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

  Rhoane arrived to escort her to dinner, a happy surprise to be sure, and relief washed over her. She didn’t have to endure the ordeal alone. They arrived at Lliandra’s door much sooner than Taryn expected, and her stomach dipped as a guard opened it for them. They waited in an entrance hall with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a huge chandelier. Everywhere she looked, reflections of her reflection repeated in an infinite array of mirrors.

  “Creepy,” Taryn murmured, trying to find a single place to stand where she wouldn’t have to stare at herself.

  “I find the floor immensely fascinating,” Rhoane intoned, eyes lowered.

  A footman escorted them to Lliandra’s sitting room where entire walls of crystal allowed views of the beach and ocean beyond. Striations of color, from pale jade to turquoise and finally deep denim, marked the various depths of the sea.

  Rhoane leaned over to whisper, “Welcome home,Darennsai.”

  “You said that in the cavern, too, you know.”

  “That was to welcome you back to Aelinae. Now you are truly home.” His eyes shone with intensity as he watched her.

  She started to ask him what he meant when the empress swept into the room, radiant in a frothy gown of pale blue. Lliandra greeted Rhoane in Eleri and then in Elennish said, “Prince Rhoane, I’m so pleased to see you returned to Talaith. It has been much too long since you’ve graced our court with your charm and wit.”

  Rhoane bowed low. “It is I who has missed your company, Great Empress. It is my sincerest hope that my travels will abate for a long period and I can continue to enjoy your generosity at the Crystal Palace.” An underlying tension marred their words, which did nothing to dispel Taryn’s anxiety.

  Threads of ShantiMari crisscrossed Lliandra’s face, giving the observer an impression of a youthful complexion. Taryn tried not to stare at the empress, but the face beneath the veneer held the look of someone either very old or very sick. Dark circles stood out against her pallid, almost jaundiced skin. Taryn checked herself in time to smile when the empress took her hands, kissing her cheeks. At Lliandra’s touch, her pendant hummed in her mind. The woman’s Mari slid over her skin, cold with a touch of tension.

  “Welcome, Taryn. I’ve heard many wonderful things about you. I hope you don’t mind I put off our formal introduction until now.” To Rhoane she said, “She is as lovely as they say.”

  “Yes, she is.” A look of something close to pride danced in the depths of his eyes, unsettling her even further.

  Taryn curtseyed to the empress. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I’m honored to make your acquaintance.”

  The empress studied her face before turning to Rhoane. “My darling prince, give us some time alone. I’d like a chance to get to know Taryn better.”

  A shot of panic ran through her. She had no desire to be alone with the empress. Rhoane paused a moment to touch Taryn’s cheek, and in that small gesture was all the strength she needed.

  Lliandra bade Taryn to sit while a servant brought them a dark red wine in crystal glasses.

  “Have you ever heard of the Eiriellean Prophecy?” Lliandra asked casually.

  “No, ma’am.” Her pendant fluttered at her neck, distracting her thoughts.

  Lliandra took a long drink before she began. “Several hundred seasons after the Great War, an oracle from the West foretold a schism in the world. A child would be born of this world, but not from this world. One who would usher in a new era for Aelinae, restoring the balance that Kaldaar had upset. For eons, the oracle’s words were laughed at and discarded, but then events began to happen on Aelinae that made scholars believe the oracle might have seen something after all.

  “The Master mages scoured the countryside looking for the child. Then, in the seventy-fifth season of the Sylthan Age, another oracle had a vision. It was different from the first. She spoke of an Eirielle who would destroy all that lingered of the old regime, bringing forth a terrible and frightening future for Aelinae.”

  Lliandra’s voice was distant, as if she were back in time with the sages of old. “Once more, mages searched every kingdom looking for the child, this time so they could destroy the one of prophecy. After a thousand seasons of searching, the mages once again discounted the oracle’s vision and gave up.”

  The empress paused in her recounting and stared into her empty wineglass. Taryn waited patiently for her to continue but Lliandra sat silent with her thoughts.

