An Empire of Stones Read online

  “Good morning,” he said as I opened the door.

  That’s a first.

  I drank in the sight of Tejus, with dark shadows under his eyes and a brooding expression on his face. He was dressed in his usual sentry attire, black pants and shirt with his long hair knotted at the back with a leather clasp. Combined with the dark stubble on his jaw where he obviously hadn’t shaved for a few days, the effect was startlingly attractive, and it took me a few moments to collect myself and refocus.

  “Same to you,” I managed, heat rising in my cheeks.

  I caught him looking at me with the same level of inspection, starting with my face and roving downward, his eyes becoming darker and more intent as the silence between us grew. Unable to handle his scrutiny for much longer, I cleared my throat.

  “We should…” I began.

  “Yes,” he muttered, and reluctantly turned back toward the living room. He strode over to the table and lifted up a large sheet of parchment.

  “These are the most comprehensive blueprints of the castle and the surrounding area,” he began to explain as I made my way over. “The passage that Benedict entered isn’t marked, but should be here.” He placed his finger down on the paper, near where the emperor’s quarters were marked. “I am presuming that the passage predates the origins of the castle, and if that’s the case then the passage will likely be straight—it would have been easier to create that way, with more rudimentary tools.”

  Unsheathing his sword, he laid it across the page, aligning it with where the passage began. I traced my finger along the paper, carefully avoiding the blade. Directly ahead of the passage lay miles of forest, and then a small cove.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “That’s the place I showed you—where we found the temple.”

  “The temple of the Acolytes?” I asked sharply.

  “Yes.”

  An ‘I told you so’ seemed redundant, though it was on the tip of my tongue. I had known that the Acolyte cult had something to do with all this, but Tejus hadn’t listened to me, always saying that they had disbanded centuries ago.

  “We don’t know—” Tejus began, but I silenced him with a glare.

  “We can assume,” I replied heatedly.

  “Fine,” he retorted.

  I rolled my eyes and turned back to the map. I did wonder why Tejus had been so reluctant to consider the obvious possibility that the Acolytes were behind this—or at least playing a part.

  “Tejus—” I began, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. He moved swiftly to open it, and a guard entered the threshold.

  “Your highness, the announcement of the start date of the imperial trials is due to take place at The Fells this morning. As the barriers around Hellswan seem to be permanently removed, the Impartial Ministers decree that any absence will be an instant disqualification.”

  Tejus nodded curtly.

  “Tell Lithan and Qentos that their presence will be required. I will meet them there shortly.”

  He shut the door and hastily made his way to his bedroom, returning a moment later, throwing on his robes.

  “What about the search?” I demanded.

  He glanced up at me as he strode back toward the door. “This won’t take long. We will resume the search as soon as I am done. I promised you, Hazel—I’m not going to break my word.”

  “Can I come with you?” I asked quickly. “Then we can go straight from this Fells place, and we won’t waste time.”

  Tejus paused, considering my request.

  “You will not speak to anyone when we arrive, and you will not offer your opinion on any matter discussed, is that clear?” His voice was laced with warning.

  “It’s clear,” I snapped back.

  We glared at each other for a moment, before the corner of Tejus’s mouth twitched ever so slightly.

  “Let’s go.” He turned away from me, and if I hadn’t known better I would have thought that he was laughing.

  I followed Tejus dutifully across the castle till we reached the courtyard. He stood still for a few moments before his vulture landed gracefully a few feet in front of us. I braced myself for another terrifying ride, and hoped that it would at least be a short one.

  “What are The Fells anyway?” I asked as Tejus lifted me up onto the back of the humongous bird. He jumped up behind me, and in one smooth motion the bird spread its wings and lifted up into the air as Tejus wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. I leaned back against his chest, feeling safe surrounded by his arms and the steady beat of his heart as the bird soared higher into the sky.

  “The Fells are over there.” He released one arm from my waist and pointed up ahead. “They’re the geographical center point where all the kingdoms meet, so it’s often used for conferences between the rulers.”

