by Jayne Faith
My heart thumped in my chest as I about-faced and nearly ran into my two guards.
I made a few turns through the military wing and pushed through the War Room door.
Xavier was already there. He and his men bowed, but my eyes went straight to the wall screen.
The map on the wall was all white. There was only one tiny green blotch, which represented the last enemy remaining. The size of the blotch represented the size of the threat. It was an alien nation from a different star system, one we had been battling since my father’s time. Over the years, Calistan forces had whittled that threat down little by little until we were left with just that one blotch. If I held up my thumb, I could easily block it out.
That tiny green spot was all that stood between us and Earthenfell.
Xavier began talking, filling me in on the details of the battles. But my eyes kept drifting back to the map.
When I left the military wing, I went straight to the entrance of the harem quarters.
I’d put Calvin, one of my most trusted elite guards, in charge of the watch outside the harem doors. Ever since I’d learned that High Priestess Lunaria had turned on Maya and the miracle commission had found against her, I feared the public would call for Maya’s sacrifice. There had been outcry, some had called for the flame, but not enough to gain momentum. Not yet, anyway. I believed—and hoped—that Calisto was more focused on the impending Return than on Maya’s apparent downfall.
My paranoia about Lunaria had spiked. There was no rational reason for her to target Maya now, but I feared she might do it to try to teach me a lesson in the name of the stars or whatever she believed was guiding her.
I wanted to see with my own eyes that the guards were there, that no one would be able to come for Maya.
Calvin spotted me and came over. “My Lord.” He saluted.
I took him aside. “No disturbances here?” I kept my voice low so it wouldn’t carry.
“No, my Lord. I would inform you immediately.”
I nodded once. “We’re close,” I said even more quietly. “Very close to complete victory.”
“Yes, my Lord. We’ll be ready.”
I was counting on my guards to extract Maya before the Temple took control of the harem.
Camira reminded me that I had an appointment with the jeweler who was going to make an engagement piece for me to give to Maya. I took a deep breath, trying to mentally shift gears.
The jeweler’s workshop was near the palace, and I realized I was glad for an excuse to get outside the palace walls. A transport and additional guards awaited me near the edge of the palace grounds, but I decided to walk instead.
I waited a few moments while North, the lead guard escorting me, consulted with others via his earpiece about the safest and least conspicuous route to take. It gave me a chance to gaze around at the exquisite palace grounds.
Workers were cleaning the dust from the beautifully crafted imitation foliage nearby. Some of the workers polished with rags, others swept fluffy dusters over the plants. A man holding a hose sprayed the highest branches of the lifelike trees. Water fell from the trees like Earthen rainfall. Droplets clung to the leaves, sparkling as they caught the sunlight.
The scene stirred emotions deep in my chest, and I suddenly longed to step through a portal onto Earthenfell and turn my face up to the sky.
It was the ache my people had carried for centuries, the yearning for the homeland. It was practically sewn into our DNA.
“My Lord.” North spoke to get my attention. “We’re ready.”
I nodded, still too full of emotion to speak.
We left the palace grounds through a service exit. We paused as a handful of guards went ahead to scope out the street and then came back to pronounce the way clear.
Keeping to quiet alleys and side-streets, we passed only a few citizens on the way to the jeweler. The citizens bowed or curtsied when they recognized me, but we moved too swiftly for me to acknowledge them.
The master jeweler greeted us at the door. He was a man with an expressive weathered face and gray-streaked black hair that was gathered back in a ponytail. His taupe colored eyes sparkled as he bent in a deep bow.
“My Lord, it’s my great honor to receive you here today,” he said.
“I’m eager to see what you’ve designed.” I held out one hand, indicating that he should lead the way.
We went to one of the glass jewelry cases where there was a tablet set up on a stand. He lifted the tablet and switched it on and then handed it to me.
“I’ve created several designs,” he said. “And I can, of course, modify any of them to your liking.”
The first image was a ring, a wide band with inlaid crystals that looked like tiny leaves. The picture rotated, showing the piece from all angles. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t imagine such a thick band on Maya’s delicate hand.
The next was a set of three slim stacking rings made of rose-colored metal, each with a single round red jewel. Also exquisite, but somehow not quite right.
As I flipped through the mockups, something nearby kept attracting my eye.
“These are truly works of a master, but . . .” I set the tablet down and leaned over the case to look more closely at the pieces under the glass. I pointed to a ring. “May I see that one?”
“Absolutely, my Lord.” He unlocked the case, took out the ring, and set it on a black velvet-covered tray.
I picked up the ring between my thumb and forefinger, holding it up to the light. The metal was silvery-white, brushed so it glowed rather than reflected the light. The band was thin around the back but widened in the front to surround a single inlaid stone.
The stone had me spellbound. As I watched, it shifted from pale blue pearl to a swirl of salmon, rose, violet, and turquoise. The swirl seemed to be made up of tiny, gyrating threads.
I looked up at the jeweler, dumbfounded. “What is this? It looks as if it’s alive.”
I watched the stone as the threads faded into a swirl of milky blue. I nearly gasped as a violet thread seemed to swim up through the stone to the surface and then dart back down.
