Starborn

by Katie MacAlister

  We hurried up the narrow wooden staircase as silently as possible, entering a series of attic rooms, one leading to another, some filled with barrels and crates, others with broken bits of furniture, and the last with bales of bound wool. Bits of loose fiber floated gently through the air, stirred by the passing of Mayam, who waited at a small freight door set into a wooden wall. The door came only to my waist, forcing us to crawl through a passage of rough planks until we emerged into a dark room of stone. I lifted the lantern I held and shone it around the room. It, too, appeared to be used only for storage. We made our way through it to the passage outside. We were faced with a stone stair that curved upward to the left, and down to the right.

  “Which way?” I asked Mayam in a whisper.

  She hesitated. “I’m not sure. I was never told where the prisoners were kept inside the temple. The ground floor is a barracks, with the priests’ offices on the floor above that. I would say up.”

  I turned to follow her when she took a step toward the staircase leading upwards, but something kept my feet from moving. I came to an immediate decision. “You look upstairs. I’ll go down. Ella—”

  “I’ll come with you,” she said quickly, pulling an arrow from her borrowed quiver.

  I decided it didn’t matter which of us she went with. We were in danger the longer we stood and discussed the situation, so with a gesture for Mayam to go up, Ella and I crept down the stairs, pausing every few feet to listen for sounds of occupation.

  We were making our way along a balcony, keeping well back from the priests we could glimpse below, when a horrible scream ripped through the air. I froze for a second, then, convinced its source was Hallow, raced across the balcony to the stairs that led down to an inner courtyard. A priest was coming in the door as I leaped down the stairs, but he had no time to say more than, “What are you—” before I slammed the hilt of my sword against the side of his head. He slumped to the ground without another sound, allowing me to jump over his form, yank the door open, and race through it.

  The courtyard was filled with wooden crates, barrels, and a couple of empty carts. Ella and I dashed behind one of the latter, peering over it to get our bearings.

  Three wooden pillars had been placed along one wall, two of which held the bound, squirming figures of two women. One of the women screamed again, a pinkish froth spewing from her mouth as she writhed in obvious pain. The massive form of Racin blocked the view of the third figure. Even as I eyed the target he made, trying to decide whether, if I leaped on his back, I could slice off his head with one or both of my swords, a Harborym lumbered into the courtyard, growling a warning. “There is an assault on the city’s main gate, and a second in the tunnel leading from the sewers.”

  “Deva will pay in hide for this disturbance of her spawn,” Racin growled, turning to gesture at the Harborym. “Has she been bound to the flogging post?”

  “Aye, my lord, and the others have been brought forth as well. Even the vanth, although that one cost several men various fingers, ears, and in one case, an entire foot.”

  Racin gave an exaggerated sigh, but turned to march toward the Harborym. “Very well, we will attend to this display by the queen’s spawn at the same time we teach her what behavior is expected of my consort.”

  “And the main gate?” the Harborym asked. “Should I send some of the company there?”

  “Don’t be a fool,” Racin snapped. “That is a diversion only. The queen’s spawn believes us to be as stupid as he is. Send some of the locals to delay the force at the gate. It won’t matter if they die, and that will allow us to descend on the spawn with our full force. Rally the Harborym! We will bring back the spawn to die at the queen’s feet.”

  “What of the trials?” the Harborym asked, hastily moving aside when Racin passed him and proceeded to the arched doorway that I assumed led to the north gates.

  “By the time I am done taking care of the queen and her spawn, we should start seeing what effect the trial has on these three,” he answered without pausing.

  “Alas, my lord, one appears to have died already…” The Harborym’s voice trailed off as he followed his master. I glanced over at the screaming woman, but indeed, she had stiffened with a horrible twist of her torso before she fell limp against the ropes binding her to the pillar.

  I crept along the cart until I could see better. The second woman was retching and trying to claw at her bonds, a low keening sound coming from her mouth as she did so. But it was the slumped figure at the third pillar that had me throwing caution to the wind.

