The Starless Girl

by Liz Delton

  Jun remained quiet until an hour later when they were carrying buckets of water from a nearby stream.

  “You didn’t tell me you were from the Shadow region,” Jun said. Kira almost didn’t hear him over the sloshing of the water.

  “You didn’t tell me you were friends with Zowan,” Kira retorted.

  “You didn’t even know who he was,” Jun said, laughter in his voice.

  “That’s beside the point.”

  They trod on in silence for a few minutes until Jun ventured, “What was it like in Heliodor?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Kira said stiffly.

  Jun huffed and hurried to follow her, for she had quickened her pace. “Listen, there’s nothing wrong with being from there, it’s just—”

  “It’s just that you hate everyone else who lives there? Good thing I have Light magic.”

  “No, that’s not what I think. There are plenty of good Shadow people, like Zowan—despite what his uncle’s done. The Storm King is plain evil. You can’t argue with that.”

  Kira was glad she was walking in front, so that Jun didn’t see her eyes bulge and her mouth drop open.

  Zowan was the Storm King’s nephew? No wonder people were terrified of him.

  “The Defector,” she whispered under her breath.

  They could see the tent through the trees now, and Kira slowed. “So did your family know Zowan before the Fall of Azurite?” she guessed. She had heard of the event several times now but still hadn’t figured out what it was. All she knew was that it was the turning point for the feud between Light and Shadow.

  “Yeah,” Jun said. “His father and mine trained at the Spire together.”

  “And what does Zowan do now?” Kira asked, unable to help herself, since Jun already knew she had no idea who Zowan was.

  “Fights for Light,” he said matter-of-factly. “Quests and things for Nari and the Empress.”

  “Oh,” Kira muttered.

  As the sun began to sink toward the horizon, fewer and fewer people were brought to the healer’s tent. With the coming of night, and the luminescence of everything around her, Kira felt a weight rising from her shoulders. Without the fear of Jun hating her, she was actually having a good time. That and the fact that there had been no fatalities among the villagers, largely thanks to Mistress Tori’s Shadow magic.

  Kira had watched her covertly all day. She knew next to nothing about Shadow magic and was eager to add anything she could to her meager store of knowledge.

  It was just like Mistress Tori had said. Shadow magic was invisible and therefore more malleable than Light magic. Where Light magic could bind a wound with a bandage, Shadow magic could actually begin to heal it. Shadow magic was just like its name; Kira could see Mistress Tori pulling it from the air whenever she needed to use it.

  The two magics were the real and the unreal, the dark and the light. It was balance—just like the spirit of the mountain said.

  Kira didn’t have a chance to witness any of Zowan’s magic, because he had left shortly after their conversation, returning to what was left of the fires. She was glad to see him go, and she vowed that the first thing she would do upon returning to the temple would be to seek out Ichiro and demand answers. Or at least find some books that could tell her the basics about this place.

  They worked into the night, cleaning and dressing wounds and burns and setting the occasional broken bone. Lanterns were called into existence by one of the Light knights, so everything glowed from the lantern’s flickering flame or the Light Kira saw.

  Nesma and Hikaru returned just before dinner, looking exhausted. They joined Kira and Jun in the line that had formed at the tent Miss Mayu had set up. Dozens of trainees bustled about behind a long table, helping Miss Mayu serve the food they had brought from the temple in several wagons.

  “Where’s Hoshi?” Kira asked.

  “We couldn’t fix the well,” Hikaru replied heavily. “He’s still over there.” He shrugged, and they joined the crowd waiting for food. “Hoshi tried a million things, but he never gives up. He still thinks there’s a way to fix it.”

  Between mouthfuls of rice and seared beef, Nesma leaned over to Kira and whispered, “How’d it go?” She subtly nodded toward Jun.

  “Good,” Kira whispered. “Really well.” The corners of her mouth lifted up.

  “I can’t believe Jun Kosumoso is your trainee! Aren’t you terrified? I’d be,” Nesma said in a hushed voice.

