4

Chapter Four

Marina rushed through the tunnels deep beneath the castle, her brow creased into a frown as she buckled her short sword about her waist and checked the strap to her thigh that held her dagger in place.

She was late, she knew. The meeting her sister had set for long minutes ago would have commenced by now. Which meant Serena would be most displeased. There was too much ground to cover, too many farms to protect for Marina to be lazing about the bed until after dawn.

Not that it had truly been lazing, she assured herself as she rounded the corner that led to the inner meeting hall. The delay had been beyond her ability to control. Damned Wizard Twins crowding the halls and the serving tables for their breakfasts before heading out with their warriors had found any number of reasons to waylay her.

“About time you arrived.” Serena looked up from the rough sketches laid out on the rough wooden table, her deep, velvet-blue eyes watching her in concern.

“What in the Mother Sentinel’s name is going on upstairs? Have we suddenly acquired every bedeviled Wizard Cauldaran possesses?” Marina threw up her hands in despair. “On my word, Serena, I know of at least a dozen pairings who stopped me for one reason or another. Do you have any idea how long the serving hall is? Mother truly needs to do something about this.”

“Our Queen Mother has been delayed at the Temples of the Select.” Serena frowned as she moved closer to the table.

Marina fidgeted under her sister’s close regard, barely keeping the flush of embarrassment from mounting beneath her cheeks. Her sister was amazingly intuitive and she prayed the other woman could not glimpse the sleepless night she had just spent, and the reasons for it.

“Is the delay serious?” Rarely was the Queen required to attend meetings which lasted for more than a few risings. The Sentinel Priests and Priestess were well aware of the troubles brewing within Covenan.

“I do not know,” Serena finally sighed, the sound filled with concern. “The message reached me last night that it would perhaps be a few more risings before she returned. They are currently in meetings with other Priestesses to divine the reasons for the Secular uprising. An ambassador from the human capitol arrived just this past evening, and is lending his aid. It appears the dacars are bedeviling even their own.”

Marina’s lips twitched. The dacar was a long, slimy serpent whose putrid waste acted as a layer of slime beneath the creature, giving it a protective base to slither about on. They were the most vile of creatures, incredibly poisonous and avoided at all costs. 25

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Thankfully, their numbers were quite small, for the female of the species often killed her mate before copulation and fertilization was completed. Tragic, the end those males received, she thought mockingly, thinking of two Wizard Twins she would not mind to see suffering such fates.

Gathered around the room were a dozen other sorceresses, their expressions harried as they sipped at dark, heated javal, an energized, sweetened brew made from the beans of the java plant. It was apparent even they had not escaped the Wizards above.

“Are there no tunnels accessible from another route?” Marina asked her sister with a frown. “Moving through the serving hall is not going to work, Serena. Those Wizard and warrior twins are enough to drive even the Mother Sentinel insane.”

“I may have to see about having one of the upper tunnels unblocked.” Serena propped her hands on her slender hips as she considered the option. “Damned Twins. They are making my work less than comfortable.”

That was clearly evident. Her sister was dressed as the reigning heir apparent rather than the warrioress she truly was. Her long, dark auburn curls had been pulled to the top of her head, secured by pearl and emerald combs before cascading in a rain of silk down her back. The matching tiara with its three emerald points was securely in place and gleaming in hues of gold, the palest cream and dark greens. Her gown was a traditional receiving gown. Pale cream to match the pearls and emphasizing the pale and peach tones of her translucent flesh. It was caught at one shoulder with a brooch emblazoned with the crest of the Sellane Sorceresses, draped over her full breasts, smoothed to her thighs then fell to her feet in soft, cloudy folds. Misty colors of soft green threaded through the fabric, teasing the observer with the swirl of color. Before the arrival of the Wizard and warrior twins, she would have dressed in leather breeches, a plain tunic and carried her sword at her thigh. Her hair would have been tied back in a braid and her eyes would have glowed with excitement. Not for the first time, Marina thanked the Sentinels that she had not been the firstborn. As her sister began to direct the Sorceress teams for their scouting areas, Marina moved to the warming pot of javal and poured herself a cup of the rich brew. As she sipped at it, her eyes closed as she awaited the end to the drowsiness that still plagued her. Finding sleep the night before had been near to impossible. The ache between her thighs had been tormenting, but her thoughts even more so. She should have been horrified by the complete sexuality of her dream, but had instead found comfort in it. Not that there was comfort to be found in the fact that it had been the Sashtain twins whose images filled her mind, even after waking. That was irking her to no small degree. But at least for once her dreams had been of pleasure, rather than pain and fear and the memory of darkness overtaking her.

