Cover and interior illustrations © Jessica Parker. For more information, visit https://www.instagram.com/jessicaparkerart
Cover and interior design copyright © 2021 by Eagle Gate Publishing
Published by Eagle Gate Publishing
American Fork, Utah
Copyright © 2021 by Laura Hatch Rupper
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format or in any medium without the written permission of the publisher, Eagle Gate Publishing, 1226 South 630 East, Suite 4, American Fork, UT 84003. The views expressed within this work are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the position of Eagle Gate Publishing, or any other entity.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are either products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be construed as real, or are used fictitiously.
First Printing: June 2021
ISBN: 978-1-52441-702-4
This book is dedicated to my brother, Neal Hatch, a master story spinner who found humor and interest all around. He could tell about his simplest experiences and leave you captivated. His true stories were ironic, poignant, and funny—with happy endings.
Chapter One
Trespassers
Nora pushed on the massive kitchen door. It opened slowly, the heavy metal much harder to move than the thin stone doors she was accustomed to. She paused a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark and then looked around the room. Safe. Nora exhaled and motioned her younger brother, Limar, and his best friend, Beck, to follow her in. They had reviewed this plan every night of their ten-day journey. The boys had argued with her on nearly every point but eventually accepted her wisdom in keeping the plan simple—get in and get out.
She and Beck entered the kitchen, and Beck hurried to check the perimeter. Limar stayed by the door, staring intently down the hall. If anyone approached the kitchen, Limar would give a cricket chirp, and they would run. Running, not heroics, had been a sore point with the boys.
Nora clasped her hands together to still her shaking fingers and moved forward into the unlit room. She tiptoed on the kitchen’s marble floor. It was so much smoother than the uneven rock floor she was used to. Her dusty, travel-worn sandals didn’t belong here.
Beck made eye contact and nodded. No one else was in the kitchen. Nora pulled an orb light from her knapsack and removed the leather cover to illuminate the room. Released from the weight of the cover, the orb floated over her shoulder, emitting soft streams of light. Nora turned in a slow circle, trying to orient herself. The kitchen was much larger than she had anticipated. The walls and high ceiling were a glossy pale blue. There was lots of counterspace. The kitchen was divided into separate work areas that began near the door where she stood and ran to the back of the room. It would be unimaginable to cook in a kitchen like this. There was enough space for at least a dozen cooks.
Nora wiped her sweaty palms on her tunic. Focus. This was for Dani. Nora searched the room, looking for bright colors. There, at the rear of the kitchen. Her orb’s light reflected off something. She grabbed the orb’s tether and hurried toward the shimmering colors, Beck beside her.
“Help me find the Ballutite,” Nora whispered.
Beck stared at the back countertop. “What does Ballutite look like?”
“Green with smoke-colored bits and large chunks of chalky white. Remember?” Nora bumped her floating orb higher so it would illuminate more of the countertop. “I read that the white should absorb light, and the green should reflect it.”
Beck nodded and moved left as Nora went right. The Liard’s sacred stones were embedded into the back counter, spaced an arm’s length away from each other. They were bigger than Nora had imagined, about the size of a large man’s hand. Each stone had been cut flat so it lay even with the grey countertop.
She gasped and looked down at an inky black stone with orange and red flecks. In the sixteen years she’d been alive, the reflecting colors in the stone were the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
“Griel,” she said. It came from House Patter. She’d read that Griel infusions gave off energy and anger for a fight.
“Does House Liard have all seven stones?” Beck asked.
“No,” Nora answered in a low voice. “None of the houses have all seven.”
“What’s this silver one?”
Nora joined Beck on his side of the counter. “Eqatite. It gives patience. It’s mined by House Hambline.” She gently touched the plane of the smooth stone. It was warm. “The palace must have gotten it by bargaining or making an alliance.” House Liard mined Ballutite. It was the only stone she had known with certainty would be in their kitchen.
Suddenly, the purple stone near the Eqatite eddied and strained up as if to reach out to her. Nora gasped and jerked her hand away from the counter.
“Volite,” she said, moving over to get a better look.
How had the Liard’s managed to obtain Volite? She would love to try to pull knowledge from the deep purple stone, but there wasn’t time for that.
Nora didn’t realize Beck had moved on until he whispered from the far end of the counter. “I think I found it,” he said.
Nora hurried to him. She leaned in and peered down, her small frame resting lightly on the flat surface. Despite the ever-present fear of being caught, she felt a sense of exhilaration. Three identical green stones were set into the countertop. She was looking at Ballutite. It was one thing to read about Ballutite in Teacher Worthing’s ancient books, but it was another thing altogether to see it in person. The white chunks in the stone did indeed absorb the light, pulling rays from her orb deep into the stone’s milky depths. The green of the stone sparkled like the sun on the quarry’s stream. She placed her hand over her heart. The stones were more brilliant and energetic than she had imagined.
“Green for life,” Nora said softly, “and white to absorb disease. This will work, Beck. I know it will.”
