Liana purses her lips. “She was supposed to stay the night with you and ensure your wounds were properly healed.”
Vann’s eyebrows shoot up, a bright emotion cutting through the gloom, and Svanna crosses her arms, smirking. Salo is silent, but he watches.
“Mother Liana, the matchmaker,” Svanna murmurs.
Liana preens, raising her jewel-studded fingers, and crosses toward me. “We need to talk about what happened with the fight yesterday. She was the other person healing with me. Thus, we need her in this meeting,” Liana insists.
I nod slowly. “Lord Vann, will you retrieve Estela?”
“Lady Estela,” Liana corrects.
No one balks at the title and I look at the wise woman. I smile. “Yes,LadyEstela.”
Vann nods and walks out of the room.
When he is gone, the room returns to its former melancholy. No one looks at me as I ease onto the broken throne.
“Was anyone else injured by the tenth creature?” I ask.
Liana looks up at me. “No.”
“And do you know why you weren’t able to see all of them?” I prod further.
She pauses. “I would like Lady Estela to be here when I tell you.”
I furrow my brows and look at the other two advisors. Svanna is playing with the tail of her braid, and Salo stands at attention. Neither of them do anything but contribute to the dread in my stomach.
When Estela walks into the room alongside Vann, a bolt of electricity skitters down my spine. Her eyes find mine first, and the song starts up—this time playing a new tune. There’s an added layer of melody as sweet and heady as berry wine.
I stand in her presence and see Liana nod her head. Svanna looks to the human and offers a halfway bow. Salo follows along, just barely.
She looks confused as to why she is here, but then she smiles a little and nods her head back. “The gems sing for a good morning,” she says in my tongue.
I blink, shocked at her Enduar accent while the others return her greeting. Liana leads her over to my side at the top of the throne. I guide her to sit, and then take my place on the one good arm.
The room is tense, but I can’t stop glancing at my mate. How she’s changed.
Liana begins her concerns immediately after, notably speaking in the common tongue. “King Ma’Teo, Lady Estela, we bring bad news. Earlier you asked me why I did not see the tenth monster. It is because, at the time of the vision, the creature did not exist. I—” she blinks furiously, “Dyrn. It was Dyrn, changed into one of those horrible beasts.”
Estela sucks in a breath, but nods. “When we were healing yesterday, you told me that there was something in King Teo’s blood. We worked with crystal after crystal to extract some black substance.”
My mind starts to race. I did not know about any of that.
Liana nods and reaches into the pouch at her hip to withdraw a piece of quartz. Normally, the stone is a clear white, but now it is a deep, purply black.
Estela recoils, Salo steps back, and Svanna hisses. Vann stares at the stone. The energy emanating from that is ugly,wrong.
“What is that?” I demand.
Liana looks to Estela and my mate speaks up. “It’s the venom, I believe.” Her face pales. “If we had left it, do you think that Teo would have turned as well?”
She purses her lips. “I am not sure.” Then she turns to Vann. “This morning I extracted a crystal’s worth from Lord Vann. It would be right to say that is why his wounds were not healing.”
“I keep wondering why it didn’t poison me. Was it because of my Fuegorra? My ability?” Estela shifts in her seat. “When I thought I was healing Dyrn the day he died, was my Fuegorra just trying to ease the effects of the infection?”
She nods. “That is what I think as well.”
I shift my weight so that I am more standing than sitting on the arm of the throne. “We killed them all, yes?“