A kind, apologetic voice interrupted their markings’ connection.
“My Queen, Master Jaren, I am so sorry. I have only just returned from the morning call. I can come back later.”
“Tilly, Tilly, no, it’s fine,” Maia responded, beckoning her into the room. She pulled her forehead away from Jaren’s but remained comfortably nestled in his warm embrace.
Tilly was Maia’s handmaiden and, if Maia had her say, the most loyal Agarb Eld in the entire kingdom. Jaren, too, appreciated the kindness that Tilly had shown Maia since she was a young Eld girl. It had taken Tilly a long time to accept him, however, given his connections to the House of Spreuken. All of that changed the moment Maia told her that he had surrendered his marking to hers.
From that point on, Tilly treated him with the care, attention, and honor of a king. It was especially amusing as there was never more than one ruler on Mira at a time—a mate taken by a Queen would never have more than the status with which he was born. Jaren was a Master from the House of Spreuken, and a liege in the royal council.
“Thank you for your graciousness, my Queen,” Tilly responded with a warm smile. “I have just returned from the gardens outside of the old Eld temple in the Spring ruins. Our…spy…from the Spreuken House was able to meet with me this time.”
Both Jaren and Maia shot up and sat slightly away from each other.
“Come, Tilly: sit with us. Tell us all you have learned from her.”
Tilly did as Maia instructed. They made room for her in between them—it was the Eld way of indicating the fullness of the trust being shared.
“She said she couldn’t get away the last time we arranged to meet as one of Lucerne’s sons, the second boy, saw her going to the stables when she planned to use an Urse for the journey. She noticed him just in time and pretended to go there to talk to the Urses instead. It is something she has been doing for the past year so that her visits there would not seem alarming to anyone. She said he teased her and left, but she felt it wise to not take the risk. Had he passed by even a minute later, he would have seen her leaving upon the animal.”
Urses were one of Mira’s species of the large, marked animals. The Masters among the Eld rode them regularly, and kept them in their personal stables. They were ridden when the Masters sought to venture outside of the territories of their Houses. Any Eld wishing to use one would engage in a temple bond with the sacred animal, thereby sharing where they would like to be taken.
Urses were chosen when journeys were secretive in nature, as they would never share a thought given by one Eld to any other Eld who rode them, even if requested through the bond. They were the impenetrable, living vaults of many secret Eld missions. It was upon these animals that Tilly and the Spreuken spy had been meeting at remote locations over the past six months.
“Our spy says Master Lucerne is acting quite strange today. He’s very irritable, and he’s been in whispered conversations with other Spreuken Masters. He even shared a temple bond with one, and they never uttered a single word. We already know that he is checking the core today. He will come to you shortly, Master Jaren, to have you accompany him as he usually does. But…our spy asked that you exercise caution today. She was unable to find out what was wrong before our meeting.”
Maia shot a worried glance at Jaren and he immediately moved his arm behind them and rested his hand upon Maia’s. He mustered his most comforting smile but his eyes still betrayed him.
“He knows, Jaren. He must know. You can’t go with him. You can’t risk it. I’ll summon you to duty today. We will find the best plausible reason as to why you can’t accompany him.”
“Then he will definitely suspect something, my love. I don’t think he knows…there is no way he can. Our secrets are safely guarded by the most loyal Eld in your queendom, and Tilly has shared temple bonds with them all. You’ve seen it through her eyes! They remain loyal to Sunstar’s will, even to their deaths. And your royal marking is the living declaration of that divine will. You need not worry.”
“But what if he does know?” Maia pressed, anxiety filling her heartstar.
She got up and started to pace in line with the glowing tiles, as she always did when she brooded.
“What if Lucerne knows that you even remotely suspect him? What if he knows we have found evidence that links him to those treacherous activities and that treasonous call?”
