But then she spoke, and when she did, his heart grew light for the orbs glowed even brighter.

Take heart, my darling. We have new children now.

150

The Tomes

Princess Serena

Parade Grounds, Outside the Soldier’s Barracks, Sky Bay

AIREN

At the call, she made haste from where she was drilling Fern’s female Airenzian soldiers who wished to remain in service to their realm alongside Luther, Wallace and Nero, Darma, Genia and Heloise, to the Citadel.

Her timing was exceptional for she saw her sister striding purposefully through the entryway as she arrived.

And her sister’s husband was not with her.

It was not that Serena did not wish Cassius to know.

It was that Serena did not know if Chu wished anyone to know.

“Elena,” she called.

Elena stopped, looked to Serena and smiled a small, tight smile.

There were not many bright smiles this last two weeks since Cassius won the war, but they lost Rebecca and Nandra and the threat of the Beast quadrupled.

“The Go’Doan priest G’Ry has arrived,” Elena informed her. “He has brought the tomes.”

“Excellent, but can I have a word?” Serena asked, arriving at her sister and stopping.

“I’m keen to know what he reports, Rena,” Elena said carefully.

“I am too, Ellie,” Serena said quietly. “But I have something to report as well. I have for some time, and thus, I feel perhaps it is now beyond time to report it.”

She watched her sister brace as she asked, “What?”

“There is a presence about the Bay. It has naught to do with Beasts or even this realm. And it follows Chu.”

And with that, she had Elena’s full attention.

“Chu?” Elena queried.

Serena nodded.

“Do you know what it is and why it follows him?” Elena asked.

Serena shook her head. “He is aware of it as well. He knows I am. He refuses to discuss it.”

“Do you have a guess?”

“Yes,” Serena stated flatly. “It is, or they are, Mystics. Those who practice the art, not simply those who come from that land.”

“Bloody hell,” Elena muttered, as she would, for she knew about the Mystic Arts. The learning of them took much time, much patience, much skill, much talent, but mostly, acquiring the grasp of tremendous amounts of spiritualism. And because of this, the mastery of them, only few achieved. “Did he leave trouble behind when he left that empire?”

Serena hesitated, studying her sister.

“Rena,” Elena prompted impatiently.

“He did, of a sort,” she confided. “For he did so fleeing the assassins his mother had set upon him and two of his brothers to assure the stability of the future rule of his elder brother, the firstborn prince.”

Elena blinked. “Chu is a prince?”

Serena again nodded.

“And his mother tried to have him killed?”

Serena continued to nod.

“Good goddess,” Ellie whispered.

And then Serena confided again, not hiding the thread of fear in her tone.

“They must know he survived, Ellie, and they come to kill him.”