Mirranda’s head spun as she and Lathan opened the door to his huge private library and offered everyone a chair. Servants followed discreetly to see to wine cups and food. Lathan then escorted Mirranda to their room, where she had stowed her pack.
“Lathan, Widar had a servant steal my roaming crystals, what if the—”
He pulled out the book and held it up. “Not to worry.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Lathan patted the pouch he wore on his belt. “After what happened tonight, perhaps it is best if I keep these locked away.”
Mirranda bit her lip. The crystals were her only contact to the world she knew . . .
He watched her closely, a frown blurring his brow, his eyes turning icy green. “Is it possible?” he whispered softly. “Even after all of this, I could still lose you to your own time?”
“Lathan . . .” she began and stepped forward. She lightly caressed his hair from his temple, unable to find the words to explain the knot of emotions within her. A part of her still missed her home.
Lathan closed his eyes and tilted his head toward her hand.
“Those crystals are my only link to my past, and even more so, the crystals and the book are the only link to my father,” she said at last. “I still have no idea why he mandated his will to have them delivered to me on my thirtieth birthday. Did he know I would be thrown backward in time? Did he know I would be your lifemate?” She drew a deep breath. She had so many questions spinning through her head.
Lathan gazed down at her a long moment, his eyes swirling from green to blue and back again. “I understand, Mirra.” He removed the pouch with the crystals and handed them to her. “Do with them what you wish, keep them safe. But if you fear you cannot, I will secure them for you.”
“Thank you.” She looked down at herself. “Can I change into something more comfortable now?”
“Of course. I will see you in the library.” He kissed her cheek and strode out the door.
Mirranda noticed Aeryn had returned her jeans and blouse early, fully repaired. She quickly changed. She pulled her hair into a loose ponytail, errant curls once again escaping around her face. She shoved her crystals into her pocket, resolving to keep them on her person at all times. She donned some slippers, nothing more than thin fabric with a simple sole, but they protected her feet from the cold floor. She hurried back through Lathan’s apartments to the library.
Meri Novia, Graylan, and Lathan waited for her. The book sat untouched on Lathan’s desk. He leaned back in his chair, his booted feet propped on the corner. Mirranda blinked. He too had changed—well, actually all he had done was shed some clothing. His tunic and heavy belt were gone, and he wore only a loose–fitting vest over his bare torso, open in the front.
It wasn’t fair a man with a body like that was so casual about displaying it. And she was married to this pagan god come to life. Mirranda shook her head, smiling to herself. Obviously, the honeymoon wasn’t over yet.
Meri sat patiently on a comfortable divan, her staff in hand. She twirled it absently, the candle light glittering off of the crystal in the dragon’s mouth.
Lathan glanced up at Mirranda as she entered. He started to smile but it froze on his face. He stared at her in surprise. In fact, everyone stared at her.
Mirranda felt the blush rising on her cheeks. “Sorry,” she whispered. “But this is what I wear at home when I want to be comfortable. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I’ll go change again.”
“Nay,” Lathan said sternly and rose from his chair. He crossed the room and caught her arm. “This is what you wear at home to be comfortable, especially among friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you shall wear it here.”
Graylan chuckled. “Your council of Pendragons will have apoplectic fits, Lathan.”
“Good.” Lathan guided her to sit in the divan next to Meri. Mirranda curled her legs under her. It felt good to be wearing real clothes again.
Lathan handed Mirranda’s book to Meri. “This is what Mirra had when she arrived. Feel free to examine it, and Mirra, tell her of how you acquired it.”
Mirranda looked at him startled but Lathan winked at her reassuringly. She did her best to explain.
Meri Novia rubbed her eyes and muttered to herself in irritation.
“Meri,” Lathan said in gentle reproach. He placed his hand on her shoulder, and Mirranda saw golden power flutter around his hand briefly before he withdrew it. “Better?”
Meri looked up at him, and Mirranda noted her eyes didn’t seem nearly as cloudy. “Aye, thank you, dear boy.”
“You have only to ask, you know that.”
“’Tis folly to have to heal my eyes so often.”
“Nay, it is not. I no longer battle the curse, remember?”
“True,” she said and grinned.
“What’s wrong?” Mirranda asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.
“Meri is one of the few Kindred who understand how to use their power judiciously,” Lathan said. “Therefore, she’s also one of the few to have reached what others might consider old age. Unfortunately—”
“No need to mince words,” Meri interjected as she rolled her eyes at Lathan. She smiled at Mirranda. “I am old. My vision grows dim, and as you just saw, a golden dragon can heal me, but it doesn’t last for very long. Because each time we use our magic pushes us closer to the curse, I had been reluctant to have Lathan or anyone else for that matter heal me over something so trivial.”
Mirranda realized what she meant. “You have what people in my era would call cataracts. We have learned how to remove them with surgery, but they also can return in that scenario as well.”
“Perhaps now Meri will come to me whenever it becomes a problem,” Lathan said.