“There are tiny bioluminescent creatures trapped within the stone,” he said. “It’s an enclosed ecosystem, where the creatures feed on the minerals of the inside wall of the stone. Eventually they will dissolve it, but it will take centuries.”
An entire world trapped in this small drop of rock.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” I said.
“It’s incredibly rare. There are only a handful of pieces like this in existence. This one has been in our inventory since my grandfather owned the business.”
“What’s it called?” I asked, glancing up again.
A smile touched his lips. “Infinity stone.”
It was perfect. More amazing than anything I could have imagined. I didn’t even bother asking the price. No other piece would do.
I imagined giving it to Maya, seeing it on her hand. “I’ll take this ring.”
I left instructions for sizing it to Maya’s small finger, and the jeweler promised to have it delivered to the palace within the hour.
I had one more procurement to make, and it would test me. I needed Jade nearby. Not because I desired her presence, but because she was a necessity.
My stomach gripped like a fist at the thought of facing her after so many years. She was part of this. She was the harbinger, but more importantly, she was my heartbreak. She would be at my right hand when I stepped foot on Earthenfell.
Jade was no prisoner, and High Priestess Lunaria had no specific right to hold the Pirro woman in the Temple. If I summoned her, she could come freely. I would wait until late evening, when Lunaria had retired for the day.
As it turned out, there was no need.
Just before dusk, the lead guard on duty outside my chambers contacted me. Jade was there.
I went to a receiving room to wait. When she arrived, I stayed where I was at the far end of the room. It wasn�
�t out of fear but as an expression of my authority. She would have to come to me.
Four guards escorted her. She was, after all, a foreigner and a member of an enemy nation. An extinct race, or so we’d thought.
She was a living sculpture of perfect angles, like all of her people. She was as tall as a Calistan but somehow smaller than the image of her I’d stored in my memory.
Her green eyes seemed to pierce me like two small needle points.
I waved the guards off.
“My Lord, she doesn’t have an implant,” North said. “For your own safety, we can’t leave her alone with you.”
I wasn’t in the mood to argue with the guards, but I wasn’t about to let them hover over us. “You and your men can wait by the door,” I said, my eyes only flicking away from Jade’s for a split second to make sure North would comply.
North’s jaw tensed, but he gave a little bow and retreated with the rest of the guards. They lined up, two guards on either side of the closed door.
“My Lord,” she said. Her accent was thick, but the sound of her voice resonated in my ears like a long-forgotten song.
She wore slim-fitting pants with a shirt tucked loosely into them. A man’s clothes, by Calistan styles and conventions. Her head dropped in a bow, and I glimpsed a few silvery strands throughout her dark hair.
When she looked up again, I noticed faint lines around the outer edges of her eyes. Around each corner of her mouth was a permanent C-shaped crease I didn’t remember. She’d aged since I’d seen her last but still stood with her feet planted and one hand resting on her wide belt. I knew the stance was habit, and that usually there was a dagger holstered there under her fingers. She’d obviously been disarmed, though I suspected she’d probably managed to conceal at least one small knife somewhere.
“Jade,” I said.
Her head cocked in question.
“I never knew your name,” I explained. “That was what I called you.”
She placed a hand on her chest. “Jelique Mazor.” She pronounced her name in the guttural, rolling Pirro language that I remembered well but hadn’t heard in so very long.
“You have grown into a man,” she said quietly, her accent thick. She looked me up and down. There was no desire or seduction in her examination, only open curiosity. Her eyes came back to my face, and she squinted slightly. “You are a king. A king of kings who will lead the chosen ones back to the homeland.”
“Did you know we would meet again?” I asked, also keeping my voice low. “Did you know you were part of the—”
I almost asked if she’d known she would play a role in the Return. But I already knew the answer. Her people had been holding the tenth volume of the sacred texts. The things the Pirros had done to me . . . yes, Jade and her people must have always known.
I peered at her, truly trying to understand. “Why are your people linked to us? We defeated you. Most of your people are gone. The Pirros will not claim Earthenfell.”
Her lips twitched, and I realized she was amused by what I’d said. “Are you so sure of that?” Again, she cocked her head.
“The royal bloodline,” I whispered.
Her eyes sparked. “There is more than one way to reach a destination.”
Indeed.
I blinked slowly and my gaze turned to the small window, which gave a little square of a view of Calisto. The Pirros were hitching a ride to Earthenfell in our very DNA. All of those people. How many of them carried Pirro blood? I turned my attention back to Jade—Jelique.
“Your people planned it all along,” I said. “You knew you couldn’t defeat us, so you . . . you infiltrated us in other ways.”
With a small smile, she inclined her head, as if acknowledging that I’d just solved a particularly clever riddle.
My face hardened. “Why was it necessary to take me? To torture me?”
“To ensure that the Lord of Calisto would take with him one Pirro of pure blood to Earthenfell.”
I shook my head, not understanding.
“To fulfill our prophecies.” She paused, looking at me with a grave expression, as if allowing her words to sink in. “Am I not the heartbreak that will be at your right when you step onto Earthenfell?”
