Chapter 2
LYRA
“Those stilts look as if they might give way at any moment.”
Peering out of the window of our table at the window of The Siren’s Rest tavern, I watched as wave after wave crashed against the worn wood, expecting to plunge into the sea below us at any moment.
“They did once.”
My head whipped back toward the speaker. Ilyas Rho, our shrewd smuggler?turned?rebel and local contact, grinned at my appalled expression.
Unlike Marek or Issa, the water-wielder and his sharp?eyed human partner who also sat with me, I knew little of Ilyas Rho aside from the fact that he was our contact here. We’d only met just before this meal.
“Pardon?” I asked, Issa seemingly just as surprised as me.
“They are fortified with featherleaf which, as you might know, cannot break. But local legend tells of one Gyorian king who was so enraged that his queen took a lover that he demolished the original Siren’s Rest by splitting each of the stilts on which it was built in half and plunging her and her lover, along with the other patrons, into the sea. ”
Marek, amused as always, shook his head in disagreement.
“Nay. ’Twas not a lover but a woman who planned to challenge him at the Rite of Stone and Soil.”
The smuggler frowned. “What does a Thalassari know of Gyorian legend?”
Marek, unfazed by the question, took a swig of ale.
“When the woman in question was half-Thalassari? Plenty.” He leaned forward, clearly relishing his new role as storyteller.
“Her mother was Gyorian, her father, Thalassari. Though none knew of it until she was able to escape from a watery death with ease. She was the reason Gyoria, unlike the other clans, instituted The Sovereign Clause.”
The Sovereign Clause. Only a full-blooded Gyorian could challenge the current king or queen.
“What happened to her?” Issa asked.
I was curious as well, never having heard the story.
“She survived and never challenged the king. Some say though, because she was more powerful than he, The Unbalance sparked The Shattering.”
I rolled my eyes. “The Shattering was caused by two heirs who fought for the throne, and magic chose neither.”
“So say those who wish to erase her history.”
“The problem with a Thalassari,” I said, ignoring for this one brief moment the gravity of our mission, “is that one can never discern whether or not he, or she, spins tales or relays real history.”
“That is not the only problem with a Thalassari,” Issa said wryly, to which Marek did something under the table to her that made the human shriek.
I was about to comment on their interaction when a Gyorian woman walked by, brushing Ilyas’s arm. The movement was so slight I’d not have noticed except I saw the tension in his spine. Without a word, he stood and followed her.
Marek leaned his head to the side, watching Ilyas’s retreat.
“That was… abrupt.” Issa sat back in her seat, peering in the same direction as her partner.
The Siren’s Rest was precisely as Marek and Issa had described it.
Though I’d never been here—Gyoria, a region I typically avoided—I could admit it was exactly as they had explained. Located over the sea in a port known for smugglers and the like, it was the only place in Gyoria where a Thalassari, an Aetherian, and a human could sit together unnoticed.
When one’s activities were illegal, they were less likely to question the actions of others.
“The Gyorian woman,” I said. “With her hair in a circlet braid—”
“I saw her,” Marek responded before I could finish. “With the weathered leather doublet?”
“Aye.”
“Did she summon him?” Issa asked.
It was no wonder this was the team Mev and Kael had assembled for a mission as important as ours. Marek noticed what most would not. Issa surmised what others would have waited for me to explain.
“I’m assuming she did,” I said.
“Do you think she is our contact?” Issa asked.
“Uncertain,” I admitted. “But since we arrived a day early, I do not believe so.”
“Agreed.” Marek looked around the small tavern. “But the sooner we can make contact, the better.”
None would argue that point.
As we ate, and drank, in silence, waiting for Ilyas to return, my mind wandered back to the king’s directive. One which my parents, two of the most influential nobles in the Aetherian court, had no knowledge of as they were now retired from the king’s employ.
Go to Gyoria. Infiltrate the court. Get the Stone of Mor’Vallis.
No easy feat for someone such as me.
An Aetherian noblewoman and friend to Gyoria’s most notable traitor, the king’s son.
Kael was less welcome here than all three of us combined, but that didn’t mean he had stayed away. After the third artifact had been recovered, he immediately left Aetheria to treat with his brother Terran and attempt to convince him to switch sides. To choose peace over war. Love over hate.
For his efforts, Kael had nearly been discovered by his father’s men and almost been killed.
And so we were here to finish the mission Kael started. Retrieve the stone, bring it back to Aetheria and reunite all three clan artifacts. Only then could we reopen the Aetherian Gate, the portal to the human realm that King Balthor had closed nearly thirty years ago.
“There is a… complication.”
Ilyas, who’d returned to the table a moment ago, sat.
“What is it?” Marek asked.
“Seryn was discovered. And executed.”
I froze.
Seryn was one of two Aetherian spies Mev and Kael relied on for information.
But Seryn was more than just a spy. I’d suggested him for this mission.
After proving his worth by summoning and dispersing a storm on the Sky Pinnacle at Aetheria’s most sacred festival, the Trial of the Tempest, King Galfrid had asked me to train him.
He was a more adept air-wielder than most, and for a time, I thought perhaps his magic might even surpass that of the king’s.
It did not… though I suspected there was one alive now whose magic might make that claim. Even so, he was clever. Kind. And supremely talented. And now he was dead.
“How?” I asked, my fists clenching.
“He was discovered—”
“How was he killed?”
Ilyas, Marek, and Issa exchanged a glance. The smuggler frowned.
“He was brought to the king. But it was Prince Terran himself who commanded the mountain to swallow him.”
Prince Terran. Kael’s stern younger brother, if only by minutes, and a powerful earth?wielder.
My heart sank. If it was any other, I’d have found the culprit myself and ensured his immortal life was ended. But I could not kill Kael’s brother.
“Fortuitous,” I said, all three now watching for my reaction, not even knowing my ties to the young life forsaken.
“I could almost feel pity for him,” Issa said, watching me.
She likely knew what I was thinking. It mattered little that Issa was human and not Aetherian and could not hear my silent whispers. But she knew the path to the Stone of Mor’Vallis went through Terran.
“He will pay,” I promised. “I am assured of it as I am we will retrieve the Stone.”
“I do not doubt it, Lyra,” Issa said. “For I’ve not seen you unsuccessful on a mission yet.”
“This,” I vowed, resolute, “will not be my first time.”