An Empire of Stones

by Bella Forrest

  “Of course,” he replied, and I knew without seeing his face that he would be smirking. I rolled my eyes.

  “Okay, go now.”

  “Gone!” he called out.

  I smiled, only opening the door when I heard his retreating footsteps fade.

  A silk robe and some underclothes had been left outside the door—all in the pale blue of the Memenion colors. I dried myself and then put them on, loving the feel of the clean, fine silk against my skin. When I’d finished getting dressed there was another knock on the door. This time it was the minister who had escorted me to the room. She smiled when she saw me.

  “The color suits you.”

  “Thank you,” I said, stunned again at how polite and friendly a minister was being to a ‘lowly’ human.

  “Are you ready to go down for dinner?” she asked. “I’m to escort you if you are.”

  “I’m ready, thanks.”

  We walked back along the hallways to the ground floor of the castle, the minister pointing out bits of artwork on the walls and giving me a short history in the different phases of architecture of the castle. The original parts of the castle all hinted at Viking origins, fitting with what Hazel had told me she’d seen down at the cove, but when I mentioned the term ‘Viking’ the minister just looked at me oddly, referring only to ‘the first sentry settlers.’

  When we reached the banquet hall, Varga was waiting for me by the entrance. He held out his arm for me to take, and I did so, relieved that I would know at least one person at the dinner.

  The hall was beautiful, more intimate than the one at Hellswan, with every available surface covered in candles and wild flowers, and long silk drapes hanging from the ceiling. Murals covered the walls in here too, more pastoral landscapes and floral motifs. A large table stood in the center of the room, laid out and waiting, but all the sentries were gathered at the other end, standing by the fireplace.

  When Varga and I approached, the conversations halted, but only to welcome us both to the dinner. There were five ministers present, three women and two men, as well as the king and queen.

  “What news of the fires?” the king asked Varga.

  “An emissary came to your guards from the Hellswan kingdom only moments ago. The fires are still not dead. They are expected to last the night.” Varga shook his head. “They will ravage all the crops—everything.”

  “More trouble at Hellswan,” the king muttered. “There is always trouble at Hellswan.”

  “It has been the seat of the emperor for decades. Perhaps it is to be expected.”

  “Exactly my point! I believe Tejus’s father is behind all of this somehow. He kept his kingdom isolated, shutting us all off, and now none of us know what to do, not even his own son!” the king barked out, gesturing with his goblet.

  “Tejus is a great man,” Varga replied calmly. “He will see us out of this mess, if given the chance.”

  “You put too much faith in your king,” King Memenion replied. “I have no doubt he will turn out to be just as slippery as his father.”

  “Now, now,” the queen interrupted. “Tejus is a good man—you know that, Memenion. He can’t be blamed for the faults of his father.”

  The king grumbled something under his breath that I didn’t catch, and Varga smirked.

  “What of his death?” asked the queen, oblivious to her husband’s comment. “Did you ever get to the bottom of his death? I was told it came as a shock to all.”

  Varga shook his head.

  “No, your highness, we did not. There is no doubt the investigation will resume after the trials.”

  I felt slightly queasy at hearing Varga’s prediction. Ash had believed that Tejus thought he was the one responsible, that somehow Tejus had found out about the poisoned soup, but as nothing had ever come of it, I had stopped worrying. It hadn’t occurred to me that the investigation had only been put on hold temporarily.

  “Let’s eat,” the queen announced, and everyone began to make their way to the table. Thankfully, Varga guided me to the seat next to his, and I relaxed, knowing that I wouldn’t need to be an entertaining dinner guest.

  The courses were brought out by servants, and I was unsurprised to find that the food here wasn’t that much better than at Hellswan. Clearly the sentries didn’t consider seasoning a huge priority…I briefly thought about pancakes and maple syrup, pizza, fries, milkshakes. My stomach rumbled, loudly.

  Varga raised an eyebrow, but it appeared that no one else heard.

