03 - The Eternal Rose Read Online Free PDF Page A

himself to answer it. High Steward Edyne stood behind it.
    “I know I'm late,” Kallista said. “I'll get there when I do."
    “I think you should come now, my Reinine.” Edyne stepped just through the doorway, into the edge of the room. “I think you will want to."
    Kallista raised an eyebrow as the high steward handed a small something to Keldrey to be brought to her. Edyne was one of those few who helped protect Kallista's precious private time, not one of those who chipped away at it. If Edyne thought Kallista would want to do something or know something, she was usually right.
    Keldrey glanced down at the object in his hand, then up at Kallista as he walked toward her, his face perfectly blank. Her nerves, already unsettled, jumped. It was that important? Keldrey had been a bodyguard so long, he had that expressionless no-face perfected. But he didn't use it among themselves any more unless he wanted to hide some strong emotion. Which was in itself a betrayal of that emotion.
    Unable to wait, Kallista moved to meet him, hand out for the thing he carried. He put it in her hand—small, flat, oval—and stepped back, holding her gaze with the flecked amber-green of his own. Disturbed, Kallista looked away, looked down, and saw a small portrait.
    The size of her palm, framed in a simple gold ring, the painting showed a child of about five or six years old. A boy, she thought. His hair curled around his face, sunkissed gold over brown. Blue eyes shone from warm golden-ivory skin. Rozite had the same skin tone—not quite Tibran gold, not Adaran pale, but a beautiful blend of the two. Kallista's heart stopped, then began to pound double-time.
    “Who is this? Who sent it?” Her eyes flicked up, sought and found Stone, then Fox. They were at her side in an instant, staring down at the portrait.
    “It was brought by one who traveled with this afternoon's delegation,” Edyne said from her place near the door. “I am told there are messages."
    Obed came to stand with Kallista as Stone took the portrait from her, gazing at it with greedy eyes. The delegation was from Obed's homeland far to the south. It was one reason Kallista hadn't minded putting them off. Southroners, particularly these, tended to be difficult.
    “Messages from my cousin?” Obed asked.
    Stone handed the portrait to Torchay who studied it with similar care before passing it to Aisse.
    “I believe so,” the high steward said, “though they were not specific."
    “Could it be possible?” Stone voiced the question Kallista feared to ask.
    She took a deep breath and let it out, then closed her hand around his. “Let us go and find out."
    “I have put the messenger in your privy chamber.” Edyne Steward held the door as Kallista swept through it, trailed by her entire ilian.
    Kallista strode through the palace at a brisk clip, faster than usual, because her discarded robe wasn't tangling her up or weighing her down. Courtiers who tried to catch her in the corridors and slip in a request while she crossed the distance to the waiting messenger found themselves hard put to keep up. Those who managed could scarcely contrive to gasp out two words together.
    Which suited Kallista fine. She had to get some control over her whirling thoughts before this meeting. The demon was not the only thing for which she searched every night. In truth, their ilian was not ten-strong, but eleven.
    The demon Khoriseth had escaped destruction by riding the body of one of their iliasti. At the end of the battle that had seen the death of Serysta Reinine, the demon had possessed their ilias and driven her out of the palace, out of the city, perhaps out of Adara altogether. They had not seen her since.
    Merinda Kyndir was a midwife-healer who had come to them to assist with the birth of Kallista's twins. She had stayed to help with the babies, and to help Aisse when the time came for her first child to be born a few months later. When the Barbs’ rebellion broke open during