CalledtoPower by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online Page A

you feel you can rewrite tradition?”
    Algiatha got the cruel look that Syrella remembered from her childhood when her grandmother handed her a basket with a venomous helik in it. The bite had almost killed her, and her father barred Algiatha from the property that day.
    “It was the decision of the emperor to give me the soul of my son.”
    “And it is the demand of the empress that you surrender the stone to me. Now.”
    Algiatha grew sly. “I don’t have it on me.”
    Fed up and determined, Sy focussed her power and clapped her hands together once. A flare of light froze the entire court. Humming to herself, Sy moved past Dorium, down the stairs and she reached for the pocket that Algiatha had given away earlier. Four soul stones were in the pocket, and with the same idle humming Syrella took the stones, returned to the throne and carefully arranged her skirts to reproduce her earlier sprawl. She took the stone that held her father’s soul and pressed it to her lips. A happy warmth spilled from the rock, and she sighed as she discovered another secret of her wily father.
    The other three stones were cool in her hand. The souls inside did not call to her, and she placed them next to her after she tucked her father’s stone next to her heart in the safety of her corset.
    She raised her hands and clapped again. Folk who had been moving when she froze them jerked slightly and she looked to the mother of her father to make her query. “What would you do, Algiatha, if someone took the souls of your sons and refused to return them?”
    “That would never happen. They are always with me.” Lady Nevic jerked her head high.
    “It is funny then that if they are always with you, you would not have my father with his half-brothers. Why would you leave him if you claim that your sons are always with you?” Sy leaned on the arm of the throne. “You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”
    Lady Nevic became nervous, she shifted from foot to foot, and her hand made the furtive shift toward the pocket once again. “Of course not, Syrella.”
    Sy frowned, “It is most peculiar that a woman who insisted on being known to me only as Lady Nevic would forget that I am bearing a title. If anything, you should address me as Duchess Syrella of Saluthic, but I believe that Empress or Your Imperial Highness is the proper form of address. I don’t even let folks I like use my name.”
    Lady Nevic got angry. “You know, I believe that I lost your father’s soul stone.”
    “Funny that. I just found three stones, and they seem to have the same twisted vibe as you.” She lifted the stones in her hand and clacked them together.
    Dorium turned slightly to her and knocked on her mind.
    She quirked her lips and answered, Yes?
    What happened? I can feel that something has occurred here. There is power in the air.
    I will explain my secondary talent to you later.
    Can you tell me now?
    Fine, I froze all the living creatures here with a burst of power, picked her pocket to get my father back and then let everyone resume.
    That’s what it felt like. He chuckled mentally, but there was no expression on his face.
    She blinked slightly and turned her attention back to Algiatha who was being held back by Agoth and Perinio.
    “Give them back, they are mine!”
    Sy arched a brow. “You are not entitled to any of them. They all had children of their own, including one of your surviving sons. Ikatti, does she not have a surviving son, and do the sons who died not have families of their own?”
    “Please, give them back. I need them.”
    Syrella paused and lifted her hand for silence. She knocked on Dorium’s mind, and she saw his shoulders tighten.
    Yes, Empress?
    Very funny, call me Syrella when we speak, please.
    What do you need?
    Can you scan her, and if she had a hand in her sons’ deaths, can you shift your left elbow?
    You will need to ask her the question to bring the information into her mind. I can’t scan deeply.
    Will do. Thank