by Ryan Muree
It wobbled on her hand.
“Jump,” she told it.
It turned, on its own or by her will, and dove off her hand into the soil next to her thigh. It broke apart and didn’t move again.
She swallowed.
It was becoming easier, and Lana, Clove’s childhood friend in Ingini, had been right.
Things she’d come up with didn’t always manifest, but when she took the time to practice and work with them, she had more success. More success casting whatever she wanted. She didn’t need grimoires, she didn’t even need pre-determined sigils. She seemed only limited by her imagination.
Something Revel, Stadhold, and Ingini would both fear and want to learn dearly.
“I know your secret,” Issolia said behind her.
Emeryss jerked her head. “You nearly scared me to death.”
“I was sneaking up on you. That was the point.” Issolia sat next to her, legs dangling over the side of the cliff like they did when they were little. Her sister’s eyes were a little swollen these days, however, from being tired all the time. Taking care of a brand-new baby did that. “I thought you were coming up here, and I was right. Is Hellina too much to live with?”
“No, not at all.” She’d never been ungrateful that her sister and her husband let her stay with them until she figured out how and where she would live in Neeria. She’d been hoping Grier would have come by now, and then she wouldn’t have to make that decision on her own.
“Then, I was right, and you thought you could keep your secret from me.”
Excuses, lies, fibs… What could she say? How would she explain—
“It’s a boy, isn’t it?”
Emeryss looked at her. A boy? She hadn’t seen her cast the little golem?
Issolia shrugged. “Call it big sister intuition, but you’re up here pining for a boy, right?”
“It’s just my favorite spot is all,” Emeryss said.
“Right.” Issolia crossed her arms around herself. “Want me to pretend I believe you or do you actually want to talk about him?”
She didn’t want to talk about him, but if she didn’t offer something, Issolia would make her own assumptions and it’d just get worse. Mother had been looking at her strangely since she’d arrived. Father had been asking questions.
Still, it hurt to say.
“You’re avoiding everyone, you know?” Issolia continued. “Everyone sees it.”
“There’s nothing, I promise.”
Issolia shook her head. “I know that look, Emmy. Don’t lie to me. We promised.” She bumped shoulders with her. “What’s his name?”
She shook her head.
“Come on. You know I’m just going to keep asking until you give it up.” Issolia poked her arm repeatedly. “What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name—”
“Okay, ow!” She rubbed her shoulder. “You’re supposed to be an adult.”
“Trust me, I’m an adult all the time. With you, I get to be me again.” Issolia stretched out her legs and wiggled her toes.
Emeryss smiled at her.
“What’s his name?”
Emeryss took a deep breath. “Grier.”
Issolia’s smile widened. “There is a boy! I knew it.”
“He’s not a boy—”
She held a hand up. “Right, sorry. Habit of you being my baby sister. And?”
“And what?”
“Well? Who is he? What’s he like? What does he look like? Have you guys—?”
“Oh, come on, Issolia. I’m not discussing that.”
She gasped. “You have! I’m so proud of you.”
“He wasn’t my first…”
“I know, but he’s clearly important to you. So, why are you up here all torn up about him? What happened?”
What happened?
Nothing happened.
Nothing happened.
What was she supposed to say? She had been home for two months, and there hadn’t been so much as a letter from him? She knew what it meant. She’d always known. She’d even predicted it before they left and said goodbye.
“Come on, Emmy.” She bumped her shoulder again. “You can’t hide this from me. You might want to hide it from mom and dad, but I’m different, or at least I’m supposed to be.”
Emeryss closed her eyes for a moment. “Grier is at his home dealing with his responsibilities.”
“Who is he?”
“A… Keeper.”
Issolia giggled. “Obviously not if he’s not here with you.”
Emeryss glared at her with a grin.
“Sorry, bad joke. But, seriously, I have no idea what a Keeper is.”
“The guards of Stadhold.”
Issolia leaned back and gave a long “Oh” as she did. “Let me guess: he was a guard, and while you were there, you two fell in love, and now he has to stay and do his job, and you got to go home. And you’re mad he didn’t come with you?”
