Second Stone (5 page)

CHAPTER SIX

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Everything in Emariya screamed for her to go to him, to put her arms around him, to offer what comfort she could. Everything about him demanded she keep back, cautioning her to give him space. His shoulders shook with anger, with hurt, and with fear. His eyes drew dark and hooded shadows, closing out the brilliant silver she’d come to love.

Her own hands trembling, she read the letter out loud.

Torian,

Terin is gone. So is Khane. A child of one of the commoners saw her taken. She was carried off on a horse. At least she was alive.

I had a vision right after she didn’t show up for our morning meal. She was standing by a field of flowers. A stone manor house in the background. She was bound, but her eyes burned with fury. It was a wedding ceremony for her and a man who bore a striking resemblance to Lady Warren—blond hair pulled back with a leather strap. Blue eyes. I can only surmise it was Lord Reeve Warren. Son, he’s taken her for his bride. He is going to bind the lines. He fears you won’t, so he will.

I’ve sent what I could after them, keeping only the smallest possible force here at the castle. With both you and your sister gone, there isn’t much left to guard.

—Your Father.

The king’s short, bitter sentences drove a spike into her heart with every word. Oh, by The Three, it was all her fault. Torian’s glare said he didn’t disagree. The way he was looking at her, she was no longer his treasured bride-to-be. She was a Warren, part of the family who had stolen the person he cared for most. If she’d been capable of it, she would have disappeared into a puddle on the ground.

She shouldn’t have told Reeve about Terin. If only she’d realized that at the time instead of only now in hindsight. Her mistake might cost them everything. Something about Dellas’s words…
He is going to bind the lines
…Dellas didn’t make it sound nearly as harmless as when he’d discussed it with her the day they had departed from Castle Ahlen. But she couldn’t dwell on that bit now.

Torian was still staring at her, waiting for her to say something.

“Torian…I am so sorry.” She stepped towards him. She might as well admit her fault; best to get it over with. It wasn’t like he could be any angrier than he already was. Instead of telling him what she’d done, what came out was an idea. “If we wed…he might go ahead and give her back. He wouldn’t need her then.”

Garith spoke quietly, his eyes going between her and Torian. “Riya, do you really think Reeve will give up a chance to control that power himself?”

Words wouldn’t come. She shook her head and sank to the ground. The deep cover of snow began to soak through her gown, creeping toward the already cold depths of her bones. No. Reeve would never give up a power like that.

“I won’t give him a choice,” Torian growled, his fists clenched at his sides.

“The only person who can take that power from him now is my father.” Emariya looked up at her prince, her love, with tear-filled eyes. “He’s our only hope.”

Garith spoke as the voice of reason. “Riya is right. We need Oren. Continuing to Sheas is our best option.”

“No,” Torian insisted. “I’ve got to go get my sister.” Pointing at Emariya still sitting on the ground, he added, “Wouldn’t you do the same for her?”

“Yes, I would. I
did,
” Garith said. “When Khane took her, I didn’t go directly after them. I headed to find you. To find help. I knew I would be in over my head if I tried to find her directly.”

Torian let out a long breath. “I see your point. But they need more men. What my father sent won’t be enough, will it?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Emariya spoke up. “Warren’s Rest doesn’t have an army, and most of the spare men who could fight will have gone to the fjord. But if he did this with the Council’s backing…who knows who will have come to reinforce him.” She glanced away from his scrutinizing gaze, uneasy.

Torian looked around. “Rink!” he hollered.

The boy came scurrying up from the tents that had started to pop up around them.

“Find Commander Plank,” Torian said. “Now!”

Emariya had never seen Torian so abrupt, so cold. She understood, though. His heart had broken, and she was about to break it more.

“I told Reeve,” Emariya whispered.

Torian and Garith’s heads whipped around to look at her simultaneously.

“You. Did. What?” With each word, Torian took a measured step closer.

