The High Lord (Legends of Trianon: Starla Book 2)

by J. A. Comley

  Starla and Eben followed her pointed look and caught sight of Larkel's face, Niden chuckling at his elbow while Eltara shook her head. Zerina still looked outwardly serene, but her amber eyes were hard.

  Eben chuckled. “I think she's right. I'd better not push him too far, or he may just take you back by magic, and that would ruin the whole evening.”

  Starla gave a soft laugh, nodding her agreement.

  The song ended, and Larkel appeared beside her the moment the music fell still.

  Eben barked a short laugh then bowed.

  “Thank you for the dance, Miss Starla,” he said, giving her a brilliant white smile. “All yours, my friend,” he continued, putting her hand in Larkel's.

  “Enjoy the evening.” He grinned, mischief in his eyes again, his tone making it clear that he didn't mean at the festival.

  Starla felt herself blush as Larkel sighed and shook his head.

  “Between the two of them, I didn't think I was going to get a turn,” the High Lord said.

  Starla laughed, disbelief raising her eyebrows. “They wouldn't have dared push you any further.”

  He met her eyes, his own eyebrows raised, then he chuckled. “I see, yes, I forgot how utterly terrifying I am. Would you like to dance with me, anyway?”

  Starla opened the bond between their minds and played back the fiery jolt that had hit her when he took her hand, pulling her close.

  “What do you think?”

  Larkel laughed again then gave her a light bow as the song began, seeming immune to the hateful stares being aimed at his back.

  After a few more dances, Starla and Larkel returned to their friends. They were having a glass of wine with Eben and Eltara when a loud voice cut through the sudden silence between songs.

  “I can't believe that the Prince opened the ball with that spy. I don't care who she's bedding… or maybe she's bedding them both,” Lady Vinaria finished, clearly enjoying the reaction to her words.

  The hateful, fearful looks flickered between her and Larkel, and she knew that she had joined him as a target for the fear and hatred the war had sown.

  Larkel’s hands tensed, drawing her closer as they turned to look at the Baron’s fiancée. Starla kept her chin high, ignoring the unfriendly looks and trying to appear as if such jabs were beneath her notice.

  In her head, Davan and Orla’s voices sounded, and she nearly chuckled as Larkel squashed the bad memories before she could.

  Lady Yilia stepped away from Vinaria and moved towards Starla, her face hostile.

  “Do you know that the man you are standing with, laughing with, murdered my children?”

  Larkel stiffened as if he had been struck, and Starla squared her shoulders, unsure of what she could say in response, when there was a movement of guards from the sides of the great courtyard.

  “The King orders those with malicious and uncivil tongues to leave,” the High Commander said, her voice ringing with authority.

  “I'm sorry,” he whispered, his eyes burning.

  Through their bond, she knew he was apologising to Yilia, too, and had to take a steadying breath. The first wave of Drodemion-cursed smoke, and the resulting Corruptions, had taken Yilia’s children. All five of them.

  Kyron did that, not you.

  Starla stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, instilling her mental presence with strength and love. He met her eyes, his darker feelings falling away before the certainty in her heart.

  “I have something for you,” Larkel said after she had rocked reluctantly back on to her heels. “Would you like it now?”

  Starla held out her hands, smiling, emerald eyes curious. Slowly, a small globe of golden light filled them. As the light faded, a gold bracelet and matching necklace were revealed. She gasped in wonder, turning them over in her hands. The necklace was a thin vine of gold, its pendant a delicately carved heartwing, the bird commonly associated with love here. The hard stone glittered like a thousand tiny, black diamonds.

  “They're beautiful,” Starla began, slipping the bracelet on, then tensed as the Baron's voice drifted across the courtyard even though his words were unintelligible.

  Larkel had been clipping the necklace around her and so had felt her body react to the sound of the Baron’s voice. His face grew ever more determined, seeming to be trying to resist an insistent urge to do something he’d regret.

  “Perhaps you'd like to show Starla the rest of the festival?” Eben said meaningfully.

  Yilia and Vinaria may well have been removed from the ball, but their words had the intended effect.

  “A walk, then?” He looked down at Starla then followed her gaze across the dance floor.

  “Please,” he heard her whisper as the Baron's lips curved into a cruel smile and another pair of eyes shone with mistrust, all directed at her.

  Effortlessly, Larkel twirled them onto the dance floor then across it and out through two double doors at the end onto a small, lamp-lit garden path.

  “Where are we?” Starla murmured in wonder.

  Ahead of her, dipping down in tiers, were dozens of little, lamp-lit stalls.

  “The Palace Gardens.” Larkel smiled, as he felt her mood lighten. “Every Trimoon, the King permits stalls to be set up here. Shall we visit some?”

  They walked hand-in-hand along the garden paths through the stalls. It didn't take long for Starla to be drawn in by the array of Galatian, Cosmaltian, and Aurelian goods for sale, the Baron's schemes fading into the background.

