Lodestone

by Katherine Forrister

  Then a riotous hissing noise overcame all sounds of battle among Luxian fanatics, Sateless-possessed corpses, and Melaine’s allies. Every corpse’s mouth tightened with aggression and hissed through their teeth with greed. All of their red eyes fixed on Actaeon.

  Actaeon and Nazir were locked in a fierce battle. Actaeon was everything Melaine had imagined he would be—powerful and unparalleled in battle magic, firing with expert aim, dodging his opponents’ fires in a more graceful dance than Melaine could ever imagine performing. He levitated and threw furniture and trappings of the throne room to shield blasts of Nazir’s spells or distract a possessed corpse. But any explosive, body-rending curses he shot were aimed at the reanimated corpses. The spells he used against Nazir were nonlethal paralyzing or stunning spells like he’d used on the other Luxians. Melaine couldn’t imagine he had used such restraint before when he overtook the palace from King Malik. It seemed Serj had gotten to him. Perhaps that was a good thing.

  But powerful as Actaeon was, there was no way he’d be able to fight both Nazir and the now-unified attack of the Sateless at once. She had to do something.

  Melaine closed her eyes, focusing on Desiderata’s desperate, rotting face and the vivid but fractured memory of her last day alive when she’d sealed the Sateless away. But why had she died? Why hadn’t she survived the ritual?

  Stone! Desiderata’s last word of warning echoed in Melaine’s head.

  Melaine opened her eyes. The world seemed to slow as she realized exactly what Desiderata had done, and exactly what Melaine had to do now.

  “Karina,” she said. “Karina, I need to go someplace secure, away from everyone. Somewhere that can be locked with no distractions. Where could that be?”

  Karina’s eyes shifted in quick thought. A small look of pain drew down her features. “The East Tower is close. Why?”

  “Just take me there,” Melaine said. “But wait. Wait till I say.”

  “What are you going to do?” Serj asked.

  “I’m going to finish this,” Melaine said. “You stay and help Actaeon.”

  “Melaine—”

  Melaine shook her head. “Karina, which way to the tower?”

  “That way,” Karina said, nodding to a side door across the room. Melaine ran through the chaos, dodging spells, jumping over fallen bodies. Karina followed, and when they both stood near the exit, Melaine stopped and faced the crowded room.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated. She dug deep into her marrow and felt her magic pulse through her veins. She flooded her skin until magic glowed around her as bright, violet energy.

  “Karina, stay back,” she said. Then she opened her eyes and called to every mass of black smoke and to each reanimated corpse in the room.

  “Come to me!”

  She put forth a burst of magic so powerful, the Sateless couldn’t possibly resist. Its desire for Actaeon was intense, but she knew what it truly wanted. Melaine’s power was irresistible, and at this moment, it was far easier to feed upon—she was offering it to the creature. Just as Desiderata had once done.

  Every corpse dropped to the ground. Writhing black smoke filled the air, and more flew into the throne room from the outer halls. Melaine stood her ground until every tendril of vapor had collected into a single entity that swirled and tangled into the visible husk of the Sateless’s grotesque body.

  “Take me to the tower, Karina,” she said. “It won’t hurt you. It only wants me.” Karina was speechless for a small moment, but then she nodded and opened the door.

  “Melaine, no!” Actaeon shouted. She met his desperate, panicked blue eyes from across the room.

  Nazir shot a spell straight for Actaeon’s heart.

  “Look out!” she cried.

  Actaeon reacted just in time. He repelled the spell with one of his own. Nazir ducked out of the way. Melaine tore herself away from the sight. She rushed after Karina through the door.

  The Sateless followed close behind.

  Chapter 14

  “I hope you have a sound plan, young lady,” Karina shouted as they raced through the palace corridors. They reached the end of a hall and burst through a door into the bright sunlight of dawn. The east courtyard was empty. All of the chaos either thrived at the palace gates or within the palace itself.

  “Just get me to the tower,” Melaine said. She followed Karina across the polished flagstones until the tower came into sight.

