A gentle knock sounded at the thick wooden door.
“Doed.” Ilythra produced a smile for the Riege.
“Daughter,” Ewen began and opened his arms.
She stepped into his embrace, bathing in the peace radiating from him. “Arien told you.”
“He didn’t need to. It was obvious. But yes, he told me. In every ending, there’s a beginning. It is the way of things. Do not fear to follow your heart.”
She shook her head against his chest. “I am afraid.”
He pulled her away and stared down at her. “And fear has never been your friend?”
Ilythra gazed into Ewen’s deep green eyes.
“You’ve used fear. At times it has kept you alive. Don’t now let it use you.”
“I can’t leave you. The rest of the Dawn Children. The stones belong together. With the Children of the Dawn.”
“Ilythra, do you think the bonds which bind us are so easily broken? They’re stronger than time or distance, even death. They were forged in eternity, and for eternity will remain.” Ewen held her at arm’s length. “I don’t tell you what to do. I do not even counsel. You’re my daughter. I’ll love you to the end of my days.” He kissed her forehead. “We are assembling in the courtyard.”
The door shut, and still Ilythra was no closer to knowing what it was her heart was telling her to do.
* * *
The Dawn Children rode before her, heads bent in quiet conversation as they crossed the last bridge. Arien journeyed by her side, a silent companion. Ryliann and several warriors escorted them past the last guardhouse. She refused to meet his gaze. She heard the ceremonial goodbyes but did not participate. Ilythra’s heart lay like a stone in her chest. Slowly the caravan moved up the incline. She gazed to Arien riding next to her. Concern laced his eyes.
At the top of the rise, Ilythra glanced back. Ryliann stood next to his horse, watching her. His men had left him and he was alone. She stopped Melior and stared down at the king.
A sob broke in her throat, followed by joy bubbling from deep inside. She knew. She couldn’t leave him alone. And without him, even in a room full of people, she would always be alone. In some way she didn’t understand, Ryliann had become a part of her and she was a part of him. Together, they were more than the sum of their parts. Her sorrow and confusion had come from fighting that truth.
She caught up with the rest of the caravan and dismounted. Ewen was the first to turn. Pain nearly pulled her apart, but with it, the birth of freedom. “Ewen.”
Ewen’s smile contradicted the tears in his eyes. Arien turned, jumped from his horse and stepped a pace toward her. Ilythra’s heart swelled until she was sure her body couldn’t contain it. She reached out her arm. A sad smile touched her friend’s face. She wanted to run to him, to tell him she loved him, but looking into his eyes, she saw he knew.
Arien stepped forward and whispered into her hair, “Go, Ilythra.”
Tears streaming down her face, she held the heavy silver chain in her hand. What am I doing? I’m choosing death. She hesitated, fingers stroking the well-known texture. She stood still. Memories assailed her as clear as when they’d happened. She saw her grandfather burrowed in his favorite rocking chair. Nolwen and Perin, the wave rider couple who had taken her in after the shipwreck. She remembered King Erhard of Greton’s sad face when he’d defied Bredych and let her go, Mohan, the men and women she’d tended in the refugee camp. Ilythra closed her eyes, feeling tears drip from her cheeks as she saw Arien’s laughing face, remembered the long nights spent in conversation. Then she saw Ryliann, now a king. She was no longer Sara, but neither was she only Ilythra, the Wanderer. She was more. Could she be just a woman?
No, not just a woman. Ryliann’s woman. Not death. I’m choosing life. Life not measured by length but by quality. She felt with certainty her whole life had led to this moment, scene upon scene, emotion after emotion. She now knew beyond question that her entire life had been about this moment, had brought her here to this time and place, to this decision.
Ilythra removed Ilydearta and, holding it as she would a child, walked toward Manu and placed it around his neck. The Elderborn bowed his head, wordlessly accepting the stone. His eyes shone.
Ilydearta’s song wavered and then sang a new melody. Her heart soared. She hadn’t lost Teann. The Dawn Children all dismounted, sorrow and love etched on their faces. Fresh tears fell as she watched Sheenan wipe his eyes. One by one, they inclined their heads, one hand over their hearts.
Ilythra swung onto Melior’s back and turned, a sense of anticipation mixing with sorrow in her breast. She began back down toward Edriel. She hadn’t gone far when the figure near the bridge began moving forward. After a few paces, Ryliann ran toward her. Ilythra dismounted. Some day she’d tell Ryliann that kings shouldn’t run. But not today. Today, she truly had everything she ever wanted. She was going home.
* * * * *
In need of more epic fantasy?
Find out how the Triune Stones series began with
Journey of Awakening and Journey of Dominion—available now!
Journey of Awakening
After her grandfather’s death, Sara inherits an ancient pendant and a near-impossible quest—master the mysterious pendant’s source of magic. Driven to do so, she must find the other two stones of power, long considered lost, while preventing an unknown enemy from finding her first.
Unprepared and alone, she travels to where the keepers of the stones, the Siobani, were last seen. Along the way she meets Tobar, leader of the nomadic Heleini tribe. As Sara wrestles with feelings for this intriguing man, she is also invigorated with her grandfather’s passion to find the ancient Siobani race.
Journey of Dominion
Sara, now known as Ilythra, the Wanderer of legend, continues north on her quest to find the Siobani, who hold the secrets of the magic stone around her neck.
The stone’s magic leads her to help a trader in search of his brother. The hunt takes her into a land in the grip of an alchemical conspiracy. Lord Bredych of Greton has already schemed to control Ilythra’s stone once and weaves a web of scent, magic and manipulation to bring her to him. With Bredych’s fragrances intoxicating her and the song of his stone in her ears, Ilythra begins to forget her quest.
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About the Author
Winner of a 2011 RT Readers’ Choice Award for her debut book, Altered Destiny, Shawna Thomas can’t remember a time she wasn’t making up stories. Once she put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, there was no looking back.
Shawna lives in California where, when she’s not writing or editing, she tends to her seven children, gardens, bakes and drinks a lot of coffee.
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ISBN-13: 9781426897993
JOURNEY OF THE WANDERER
Copyright © 2014 by Shawna Thomas
Edited by Rhonda Helms
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled,
reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
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