Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles Book 1)

by Penelope, L.

  “Please.” Jasminda opened her palm, her fingers fluttering. “This is the last chance.”

  With a resigned expression, Rozyl reached into Jasminda’s pocket, pulling out the photograph and the bundled caldera. Jasminda smiled at the photo but reached for the caldera. Rozyl unwrapped the stone carefully, then placed it in Jasminda’s hand.

  This is good-bye. The last time I will see my brother.

  We have given him everything he wanted. We stand at the border of what will now become two lands, two peoples. Songbearer and Silent, separated for all time.

  Once Yllis’s barrier spell falls into place, there will be no crossing—those were the terms of the treaty. That stipulation was put in by our side. Many Songbearers have grown weary of the fighting. It is against our nature. Some feel if they never see another Silent, it will be for the best.

  Already I miss the way things were, but this was my decision and I must stand by it.

  “Will you embrace me one last time, sister?”

  The odd, smooth bracelets adorning his wrists hold the magic of Yllis’s binding spell. The blood magic that ensures Eero doesn’t use whatever stolen Song may be left inside him. He can cause no further harm before the Mantle is erected.

  His eyes shine, and I see the boy I once knew within them. One last time could not hurt.

  I step closer. My arms wrap around him. We came into this world together, and I thought we would stay that way forever.

  A sharp pain pierces my side. I pull back from him and stare at the dagger sticking out from between my ribs. I gasp up at him in horror, but Eero’s face is a mask.

  I reach for Earthsong, trying to knit the wound, but something is wrong. My Song is weakening, slipping out of my grasp like a wisp of smoke. I breathe in, and in some more, but the breath never makes it to my lungs. Eero whispers a string of foreign words, and I fall to the ground.

  Everything goes black.

  Voices call my name.

  One voice.

  Yllis.

  “Oola! Oola! Please come back to me. My love, please.”

  He is mine again after being so cold for so long.

  He begs and pleads, apologizes and bargains.

  I try to go to him but am locked in place. My breath is gone, and I am separated from my body.

  Three archways loom before me. The widest leads back to my body. Another leads to the World After.

  But the third calls to me, though narrow and ominous. I step through it, sealing my fate.

  The World Between is a smoke filled antechamber full of endless images of the living. Neither here nor there, it is vast and lonely, only grazed by the living in their dreams. Some believe all dreams take place here.

  For me, it is a nightmare.

  From here I bear witness to my body on the ground. Eero smashing the bespelled bracelets. He is full of my Song, stolen from my last breaths.

  Yllis gives a great cry. He gathers a swell of Earthsong and sings the spell to create the barrier between the lands. Eero steps away from his Silent followers, over to the band of astonished Songbearers. Yllis is too focused on his spell to notice. The barrier slams into place leaving him holding my body on one side with the throng of Silent and Eero, bursting with my Song, on the other with the rest of the Songbearers.

  This was his plan all along.

  He never wanted to be shut up along side the Silent forever. He merely wanted to have an inexhaustible supply of Songbearers to steal from.

  Eero stands at the barrier, expression smug. “Worry not, Yllis. She is not dead. She will awaken at any moment and live quite a fine life without her Song. She will know what it is like to be me.”

  Two archways still stand behind me, the one leading to the Living World pulsing brighter than the sun. Calling to me. Pleading with me. I am being given a choice.

  Eero’s look of triumph changes to a frown. “She will awaken,” he says, a tremor invading his voice.

  Yllis growls and pulls my body closer.

  Eero tries to move forward, but the barrier stops him. He beats against the invisible wall with a fist. “Oola! Oola!” he screams.

  Both archways dim and begin to fade. I must make my choice quickly.

  If I go back to the Living World, I can resume a life without my heart. The World After holds no appeal, though Mother and Father are there. How can I face them with what I have done to Eero?

  Here, in the World Between, I may watch. That will be my punishment.

  Justice finally served for my crimes.

  I will watch.

  The archways fade and disappear.

  I watch Yllis bear my body back to the city and cut a chamber into the mountains to house me. Above the chamber, the Silent construct a magnificent palace.