  That is so embarrassing.

  “Is the food to your liking?” he asked, amused.

  “It’s lovely,” I enthused, lying through my teeth as the queen looked over to hear my answer.

  “Ruby, you must tell me about the human dimension.” She smiled. “I’ve never been…do you like it there?”

  I was about to reply when the door to the banquet hall swung open, hitting the wall. I spun around to see who had entered with such force and saw a young boy, no older than fourteen or fifteen, enter the room. He was wearing a black robe with the hood pulled up.

  He scowled as he saw us and stalked past the table. I looked at the queen and she paled.

  “This is our son, Ronojoy.” She smiled weakly. “Ronojoy, would you like to join us for dinner?”

  He eyed the table and his gaze came to rest on me. His sneer intensified.

  “So the rumors are true—you’ve invited a human to eat at our table?” he hissed at his mother. “It’s an insult! I would rather starve than sit and eat with that.”

  Wow.

  I glanced at Varga in confusion, but he was staring at the boy as if he were about to punch his lights out.

  “How dare you!” roared his father, standing up from the table.

  “Memenion—” the queen tried to interject, but he ignored her.

  “Go to your room! You will starve if you won’t learn manners. You bring this family nothing but shame!”

  The boy gave me one last filthy look, and then spun on his heel and marched out of the room.

  “Ruby, I’m so sorry,” mumbled the queen, clearly humiliated. “He’s young…confused, I think. I just don’t know what’s gotten into him lately—he’s out all hours, we never know where he is—you know, he really used to be such a lovely boy.”

  “It’s fine,” I said quickly. I didn’t know what the boy’s problem was, but I’d seen my fair share of teenage tantrums. He was obviously just an odd individual. More than anything I felt sorry for his parents.

  After that, the king and queen returned the conversation to matters of their own kingdom, avoiding mentioning Hellswan or quizzing me on Earth. I was glad. I felt awkward: I knew I didn’t belong there anyway, but the prince’s outburst had just highlighted that, and I was massively relieved when the dinner came to an end.

  Varga turned to me after I’d said my goodnights to the hosts. “I’ll escort you back to your room.”

  I nodded, and followed him out.

  “What the heck was that about?” I asked as soon as we were out of earshot.

  “I honestly don’t know,” Varga replied. “Humans are a new thing to some sentries—kidnapping them from another dimension was not practiced widely until the emperor believed it would be a good idea for his sons in the trials. Ronojoy is young. He might just be reacting to the unknown, perhaps seeing you as some sort of threat.”

  I nodded. It seemed a fair assumption, though I couldn’t help but feel there was more to it than that. His viciousness seemed so real, like I’d personally done something to him.

  “Would you like to look out from the tower? We can see if the fire is dying.” Varga gestured to a small door that led off the hallway to my room.

  “Do you think it will be safe to leave tomorrow?” I asked as I followed him up winding stone steps. “I should really get back.”

  “As should I,” he muttered. “Before the next disaster hits.”

  We entered the top of the tower, the cold air hitting us immediately. I s
hivered in my robe, and looked out toward Hellswan. The ice fires were still roaring, lighting up the forests so fiercely it was almost painful to look directly at them.

  “I hope everyone’s okay, did you see the carriage driver get out?” I asked.

  “I did,” Varga replied shortly.

  I turned my gaze in the direction of Queen Trina’s kingdom, relieved to find it untouched. “I’m glad Ash isn’t there.”

  “Ashbik?” Varga asked. “He’s assisting Queen Trina now, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he’s one of the ministers assisting her at the Imperial Trials.”

  He nodded.

  “She is a powerful woman,” Varga mused. “But a dangerous one.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked sharply. I was so tired of people telling me that she was dangerous or untrustworthy without giving me any solid reasons why. I had my own suspicions, but other than the nymphs in her castle, had failed to come up with any real evidence as to why she was such a threat—and why Ash should keep his distance.

