Page 42 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Thirty-Six

The Mentor

Zina took her hand as Kerrigan yanked them both onto the spirit plane. Zina glanced around at the cloud cover before it disappeared and they rematerialized onto a sandy beach overlooking an unfamiliar sea with unfamiliar mountains in the distance.

“You’ve gotten better at this,” Zina said.

“I had good teachers.”

Zina snorted as she changed her clothes from the bronze attire to a seaside blue, floral gown. A floppy hat landed on her head. She was barefoot in the sand and tilted her head up to the sun. “Sure could use a beach holiday.”

Kerrigan laughed. “You don’t seem like the beach type.”

“I could be,” Zina said. “Why didn’t your boy come too?”

“He’s not as strong in spirit,” Kerrigan said. “He’s a work in progress.”

“Bet he hates that.”

“Sure does.”

“And he has spirit magic because of your mating bond?” Zina asked. “Doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Kerrigan explained a Daijan bond and how it had been transferred from her mother to the mating bond.

When it had all snapped back together, the bond allowed them to transfer powers.

Now Kerrigan had some shadows and Fordham had some spirit, neither as strong as their own powers but handy in a pinch.

“If you say so,” Zina said. “Who are we waiting on? And are you sure you’re feeling up to this?”

Kerrigan had taken two days to rest her magic.

She’d gotten the portal door closed. Dragons were choosing Herasi riders to add to their aerial arsenal.

To try to not feel totally helpless, Kerrigan and Fordham had scoured the information Trulian had kept of his search for the crown.

She’d learned a lot but still virtually nothing that would tell them where it was.

If Trulian had spent several lifetimes looking and never succeeded, what hope did they have?

“I’m feeling well enough,” Kerrigan said, shaking off the impending doom of their last-ditch effort. “And I’ve actually never done this before. In the past, we’ve always had a set time to meet.”

“Great,” Zina said. A chair appeared in the sand, and she sank into it, resting backward as if she were going to fall asleep. “Let me know when it works.”

Kerrigan chuckled at her before turning her attention to the more pressing problem—how to get Cleora to the spirit plane.

Kerrigan had used a magical signature to pull people onto the plane or into dreams before, but Cleora was literally in a different dimension.

Domara might as well have been across the universe for all Kerrigan knew.

How could she possibly find her signature here?

She blew out a breath and decided to just give it a try. After all, the spirit plane was the great equalizer. If Cleora could reach her on the plane and Kerrigan could reach Cyrene on the plane, then maybe she could reach anyone she really wanted to if she pushed.

It took a minute of controlled meditating before she felt centered enough to try something this drastic.

She closed her eyes and reached with that thread of spirit magic.

She knew Cleora—the fearless professor of an academy on the outskirts of the Domaran capital.

She’d saved Kerrigan’s life by training her, and she’d risked everything to help her when Kerrigan had been in the tournament.

If Vulsan ever found out what she’d done, Cleora would be cast out or killed.

That forged a bond of its own sort, and Kerrigan just needed to follow it to Domara.

“ Cleora,” she said down that thread. “I need you. It’s urgent.”

Nothing happened.

Kerrigan concentrated harder. “I was noisy on the spirit plane, and it irritated you enough to come search for me. If you could come talk to me now, that would be most helpful.”

Silence.

Kerrigan huffed. She could almost sense Cleora on the other end. She didn’t know if that meant she was busy or if something was blocking it.

She tried again, reaching out through the spirit plane as she had done so many times recently in Alandria. She convinced herself it wasn’t that different to do it to Domara as well. Or at least she hoped so.

Kerrigan sat back into the sand with a sigh. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

Zina shrugged. “Yeah. Sounds right.”

“You agree?”

“I didn’t think you could talk to someone in Domara or walk through portals to the land of the gods either, but here we are. So if you say this is where things become impossible, then I believe you.”

Kerrigan narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying that because you believe it, or do you want me to try again?”

Zina winked at her. “What do you think?”

Classic Zina.

Kerrigan closed her eyes again to try contacting Cleora, frustration already settling in. Then she felt a sort of pop on the plane. Her eyes flew open, and a person stood before her. Not Cleora.

“Danae!”

The girl rushed to her, wrapping her arms around her. “Cleora sent me. She said she could hear you. I don’t even know how that’s possible.”

“New tricks. Is she busy? We really need her.”

“She said to give her a few minutes and she would get out of her lesson to meet you,” Danae said. Her eyes flickered to Zina. “Who is your friend?”

