Free The First Kaiaru by David Alastair Hayden

“Breathe, girl, and all will be well.”
    She tried to take a few deep breaths, but only ended up gasping.
    “You are worried about being forever stuck here with me, yes?”
    She nodded.
    “Your brother will not abandon you. If I thought he might, I would have also kept Kurine here as additional collateral.”
    “I know he...won’t abandon…me….” she panted. “He should...but he won’t. It’s just that...he...he might...”
    “Perish? Well, that is a risk, of course.” He gently touched her shoulder. “Calm your mind. Focus on your kavaru.”
    Enashoma considered the deep amethyst channeling stone on her forehead, held there by an iron circlet covered with silver filigree. After only half a day of wearing it, the stone and the circlet still felt alien.
    “I don’t have…a clue how to…use it.”
    That statement wasn’t entirely true. Once, when Turesobei was unconscious after absorbing the energy of the Storm Dragon's Heart, she had called power from his stone. But she thought it dangerous to let the Blood King know she had connected with a kavaru before.
    “I want you to focus on it anyway. And take deep breaths. Calm your spirit as Hannya taught you during your mudra training sessions.”
    She gave him a worried look.
    “You do not have to open your mind to the stone,” he said, “if you are not yet ready.”
    Enashoma relaxed enough to manage a few shallow breaths. She didn’t care how kind Nāa seemed in her visions, or how much Lu Bei praised him. The idea of intimately connecting with another soul, especially one so foreign and alien, frightened her. Ever since she had seen him during her test, Enashoma had felt him there at the edges of her mind. And now that everyone was gone and there were no more feasts or friends to distract her, no more Zaiporo to cuddle with, she feared she wouldn’t be able to keep blocking him out.
    She curled the fingers of each hand into a relatively simple mudra and focused her mind on the image of a breeze dancing across a field of lavender. Slowly, her breaths deepened, and her muscles relaxed.
    Then she felt it—the faint rhythmic pulse of the amethyst kavaru, the beat of a long-dead Kaiaru’s heart. An intense serenity came over her, overpowering her desire to rip the circlet off her head and toss it aside.
    “Feeling better?” he asked.
    She nodded.
    “Good. You understand I do not mean you harm, right?”
    “You don’t?” she asked incredulously.
    “I will not punish you if your companions do not return.”
    “You said you would torture me.”
    “Only as a threat, to make sure your brother returns.” He smiled. “Worry not. If you get stuck here, I will not harm you.” His smiled faded, and a deeper color flickered in his eyes. “But I must warn you not to tell your brother what I just said. I do not want to weaken my threat.”
    “I swear, I won’t. Not that telling him would make a difference. He would never abandon me here.” She chewed at her lip. “To be honest, I’m less worried about Turesobei returning. He always makes it through, somehow. He’s powerful and has his special destiny. But the others...they don’t all have his abilities...they might not all make it back....”
    The Blood King’s eyes shifted to gray. Those morose eyes marked a brooding personality they had rarely seen and hardly interacted with.
    “I understand.” He took her hand in his, as if comforting a friend. “You may not believe me, but I went through exactly this situation myself. Many times.” His voice fell to a whisper. “My mother set out on many journeys, traveling…on a sailing ship, I think. She would be gone for many months. My sister and I worried so much that we could hardly stand it.”
    “But she always returned, right?”
    “Until I was sixteen.”
    “What happened?”
    He frowned deeply. “I…I do not remember.” He shook his head. “It was so very long ago, and I think this is the first time I have thought of it in