Beck nodded. As he bent over the counter, his dark hair fell over his work-tanned skin. She was probably crazy for dragging two thirteen-year-old boys into her scheme, but Nora needed them. Beck could carry as much as a full-grown man could, and Limar, irritating though he was, was lethal with his slingshot. Nora trusted them more, in fact, than she trusted any adult in her village.
Beck pulled the loaded knapsack off his back and placed it on the counter. “What do you need?” he asked, shifting from one foot to another. Nora couldn’t hold back a little smile. The boys had boasted about how they would fight off House Liard’s guards, but now that they were actually here, she could feel Beck’s nervousness.
“I need the pot and flask,” Nora said.
Beck quickly pulled her dented copper pot and a leather water flask out of his knapsack. Nora set the pot on the middle of the three Ballutite stones. “Add the water when I tell you to,” she said.
She took her pouch off her shoulder and pulled out the book on revars. The worn leather book with gray stone paper fell open to a well-marked page. Nora took some berries from the satchel and quickly dumped the fruit into the copper pot. She reached back into her tunic pocket for her two pullers. The small white stones were smooth and familiar in each hand, sliding into their accustomed place between thumb and first finger. Hopefully they would work the same way in the palace as they did in her own little kitchen at home. A lump swelled in the pit of her stomach. Was the book right? Could she really make a revar? Would the Liard’s Ballutite release its power for her? She was counting on it, an inner instinct comforting her and telling her that sh
e could do this. She could make a revar. She had to.
“Should I start pouring?” asked Beck.
Nora bit her lip. “Gently. Pour at a steady pace.”
Beck tilted the flask and let a stream of water trickle around the berries. One puller gripped firmly in each hand, Nora turned her concentration to her hand movements. She was used to using the left-hand puller stone to draw heat from range stones, and her right-hand puller for mixing, but this would be something new. Her pulling, with the stone in her left hand, had to be much stronger. She had to connect to the sacred stone, not just for heat, but for power. The right hand, at the same time, had to follow a precise mixing pattern. She couldn’t mix with the random twirling motions she was accustomed to.
Nora took a deep breath, her hands and pullers positioned over the pot, and began to pull from the stone with her left hand. She looked to the picture in the open revar book and moved her right hand, carefully following the angles outlined in the book’s complex diagram.
Nothing.
Beck continued to pour slowly. “What’s supposed to happen?” he asked.
Nora peered anxiously into the pot. “It’s supposed to macerate.”
Beck furrowed his brow and tilted his head slightly.
“If I pull from the Ballutite correctly, the berries should soak in the stone’s strength and then burst.”
“And Dani will get that strength when she drinks the water,” Beck said.
Nora nodded. “The white of the Ballutite will absorb the bad things in her body, and the green will give her life.”
Nora turned her concentration back to her hand movements. She drew in a sharp breath. She felt something. She felt a bond to the Ballutite. Faster and faster, her right hand moved the puller at sharp angles over the pot as Dani filled her thoughts.
Something in the pot crackled, making Nora and Beck jump. “Keep pouring,” Nora whispered. “Keep pouring.”
Suddenly, she felt the pullers vibrating in her hands, something they had never done at home. She grasped them more firmly and continued her pulling and stirring.
Please work, she thought.
Nora gasped, and her hands shook. She could feel the Ballutite pulling back. A force from the sacred stone moved up through her puller stones and yanked at something deep inside her. Was this connection she felt normal? Surprised as she was, she couldn’t quit now. The colors in the Ballutite glimmered in the orb light, shining up around her little pot, as if trying to reach inside.
“This stone almost looks like it’s alive,” Beck whispered.
“Keep pouring,” she responded, her concentration not allowing her to even look at him. Beck poured, the trickle of water never stopping while Nora continued to pull and mix. The berries popped and a minty aroma wafted out of the pot. She watched, mesmerized, as the last berry crackled and melted. Dropping her pullers back in her tunic pocket, Nora broke her connection to the stone and slumped back, dazed and exhausted.
This was more than an infusion. She had made a revar. She knew it. Nora realized she had been holding her breath and exhaled softly. To feel that kind of power from a sacred stone was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience for someone like her. Peasants were destined for cooking over regular stones.
“Will it be enough?” Beck asked.
Nora nodded. “According to the book, this is enough to heal one person. Dani is such a small girl, so it should be plenty.”
“Chirrup, chirrup.”
The signal! Nora looked at Beck, heart pounding. “The flask,” she said, “Hold it open for me.”
Beck held the empty water flask on the counter with shaking hands, and Nora poured in the mixture from the pot, forcing herself to do it slowly. She wouldn’t look over at Limar. She was going as fast as she could, and leaving the revar wasn’t an option.
“Chirrup, chirrup,” came Limar’s signal again.
The Griel stone next to her pulsed and swirled. It seemed to sense her fear. Were the sacred stones somehow in tune with feelings? Nora pushed the thought aside. She needed to think, to move, to get out safely and protect the revar at all costs. Dani must have it.