“Maia…” Jaren answered softly, perceiving the true source of her panic. “I understand your concerns. Nothing bad is going to happen to me. We are going to solve this and prosecute all connected to these crimes. Then we are going to announce the heir to your throne and raise our daughter on a peaceful Mira. We are walking in the will of Sunstar. We need to stick to the plan. You must appear to be ignorant of all of this, and we must continue our duties as usual. I don’t think he knows, Maia. I have known him all my life and I feel like I would know if he knew. But still, I promise I will be extra careful today.”
“Can you carry your sword at least?” Maia’s voice trembled with sadness and defeat. “The core is such a lonely, deserted place, and it is so very deep within the caverns. If he were to attack you, you’d be defenseless!”
“You do realize that if I carry my sword, he will know that something is wrong, right?” Jaren responded chuckling at her fretted expression. “Maia, my love… I will be fine. Lucerne still thinks of me as his best friend, especially as he does not yet know I surrendered my marking to yours, and to the House of Agarb.”
Maia seemed immediately annoyed at the thought of Lucerne’s ignorance regarding Jaren’s loyalty to her. She longed to see the look on his face when he found out.
“Well,” she responded snappily, “he will definitely push you to manipulate me into surrendering my marking when you are with him today, just as he does every single time he gets you alone! Let’s hope he continues to respect your youthful views on temple bonds.”
Jaren sighed. Maia may have been panicking but she did have a point. Lucerne had not asked him to offer a temple bond as proof of his loyalty. But it was unlikely that he ever would. Ever since Jaren was a little boy, he had taken a stance against it, declaring it to be invasive to the individuality of the Elds. He had refused to give the bond even to the Urses. Such a stance was not uncommon, and it was greatly respected among all Eld.
Still, while Lucerne may not risk asking, given all it would imply, it was not impossible. In fact, given that the marking of the royal heir had been the subject of Lucerne’s every discussion with him over the past year, it was a valid point to consider. It was customary for Jaren and Maia to have conceived a child by the fifth year into their mating. They were now on their sixth year of Eld love, with no announcement of an heir.
As a result, they were receiving the kinds of glances from the Eld of all Houses which revealed their discomfort around a seemingly disregarded tradition. It reminded them of the reactions they got when the rumors of their inter-House mating first began to spread. There had been underlying opposition until the day Maia’s formal announcement was made. Her marking glowed so brightly that she seemed to be made of pure light, indicating the complete will of Sunstar in her choice. No one had dared to question her thereafter, and attention was diverted to question of their offspring.
Maia continued pacing. Whenever she was deeply irritated, it was a form of calming meditation for her. She unconsciously moved her hand quickly to her womb, and only then did Jaren and Tilly make a sound.
“Is our baby okay?
“Do you need anything, my Queen?”
Maia turned to them with a small, reassuring smile, her face softened by their concern. She had felt her baby press her little foot strongly against her hands, and they shared a divine moment of blurry feelings—the only kind a baby could give. Yasmin was sending her hazy, loving ripples.
Even with regular, royal matings, the Eld loved to have an heir to the throne. It demonstrated Sunstar’s continued blessings over their choices and way of life. However
, the Eld all knew that this particular mating would involve the surrender of one marking to the other. If Jaren surrendered his marking, it would make that royal heir an Agarb, and it would also further destroy any hold the Spreukens believed they had on the throne. If Maia surrendered hers, it would indicate Sunstar’s forgiveness and the reversion of royalty to the Spreuken line. It was a point of great contention, especially for Master Lucerne.
Lucerne’s family was once the direct royal line of the Eld. Lucerne had fantasized with Jaren when his mate, Preccia, was pregnant with their first son about how divine it would be to have the royal blessing returned to them. During that time, Jaren had enthusiastically agreed.
Jaren had been among the few Spreuken men at his age who were mateless. He had watched with longing, sadness, and, eventually, bitterness, as all of his childhood friends found their Eld loves and birthed Eld children. None of the Spreuken women had ever sparked his heartstar, and soon he came to believe that love was simply not in his path.
