Page 91 of House of Ydril

“It’s here,” I almost whisper as I drop onto the bed next to her and let Moswen out so she can hear it as well. “It’s all here,” I repeat myself.

Now there’s two pairs of eyes looking at me without blinking. I crack open the book, hold it out and point at the title.

“The Prince and the Stone?” Moswen mutters.

“Yes,” I nod vigorously, “and I know that we haven’t just been looking through non-fiction, we’ve been scouring fairy tales as well.”

Moswen’s eyes are starting to round. It’s dawning on her as well. “But some are still in the Fiction Section. Especially the ones not collected by the Brothers themselves.”

“Exactly,” I almost yell out, “this being one of them.”

“So, what does the story say?” Nuala asks with bated breath. “What does the Stone do?”

I draw in a breath, making a face. “It doesn’t say exactly,” I start, “but if you read between the lines, I think it’s pretty obvious. So there’s a prince, obviously, and his father is ill and his kingdom is divided. One day, the prince leaves his kingdom so he can go steal the Stone, the only thing that can unite the three nations under his rule.”

I see Nuala nodding away, seemingly genuinely interested.

“On his way, he meets a wolf, a snake and a bird. All three are in some kind of trouble and the prince saves them, you know how these stories go,” I say as I wave my hand.

Moswen just nods.

“Anyway,” I keep talking, “all three animals offer to repay the prince for the kindness he’s shown them and he asks the wolf to give him his heart, the snake to give him his blood and the bird to give him his eye.”

“And they do?” Nuala asks in a tense voice.

“Of course they do. And then there’s this nonsensical part near the end, just before the prince finally finds the Stone. But once he’s before it, the Stone tells him it cannot be stolen. It can only be won by the one who already has the support of all three of his clans.”

“Okay,” Nuala drawls, nudging me to go on.

I lift my finger and say, “But then the prince realizes he’s already got it. He takes the three gifts, eats and drinks them and bonds with the Stone, getting enormous power that allows him to rule his kingdom without any objection from anyone ever.”

Moswen frowns. “And that’s it? What are we supposed to make ofthat?”

“Can’t you see?” I rush to say, almost shaking with excitement. “The prince ends up ruling his kingdom without any objection from anyone? That’s such a weird thing to say.” I pause. “Unless you’re talking about mind magic.”

“Holy Word,” Moswen blurts out. “Being able to use it on an entire kingdom, that would be unprecedented, what amount of power would the Stone have to have?”

“A tremendous amount,” Nuala replies with an incredulous look in her eyes.

“But there’s one good thing to be found in all this,” I cut in, burning to start using this information to better prepare myself for tomorrow. “If we stop Faust from eating and drinking the stuff from the blood rituals, we’ve basically stopped him from being able to use the Stone.”

“How do we do that if we can’t even find him?” Moswen asks.

“Well,” I start, albeit hesitantly, “there’s only one option left. I didn’t want to do it so as not to draw any attention to myself, but now I think I’ll have to pay Faust’s uncle a visit.”

“His uncle?” Moswen echoes my words as she throws me a funny look. “I thought you said Faust had no family left.”

“I did,” I reply, “no family but his uncle.”

It makes me frown, how pale she turns. “And his name is Baldor?”

I nod, feeling seriously confused.

But Moswen just turns to Nuala and asks, “Nuala, I’m so sorry, but could you leave the two of us alone for just a little while?”

My friend throws me a look, but she gets up and leaves me sitting there, speechless, waiting for Moswen to tell me what the fuck is going on.

“I know you’re going to hate me when you see this,” she finally says, “but I have to show you.”

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