“Beck,” Nora said, corking the flask and pushing it into his hand, “above all else, this must reach Dani.” She turned and ran to the door where Limar stood, Beck right behind her.
“Nora,” said Beck, “I don’t think you . . .”
“Shh!”
Down the long hallway, a tall figure approached, face lit by the orb in his hand, whistling while he walked. The man hadn’t seen them yet, but he would at any moment. Now was the time to act if Limar and Beck were going to get away with the revar. Nora took a deep breath. She would have to be the decoy. She would head straight toward the man, distracting him while the boys left in the opposite direction.
Nora motioned Limar and Beck away from her, pointing to the library. They looked at her with wide eyes, seeming so different from the cocky boys they had been at the beginning of the journey. They were too young to be caught. Trespassing on palace grounds was cause for imprisonment; King Arnald was known for many things, but not for his mercy.
She had made the plan, and now it was her responsibility to get the boys out. She offered Limar and Beck the only thing she could think of, a smile that hopefully looked brave, and moved toward the man coming down the hall.
Chapter Two
The Prince
The whistle died on Kyn’s lips as he noticed the girl walking toward him. What was a servant doing near the kitchen in the middle of the night? Stealing? But what was there to take? The infusions were all locked up, and the power stones were embedded into the countertop.
Kyn looked down at his silk sleeping pants and rolled his eyes—just his luck to be caught looking so foolish. He slowed his steps and let go of the orb light he’d been holding. It floated up above him, brightening more of the palace’s wide hall and casting his silhouette in a long shadow that stretched across the smooth floor.
The girl neared where he had stopped. His heart thumped. She wasn’t one of their servants. He would have remembered a face like that. She looked at him briefly and then lowered her gaze. The orb light poured down on her long, red braid, which caught the light and threw it back at him. She came nearer. The girl was slender and moved smoothly. Her grace struck him as unusual for one dressed in the coarse clothing that marked the peasant class.
She gave him a tentative smile. Why didn’t she bow to him?
Kyn held his ground. Danger came in all shapes and sizes. He would not be taken in by a pretty face. “Who are you, and what are you doing on the fourth floor?” he asked in a stern voice, a voice his father would have approved of.
“My name is Merley, sir. I’m visiting my aunt who is a servant here.” She extended her hand out in the balled fist of the peasant class’s greeting.
Sir? Why hadn’t she addressed him as Your Highness?
“Why were you by the kitchen?” Kyn asked, folding his arms. He decided not to extend his arm in the palm-down greeting of the royal family. If she didn’t know who he was, he wasn’t going to enlighten her.
“The kitchen?” asked the girl. “I was just trying to find my way to the washing room.”
Kyn went cold, his eyes narrowing. She was lying. No one would come to the upper level to look for the washing room. He reached out to grab her arm, but she anticipated his move and spun around, fleeing toward the library. Adrenaline surged through Kyn, and he sprinted after her, his bare feet slapping against the marble floor. The girl’s braid streamed behind her as she ran. She was fast, but he was gaining on her. Just as she reached the library door, Kyn lunged, pushing her through the open doorway and down to the ground of the sparsely lit room. The girl grunted as the force of his weight pinned her to the thick, purple rug. For a moment they both lay motionless, trying to catch their breath.
“Please, sir,” th
e girl grunted. “I can’t breathe.”
Kyn laughed. The first time he had ever been alone with a girl, and he had just tackled her to the ground. And in his sleeping pants, no less. The impropriety of the situation struck him. What had his father said about being more circumspect? The thought made Kyn suddenly realize he shouldn’t be laughing. She was an intruder.
He righted himself and yanked the girl to her feet, spinning her away from the rows of books to face him. Light, from the one orb left uncovered in the library, shone directly on her. Kyn tilted his head and looked her up and down, taking in her brown peasant tunic and dirty leather sandals. Who was this girl?
“Why were you really near the kitchen? Did House Dolmark send you to poison the king?”
“No!” she shook her head. “I would never hurt our king.”
She seemed so sincere. Kyn stared at the girl. “You’re trespassing. That’s a serious offense.”
She flinched at the word trespassing, and her brown eyes filled with tears. Confused, Kyn dropped his hand for a moment. This was no hardened criminal.
“What were you doing by the kitchen?” he asked in a kinder voice.
“Nothing that would harm anyone.”
Kyn scoffed. “I’m supposed to just take your word? Would you care to elaborate, or should we see what the king has to say about your invasion?”
Merley—if that was her real name—looked up at him, tears still on her lashes. “Please let me go, sir. I swear by the seven stones that I meant no harm to anyone.”
“By the seven stones?” asked Kyn. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
“It does to me,” she said looking down and twisting her hands.
Why would she invoke the seven stones?
“I’ve never met someone who believes in the old religion or who swears oaths by the seven stones before,” he said. Even in the dim light, Kyn could tell that Merley was blushing.
“There are many of us who still believe in the legends,” she said.
Nora and the Sacred Stones Page 1