  I nodded, not really caring about the answer to my question as my mind whirred with thoughts of Tejus—embarrassingly conjuring up images of the time I had seen him naked in the labyrinth, and, more recently, wearing only a towel around his waist. He had told me before that he could sense when I was near him, our connection growing stronger with every mind-meld, but I hoped that he wasn’t engaging in complete mind-reading without my even knowing.

  “Are all the kingdoms taking part in the imperial trials?” I asked, trying to distract myself.

  “As far as I know, yes. They are.”

  “Any stiff competition?” I teased.

  I felt Tejus’s chest rumble with repressed laughter.

  “No,” he replied.

  I found myself smiling as the bird started to descend toward a break in the trees, and I instantly felt guilty. I shouldn’t be enjoying spending time with Tejus when Benedict was all alone somewhere, possessed by some malevolent creature. I vowed that for the rest of the day I would remove unwanted thoughts about Tejus as soon as they popped up.

  A moment later I got a chance to test my newfound willpower as he jumped down from the bird, and reached back up to lift me off. His hands circled my waist, then rose higher as gravity pulled me down. When my feet were planted firmly on the ground, his hands stayed where they were a beat longer than was necessary, and I stepped backward, almost toppling over the large claw of the vulture.

  I righted myself, and, avoiding looking at Tejus, I turned my attention to the scene before me. We had landed in a small meadow, with the wild thickets of forest surrounding the grassland causing it to be cast in shade. Directly in the middle there was a crumbling and ivy-strewn pavilion made of white stone. It had a domed top and wide arches that made up its circumference. Ministers were standing around in their dark cloaks, wrapped tightly to shield them from the damp weather. I saw Queen Trina standing under one of the arches, and my skin prickled in anger. She was talking to a wizened old man with a long beard that reached down to the floor. As I scanned the rest of the sentries gathered, I noticed five others just like him, all hunched over with age, all wearing thick, snow-white facial hair.

  “Who are they?” I asked Tejus quietly, recalling his strict instructions not to talk before we’d left the castle.

  “They’re the Impartial Ministers,” he replied, and I remembered the guard mentioning them. “They will judge the imperial trials—they live like monks in an old ruin not far from here, and are the ultimate ministerial authority.” He smirked. “Some say they are immortal. I don’t believe that, but they have been around for a long time.”

  “Do they advise you, like the other ministers?” I asked, catching sight of Lithan and Qentos approaching the pavilion.

  “No. They only advise other ministers. They are supposed to be completely impartial, guiding only by what is right for Nevertide as a whole, hence their name.”

  “But can’t we speak to them about what’s been going on at Hellswan? They might know more than the others,” I declared. Judging by the look of them, they had probably been around before the castle was built.

  “My ministers would have already consulted them,” Tejus replied grimly. “As king, I am not permitted to seek out their advice.”

  I pursed my lips in frustration. Like the rest of Tejus’s ministers, I didn’t really trust Lithan or Qentos. It wasn’t so much anything they’d done exactly—it was more their general muttering and apparent lack of knowledge that made me question their ability and willingness to help their king.

  Queen Trina moved to speak with another of the ministers, and as she did so, I caught a glimpse of Ash at the back of the pavilion.

  “Ash is there!” I turned to Tejus. “I need to speak to him—I’ll be back.” I rushed off without waiting for an answer, which I imagined would be a ‘no’ I was going to ignore anyway. I avoided the sentries, giving the pavilion a wide berth as I made my way to Ash.

  He was standing alone looking pensive, but when he saw me, his expression broke into a broad grin.

  “Hey, you,” he greeted. I smiled—Ash’s Americanisms were coming along.

  “Hey, how’s Ruby?” I asked. “Is she okay?”

  He nodded. “She’s fine. Safe. We’ve been staying in the Seraq kingdom since the night the barrier came up around Hellswan. I thought Tejus had erected it at first, which is why we left…but Ruby thought otherwise. It was the entity, right?”