  “All I mean is that you should stay out of her way.”

  “Okay, but why exactly?” I asked again.

  “I am not at liberty to say more, Ruby. Please just trust me that you shouldn’t go near that woman—and if Ashbik had an ounce of sense in him, he wouldn’t either.”

  “Well, it’s too late for that,” I replied, my heart sinking. I knew Ash wouldn’t be coming back to Hellswan any time soon. Without evidence to support my suspicions, I had nothing left to persuade him with.

  “Can you just tell me if he’s in immediate danger?” I begged, not willing to let the subject drop.

  “I’m sure he’s not,” Varga replied, but I could see the doubt in his eyes. Frustrated and angry, I turned away from him, looking back toward the Hellswan kingdom engulfed in flames.

  Is there anywhere the least bit safe in this damn dimension?

  I thought about Benedict and Julian lost in Nevertide. Hazel would either be going out of her mind with worry in the castle, or be in a similar position to me—waiting out the inferno.

  But at least she’d be with Tejus.

  Maybe I needed to change my plan.

  Rose

  The Shade’s Council—and the core GASP leadership—was waiting in the Great Dome for my father and Ben to return. Mom had just received a phone call from them that they were back in the human dimension, and Mona had gone to fetch them. Mom was pacing up and down, her boots making a faint clipping sound on the floor that added to my general unease.

  Caleb and I had expanded our search of missing persons files to the whole of Europe, after the British Isles and Scotland failed to come up with anything that resembled what happened at Murkbeech. There was so much material to get through, thousands of incidents, and with each unsolved case we’d looked into, it was near impossible to ascertain whether or not there was any kind of supernatural involvement.

  “Are you okay, Rose?” River asked. She was sitting to my right, looking as anxious as I felt.

  I could hardly bring myself to nod. “We haven’t managed to get any more solid clues out of the humans from Murkbeech… and there’s so much information to sort through. It just feels like everything’s taking too long.”

  “Did the witches come up with anything yet?” she asked.

  Corrine had made a visit to The Sanctuary to see if anyone had come across anything similar, but it hadn’t proven fruitful. The incident seemed to be isolated, which made it much harder to even hazard a guess as to what we might be dealing with.

  The door to the council room opened. River exhaled in relief as Ben and my dad walked through. My mom stopped pacing and swiftly embraced my father, squeezing him tight before she released him.

  “Thank you all for coming.” My dad addressed the room as Ben went to take a seat next to River. My dad led my mom to the head of the table, where they both sat down. “As you know,” my father said, “Ben and I have been visiting Sherus in the fae empire. He seems convinced that there is… activity stirring in the supernatural dimension that is eventually going to threaten both Earth and the In-Between.”

  “What kind of activity?” Ibrahim asked.

  “That we do not know—nor does Sherus,” my father replied, his dark brows furrowing. “We are trusting his instincts. He truly believes that something powerful and dangerous is coming our way, and I doubt it is wise to ignore his conviction. We met with the rulers of all four fae kingdoms. Sherus wishes for them to align with each other, and to draw on our resources to assist them in both discovering and combating this threat.”

  “It sounds like the fae are getting a good deal.” Lucas spoke up, his face set in a deep grimace. “What are the fae offering us? Will they help battle whatever this force is?”

  After my uncle’s experience with the fae, I understood his skepticism, but I couldn’t share it. If there was indeed a threat looming, then we had just been given a heads-up.

  “They will,” my father replied. “We might one day find that we are grateful for the forewarning as well. Plus, it can only be beneficial for us to have the fae join our network of allies—we know next to nothing about the In-Between, or what creatures might lurk there besides the fae. There may well come a time in the future when the fae can be of use.”

  “I don’t trust them,” Lucas muttered, his icy blue eyes traveling the room until they rested on Ben. Lucas raised a brow at him.

  All eyes turned to my brother.

