Comet Rising

by MarcyKate Connolly

  “We can’t risk taking you out.” I fold my arms over my chest. Arguing with Dar is exhausting.

  “You’ve grown so unkind.” Dar huffs and sits at the bottom of her cage with her back to me. I sigh and close my bag.

  “Maybe we should make her a shadow-and-light muzzle too,” Lucas says.

  “I heard that,” comes Dar’s muffled response from within my bag.

  I suppress a smile.

  We set out again, more warily this time. We fall into a rhythm as we walk. My mind strays back to the papers we examined earlier. Something about the housing deeds troubles me. Why aren’t the names on any of the lists his parents kept? Why would they need those deeds? They do not appear to be old, but recent, within the last few years.

  I stop to search through my bag, meeting a grumble or two from Dar, and pull out one of the deeds. Lucas eyes me strangely.

  “What are you doing?”

  I thrust the papers into his hands. “Look at this.” He glances it over and shrugs.

  “It’s a deed to some property in Abbacho.”

  “It is, and the names don’t match any of the ones on our list of talented people.”

  He stares at me like I have two heads, and I begin to laugh. “They’re aliases. That’s why your parents have copies of the deeds. They’ve been helping talented folks find new homes across the territories. They don’t match the real names on the list because these are fake!”

  Lucas’s face lights up. “So we find these properties and we’ll find other talented people who might be able to help us.”

  “Exactly.” I grin, but glance around nervously. “But first we need to get out of this forest.”

  With a renewed bounce in our steps, we march on, hopeful that we might have found what we need.

  * * *

  It is midday when Dar begins to rattle her cage again. The whining of her little voice in my satchel is worse than a fly buzzing in my ears. No one else is in sight, so I finally take her out.

  I hold up her cage to eye level while Lucas scowls next to me.

  “What is it now, Dar?”

  “It’s about time,” she says. “Make my cage bigger, please. I need to get out.”

  I almost laugh. Does she really believe it will be that easy? “I don’t think so.”

  She puts her tiny hands on her hips. Is it odd that I have almost gotten used to talking to a tiny version of myself?

  “Listen to me,” Dar says. “I know Lady Aisling. She is my own flesh and blood. And I know Zinnia.”

  “What does that matter?” Lucas says. “That has nothing to do with whether we can trust you.”

  Dar’s gaze snaps to Lucas. “Do you ever want to see your parents again?” He flinches. “I know how to move around in that territory. I can help you get them back.”

  Lucas swallows hard, his hands balling into fists. “We’re never letting you out. Get used to living in that cage, because you’re going to be there for a very long time.”

  With that, Lucas stomps ahead of me at a faster pace. I can still see him, but I don’t try to catch up. Instead I talk to Dar while I follow him.

  “You need me,” Dar says.

  “Well, I have you. You’re right here in your cage where you belong.”

  She narrows her eyes. “You need me to guide you and protect you from Lady Aisling. No one knows her like I do.”

  I consider Dar for a long moment. On occasion I’ve tried to broach the subject of her early life with Lady Aisling, but she always changes the subject. “You say you know her, but you’ve never really told me about what happened between you.”

  Dar looks away before answering. “My sister should’ve been closer to me than anyone else. Twins are supposed to share everything, aren’t they? But she hated me from the beginning. It was because our parents liked me best. I was nicer, happier, and I had an amusing talent, while she was sickly and sullen and had no magic as far as we could tell. They doted on me, and she never forgave me for it. She punished me for it too.” She stamps a foot on the floor of the cage. “Every chance she had she’d play a cruel joke or trick at my expense. The more my parents scolded her, the angrier she got.”

  I shiver. Lady Aisling played tricks on Dar? That must be where Dar got all her ideas for the games she convinced me to play on others. A tiny crack forms in my heart, joining the others that have appeared each time I’ve learned more about Dar’s past.