“I will,” Meri said and looked again at the book. “Wait a moment, are you sure you healed me correctly? This book doesn’t make a lick of sense. Have you read it, Mirranda?”
Mirranda felt the blush rise on her cheeks. “I only know Latin as it pertains to my profession. I’m not truly literate in it.”
“I read Latin every day,” Graylan offered. He moved behind the divan and looked over their shoulders, scowling. “Lathan healed your eyes just fine, Meri. The book makes no sense. It is as if a child put the words together, but the script is printed neatly, the hand is obviously an adult’s.”
“When I first looked at the book, I thought it might be a cipher,” Lathan said.
“We are coming up with more questions than answers,” Meri said, peering at the book intently. “Why would something be written in a cipher if it is intended to be passed down through the family?” She carefully turned the old pages and squinted at something. “Am I wrong, or does this appear to be a family tree?”
Mirranda looked closer. “Yes, it looks like a genealogy. The printing is so tiny I can barely make out the letters.”
Meri turned the pages, the genealogy continuing for several more.
“Wait,” Mirranda said, stopping her when she saw some empty lines. “May I see this?”
Meri handed it to her, and Mirranda moved to hold the book closer to the candlelight on the table. Most of the names on the page she could not make out, but then she spotted three that were the last written before the empty lines began.
Her father’s name, Marcus Thompson, the year he was born, then her mother’s name, Emily Clancy, the year she was born along with the year they were married. Below it was Mirranda’s name and the year of her birth as well.
There the genealogy ended. Mirranda’s eyes suddenly filled with tears, and she had to fight back a sob.
“Child, what’s wrong?” Meri asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Mirra?” Lathan asked, scowling.
She blinked at him, a tear escaping. She couldn’t trust her voice to speak.
Lathan quickly looked at the book but shook his head. “Those letters appear strange. Some are familiar, but they are not Latin.”
“It’s English,” she whispered and pointed. “This is my father and his birthday, my mother and her birthdate, when they married, and then . . . me. It ends there. As you can see, earlier names have the dates when people were born and when they died. But there is nothing on my parents because I didn’t have the book to fill anything in.”
Meri patted her shoulder. “And someone killed your parents.” She shook her head harshly. “Why would someone do such a terrible thing?”
“Aye,” Lathan said softly. “Those who attacked were not common cutthroats or thieves.”
Mirranda managed to wipe away the tears gathering on her lashes. She had to think about something else. Meri was right, they were coming up with more questions than answers. She stared at the family tree . . . incomplete.
She gasped and sat up sharply.
“Mirra?” Lathan asked.
“What . . . what if my parents were killed because of this book? Because of their heritage?”
“What do you mean?”
“Meri has a good question. Why write this book in code if it is to be passed down through the family?”
“The only reason to write a cipher is to hide the true meaning from one who is not supposed to know it.”
“So there was worry that someone might obtain this book that wasn’t supposed to.”
Lathan nodded, sitting on the arm of the divan and gazing at the book. “That makes sense.”
“Why were my parents a target of a professional murder? The blood was drained from their bodies. You said that’s how the hunters kill Ilarians. Why didn’t my father simply leave this book for me to inherit when his will was read like everything else? Why did he wait and have it delivered to me on my thirtieth birthday?”
Graylan scowled, rubbing his chin. “Perhaps your father wanted to wait until you were old enough to realize its importance.”
“But why even think of that in the first place? My parents’ will provided for me totally, as if they knew something might happen to them.”
Graylan’s brows flew up his forehead. “Aye, your father has demonstrated a remarkable amount of foresight. Usually parents will plan for the worst, but yours acted as if they expected it.”
Lathan took the book from Mirranda and looked again at the cover. “Were they being hunted?” he asked softly. “Just like the Ilarians, just like us?”
“If they were being hunted,” Graylan said, “it would make sense to provide for their offspring, to keep her safe, and give her the information she needs about her past. Especially if they fear she is going to be hunted as well. She would need to know why.”
“But why would anyone want to kill me?”
“Because of the magic you possess, Mirranda,” Lathan said.
She shook her head stubbornly. “No one believes in magic in my world, Lathan.”
“Yet you possess it in great measure. Just because they say it doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean they are telling the truth.”
“So there are secret societies running around that not only believe in magic but actually have it?” she asked incredulously.
“Why not?” Lathan asked with a smile. “The Kindred are doing that right now, just as many races are. We are children of magic, and all of us have become very good at hiding just to survive. Your heritage is Ilarian, that we know, and the Ilarians are also very good at hiding.”
“True,” she muttered. “I haven’t seen one yet.”
Lathan chuckled. “What if the Ilarians survived all the way until your time period?”
Mirranda rubbed the back of her neck. “And they might still be hunted for their magic.”
“And you were only a small child when your parents died?”
She nodded.