As the Sorceress teams cleared slowly from the room, heading to the tunnels that led to the sheltering hills beyond the castle, Marina turned to her sister once again. 26

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“What would you have me to do this day?” She tilted her head, watching as Serena glared down at the sketches of Covenani land.

“Here.” A delicate finger pointed to an area of farmlands just past the forests. “Take a unicorn and scout the area. Be certain to stay within the forests. Mother’s protection only extends so far while she is at the Temples. But this area bothers me. I fear the Seculars will attempt to find a way into the forests. Without the landholders there to strengthen the area, they could gain ground we cannot afford to lose. Sentinels save us if they truly find a way through our forests.”

Marina nodded as she sat the cup back to the sideboard, still watching her sister’s worried frown.

“Is there something more, Serena?” She seemed more concerned than it seemed there was need.

Finally, her sister’s head lifted, her lavender eyes dark, shadowed with intense worry.

“I received word today that The Veressi will arrive within a week’s time. I am to prepare to receive their petition of courtship.”

A chill raced through Marina at this news. Should the forces of magick align during reception, then her sister’s fate was sealed. With a set of Twins whose very name sent horror quaking even throughout their own realms.

“This cannot be, Serena.” She gasped. “We must contact Mother…”

A bitter laugh left Serena’s lips. “The message was sent by our Queen Mother, just this night past,” she spat furiously. “She swore to me, before her departure, she would not spring such a thing on me. And The Veressi…” She swallowed, a tight movement that gave proof to the upsetting emotions racing through her. “The Veressi followed up the message this morning with their courier. They are preparing to leave their lands even as we speak.”

Serena turned from her, moving gracefully across the rough stone floor as she paced the confines of the meeting room.

“I am the heir apparent. I have known no other life,” she whispered, her voice soft, regretful. “It is my duty, some would say, to follow the dictates of my Queen Mother.”

She lifted her shoulders in a gesture of bitter acceptance as her gaze filled with regret.

“’Twill no doubt be my luck that the magicks will align, giving me no choice then in the Joining or in my destiny. ‘Tis my duty,” she whispered once again. The Sashtains had not yet demanded a petition to court, and for that Marina thanked the Mother Sentinel daily, but grief welled within her now for her sister.

“Can you be certain our Queen Mother sent the command? She has groomed you to rule in her stead, Serena. I cannot believe this would be her wish.” In times of court, or commands issued for state obedience, Amoria Sellane ceased to be their mother. She became instead, their Queen Mother. It was a rather childish way to still view their parent, but one they had not grown out of, it seemed.

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“Until she answers my summons, I can be certain of nothing.” Serena shook her head at the uncertainties now plaguing them. “I have received an answer neither to my psychic calls, nor to those I have penned. Until such time as one or the other comes, I can only wait. And if The Veressi arrive before she returns, then I can do nothing but receive them as commanded. The official Sellane seal accompanied the command, as did the adjoining request from the Sentinel Priestesses. I can not disobey it until I speak with her.”

“It could be a trick of The Veressi,” Marina pointed out. “They are feared even by their Kings, the Veraga.”

Serena laughed bitterly. “According to our beloved sister Brianna, this is an untruth. The Veressi have impressed her as being Wizards of honor and truth, and reminds me of the rumors she believed of Wizard Twins in general when I attempt to warn her of the deceit. I do not know, Marina, what is coming of our world. But this smacks to me of a grand deception on The Veressi’s part.”