He instead focused his reservoir of passion on plotting a revolution against the Agarb. Like Lucerne, he believed the royal line had been wrongfully stolen through sacred manipulation, and he wanted to right the wrong. They both believed this was the true will of Sunstar. Jaren was Lucerne’s right-hand man, and his best friend. They would have done anything to restore the will of Sunstar.
Back then, Maia’s mother, Queen Roma, was the ruler of Mira. Maia already seemed to hold the aura of a royal, but it did not guarantee that the royal lines would encapsulate her marking when Queen Roma died. In fact, Roma could surrender the royalty of her marking, even while alive, to any Eld of any House, but she would have had to do so willingly and without a single doubt in her heartstar.
As improbable as it was, it was the loophole that Lucerne and Jaren needed. Naturally, it would mean proving the Agarb line incompetent, and defeating, above all else, Roma’s faith in the House of the Agarbs as Sunstar’s choice. But, before they could enact their devious plan, Roma seemed to sense what was happening. She surrendered her marking to Maia twenty years ahead of her natural passing.
Lucerne and Jaren had to pause their plans for a long time, for fear that they had been suspected and were under private investigation. When all seemed cleared, they resumed their cause by secretly inciting small upheavals among influential forces in the Houses. Lucerne also suggested that, in order to keep a close watch on Queen Maia, Jaren should do his best to become an adviser to her on quelling the rebellious natures of the Spreukens and the Bravads.
With Jaren put forward as a peace ambassador on behalf of the Spreukens, Maia had no choice but to comply with his inclusion on all matters. But Jaren took a silent stance in most meetings, presenting a calm, nonreactive demeanor. It made Maia curious to know his thoughts, and soon she could not resist asking him to share his perspectives on how to subdue the unruly factions of the Houses. Like the strategic puppet masters that they were, Lucerne and Jaren orchestrated peaceful outcomes each time Maia tested Jaren’s counsel, but caused much disruption every time she didn’t. It was a foolproof plan. At least until Jaren began to feel the overwhelming waves from his heartstar every time he was in Maia’s presence.
At first, he thought it was his nervousness about being there as a spy. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he was in great denial. Maia was, above all else, the purest Eld soul he had ever encountered. Every decision she made was for the good of all, the greatest good, even when it meant sacrificing her power or her pride. She helped every Eld alike, including those who were forthright in their disdain of her, and she did it with passion, kindness, and unbelievable integrity.
With each attempted plot against Maia, Jaren found himself falling more deeply in love with her. He was conflicted beyond measure, as his love for his best friend and his belief in their cause faced an enemy of unknown power—a pure-hearted soul.
Maia, while impressed with Jaren’s uncanny ability to solve Eld clashes, never once trusted him. Her mother had warned her that he was rumored to be Lucerne’s partner in trying to overthrow the Agarb throne. While she respected him as she did every Eld, she knew better than to see him as anything more than a two-faced strategist. She wished her heartstar knew better as well. It pounded for him in ways that made her detest its place in her body. Even her le-feer betrayed her, calling to him whenever he entered a room with a brighter blue glow.
She resisted. She resisted until she could not deny it anymore. So instead, she did her best to have him removed and replaced, but her plans never seemed to work.
It took Jaren a long time to penetrate her defenses. In reality, it was Maia who penetrated his offense. One day, when her frustrations finally overcame her, she confronted him privately, demanding that he be honest with her about his intentions as her adviser. He stammered, finding his le-feer to be the most powered it had ever been in her presence. It was the first time he had felt so connected to the divine pulses of which the Agarbs frequently spoke. Terrified, he fled from her, unable to bring himself to face her, or himself.