  “Hallow!” I was across the courtyard before I had time to consider the best way to free him. He jerked at the sound of his name, but his head remained hanging down until I reached him. “My love! Are you hurt? I see no blood, but you don’t look—”

  He lifted his head to blink at me, confusion written across his face. “All’gria?”

  “Yes, my darling, it’s me. What…oh, Hallow, what has he done to you?”

  The eyes that tried so hard to focus on me weren’t the familiar blue of an arcanist, or even the glittering violet of his blood priest self. These eyes were as red as a garnet glowing in the light of Kiriah Sunbringer. “He tried…Harborym…chaos magic fought the arcany inside me.” His words tumbled out in between soft little pants. He summoned half a smile, one side of his mouth curving upward. “Guess I know now how you felt when you became a Bane of Eris.”

  My heart sang a dirge for what had been done to him, but I didn’t have time to bemoan the hell that I knew he was undergoing. I had to get him out of there before Racin or the guards returned. “If I help you, can you walk?” I asked while cutting him free of his bonds.

  He fell to his knees with a grunt of pain.

  “Get the other woman free,” I told Ella, who was hovering next to the cart, looking unsure. “Can you find your way out of the temple?”

  “Aye,” she said, hurrying over to the woman to cut the ropes binding her to the pillar. “I think so.”

  I helped Hallow up to his feet, sliding one arm around his waist in order to help him walk, staggering a little when he stumbled, and I took the full brunt of his weight. “Take the woman and get her out of the temple. Go around the outskirts of the city to Lord Israel’s camp.”

  “But…but what about you?” Ella shot Hallow an assessing look before putting an arm around the woman she’d just freed. “I could get this woman to safety, and then return to help you—”

  “No, get her to our camp. I’ll be there soon enough. Oh, Mayam, there you are. I feared something happened to you.”

  “I was eliminating the guards,” she said, eyeing Hallow with an impersonal curiosity. “I saw you from an upper window freeing your husband. If you go out through that door, it’s a short way to the postern door. There are only three guards there, so we should have no trouble getting past.”

  “Lead the way,” I told her as Ella, with several backward glances, helped the other victim of Racin’s foul plans out of the courtyard. “Come, Hallow, let us find a safe spot for you to sit for a few minutes.”

  “Feel horrible,” he mumbled, but after we took a few steps, he leaned less on me. By the time we made our slow way through the side entrance to the temple—and I ignored the smears of blood and obvious signs Mayam had dragged bodies into a nearby room—he seemed to be doing better.

  I propped him up against a wall while Mayam and I took care of the three guards…she killing one, while I hurriedly disarmed and struck unconscious the other two. The town itself appeared to be empty of inhabitants when we moved as quietly as possible down a rough cobblestone road.

  I spotted the sign of an inn and made a snap judgement. “We’re going to stop for a few minutes. Hallow needs some wine, and a few moments to catch his breath.”

  “We have no time to be taking refreshment,” Mayam said impatiently, scowling back at me. “Can you not hear
the crowd? The people are gathered in the great square to witness the flogging of the queen. Lord Deo is sure to stop that, and he will have need of me. Of us.”

  “Racin is going to flog the queen?” I asked in outright horror. “That must be what he meant by taking it out in her hide. Well, regardless of that, Hallow needs a few minutes.”

  “We have no time to wait,” Mayam warned, stamping her foot in the manner of a petulant child. “Since Lord Deo has stated that he is more powerful with you and that one at his side, then you must be there.”

  “Deo has survived for almost a year without us; he will be able to hang on another ten minutes,” I murmured, pushing Hallow into the inn and sending up a little prayer to Kiriah that she not only give Hallow any aid she saw fit, but that she keep Deo safe until we could get to him.

  Mayam said something quite rude that I ignored, instead breaking open a locked door leading to the area containing barrels of ale and wine. A few minutes later Hallow, who had slumped onto a chair, was sputtering and coughing as I tried to pour spirits into him.