He reached for her and Emariya scrambled to her feet, unsure of his intent. Garith stepped between them, forcing Emariya to take a step back, and Torian dropped his hand.

Emariya didn’t even try to hold back the tears streaming down her face. “Torian, I’m sorry. When I wrote him, I told him how excited I was that when we wed I’d have a sister… I…I wasn’t thinking.” She bit her lip, terrified of the rage streaking across his handsome features.

“I cannot believe you would be so…so…” Torian shuddered and pressed his lips into a thin line, seemingly unable to find words to loose his rage.

Emariya gulped, guilt sticking in her throat. She had nothing good to say in her defense. “I’m sorry. What can I do?” She looked up at him through lashes wet with tears.

“You’ve done enough.” The hard edge in his voice cut deep.

The pull of the Stones anguished within her, driving her to him while his fury kept her hidden behind Garith. As angry as he was right now, and as much as she couldn’t help but fear him, the Stones still drove them together.

Oh, by The Three.
“The Stones,” she whispered. “They are Stones. The pull… They are Stones.” Terin and Reeve would feel it, too.

Whatever sliver of a hold Torian had maintained over his anger snapped. A primal snarl ripped from his throat. “If he touches her… I swear by The Three I… Dammit! You are right. She’ll be drawn to that filth. She’ll be forced to think she loves him, just as I am forced to you.”

Emariya hung her head. All the fire in her was gone. She’d finally started to accept him. Them. She’d believed that just maybe they could love each other, not because of the Stones, but in spite of them. She’d accepted what he’d offered, and now he was casting her aside.

As Torian stepped toward her again, Garith put his hands up, blocking the prince’s way. “Torian, enough.” Garith’s voice was deadly quiet. “Every single thing you are feeling for your sister right this instant, Riya feels for her brother. Treacherous bastard that he is, he is her brother. She didn’t do this.
He
did.” Torian looked pointedly at the hands raised against him, let out a long sigh, and stepped back.

“Your father had better remove him from his seat at the Council or I’ll sever his chest from his legs so he cannot sit anywhere.” Torian’s voice dripped with malice.

Garith dropped his hands, but the set of his shoulders remained guarded, and he didn’t move from in front of Emariya. With a forced nod, Torian turned away and headed toward Commander Plank. When he left, Emariya realized she was holding her breath, as well.

Sobs wracked her body as Garith crushed her to him. “Shh,” he whispered in her ear. “It will be all right.”

“He hates me now.” Emariya sniffled against Garith’s chest.

Smoothing back her hair he tilted her chin up to look at him. “No, he doesn’t.”

But Emariya would not be deterred. “He does, too. And I don’t blame him one bit.”

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Weary from riding and exhausted from crying, Emariya made her way to her tent, stepping carefully around the men scattered near their campfires. Garith had gone to confer with Torian and Commander Plank regarding splitting the troops. Rink had tried to follow at her heels, but she’d shooed him off. She just wanted to be alone.

Her frigid fingers undid the ties of her cloak without her having to think about it. She’d gotten the bottom soaked when she’d dropped to the ground. She should take it out near the fire to dry, but she was just too tired. Maybe Jessa would do it for her later.

Thinking of Jessa reminded her of something she’d been meaning to ask the other girl since that morning. Before leaving Eltar, the herb woman of Warren’s Rest had made her promise to take a bit of a powdered herb each day in her tea. The woman had insisted until Emariya promised. She hadn’t been able to find it in her pack this morning, and she’d meant to ask Jessa about it.

Emariya thought of going to find her, but she couldn’t face the stares everyone would give her if she left her tent. It likely didn’t matter anyway. If it was what she suspected—a remedy to keep her from becoming with child—there wasn’t much point, considering how things stood between her and Torian. She’d ask Jessa about it tomorrow.

