CalledtoPower by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online Page B

you.
    “Algiatha, I wonder that you have flouted tradition and basic morality to keep not only your husband but your offspring. Were you there when they died?”
    It wasn’t surprising when Dorium’s left elbow shifted.
    “Secretary, I wish you to contact the children of the Nevics and ask them if they want their fathers’ soul stones.”
    There was a stirring in the back of the court. “I want my father.” The voice came through before the young woman could be seen. She was a physical clone of Algiatha but had none of the visible bad nature that their shared grandmother gave off in waves.
    Her back was straight, and she curtseyed deeply. “Empress, I would be forever grateful if you would return my father to me. Sosan Nevic was a good man, and Algiatha is using his soul to power her influence over her lands.”
    “Come up here, Lady.”
    Her guards kept a grip on Algiatha, who was shrieking incoherently.
    Irritated by the noise, Syrella drew her father’s face in light and sent it to hover in front of her grandmother. The light image hypnotized Algiatha, and she was quiet.
    The lady came to the third step and knelt.
    “Secretary?” Syrella asked Ikatti.
    “Countess Shiseera Nevic Alanson, here with her husband, the twentieth Earl of Alanson.” He filled in her details. “Third daughter of Sosan Nevic.”
    “Countess, if I give you your father, will you remain here in the capitol and speak to him tomorrow? His soul is cold, but it still survives whatever she did to it.”
    Tears filled the young woman’s eyes. “I will. I have missed him so. His death was so sudden.”
    Syrella lifted her hand with the stones in it and whispered, “Sosan Nevic, your daughter wants to talk.”
    The central stone flared to life for an instant, and Syrella handed the soul stone to her cousin. “Take care of him, cousin. He has not had a good afterlife.”
    Shiseera smiled through her tears as the stone warmed at her touch, a glow growing stronger with every second. “Thank you, Empress. He has been missed.”
    “Secretary, are there any other Nevics on Vexa right now?”
    “Yes, Empress. One of the current Lord Nevic’s children as well as another married daughter, this time of Resan Nevic.”
    “Good, bring them here and have them claim their dead.” Syrella sat up and disintegrated the drawing that had kept her grandmother occupied. “Algiatha Nevic, I hereby strip you of a title you have no right to. The title and lands all are handed over to your son Forsan. How you convinced him to let you keep the title eludes me, though it may have something to do with you harnessing the soul stones.”
    The murmur and gasp ran through the court. It was considered a blight on your own soul to twist others to your will.
    Algiatha was screaming, and the house guard stepped forward, hauling her away from the throne while she fought them every inch of the way through the throne room.
    Syrella breathed on the two remaining stones, “Resan Nevic, you will be with your children soon.”
    The one that flared up was set to the left. The other had to be Lord Nevic, by process of elimination.
    Sitting upright with her father’s soul stone warming her heart, she smiled at Ikatti. “Secretary, what is next?”

Chapter Nine
    The suitors had guts, she had to give them that. After watching her boot out her own grandmother, they still lined up to take a shot at fathering her first child, the heir to Vexa.
    Syrella listened politely to each and every one, asking them questions about their bloodlines and families. She watched Dorium’s back, and when there was a particularly handsome and charming candidate, she saw him tense from the back of his calves to the muscles on either side of his neck.
    “Secretary, I believe it is time for lunch. Ladies and lords, please excuse me.” She got to her feet, took her uncle’s and her grandmother’s husband’s stones and left the throne.
    Dorium fell in just behind her, but she could feel that he was