  She continues, “Then one day, she broke my ankle. My parents threatened to send her away to finishing school. She was more furious than I’ve ever seen her before. She came into my room late at night after our parents were in bed and put her hands around my neck. That was how she discovered her powers. Her focus on wanting to take what I had so our parents would love her too finally brought her powers to light.” She chokes on her words. Tears glimmer in the corner of her—my—eyes just before they flash violently.

  “And then she did take it. Everything. All my power, gone.” Dar shudders. “When she strangled me, I tried to shift, but I couldn’t escape. She only needs to be in close proximity to a person to steal their powers. I could feel it flowing out of me and into her body. I had no idea what was happening, only that I was getting weaker and weaker and that I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to die. Since my talent was inherent to my body, it didn’t survive, but she could never touch my soul. But everything that had made me me was gone, sucked dry. My body crumbled to dust, and I was doomed to wander the shadow worlds, not dead and yet not quite alive, only a glimmer of my former self. I could see life happening, time passing around me, but I couldn’t take part. Not until you found me and made me yours.”

  “That’s horrible. I’m sorry, Dar.”

  Dar’s face twists. “Oh, that wasn’t all she did. She took my life. Pretended to be me for a time since she had my talent. She basked in our parents’ attention, telling them some lie that she had run away, but she could only fool them for so long. Eventually she got bored of shape shifting. She couldn’t help herself; she had to devour another talent. When our parents realized she could no longer shape shift, they knew the truth. They shunned her, but their timing was tragic. She had recently stolen the talent from a lightning caller and had no idea how to control it. Her rage brought the lightning down on all of them. Our parents did not survive.”

  My heart aches in my chest. I have no idea what to say. There is no comfort I can give.

  “She may have better control now, but she is just as wicked at heart as she always was.” Dar scowls. “Don’t go up against her on your own. You will be captured. She will imprison you in her garden. And then what will become of me?”

  My breath catches in my throat. I am responsible for Dar, and I don’t want her to get caught either. She has already been through enough. “That won’t happen. We’re going to find more allies first, then we’ll go to Zinnia. We don’t need you for that. But I do need to keep you out of Lady Aisling’s grasp.”

  “Then you will fail. Do not underestimate her, Emmeline.” Dar shakes the bars in frustration, sprouting a couple claws and horns in the process. “For goodness’ sake, she changed the path of the Cerelia Comet just so she could have more powers to harvest earlier. She is insatiable!”

  Cold prickles over my back, but I shake it off. Dar is trying to get under my skin. I can’t let her succeed.

  “She won’t find us.” I put on a brave face, but this scares me more than I’m willing to let Dar know. “If we band together with other talented people, we will be better able to defeat her.”

  “You are fooling yourself. And it will be the end of us all.” Dar sinks to the floor of her cage with her back to me, arms crossed as she sulks.

  I return her cage to my satchel, shaking my head. As much as I hate to admit it, there is a part of me that can’t help wondering if Dar has a point. She knows more about the trouble we’re in th
an any of us, especially after the loss of Lucas’s parents. And she’s made it clear she will only help us if we let her out.

  But the risks of letting her loose… Well, we know that all too well. Last time, she hurt too many people, she was so bent on revenge. I can’t let that happen again.

  We shall simply have to find another way. I only hope our plan works.

  I pick up the pace, and when I reach Lucas, he is still fuming about what Dar said. His hands clench and unclench and sparks of light spit from his fingertips.

  I put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll find your parents. We’ll rescue them from Lady Aisling.”

  “We are not letting Dar go,” he says.

  “Of course we’re not. She’s too dangerous. I know that. And I know all her tricks too.” I brush a spark from his golden hair. “If you don’t calm down, you might set yourself on fire.”

  Lucas stops for a moment, a laugh bursting from his lips in a way I haven’t heard since Lady Aisling came for us. He takes a deep breath and sighs.

  “Sorry,” he says. “I just really miss them.”

  “I know,” I say. “I do too.”