  “Your Majesty?” Taryn hoped to prompt the rest of the story.

  A servant announced dinner, and Lliandra beckoned Taryn to follow.

  A massive table, large enough to sit twenty people comfortably, was set with two places at one end. Fragile plates and glasses made of rose-colored crystal rested on a tablecloth of gold filigree. Knives and forks, trimmed in gold and embedded with pearlized shells, fanned out from the plates. One servant filled their goblets with more of the rich wine while another brought out several dishes of various sea creatures. Purplish lobster-looking things rested atop toast; legs, from what Taryn hoped were crabs, oozing butter were placed before her. Doughy rounds stuffed with white fish and smothered in cream sauce came next. Despite its unusual appearance, the food smelled delicious.

  Lliandra turned to Taryn. “I hear I must thank you for saving the life of my nephew.”

  “Hayden? That was nothing.”

  “So you are as humble as I’ve heard. What you did was not ‘nothing.’ That took bravery.”

  “Or stupidity.” She smiled at the empress. “I think I lack the former and have too much of the latter.”

  “Nonsense.”The sword would not have chosen you if that were true. Do you have it—the sword?

  The last she spoke in Taryn’s mind, startling her. Rhoane had told her no one could enter her mind unless invited.

  I don’t need to know where it is, only that you have it.

  “Yes,” Taryn said, gently nudging the empress from her thoughts.

  “No one else must know of it, and I’m afraid the walls have ears.”

  Lliandra’s midnight blue threads of ShantiMari interlaced throughout the room. Other colors lingered from past empresses; their threads frayed but still powerful.

  “I wanted to thank you for the lovely apartment. I don’t know how to repay your kindness.” Taryn said, changing the subject.

  Lliandra took dainty bites of her food before replying. “You have quite captured my daughters’ hearts and imaginations. According to them, there is nothing you cannot do.”

  “They’re sweet but mistaken.” She quickly added, “I like them very much. They have been very gracious to me.”

  “That is nice to hear, thank you,” Lliandra said sincerely. “And how do you fare with my eldest daughter?”

  Taryn took a bite to stall her answer. “I haven’t had the opportunity to get to know Princess Marissa as well as your younger daughters, but I hope my stay here will reverse that.”

  Lliandra laughed, a throaty sound that belied her delicate frame. “Well said. You might make a politician yet. I was led to believe you speak from your heart, but it seems you also have a brain that works equally as well.”

  “Your Majesty?”

  “There is so much you cannot possibly understand, and I am sorry for that, but as Marissa is my heir, it would serve you well to stay in her good graces. The next few weeks will be trying for you, to be sure.”

  Lliandra started a new story, one that involved the Overlord of the West. “The first man I ever fell in love with lived on the other side of the world. I saw him often at court, but he was nearly a man, and I was but a child. That didn’t stop him from charming and beguiling me so completely that I dreamed of one day marrying him so we could rule our kingdoms together.”

  “Did he return this love?”

  “He did. Valterys and I shared a bond not many lovers have.” Lliandra’s eyes glossed with unshed tears. A longing fluttered beneath her words. “I was inconsolable after the death of Marissa’s father—he was beheaded for trying to
poison me. Some say he wanted to seize the crown for his daughter, but she was neigh on five seasons. Still, I forced her to watch her father’s death as a reminder never to cross me.”

  Taryn swallowed a sip of wine with difficulty.

  “Don’t think too unkindly of me, please. To be a great ruler, you must be willing to make sacrifices. Marissa understood that and is now my worthiest ally.”

  Taryn nodded her agreement, surreptitiously checking the room for exits.

  Lliandra continued without pause, “Valterys came to me out of friendship. By then, Zakael’s mother was long dead and because I had never truly stopped caring for him, we became lovers.” Taryn couldn’t imagine the angry man she saw at Ravenwood with the fragile empress. “Despite my continued pleas, Valterys refused to marry me and co-rule our kingdoms. For ten seasons, we were together. Most of that time I opened my bed to only Valterys, but my appetites are many and I admit, I had others that satisfied my needs.”