They were not referred to as The Veressi Wizards for a reason. For years they had heard rumors of The Veressi—Wizard Twins who were mirror images of the other. Even their eye color was the same, whereas other Twins were different. A deep, bottomless black. As dark as the Shadowhell. And rumor abounded of the reason why Wizard Twins, born a pure blond, with eyes of green and blue, had slowly darkened as they matured, and became a reflection one to the other, with hair as black at the pits and eyes just as dark.

“I say we send a courier to Mother.” Marina’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “It must be one we trust. One we know will not betray us.”

Serena breathed out roughly before she nodded. “I will do this when the sun sinks this evening. I have one I can trust. And we will pray she answers in time.”

Marina nodded in a sharp, decisive motion. “I will head out to the farms then. I should return before evening and I will accompany you to dinner.” Her mouth twisted at the promise. “Bedamned Wizard Twins.”

Serena’s look of surprise was ignored as Marina stomped to the tunnel, heading for the exit. She wanted to make no explanations for the promise. She did not understand herself why she felt she could now tolerate the presence of so many forceful males when just this evening past she had forcefully railed that it would never happen. It made no sense to her, and she was certain it would make even less sense to her sister. As she entered the hidden stables, she chose one of the unicorns lazing in the soft hay and munching on oats from within the sheltered caverns. The creatures were fearless, magickal, and reveled in the spoiling attention they received as the mounts of the secretive Sorceress Brigade.

The soft halter she slipped over his long head was taken easily, as was the tooled leather saddle strapped to his back. He pranced before her, flipping his long white mane as though in pride, his dark blue eyes glittering in excitement as she mounted his back and headed through the exit to the forest.

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This was what she loved. Protecting her land, overseeing it as she had been born to do. As they had grown, they had believed certain duties would be theirs. Serena would rule, as was her right by birth. Marina would oversee the land, and Brianna would be the caretaker of the people.

So much had changed in such a very short time.

Brianna now ruled in the land of Cauldaran beside her Wizard Twins, and Marina feared that soon The Veressi would reside within the Sellane Castle. Serena would no longer rule as she had believed she would did this happen. The Veressi would never allow such a thing. And the land? As the unicorn raced through the forest, Marina grieved for the land, wondering who then would oversee it. The house of Sellane was slowly falling apart, all that she had known, had believed to be true was being overshadowed now.

The loneliness that engulfed her at the thought had pain clenching her heart, tears dampening her eyes. Soon, the house of Sellane would be no more. As Keepers of the powers of Sentmar, The Veressi were more than just Keepers of the Cauldaran powers. They were the Keepers of all that was magick upon the planet. Should they decide it, her bond with the land could be broken by the simple means of moving within it themselves.

She would fight it, she knew. She would never rest should such dark beings decide to rule as well as hold the secrets of the magick. Unless… There were rules of magick with Covenan that denied a Keeper the throne. Could such be true of The Veressi as well?

There were no answers for now. Asking the Wizards who courted her so earnestly wasn’t to be done at this moment, and there was the chance they would not know. No one outside the ruling house of Sellane knew the secrets of Keepers and Rulers, they were closely guarded. Even the Verega Twins, Brianna’s Consorts, did know the identity of the Keeper of Covenan.

She turned her attention to the land they raced over. Fertile, well beloved ground that she would gladly give her life for.

Here, the farmers held their land in stewardship, growing vast amounts of crops to provide to the castle and sell in the small towns of Covenan. As she drew closer to one of the smaller farms, she felt a chill of foreboding chase down her spine. Fast on the heels of that icy sensation was the horrified female screams that sent terror racing through her.

Marina knew those screams. She had voiced them herself. Urging the unicorn to a faster speed, she knew she would be too late. Knew there would be no way to save the innocence being taken, or the lives being changed forever. 29

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