  Kira shrugged. Ichiro had mentioned he was from an important clan, but she wasn’t sure what Nesma was so terrified about. Then Kira realized that if she hadn’t shown up so unexpectedly at Gekkō-ji, Jun would have been Nesma’s trainee. At least she had saved Nesma from the anxiety.

  Few patients remained under the healer’s tent, but those who did fell asleep quickly after dinner. Exhaustion showed on all the villagers’ faces they met. Most of those they had treated throughout the day had been able to go back to their homes or, if their homes were damaged, had found space with family or friends. The ones who remained in the tent either had nowhere to go or were in no state to be moved.

  Kira and Nesma sat under a tree just outside the healer’s tent, having been told by Mistress Tori that they were no longer needed for the day. Jun had wandered off with Hikaru to check on Hoshi’s progress with the well, both boys curious as to what the almost-knight might be engineering with Light magic.

  To Kira’s great surprise, Mistress Nari swept into the healer’s tent, just as Kira’s head was beginning to nod against Nesma’s shoulder. Nari had cast aside her flowing garments for sensible boots and leather armor which covered most of her body. From her leather-padded shoulders swept a silver cape. Her long dark grey hair was bound in a ponytail atop her head, and two curved swords swung from her sides. Kira couldn’t tell if the swords were real or Light.

  “How is it going here?” Nari inquired. She sounded tired, yet she stood straight, one hand absently rubbing her lower back.

  “Manageable,” Mistress Tori replied. The healer had finally sat down, perched on a stool beside the direst of her patients.

  Nari nodded. “The search parties have just finished up, so you shouldn’t get any more. They found another two trapped, but they were surprisingly uninjured, only dehydrated.”

  Kira could hear Tori’s sigh all the way from across the tent. “Do we know what caused it?”

  Nari lowered her voice. “It wasn’t natural, we know that much. But there are no traces of the Storm King or his mages yet, either. This isn’t their usual style.”

  The two women sat in silence for several minutes until Nari said, “Well, I’d best be off. I need to send a messenger to Ichiro and Empress Mei. Oh, before I go, you probably need—”

  She gestured beside the tent. Two sets of bedding appeared, glowing with Light magic for an instant and then settling to look like ordinary brown blankets and pillows.

  “Could we have two more?” Tori asked. “Hikaru and the new Kosumoso boy should be coming back here for the night.”

  “Kosumoso?” Nari inquired, a little startled, as she conjured two more sets of bedding.

  “Kira said he only just arrived at the temple this morning.”

  “Hmm,” was all Nari said in reply. “I must be off. I want the trainees to return to the temple first thing in the morning. This quake is not the only thing worrying me.”

  After Nari departed into the glowing night, Kira shut her eyes, not wanting Mistress Tori to think she had been eavesdropping. A minute later, the healer came to shake Kira and Nesma and direct them to the newly conjured blankets. Though they were made from Light magic, they were as warm and soft as any other blanket.

  She must have fallen asleep still contemplating the Light magic in the blanket’s fibers, for she woke in the night, a nearly full moon shining down upon her from the clear sky. Without looking, she could tell that Hikaru and Jun had returned; one of them was snoring lightly on the other side of her.

 
As she looked up at the sky, she idly wondered if the moon here was the same as the one in her own world. There were clearly more stars. Hundreds and thousands more. She grinned, recalling the name they had for her world.

  Before she closed her eyes to return to sleep, however, everything went suddenly and unnaturally black.

  She tried to open her mouth but found it clamped shut by some strange pressure. Then someone grabbed her under the arms and started dragging her from her blankets. Blind, unable to speak, she thrashed mutely against her unknown abductor. She knew exactly what this was: dark Shadow magic.

  Her first terrified thought was of the shadow creature that had attacked her—but no, this person gripped her with strong fingers, just like the Shadow mages she and Anzu had met on the road to the temple. Had mages been behind the earthquake at the village? Was it one of the Storm King’s men?