Zina came to her feet and smiled at Danae. “I’m Zahina. You can call me Zina. Everyone does. I was Kerrigan’s first mentor, and you’re the truthteller.”

Danae’s mouth popped open. “Uh…yep. That’s me.”

“What an interesting talent. How does it work?”

“A secret hidden talent that could get her killed,” Kerrigan reminded her. She’d told Zina as much as she could about their time in Domara to explain all that she knew of the place. “I told you that part too.”

“Killed where she’s from, but not wherever we are,” Zina said. “Have you been practicing? How exactly does it work?”

“Don’t mind her,” Kerrigan told Danae. “Zina is too curious for her own good.”

“It’s okay. I’m not used to people knowing. None of my classmates do or my teachers, except Cleora. And there’s a new problem,” Danae said, a flash of anger crossing her face.

“New problem?”

Danae met her gaze. “A Doma heir enrolled at the academy.”

Kerrigan let the weight of that assessment linger. “Gods.”

“Yeah. If he finds out what I am…” Danae shivered. “I’ll be enslaved like the rest of my people.”

Zina frowned. “Maybe kill him.”

Danae burst into laughter. “That’s your solution?”

“Might work.”

“Or it might bring more powerful Doma to the academy to investigate,” Kerrigan said. “Be careful.”

Danae nodded. “What was it you needed from Cleora?”

“Have you heard of a metal crown in relation to He Who Reigns?”

“Of course,” Danae said with a laugh. “Who hasn’t?”

Zina and Kerrigan exchanged a look before Kerrigan said, “Me?”

“Oh, I forget that you’re not from here. This is like basic information delivered to littlings,” Danae said. “Even in Andine, I’d heard the story. So it goes like this. He Who Reigns had a brother, Fairgate.”

“What was his name?” Zina asked.

“The brother?” Danae asked.

“No, the reigning guy.”

Danae shrugged. “It’s been lost. No one knows it any longer.”

“Okay,” Zina said, dragging out the end of the word. “And this person is a god?”

“He’s the god,” Danae said. “Well, of the Doma religion. Not of the Andines, which is where I was born.”

Zina waved her hand. “Sorry. Continue the tale.”

“Anyway, He Who Reigns had a brother. They were fighting for supremacy of the land. Their father had been eaten by the giant snake of time, and their mother was imprisoned. Fairgate suggested they rule jointly to offer a fair union for their subjects, but He Who Reigns sought power above all else. He killed his brother with a white crystal blade. The blade drank his brother’s blood, and with the blood and power, He Who Reigns forged a metal crown that ate light itself. ”

Kerrigan could barely breathe. That was the crown. It had to be. But how the hell had it gotten to Alandria?

“Fairgate’s wrath rumbled through the underworld, and with the strength of the Bridge of Passing, he returned to the earthly plane to challenge his brother once more.

He stole the crown and threw it to the ends of the earth, where it was buried at the base of a mountain.

He Who Reigns took up his crystal blade against Fairgate for what he’d done, sending him back to the underworld, where he has ruled ever since. ”

“An excellent telling,” Cleora said, appearing behind them. “A little bit of the children’s version and enough of the adult version, but well done.”

“Cleora!” Kerrigan said, wrapping the tall woman in a hug.

“Hello, my dear. Blessed Lords, it has been too long.” Cleora patted Kerrigan’s head twice. “And who is your friend?”

Kerrigan quickly introduced Zina and Cleora, who got along immediately.

Cleora turned back to Kerrigan. “I assume you have a reason for calling me and for talk of He Who Reigns’ ascendancy?”

“Has anyone found the metal crown?” Kerrigan asked.

“Many have journeyed to the mountains where the crown was claimed to have been buried. He Who Reigns himself sent expeditions, but no one has ever located it.”

“It’s in our world,” Kerrigan told her.

Cleora’s eyes widened. “Ah. Well, that would explain a lot. And have you discovered it?”

“We’re looking.”

“Should I even begin to impart how dangerous this is?” Cleora asked.

“It might be our only way to win this war unless you think Keres Andromadix would jump over.”

Cleora frowned. “No, I do not think your mother is free. Just be careful. The weapon was made out of the death of one of the most powerful Domaran gods in existence. It holds the blood of He Who Reigns and Fairgate. It was made with ill intent and will bestow ill intent on anyone who handles it.”

“You’re going to find it?” Danae asked. “And wait…it’s really real?”

Kerrigan explained how it had been used by the Fae to bind the dragons. Cleora looked scandalized, but explaining the curse put on it made a lot of sense. The crown was made for that sort of thing.