  I nodded, glad that Ruby had stuck up for Tejus.

  “So are you working with Queen Trina now?”

  “I’m helping her with the imperial trials – strategy mostly, and syphoning when it’s permitted.”

  I tried to smile, glad that Ash was no longer working in the kitchen, but I wasn’t entirely convinced of my friend’s safety if she was staying with Queen Trina.

  “I thought that might be the case—Jenney mentioned that you might. I saw you leave that night – I tried to call out…but, well – it w
as pointless. I don’t want Ruby to think I abandoned her…But now that the barriers are opened, are you both going to stay with…the queen?” I asked as politely as I could.

  Ash gave a short bark of laughter. “Another fan of hers, I take it?”

  I glanced toward the pavilion. “Let’s not go there. I know you want Ruby with you, but please tell her that Tejus will come and get her if she ever wants to come back.”

  “He will, will he?” Ash remarked, looking skeptical.

  “He will,” I asserted.

  “All right. I’ll tell her.” He smiled crookedly. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not, but the light seemed to dim from his eyes.

  “How are you?” he asked after a pause.

  I swallowed.

  I’m not good.

  “Benedict’s missing…well, not exactly missing – he left the castle. I think he’s in an old temple by the cove…Tejus and I are going there after this.”

  Ash looked horrified, and it was a reminder to me just how bad things had gotten since Hellswan Castle had been blocked off by the borders. I had left out the part about the entity taking him…I wasn’t sure I wanted it reaching anyone else’s ears, especially not Queen Trina’s and it would only worry Ruby half to death.

  “When you find Benedict, get out of that castle, Hazel. Both of you.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t,” I whispered. Ash glanced in the direction of Tejus and nodded with bleak understanding.

  “I should get back. Tell her I love her,” I said softly.

  “ ‘Course,” he muttered.

  “Thanks Ash.”

  He nodded and then fixed his gaze back on the pavilion. I felt awkward suddenly, like I was speaking to the enemy or something, and hurried back to join Tejus. I was aware that I’d started to resent Ash a little bit…I understood that working for Queen Trina was probably a really good career move for him, but I couldn’t help the irrational feeling that he’d somehow betrayed Tejus, and taken my best friend away from me when I needed her the most. It was selfish of me to think like that, but the feelings were there all the same. Ash was right about one thing though – if I wasn’t willing to leave Hellswan to stay elsewhere in Nevertide, as soon as Benedict was free then I would give him that option. Not with Queen Trina, but perhaps there was somewhere else that wasn’t constantly under threat. Just until we could get out of here for good.

  “Please, kings and queen of Nevertide, assemble.” A quiet but firm voice echoed from the pavilion, and the sentries started to move—the ministers shuffling back while some stepped up onto the stone, taking their place beneath the arches. I watched as Tejus took the arch nearest where I was standing, with Lithan and Qentos standing directly behind him. I tried to get a better vantage point, but they were all so tall it was near impossible without getting too close.

  In a matter of moments, the six royals were each standing beneath individual arches, while the six Impartial Ministers stood in the center of the dome. I couldn’t really make out the faces of any of the royals, but from a distance they all seemed as tall and broad as Tejus, with Queen Trina looking as fragile as a china doll in comparison. Eugh.

  “Welcome all.” The old minister spoke again. “We meet in grave times indeed. Perilous times. Which is why the imperial trials have more importance than ever before; our land is in need of a leader, someone to bring us into a new dawn. A new age.”

  He paused. Everyone waited in complete silence—even the whispering of the ministers had ceased completely.

  “Thus, the trials will begin tomorrow at daybreak. We will reconvene here, and you will receive further instruction.”

  This time a wave of muttering went up through the waiting ministers that surrounded the pavilion. I moved closer, trying to see what kind of reaction the kings were having to the news. I could only get within a yard of the structure without pushing through the sentries and drawing attention to myself. From my vantage point, Queen Trina’s face was the only one visible to me, and she looked gleeful.