  She got her feet underneath her and aimed a backward kick. She struck something—a leg maybe—and next her feet were bound together with the same pressure holding her mouth shut.

  She thought her captor was dragging her into the woods beside the little camp. How far they went, she couldn’t tell. Were the Storm King and his men lurking just outside the village, waiting to attack?

  All of a sudden she was thrust to the ground. She landed among dead leaves, and their scent rushed into her nose, which, thankfully, she still had the use of. If her abductor had wanted to kill her, they could have clamped her nose shut too.

  A voice spoke out of the blackness from somewhere in front of her. “Who are you?” it asked gruffly. The pressure holding her mouth closed released, and she opened her mouth wide, gasping for air even though she had been breathing through her nose.

  “Kira,” she gasped. “Kira Savage.”

  “Where did you come from?” the dark voice demanded.

  “He-Heliodor.”

  She was shaking. Terror ran through her. She couldn’t help but think it was the Storm King who abducted her. Did one of his spies find out?

  “Liar,” the voice intoned softly. “Where. Are. You. From.” Each word was punctuated by a tightening of the pressure around her ankles. She nearly screamed at the final word.

  “Heliodor!” she sputtered.

  “Who is the arch-mage of Heliodor, then?” the man challenged and was met with Kira’s shocked silence. “Who’s the best blacksmith in town? Where did you go to school?”

  Blankness must have shown on her face, and he scoffed. “Let’s try another question. What are you doing at Gekkō-ji?”

  There was something familiar about the voice, but it was dripping so heavily with anger, she couldn’t place it.

  “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I got lost in the woods, and I came to—I came to Gekkō-ji to train.”

  “Lost in the woods,” the voice scoffed. Then it came to her, it sounded like—

  “Zowan?” another voice came from the direction of their camp, though Kira had heard no footsteps.

  “Zowan? What are you doing out—Kira? What’s going on?”

  It was Jun. The shock at being abducted by Lord Zowan was eclipsed by the appearance of her trainee. She struggled to sit up, but a hand on her shoulder kept her down. She opened her mouth to speak, but the pressure on her mouth returned.

  “Jun, you need to understand something—” Zowan began.

  “What are you doing to her?” Jun demanded. Now Kira could hear his footsteps among the leaves as he rushed over to them.

  “She’s a spy,” Zowan spat. “Release that knife before you hurt someone.”

  Silence. It went on an unbearably long time. She took ten breaths before anyone spoke.

  “Why do you think she’s a spy?” asked Jun.

  “I just do,” Zowan said irritably. “She says she’s from Heliodor, but she doesn’t know a thing about the place.”

  “Why would a Shadow spy not know anything about the Shadow region?” Jun asked.

  Thank you! Kira wanted to say, but her lips were pressed shut. At least her trainee was smart.

  “You got me,” Zowan said. “Maybe she spent all her life in the Storm King’s catacombs learning who knows what kind of dark Shadow magic—I don’t know. Maybe he sent her here to gain a foothold in Gekkō-ji, so he could destroy it just like Azurite?” His voice had become as sharp as steel.

  Jun grunted, as if this sounded like a valid reason. Kira squirmed on the ground.

  “Can you at least let her speak?” Jun griped.

  An exaggerated sigh came from Zowan, and the pressure across her mouth released.

  “Can you let me see?” Kira demanded, echoing Jun’s tone.

  The darkness disappeared from her eyes in time for her to see Zowan roll his eyes. In no time, though, he had summoned a blade and was holding it inches from her throat. Unlike Light, Shadow magic was supposed to be invisible, save for the common element both magics shared: Fire.

  The flames danced in blade form, and Kira backed away, hitting a tree in her haste. She could see a look of satisfaction on Zowan’s face, in awful definition from the flames between them.

  “Will you tell your trainee where you’re from?” Zowan asked, voice low and taunting.

  Kira’s gaze darted from Jun to Zowan. Was it safe? Could they be trusted? Given Zowan’s reaction to her possibly being a Shadow spy, did that mean he had truly renounced the Storm King?