  “What in the name of Bellias’s shiny pink belly is that?” he asked once he was done coughing. His eyes were watering, but his voice was stronger, and color had returned to his face.

  I tilted the bottle to catch the weak light streaming in through the door. “It says Hammer of Rexus, a Cure For Chillblains, End to Catarrh, and Guaranteed Remover of All Stains Including Blood, Ink, and Rust From Soft Fabrics and Stone. Have another sip.”

  “Not just now,” he said with a little chuckle, pushing the glass away. “I feel like it’s eating a hole in my insides as it is. My heart, I am beyond happy to see you again. When Racin forced the chaos magic down my throat, I feared—but we won’t go into that. I am, however, going to be eternally grateful to you for getting me out of his clutches.”

  “We’re not quite out of them yet, but on our way,” I said, kneeling in front of him, allowing him to kiss my hands. I freed one and touched the crinkles that spread out from his eyes, which never failed to charm me. “Oh, Hallow, I’m so sorry. Does it hurt very much?”

  He was silent for a moment while he obviously conducted a survey of his body. “Oddly enough, no, not now. It did at first. I thought I was going to burn up inside, but that was the arcany fighting with the chaos magic. Ultimately, I think it was the blood magic that kept me alive.”

  “How?” I asked, unable to keep from gently kissing him. I was torn between the need to get him to safety so he could recover and the deep, burning desire to see the end of Racin.

  “It changed the damage the chaos was doing to me and allowed the blood magic to contain it. Now it is my turn to ask questions. Who was that woman with you, and why was she so upset about Deo? I assume he’s here?”

  “Of course he’s here. Are you sure you’re not in pain?”

  “I feel a hundred times better now that you are with me.” He kissed my knuckles and waggled his eyebrows in the way that always melted me. “A thousand times, but—”

  He stopped speaking, and we both held our breath, listening. The dull rumble of what I assumed were the townspeople gathered together in the main square had stopped abruptly, and then the air was full of screams and the sound of metal against metal.

  “Deo?” Hallow asked, leaping to his feet, and helping me to mine.

  “Or his father.” I put a hand on his arm, stopping him when he would have run out the door. Already, a few people were racing past the inn, their faces filled with fear as they took shelter in the safety of their homes. “Hallow, are you sure you’re able to fight? I know what it’s like to become a Bane, and you don’t even have the runes that protected us—”

  “I’m fine, my heart. The arcany and blood magic are acting as a control for the chaos,” he reassured me, and taking my hand, pulled me after him as he surged out into the stream of maddened townspeople.

  I had a feeling that Hallow was keeping something from me. There was a sense of something…other…about him that disquieted me, but now was not the time to press him for details.

  We fought our way through the screaming, crying people until we caught a glimpse of a square ahead of us. On the other side of it, a keep rose, a behemoth of black stone and sharp, pointed spires. In front of it stood a scaffold where a woman with her back to us hung by her hands. Beyond her, four Harborym stood in a line, their heads turned to the side as they watched a battle that raged across the square.

  “Look,” Hallow said softly, pulling me back to stand in the shadow of a building that lined the square. “Idril and the captain are behind those Harborym guards. They’re still alive.”

  “And may blessed Kiriah keep them safe,” I murmured, edging forward to peer around the side of the building. Positioned as we were, we couldn’t see what was happening on the other side of the square.

  “Don’t go any further,” Hallow warned. “We can do no good if we are captured with the others. If we go behind that small shop to the left and climb onto the roof of the house behind it, we should be able to drop down on the Harborym and free—”

  At that moment, the clattering sounds of many men moving filled the now empty square as a phalanx of Harborym entered, Racin at their head.

  But it was the man they dragged with him, bleeding and bound with chains that seemed to dig into his flesh, that had me gasping in horror. “Deo! Hallow, Racin has captured him!”

