The Bound Read online

  “Now, each power has its own thread.”

  “A pulse?” Cyrene asked. “That’s what Avoca called them.”

  “Similar, yes, but within you, not within the substance. If you want to manipulate water, you have to first find the energy within yourself to do that work,” Vera instructed calmly. “The number of elements you can manipulate determines how many different energies you can feel within. You clearly have all five, and Spirit is the strongest. But to work with Spirit safely, you need to master the other four elements. Let’s start with water, shall we?” Vera took a breath. “I’ll show you what I mean.”

  Vera put her hand out in front of herself, and a warm band of gold light wrapped around her arm to her wrist. She slowly and deliberately let Cyrene see the thread of power between her and the water as their boat drifted forward of its own accord.

  She dropped her hand and smiled. “Now, you try.”

  Cyrene closed her eyes and fumbled for the thread within her that called to the water. She had felt the energies within her for months. Now, she just needed to figure out how to harvest them.

  Vera was right. Spirit was the most powerful. It almost seemed to push all the others out of the way when Cyrene stretched down inside herself. She didn’t even know what it could do, but it was so blinding and begged for attention that she almost wanted to open herself up to it. But she pushed the urge aside and took ahold of the line that brought water to her fingertips. She used the movement to push the boat forward, just as she had seen Vera do.

  But instead of flowing smoothly, the boat jerked out of control, as if propelled by a tidal wave. A gust of water came over and crashed down onto Cyrene, knocking her from her feet and shoving her onto the floorboard of the boat. The boat stopped moving just before hitting the gate that let them exit the royal grounds.

  Cyrene was coughing up lake water as she pushed herself into a sitting position. When her eyes met Matilde and Vera, they were both still seated calmly and serenely. Not a drop of water was on either of them while Cyrene was sure she looked like a fish out of water.

  “Very good,” Vera said.

  “Adequate,” Matilde said. “But not the worst we’ve ever seen.”

  “I’m drenched,” Cyrene groaned.

  “That means you were able to access water…even if it seems as if that is not your issue,” Vera said.

  “Too much power, if anything,” Matilde agreed.

  “We’ll need to start smaller.”

  “Much smaller.”

  “Are either of you going to clue me in on what’s going on?” Cyrene asked. She was thankful for the warm weather for once because she would have been frozen solid if in Byern.

  Matilde shook her head, as if Cyrene’s question was of little import. “Vera will guide us out of here, so we can get to our desired destination before sunrise. Feel your powers, Cyrene, and follow her lead, but don’t try to do anything. Just learn the way she does it.”

  The gate rose before them. Cyrene wasn’t sure if that was the result of the guards who were usually stationed overhead or magic, but she didn’t pay any further attention. She just focused on what Vera was doing. She couldn’t actually see the magic Vera was using. And she didn’t entirely know how she was doing it. But there was a sense or a feeling to it. When she concentrated, she could tell what was happening and how much power was being used. If that was common, then she understood why they had freaked out about the amount of magic she had used to get out of the cell Alise and Robard had thrown her in. Moving the boat forward was a millionth of the amount of power she had harnessed to do that.

  The journey to Third Harbor was much smoother with Vera leading the way. Soon, they were docked, and despite the fact that Cyrene was still sopping wet, she followed Matilde and Vera off the boat and to a much larger vessel.

  Matilde spoke to a man for a few minutes, and Cyrene surveyed him. He was a burly man with a large jagged scar across the right side of his face. He had long hair tied back into a knot at the base of his head with a captain’s hat on his head.

  Cyrene’s jaw dropped. “Captain De la Mora?” she asked.

  The man raised an eyebrow at her as his eyes crawled over her wet body where the sheer material clung to her. “Do I know you, girl?”

  Cyrene crossed her arms over her breasts. “We met in Albion earlier this year.”

  “I don’t remember you,” he said dismissively.