  Taryn squirmed in her seat, mentally counting the egg-and-dart pattern around the ceiling to keep from hearing all of the empress’s lurid details. When a servant brought dessert and Lliandra persisted in her tale, Taryn blushed furiously and kept her head lowered, her focus on her plate. The frothy concoction might’ve been delicious, but it settled on her tongue like sand.

  “I loved Valterys with every fiber of my being. I would’ve given him my throne if he’d but asked.” Lliandra finished at last.

  Taryn nodded, seriously doubting Lliandra wouldgiveher throne to anyone, including her daughters.

  With dinner concluded, they moved to the sitting room, where another servant brought them sweet wine in tiny glasses accompanied by a shot of something that smelled like sewage and tasted even worse. Lliandra held her glass aloft, giving a silent toast before tossing it back. Taryn had no choice but to follow suit. The disgusting sludge burned down her throat to her already unsettled belly.

  After knocking back another shot, Lliandra picked up the thread of her story from dinner. “For most of our time together, Valterys was loving and kind. He doted on me and Marissa. Zakael would visit from time to time, but he mostly kept to Caer Idris.” Lliandra signaled for another shot of the soupy liquid. “This is my favorite blend of trisp. Have you had this before?”

  “No, Your Majesty,” Taryn said, stifling a shudder and declining the servant’s offer of another. The smell alone was enough to make her gag.

  “It wasn’t until I got with child that Valterys’s personality changed. I had no idea what the man planned for our unborn baby.”

  Lliandra stood so suddenly that Taryn jumped. She went to the window, rubbing her arms as if cold. A minute passed in silence as Taryn waited for Lliandra to continue, all the while debating if protocol allowed her to comfort the empress. The woman looked frail and alone as she stared at the unchanging scenery. She might be hanged for it, but Taryn couldn’t just watch her shiver. Compassion won out, and she wrapped a blanket around Lliandra’s shoulders.

  “You are kind.” Lliandra’s breath emptied in a sigh. “That just might be enough.” She pulled the blanket tight over her shoulders.

  “Might be enough for what?”

  Lliandra ignored her question. “Valterys used me to give him a son who would hold both the power of Light and Dark. He’d discovered an ancient translation of the Eiriellean Prophecy and was certain our child would bethe one.”

  Taryn brought Lliandra another glass of trisp, mentally making the connection between the two stories.

  “Drink this, Your Majesty. I see this is difficult for you. Please, don’t continue on my behalf.”

  “It’s all on your behalf, little one.” Lliandra took a sip before continuing her story. “On a night ravaged by heavy rains, I delivered a stillborn son. My heart ached for the death of the little prince, but a part of me rejoiced that Valterys would never be able to take him from me and corrupt him with his vile Dark teachings.” She turned misty eyes on Taryn. “You’ve met his son Zakael, you’ve witnessed the cruelty he’s capable of, but trust me when I say I know all too well how he can beguile you with an endearing smile while simultaneously ripping out your heart with his bare hands.”

  Taryn shuddered at the empress’s words. That was exactly what Zakael had done to Rhoane in her nightmare.

  “While we were mourning the death of the prince, the midwife cried out that there was another child. It was bittersweet I gave birth to a baby girl that night. A girl that showed all the signs of having both Shanti and Mari. An anomaly. The child of prophecy born from Light and Dark.”

  “What did you do? Did Valterys find out and take her?”

  Lliandra’s voice dropped to barely a whisper. “Valterys never found her. I sent her away with a trusted advisor before anyone knew there had been a second child. The midwives were compelled to forget about the girl.”

  “What happened to her?” Taryn’s pendant vibrated with alarming force. She could taste the wine she drank in the back of her throat. Details and memories were coalescing in a most disturbing way.

  “She and her guardian escaped, but somehow Valterys found out about the second child and has been looking for her ever since.”

  Taryn recalled Zakael in the cavern, demanding Brandt return something to his father. Her stomach roiled.

  “Taryn, that baby girl was you.” Lliandra watched her face, studied her reaction.

  Her pendant burst into song as if finally released from its tethers.