His le-feer continued to torture him, creating a new conscience where there had been none. A few weeks later, he woke up with distinct clarity—he knew Maia’s queendom was the undeniable will of Sunstar. He had been wrong. Lucerne had also been wrong. He tried to reason with Lucerne without revealing his change of heart, with hopes that the le-feer’s influence was not unique to him alone. Lucerne was, if anything, even firmer in his stance. It broke Jaren’s heartstar.
In a moment of complete vulnerability and truth, Jaren told Maia everything about the plot against her, and offered her his first temple bond so she would know his purest truth. Shared with that truth was their secret love for each other, dangerous and unusual to the Eld. It also revealed Maia and her mother’s deep suspicions of the dark practices in which Lucerne had engaged—secrets that Jaren had never known. It was a union that went against everything they both thought they believed in, but from that moment onward everything changed.
When Jaren went to Lucerne to tell him of the feelings he had for Maia, and her return of them for him, Lucerne surprised him by celebrating. He believed that this could support an even greater, more elaborate plot to pass the royal marking back to the Spreukens. It was possible, if Maia surrendered her marking to Jaren. Their offspring would be both Spreuken and royal, and the royal power would be passed back to the Spreuken House.
It wasn’t Lucerne’s ideal dream—to have his first son, Atlase, become the Eld King—but it was much better than any Agarb Queen. And he believed that Jaren would never partake in a temple bond, allowing for their plans to proceed undetected.
When Jaren informed Maia of his botched attempt at achieving an understanding with Lucerne, Maia asked him to keep his loyalty a secret. She wanted him to help her uncover the truth about the darkness of Lucerne’s plans. Seeming to remain loyal to Lucerne was therefore crucial for them to stay one step ahead. Together, they had been preparing for another attack from Lucerne ever since.
While they were constantly bracing for what could come next, this was the first time that everything felt different for Maia. She didn’t want Jaren to go with Lucerne to the core. It went beyond her irritation, and even her fears. There was an evil she could slightly sense, abominable and fierce, and it hauntingly jolted her le-feer in ways she couldn’t comprehend. She didn’t know what it meant or what she was supposed to do.
But there was nothing she could do to about it, and now, nothing she could do to prevent Jaren from going.
Chapter Six
Yara’s heartstar pounded loudly through her sleekly armored chest. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t seem to concentrate on a single thought. She felt sick to her stomach. It was even worse than that one time, as a child, when she had stubbornly eaten mushrooms meant to be used for a topical balm.
Riding around her were Eld from the Houses of the Agarbs, Spreukens, and Bravads. The Masters from each of the Houses were upon Urses. They were majestic, with pu
re white fur that was softer than the most exquisite feathered trees. Their eyes and markings glowed icy blue, with hints of gold.
The Urses had also been cocooned with the Eld in a massive, underground ark. But neither they nor the other animals of Mira had awoken with the Eld due to a malfunction from the damage to planet’s core. They were now being brought back to consciousness in stages, with the Eld working together to channel their markings’ combined power into the core to facilitate the process of liberation.
While Yara had not yet learned how to telepathically bond with the Urses, the ones pulling her open-air carriage seemed to sense her uneasiness. One turned to grunt loudly at the other, and then flicked its head back at her. Reassurance? No. Probably mockery, and laughter, at the beads of sweat that were starting to cover her forehead, upper lip, and palms.
I can’t do this…I can’t do this…
Yara closed her eyes, squeezing them hard until it hurt. She caught her breath, clearing her throat in indignation at herself.
No! I will NOT cry!
The Eld were finally heading out to the Photak village. She had initially felt ready to face her former Tribe when they set out, but every step they took brought her closer to an opposing internal reality.
Mother, Father…I miss you so much…I’d give anything to talk to you again.
Yara cursed slightly under her breath as a small, grieved tear for her Tribe parents escaped her right eye. She wiped it away harshly, managing to scrape the side of her face. The cut didn’t matter. Not with Atlase riding along with his father a short distance from her…specifically, to her right.
The Eld Queen (The YaraStar Trilogy Book 2) Page 5