  And Jun, with his highly connected family clan. What would he think? This was exactly what Kira had feared, going about Gekkō-ji in her charade, pretending to be someone she was not. She had a word or two she’d like to have with Ichiro when she returned. If Zowan ever let her go, that is.

  “See?” Zowan was saying to Jun over Kira’s hasty thoughts. “It’s all over her face. Why else wouldn’t she say?”

  Jun bit his lip, now refusing to look at Kira.

  “No,” Kira got out finally. “Listen, I’m not a spy! I’m not even—”

  “Prove it,” Zowan snapped. “Light can’t risk another Azurite. Or is this all a trap?” He gestured to the village beyond the woods. “A distraction to get everyone out of the temple?”

  “I don’t know!” Kira protested, her cheeks growing hot with anger—anger at Zowan, at the Realm of Camellia, at Ichiro and Nari for making her lie.

  Zowan lunged at her, slamming her down into the leaves, the knife so close to her throat she could feel her shirt growing hot, and the smell of singed fabric reached her nostrils.

  “Zowan, wait!” Jun shouted.

  “Why?” the knight demanded. His face was thrown into terrifying relief against the night sky. Kira stopped breathing.

  The silence from Jun was just as condemning as her own, however, and Zowan’s face drew together as if deciding something. He pressed down—

  “The Starless Realm!” Kira gasped. “I’m from the Starless Realm!”

  There had been many times she had imagined retorting this fact to Rabenda over the course of the past few weeks, but only to stop the cursed girl from tormenting her. Zowan and Jun’s faces looked nearly as stunned as Kira had pictured Rabenda’s might look. Mouth open, Zowan apparently lost control over his flaming knife, and it disappeared, leaving them in darkness, save for the dim glow of Light magic which only Kira and Jun could see.

  Still crushed under his weight, Kira could feel his heart beating fast. Before she could blink, the knife had returned, the bright flames momentarily blinding her.

  “Prove it.”

  The damage had already been done, so she charged on, sensing a flicker of curiosity in Zowan’s tone. “I came from North Noxbury, Massachusetts,” Kira babbled. “I went to go live with Ms. Elm, after my mother—well, something happened to her, so they sent me away. And I was in North Noxbury when this thing—Nari thought it must have been Shadow magic—attacked me. I ran through the woods, and there was this door, and then I was here,” she finished.

  “Nari?” Zowan repeated blankly after several minutes. “She knows?”

  Kira no
dded swiftly, her eyes still trained on the knife. “Ichiro, too.”

  Zowan stood up straight, and the flames disappeared once again. Kira let out a sigh of relief. She tried scooting up to a sitting position, and when he didn’t try and stop her, she finally stood, though it was awkward with her ankles bound.

  Over Zowan’s shoulder, Kira could see Jun staring at her, open-mouthed. He looked at her as though she might sprout antlers or suddenly fly off into the distance.

  Kira raised an eyebrow at him, and he closed his mouth.

  She looked over to Zowan. “Now, will you take these stupid binds off?”

  Chapter Twelve

  In the Dark

  Zowan cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll have to verify your story with Master Ichiro,” he said formally, and the pressure released from the binds around her ankles and wrists. “You’re not to leave the company of your temple-mates until then.”

  Kira gave him a wry look as she brushed the leaves and twigs off herself. She was about to ask him sarcastically if he wanted to know more about North Noxbury when she heard a faint cry coming from the direction of the village.

  “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

  Silence. “What?” Jun replied after a moment.

  “There it is again,” she said. “I think someone’s hurt.” She took a step in the direction of the cry, but Zowan grabbed her arm.

  “I just told you—”

  “—then come with me!” she snapped and stormed off toward the village.

  Two sets of footsteps followed. She smirked a little.

  Guided by the dim glow of Light magic, Kira quietly headed for the edge of the woods, trying to keep an ear out for the sound.

  Irritated though she was about Zowan’s accusations and threats, she felt a thrill at her secret being out. Then another thought occurred to her, and she whirled around, facing them.