Read Online Out of the Mountain by Violet Chastain - Free Book Online Page A

the group were sitting on the edge of their seats.
    “The agreement was a riddle of words, from one trickster to another. Farran outsmarted her, and she was delighted. Instead of never being able to change forms, he could never change at all. Frozen in time at twenty-five, powers completely intact.” There was a collective gasp. I was missing something that was right in front of me.
    “Farran returned to the kingdom in time for the birth of his niece.” He looked at me and my heart sped rapidly.
    “She was a beauty with dark hair and icy blue eyes a bit rounder than the shape of almonds, with skin the color of milk. Even from birth her power was evident and pure, drawing all near. All who saw her felt the need to protect her, and King Alaric used that to his favor. The guards gladly took blood oaths, swearing to protect her. She was so well cared for and watched by all that the people became comfortable with the toddler roaming the palace alone. Everyone and no one watching at once.” He tsked, and I was the one on the edge of my seat now.
    “When she inadvertently found the entrance of a tunnel that lead to the forest outside the city, no one saw her slip behind the wall before it shut. Everyone in the city searched high and low for the girl, and when they found her doll in the tunnel, a search of the forest began. It wasn’t long before a young boy came walking through the forest holding the girl. He handed her to a guard and turned to walk away, but the guards brought him to the palace.
    “The boy didn’t speak, but his eyes were ever watchful. The girl was unharmed, and Isadora thanked the boy profusely while trying to draw him into conversation. When Alaric talked to the boy alone, he told the king that he was an orphan lost in the forest. He saw the girl and wanted to bring her back to the city. The forest was no place for a child, he said. The king felt a fondness toward the boy, whose eyes looked much sharper than any child’s had a right to be. He soon realized the boy was very smart and very quick to learn, much like he had been.
    “He took him on as a sort of apprentice, teaching him hand-to-hand combat as well as sword fighting. Though Alaric knew the boy possessed some sort of magic, he never used it. He sat in on strategy meetings and often held solutions to problems the king hadn’t even seen. He knew the boy was more than he appeared.” His eyes flicked to Rowan, and mine followed. He certainly seemed to be more than he appeared to me. When our eyes met, I blushed, looking away.
    “When whispers of sightings of Kieran started once more, the king restarted his search for him in earnest. Shuni and Conduits were disappearing in droves, and the people were panicking. Alaric offered shelter to all he could, banding them together as the start of what we have here in Alaris today. He and Isadora organized for the children to be taught and trained and for the older teens starting adulthood to have the option of training with the guard. The people had never felt safer than with the wall up around them and the opportunities to learn and train to protect all that they had.
    “Alaric’s guards caught a rebel band trying to break into the tunnels of the palace and discovered a plot to steal his child. He instructed Farran to take Isadora, their child, and the boy into hiding. The boy agreed to take a blood oath to protect the girl at all costs, as the king’s final line of defense. Farran hid them in a cottage in the forest and warded it from sight, but he returned to the city at Isadora’s command when they heard of an attack on the palace.
    “That night the forest began to burn. It was an unnatural fire, consuming all in its path with a single-minded purpose that was fueled by blood magic. The cottage caught fire, and when they escaped the flames, a woman was waiting. Isadora told the boy to take her daughter and run; she sacrificed her life to save them. That very same night, Kieran killed Alaric