“It’s worse than that,” Emeryss admitted.
Issolia’s face lit up.
“He was my guard, my protector. He was assigned to me.”
Issolia squealed. “That’s romantic.”
“We worked together for a year, and then… a… few things happened in Stadhold and Revel, and we both admitted we had feelings for each other.”
“And? Don’t tell me you just walked away. That is not the Emmy I know.”
“Of course not,” Emeryss grinned. “I told him what I wanted, but it could never be forever, you know, because of who he is and who I am. I accepted it.”
Issolia’s eyes closed. “Because we’re Neerian.”
“No, he didn’t care about that.” Emeryss moved a piece of hair out of her face. “He, uh, is sort of important in Stadhold, and he’s required to marry someone that improves his lineage.”
Issolia faked a gag. “Primitive societies, I swear.”
“He promised that he didn’t care about that, but we discovered some information about Stadhold and Revel with the Ingini, and he wanted to stay and tell them about it. To fix things.”
Issolia nodded. “Honorable. So, what’s the problem?”
“He was supposed to come here right after.” That last bit hurt to admit, and it stung in her chest to say it out loud for once. Her eyes started to ache and water.
Issolia’s smile faded, and the wind blew harder. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “I see.”
“I mean, I knew…” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed. “I knew he had things he had to do, and I walked into the relationship fully aware that I might not have him for long, but—” She took a deep breath. “His mother sort of hates me, and they sped up his marriage arrangement to make sure he stayed away from me. So…”
One tiny tear dropped from her eye to be whisked away with the breeze.
Issolia wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in, knocking her forehead against the side of hers. “I’m sorry, Emmy.”
She nodded, fighting off more tears. “He was supposed to write, and…”
Issolia clicked her tongue. “I’ve never seen you this hurt over a guy. Ah, my poor, Emmy.” She rubbed her back and held her close. “You loved him? Like really loved him?”
She nodded. “And I believed him.”
“And he’s that great? Really? Does he have a cube-shaped head like my husband?” Issolia giggled.
Emeryss burst out with a laugh. “He’s pretty great. I think you’d like him.”
“Then, maybe, he’s trying to get back to you and can’t. Maybe things are really tough there with the war starting and all the fights and battles—”
Emeryss sat up from her. “You know about the war?”
Issolia narrowed her eyes. “Of course, we do. We don’t live under a rock. Man, are those Stadholdens getting to you or what? A war? That took out the wall? That claimed all those soldiers in the RCA? Of course, we heard about it.”
That made her feel a little better. At least they weren�
�t completely in the dark.
“Honestly,” Issolia continued, “it just makes me feel sorry for those Casters. It can’t be easy fighting off people and killing them like that. Blessed life to a blessed night.”
Emeryss repeated the prayer.
Issolia held up a finger. “But I do have to warn you. You might want to tell Mother and Father about this boy that’s bothering you.”
“Why?”
“Because Mother thinks you’re lying to her about why you’re here. Father is disappointed you’re different now, and it looks like someone else wants to speak with you.” Issolia pointed down at the beach.
Callo.
She was staring up at her. Her shawls and trailing cloth skirt fluttered in the wind. Though her shape had curled a little with age, she was the same short, stocky old woman she’d remembered.
Emeryss took a deep breath.
“Does she want to talk to you?” Issolia asked.
“I don’t know,” she muttered.
“You should probably talk to her, Emmy.” Issolia stood and dusted her hands off. “She’s getting up there in age, though, so be nice. I’m going to get back. You okay up here?”
Emeryss nodded. “Yeah.”
“Oh, before I forget. Father wanted to see you this morning. Do me a favor and find him and talk to him.”
Emeryss nodded again. “Okay.”
Issolia walked on, but Callo hadn’t.
Emeryss didn’t want to hear what the oracle had to say to her, she hadn’t since she was a child. How could she face someone who’d claimed to know her destiny only for Emeryss to change it?