  They’ve been kinder to me than my own parents ever were. And I’m just as determined as Lucas to get them back.

  Chapter Seven

  The shadows in the forest are growing darker and deeper—the way I feel safest—when we stop to make camp. Lucas offers to collect some firewood to light with his magic. I am left alone with my thoughts, fears, and hopes.

  I toy with the shadows, weaving them into a tent-like structure to lend us shelter. The shadow ropes wrap around two of the nearest trees, and the front opens into flaps to let us slip inside. It wasn’t until recently I realized other talented people could feel the shadows I weave. For years I thought it was a secret just between me and Dar.

  It’s nice to be able to share it now, and I’ve taught Lucas how to do it with his light singing too.

  I sit on a nearby stump, waiting for Lucas to return and playing with the shadows, when I hear Dar.

  “I’m hungry, Emmeline,” she whines. I pull her out and set her cage on the ground beside me. She looks tiny and fragile, and it adds another crack to my heart.

  I may as well feed her now and get it over with before Lucas comes back. That way he won’t have to listen to her whining too. I break off a couple pieces of leftover jerky and bread and push it through the bars. She devours them eagerly.

  I look away, hoping she’ll give me some peace, but my eyes snap back at her violent coughing fit. Dar’s face turns red, then as purple as the dress she wears.

  “Dar!” I cry.

  Her mouth is open but she can’t seem to form words. For a fleeting moment I wonder if she might be faking it, but when her lips turn blue and she stumbles to the floor of her cage, I’m sure she’s not.

  I’m responsible for her, my former best friend. I can’t just let her die.

  At first, I try to reach a finger through the cage to pat her back and help her dislodge whatever is stuck in her throat, but the cage is too tiny and when I make it bigger, I can no longer reach her. Her face turns more blue, and the coughing grows louder and hoarser. She sprawls on the floor, and then an even worse sound begins—silence.

  Terror shoots through my limbs. I open the cage door and pull her out, shaking her in the hope that will dislodge the offending piece of food. She is limp in my hands, her eyes rolling back in her head.

  “Dar, please, wake up.” I try to remember what people do to help someone who is choking. Something about patting their back or their chest. I try both, and only after I tap her chest a couple times do her eyes flutter open again.

  Relief floods through me, but just for a moment. Without warning, Dar leaps out of my hands, a terrible cackle bursting free from her lips as she skitters into a bed of ferns nearby.

  “Free! Free, free, free, free!” she sings.

  “No! Come back, you must. Please!” Panic courses through my veins, the enormity of my mistake making my legs weak. I crash through the undergrowth, trying to capture her again. I catch a glimpse of Dar as she transforms into a rabbit. I send a shadow net sweeping after her, catching her up. But as I frantically pull her toward me, her front paws shift into claws tearing a hole in my net. She slips through and bounds off again.

  I race after her, slowing her down by sending my shadows to grab her again and again.

  Dar only laughs, reveling in her newfound freedom. She’s toying with me.

  Suddenly, I’m flying toward the ground, my foot caught on an exposed root. I tumble into the ferns, and by the time I sit up, I can no longer see Dar.

  “Thank you, Emmeline,” Dar’s voice calls, getting softer by the second. It sounds like she is above me now, and I glance up just in time to see the flash of a white wing flying up, up, up in the canopy. Horror settles on my chest with a sickening weight.

  What have I done?

  I throw up my shadow ropes, a last-ditch effort to catch her, but she shivers out of them easily, then flies off into the night. I need Lucas’s light to work with my shadows in order to contain her. She timed her escape perfectly. Purposely.

  Tears prick at my eyes. Dar is loose, and it is all my fault. She is free to wreak whatever havoc she pleases. Any harm she does is on my head. More damage for me to make amends for. It is more than I can bear.

  But what was I supposed to do? Risk letting her die? I couldn’t do that either. She knows me too well. She knew I’d have to help her.