Maybe in the morning things wouldn’t seem so bad.
Oh, Reeve
, she thought,
how could you?
She lay down and closed her eyes, letting the darkness of her despair take her into its icy grip.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Riya? I’ve got your cloak. It’s dry.” Jessa let herself into Emariya’s tent.
At least something is dry,
the handmaiden thought. Snow had started to fall throughout the night. So much for the sunshine they’d woken up to yesterday. Her damp hair clung to her face. Jessa paused. Emariya lay huddled under her blanket on the ground, still sleeping.

Part of her was torn, not wanting to wake her friend. Jessa had come to her last night, wanting to offer comfort, but Emariya had sent her away. She was willing to bet the girl had been awake half the night with guilt, but they needed to be on their way. She’d passed Garith and Torian just outside the tent as they conferred again with the commander. Jessa wasn’t entirely sure what the plan was, but she knew she needed to get Emariya moving.

Kneeling down, Jessa gently reached out and shook Emariya’s shoulder. Blonde hair spilled around her, but she didn’t stir. “Riya, get up. It’s time to go.”

Still there was no response. “Riya?” Jessa shook harder this time, then pulled the girl’s shoulder toward her. Riya limply slumped over on her back beneath Jessa’s tug.

“Garith! Torian!” Jessa screamed.

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The blackness was there again. Her mother seemed to float in and out. She tried to talk to her more, but it was almost as if Valencia couldn’t hear her. Something kept her distracted.

Emariya walked off into the mist, not really heading anywhere, as there was nowhere to go. It felt good to walk rather than sit or lay there. She supposed that having the control of her muscles enough to get up and move about—at least here, inside her mind—was a small victory. If she concentrated, though, she could still feel the ground beneath her. Once she thought something soft touched her shoulder, as well, but as soon as she thought she felt it, it was gone. She decided she’d most likely imagined it.

The one thing this place had going for it other than her mother being here or, well, sort of here, was that it was devoid of any emotion, save her own. She was sheltered from Torian’s piercing anger. She didn’t have to look into his accusing eyes and see them filled with contempt.

He’d been so angry. Not that she blamed him. Though part of her had wanted to scream back at him. To protest that she hadn’t done it on purpose. She hadn’t meant any harm. To defend herself.

She just couldn’t. He was at least partially right. If she hadn’t told Reeve about Terin, this wouldn’t have happened. But it wasn’t like she had known that it was some big secret. She’d assumed
she
didn’t know that Torian had a sister, not that everyone didn’t know.

Emariya didn’t think Reeve would hurt Terin. He couldn’t have slipped that far. Of course, before, she would never have thought he’d have Thalmas’s princess kidnapped, either.
Father will set it right
, she promised herself. But would anything set her and Torian right? Would they be able to recover? She wanted him. Sometime over the last few weeks, she’d fully given him her heart without realizing it…until now, when he was yanking it away. Her feelings for him reached so far beyond the Stones, beyond the irresistible to the irrevocable. No matter how he might break it, she couldn’t snatch her heart back. Judging by last night, that wasn’t a sentiment he shared.

She wished she had at least said something—anything—kind to him before he walked away. If she didn’t wake up… If she were somehow dead…they would have no chance to say goodbye.

Would he even care?

Time was immeasurable here, wherever ‘here’ was. Emariya could feel it slipping past like the mist around her legs. But also like mist, no matter how hard she tried to grasp it, it fell in an ethereal wisp through her fingers. She was no longer sure of night or day; minutes could have been hours.

Turning her head, she watched her mother walk anxiously in circles, mumbling to herself. “Mother?” she called.

It didn’t seem any different than all the other times she’d tried to get her mother’s attention away from whatever was distracting her, but then everything changed. “Reeve!” Shocked, she bolted upwards and bounded to him when he appeared in front of her mother. Before she could get to him, he was gone. The impression of his face, as surprised as her own must have been, wasn’t as easily shaken.

The blackness started to press in against her, harder now. Her eyes sought to close against her will. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop the urge to lie back down. She shook her head to clear it and the darkness pulled back, giving her at least a little space. Alarmed, she called out to her mother again. “Mama?”

“What, Emariya?” Her mother was sitting by her side as if she’d been there all along.

