The Gifted Heart (Marks of Inheritance: The Orkeia Cycle #1)

24. Buried Secrets

Chapter twenty-four

Buried Secrets

T he next morning, anyone walking past my door would have sworn something exploded inside my room. Abi bounced around in excitement.

“I can’t believe it! An heir already! Oh, Kenna, this is wonderful!”

I caught the pillow she threw in excitement and laughed. While the thought was still overwhelming, the tender night spent with my husband and seeing Abi’s enthusiastic reaction had done quite a bit to help ease the tension I’d felt about it the day before.

When she finally calmed down enough to start getting me ready for the day, I sat up a little straighter on the vanity bench, eyeing her seriously in the mirror. “I would like you to be my midwife, Abi.”

Her eyes widened and she stopped in the middle of braiding my hair. “I don’t know anything about that sort of thing,” she stammered. “I wouldn’t trust myself—”

“It has to be you,” I said. “The midwife will see my mark and any mark the child might have. We can’t plan on the war being over by then, and you’re the only one I can trust.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t—I don’t know how.”

“You have a while to learn,” I urged, reaching up to take one of her hands.

She sighed in surrender, releasing the braid and putting up her hands to accompany the sound even as she smiled. “Whatever you say, Your Majesty. ”

I slapped her hand rather hard for her false modesty and we both laughed. She spent the rest of the time preparing me for the day talking about possible names for the baby and speculating on if it would be a boy or a girl. I had to make her swear not to say anything to anyone else, knowing it would be difficult for her to contain her excitement, but she promised she would keep it to herself until it was time to officially make the announcement.

***

The following days and weeks were by no means peaceful, but the stress and busyness of life in the castle soon became the norm. As time wore on, I saw less and less of Kiernan—I refused to attend the trials again, and I wasn’t welcome in his meetings with the captains (though I was told everything afterwards anyway). Kiernan spent more time in the Military Quarter than before, making sure his orders were carried out and reforming the training program. He often came back to the castle exhausted but did his best not to burden me with the stress he felt, particularly concerned about putting too much pressure on me during my pregnancy.

Not that I was idle. I was kept busy managing the household, which was a more complicated responsibility than I’d thought it would be when Miss Grayson first explained it to me. Thankfully, she was experienced in the task herself, since Kiernan hadn’t had a queen to assist him up until then, and provided a lot of support. And despite how tense our relationship had begun, I was soon very grateful for her diligence and assistance.

When I did have free time, I spent it in the library, reading the oldest books I could find. The more I looked, the more books I found on the Gifted. People I’d believed to be legends had records in their own hand here in the castle’s library, the writings preserved carefully with magic. The biggest surprise came when I found a book containing drawings of ancient magical symbols and discovered that many of them were incorporated in my circlet and Kiernan’s crown. I was initially shocked, but was quickly reminded of Hanson’s legends, and how Kindra had mentioned so casually the Gifted and Ungifted living together. Obviously the Gifted had been part of Orkeia’s founding. What was difficult to figure out was when and how that changed.

Another thing that remained a mystery was the true nature of my Gift. Frustratingly, Kindra never revealed it explicitly in her writings. She talked about some of the things she did, but most of them still seemed to be related to white witch magic, only on a larger, more powerful scale. It was difficult not to take my candles out of their storage space in my cabinet and try again to communicate with her, but if it hadn’t worked when I was only a few days pregnant, it certainly wasn’t going to work now.

The nausea started after a little over a month. I wasn’t sure how mild it was compared to other women’s experiences, since I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about being pregnant other than my husband and Abi. Though Abi began training with a midwife in town immediately, we decided to wait to make any official announcement until a couple months had passed. After all, there was no reason we should have known sooner under normal circumstances.

When the formal declaration was sent out after about three months, we were soon receiving letters of congratulations from all over Orkeia as well as the surrounding kingdoms. We even received a letter of congratulations from Gideon and my father, in which they also gave us an update on their progress. The island of Hairan had been designated as the sanctuary, and they were encouraging clans to relocate. Many of them were understandably hesitant, but slowly, my people were beginning to gather in one.

While we were making steady progress, Kiernan was still having a hard time making his captains trust his judgment. The fact that he was king gave him great control, but the fact that he was only twenty-five made most of them feel they knew better than he did. Captain Stole was an exception to this and seemed fully supportive of all the decisions his king was making. But the louder voices—such as Lewin’s—were difficult to discount.

Two months after we had officially announced the pregnancy, Kiernan returned from the Military Quarter late at night. He’d been trying hard not to worry me about what was going on with the knights, but I knew it was taking its toll on him. I was in his room reading a letter of congratulations from King Simeon when he entered.

He stared at me with bloodshot eyes. “Why are you not in bed?”

“I wanted to see you,” I said, setting down the letter. “I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t,” he sighed, removing his cloak and letting it fall onto the bed. “We both knew what we were getting into.”

I stood, ignoring the slight stretching pain in my abdomen when I did. “You don’t have to do everything on your own, you know, and you don’t have to do it all now.”

He closed his eyes as I placed a hand on his cheek. “What if the child is Gifted?” he said, stress in his voice. “Everything’s happening so fast—”

“Then we’ll hide the mark. That’s why Abi’s training to be the midwife, remember?”

“I know,” he breathed. “I just don’t want our child to have to live a lie.”

“Everything will work out,” I said for the millionth time. “We’ve made it this far, haven’t we?”

He shook his head and stepped past me to reach his bedside dresser. “I just wish I knew why my father started the Slaughters in the first place,” he said as he took off and folded his tunic. “He never spoke to me about it, and no one else seems to know.”

“Fear?” I suggested.

“Maybe. But my father never did seem afraid of anything.”