  Oh, but Cyrene remembered him. She would remember him anywhere. He was the jerk who had refused her, Ahlvie, and Maelia a trip to Eleysia. Captain Lador had agreed to take them out of the harbor, providing their only way out, but he had died. The Braj who had come after Cyrene had killed him. And the new captain, Captain De la Mora, was prejudice against Affiliate and High Order.

  “You should,” she said stiffly. “You were leaving the country and refused to let me aboard your ship.”

  The Captain narrowed his eyes at her and then frantically looked between Cyrene and the twins. “An Affiliate. Did you know what she was?” he asked Matilde and Vera.

  “Yes, we’re quite aware. Now that all of the pleasantries are out of the way, we need to leave straight away.”

  “I don’t transport Affiliates,” Captain De la Mora argued.

  Matilde shot him a furious look. “You will do just the sort today and every day we need you henceforth.”

  She walked onto the boat without a backward glance, and Vera followed her. Cyrene gave him a smile and walked forward, but he roughly grabbed her arm.

  “Let me pass!”

  “I trust these women with all that I am. That’s the only reason I’m letting you on this ship. But if you try any funny business…”

  “You’ll what?” she asked him.

  “I’d be happy to throw you overboard and leave you behind,” he spat. Then, he pushed past Cyrene and stormed onto the boat.

  Cyrene grumbled under her breath but followed him on board. She hadn’t even done anything, and people everywhere accused her of being corrupt. Her people had such a bad name, and it frightened her. Now that her eyes were open…she wanted to do something about it.

  First things first…her magic.

  Captain De la Mora made it perfectly clear to the crew that she was to be avoided at all times, and by the time they finally stopped, Cyrene felt sufficiently isolated. Even Matilde and Vera had stayed together below deck, murmuring to themselves. Cyrene had so many questions for them, least of all how they had survived for two thousand years, but they didn’t seem the type to allow questions until they were ready to give answers.

  “Be back before sundown, Geof,” Matilde said sharply. She was holding a metal bucket and waved it at him.

  “I will. Of course, my lovely Kathrine,” he said as cheerfully as he could muster. “And Mari.”

  “You’re a good man,” Vera said. She patted his arm twice and then walked toward the rope ladder that one of the men had thrown down for them.

  Cyrene smiled halfheartedly at the Captain, who just glared back at her. Then, she climbed down the ladder and onto a small boat. They arrived at shore on what looked like an isolated volcanic island. It was utter paradise with tropical palm trees, crystal-clear blue water, and pearly-white sand. The mountain loomed high above them, and Cyrene hoped there wasn’t going to be volcanic activity anytime soon. There hadn’t been an eruption in her lifetime, and she hoped to keep it that way.

  Once the boat was nearly out of eyesight, Matilde and Vera cleared a spot in the sand and took a seat. Cyrene gingerly followed their lead.

  “Before we begin,” Cyrene said quickly, “can I ask you one question?”

  “You just did,” Matilde responded quickly.

  “I think one will be enough. There’s so much to teach you,” Vera said.

  “And I have so much to tell you. Like about this,” she said, reaching into her bag and producing the Book of the Doma that had brought her here in the first place.

  Matilde and Vera gasped at the same time. Th
eir eyes in the early morning light were bright and violet as they widened with surprise.

  “Where did you get that?” Vera murmured reverently.

  “My sister bought it off an Eleysian peddler named Basille Selby, and it was given to me as a gift for my seventeenth birthday,” Cyrene told them.

  “May I?” Vera asked.

  She reached for the book, and Cyrene regretfully offered it.

  “Basille must not have known,” Matilde said, “or else he would have brought it to us.”

  “No. How could he have known?” Vera asked.

  She flipped through the pages, and Cyrene was sure that she had never looked happier than with a book open in her lap.

  “Have you tried to read it?” Matilde asked. Her eyes darted up to Cyrene in panic.

  “I did try to read it at first, but I lost minutes and then hours of time. It started to scare me, especially since I was the only one I knew who could even see the words.”

  They both nodded in understanding.

  “Yes. It is Doma made. The secret of its construction was lost before we were even accepted.”

