Heiress: Birthstone Series Book Two (39 page)

I stumbled to Tereg’s still body, dropped beside him, and
gently rolled him onto his back. His eyes opened wide as he gasped for air.
Slowly, he lifted his left hand and gripped the back of my neck. I let him pull
my head down toward his and he pressed his forehead to mine. His hands trembled
against my skin but still, he held on.

I opened my mouth, choking on the apologies that couldn’t
change what I’d done. Tears rained from my cheeks and splattered his face and
chest. Before I could sputter out the useless phrases burning in my throat,
Tereg managed to breathe out one word.

“Son,” he whispered.

I drew back and searched his face. His eyes met mine as his
mouth drew slightly up at the corners in a sad, hopeful smile. Then, with his
right hand, he pressed something against my chest. I placed my hand over his
and felt his fingers release the small scroll he held.

I nodded in understanding. I would get the information to
his daughter at any cost.

With a shudder, his hand dropped from my neck and fell to
his side. He blinked at me one last time before going still.

Sobs racked my body as I stuffed the scroll into the deepest
part of my vest. Tereg’s sword lay beside him. I reached for it with shaking
fingers and grasped ahold of it. Not far away, where I’d dropped it, lay the
sword he’d given me back in Vairda. I staggered to my feet and reached down to
retrieve it. Clamping my fingers around the hilt, I noticed the three winged
men who surrounded me. Several more fought close by, keeping the king’s warriors
at bay.

“You were a friend to Tereg?” one of them asked.

I barely managed to nod my head.

“Tereg does nothing without a purpose,” he stated.

I lifted my head.

“The king’s son died in your place.Your life was most
valuable to him.”

As soon as the words left his lips, two of the flyers
converged upon me. Each took an arm. I felt my feet lift off the ground as they
drifted into the sky, both of my hands still clenching the swords. They flew me
above the sea of fighting and just past Indikae’s wall. We weren’t much further
into the city before they set me back on the ground.

“We’re obligated to fight outside the city but take this to
Benduin.” He held out a small, golden disc with an engraving of a bird on its
surface. “It requires a journey but it’s safe there and this will ensure your
acceptance into the city.”

I sheathed my own sword and took the coin from them in
silence.

“Don’t fail,” one said. “Tereg saved you for a reason.” As
they flew away, I thought I saw a look of pity pass between them.

Once I’d tucked the coin into the same pocket as the scroll,
I stood for several minutes, too numb to move. I stared down at Tereg’s sword,
still clenched in my hand. For the first time, I realized his blood stained my
arms and clothing along with the blood of those I’d killed. Black dirt caked
beneath my fingernails and lined every groove in my skin. My once fresh
clothing was now ragged and torn.

It was a fitting look for the person I was. For who I’d
become. As this thought settled in my mind, I lurched away from the open
streets, in search of a dark place where I could hide unnoticed. Every corner I
turned was taken already by the injured or the weeping or those that were
helping. I’d planned on being one of the latter, I remembered. I’d thought I
was strong enough to save myself and my friends while finding Aylen amidst a
war. I’d thought I was smarter than the warnings of gems and people. I’d
believed I couldn’t fail.

And my choices had cost Tereg his life.

The gravity of this struck me anew and I felt my knees buckle
beneath me. I forgot that I was still fully exposed on an unfamiliar street in
a city ravaged by war. It didn’t matter.  I felt nothing but the guilt that
engulfed me as silent sobs racked my body and clawed through my chest.

And with every breath, a part of me wished it were my last.

“Are you sure we haven’t gone too far?” Hesper asked me for
the tenth time since we’d set off.

“I’m sure,” I told her again.

She gave me a sideways glance. “But how?”

I sighed and plopped down onto the rotting remains of a tree
stump. “I don’t know. This sort of thing has happened to me before. I feel like
the gems are leading me.” I met her gaze. “He’s nowhere near the battle,
Hesper.”