  “Please note,” the minister continued, “due to the circumstances, there will be no witnesses to the trials. No audiences, no crowds, no others than yourselves and two chosen ministers; their names should be delivered to one of us before the sun sets.”

  The sentries started moving again, and the murmurs grew louder. Obviously the meeting was over, and as the ministers parted, Tejus stepped down from the pavilion. As I made my way over to him, I couldn’t help but pick up on snippets of conversation the sentries were having amongst themselves.

  “Red rains… Hellswan bastard, they’ve been too long in power…the runes have been writ…time is short…can’t remove the borders…just plain trickery! Treachery!”

  It frightened me how unpopular Tejus was. If this was what the ministers thought, then surely the Impartial Ministers would feel the same way? What if they swayed the trials in favor of the other kings—or worse, Queen Trina?

  I approached Tejus. He was speaking to another man who, judging by his elaborate sword and colored cloak, was a king of one of the other kingdoms.

  “It is insanity!” the king hissed. “We need to delay the trials—I fear for our kingdoms, and this is just a distraction! What can they possibly be thinking?”

  “They’re thinking that the kingdoms need to be united, Thraxus. I agree with them—these are dangerous times, and we need to stand united.”

  The king threw his hands up in the air, “Of course you say that, Hellswan! The danger comes from your kingdom. I have heard mad stories! Old stories, tales long forgotten but by the old ones…” The king shook his head warily, backing away from Tejus.

  I looked up at Tejus. He didn’t look offended in the slightest, just resigned as he watched the retreating king.

  “Hey,” I whispered.

  He smirked down at me. “You can talk now.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I was being polite. I didn’t want to intrude.”

  “A first,” he quipped, smiling at his own joke.

  I chose to ignore him, and began to walk away from the surrounding ministers, hoping that he would follow me. He did.

  “Why are you pleased the trials are starting?” I asked as soon as we were out of earshot. “Aren’t you worried? There are more apocalyptic signs to come, there’s an entity trying to escape from your castle…I mean, I can think of a million reasons why it would be a good idea to postpone them.”

  Tejus shook his head.

  “We need that book. We need an emperor. Otherwise, that entity is going to rise from whatever prison it was put in, and there’s going to be nothing to halt its ascension. Nevertide will be lost.” He paused, gently brushing a stray hair from my forehead, and smiled sadly at me. “And all who reside within it.”

  Tejus

  I stepped back, my hand burning from where I’d brushed against her temple. As ever with Hazel, her mind called to me in a way I found almost impossible to comprehend. I had syphoned off many minds in my lifetime—so many, each with their unique fabric and texture. None had affected me the way Hazel’s had, and never before had I been tempted into something as intimate as our ‘mind-meld’—the term she used to describe our practice of sharing memories and visions.

  When we had arrived at the Fells, the group of waiting ministers from the Nevertide kingdoms and Hazel’s questions about the Impartial Ministers had given me an idea. It related to something I had originally dismissed out of hand, but the more time I spent with Hazel, the more it tugged at my mind—and could no longer be ignored.

  “I need to attend to something. Will you wait here for me?” I asked Hazel courteously. I knew how eager she was to get to her brother, but I didn’t know when I’d get another chance to do what needed to be done.

  “Uh…yeah,” she breathed. Color had risen in her cheeks, distracting me once again. How much time could I spend around Hazel without being permitted to touch her the way I wanted to? It was testing my sanity every passing moment, and it was becoming increasingly impossible to find the will to restrain myself.

  “I won’t be long,” I replied, and then left her standing by my vulture. I searched the departing crowds, looking for a preferable candidate. So many of the ministers I found intolerable, and my own weren’t exempt from that judgment. Averting my eyes from Queen Trina, who was knowingly smiling at me in a way I found repugnant, I saw King Memenion talking to one of his ministers—a sentry of fairly high regard, who had been in the service of Memenion for decades. I waited until their conversation came to a close, and Memenion walked away from the pavilion.