  Once again, Dar used me against myself.

  I collapse in the leaves, my head in my hands, letting the tears fall until I hear someone coming through the woods, and the soft whisper of Lucas singing a light to brighten his path in the dark.

  How can I tell Lucas? How can I admit what I’ve done? He will be furious, and disappointed.

  Lucas reaches the clearing where we set up camp and calls my name. My heart pounds as I rise to my feet and slowly return to face him. When he sees my grim expression, his smile falters.

  “What’s wrong, Emmeline?” he asks.

  Our small shadow-and-light cage rests forgotten against the tree stump. I swallow the knives in my throat.

  “Dar is gone.”

  The color drains from Lucas’s face. “What do you mean gone?”

  More tears well in my eyes. “She tricked me,” I say with a hoarse whisper. “I thought she was choking. She was turning all sorts of horrible colors. I couldn’t let her die; I had to try to save her. And after I did, she leaped out of my grasp and fled.” I shake my head. “I tried, but I couldn’t catch her. I’m sorry, Lucas. I know better than to trust her.”

  I sink onto the tree stump now that I’ve made my confession. I can’t even look at him for fear of what he must think of me. The world in front of my eyes swims. A moment later Lucas’s warm arms wrap around me in a hug.

  “I’m sorry, Emmeline,” he says quietly. “She has always been a trickster, while you are honest and true.”

  I did not think I could cry any harder, but I prove myself wrong. Forgiveness, it turns out, was the most unexpected thing.

  Chapter Eight

  I take the first watch, letting Lucas sleep. It feels as though we’ve been awake forever. Dar’s empty cage is back in my satchel, intact, just in case we capture her again. Until then, we shall be watching our backs.

  It is hard to believe she is really gone, my once constant companion. Despite everything she did, I can’t help but miss her presence.

  As Lucas drifts off in the shadowcrafted bedroll, I settle into my perch on a rock, pulling the forest’s shadows around me like armor. The deep woods are lively at night, full of predatory rumbles, hisses, and rustling. Above me, the moon glows through the occasional break in the canopy, along with a twinkling star or two. Out here alone in a strange place, the world feels far more
vast than I ever realized. I’ve come a long way from the sheltered girl who never left her parents’ mansion. I had no idea my world was so small. It revolved around Dar and my magic, and nothing else mattered to me. Ironically, that is why I left in the first place—to keep the things most precious to me safe.

  But now I’ve seen more, learned more, and understand more. The world is bigger than me and my small worries, my single talent. And there are threats out there that would harm this world, like Lady Aisling and Dar. They must be stopped. Somehow. I may not know much, but I know I must do my part to make a difference. My actions no longer affect only me, they ripple outward over many others.

  I pull out the book that Alsa gave us and crack it open, hoping to find something useful inside. To my surprise, there is more on magic eaters than just Lady Aisling, though she is certainly the most creative.

  A magic eater must exercise their talent regularly, feeding on talents and their effects in order to survive. Without a steady supply they will grow sickly and may even die. This naturally poses a problem for other talented people, making magic eaters one of the most feared of all talents. Fortunately, they are also among the rarest, with only three documented cases in the last five hundred years…

  My heart races as I read about the other magic eaters, but sadly the book does not provide ideas on how to stop them. It seems to suggest letting them devour the fruits of your talent and going on your way as quickly as possible. Disappointed, I read on about several other talents such as dream eaters, rain dancers, storm brewers, talent takers, memory stealers, mind readers, and many more. But my thoughts keep returning to magic eaters. Lady Aisling isn’t going to willingly stop eating magic. She can’t. Reasoning with her, pleading, even bribing will have no success.

  Nonetheless, Lucas and I will have to try to stop her. It seems hopeless, and right now, with Dar on the loose, I’m feeling more desperate than ever. Because Dar was right about one thing: we need her. No one knows Lady Aisling like she does. Dar was our secret weapon.