  She paused and stared, her lips parting in awe. Vines flourishing with flowers climbed up the East Tower’s stone walls, shining with an enchanted luster. They encircled a large, round window paned with magnificent stained glass that depicted more flowers and birds of all colors. Crystals adorned the spired roof, sparkling and casting rainbows in the sun.

  “This was where Queen Adelasia was imprisoned before she died,” Karina said as they reached the door. “Actaeon had it preserved as a memorial. Only he and I knew the reason.”

  Melaine’s heart softened, but they didn’t have time to waste admiring the tower’s tranquil beauty. Karina pressed her hand against the door and pulsed magic into the wood. It opened.

  “Stay out here,” Melaine said. She pushed out a bracing breath and ran a hand back through her disheveled hair. She pulled hard enough to hurt her scalp before she let go. “Don’t open this door, do you hear me?”

  “Understood,” Karina said. She stepped back and then gasped and pressed herself against the tower as the black smoke of the Sateless swarmed toward them. Melaine ran inside and stopped in the center of the tower’s first floor. The Sateless flooded through the door. Its loud hiss shot like steam through her ears.

  “Shut the door, Karina!” she yelled. The door slammed shut.

  Sunlight shone brilliant colors all over the floor in a puzzle-piece array from the stained glass high above her head. Her black silk dress was overlaid with fractures of rainbows, the silver trim shining like dew drops. All around the circular tower, even spiraling up the staircase, tall and short candles glimmered with soft flames that banished all shadows. She had never seen anything as beautiful as this tower. She wondered if it would be the last beautiful thing she would ever see.

  She forced her eyes to the horrific, writhing Sateless instead, a mass so thick, none of the light could penetrate its darkness.

  “It’s just you and me now,” Melaine said as she stared at the formless creature. She threw her wand to the floor, and it rattled away into a stained glass rainbow. “My magic is what you want. Are you ready?”

  The Sateless’s eerie hiss grew violent. The mass of black smoke coiled back as if ready to strike.

  Melaine closed her eyes, pictured Desiderata in all her living, vibrant glory, and waited.

  Black smoke pummeled her body with powerful, physical force as if the Sateless still retained all the muscular strength of its lost body. She gasped as a smoky echo of its claws prized her mouth open, but she overcame her instinctual resistance and squeezed tears from her eyes as she let it in. The smoke ensnared her body, and she screamed in agony as it tore through every pore of her skin and penetrated her bones, leeching her magic. She pictured Talem and Stebbon’s bodies, their broken bones sucked dry of magic and marrow, their flesh cast aside because all this creature wanted was magic—pure, raw magic—and now it was taking hers.

  Whether the torturous pain was physical or only magical, she let herself scream it out so she could pour all her remaining focus into what she had to do. Instead of fighting to survive the onslaught, she shoved her magic through her veins and down her wrists, ready to feed the beast from the palm of her hand. The scraping claws of the Sateless inside her body dragged along her veins as it chased the stream of magic with untamed lust.

  She fell to her knees but kept pushing magic into her palms. She cupped her hands together and screamed louder as harsh, jagged crystals ripped through her skin. The Sateless shrieked, scrabbling its claws in panic through her body, but it was too late. The creature had latched onto her magic with full
force, and it couldn’t extricate itself from the relentless stream. She felt the Sateless’s horror as her outpour of magic sucked it into the crystallized lodestone in her hands.

  Melaine felt weaker with each passing second, but she had to finish. Desiderata had performed the spell and succeeded, so she would as well. She had to—because if she didn’t, Actaeon was next, and then Karina and Serj and Salma and everyone she had come to care about. Everyone in Stakeside, in Centara…every fellow woman, man, and child in her city would succumb to the creature’s endless thirst, just as the ancient warlord’s army had fallen within Highstrong’s walls.

  Melaine bored into her marrow, to the very core from which her magic stemmed. She had never pried so deeply before, but the act felt instinctual. Desiderata had embedded the knowledge to perform the spell within the Insight that was Highstrong. Desiderata had taught Melaine what to do.