  “I do,” he replied to Lucas levelly. “I trust Sherus. I also share my father’s opinion that we have nothing to lose here. If the threat does reveal itself to just be a figment of the imagination, then we have only benefited by creating an alliance with the fae that could be used at a later date. And if the threat is real, then we will need them.”

  “So what are our next steps?” Claudia asked.

  “Sherus will continue to persuade the kingdoms to cooperate with one another,” my father replied. “We will need to start making enquiries throughout the supernatural dimension—see if there have been any other indicators that there might be trouble coming our way.”

  “Okay,” I spoke up. “In that case, we need to think about labor division. Obviously the missing kids are our priority, and so far, we’ve not made much headway.”

  “Of course,” my father replied. “Corrine and Rose, you will head up one team. Ben and Ibrahim will head up the other. We’ll touch base every six hours for updates.”

  The council meeting adjourned, and Caleb and I headed back with Claudia, Yuri, Ashley and Landis to an empty office in the Vale’s school that we’d temporarily taken over to use as our base.

  “This couldn’t be happening at a worse time,” I muttered to Caleb. “It feels like we’re thinly stretched as it is.”

  “We’ll get there, Rose,” Caleb replied stoically.

  He took my hand, and the gesture reminded me of something he often said to me: Don’t fear what-ifs. There was no point in me panicking about the lack of developments. We just had to keep our heads down and put in the legwork.

  But a few hours later, after sifting through more case files, I was back to feeling pretty hopeless. None of them mentioned the group mind-loss that we’d experienced in Murkbeech.

  “This is pointless!” Claudia exploded. The little blonde vampire shot to her feet, sending papers skittering across the table and onto the floor. “There’s absolutely nothing here! I can’t tell if any of these disappearances are supernatural or not—there’s no pattern!” She flicked through the files on her laptop at random. “Here’s one about an Abigail Stevens, aged eleven, missing from her home in Plymouth. This one’s Carlito Cabral, aged six, missing from school in Oeiras, Portugal. The only thing they have in common is that they’re both missing!”

  “Hang on,” I said, “they’re both coastal towns. Pick another.”

  “Okay…this one’s from Brighton.”

  “That’s another coastal town,” I replied swiftly. “Yuri, how long would it ta
ke to put all the case files on a map?”

  “About an hour at most,” Yuri replied, already tapping furiously on his keyboard.

  Forty minutes later, we had all the missing persons pinpointed on a map of Europe. Now we could see a better pattern.

  “Okay, so the majority of activity in the last few months has been around coastal towns—all facing the North Atlantic.”

  “So what does that mean?” Ashley asked.

  “I don’t know yet. But at least we have a place to start. The boy said that these creatures came out of nowhere…and if nobody is aware of unusual activity around the portals in these areas, then perhaps they’re coming from the sea?”

  “It’s not an impossibility,” Landis murmured. “And we haven’t heard of any other supernatural activity reported in those areas.”

  “I think we need to take a sample and try our luck,” I said. “Interview at random, starting with cases that happened closest to the water, and see what we find out.”

  The others agreed. It wasn’t exactly the breakthrough that we’d been hoping for, but it was something. Now we had to go out and hunt down some more clues…anything that could give us the slightest indication of what kind of creature we were dealing with.

  Hazel

  When I woke, dawn was just creeping up over the tops of the trees. The fires seemed to have died out, leaving behind a blanket of white frost that covered everything, coating the land in a blanket of silence that was almost deafening. I felt groggy and disorientated, and looked around for Tejus.

  He was standing by the edge of the forest, stroking the muzzle of a bull-horse. He had obviously removed the barriers before I woke, and called for another method of transportation. I looked over at Aria. Her body was now almost entirely frost-covered, her wings glinting in the faint morning light. I felt bad that we were just going to leave her here, but I supposed we didn’t have another choice.

  “Are you ready to leave?” Tejus asked, walking toward me with the bull-horse.