Page 116 of Keeper of the Word

The sovereign glared. “As I said, make only the rumors you wish to buzz in your ears be the ones you utter from your tongue. Now, everyone out!”

“Rian,” the queen said.

“You, also.”

Queen Ferika pivoted and swept from the room. All eyes followed her.

“Mark me, Your Majesty,” Tara said. “The future is never finite, but once we start on a path, ’tis almost impossible to turn ‘round.”

“You are no longer needed here, Lady Tara. You may leave.”

As the two exited the room, all eyes followed them, too. And it frightened her. For if the sovereign turned away from his queen and StarSeers, who would be left to watch over him?

“We must prepare now for misfortune,”Tara said once they’d entered the queen’s garden. ’Twas past sunset. What early stars could be detected in the sky seemed to quiver. “The path is before us now.”

The Edan Stone in Elanna’s palm captured their attention.

“Has it always been hopeless? Was I truly meant to be here, ordid I make everything worse? King Rian did not relent. The prince has fled and is hunted like a criminal. I removed Sir Tolvar from any chance at peace he was e’er to have. And now we face the task of performing Shroud Magic. Why did the stars beckon me here?”

Tara remained quiet, while Elanna suspended in wait. But her sister said naught. Stars, Elanna was tired.

This is why StarSeers do not act.

And then, Tara said, “How has a rumor escaped that Prince Dashiell pines for a peasant? Only the sovereign’s most trusted were in that room.”

“I—I do not know.” Elanna’s skin crawled.

“I believe there is more at work here than we first realized,” Tara said, kneeling in the grass. “Come. We cannot delay.”

“I am exhausted,” Elanna whispered.

“That is why?—”

“I know!”

Tara sighed, glancing at the Edan Stone. “The stars beckoned you here because ’twas your fortune’s path. And I suppose ’twas mine, also.”

A bridge of some sort? Was Tara softening? True, these days had been spent together in attempting to aid the sovereign, but these words of Tara’s were the first amiable phrase she’d said to Elanna since arriving in Asalle.

But Elanna could not respond.

“We cannot delay.” Tara nodded to the Edan Stone. Then she spoke to the dark canvas of the sky. “I would beg you to show me answers I crave, yet the question at present is of import most grave. What night do we seal thewordinto the moonstone?”

Elanna held the Edan Stone above her head. The cold weight of it dragged at her as she gazed at the stars.

Nothing.

“Do not turn your eyes away, Elanna.”

“Nor you,” she returned.

Nothing.

Her arm ached.

Then, little by little, the moonstone grew colder. How was that possible?

The half-moon.