Kingdom of Sea and Stone

He had stepped within a foot of me, and though he towered over me, I could still see the broken child in his eyes, begging to be accepted and finding nothing but rejection. I could have loved that boy.

But I could find nothing but disdain for this man.

“I’m sorry,” I said, as I turned to leave.

The guards at the door drew their swords.

I turned back to Ceren, more weary than surprised. I was tired of fighting, of giving this man chance after chance to do the right thing. I should have realized long ago that he never would. “Don’t do this.”

“You’ve given me no choice, Nor.”

Tears spilled free of my lashes as the memories of all the horrible things Ceren had done washed over me. Threatening me, bleeding me, killing Lady Melina, cutting off my family’s water, imprisoning the Varenians. It had been foolish to hope there was some scrap of compassion left in Ceren.

But he had been foolish to underestimate me again.

I reached out to the guards with my mind, following the warm tether of our heartbeats. It was the strangest sensation, but I knew that we were all linked through this bloody web. How was Ceren wielding hundreds of these strings daily? It must be taking everything he had not to go mad.

I had no idea if it would work, but I was out of options. Hesitantly, I sent out my first command.

Stop him.

The guards turned their swords on Ceren. His wide eyes went straight past them to me.

“Goodbye, Ceren,” I said. And then I ran.

30



I clutched the bloodstone in my fist, still reeling from the fact that the guards had followed my command. I knew that the bloodstone wasn’t working on me as Ceren had hoped. Otherwise, I would never have been able to walk away from him. Lady Hyacinth had been right: whatever powers Ceren had were in my blood, too. Not only that—the guards had defied a direct order from Ceren and obeyed me instead.

But as I ran, I could feel my control over the men I’d left behind slipping. I didn’t know if it was the lack of proximity or that I was too panicked to focus my thoughts, but soon I heard Ceren behind me, his boots ringing out on the stone floors. Even if I could command the people guarding the exits, I wasn’t going to leave without my father, and Ceren knew it.

“Nor,” Ceren called, his voice bouncing off the stone walls around me. “You’re trapped, silly bird.”

I hadn’t made it far before I was knocked off my feet by a tremor that seemed to shake the entire mountain. I landed hard on my hip and rolled onto my back, the wind knocked out of me. Talia’s assault on New Castle had begun, and any hope I had that she would take precautions to prevent casualties was gone. Talia didn’t want New Castle at the end of all of this; she wanted Ceren dead.

I pushed shakily to my feet and stumbled through the great hall toward the massive doors leading to the stairs down from New Castle. There were more men posted there, and I saw the bloodstones flare to life as I neared, but whatever command Ceren had given wasn’t working. They stayed where they were as I passed them and shoved my way through the small door.

I found myself on the very same platform where Lady Melina had died and Talin had given up the throne to save me. The wind was always strong this high up, and it whipped through my hair and skirts icily. I ran to the edge and looked down at the field that stretched from here to the main road leading to Old Castle.

A battle unlike anything I’d ever seen raged below me. Massive cannons fired at the mountain itself, and I gripped the railing to keep from falling again.

Ceren’s soldiers were lined up on the field, easily identified by their black armor, but they didn’t move. Feebly, I tried reaching out through the web to find their minds, but there were too many of them. I turned around suddenly, realizing that I had no idea where Ceren had gone.

Talia’s army was advancing toward New Castle, the cavalry riding out first. I couldn’t spot Talin from this distance, but knowing him, he was out in front of his troops. What must he be thinking, knowing that I was inside? Was he planning some foolish rescue, or had he decided his mother’s cause was more important than one life?

My eyes darted to the stone steps leading down the mountain. I could leave right now and rescue Father later. At least then Ceren wouldn’t be able to use me to get to Talin, assuming he was still willing to risk everything for me.

But it was more important that I stopped Ceren from reaching his troops. There were thousands of them, far more than Talia had, lined up like statues before New Castle, and I suspected Ceren had more elsewhere. Talia might manage to win this war, but not without losing hundreds of lives in the process.

And if Ceren wasn’t leaving New Castle through the main doors, that meant he had found another way out.

I turned and ran back inside, calling out to the nearest guard. “Where did the king go?”

He raised an arm and pointed, deeper into the castle.

Cursing my stupid gown and slippers, I broke into a run, following the outstretched arms of guards as I passed, all pointing in the same direction. It was a strange feeling to have complete control over them, coming so easily it would have disturbed me had I stopped long enough to think about it. A part of me could understand why Ceren enjoyed this so much; he was that broken child again, surrounded by toys. Only now, no one could refuse to play with him.

It wasn’t until I was lower in the castle that the guards began to seem more alert. Ceren must be attempting to control them as he passed. At least that meant I was getting closer.

“No one goes down to the mine,” one man said, stepping in front of me.

The bloodstone on his neck was pulsating in time to my heartbeat.

Let me pass.

Wordlessly, he stepped aside.

Exhilaration coursed through me. A man who could have taken me down with one blow had moved out of my way without argument. I hurried past him and down the dark, dank corridors. I could smell the underground lake before I neared it. The lunar moss torches were glowing fairly brightly, but as I approached the entrance of the cave, I could feel my breaths starting to come more rapidly. My body would always remember everything that had happened here: the first time Ceren had nearly caught me spying and had brutally killed the salamander; the fight with the giant monster, Salandrin, that had nearly cost me my life; and my desperate escape after Ceren impaled himself on my knife. I closed my eyes and tried to slow my heart rate.

As I entered the cavern, I saw someone emerge from the water on the other side in the glow of the torches. Ceren was taking the route I had used to escape, which led to an exit on the side of Mount Ayris.

I stopped, unsure what to do. I had promised not to leave this mountain without Father. If something happened to me out there, would anyone be able to get back into New Castle to rescue him? Would they forget he was there, suffering? But the farther Ceren got, the greater the likelihood of him attacking, and the smaller the chance of my plan working.