms. “I think it’s best if I just read it, then we can figure out what it all means.”

  She read through the entire prophecy, stopping when she came to the end of the second page. “I can’t make out this last part. It’s written in thick ink and a bit smeared, but I think it says, ‘Bring night into day when the blood of the unbroken, daughter of deceit, will sow their seeds.’” She passed the pages to Faelara and Hayden. “Read them again. Oh, and this.” She gave Sabina the sheet with the family tree meticulously drawn.

  They took their time reading and rereading the pages. Eliahnna jotted down notes in a journal while Baehlon sharpened his sword. Taryn paced the room, wearing the carpet thin in a semicircle. She chewed on her cuticle, stopped herself, and then nibbled a bit more.

  Ebus was helping her spy on Celia, but had been adamant his role remain anonymous. If the others knew about him, he claimed, they might inadvertently signal to him or otherwise call him out when they spotted him around the palace. With only Taryn knowing his purpose, he’d be able to follow Celia without drawing attention. He was, at that very moment, in the far reaches of the orchard, perched high in a tree observing Celia and her invisible lover. They’d met many times since their return to Talaith, but this was the first time the mysterious stranger had come on palace grounds.

  His proximity corroborated Taryn’s suspicions that their confidence grew with each encounter. Ebus had been right—if she’d told Rhoane, he would’ve severed Celia’s ties with the phantom, who then would’ve been free to find a new victim. They were close to learning his identity.

  And now, telling Rhoane and the others she’d been hiding something from them was not going to be pleasant.

  Sabina’s nose wrinkled in thought, a lock of hair stuck between her teeth as she absently chewed. “This is of my family tree, I believe.”

  The others turned their attention to her.

  “The names are spelled in the archaic language, but I recognize many of them. And see here, on the lowest branch are my mother and father, with my siblings and me listed just below.”

  Hayden craned his neck to get a better look. “Sabinth Aarendhi.” He looked off, thinking. “I’ve read that name before, but I can’t recall where.”

  “Did it have to do with Kaldaar?” Rhoane asked, taking the paper from Sabina.

  “I’m not sure. I’ll search my books. I know it was just in the last fortnight, so it must be here with me.”

  Faelara tapped the second page of the prophecy. “This part at the bottom looks like it was added later. The script doesn’t match the rest.”

  “That’s what I thought, as well,” Taryn agreed. She took a deep breath. It was now or never. “Last night, Tessa found these papers in Celia’s rooms.” All eyes focused on her, and she continued without elaborating. “For some time now Celia’s been acting odd. Talking to herself, having bouts of mania followed by spells of discontent. Something’s not right.” She pointed to the sheets in their hands. “I have no idea what all of this means, but I’m certain it’s not good. That’s why I asked you here, to see if we can collectively figure this out and how Celia is involved.”

  At length, it was Rhoane who spoke. “Hayden, see what you can uncover about Kaldaar and the Black Arts. Since Sabina believes this is her family tree, she should look further into that, and Taryn, continue your research into the prophecies that revolve around you. As for Baehlon and myself, we will keep watch for anything untoward in the palace. As well as keep a guard on Sabina.”

  “What should we do?” Tessa’s eyes were alight with the possibility of adventure.

  “You, my young friend, need to watch Lady Celia. Be discreet, see where she goes, whom she speaks with, but never go alone. Do you understand? You must never be by yourself if you are to help us. We need to be certain you are safe. Always.” He chucked her on the chin, and Tessa beamed at him.

  “I will,” she said in a breathless sigh.

  “I’ll keep watch over Herbert as well,” Hayden offered. “His interest in Sabina isn’t healthy, nor his relationship with Celia. I’m betting he’s involved somehow.”

  “Excellent point, Hayden.” Faelara said. “I’ve never trusted that young man.”

  Sabina shuddered and Hayden placed his arm protectively around her.

  “I’ll help Taryn in the library. I’m sure there is order to all of this,” Eliahnna added.

  “Are you insinuating I’m not tidy?” A hint of bemusement lifted Taryn’s words.

  Eliahnna gave her a suffering look. “Of course not. I’m merely suggesting that a fresh set of eyes might find what you’ve overlooked.”

  Faelara stretched in such a way that Taryn recalled the calico cat from the library. Their eyes met, and Faelara gave a sly smile. “I’ll see what I can discover from the empress’s spies. I doubt if Lliandra would openly share anything she knows with me.”

  “Have you fallen from favor?” Baehlon’s voice rumbled through the room.

  “Perhaps a little. I have been remiss in sharing everything I know about the Eirielle, and this vexes her to no end.” The sly smile deepened.

  “You did that for me?” Gratitude didn’t come close to what Taryn was feeling. Faelara could’ve been hanged if Lliandra so wished it.

  “Of course, my darling.”

  The meeting disbanded, and they began to file out. Taryn stopped Rhoane before he joined Baehlon. “Tessa found these in Celia’s rooms.” She handed him the notes she’d sent that he’d never received. “If she’s up to something, there’s no way Marissa doesn’t know about it.”

