by S. D. Grimm
“You coming?” Ethan touched her shoulder.
She tore her eyes from Logan and followed Serena out the back door of the tree. Once outside, Dash approached them, his nostrils flared.
Serena stroked his nose. “Keep watch. Tell me if anyone comes.”
Then she motioned for Jayden and Ethan to follow her. “There’s a passageway in the library, but Miranda is in there. I know another way in, but we’ll have to be quiet.”
She led them through the silver-leafed trees to the trunk of a white tree and pulled out her dagger. The blade glistened in the sunlight as she held it over her palm.
Ethan grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
“It only opens with blood.” She sliced her palm and pressed the wound against the left side of the trunk. The blood absorbed into the wood. A door appeared like etchings of light within the bark, and Serena pushed. It opened to darkness. Serena motioned for them to go in ahead of her. “The door opens both ways. Only the left will take you down. Below the library.” She closed the door behind them.
Darkness enveloped them. Jayden reached out and touched Ethan’s arm. He surprised her by grabbing her hand.
A soft sparkling glow, like a shimmering opal, lit the path in front of them. The source of the light came from the palm of Serena’s hand.
Jayden gasped. “How are you doing that?”
“Dash taught me. He seems to think I can do whatever he can.” She led them down.
Made sense, from what Melanie thought about the talents being linked to animals. Jayden shuddered as she recalled the kelpie. How had she thought that would be her horse?
The steps were hard beneath Jayden’s shoes. Stone. The air grew colder and damp as they descended. At last they reached the bottom. Serena’s shimmering light illuminated a small room. Tree roots spread out above them like a ceiling and draped the walls like the canopy of a willow tree. Wooden cases of all shapes and sizes lined the walls. Leather trimmed their hinges and corners, but none of them seemed to have locks.
Jayden looked up. “Won’t it collapse?”
“The white alor is a protective plant. It grows into a tree, if old enough, and protects whatever lies beneath it. The stone of Ishkar is here. It will tell us where the Whisperer is.”
“Tell me you know where the stone is.” Ethan scanned the walls.
Serena stood in the center of the room and turned in a circle. “I am not sure which one holds the stone. I’ve never seen it.”
Ethan touched one of the trunks and snapped his hand back with a hiss.
“Are you okay?” Serena asked.
“Yeah. It seems these are being protected.”
“Maybe I can open it.” She reached forward. A lock appeared as she touched the trunk. But it wouldn’t open.
“It didn’t burn you?” Ethan asked.
“It did, but I heal. Pain is something we’re taught to handle. I can’t open it, though. I imagine the Circle has the key. Getting that from them will be impossible.”
The Circle. Why did they have the power to keep the stone from those who should have it? Jayden crossed her arms. “They know what the stone does and that the Deliverers need their Whisperer to find the Mistress’s prison. They should gladly hand it to us.”
“They should.” Serena nodded. “But you don’t need her to find the Mistress’s prison. The Mistress is locked tightly beneath the ruins of Castlerock.”
Jayden had heard of Castlerock, of course. The castle was said to be built under the rule of the Feravolk kings and queens from the first age. The ruins were supposedly in the Forest of Woe.
“Where’s that?” Ethan asked.
Serena’s eyes widened. “Someone is coming down here. We can’t be caught.”
Ethan drew his sword.
Jayden reached out with her talent. She couldn’t see who was coming, but with the way the emotions had been building lately, she didn’t always need to make eye contact anymore. Something flooded into her. Hot. Violent. “The person who is coming is very angry.”
Serena’s eyes widened. “Do they know we’re here?”
Ethan shook his head. “I don’t feel a threat for you. So whoever they’re angry with, it’s not us.”
“Not yet.” Serena tugged Jayden’s sleeve. “They’ll have my head for bringing you two down here. Hurry. The back way. It’ll take us to the library.” Serena led them toward the other stairs.
“Go.” Ethan motioned for them to leave while he stood watch at the door.