  Yllis chooses a loyal Silent to rule. A young man of character and honor, Abdeen Alliaseen, to lead the people in the absence of their queen.

  Yllis makes Alliaseen promise to ensure that history is kind to me and bears no recollection of my fault in the start of the war. He spends weeks, months, years locked in his laboratory, scouring the libraries of the Cantors, searching for something. Doing what he does best, studying magic.

  I watch on the day he finds what he has been seeking. He chants words in the ancient tongue of the Cavefolk, words I don’t understand. He takes the pendant bearing my father’s sigil, the one I always wore around my neck and cuts himself, spilling his blood over it. He calls for Alliaseen, who, when asked, spills his own blood on the sigil without hesitation, binding the spell. The blood congeals and the magic grows, encasing the pendant in a blood-red stone.

  Blood magic will do what Earthsong cannot.

  Blood magic may be broken only by those who bear the blood.

  Yllis journeys back to the barrier he created and crosses it, using another bit of magic.

  He gathers those unafraid of standing against a now impossibly powerful Eero. Those who want to learn to fight. Songbearers are peaceful by nature, but these men and women have been broken. They become something new. He crafts the words of a promise to me, one these new soldiers vow to keep.

  I watch as my beloved Yllis wages war on my beloved brother, and I watch when Yllis is slain. Eero is too strong, and the stolen Songs have twisted his mind and made him far more ruthless than even the broken Songbearers.

  Yllis dies with the stone in his hand.

  His final spell traps his Song in the stone.

  The Keepers of the Promise are supposed to take the stone, cross the border, and present it to the prince, whose touch will unlock the magic. But the Keepers he commanded to hold back and stay safe, rush in seeking revenge. None survive the battle.

  The stone sits where it lies. Yllis’s gift to me, his whispered spell to bring me back to my body and gift me his own Song, lies under the rubble of the fallen city as his body turns to bones.

  The archways are long gone now.

  If they were here, perhaps I would pass into the World After to be with him. To thank him for trying to save me.

  But being with Yllis is not punishment enough.

  So I watch.

  For a very long time.

  Sometimes, a dream will find me and pierce the loneliness.

  But more often, it is endless agony. Standing by watching while the centuries pass.

  And now, Jasminda, you have heard my story. Judge me for my faults if you must. But you bear the only evidence of Yllis’s love for me. His Song is in your hands.

  Release it.

  Release me.

  It is time for me to end this.

  Jack gripped the edge of the seat as the airship descended from the clouds. The battle taking place below belonged to his worst fears. Judging by the sheer extent of the fighting, the Mantle had already been destroyed. As the ship flew closer to the ground, he marveled at the strange change in the soil for a moment, and then focused on the troop advancement. His men were beating back an impressive number of Lagrimari. He found it odd that no environmental disasters ha
d been unleashed as in the Seventh Breach.

  The ship set down safely just beyond the Eastern Base.

  “That was some bloody fine piloting, Clove,” he said, clapping the woman on the back. He opened the carriage door and tore across the ground before she even had a chance to respond.

  Flying through the vicious storm had been just as difficult as he’d imagined. They’d been bandied about by the wind and rain, and nearly struck by lightning twice. But Clove was unflappable, gripping the steering wheel with bloodless hands and navigating them safely through.

  Now the only thing on his mind was finding Jasminda.

  They’d set down about one hundred metres from the fighting, but he didn’t see any refugees near the battle or beyond it. Could they have already been taken away? Were they even now beyond sight, well on their way into Lagrimar? He spun in a circle, desperately hoping he was not too late.

  A small figure emerged in the corner of his eye. Jack whipped around to find Osar standing next to the base mess hall, beckoning him forward. Jack took off at a run, vaguely aware of Vanesse and Clove scurrying after him.

  Small clusters of refugees hid behind the outer buildings of the base. He searched their faces anxiously, running over and falling to his knees when he finally found her. Jasminda’s head rested on Rozyl’s shoulder. She appeared to be sound asleep.