  Serj’s attempts to seal the Sateless inside a typical Insight hadn’t worked. He’d cast an external spell upon his lock of hair to entice the creature inside, but superficial magic was not what the Sateless craved. The creature had overpowered the spell and split into pieces to hunt its true prey—raw, unfiltered magic. For a sealing ritual to work, raw magic could be the only bait, and the magic had to come from a sole source and offer no alternatives.

  Melaine was now the sole source. Her raw magic would bait the creature, and her lodestone, filled with pure, biological magic, would be the Insight that held the monster imprisoned. But to completely seal the creature away, she had to pour all of her magic into the trap.

  More of the sharp, jutting crystals tore through her skin as the lodestone grew larger and more powerful with the Sateless’s evil presence, influencing the stone to take on a different quality than anything Melaine had ever crafted. She heard a violent hiss and suffered pain like scalding steam rushing through her body. The Sateless clawed and fought. It understood what was happening—what had happened before.

  Tears burned her eyes as she pushed harder, yanking the last of the Sateless into the stone. She could feel its furious presence railing against the crystal confines. She gathered her last dregs of energy to perform one final spell.

  She brought every small detail she could remember about the Sateless to the forefront of her mind—how its monstrous body had looked, how it ran crooked through the halls, how invasive it had felt to have its long feeding tube deep in her throat, how unnatural and deceptive Actaeon had appeared when possessed, how weak he became by the end. Then she sent a burst of magic and vengeful fury into the lodestone. She sealed all of her knowledge of the Sateless, including how to defeat it, into the fresh Insight.

  Now no one could unleash the Sateless unless they imbibed her magic from the stone, just as Talem had found and imbibed the ancient lodestone of Desiderata. She had faith that Actaeon, Serj, and Karina would make sure that no one would ever release the Sateless again.

  Melaine dropped the stone to the floor. It was over. The Sateless was gone, wholly encased by the jagged blood-red crystal. But all of her magic was locked inside as well. Just like the old stonelady from her childhood, Melaine had given up her final lodestone.

  She collapsed onto the floor. The stones were warm and colorful from the sun shining through the stained glass window overhead, painting her body with the shapes of bluebirds and cardinals and yellow roses. Melaine smiled as she closed her eyes.

  The door slammed open.

  “Melaine?” Actaeon said. “No. Melaine!”

  She heard his footsteps rush to her, but she couldn’t open her eyes. She couldn’t move. Everything was fading.

  “Melaine.” His voice was soft, distant.

  All grew silent.

  Something pressed against her lips. It was hard and glossy, and she felt cool, refreshing power shining through. Then she felt a different, yet familiar warmth—a brush of her own magic.

  She breathed in deep. Magic—Actaeon’s exhilarating, snow-crisp magic—flooded her. With it came a burst of her own. Her hot, crackling magic spread through her lungs and pumped through her heart, sweeping through her veins like a flood. It saturated the marrow in her bones and blossomed there.

  She opened her eyes. Actaeon was holding her close, watching her with anxious, pleading eyes.

  “Melaine,” he said.

  Melaine frowned. “You…you made me a lodestone.”

  “Of course, I did,” he said. He swept the hair from her eyes. “I still had some of your magic in me, Melaine. From all the stones you made me. The least I can do is repay you.”

  A wry smile touched the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were busy inspecting her for harm. Since his expression lacked disgust and horror, she assumed the torture the Sateless had wreaked upon her body had only been a magical sensation rather than a physical rending of flesh and bone.

  “I never thought you would degrade yourself like that,” she said, her voice shaking between shallow breaths. “Before I met you. I never imagined you could make lodestones.” She glanced about the beautiful tower, the Sateless’s evil presence no longer desecrating Queen Adelasia’s memorial. “That’s why Serj’s father wanted your mother dead, isn’t it? She could make lodestones, too. She wanted to protect you because she knew you might be able to make them as well. The Luxians would have killed you had they known.”