Emeryss stood and left the cliffside for her parent’s home, only to be met by her father on the main path.
He was tall, broad, and strong for his age. His dark hair was messy and damp in places. He carried rope over one shoulder and a bucket in his free hand. “Emeryss?”
She slid to a stop, feeling smaller than she was. She wasn’t a kid anymore, but it was hard to feel her age in her parents’ presence. “You wanted to see me?”
He tossed the rope to her.
She caught it easily, but the weight of it in her arms was surprising. She’d lost some strength in those years at the library.
“Last chance at a harvest,” he said. “I got me and a few others coming, but it’ll be you and me like old times. You going or not?”
A day trip on the sea. The last harvest. The best one of the season.
A fishing trip was exactly what she needed. The sea. The work.
It’d put her fears on hold for a while longer.
“Sure, I’ll go.”
Her father blinked, seeming shocked she’d agreed to go like it was old times. “Good. Be at the dock and ready in five minutes.”
He walked away, and a shadow appeared behind him.
Callo’s hands were folded in front of her, her black eyes set on Emeryss.
Emeryss swallowed. “Now’s not a good time—”
“Never is a good time. Always is a good time. Time is irrelevant.”
“Actually, time is really important because I have to grab my boots. You heard my father. I have five minutes—”
“Death, Emeryss.” Callo’s shaky hand lifted in her direction.
She backed away slowly toward her parent’s house. “That’s really cryptic—”
“Death, Emeryss, is what you’ve brought. Death is what you represent. Death surrounds you like a fog…”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t—”
“I know what you did, Emeryss. I know why you’re here!”
Emeryss turned and jogged for home.
Adalai had said Callo and people like her were a scam, preying on the weak-minded, and Emeryss wanted to believe it. She’d changed her so-called destiny, after all.
But after years of ingrained traditions and respect, it was hard to loosen the grip on what she used to know. Was Callo a fraud? A figurehead for Neerians? Or could she really read the waves and speak to the spirits of the planet? Emeryss knew better than anyone that anything was possible.
Still, Callo’s scary prophecies and wise words wouldn’t stop the war. It wouldn’t bring back those they’d lost. And it wouldn’t bring Grier to her.
Court — Great Library — Stadhold
Grier adjusted his front chest plate and his bracer and faced the court doors.
He did not miss his full armor and undergarments. In the few weeks he’d been away from Stadhold, his body had gotten used to the lighter threads of the Zephyr mechanic suits and the mining jumper Mykel had made them. After two months of jumping through hoops and red tape, all in full Stadholden armor, he still wasn’t used to his old uniform.
He balled his right hand and clenched the four rolled-up reports in his left.
“Sir, court is in session,” the Keeper standing guard said with a slight tremble. He was younger, fresher, and had clearly been made aware of Grier’s recent awards and promotions.
Too bad they were all hol-shit, as Adalai would have put it.
Mere decorations and false pats on the back to encourage him to stay and do the right thing. Ploys by his mother, his father, his commanders to make it look like his Scribe hadn’t just run away and he with her. Manipulations to make him and the rest of the Keepers their ignorant puppets.
He thumbed the sigil scarring at the tip of his finger—a habit he’d recently developed. “Good,” he told the kid.
Fight for what you want, Emeryss had said once.
He took a deep breath and burst through the court’s doors.
Want more? You can preorder Paragons of Ether (Book 3) now!
Pronunciation Guide
CHARACTERS
Emeryss – EM-err-ess
Adalai – ADD-uh-lye
Grier – Greer
Vaughn – Vonn
Jahree – JAH-ree
OTHER
Gruskul — Gruss-cool
Sufford — Suffered
Halunder — Hall-under
Neeria – NEAR-ee-uh
Ingini – Engine-eye or Inn-GIN-eye
Delour – Duh-LORE
Ethrecity – Eth-RISS-itty
Aurelis – AW-rell-iss
Ethyrol — Ether-all
Zephyr — ZEFF-er
Pigyll — Piggle