“Knowing your Ilarian heritage, perhaps your parents had magic as well. That would make them targets for the hunters. Knowing this, they also prepared for the worst. Should they die, you would still be able to learn your heritage when you were old enough to understand it and understand the risk the hunters would be to you.”
“Okay, I can accept that, but why send me a book I can’t read? This code is going to stop me from reading it just as much as it will stop someone else. Why didn’t my father give me the key?”
Lathan arched an eyebrow. “Perhaps he did. Your crystals.”
“How are the crystals going to give me answers . . . unless,” she added, her throat going dry, “my father knew or had some idea of what would happen.”
“That you would travel to a place where you could find the answers.”
“But why here? Why now?”
“I have no idea. But why not here and now? You are my lifemate, and had you remained in the future, I would have failed in my quest. The Kindred would die.”
Mirranda sighed and rubbed her temples. This was giving her a headache.
Lathan opened the book to the family tree again. “How much of this can you read, Mirra?”
She looked at it over his shoulder and pointed. “My great-great grandfather. After that, it’s all chicken scratch to me.”
Lathan nodded and turned a few more pages, going to the part of the book where her father had made journal entries in both Latin and English. “And you can read some of the words here?”
“Yes.”
“Then it would seem to me, if we must break a cipher, we must determine the cipher we need to break.”
“You mean write it down in a way we can understand all the words and then look for the code itself?”
“Aye.”
Meri rose from the divan, clucking like a mother hen. Leaning heavily on her staff, she hobbled to a large bookshelf. “Methinks, Lathan, you are making this much harder than it is.” She plucked a scroll from a shelf. Moving to the desk, she opened it. The scroll had a drawing of the same golden dragon as on Mirranda’s book.
“Lathan,” Mirranda asked while Meri scanned the scroll. “You said your family has always ruled the Kindred, but did you have royalty before coming here?”
“Nay, we had clans and household leaders. We were once Keltoi. Prax chose the strongest houses to become the ruling nobility. My family was selected for the monarchy, and the others were placed on the council.”
“And the whole monarchy thing, arranging political alliances, began from there?”
“Aye.”
“This dragon mark cannot be used by anyone outside your family?”
“Nay. The mark is different for each person in the family. My signet, as king, is much different from my father’s and from my brother’s. But the one theme, the one consistency that carries through all of them, is this dragon mark. You, as my wife and my lifemate, can adopt the mark into your own crest should you choose to do so, but otherwise, no one outside the family can use it. In fact, only those families who are very high in rank can use a dragon’s mark. In a society of dragons, I am sure you can imagine how that would become very popular and also very confusing.”
“Okay, that still doesn’t explain why a family of Ilarian heritage has a book with your family mark.”
Lathan turned to the front of the book again. “This first date is just before we arrived on the Isle of Mist. While searching for a new home, Prax developed a human council to vote on where we would live. He chose my family to rule and gave us this mark.”
“Could an Ilarian have been part of that group?”
“I don’t see how, Mirra.”
“Perhaps by marriage . . . or . . .” Suddenly, it dawned on her. “Or lifemate?”
“If I was not mated to you, I would say it was impossible, but . . .”
“It’s obviously not. We are lifemates, yet you insist my heritage is Ilarian while you are Kindred. In order for me to have a book with the mark of the Kindred ruling family, an Ilarian would have had to be present after Prax granted the mark to your family. With my heritage listed in this book, surely there is a way we can trace it back, perhaps even match it to records you have here.”
“That would be very difficult. We were being hunted at the time, scattered like grains of sand on the wind. Many records did not survive.”
“But we have some,” Meri said as she rolled up the scroll. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the one I was thinking of.” She replaced it on the shelf. “I must meditate on this. Perhaps the scroll I’m thinking of is in the Holy Shrine. I stare at so many every day that they all blur together.”
“What are you looking for, Meri?” Lathan asked.
“I’m not sure, that’s why I can’t find it. There’s something I’m forgetting.” She sighed and straightened slightly, her old bones popping like dry tinder.
“We are all weary,” Lathan said. “Perhaps we can continue this tomorrow.”
“Aye, Lathan,” Meri said, moving slowly toward the door.
Lathan opened the door for her. “Until tomorrow.”
She smiled and patted his shoulder as she left.
Graylan, René, and Gideon also bid them good night.
Lathan extinguished the candles in the library and offered his arm. “Shall we?”
Mirranda nodded, wrapping her arm in his and leaning her head against his shoulder as they walked. “Lathan, I’m still worried.”
“About what?”
“Even though we’ve basically proven I’m your lifemate, I worry the council will continue to object to me as their queen just to oppose you.”
“That is a fact of life with the council. If it is not one thing, it would be another.”
They continued to walk, and Lathan groaned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Aro is rather vexed with me. I haven’t allowed him his own time since we returned. He says it’s a beautiful night out tonight.”
She grinned at him. “I’m coming with you.”
“Nay, Mirra, you should rest.”
“Are you kidding me?”
He grinned at her and tugged on her hand. “Very well, come with me.”