  So absorbed was he in his gratitude over locating her, several moments passed before he registered the blood covering her midsection. He met Rozyl’s eyes with horror. She shook her head.

  He turned to Osar who looked on solemnly. “Can’t you do something?”

  “This—” Rozyl tapped her knuckle to the hardened ground “—is like the cave. No one can sing.” Rozyl touched Jasminda’s head gently. “It will probably win your side this war.”

  Jack ignored the last bit. The war could be dealt with once Jasminda was better. “Then we have to move her.” He reached forward and hauled Jasminda into his arms. Her breathing was shallow. He took off running in a random direction, determined to find a way out of this cursed, bespelled rock.

  Jasminda’s eyes fluttered open, and his pace slowed.

  “Jack,” she said, a smile splitting her face.

  “I’m here. I’m going to get you off this blasted thing so they can heal you up, all right?”

  “Jack.” She grazed the knuckles of her closed fist against his lips. “I need you.”

  “I need you, too. You’re the only thing I need. I don’t have to be prince. I’ll give it up. You just . . . you just need to say with me.”

  “Stop.”

  “What?”

  “Stop moving.”

  “I can’t. I have to—”

  “Please.”

  Tears clouded his vision, and he fell to his knees with her in his arms.

  She turned her closed fist palm up and unfurled her fingers to show him the caldera. “I need you to help me bring Her back.”

  Jack searched her face, his eyes full of questions.

  “Your hand.” She was so weak. If this was what she wanted, he would do it. He pressed a kiss to her lips, then closed his hand over the caldera.

  Searing pain shot through his entire body, as if being pulled apart one cell at a time. He might have screamed out loud, he wasn’t sure, but the burning agony was like nothing he’d ever felt. His blood was on fire, it burned bright and hot. Then it was gone.

  Breath returned to his lungs. He was once again kneeling on the glossy surface of the unnatural ground, holding his love in his arms as she slipped further and further away.

  A brittle cracking pulled his attention upward. The perfect, smooth surface of the Queen’s encasement, hovered here, out in the open, nearly a thousand kilometres from the palace. The shell was cracked open like an egg.

  Below it, a figure floated, wrapped in ivory fabric. Her skin shone gloriously, her dark, curling hair swirled around her head, blown by a nonexistent breeze. She moved like liquid, spinning and stretching. She righted herself and hovered before Jack, her dark eyes piercing him with intensity.

  He swallowed and lowered his head in deference.

  The Queen had awoken.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Jasminda was drowning in Earthsong. Normally, her Song was the placid surface of a well. Now, instead of being calm and still, the well was a raging river, with white-capped waves shuttling over its banks. The swell pulled her under with its sheer force, leaving her sputtering, coughing, gasping for breath.

  A warm solid hand rubbed her back in gentle circles. She focused on the feeling, the comfort, and leaned into a familiar embrace. Hands stroked her head, her face. Lips brushed her forehead. She wanted those lips someplace else so she rose to meet them.

  Jack.

  His kiss was like air to her. She breathed him in and held him there inside her, never wanting to exhale. His arms tightened around her, and he pulled his lips away. She whimpered, wanting to keep kissing him. On his chuckle, she opened her eyes.

  His smile undid her. She stared at him, drinking in the beauty of his features.

  “You died again,” he whispered.

  “I did?”

  His expression shuddered, and he glanced down at her clothes. She followed his gaze down to her dress, covered with blood.

  “You have to stop doing that. I don’t think my nerves can take it.” He pressed her back to him wrapping his arms around her as she became aware of her surroundings.

  Shell-shocked refugees emerged from their hiding places, staring in awe at a point behind her. She pulled away from Jack, craned her neck around, and nearly fell backward.

  Floating above them was Queen Oola, ethereal and beautiful, fierce and overpowering. Jasminda gaped at the Queen’s familiar face. Looking at the woman was like looking into a mirror.

  Something hard jabbed Jasminda’s closed fist. She uncurled her fingers to reveal the bronze pendant bearing the Queen’s sigil attached to a thin metal chain. The caldera surrounding the pendant was gone, burned away by the awakening spell.