  Taryn’s knees buckled, and she swayed dangerously close to the wall of glass. With surprising strength, the empress caught her and settled her in a chair.

  “It can’t be. I’m not that girl. I’m nothing—a nobody.” The jubilant song drowned out all sound. She grabbed her head, demanding quiet in her mind. Her thoughts scattered and then swirled around the muted tunes. The glass of sweet wine shook when she brought it to her lips. “It isn’t possible.”

  “It is, Taryn. Nadra and I sent you to live far away where Valterys could not find you. I never knew where you went, but I watched as you grew into a lovely young woman.”

  “Why? How?”

  Lliandra pulled a looking glass from her pocket. “With Nadra’s help, I was able to see you from time to time.” Tears spilled from her eyes. “I missed so much of your life, Taryn. Now that you’ve returned, we can be together.”

  “Brandt,” Taryn said with an ache that burned clear to her soul, “is he my grandfather?”

  “In blood, no. But his love for you is real. Never, ever think for one moment that he isn’t what you know him to be in your heart.”

  Brandt was not her grandfather. Lliandra and Valterys were her parents.

  She went numb. Memories of her childhood with Brandt raced through her mind alongside images she didn’t yet understand, as if her past and future blurred into one and then winked out. The flimsy fabric of her dress suffocated her. Through a fog of confusion and tears, Lliandra spoke to her, but the words drifted away unheard. Without asking permission, she paced around the room until her heart quieted, and the rest of the story unfolded before her.

  “If Brandt took me away to protect me from my father, why did he bring me back? Why now?”

  “You are an adult, Taryn. Your power is fully realized.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me at Paderau? Why make me wait?”

  Lliandra avoided looking at Taryn, her hands clasping and unclasping several times before she replied. “You needed time to understand this world. I also wanted you to have a chance to meet your family without the obligations of a title.” Lliandra’s features softened, “You were raised far from home. I thought it best you eased into your new life.”

  Suddenly the realization hit her. “Oh my God, I have sisters!” And then, “I have a brother. Holy fuck, I have a twin. Had.” She dropped into a chair. “This is a lot to take in. I went from an orphan to having an entire family in two minutes.”

  Lliandra knelt before her and pulled Taryn into her arms. Odd details crystal
lized in her mind. Lliandra smelled of lilacs and roses. And even though Lliandra was slight, her frame was strong as she held Taryn. The ShantiMari she saw crisscrossing Lliandra’s face faltered for a moment and then snapped back in place.

  “My daughter, you always had a family, and now you are finally home.”

  “That’s what Rhoane said. Does he know?”

  “Of course. So does Myrddin, Faelara, Baehlon, and Anje. They were sworn to secrecy, even from telling you.”

  “What about Hayden and the princesses?”

  “No one else but those few know who you truly are. They are my most trusted friends and have known about you since your birth.”

  “I don’t know what to say, or do. This is a total shock.”

  “Tomorrow, I will present you to the court. My seamstress, Margaret Tan, tells me your gown is ready.”

  Just the thought of a formal presentation to the court, where Taryn would be acknowledged by Lliandra as her daughter, overwhelmed her. Paralyzed her.

  “We’ll keep the ceremony simple. There’s no need to elaborate as to where you’ve been for thirty-five seasons. We’ll focus on your return.” Lliandra rambled aloud about the details of the ceremony, but Taryn barely heard.

  She had a family.

  “I’ve asked your father to be here, as well.”

  Valterys.

  Taryn’s insides quailed with a deep trembling.

  The more Lliandra spoke, the farther away her freedom slipped. Leaving Talaith was no longer an option. The betrayal stung. Brandt should have told her. Or one of the others. Royal command or no, they could’ve given a hint or two to prepare her for this.

  “What if I don’t want to be a princess? Can I say no to this anomaly thing?”

  “You are who you are, Taryn. You cannot deny that.”

  Taryn massaged her temples, wincing against the throb in her head. “I don’t know who this person is that you think I am. What if I’m not her?” She looked up at Lliandra.