Incorrigible: Secrets Past & Present - Part Two / Seeking (Staves of Warrant)

By Morgen Rich

Gráinne’s search for survivors begins in earnest, but she doesn’t even make it to the first stop before her freedom is jeopardized. In a place filled with corruption, subterfuge, and danger, but none of the survivors she’d hoped to find, she isn’t prepared for what she does find. Her journey will take her underground in more ways than one, and Gráinne will have to choose between the only security she has and someone else’s freedom.

Seeking is Part 2 of 4 in Incorrigible: Secrets Past & Present, Book One of an epic science fantasy set in the Shifting Worlds Universe.

***IMPORTANT. Please read: The Shifting Worlds Universe is the setting for a serial story. Please be aware that "serial" means some parts are just that: parts. They are meant to be read in sequence, and they do contain some cliffhangers. The parts are being published in rapid succession so that readers don't have to wait overly long to find out what happens.

Readers who would rather read each book as a complete volume will be able to buy each novel (all parts in one book) before the subsequent book's first part is published. That way, they'll have time to catch up before the story continues.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morgen Rich
• Release date: Jul 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989210232

Morgen Rich

Morgen Rich grew up in the southwestern U.S., where the sky reminds humans just how small they really are. Staring up at a sky stretching into forever prompted her to wonder what was there, and thus, her writing career in speculative fiction began. She's taught English, American Literature, Women's Studies, and Communications and still dips her toes into teaching a course now and again because she loves to see the excitement of students exploring imaginary worlds. She lives mostly in Pennsylvania with her husband and two Great Pyrenees, Bianca and Tahoe. On occasion, she lives in Lincoln, England.Her current project is a speculative fiction series that begins with Incorrigible: Secrets Past & Present. Incorrigible is Book One of The Staves of Warrant, a trilogy set in the Shifting Worlds Universe. Books Two (Discordant: Kin Foreign & Familiar) and Three (Seditious: Promises Broken & Bound) will be available in Fall 2013 and early 2014.Get to know Morgen on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, or on her blog/website (Worlds Enough and Time) at www.MorgenRich.com

Book preview

Incorrigible: Secrets Past & Present

The Staves of Warrant Book One

Part Two / Seeking

Morgen Rich

Bookmite Press

Pennsylvania

www.bookmitepress.com

*****

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright © 2013. Morgen Rich. All rights reserved.

Published by Bookmite Press.

ebook ISBN 978-0-9892102-3-2

Smashwords Edition.

Cover design by Derek Murphy of Creativindie Covers

*****

Table of Contents

Chapter Eleven: Familiar and Unknown

Chapter Twelve: Foreign

Chapter Thirteen: Hopeful

Chapter Fourteen: Empathetic

Chapter Fifteen: Protective

Chapter Sixteen: Mortified

Chapter Seventeen: Lost and Found

Chapter Eighteen: Freedom

Extras

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Chapter Eleven

Familiar and Unknown

What do you mean she is missing? asked Ilythiiria.

Niamh is missing. None of us has seen her for at least half a moon, maybe longer.

Ilythiiria thought about how much time had passed since she’d relocated Euryale. She couldn’t remember exactly how much of the moon’s cycle had passed, but surely at least half a cycle had elapsed since she’d left Glendoque and Euryale in the cave outside Alya’s largest city.

Nobody knows where she is, said Moira.

This would not be the first time she has disappeared without telling us where she was going, Moira.

I know, but something does not feel right about it this time.

In what way?

The pond.

What about the pond?

Moira frowned and looked around. In the past, Niamh and I have worked together at the pond. The ground there is saturated with her Essence. I gazed from the bottom of the pond not long ago when I sensed Arianna’s daughter near it.

Ilythiiria felt the air around her stop moving. The daughter of Arianna?

And I could not feel her.

The daughter of Arianna?

No. Niamh. I could not feel Niamh.

Ahhhh, said Ilythiiria. Perhaps your connection with the daughter of Arianna interfered? Her mother is strong in her.

Moira shook her head. I do not think so. But even that was strange.

How so?

When she came into the cave, I sensed Morgraine’s presence, but I found it confusing.

Why?

Morgraine felt like a weaker vibration of the one I sensed when I guided Glendoque and his wife. Same but different. Less . . . earthy or . . . of the earth . . . if that makes any sense.

Ilythiiria wrinkled her brow. She needed to distract Moira from thinking about Euryale. The daughter’s connection with earth is only through her mother, no? asked Ilythiiria.

As far as I know, yes.

Then could it be she is more distanced from the earth now that her mother is gone? Ilythiiria reached out and stroked the arm of Moira, whose face responded by smoothing the tension it had worn into Ilythiiria’s compartment.

Yes, that must be the case. She has not visited the pond much of late, at least not when I was with Niamh. Moira’s face tightened again.

I am sorry, Moira. I know you are worried about Niamh. You know how she is, though. Niamh takes in strays the way you do. She is probably Guiding some lost soul. She offered a comforting smile.