Just as planned, we’d slipped out of Et Loedin in the middle
of the night without being detected. We’d originally decided to fly toward the
army’s encampment, but as we’d neared its borders, I’d felt pulled in another
direction. My instincts had proven correct in the past so after convincing
Hesper to land with me somewhere in the forest west of the camp, I’d found a
place to rest and attempt to sift through the jumbled and erratic emotions
hurled at me through my gem. At first, I’d tried to ease into it slowly, toning
down some of the feelings by tapping into the power of the Protection Gem. So
many cares and struggles of people I’d never met rattled inside of me. I’d had
to fight to remain conscious until Hesper grasped my shoulder and shook it.
Hard.

Afterwards, we’d wandered in the chill, night air while I
listened and waited for something to feel right. After a while, I’d sensed a
shift. We were far enough away from the king’s army so that their feelings
seemed beyond my reach. But much closer to me, northwest of Indikae, I’d felt a
twinge of some sort of dark, guarded emotion. And it was moving. That was the
trail I’d chosen to follow.

Later, as night shifted into predawn and then into morning,
somewhere east of us, we’d heard the battle begin.

Now, as we drew closer to who I believed was the king, I
knew Hesper was regretting her decision to come.

“Why wouldn’t he be with everyone else?” she asked. “What
reason would he have to come all the way out here?”

With a sigh, I rubbed the back of my neck, hoping to ward
off a headache. “He’s hiding something. This war– this battle is simply a way
for him to turn his enemies’ attention elsewhere.”

Hesper dropped onto a fallen log across from me. “What is it
he’s hiding then?”

I didn’t want to tell her how little I knew. The closer I
seemed to get to my grandfather, the more I sensed his emotions. But somehow, I
knew he was keeping them guarded. He realized I was coming and he wanted me
close before he’d allow me to understand what he was doing.

“I think you should go back,” I finally said.

“What?” Hesper blinked at me in confusion before her eyes
narrowed. “You want to get rid of me? After I came all this way with you?”

“I know you want to be out there helping your people.”

“They’re your people now too, Aylen.”

“Fine.
Our
people. But this is important. There’s a
reason for all of this and the answer lies with my grandfather. What if I go to
the battlefront and end the battle but because I let the king go, I destroy any
chance to win the entire war?”

“Aylen, I’m staying. We’re not going to separate. It’s
dangerous.” Hesper challenged me with a look. I sighed once more and nodded.

“Then let’s keep going.” I stood, brushed off my already
filthy cloak, and shook more snow and mud off the bottom of the fabric. “But
I’m worried for your safety,” I added.

“I can fly. He can’t,” she muttered.

I shrugged. “But he can snap your wings if he wants.”

She didn’t answer.

I let her stew behind me in silence while I finished
cleaning as much filth as possible from my clothing.When I was satisfied, I
checked to make sure my sword and necklace were both safe and fastened to my
body. Finally, I rummaged through my pack for a small snack I could share with
Hesper, humming to myself while I searched. I paused to ask her if she was
hungry. Once more, she didn’t answer.

“Hesper? What do you want to eat?” I asked again, still
rummaging.

Silence.

In an instant, I connected to my Empathy Gem. A moment
later,
his
emotions crashed over me in one, oppressive, dark wave.

“Hello Granddaughter,” he whispered.

I dropped my pack and whirled around. For the first time, I
looked into the eyes of the monster I’d heard so much about.

His features were nearly identical to my father’s. His eyes
held the same lines at the corners, his lips and nose shaped much like his
son’s, and in spite of his age, he had the same youthful look as Aluce. He was
tall and built as though he’d been born for battle, much like my father. For a
moment, I wanted to reach out to him as I would my Dad. But then my eyes found
Hesper. Her small frame lay still on the cold ground and for the first time, I
saw the blood, oozing from her middle. Beside her, a small puddle of crimson
melted into the dirty snow and mud.

I dropped to my knees beside her. “What have you done?”

“The trick to healing a serious wound, granddaughter, is to
make sure you employ the use of your gem before the victim’s heart stops
beating. You’re running out of time.”

I stared at him in horror. This was a test. He wanted to see
if I was capable- if I had mastered my gems. And he was getting pleasure out of
watching my friend die.