  Chapter 21

  Hallow swore profanely under his breath at the sight of Deo, one hand on my arm when I instinctively started to move forward to help my old friend. “No, wait, Allegria. We must think. Deo would die before he’d let Racin capture him. Therefore, he must have allowed himself to be taken prisoner. He must have a plan.”

  “Well, if he does, it’s a stupid one,” I said sharply, both furious and terrified for Deo. “How can he do whatever he plans to do—which I assume includes destroying Racin—if he’s bound like a chicken heading for market?”

  Hallow grinned at me, and for a moment, I saw beyond the strange eyes to the man who filled my life with such joy. “Looks like it’s up to us to save the day, my heart. Shall we?”

  “I love it when you’re cocksure,” I said, gently biting his chin.

  He pinched my behind. “You’re going to love it a lot more later, when we are alone. But now, let us go hide ourselves behind that pushcart and see if we can determine what Deo’s plan is.”

  We scuttled our way over to a fruit cart that had been overturned, crouching behind it to watch. The Harborym guard, seeing their captain enter the square, hurried over to their brethren and called out vile comments as Deo was dragged forward to where the queen hung. He was flung onto the ground before her.

  “Ah, my queen, I see you are ready and awaiting my attentions,” Racin said, strolling forward. He paused to stop and put a foot on Deo’s head, shoving it to the ground. “And here is your spawn, whom I found attempting to breech the city’s defenses, no doubt to come to your rescue.”

  “I need no rescue,” the queen said, her voice as brittle as glass. “Whatever plans my son has made, he has done so without my approval.”

  The emphasis on the last few words was impossible to miss, but Racin seemed not to notice them, or if he did, he didn’t heed them. Instead, he lifted his foot, and gestured for his men to lift Deo.

  I glanced at Deo’s face, but other than a sharp look of hatred in his eyes, his expression was impassive. I wondered about that. Deo was not, generally speaking, a man who embraced serenity and calm. For him to remain impassive now when his most hated enemy stood before him was bizarre. I could only conclude that Hallow was correct—Deo must have some plan in mind, one that he really should have mentioned to someone.

  Namely me.

  “He would do well to learn from you,” Racin said, circling slowly around the queen. “Sad that he won’t have the chance. But perhaps, before I kill him, he may share in
your learning.”

  The queen swayed gently, her fingers flexing against the ropes that strung her up, no doubt in a fruitless attempt to get blood back into them. “What learning? My lord, I have told you a hundred times that I have not betrayed you—”

  “Silence!” Racin roared and held out a hand. The man nearest gave him a short lash tipped with barbs. Beyond the queen, the Harborym formed a semicircle, their ill-favored faces expressing delight.

  Idril, Quinn, and Dexia stood together. Idril watched Deo, who ignored her even though she had to be in his line of sight, while Quinn stood protectively in front of Idril and Dexia.

  Dexia watched Hallow and me. I gestured for her to keep quiet about our hiding spot. She wrinkled her nose, but said nothing.

  Racin circled the queen again, slowly, speaking as he went. “You were caught outside the city gates when you had no business being there. Is it a coincidence that your spawn escaped his prison? Did you help him in a misguided attempt to save him from my wrath? These are the questions I intend to have answered.” With a quick movement, he tore the back of the queen’s tunic down to her waist, exposing her bare flesh. “You, Deva, queen of the Harborym, must pay the price of your perfidy.”

  The sound of the lash striking her flesh made me feel ill. I clutched Hallow’s arm, wordlessly telling him we needed to be doing something.

  “I know, my heart, I know. But watch Deo. Look at his face. He is biding his time. He would not thank us for ruining whatever plan he has made by charging out and being captured.”

  “But the queen—” I flinched as the lash struck a second time, drawing blood. The queen made no sound but a slight intake of breath. “Hallow, I can’t take this.”

  “Don’t look at her. Watch Deo,” he said. His voice filled with despair, but his fingers were moving even as he spoke, drawing symbols in the air which he flicked toward the queen as soon as they were drawn.