I hope so. Oh, speaking of Guiding lost souls. I forgot to tell you. The wife of Glendoque said you know her.

I do not know her well. Why did Euryale draw attention to me? What was she thinking?

Lyra sends her greetings nonetheless.

Ilythiiria smiled. Euryale followed my instructions. Maybe there is hope for her yet. If you should see Lyra again, please return my regards.

Of course, replied Moira, shifting from one foot to another and then turning a quarter-circle to leave Ilythiiria’s compartment.

And speaking of Glendoque . . . as I remember, you aided him in finding a new home. Has he settled in?

Moira shrugged. I assume he has if his shrewish wife has not yet insisted on a more lavish home.

Ilythiiria wanted to smack Euryale. She laughed softly. Every pot has its cover, no?

Moira nodded and walked to the door. Yes, it does. If you gain news of Niamh, please inform us at once. The Circle meets soon, and we must call her if she does not return before then.

Is that not too risky?

We do what we must to protect the Staves.

Ilythiiria nodded and patted Moira on the arm. I am sure your friend will return with tales of wonder and not a clue as to why anyone has worried about her. She always comes home, Moira.

Moira nodded. Thank you for your kind words.

When the golden-haired protector of Glendoque was gone, Ilythiiria locked her door and sat on her bed. Euryale was up to something. And she was dangerously close to exposing Ilythiiria’s role in her escape. If Moira sensed you, she did so because you made yourself vulnerable. Why, Euryale? What held your attention so raptly you diverted focus from cloaking yourself? she said aloud.

Hearing the words spoken made their answer all the more instantly clear. You probed her aura. You could not resist, could you?

Ilythiiria thought back to the first time she’d realized Euryale had been born with a talent nobody had expected. It had emerged without warning when Euryale’s womanhood began to blossom, but not in the normal way an exceptional talent might have, not in the arms of a servant lover or when a rival House Daughter challenged her with a slap. Rather, the young woman’s penchant for Aura Shifting slipped out without a physical catalyst.

Ilythiiria had been collecting ingredients for a potion, and Euryale had been watching a procedure Ilythiiria didn’t particularly like, but which had to be done. To distract herself from the unpleasantness of it, Ilythiiria had focused on Euryale.

***

Her charge’s eyes darted to the sharpened tip of the quill as Ilythiiria pierced the neck of a vole. Euryale’s gaze fluttered from the teacher to the screeching vole as Ilythiiria tapped her finger over the end of the quill and drew blood up into it. When it was filled, she emptied it into a bowl and repeated the procedure.

Wait, Euryale said, her tone raspy with excitement.

Ilythiiria stopped tapping her finger.

Does it hurt?

Does what hurt, asked Ilythiiria.

To die.

Ilythiiria looked down at the vole. I am told it feels like weak relief, but I do not know for sure. I have never died. She had never lied to the girl.

Why are you killing it? she asked more loudly.

Ilythiiria felt the vole quiver and flop its body against her palm.

I need its blood. Ilythiiria prodded Euryale’s aura with her own. It felt like curiosity, but not compassion. She had a growing concern about the whispers regarding Euryale’s proclivities. It was partly Euryale’s fault, in that her sharp tongue had gained her no kindnesses or patience from her other teachers. It was more than that, though. Some of the other Priestesses had treated her with indifference from the beginning. Ilythiiria had never understood why.

Looking up from the vole to Ilythiiria, Euryale searched her mentor’s face. Let me, she said, taking the quill out of Ilythiiria’s hand.

The Priestess watched in horror and amazement as her charge drew the blood from the pitiful vole so slowly it seemed she took it by drops. She soaked in every change in the vole’s demeanor and reactions, three times stopping in mid-draw to concentrate. And three times, the vole reacted—once stiffening, one time squirming, and finally going limp as it wailed a pleading squeak.

The vole’s third reaction pushed Ilythiiria’s pity for the pathetic rodent to the edge of her tolerance. Kill it now.

Euryale looked disappointed. She squeezed the vole’s neck and snapped it but held onto it and closed her eyes.

Stop that immediately! Ilythiiria said.

Euryale’s eyelids snapped open. Her eyes looked flat and lifeless.

Now! screamed Ilythiiria, slapping Euryale’s hand so hard the limp vole flew out of it and thumped first against the wall and then the floor.

***

Ilythiiria shuddered at the memory of the thud. She felt more certain than ever Euryale was up to something. It seemed a game to her. In the midst of not trying to save herself from the death sentence, she had probed someone’s aura in the Assembly hall. In toying with Ilythiiria through Moira, Euryale also had drawn Moira’s attention to a link between Ilythiiria and herself. But why? As she so frequently had felt while mentoring Euryale, Ilythiiria found herself overwhelmed with questions. If she had learned anything about her charge, it was that Euryale employed focus purposefully. What got her attention got all of her attention, but getting her attention meant being