I couldn’t deny what she said, and it was an effort to push down the flare of anger that pressed up against my heart. “You broke me in every way possible. That wasn’t necessary.”
“Yes. We had to ensure that there was no other who could take that role.” She sniffed and assumed a business-like tone. “And you were too soft. You needed hardening.”
Ire burned in my chest again. But she said it so matter-of-factly I knew there was no point in trying to make her understand the damage she’d done. The Pirros were a warrior race. Brutal and ruthless. But they’d never had the numbers or technology to defeat us, so they’d adapted. They’d figured out another way, and it had worked.
And really, who was I to judge? Calistans were guilty of brutality as well. We’d been sacrificing Earthens in our Tournaments for centuries. Was that brutality more acceptable than the one the Pirros had committed against me? Both were in the name of the divine word handed down by the stars. For us—Calistans—that word was captured in our sacred texts. Perhaps the Pirros had their own sacred books.
Each of our races had committed our respective brutalities because of deep belief in the rightness of our actions.
I leveled my chin, meeting her green eyes with an unwavering stare. “You must not return to the Temple. You will stay here until the initiation of the Sequence.”
Something seemed to light up behind her eyes, and tension seemed to coil within her. For the briefest of moments I thought she would refuse or strike out.
But then she inclined her head in the same bow she’d performed when she came into the waiting room.
“As you wish, my Lord.”
I realized it wasn’t defiance I’d sensed. It was pride. Or the pleasure of seeing something long-awaited come to fruition.
And I realized something else: it was the first time I had commanded Jade. In all of our time together, she had been in charge. She’d owned my mind and my body so completely that in spite of her torture, I’d begged to stay with her when the Pirros cast me out and forced me back to Calisto.
Maya and Jeric had been right. Jade no longer controlled me. Oh, I was still the man who had been molded by her actions—what she’d done, what she’d trained me to need was too deeply a part of me to extract—but I was my own man.
My last lingering childhood feelings of helplessness had vanished. Like an old haunt suddenly exorcised, it fled and disappeared.
I was free, and I was on the very threshold of fulfilling my destiny.
12
Maya
I WAS DREAMING of the orchards when a hand grasped my arm and shook me awake.
My heart bucked and I sucked in a breath. Fingers pressed over my lips, stifling the scream that welled up my throat.
Lips near my ear. “Quiet. I’m a friend. Don’t make a sound.”
In the near-dark of my room, I sensed that the arms pulling me from my bed belonged to a Calistan. The voice was female.
Before I’d retired—the first time I’d actually slept in my bed in the harem quarters—Lord Toric had told me I wouldn’t be summoned to his bedchamber that night. He needed the cover of darkness to put some things in place for the Return and didn’t like the idea of leaving me alone in his chambers.
But now there was a stranger in my room.
“Who are y—” I started to ask, but the hand slapped over my mouth again.
“I said quiet,” she hissed.
One hand remained clamped on my lips and the other gripped my upper arm.
The Calistan woman moved me toward the door and used her foot to nudge it open. Dim light slanted in from the hallway, and I looked up to see who my captor was.
“Hera?” I tried to exclaim, but the word died against the inside of my closed mouth.
She leane
d her head out the doorway and peered left and right and then sidled out, pulling me with her.
“It’s time,” she said in my ear. “I’m taking you to Lord Toric’s guards. If we encounter anyone, let me do the talking.”
She dropped her hand from my mouth but kept a hold of my arm.
It’s time . . .?
I inhaled sharply as the fog of sleep and confusion suddenly lifted.
The sign. It must have come. Lord Toric was going to begin the Sequence.
The Return was upon us.
As Hera hurried me through the corridors, the same absurd thought kept spinning through my mind: I was still in my nightgown and my hair was probably a disaster, and it would be so embarrassing to go back to Earthenfell in such a state.
I looked up at Hera as a new thought dawned. “You work for Lord Toric?”
She cast a sidelong glance at me. “Surprised?”
All along, the grumpy, strict Calistan woman had been poised to help? Surprised was an understatement.
As the bleariness of sleep cleared, my situation began to take focus.
“Have you seen the sign?” I asked softly.
“I took a peek through a window,” she whispered. “Probably shouldn’t have done it even for just the few seconds it took, but I couldn’t help myself. I want to be able to tell my grandchildren about it.”
An unexpected smile tried to twitch at my lips. Hera was giddy.
“And what did you see?”
“A million shooting stars. As if the heavens are raining down.” Her demeanor quickly sobered as we neared the harem’s main entrance. “The guards are waiting for you on the other side. Go, quickly.”
I nodded and pushed through the first set of doors. As I left the harem quarters through the outer set of doors, I suddenly remembered my sister. Lana was supposed to take my place. I looked back, but the inner doors had closed and the guards were already surrounding me and forcing me forward.
My chest tightened with worry, but there was no going back. I’d have to trust that Lord Toric had things under control.
The guards were moving so swiftly, I couldn’t keep up. When I stumbled, one of them caught me by the arm and scooped me up off my feet. I looked up to find it was Tullock who carried me. I gave him a grateful smile, but he was so focused I wasn’t sure he noticed.