  “I haven’t told you everything,” Cyrene admitted. “The first time I used my magic was to save my own life, and I blacked out. I had a vision or a dream or something of Serafina going through her own Presenting.”

  Matilde and Vera shared one of their meaningful looks.

  “When you had this vision, were you looking at Serafina, or could you interact with her?” Matilde asked

  “No. I was her,” Cyrene told them. “At least, I was trapped in her body, going through all of the motions of what she was doing. I mean…I met Viktor Dremylon. They were in love and wanted to marry before she left to be a Doma.”

  Vera startled. “You found that out in your vision?” She thoughtfully chewed on her lip. “Most people don’t know that anymore. They are just bitter enemies instead of bitter lovers.”

  “Yes. How tragic,” Matilde said sarcastically. “Tell us more about this vision. You went through her Presenting?”

  “Yes. I was there with her through the tunnel. I opened the book. I saw the words written on the wall. When I got back to my body, I could read the pages. They suddenly made sense.”

  Both women stared at her wordlessly. She had clearly shocked them.

  “What does that mean?”

  “That means, Cyrene,” Vera said shakily, “that you are the first person in two thousand years to be given access to Doma secrets and the ability to truly unlock your Doma power.”

  “When I was in Eldora, Queen Shira told me it was the lost Book of the Doma. I’ve read some of it, but I couldn’t do anything the book said. I had a block against my powers that I had to work against before I could even access them.”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Matilde said. “This is the lost Book of the Doma, and eventually, you will learn how to access its secrets, but this doesn’t change anything at the moment. You are much too inexperienced to be able to work from the book. The only thing more powerful for Doma, besides this book, was the Domina diamond, and that, I fear, has been lost forever.”

  “Then, we should get started,” Vera said. “This is just another sign.”

  “A sign of what?” Cyrene asked.

  Matilde pursed her lips and glared at Vera.

  “Look, everyone keeps mentioning the Circadian Prophecy and how I’m a part of it, but I don’t know what that means. Does it have to do with this?” Cyrene asked, shoving her Presenting letter in front of the women.

  They read the crumpled paper.

  WHAT YOU SEEK LIES WHERE YOU CANNOT SEEK IT.

  WHAT YOU FIND CANNOT BE FOUND.

  THE THING YOU DESIRE ABOVE ALL ELSE RISKS ALL ELSE.

  THE THING YOU FIGHT FOR CANNOT BE WON.

  WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST, WHAT WAS LOST CAN BE FOUND.

  WHEN ALL BEND, YOU CANNOT BE AS YOU WERE.

  “Where did you get this?” Vera asked. She ran a finger down the paper.

  “It is my Presenting letter from court when I was made an Affiliate. I thought the first two lines meant that I had magic because I couldn’t seek it, and it couldn’t be found, but I don’t really understand any of it.”

  “This is a small section of the Circadian Prophecy, yes,” Matilde verified. “Many who have studied this part have no better understanding of it. Educated men and women have worked on interpretations of the Prophecy for generations. We can only follow the portents the way that we view them.”

  “And how do you view them?” she asked desperately.

  Vera sighed. “That we were spared in the War of the Light for a reason, and we will do what we can to help bring balance back to this world.”

  “And, to do that, you need more training,” Matilde cut in. “So, let’s get started.”

  Cyrene spent the rest of the day learning to remove exactly one drop of water from the bucket and transferring it to another bucket. If she had thought she was wet from trying to row the boat, she was wrong. She had no control over what she was doing. She was more likely to drown herself with the water then she was to pick up a single, solitary droplet.

  By lunchtime, she’d had no success. She could dump the entire bucket onto her lap over and over and over again, but moving a single drop was not possible. She was starving and could eat an entire feast table, but Matilde and Vera had only packed a light meal. Not to mention, she was exhausted as she hadn’t had any sleep the night before.

  After eating, Cyrene concentrated again and felt a familiar burst of energy rush through her. She knew she should push it back and only use a small amount, but rationing the power was more difficult than drawing so much to her body that she couldn’t breathe.

