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EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK FOR ROMANTASY LOVERS
Tide of Waves and Secrets, Heirs of Elydor Book #2
Rowan
Estmere, Elydor
I stood with my hand on the door, unable to open it.
When I’d left, my grandfather had been reasonably well. But the second I returned home, it was apparent something was amiss. The hall of our manor house wasn’t bustling with activity. Instead, I’d been greeted by our steward as if someone had died.
I pushed the door open.
Knowing my grandfather would not live forever and being confronted with the evidence of that fact were two very different things. Propped up by pillows, he sat alone.
‘You look like shite,’ I said, striding toward him and leaning down to kiss the wrinkled, white-haired man on his forehead. Sitting on the side of the canopied bed, I wasn’t surprised when he reached for my hand.
‘Talk to me when you’re dying,’ he said with a weak smile. ‘It is a messy business, death. With luck, you will find a way to delay your own, but I fear my time has come.’
I wanted to argue with him. Tell Sir Thomas Durnell, my grandfather and mentor, he simply could not die. I’d thought he was invincible.
‘The Fade?’
His frail fingers squeezed my own. ‘I’d always imagined it to happen much more slowly,’ he said.
‘Would you rather it this way?’
‘Now that you’re home, aye. I would.’
I suspected as much. ‘I wish I could stay.’
My grandfather sighed heavily. ‘I already know that you cannot.’
All humans in Elydor, but especially my family, had some sort of intuitive abilities. But as The Keeper, my grandfather had more than most. Only those with Durnell blood – or Harrow blood, to be precise, though that name hadn’t been used in centuries – knew of it.
‘What did you see?’
‘The lost princess has, indeed, returned. You intercepted her and spent some time in Aethralis. You are on a mission, heading to Thalassaria, are you not?’
As always, my grandfather was entirely accurate.
‘This mission of yours will not go as planned. I see nothing else yet, but worry for your safety, Rowan.’
That was not information to take lightly. My grandfather had mentored me since I could wield a sword. He knew I was capable and very rarely worried for me. Or at least enough to admit as much.
‘That isn’t like you.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘It is not.’
I waited, but he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. If he were anyone else, anyone but The Keeper, I could use my own intuitive skills to sense his emotion. To learn more. But he had long-ago learned how to shield out others from gaining information from him: an essential skill for someone who held all of the secrets of our family’s history.
He blinked, as if attempting to focus on me. All Keepers, every person with the same blood running through them, had been trained for this. For my grandfather’s death. Some with more trepidation than others, but all knew the signs.
‘Your eyesight?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘I can see you, but not as well as when you left. Tell me everything.’
I started from the beginning.
‘I met Princess Mevlida, Mev, on the road fleeing north. As you foretold, she’d been taken by Prince Kael of Gyoria, but in an interesting twist of fate, the two had already formed a bond. And later, a formal union,’ I said. ‘Kael has sworn his allegiance to King Eldrin.’
‘Mmm,’ Grandfather sighed. ‘So that is why I could see a rift between the Gyorian king and one of his sons. If either of them were to fall in love with an Aetherian woman, I’d have expected it to be Kael, and not Terran.’
‘I’d not have expected any Gyorian, least of all one of King Balthor’s sons, to fall in love with the daughter of their enemy. But I supposed that’s why you’re The Keeper and I’m just a spy.’
His grandfather made a sound of disbelief. ‘You are not “just” anything, Rowan and know it well. If I’d ever met a more kind, loyal, resourceful—’
‘Dying,’ I teased, knowing my grandfather did not like mincing words or being anything other than forthright, ‘has not diminished your overhyping capabilities.’
‘Overhyping? A new word for me,’ he said. ‘The meaning of which I can easily discern. The princess must have quite a vocabulary, among other attributes from the modern world. Tell me of her.’
And so, I did. Anything not to think about the fact that my grandfather’s eyesight was leaving him, one of the final stages of The Fading. I recalled my adventures with Mev, Kael and Lyra, telling him what I’d learned of the modern world in the human realm from Mev. I recounted how difficult it had been to gain Kael’s trust, and how, after confronting his own brother to protect Mev, Kael had eventually pledged his loyalty to she and King Galfrid. I also told my grandfather what the king had revealed to the others about reopening the Gate: that the most powerful artifacts in each clan needed to be recovered and used in a spell known only to two men – the Aetherian king who opened it, and the Gyorian one who closed it.
‘This is as close as we’ve been since it was closed to seeing the Gate reopened once again.’
‘I agree.’ With my grandfather’s frail hand still holding my own, I acknowledged the pang inside my chest at such a sight. No man in Estmere was more fierce, or determined, than him. His family had long-argued the merits of how the new Keeper was chosen. Some said that when the current Keeper died, their magic was transferred to the most loyal of those living with Harrow blood coursing through their veins. Others believed it to be someone who excelled at keeping secrets: an essential quality for The Keeper.
But I knew the truth of it.
Having observed and trained with my grandfather since an early age, I was convinced the new Keeper was the man, or woman, who possessed all of it. Loyalty. Strength. Integrity. Wisdom. Resilience. My grandfather possessed all of these things.
There was not a better man alive.
‘Do not look so sad, Grandson. I’ve lived a full life and will be glad to reunite with your grandmother. It’s been an honor to serve our family, and our people. But it’s a duty I gladly pass along to another.’
He had served their family well, but I also knew how much my grandfather wished to reopen the Gate. He’d been alive when it closed, when so many who had come through, never intending to remain in Elydor, were cut off from their families. King Balthor had not just punished his enemy, the Aetherians, but the humans and, in Rowan’s mind, all of Elydor. It had been stronger, according to his grandfather, when the free pass of information and knowledge had been allowed between Elydor and the human realm.
‘We will reopen it.’ It was not a vow I made lightly. Many resourceful people, including my grandfather, had attempted it for many years. And failed. ‘Somehow,’ I said, ‘Mev was able to pass through the Gate, despite it being closed. I believe it is a sign. Her Aetherian powers are strong, and her union with Prince Kael, fortuitous. Together, we will see it done. I make that vow to you, Grandfather.’
The man that had trained me… loved me… smiled.
‘I have no doubt that you will.’
Sighing, as if our conversation had weakened him, he added, ‘Tread carefully in Thalassaria. You’ve not spent as much time there as in the other clans. They are neither as welcoming to humans as Aetherians nor as hostile to us as Gyorians, but their neutrality toward us has been just as detrimental. Thalassarians care about their freedom above all. Remember that. There is power in unity, and hope, and a peaceful future between all of Elydor’s clans is possible. But only if the Gate is reopened.’
‘I will retrieve the Tidal Pearl from Thalassari’s queen. We will reopen it,’ Rowan vowed once again. ‘I will make you proud, Grandfather.’
Smiling, he let go of my hand, patted it and closed his eyes, obviously tired. ‘You already have, Rowan. You already have.’
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