  A hush of quiet descended. No bullets hissed, no canons roared. Though she could not pull her attention away from the Queen to the battlefield, the fighting must have stopped upon Her arrival.

  The refugees begin to kneel. Jasminda climbed off Jack and kneeled, as well, bowing her head.

  “Jaqros Alliaseen. Jasminda ul-Sarifor.” The Queen’s voice rang out, rich and thick as raw honey. “Rise.”

  Jasminda darted a glance at Jack, and both of them stood on wobbly legs. Power surged along her skin as she and Jack were lifted into the air and drifted over the heads of the awe-struck crowd. The spell released her less than a metre away from the Queen, her legs even wobblier than before.

  Queen Oola floated down until She was almost at eye level. The pendant in Jasminda’s hand seemed to transfix Her. Jasminda held it out in offering. The chain lifted into the air and settled around Her neck, where it belonged.

  “I owe you a gratitude for awakening me. In return, you must bow before no one.”

  Though she had not initiated it, Jasminda’s connection to Earthsong flared to life. The slow trickle of her weak power enlarged, and she was engorged with a rush of Earthsong. She struggled to catch her breath as the sensation shot through her. It was like being in the link all over again: everything around her sharpened into focus. She gasped as pure energy pulsed inside her.

  Jack caught hold of her hand to steady her. She gripped him hard.

  “Your Majesty,” she said, inclining her head. “Why me?”

  Queen Oola drew closer, Her dark gaze peering deep inside Jasminda as if seeing her very soul.

  The power surging within her made it hard to concentrate, but Jasminda stared at the pendant resting against Queen Oola’s chest to bring her thoughts into focus. “Why was I the only one affected by the caldera? Why could no one else see the visions?”

  Queen Oola’s expression did not change, but Her eyes lightened and a breeze lifted Her hair. Blood magic may be
broken only by those who bear the blood.

  “Whose blood? Mine? I’m sorry, but I don’t under—”

  “Prince Jaqros,” the Queen interrupted, rising.

  Jasminda wanted to push for answers, but Queen Oola had effectively ended her inquiry. She looked around. Every eye in every direction was glued to the Queen.

  “You are the rightful ruler of this land,” Oola said, turning to Jack.

  He deepened his bow. “I rule only in your stead, Your Majesty.”

  “You are loyal and true, as is your beloved.” She swept Her gaze to Jasminda, who still vibrated with her new, incredibly powerful Song and a head full of questions. “I will abdicate my throne to you.”

  Gasps sounded. Jasminda’s own heartbeat pulsed rapidly. She held on to Jack even tighter.

  “My gift to Jasminda is the strength of Song she will need to be queen. Use it well. My wish is for you to unite the people as they once were. And rule. Well.”

  She surged over the heads of the troops, toward the place where the two lands met. “This border is no more,” Her voice carried, strong and clear. “Singer and Silent will live as one. Be it so.”

  “Be it so,” said Jasminda under her breath. She could barely think for the questions swirling around in her head. Could it really be true? She and Jack together as king and queen?

  Oola rose higher into the air, surveying the land and the people. A disturbance among the Lagrimari caught Her attention, and She hovered staring at the sea of soldiers. Jasminda craned to see what caused the lines of Lagrimari to part. From this distance, all she could make out was the movement of a bright, reflective object, glinting in the sun. She pulled Jack forward, passing through the sea of stunned Elsirans to get a closer look. Every sense was on alert.

  They reached the front of the crowd, and Jasminda jerked to a stop, causing Jack to plow into her back.

  “What is it?”

  She could only stare as dread cooled her skin.

  Sunlight glittered off the jewel-encrusted mask covering the face of a man walking across the battlefield. No holes for eyes, nose, or mouth were visible—just a covering of multicolored precious stones obscuring his entire head. A heavy tunic lined with even more jewels flowed nearly to his ankles. He walked across the caldera-covered ground as if laying claim to the land. As if he had already conquered everything he surveyed.