Serena stopped. “Ethan.”
Jayden gently pushed her to keep going. “He won’t come until he knows we’re safe.”
Serena picked up her skirts and headed up the stairs. Jayden followed. They came out through a relief in the wall of the library’s south side.
Serena smoothed her white dress. “Follow me.” She froze. “Where’s Ethan?”
“I’m here,” he whispered, coming out of the tunnel.
“Did whoever it was see you?”
“No.”
“I thought I heard something.” Miranda approached them. “Serena?”
“We wanted to know if you’ve found anything.” Ethan motioned over his shoulder at Serena. “She’s awake.”
“I can see that.” Miranda crossed her arms. “Go back to the tree, Serena. The Circle can’t know yet. Ethan and Jayden, come with me. I think I’ve found something.”
Chapter 44
Tie that Binds
Ethan followed Miranda and Jayden through the labyrinth of
shelves. The scent of books and parchment hung heavy in the air. Stacks of books covered every available space in the high-ceilinged room. Lit candles revealed where Miranda had been. She led them past worn and tattered tomes and scrolls and parchments that must have been more than one hundred years old.
Then she stopped near a pile of books on the floor near a few lit candles. Miranda sat down and hefted a huge book onto her lap. She dragged her finger down the page. “Every work that has anything to do with the bond is missing.” She sighed. “Curious.” She motioned for them to approach her. “When I looked up bonds in the Old Custom, this was what I found.”
Ethan and Jayden peered over her shoulders.
Bond: Something that brings two or more beings together in a form of mental, spiritual, and emotional unison. Feravolk often bond to animals this way. To accept a bond, one needs only to accept the offering of the bond. Often the beings are drawn together by the longing of the bond.
To break a bond is much more difficult; you must denounce who you were at the time of acceptance. Passing a bond is much easier and less painful. A bond can only be passed if the beings share the same bond structure.
A bond can remain even in death, some claim.
“It doesn’t say that people cannot bond with other people.” Miranda smoothed her unkempt hair. That and the dark circles beneath her eyes made Ethan believe she’d been here all night.
“What does ‘bond structure’ mean?” Jayden asked.
“It’s the type of animal your group of talents allows you to bond to. Though it seems Feravolk may be able to bond to more than animals. I wondered if it was something similar to a three-oath bond.” Miranda tapped her lip as she scanned the open books on the ground.
“What’s a three-oath bond?” Jayden asked.
The question seemed to pull Miranda out of her thoughts. She glanced up with a faraway look in her eyes that focused slowly on Jayden’s face. “When you make a blood oath with the same individual three times within a certain amount of time, some type of bond takes place.”
“A kin bond,” Ethan said. His father had spoken of a kin bond before. Something he’d had with his uncle.
“Serena called me a sister-kin.”
Miranda’s eyes opened wide, then she practically dove toward the books. “That is helpful.” She flipped pages in three different books before she paused. “A kin or brother- or sister-kin is someone with whom you share such a special, familial bon
d that you can experience things through your bonded kin’s senses as your own. Tabitha and Lydia call themselves sister-kin. It’s because they made a three-oath bond. This could make sense. The Creator could have connected the Deliverers this way.” She covered her mouth and stared at the pages, but Ethan guessed she was thinking more than reading. Finally she looked at Jayden. “And you feel this bond?”
“I do. I feel connected to Serena. I feel like we are supposed to be together, like we are sisters.”
“And you?” Miranda turned to Ethan. “Do Protectors feel bonded to the Deliverers?”
“I do. That’s how we found her.”
“And you would protect Serena?”
“I would die for her.”
Jayden shot him a wide-eyed look and her mouth opened. How could she be surprised? How many times had he told her he’d die for her?
“Curious.” Miranda’s voice broke their eye contact.
Now she was just insulting him. “Why?”
“No one protects Healers. We have been human shields for people for centuries. If I stab you in the heart, you’ll die. If you stab me in the heart, I’ll heal.”
