I tried to imagine what my mother would make of a woman like Yana. She was not feminine by any Varenian standard; most of her hair was shorter than Roan’s, and her arms were as muscular as Sami’s. There was nothing soft or demure about her. But she was clearly well regarded, a respected leader with the battle scars to prove it.

“What does that look mean?” Roan said, studying me.

“That I’m learning, I suppose.” I smiled ruefully. “She despises me, doesn’t she?”

“Yana?” He patted my arm. “Yana doesn’t like anyone. But if you speak your mind, she just might come to respect you.”

We all turned as the Galethian Yana had sent off entered and asked us to follow her to the meeting room, where the rest of the councilmembers were waiting for us. Another young woman had joined them. She wasn’t dressed in riding clothing, like almost everyone else I’d seen in Galeth, but instead wore a garnet velvet dress with split skirts. She had a spattering of dark freckles across her nose, in stark contrast to her pale skin, and her black hair was loose around her shoulders.

“You’re lucky you caught me.” Her voice was throaty and rich, an interesting contrast to her wide blue eyes and small, pert nose. “I was just about to head home.”

Yana inclined her head. “Thank you for joining us. We know how busy you are.” She was being genuine, I realized. Whoever this Adriel was, she was in Yana’s good graces.

“I’d like you to meet our new friends,” Roan said. “Talin, Osius, Grig, Sami, Zadie, and last but not least, Nor. She’s the one I told you about.”

I glanced at him. When had he had time for that, and what could he possibly have told her about me?

Adriel turned to me and smiled. Something about her clear blue gaze was disarming. I felt as if she was seeing directly into my head, gleaning thoughts I wasn’t even conscious of. I smiled back, but she didn’t look away, and my smile faltered. Why wasn’t she looking at anyone else? What had Roan told her about me?

“The guard refuses to give up the bloodstone,” Yana said, finally taking Adriel’s focus away from me.

“That’s hardly surprising,” Adriel remarked as she approached the Ilarean, who had been brought into the council chamber, with a slow, swaying stride. She was curvaceous in a way I suspected many women in Varenia would be, if it weren’t for the lack of food. “The bloodstone has him under its control. Well, under the control of the person who wields the stone.”

“Ceren?” I asked. Several heads swiveled toward me.

“Is he the Ilarean king?” Adriel asked.

“For now,” Talin grunted.

“I’ve never seen a bloodstone in person before.” Adriel stopped just in front of the guard. He dragged his eyes up slowly to hers, but his expression remained dazed and unfocused.

Adriel made no move toward the stone, just leaned down until she was at eye level with it. “I only know the information that was passed down to me by my teacher. But my understanding is that only the Ilarean royals can wield them, since the stones are infused with the power of royal blood. Whoever wears a bloodstone given to them by the royal is under their command. If the king is giving them to his guards, then he will have full control over them.”

Yana folded her muscular arms across her chest. “Full control?”

“There is literally nothing they wouldn’t do for him. They’d even die if he commanded it.”

I shuddered at the thought. How would anyone defeat an army like that? I knew better than most that Ceren had no problem killing people who stood in his way, and he would be all too happy to use others to do his dirty work for him.

“And what if we were to take the stone from him?” Talin asked. “What happens then?”

“I’m not sure,” Adriel said over her shoulder. “It may kill him. Or it may break the control of the stone. Or perhaps it will transfer Ceren’s control onto whomever takes the stone. Personally, I don’t want to be the one to test it.”

Yana rubbed her chin for a moment. “Do you think you can learn more safely?”

“I can try, although without a bloodstone to study, it will be difficult. And you know I don’t like to mess with blood magic, Yana. It’s messy, to say the least.”

I remembered how we’d compared bloodstones to blood coral. Was that what my healing capabilities were? Blood magic? And was that why I’d had the visions of Ceren and those strange dreams that felt all too real? Messy didn’t even begin to cover it.

“There were two more guards killed outside the border,” I said. “It’s possible they were wearing stones as well. Do we know what happened to their bodies?”

Roan and the rider from Fort Crag put their heads together for a moment.

“We recovered the bodies,” Roan said. “They were burned, but we did collect their belongings. We’ll have to search them to see if there’s a bloodstone. We don’t recall seeing one.”

I nodded. Naturally, they would have noticed if there had been a beautiful red jewel among the guard’s belongings.

“It was a good thought, Nor.” Yana inclined her head when I looked at her before turning to Adriel. “We’ll put the man in the dungeon. Let’s see if you can discover anything else about the bloodstones. I’d like to spare his life, if possible. More importantly, I’d like to question him. He has useful information in there, somewhere.”

“Can I help?” I asked, sensing we were about to be dismissed.

Yana’s gaze darted to mine. “Help?”

“With the questioning. I have some things I’d like to ask, too.” I glanced at the others and added quickly, “In case the guard knows something that can help us rescue our families.”

Yana narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t press. “Very well. If Adriel can figure out a way to make him talk.”

As the councilmembers disbanded, Talin fell in step next to me. “Have you decided where you’d like to stay? There’s no pressure. I just want to make sure you’ll be safe.”

Before I could respond, Roan appeared on my other side, oblivious to the fact that Talin and I were trying to have a private conversation. “I was thinking about you last night, you know.”

Not oblivious, I realized. Just a troublemaker. Talin muttered something under his breath.

“About where you could stay,” Roan added, smiling innocently. His eyes went to Adriel, who was walking ahead of us. “You should stay with Adriel. She lives between Leesbrook and Fort Crag, so you wouldn’t be too far from your friends or your sister,” Roan continued. “And Adriel could probably use some help figuring out those bloodstones. Couldn’t you, Adriel?”