story identification - Old fantasy book with a party finding coloured stones having powers over fire, water, mood

I'm trying to remember the name of a book series of which I remember only the following, with Google yielding no results.

the name of the author starts with a Z

the main character is a knight in an household with a name sounding like Malachai who goes on a quest with six others guys and girls (a bard, another knight, a priest, etc.) and each of them finds a stone of colour which has a power on various things (like fire, their mood or water) and then they set toward a quest to beat some ancient evil.

I used to find the book at the local library 10 years ago in France (but it was translated).

Answer

Going from the list of Z authors posted on the comments, my guess is you're referring to David Zindell's The Lightstone and its sequels, first published 2001, so the name and date fit.

From Wikipedia:

Valashu Elahad, seventh and youngest son of the king of Mesh, is one such knight

A knight, as you remember. Not quite named "Malachi", but might be similar, to your ears.

Eventually his party grows to have seven significant individuals, each with their unique gifts and abilities.

That seems to fit - seven people with different specialities.

There are also magical stones with special powers, called the Gelestei, in gold, silver, red, black and more. And a relevant prophecy too, of course:

"The seven brothers and sisters of the earth with the seven stones will set forth into the darkness"

Seems like a good fit, right?

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