“But you can be killed.”
Miranda paused, her narrowed eyes searching his face. “Yes. The only way to kill a Healer is to cut out her heart or chop off her head.”
“I’ll protect Serena. You have my word.”
“That’s what the two of you must tell the Circle. Beware, they might somehow be able to thwart your feelings of this bond and pass it off as something else. Ethan, you were Serena’s first heal. That will count for something. Healers usually heal someone they care deeply about first. But you were a stranger to her. She must have felt a strong enough connection to you.”
“Like a bond?” Ethan asked.
“Don’t be certain it will be enough for them to let their most powerful Healer leave. If she shares our whereabouts with others, it could lead to another Imprisonment, or worse.” Miranda’s head turned toward the door. “Someone is coming. Quickly, go out the back.”
They left Miranda and found the back door. Ethan grabbed Jayden’s arm and put his finger up to his lips. Standing there, he opened the door, then let it shut. If Miranda didn’t know they were still there, she wouldn’t be able to give them away. Jayden stared at him with her eyes wide before a smile slowly formed on her face.
Then she plucked a book off the shelf and handed it to him. “So you can tell anyone who sees you that you were reading,” she whispered. Her impish smile was enough to make him want to tug her closer and kiss her.
He backed away and took the book. Opened to the middle and read a line: Gryphons are impervious to venom. Then he placed it back on the shelf just as the door opened.
More than one set of footfalls hit the smooth floor. Ethan tilted his head to try to distinguish from where. Stupid ear. Torn between the desire to get closer and the possible danger he’d be placing Jayden in, he stayed put but strained to hear.
“Miranda. Miranda!”
“Rochelle, calm down. What’s wrong?”
“Belladonna is here. And she’s stolen the Sword of Black Malice.”
Sword of Black Malice? What in Soleden was that?
A slow burn spread across Ethan’s chest and collected in the middle like a coal on top of his heart. The heat intensified. Ethan gripped his sword hilt.
Now who did his talent urge him to protect? Not Jayden. The flare over his heart didn’t quite feel the same, but it was just as strong. Ached just as much. Like his need to protect Ryan or . . .
Serena. Someone wanted Serena.
“Did you see which way Belladonna went?” Miranda asked.
“She’s headed toward the crystal lake, and she wants Serena.” Rochelle’s voice betrayed her fear.
“Go. Warn the Circle.”
Ethan faced Jayden. “Run to Serena. Warn her. Stay with her. I’m going after this Belladonna.”
“Ethan.”
“Please.”
Jayden nodded, then she ran.
The urge to protect pulled his heart. No need to ask where the crystal lake was. The threat was getting closer. Ethan raced out of the library. Woods surrounded him. Someone screamed. A surge of heat shot through his chest. He ripped off the white shirt so the whole forest wouldn’t see him coming. People who wore shirts like this clearly didn’t have to hunt for food.
He stepped farther into the woods, careful where he placed his boots. Too many of those oddly colored silver leaves littered the ground. Crunched beneath his weight.
Voices.
He tipped his head. Turned it slightly, trying to get the best angle to hear. It seemed like the low voices were north. He scanned the gaps between the mossy bark. Found movement. Yes. People congregated there. Maybe four?
His talent urged him closer.
Closer.
The voices grew louder.
The tree he hid behind obstructed his view. He moved left. Carefully. Thick tree bark pressed into his back as he peered around the other side of the tree. There. He could see all of them.
One woman against three. At least that was how it looked. Three women in white—likely Healers—stood with their backs to him. It was the woman in black he had to worry about. When he looked at her, the threat pulsed. That was new. And helpful.
She wore skin-tight clothes—no dress—with leather overlays. Like an assassin. Kara and Thea wore clothes like that.
She faced the three Healers with a huge, two-handed, strange-looking sword. It was black. Thick. Spiraled like a . . . like a unicorn horn. Must be Belladonna. And that had to be the Sword of Black Malice.
