Beguiled (The Fairest Maidens #2) - Jody Hedlund Page 0,82
beautiful stone beckoned to me, I didn’t dare touch it. I’d witnessed the power it had over the servants we’d used in our experiments. In every single instance without fail, anyone who came into contact with the stone itself always fell into a deep sleep of unconsciousness and eventually died.
The stone had a life and will of its own. Though many kings and queens before me had claimed it was cursed, they’d comprehended that the cost for its destruction was too high.
I’d learned the cost for its fulfillment was also high. But over the years, I’d determined to pay the price so that I might earn the distinction of being the first to make gold.
For so long, I’d hoped to avoid using Pearl’s heart when she came of age, had increased my efforts to find my niece instead. But with every passing year of failing to locate Aurora, I’d closed myself off to Pearl and hardened my heart toward her. Eventually, I’d accepted the fact that I would have to sacrifice Pearl if I had any chance of accomplishing what no one else had ever been able to do.
I wanted to think I would have been able to go through with the beheading, that I wouldn’t have given way to the pressure building inside my chest to call off the execution. But when she’d delivered the news of her marriage to Mikkel, a strange tension had eased from my body. Had I been relieved? Was there still a part of me that I hadn’t been able to harden toward my flesh and blood?
Was that why I’d so readily agreed to her plan and set her free? And why I hadn’t gone through with beheading her as I should have? After all, she’d made clear enough that she understood the secrets of my alchemy—had likely learned them from Ruby. That alone was enough to silence her.
Instead of the beheading today, I should have sent her away to be murdered as I’d done for last year’s hunting expedition when a part of me had known I wouldn’t be able to watch her die, not even in the yearly sacrifice to Grendel.
With a sigh of frustration, I traced the rim of the golden box and gazed upon the white stone, trying to absorb its power and life. Today I’d shown a moment of weakness, and I couldn’t let it happen again. After all, the ancient parchment in the secret compartment of the box stated that only the hardest of hearts could ever do what was required to make use of the white stone.
“Are you ready, Your Majesty?” My priest bowed his tonsured head and waved a hand toward the velvet-lined chest that was cushioned inside another chest.
I ran my fingers along the engravings of the golden box one last time, and then carefully lowered the lid, securing the white stone inside. “Yes, I am ready.”
I took a step back and allowed the priest and his companion to lift the golden box from its sacred pedestal and lower it into the awaiting chest. A special cart was ready for the golden box, one I used for transporting the white stone during the yearly trip to the Gemstone Mountains and the mine pits.
This year, however, we wouldn’t be journeying up into the mountains. Instead, we would go north to Inglewood Forest and Boarshead Hunting Lodge.
And I was ready. I’d failed with Pearl. But I wouldn’t with Aurora.
Already, my elite knights were following Pearl and Mikkel. They would make use of every clue Pearl unearthed in hunting for Aurora. And they would find the young queen first. They must. I knew Pearl was too soft and sentimental to carry through in delivering Aurora over to me.
“Ruby is ready to go, Your Majesty,” said one of the guards from the chapel’s doorway.
“Very well. You must deliver her to Boarshead Hunting Lodge without any incidents.”
The guard bowed, his armor clinking in readiness for his mission. Though I’d wanted to leave Ruby behind and far away from Pearl, I suspected I would have need of the girl in one form or another.
Prince Mikkel would likely seek out the aid of his brother Prince Vilmar and perhaps even the help of his youngest brother, Prince Kresten—though I had yet to learn where he was conducting his Testing. If I could lure the Scanian princes to Boarshead Hunting Lodge, then I would have a greater chance of eliminating them, especially now that Mikkel and Vilmar knew the secrets of my alchemy.