Page 98 of Spirit Rites
He takes my hand and then faces the others in the room. “We meet in one hour. Pass the word.” Then he strides out the door. Since he’s holding my hand, I walk with him. Evren follows us, and Taren and Mae take up the rear. Nobody says much on the walk, but my mind is racing, putting pieces together and trying to work out everything in my head. I get a little lightheaded as we walk, and I wipe my forehead a few times.
I’m surprised when Kaldar doesn’t walk right to the meeting room. But when I see him head to the Grove, I understand. “Hungry?” he asks, looking down at me.
“Not really, but I know I need to eat.”
We head inside and make quick work of eating breakfast and then heading to the meeting room. Thankfully, the food helped me feel a little better. When we get to the meeting room, Kaldar strides towards the head of the table. I pull my hand from his and pull out the chair that’s closest to his. “Angel,” he says quietly. When I look over at him, he’s standing behind the chair. He nods his head to the chair, and I shake my head. He nods a little more firmly, and I shake my head again, trying to clear it. I feel a wave of dizziness hits, but I blame it on my nerves.
“The ruling power always sits at the head of the table,” a voice says behind me. I turn around, surprised to see Halric standing close. “It’s our custom,” he says when I meet his eyes. There’s nocensure in his voice, and I debate another long moment before finally caving. I walk over to the chair Kaldar is holding out. “My Queen,” he says right against my ear when I sit. A shiver runs down my spine, and I feel my nerves ratchet up. But a strong hand lands on my shoulder and squeezes gently. It settles me, and I look out at the faces that are gathering. Mae gives me a beaming smile and a wave, and I can’t not smile back. Halric sits on my right side, leaving an open seat on his left. His face is stoic and set. Eldara sits next to him on his right, and Brenvar sits on her right. Corvin sits opposite Brenvar, and Mae sits next to him. Taren sits next to her, and Reika sits on his right. Jorren stands near the door, and Evren leans against the back wall. With a last squeeze, Kaldar walks over and takes the chair to my right.
I take a deep breath. “Thank you all for meeting on such short notice.” The door opens, and Zarreth steps inside. I smile at the captain of the guard. “I know all of you are busy, so thank you for being here.” Zarreth stands on the other side of the closed door, opposite Jorren. Every eye is trained on me, and I suddenly have no idea where to go from here. I glance over at Kaldar, who’s sitting back in his chair with a relaxed expression on his face. I think of how weird this whole thing is and decide to just deal with the biggest issue right now. “All right. So, I’m Queen now. And I don’t really know what to do about that. I thought I was just queen until Kaldar came back and took over as king, but apparently, that’s not how it went down.” Kaldar’s lips twitch. “He wanted me to be able to rule if something happened to him, which it did.” I’m reminded suddenly that he had to break our bond to do what he did. I make a mental note to ask him about that later as I absently finger the jade bracelet on my wrist.
“When a law is made, it can’t be undone,” Eldara says, almost gently.
I nod and force my thoughts back to the conversation at hand. “Right. So, here we are.” I lift both hands. “I’m queen,even though your rightful king sits right here.” It’s absolutely silent.
“You might not have chosen this,” Halric says in a gruff voice. “But this is your future now. Your job now is to embrace it. Every person in this room already has, and we will back you and support you every step of the way.”
I stare at him in absolute shock. He gave his support of me at the assembly, but I figured that was just for a show of unity. But in this small group of important people, his support means...everything. “Thank you,” I finally manage to say. I swallow and take a steadying breath. “I appreciate that support more than any of you will ever know. I do want to say, though, that I fully intend for Kaldar to be with me and make every decision with me.” Most of them nod, and that takes a burden from my shoulders. Kaldar leans forward and takes my hand in his.
“I will be with you every step of the way,” he says, looking into my eyes.
I nod and squeeze his hand. “Thank you. Do you want to tell everyone the events of today?”
And just like that, Kaldar takes over. I sit back and watch as he commands the room, even though he never lets go of my hand. “Evren came to us this morning. He found my mother’s jade ring,” Kaldar pauses for emphasis. “Inside his father’s home.”
There are gasps around the table, and I can clearly see shock on so many faces. My eyes meet Evren’s for just a moment, but I don’t get any kind of aggression coming off him. “What does that mean?” Mae asks.
Kaldar doesn’t answer right away but looks at Evren instead. Evren doesn’t push away from the wall he’s currently leaning against. “That my father was probably the late king and queen’smurderer.” Gasps of shock ring out around the ring, but Evren continues. “Or at least he knew who did it.”
“But how?”
“Why?”
“How could that be?”
“Why would he do such a thing?”
Everybody voices their questions at once, and I can’t keep up with all of it. I feel dizzy again, and I wipe the sweat from my forehead as discreetly as possible. Kaldar puts up a hand, and it gets quiet. “We don’t know yet; we’re just speculating right now.” Kaldar gives a nod to Jorren, and Jorren opens the door. A man I’ve never seen before steps inside. He has gray hair, but he looks very fit still. Kaldar turns to me. “My Queen, this is Rogan.” The man bows his head respectfully.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I tell him, although I’m unsure who he is or why he’s here.
“Rogan was the leader of my father’s personal security team.”
Understanding dawns, and I study him in a new light. This was the man that was supposed to keep Kaldar’s parents safe, and he failed. I don’t know what to say, so I just stay quiet. “Can you tell us what you know about the former king and queen’s last hours?” Kaldar asks in a low voice.
I squeeze his hand, hating that he has to go through this. Rogan’s face is expressionless as he begins to speak. His voice is gravelly, like maybe he’s not used to talking. “It was a normal day. I checked in with the king before he went to his home for the night. Everything was at it should be. I was the sole protector on guard that night.” The stoic expression on his face doesn’t change, but there’s the slightest change in his voice. “It was the dead of night when it happened. One minute, I was standing guard; the next, there was an arrow in my throat. By the time I made it inside, the king and queen were already gone. Broken necks. Painless and swift.” I do my best to keep my faceexpressionless, but it’s difficult.How awful!I cling tightly to Kaldar’s hand, trying to give some kind of comfort through it. “We never found who did it.”
“Thank you,” Kaldar says in a tight voice. “Zarreth?”
Zarreth takes a step forward. “I was on the scene not long after, but there was nothing to be found. The ring was taken from the queen’s finger, but not the jade bracelet from the king’s, which we thought at the time was odd.”
I wipe my head discreetly again. It feels like it’s stifling in here. But when I glance around, nobody else seems bothered by it. I just hope we get done soon so I can get some fresh air.
Chapter 48
“Taking the bracelet would have been obvious,” Kaldar takes over. “The next ruling leader has to have the bracelet to rule. If someone had it, the entire kingdom would know they killed the king. So, it was better for the murderer to leave it, but we never recovered my mom’s ring...until today.” His eyes flick to Evren’s, and I don’t miss it.
“With Evren finding it today in his father’s possession, the only logical explanation is that he was indeed the murderer as Evren said, or at least knew of the murders,” Jorren says in his booming voice. “Add to all this, an attack was made on the queen’s life today. So, my guess is that whoever worked with Vaelor to murder the king and queen is still working behind the scenes.”
