A Rite of Waters: A High Fantasy Slowburn Fairytale Romance (A Kingdom of Stone and Starlight Book 3) by Adelia Jezek

Author:Adelia Jezek [Jezek, Adelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The night was quiet and cool as I stepped out of the tent, the white linen of the long tunic whispering around my bare legs. My feet felt the smooth warmth of the ground beneath me and the steady, comforting throb of the pool’s power seemed to flow through the stones to find me. Tomas had lit a lantern, holding it aloft as he waited at the edge of the waters. Rose stood at his side, leaning her head against his chest as Soren finished a final circuit around the perimeters of the mountain pond. He looked up, nodding at me as I approached the waters.

“Martin will join us in a moment,” he said, his tone even, icily precise and distant. “The pitchers are still at the plinth where you left them, along with a bottle of mead. Keeper Vasil informed me just before we left that such a thing was once considered an important element of the celestial rites of midsummer.”

“A pity we didn’t have a bottle of mead in the Kingswood,” I said, feeling a flutter of nerves in my stomach as I looked over the glassy surface of the celestial pool.

“It didn’t seem to interfere too badly with the renewal,” Soren said, as a softness filled his expression. “Although perhaps it might have made getting thrown out of the pool a little more comfortable when I tried to remove my curse on my own.”

I felt a shudder at the recollection of my vision of Martin’s body crumpled against the broken stones of the valley floor, my memory quickly turning to Soren’s body wreathed in the sickly yellow-green aura of his curse. I swallowed hastily, glancing away to my sister’s waiting form. “I am glad that we have it now then. Are you ready?”

“Of course,” he said. “Not that there is much need for me to ready myself.”

We turned and went to the plinth together. Soren stood a few feet away, his face once more shrouded with a mask of aloof indifference. My heart thudded in my chest and I suddenly felt very unsure of myself, of the rite I was supposed to perform. I tried to recall the elements that Soren had led me in before — the pouring of the water over the stones in order from the stone associated with the house of the Midsummer’s Moon, one participant going widdershins and the other going sunwise until the magic of each stone had been fully renewed with a pitcher of water from both of us. I named the full moons and the thirteen houses of stars, feeling my heartbeat grow steady and the tension in my chest eased. Each breath now came slow and even, bringing a sense of calm and purpose to my thoughts.

Martin came to the plinth, so quiet that I startled when he knelt beside me and placed his hand on my arm. He flashed me a warm, reassuring smile and then looked out over the Starlight Waters.

“Is there any part of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.