“Belladonna, you won’t get away with this.”
He’d heard that voice before. It belonged to that white-haired lady who wouldn’t heal Logan. Tabitha. Perhaps the dark-haired woman with her was Lydia. Ethan’s jaw tensed. What was going on here? And what exactly would this Belladonna not get away with?
Belladonna tilted her head and a smile snaked across her lips. “I already have, Tabitha. Now tell me where Serena is.”
Ethan’s heart pounded.
“Never. Give me the sword and we might spare your life.”
“My life? You would kill me? After everything we’ve been through together, Tabitha? After you practically raised me?”
Spare her life? Didn’t Healers take a vow to do no harm? He ran his fingers over the scar on his oath hand. If he broke an oath, it would slowly harm him, perhaps make him sick or go crazy. But if a Healer broke an oath, it killed them. Maybe the history of Healers he’d heard was more myth than truth.
“Your being here is a death sentence. Any Healer who sees you will try to kill you.”
“Even with this?” Belladonna held up the weapon.
Whatever was going on, it smelled like a fish left in the sun.
“You won’t take all of us, even with the Sword of Black Malice.”
A wicked grin spread her dark-red lips. “Give me Serena and I’ll spare the rest of you.”
That was it. Ethan clutched his weapon in both hands and stepped from around the tree. “The lady told you to hand over the weapon.”
All four women looked at him. Tabitha’s eyes widened most. “You should not be here, boy. We can take care of ourselves.”
Boy? This woman really knew how to burn his straw.
Belladonna’s eyes scanned Ethan’s body and a smile curved her lips. “Since when have you taken in a man and healed him? The only one I can think brave and stupid enough to bring a man here is Serena. She must be close. I could hurt him. She’d sense it enough to come running, wouldn’t she?” Her eyes locked onto Ethan. Bored deep as if trying to extract an answer to her unspoken question.
The flame in his chest flickered.
She’d get nothing from him.
“You wanted my weapon? Come get it. But you should know, I’m not alone.”
Five men in chain mail stepped out from behind trees, swords ready. Ethan’s stomach twisted. Great.
How many more was she hiding back there?
All three of the Healers drew their weapons. Two held long daggers, but the young brown-haired Healer had a short sword. This was going to get ugly.
Ethan gripped his hilt tighter and raced forward.
One of the huge beasts in chain mail raced out to meet him. Steel clashed against steel and the familiar jolt ratcheted up Ethan’s arms. Invigorated him. He swung again. The sword met his. Clashed. Screeched. His talents rushed into him. Strength fueled him. Speed electrified him. The man’s side was open. Ethan’s blade hacked into the man’s ribs. Through chain mail, through leather, though flesh, and into bone.
Ethan ripped his sword free as his opponent fell, and stabbed him through the heart.
Then he turned and surveyed the scene. The young Healer was farthest from him, her sword chopping at the man fighting her. He sliced into her arm, but the cut sealed itself shut. Right. Healers. Useful talent in a fight.
Lydia held her own. Tabitha backed away from Belladonna, daggers raised. Ethan raced to help the aging Healer.
“Run, boy. This is not your fight.”
The young woman behind him pushed him out of the way. Sword in hand, she ran to her mother.
Two more soldiers raced through the woods the way Ethan had come. Blood already smeared their swords. What had they been doing?
Belladonna chuckled. Ethan pulled out his belt knife and threw it at Belladonna. The blade sank deep into her side. Should have punctured her lung.
“Nice shot, boy.” Belladonna pulled out his knife and her wound sealed. She was a Healer, too? Great.
Ethan braced for her onslaught, but Lydia and Tabitha advanced toward her together. Good, let them take her on. He raced to the young Healer instead.
The soldier she fought pushed her, and she slammed into a tree. Fell. The man pulled back his sword to stab her heart. Ethan skidded between the Healer and her attacker. His sword clashed with the enemy’s weapon. Both men drew back and faced off.