  He turned the envelopes in his hands, a frown pulling his lips dangerously low. “I will make certain to put a watch on her, as well. But it is wise to keep these suspicions to yourself. If they prove false, you will not have to explain your treason to the empress.”

  The bitter taste of acid lingered with his words. Despite what he’d told her at the Weirren, he still wished to believe in Marissa’s innocence. Even if that meant not believing Taryn.

  Chapter 48

  THE air in her rooms thickened with the all too familiar mist that accompanied the phantom. Marissa recoiled, even as she knew it was impossible to avoid. It never spoke, never touched her beyond wrapping a single tendril around her pale wrist. That one wisp conveyed its latest instructions. She struggled to fight the demon, but her body obeyed his every command. Every request, no matter how small, was fulfilled. She could deny it nothing.

  Tears coursed down her cheeks when the thing finally released her and dissipated. A gentle breeze cleared the room of its stench, like the rot of a thousand decaying bodies. Since that first night on the road from Paderau, the phantom had visited only twice, each time more insistent than the last.

  Marissa must let Celia complete the ceremony.

  A ruffle of feathers brought her attention to the balcony, and she squinted to see Valterys transforming. He glanced quickly around him and stepped into her bedchamber.

  “Is it gone?”

  “I don’t like the
control it has over me. We must find a way to break the bond or Celia will be successful.”

  Valterys placed his hands alongside her temples and pressed gently. Buzzing sounded in her mind, a hive of voices clamoring to be heard above the din. The shouts of the dead.

  His Shanti spun around the din, silencing it. The powerful wards he placed on her mind helped to keep the phantom from taking over completely. Valterys thought she could protect herself on her own, but she craved his healing after each visit from the mist creature.

  “You’re not wrong,” Valterys said. “This phantom, he is not Kaldaar but an agent of his. Someone who wishes to bring the god back from exile. He is powerful, yes, but not omnipotent.”

  “Then he lives and breathes?”

  Valterys gave a low chuckle. “I believe he does. He’s been visiting our Celia regularly, giving her immense amounts of pleasure, I’m afraid.”

  “It doesn’t touch me except to give instructions.”

  “Are you jealous?”

  She was. Very much so. “Not at all. Are you?” She suspected Valterys, on occasion, pretended to be the phantom.

  “How close is Taryn to discovering Celia’s plan?”

  Marissa snorted. “Not nearly as far along as she should be. Without my clues helping her, I’m afraid she’d still be down at the cove, swimming with her idiot friends.” Marissa herself wasn’t certain what Celia planned, but each night she would slip into her room and rummage through the scrolls and notes Celia had made. She hated to admit she needed Taryn’s help to stop Celia. She needed Taryn to stop the phantom from taking over her soul.

  A small, impatient sigh slipped through his lips. He still held her head between his hands, and a shock went through her mind. “You give her too little credit. Taryn is a bright young woman. She’ll get to the core of Celia’s plans. You need to make sure she lives through the ordeal. Rykoto would be quite vexed to learn of her death. I’ve managed to keep this from our god, but he suspects something and is questioning our loyalty.”

  That was a complication she couldn’t afford. Unless she had something better to offer Rykoto. “I’ll go to Celia. She must know who the Master is but is being compelled to forget. If I can distract her, perhaps she’ll unwittingly tell me.”

  Valterys released her head. “I’ve tried that. On several occasions. I truly don’t think she knows. If she did, then she would certainly tell the difference between my presence and his.”

  True. There was nothing similar in their touch. But then, she’d known Valterys her whole life. Celia had never met him before Taryn’s coronation.

  “How fares Zakael? It has been too long since I’ve seen him.”

  “He is well, my darling. While I’ve been here dealing with this, he has been at Caer Idris.”

  “I hope we can both see him soon.” She brushed her lips across his cheek. “My offer stands, you know.”

  He ran a fingernail down her cheek, scratching the tender skin. She moaned into his touch. “I will try to find this mysterious phantom. You see to Celia.”

  “Keep in contact.” She tapped his forehead, and he nodded.

  With a final kiss to her temple, he stepped onto the balcony and transformed into a levon. She watched until he was a speck in the sky before turning back to her room. Valterys didn’t understand the pain she suffered when she tried to disobey the phantom’s commands. More than physical, the horrors that went through her mind were enough to cripple someone of lesser power.

  She could only imagine the hell Celia was living.

  Kaldaar’s agent offered her nothing and demanded complete obedience. Not unlike Zakael the night she’d spent with him and Eiric. Except she’d received plenty that night and the following morning. This agent of Kaldaar’s was selfish, and Marissa never gave without getting something in return.

  She rubbed her wrist, thinking, plotting. She could allow Celia to succeed, but then what? Was he, in fact, acting on Kaldaar’s behalf, or his own? And if Celia succeeded in bringing Kaldaar back, how would her own plans alter?

  The answers could only mean devastation to her, personally. Celia must fail. For that to happen, Taryn must succeed. With Taryn’s limited abilities with ShantiMari, there was no way she’d survive the phantom.

  Marissa smiled to herself, chuckling at the deviousness of her mind. Luring Taryn to her death would be as easy as coaxing a kitten to milk.