He leaned against the wall. Suddenly, the stone he was touching sank into the wall, making a startlingly loud noise. Kiernan whirled around, and I jumped out of the bed in shock. We stared, listening to the sound of stone grinding against stone, as a hidden door opened directly behind my husband.

“Kiernan,” I said quietly when the door had stopped moving. “What is this?”

“I have no idea,” he said, his mouth hanging open. He grabbed the candle from his nightstand and stepped cautiously through the opening .

“There are steps leading down. Why didn’t I know about this?”

“I wonder where it leads,” I said, making my way to his side. The passageway was wide enough to accommodate the two of us side by side, and we both stared down into the darkness.

“I’m going to find out.” He descended the first couple of steps. “I’ll tell you what I find.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not,” he said, almost laughing at me.

I put my hands on my hips. “Yes, I am.”

“Kenna, you’re five months pregnant.”

“So I can’t climb down some stairs?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

He shook his head as he took my hand in his. “Fine,” he said reluctantly, holding the light high above his head. From where we were, there was no foreseeable end to the staircase. I was reminded of the stairs leading into the cell Lewin kept me in, and I shivered. I kept a tight hold on his hand as we descended deeper and deeper into the darkness.

After a few minutes, we reached level ground, and a large, oak door stood at the end of a dark hallway. We approached carefully. Kiernan pushed it open, and it creaked eerily as we stepped inside, the dim light of our candle illuminating the room.

My eyes widened. Hundreds of bottled potions sat on dusty shelves. Many of them were labeled, most of them with names and ingredients that I was unfamiliar with. There was a summoning circle in the middle of the room, the runes set in an order that I recognized but had never used, and for good reason. Within the circle was a chalk drawing of an upside-down pentagram. The child inside of me jumped violently and I gasped, leaning against the doorway.

“Is everything all right?” Kiernan asked.

“We need to get out of here,” I breathed, my voice shaking as I stumbled backward.

He didn’t ask for an explanation. Quickly, he followed me out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind us. As we made the long journey upwards and away from the energy of the room below, I felt the child inside of me start to calm down. When we were safely back in Kiernan’s bedroom, he guided me to the bed, and I sat down in a daze.

“What was all that?” he said, concern written on his face. He searched for the same stone he accidentally pushed before, and the door closed.

I stared straight ahead, unable to answer him. Now that we were out of the room and I could think clearly, I remembered many of the symbols inscribed on the walls and their meanings from the books I’d been reading. Elizabeth had taught me long ago about some of the ingredients for the potions as well, and my breath came staggered.

“Darling,” he said, trying to hide his fear as he sat on the bed next to me. “What is it?”

“Dark magic,” I stammered. “Everything we saw—all of the potions, the order of the candles—it’s all forbidden.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t understand.”

My hand grasped his tightly. “I’ve already told you that the candles are used to visit the other worlds. A witch using his or her powers correctly can also summon spirits into the circle to speak with them. When you summon spirits with the candles, however, they have a choice of whether or not they come, and they can’t come at all unless you knew them personally in life.”

I started shaking again. “Not when the runes are placed in that order. The spell you saw down there—the symbol of the pentagram upside down, the candles—summons demons.”

“ What? ”

Immediately, he jumped to his feet, dragging his desk across the floor to slam it against where the secret opening was, as if to stop any demons from getting out. I knew that even if there were demons in that passage, a physical barrier would do nothing to stop them, but I didn’t bother saying anything, in large part because my panic was building as I remembered more details from the books I’d read.

“How—and why —is there a passageway to a room full of dark magic in my quarters?” Kiernan said, sounding equally horrified and furious.

“That’s not all,” I breathed. “The spell that white witch was casting—whoever it was—is a spell used to bind a demon to their soul.”

His eyes widened. “Why would someone want to do that?”

“To get power—they would have complete control over the demon. But the summoner loses their identity in the process.”

“That must be how the demon that attacked you got here in the first place,” Kiernan said, tensing even more as he looked back at the wall.

With some trepidation, I gave a small nod, hugging myself tightly. “But who summoned it?” I breathed. “And was it still being controlled?”

He stared at me, processing everything I’d said. When he finally spoke, it was definitely not what I’d expected.

“You said you can visit the Land of the Lost—could you find my father?”

I frowned. “What makes you so sure he’s Lost?”

“If he was involved in this—binding demons to his soul—he would most definitely not be Saved.”

“We don’t know it was him,” I said with a tight frown. “It could have been Pious.”

“I don’t think Pious would have hidden this,” Kiernan said with a shake of his head. “He was very public with everything he did. This—this was meant to stay a secret. My father must have been working with witches to take advantage of their magic, regardless of what he told the people.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions,” I said, though I couldn’t deny the logic behind his words.

“All the same—I’ve waited for answers from my father long enough,” he said definitively, taking my hands in his. “I know you can’t use this magic until the baby’s born, and I don’t want to ask you to put yourself in any more danger, but…will you try to find him?”

My lips tightened. Traveling to the Land of the Lost is very different from traveling to the Land of the Saved. Although the spell for getting there is the same, the process of finding people and returning are both different, and dangerous. I’d only been there once, and it was with Elizabeth as my guide and protector. If I wasn’t careful, I could easily become one of the Lost myself in that forest.

Kiernan tucked my hair behind my ear. I took a deep breath, staring at the secret door. Whether I liked it or not, we needed answers, and there was only one way we were going to get them. Slowly, I nodded.

He kissed my cheek in gratitude, wrapping me safely in his arms. I closed my eyes, doing my best to calm myself and the child, trying to forget the horrible sense of evil in that room. The force with which I’d felt my child jump told me they had felt it as well, and there was only one explanation.

The child was a white witch.