Blackveil by Kristen Britain Read Free Book Online Page B

bed.
    “What in the heavens ... ?” Aunt Stace scooped up the object.
    “What is it?” Karigan asked as she finished folding the gown and placed it carefully in the chest.
    “A crystal of some sort.” Aunt Stace opened her hand to reveal a clear, rounded crystal that glinted brightly as the light hit it. She rolled it atop her palm and it seemed to collect all the daylight and firelight in the room and recast it in rainbow hues that shimmered on the walls and ceiling. “Pretty thing.”
    “Muna’riel,” Karigan murmured, shocked to stillness.
    “Say again?” Something odd lit in Aunt Stace’s eyes.
    “Muna’riel.” Karigan knew exactly what it was for she had once possessed one, but what in the name of all the gods was an Eletian moonstone doing here among the folds of her mother’s wedding gown?
    “Moona-ree-all,” Aunt Stace muttered, scratching her head. “Now that jogs something from a ways back ...”
    “What?” Karigan asked.
    “I’m thinking.” Aunt Stace glanced down as if searching her memory. “Moona-ree-all. It was something your mother said ...”
    “Mother?” Karigan trembled, resisting the urge to shake her aunt to jog her memory.
    “Aaah, that’s it,” Aunt Stace said, as if to herself. “We’d wondered what she was talking about, but put it down to the fever.”
    “What? What do you mean?”
    “It was near the end,” Aunt Stace said, and she sat on the bed again, patting the mattress to indicate Karigan should do likewise.
    A moonstone, Karigan thought as she sat. My mother had a moonstone .
    “Your mother was so very ill,” Aunt Stace continued. “In and out of delirium. She sang in words we did not know, pointed out dead relatives in the room no one else could see. She sings to me, she kept saying. Who? we’d ask, but she’d only answer, Like when I was pregnant with Kari. She sings to me.” Aunt Stace shrugged. “We didn’t know who she meant, but then she pointed out her grandmama and grandpapa, long dead of course. Maybe it was her grandmama that did the singing?”
    Karigan shuddered, wondering if she weren’t the only one in her bloodline with a talent for seeing the dead.
    “Then quite suddenly,” Aunt Stace said, “she grabbed Stevic’s wrist—made us all jump. Makes me shiver to remember. Stevic leaned down close to her to hear what she said.”
    “And what did she say?” Karigan asked, almost whispering.
    Aunt Stace’s eyebrows drew together. “ Give Kari the moona-ree-all. That’s just what she said. Give Kari the moona-ree-all. She kept saying it till she dropped Stevic’s wrist in exhaustion. She went peacefully after that, simply faded in her sleep, almost ... almost smiling.”
    Karigan had heard a little about her mother’s final moments, how she died peacefully surrounded by those she loved. Never did she hear about her mother seeing dead family members, or about her request that Karigan receive the moonstone.
    “I guess this is yours,” Aunt Stace said, holding the crystal to the light, entranced by its beauty. “It is yours, come to you after all these years. At the time, we had no notion of what your mother was talking about, nor were we aware of the crystal’s existence, so we could not give it to you as she requested, and we thought ... We thought it best not to tell you about her last words, because we could only guess it was the fever that made her speak so, and we did not want an account of her confused state to sadden you.”
    More secrets, Karigan thought, but she was not angry. Just stunned. Stunned and perplexed.
    “Here you go, dear.” With some reluctance, Aunt Stace rolled the moonstone onto Karigan’s outstretched hand.
    The moment it hit her palm it illuminated with such brilliance they both had to shield their eyes.
    “My heavens!” Aunt Stace exclaimed. “How did it do that?”
    “It’s Eletian,” Karigan replied. “A muna’riel is a moonstone—it contains a moonbeam.”
    “Eletian magic?” Aunt Stace