  “This is hopeless,” she grumbled under her breath.

  It didn’t help that Matilde and Vera were endlessly patient. Two thousand years seemed to have given them more patience than the average person.

  “Hopeless is only for those who give up,” Vera said.

  “You will keep trying until you have it,” Matilde said. “There is no other option.”

  Cyrene ground her teeth and focused on the task at hand. One droplet. Just one tiny droplet. She could tear down a building but not move one droplet of water. Just as she was cursing herself, a tiny drop of water rose out of the bucket. Cyrene shrieked and jumped into the air. The water fumbled and then fell down onto the beach, disappearing into the sand, but she couldn’t even care. She had done it.

  Vera smiled. “See?”

  “Again,” Matilde said. She was smiling, too.

  By the end of the day, Cyrene could successfully move one droplet of water from one bucket to the next. She couldn’t do it very confidently and definitely not when there were distractions. She also couldn’t move much more than that without soaking herself all over again. But it was a start.

  When Captain De la Mora’s vessel appeared on the horizon, Cyrene could barely stand on her own two feet she was so tired.

  Matilde quickly grabbed the buckets and sloshed the water out onto the ground. “Pretty good,” she said.

  “Pretty good?” Cyrene asked. “This morning, I couldn’t even feel the water element inside me, let alone move one droplet on its own!”

  “But try to move a whole ocean,” Matilde said.

  “Or find water in the desert,” Vera countered.

  “Or stop a hurricane.”

  “Or do anything with a distraction at hand,” Vera said with a smile.

  “Okay,” Cyrene said sullenly, “I get it. Baby steps. But it’s an improvement.”

  “It is,” they agreed.

  The ride back to the capital left Cyrene feeling ragged and beyond hungry. Her stomach growled, and she had to force down the desire to beg the Captain for any food. He didn’t like her as it was.

  The Captain insisted on sending a gondolier with their party, which Cyrene was thankful for even though she was sure he hadn’t done it for her. But she didn’t exactly want to be the one to try to make the boa
t move on its own all over again. She wasn’t entirely sure that Matilde and Vera wouldn’t make her do it either.

  When they arrived back within the palace gates, Cyrene could see a figure pacing the deck, as if waiting for them. Once they got closer, Cyrene could tell that it was Avoca. She frowned and hoped that her friend was all right. The last time something had happened to her, Cyrene had known by her burst of magic.

  Oh. Cyrene had been using magic all day. Avoca must have been worried even though she had known what Cyrene was doing.

  Cyrene quickly got out of the boat once it had docked and rushed to Avoca.

  “You’re all right?” Avoca asked. “You were using small portions but constantly. I could feel how drained you were.”

  “Starving actually,” Cyrene said with a smile. “And tired.”

  Matilde and Vera appeared behind them.

  “Hello, Avoca,” Matilde said.

  Avoca gave the formal sign of deference for her people.

  Vera produced a smile. “If I heard correctly, you said that you felt Cyrene’s powers while she was using them?”

  Avoca and Cyrene glanced at each other, and then Cyrene shrugged. They had to know one way or another.

  “We’re Bound,” Cyrene told them.

  “Well, that explains it,” Matilde said, looking to Vera.

  “Yes, it certainly does.” Vera reached for Cyrene’s wrist at the same time as Matilde reached for Avoca’s. They each ran a finger over the spot where the gold tattoo lay, and it sparkled iridescently in the sun.

  “The first in two thousand years,” Vera whispered.

  “And it still takes the shape of a dragon,” Matilde said.

  “As it should.”

  “Who performed the ceremony?”

  “My mother,” Avoca said.

  Both women’s lips curved up into wicked smiles as they released their wrists.

  “I see. In Eldora?” Matilde asked.

  “Yes,” Cyrene confirmed. “Avoca saved my life and offered me a blood debt, but her mother suggested we be Bound until her blood debt has been paid.”

  “I see,” Vera said.

  They glanced at each other again with huge smiles on their faces.