Free Protected by Emeralds (A Dance with Destiny Book 5) by JK Ensley, Jennifer Ensley Page B

will skip along your shoreline with an open mind and an open heart. Believe me… you will know her. You won’t be able to miss her.”
    The Queen visibly relaxed, but her furrowed brow remained. Uriel smiled at the amusing sight.
    “Very well, Your Highness. One thing more I can tell you—the seal, the one you just witnessed glowing with the ethereal light of heaven—it will reveal itself when the time is right. This rarest of all treasures will remain as a common stone from this day until the moment of her arrival. When her steps lead her to your sea and her joyous thoughts invade your realm… only then will the seal reappear. On that day, Your Grace, it will be unmistakable to you. On that day, the seal will not only glow, it will break and reveal the heavenly secret hidden within.”
    Her smile widened with his words. She squeezed his hands, waiting.
    “Then the time will be at hand, Your Majesty. When the seal glows and the stone opens, deliver the treasure within to the maiden of prophesy.”
    The Queen almost squealed with laughter. “Oh, I cannot wait, Uriel. I will simply be on pins and needles until her arrival.”
    He chuckled. “Did you not hear me, little one? It may be hundreds of years from now. Will you hold to your excitement throughout the centuries?”
    “What? Are you mad, Angel? Of course I will. The fact that such an honorable responsibility was bestowed upon me… I can scarce contain myself. Here.” She reached for the plain looking stone. “I will sit it here upon my dressing table so that I may gaze upon it daily… praying for the seal to glow.”
    Uriel only smiled.
     
    Shaemon paused in his recitation, gazing then upon the distant look now on Jenevier’s face. When their eyes met, he smiled.
    “It was you, wasn’t it?”
    “Me?”
    He nodded his head. “You were the maiden of prophesy.”
    “Yes. I guess I was.”
    “I knew it. I mean, I didn’t know it when first we met, no. Heh. In truth, I didn’t know what you were. But when that Death Angel kept coming around looking for you all the time, and now this indescribable warmth I feel as I lay within your arms… Uriel could only have been describing you.”
    She blushed.
    “What was it?”
    “Huh?” She furrowed her brow, staring down at the tiny Fairy-man. “What was what?”
    “What was the treasure hidden within the stone?”
    “Oh… it was a shell.”
    He sat up. “What? Just a seashell? That’s all? I thought it’d be a jewel beyond value.”
    “It is beyond value, Shae.” She tenderly stroked his hair, gazing up at the slowly passing clouds. “Upon that shell… was miraculously inscribed a clandestine message. A heavenly lexis—one once disentangled, afforded me the ability to rescue my dearest friend in the whole world… and many others since. Yes, Shae, it is truly a treasure beyond value.”
    He raised a single brow, gazing at her skeptically.
    She lightly touched his forehead. “You tell me, Shaemon Green. Think about it. What can be counted more valuable than a life, than your life, than a friend’s life? What jewel, what kingly treasure could possibly be comparable to an immortal soul? Your Queen weighed Garoth’s life and found it to be equivalent to a stone. A powerful stone, yes… but a stone nonetheless. What say you, Shaemon? What would you freely exchange for the miracle that is… a life?”
    Tears filled his eyes. He rested back against her, fighting with everything he had to cease the bitter flow. When Jenevier wrapped her arm around his tiny shoulders and squeezed him, he gave up his futile battle and let the tears come. She held him until his sobs eventually gave way to intermittent sniffs.
    “Can you go on, little brother? Do you wish to continue with your story?”
    He only nodded his head.
    “So… you got the Water Stone,” she prodded.
    He gave her just a tiny smile. “You already know I got the Water Stone, Angel. You know what became of it as well.”
    “Yes, I know you got