I gritted my teeth and absorbed the power of the Protection
Gem, letting it wash over me. I needed a barrier from his emotions. Nothing
could distract me from what I had to do. Once my mind cleared, I directed my
attention to the Healing Gem. With shaking fingers, I pressed my hands over
Hesper’s wound and imagined my heart beating with her own. I remembered her
promise to be as a sister to me. I pictured the moments we’d spent together,
the quiet conversations she’d vowed would remain only between us. I believed in
many more to come. From deep within her, I felt her injury grow warm. The heat
trickled outward and touched my fingers and I begged it to spread further. I
sent it down to her toes and into her fingertips. The skin that had been
pierced began to knit back together. Before it closed completely, I sensed a
dark power in her body, strangling her, weakening her body. Poison. I called it
to the surface of her wound just before the wound was sealed and gathered it in
my hands. It crumbled from my fingers and blew away in the breeze, harmless.

When her heart grew steady beneath my palm, I drew back,
exhausted. Leaving her to rest, I slowly stood and met my grandfather’s gaze.

“Well,” he said, “that was interesting.”

“Interesting isn’t the word I would have chosen,” I said
through clenched teeth.

He smiled coldly. The pitiless look he gave Hesper, the
malicious twist of his lips reminded me he was nothing like the man who’d
raised me. How could my father have come from this?

“You use your gems well. Your methods are unique – not what
I would have expected from someone trained by Aluce.” He took a step closer.
“You have more potential than I thought.”

“Potential for what?” I hissed.

“You tell me. Aren’t you the one who knows exactly what I’m
feeling?”

Another challenge.

“You’re shutting me out,” he said. “But isn’t that why you
came to find me? You wanted to know all about who I am. Wouldn’t it help you
understand me? Defeat me, even?”

I stared at him in silence. How could he know this? Unless.
. .

The barrier I’d created with my Protection Gem crumbled.
Once more, his emotions poured into me and I felt- I felt everything. I felt
his satisfaction at understanding so much about me. Images from my own life,
things he’d never seen, moments he couldn’t have been a part of, reflected back
at me through him. My memories, my choices, my burdens sunk into his mind where
he absorbed them. I groaned in agony.

He had the bloodline of the Empathy Gem.

 “
How
?” I thought and a moment later, my
grandfather’s feelings, the essence of who he was thundered through my head. I
saw how he received the bloodline and how it shaped him. I felt his reasons for
destroying the entire tribe and lived his memories as though they were my own.
I wtiness the destruction he caused on my mother’s family and the ruthless way
he’s annihilated so many people.

And there was more. So much horror and pain. I fell to my
knees, consumed with his guilt over his mother’s death, his hatred for
everybody who took something that might have saved him. I lived the torment he
still carried from the moment he became broken beyond repair. I knew the
horrifying secret to his power and I saw what it meant for me- what it would do
to me.

Then I saw his plan.

“Stop!” I screamed as his darkness poured deeper into my
mind. I gasped and writhed on the ground, his burden and madness too much to
bear. My Protection Gem was lost to me and Tanerris’ teachings too distant to
grasp.

The gems grew hot against my skin. Their power streamed into
my blood even while I fought to restrain it. But I couldn’t. Far above us,
roiling, black clouds began to coalesce and grow. An angry wind stirred the
air. The earth beneath me rumbled and behind my grandfather, the ground split
and cracked. Like a spider web, the new crevices spread. They reached out to
the trees and plants in their paths, hungrily swallowing them whole. Heat
boiled inside of my body and with a single breath, I shoved it outward into the
air. Flames exploded in several nearby trees.

“Ah, Aylen. You understand now,” my grandfather said. “Isn’t
it amazing power? To be able to tap into the heart of the gem in a way no one
else is able? No need to alter the gem. The power is always available, if you
accept it. And the potential is unlimited.”

I sent another wave of heat his direction but it dissipated
when it was met with his own gust of wind.

“You can’t win this fight, Aylen. The gems have all the
power. Don’t inhibit them. You’re merely their vessel. Allow them to be your
master.”