  Chapter 49

  OVER the course of the next several days, they searched Celia’s rooms often, finding more prophecies and references to Kaldaar but getting no closer to a resolution. Their break came on the eve of Harvest when Hayden read an obscure passage in a book on the Black Arts.

  They met again in Taryn’s rooms with several strands of ShantiMari enclosing them in a web of privacy. Hayden held the book but recited from memory a paraphrased account. Before Kaldaar’s fall, he’d settled in the Eastern Province, a short ride from modern-day Talaith. He’d built a temple to himself and gathered followers. The ceremonies held within the great standing stones were secret, with no written account intact. But a few who had witnessed the festivities recounted acts of brutality, mostly to young virgins.

  He stopped then and looked at Taryn, “Perhaps this is what is meant by ‘blood unbroken.’ They needed virgins to rape and plant their seed.”

  Taryn’s stomach roiled at his words. If Celia was working with a Master of the Black Arts, he might be using her as their vessel. But Celia wasn’t a virgin, not by half. “What if it means a bloodline? Does Celia come from an important House?”

  Hayden shook his head. “She is minor nobility, at best. She’s only tolerated at court because she is Marissa’s favorite. I’ve searched her family history and found nothing to indicate that she is strong in the power or has ties to the Black Arts.”

  “What else does the book say about Kaldaar?” Rhoane asked.

  “Only that these rituals were performed every few hundred seasons.”

  “What about the link to Sabina’s family? Have you found more about that?” Baehlon sat forward, his hands pressed on his knees, as if he was ready to spring forward at the slightest provocation.

  “None.”

  “Where did you say Kaldaar’s temple was located?” Eliahnna checked her notes, frowning.

  “The Stones of Kaldaar,” Hayden supplied. “The ruins are southeast of Talaith, about a two- possibly three-bell ride.”

  She flipped to a page near the end of her journal. “That’s on Herbret’s property. His family purchased the land forty seasons ago. Before that, they were lesser merchants living in Anklam, on the coast. No ties to the Black Arts that I could find.”

  It made no sense, and yet it had to make sense. What would Herbret’s family want with property tied to the granddaddy of the Black Arts?

  “What did Herbret’s family deal in?” Taryn picked up Kaida and scratched her under the chin. The pup was restless, but playtime would have to wait.

  Eliahnna tossed her strawberry blonde hair with a shake. “I couldn’t find any mention of what they traded.”

  “Books,” Faelara supplied. “I remember my father bought plenty of books from them before they moved here. Most of those scrolls you’ve been reading came from Herbret’s parents. They would search the world for rare scrolls for Talaith’s library.”

  That Herbret’s parents had supplied the books couldn’t be a coincidence. There was more to it, but Taryn was missing something. Something important. If Herbret’s parents were trying to hide something, they wouldn’t have brought it to the palace.

  “What if they found a scroll and kept it? What if it had information that on a certain day, if you did a certain thing, you would earn something amazing?”

  “Like if you took a virgin to the Stones of Kaldaar?” Hayden provided the context to Taryn’s simplified hypothesis.

  A heavy silence fell over the group as they came to the same conclusion.

  Sabina.

  Herbret had wanted her hand for more reas
ons than supposedly loving her.

  “Then I must be the vessel written about in the prophecy,” Sabina said, her expression sober but tears brimming in her eyes.

  Eliahnna scooted closer to the Summerlands princess, and Faelara took her hand.

  “Now that we know what they’re planning,” Taryn said softly. “We just need to know when.”

  “Harvest.” Tessa looked at Taryn. “Celia kept saying something about meeting her mystery man at Harvest. When we were at Paderau, remember?”

  The pieces were clicking into place.

  “Harvest is tomorrow. We must keep Sabina under guard until then,” Rhoane said, pacing the room, his hand hovering above his sword.

  “I have to miss the festival?” If it weren’t for Sabina’s genuine pout, Taryn would’ve thought she was kidding.

  “It is for the best. We cannot risk you leaving the palace tomorrow. If we are correct in assuming Celia and Herbret have planned this all along, then you will be safest here, with guards at your door.” Rhoane’s voice was gentle, but there was steel beneath his words.

  Great Lady, Ebus’s voice echoed in her mind.The phantom is in the palace. He is with Lady Celia. I believe they are going—

  The connection ended abruptly, and Taryn shook her head as if to regain his thoughts. She tapped her temples and hopped on one foot until she glanced up to see her friends regarding her with worried looks. Kaida growled her displeasure at being shaken.

  “Right. So, um, Celia’s boyfriend? He’s here.”

  The next few minutes were a chaotic mash of voices, ideas, and weapons being drawn.

  Finally, Taryn held up a hand to silence the others. “Thisthingcan’t be seen. I spied Celia with it once, but there was nothing tangible for me to actuallysee.” She hoped Rhoane understood her meaning without having to tell the others she could see ShantiMari. “What I propose is someone follows Celia.” At Tessa’s excited gesture, Taryn added, “Not you. I’m sorry darling, you’re too inexperienced.”

  “Actually, she’s perfect,” Eliahnna argued. “She’s little, so no one pays her much mind. She’s fast, she’s nimble, and she knows this palace better than any of us. She can get around without being noticed.”