  Sadness weighed upon Actaeon’s face. He looked up at the stained glass window.

  “She died needlessly,” he said. “But the Luxians will never persecute anyone again. I swear it. People like you and I don’t need to fear.” He squeezed her hand, sending warmth through her heart. “And thanks to you, we needn’t fear the Sateless.”

  “It’s gone? Did it work?”

  Actaeon nodded. “It worked. It’s gone. You saved us, Melaine. Though I might execute you for trying to sacrifice yourself.”

  Melaine huffed a laugh as she tried to sit up. Actaeon helped her but kept his arm around her back and shoulders.

  “Nazir?” Melaine asked.

  “Under custody. Turns out a few of my Followers still have a little spark left in them. They came to help so I could find you. They’re managing the chaos as well, making sure everyone at the gates is safe.”

  Melaine smiled. “So, you do still need Followers.”

  He laughed. “I’m still not letting you be one, Melaine.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You deserve a much higher role.”

  Melaine’s cheeks flushed as she looked into his joyful and vibrant blue eyes. She searched his face, her lips parting as her long-restrained yearning for him flooded into an uncontrollable downpour of need. She reached up and caressed his cheek with a trembling hand. He leaned into her touch, and there was no fighting it anymore. She took a chance and kissed him.

  Actaeon inhaled in surprise but then deepened the kiss with fierce passion as if he had long restrained himself from embracing her as his own. She felt wanted and cherished in his strong arms, which, even when no longer frail, still possessed a gentleness she’d never known.

  He ended their kiss sooner than she would have liked and looked into her eyes with tender care and shining hope.

  “Come,” he said, squeezing her hand. “You need rest, and then we’ll discuss the future.”

  “Our future?” she asked, feeling breathless.

  He smiled. “That, and much more.”

  “Never thought I’d see the day,” Salma said as she positioned her wide backside into the deep cushion of an armchair in a lush common area of the palace. Her face sagged with exhaustion, but her eyes glowed with wonder as she looked about.

  Melaine slumped down in an opposite chair. She and Salma had spent the past day and night assisting the public. People needed comfort from the chaos, and others needed food, shelter, healing, and pine boxes for their loved ones.

  Melaine had never been filled with such purpose. Her care for Actaeon, Serj, Karina, and of course, Salma, seemed to be overflowing into the entire population of Centara. Now that
she didn’t have to worry about pure survival, she had the luxury of being kind and generous. She felt like an inherent, inner kindness had always been inside of her and could finally breathe.

  “So, it’s really true, Mela?” Salma said. “The Overlord didn’t kill Queen Adelasia all those years ago?”

  Melaine nodded. “He was trying to save her. Highstrong Keep influenced him and his army before he took the White City. It was an Insight, filled with ancient, dark magic. Its influence on him and his people caused them to become more ruthless than they otherwise would have been. But Actaeon’s intentions were always for good.”

  “Yah’ve gotten close ta him,” Salma said, with a knowing gleam in her eye. “I suppose yah won’t be comin’ back ta Stakeside.”

  “Neither will you,” Melaine said, not taking Salma’s bait for information on her relationship to Actaeon. Melaine wasn’t even sure what their relationship was. She hadn’t seen him since they had defeated the Sateless. Since their one kiss.

  “What makes yah say that?” Salma asked. “I’ve got a pub ta run.”

  “You can get a better one,” Melaine said. “I can make sure you get the best location there is.”

  “Yah insultin’ my place again?” Salma said.

  “I just thought—”

  “I belong at the Greasy Goat, Mela,” Salma said. “It’s my home, and I plan ta stay.”

  Melaine sighed. “Fine. Then we’ll make Stakeside better. People deserve better.”

  “I thought only you deserved better,” Salma said. “Gettin’ outta Stakeside no matter the cost, eh?”

  “No one should have to pay so high a cost, Salma,” Melaine said. “That was Actaeon’s first goal, and it’s one I want to see through. I wanted to be a Follower for all the wrong reasons. Now I know I can be one for all the right ones.”