“Where’d you go? I saw you, and then…Reeve. But then he was gone.” The tide of panic was rising in her throat; she could hear it spilling out into her words. If Reeve had been there, did that mean he was dead or trapped like her? What in the name of The Three was going on?

“It’s nothing, dear, Reeve is fine. Just fine. Don’t fret. He was just trying to talk to me, that’s all.”

Relief was sudden and glorious. If Reeve and her mother were communicating, perhaps her mother could convince him to let Terin go. “You’ve got to talk to him. He kidnapped Terin. Torian’s sister. He’s going to bind the lines. You’ve got to call him back here and tell him to stop. Make him let her go.” The words tumbled out breathlessly.

Lady Valencia’s eyes clouded with darkness as she sat back, frowning at her daughter. “Emariya, you just don’t understand…”

“Don’t understand? What are you talking about? Didn’t you hear me? Reeve kidnapped someone.”

“I know. It will be better for everyone in the end. I promise.”

Emariya gasped. She couldn’t be hearing this right. Her mother was defending him?

“But what about the prophecies? He’ll bind the lines. Never mind that kidnapping someone is wrong.” Emariya shuddered, remembering being blindfolded on a horse, feeling unbelievably helpless, when Khane abducted her.

“Yes, he will. He will finish what I started when I married your father.”

“Finish what you…” Emariya closed her eyes and slowly opened them again. It was unfathomable. Her mother… No.

“The Three Corners need each other. Each land has something the others need. We were never meant to be split. Under Reeve’s rule, the people of Thalmas will no longer be hungry, Eltar will no longer be unable and unwilling to defend itself, and Sheas won’t be the bully from the Sea. Really, by lineage, Sheas should have been under his command anyway.”

“And kidnapping Terin?” Emariya asked, still not believing what she was hearing. Had her mother taken leave of her senses? This was not the kind, compassionate mother she’d always envisioned.

“He did what he had to do. If
you
had been more cooperative, perhaps he wouldn’t have needed such measures.”

Great, so her mother blamed her, too. “Unbelievable,” she muttered. It wasn’t enough to be betrayed by her own brother. Her mother, whose absence she’d cried over so many nights, had betrayed her, as well. Could she trust anyone?

“Emariya Warren, those men killed me for being a Cornerstone. For nothing more than the blood that coursed through my veins, the same blood that courses through yours, they took my life. They took my
peace.
They shattered your father and your childhood. They let their fear of the unknown cloud their reason. Your brother and I will give them exactly what they deserve.”

“And what about the rest of us, Mama? The rest of us who had nothing to do with the Separatists? I’m afraid of the prophecies, too.”

“Souls of the Stones, their sights we bear

Sounds of the Stones, their secrets we share

Will of the soil blood will flow

Should three Stones one ever know

What once were one split thrice

Over whispers and sights

Soil prevails, behold its might

Blood and Stones as one brings darkest night.”

Emariya recited the words Garith had told her. “‘Will of the soil, blood will flow.’ I don’t want to spill blood, Mama.” She softly started to cry.

An unnatural silence hung between them. For so long, all she’d wanted was her mother. Now, she was desperate to escape her heavy glare. Lady Valencia had paid for peace with her life, and she was determined to cash in.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Emariya asked after a while. “You’re keeping me from waking up.”

She expected her mother to deny it and was surprised when Valencia nodded.

“I can’t have you in the way. Those boys you’ve got eating out of your hand will be too absorbed in caring for you to bother Reeve. Once he’s bound the lines, you can do as you please and it won’t matter. We don’t need you anymore to accomplish what you were supposed to do. What you were born to do.”

Disgusted, Emariya turned her head away from her mother, determined not to meet her eyes again. Her entire life, she’d been hearing how she was every bit her mother’s daughter. Her mother was right about one thing, though: when she died, she had left a chain of broken Warrens behind. Emariya had never been so ashamed or so alone. She wished her father were there.