  Larkel laughed softly, watching Starla. She looked absolutely beautiful this evening. Her golden hair glowed. The gown she was wearing slid along her body as she moved gracefully amongst the stalls, making his blood boil with desire. His hand moved to the inner pocket of his cape to the ring-box hidden inside. Galatians had no custom of giving rings, but he knew from her memories that they did on Earth. He had made this choice before he had told her everything, hoping that he could be so lucky that she would love him anyway, stay by his side despite the many dark deeds Kyron had forced him into. Seeing her as he had when he had been in her mind, he knew he would never want anyone else. And here she was, still beside him even though she knew all his pain and torment, knew that this city's residents thought of him as a murderer and let him lead only because they were too afraid to do otherwise. Tonight, he would give her the choice of being with him forever. Then he would explain the King’s command for her to reveal by midnight when the Festival Bells would ring.

  Starla glanced up at him, and he removed his hand from his cape. Larkel stepped back to her side, snagging her waist. As he bent to kiss her, she wound her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer.

  Smiling, he broke the kiss and led the way through more stalls.

  “Wow,” Starla said as a vendor explained enthusiastically about his lightning fern pens, whose ink lit up in the dark.

  Larkel moved over to the bookstall across the way. “I'll have that one, please.” He indicated a book titled 'The Birds of Trianon'. “And may I borrow a pen?”

  “Of course, High Lord,” the vendor said, trying, unsuccessfully, to hide his fear.

  Larkel opened the book and took the offered pen, writing a message on the inside of the cover for Starla.

  Looking back up the garden path, he sighed.

  “Thank you,” he added to the book vendor before moving away.

  Starla was holding a turquoise and gold pen. “Here you go.” He paid the Aurelian behind the counter and wrapped an arm around Starla's waist, drawing her further down the path.

  Starla turned a questioning gaze on him.

  “He's following us,” he murmured in her ear.

  Glancing discreetly back up the path, she spotted the Baron, three stalls away and apparently very interested in the ornaments for sale there.

  “Can we lose him?” she asked hopefully.

  In response, Larkel stopped and closed his eyes in concentration.

  “Yes,” he grinned, “just be ready.”

 
As if on command, Naleiya and her wife came up behind the Baron and claimed his attention, forcing him to turn his back on Starla and Larkel for a moment.

  “Now,” Larkel said. Taking Starla's hand tightly, he ducked down an unlit garden path.

  The path was very dark, the tall hedges blocking out most of the moonlight, but with Larkel's strong arms to steady her, Starla didn't fall, not even once.

  They emerged, laughing, into a small enclosure. A white-stone pond filled the centre, glowing in the brilliant light of the three moons. They had a clear view of the moons now, all having risen above the line of the palace. Each glowed fitfully, a powdery purple, hanging in the black starry sky.

  “They're beautiful,” Starla said, pointing into the ornamental pond on the edges of which Larkel had placed her gifted bird book.

  In the clear water, little creatures with perfectly spherical shells moved about.

  “Freloks,” the High Lord said absently, drawing her against him. “Alone at last,” he teased, leaving a tingling trail of kisses from her lips to her collar bone.

  He pulled away as he felt her douse the fire his touch created.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Starla met his eyes and took a deep breath. “I have made a decision. To show you my secret. Though I am fairly confident your quick mind has figured most of it out.”

  In his mind, she caught a flash of the King demanding he learn it by midnight and chuckled.

  Starla felt him strengthen the bond so he could fully enter her mind and pulled away.

  “Wait.”

  Larkel’s eyes tightened as he caught the tenor of her plan, and the worry that had been growing since she first mentioned her secret gained strength.

  Slowly, Starla removed her amulet from under her dress, careful not to disturb the heartwing necklace he had given her. Starla gave him a sad smile as his eyes tightened further then placed the Star carefully on the edge of the pond beside them. Straightening, Starla held out her hands. “Now I am ready.”

  Larkel seemed to steel himself and took her hands, strengthening the spell until he was fully inside her mind.

  She drew him to the first memory, shrouded by magic, and watched his own magic respond to it. His presence seemed to take a deep breath.

  I am ready too.

  Starla smiled and turned to the memory, reaching for some kind of power in the same way she had before with the magic surrounding the blocked memory of the Baron’s attack. She felt something like a wave of light rise and then crash through her mind, obliterating the Guardians’ magic and freeing the memories from her own hold. Starla felt a strange laugh bubble up her throat, sad and happy in equal measure. His presence seemed to wrap around hers, and his magic flowed stronger.

  Look at me.

  She met his eyes and saw her own conclusion mirrored back. No, she wasn’t human. The magic was not the Star’s, but her own.

  Let me show you.

  She drew him into the memory, speeding through the betrayal, and felt a flash of surprise as the wooden box Father Joe gave her blurred past, quickly buried under the shadow of what she was. She had forgotten about the picture, put it out of her mind because it wasn’t here, but with mental connections like this, it didn’t need to be.

  What was that?

  She looked away.

  Nothing important for right now. I will show you later.

  She had little doubt that he could feel her determination to get this done, to get the final confirmation for something they now both knew to be true. She grasped the memory of her leaving the parish house that night and held it out to him so that he could control the speed at which it played out.

  He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist, then turned to the memory.

  He watched her go out into the grove by the chapel, felt her pain again. This time, the memory didn't slip away. Starla looked up to the stars with emerald eyes full of tears and determination. She asked the night sky to take her home, a badly burnt letter flickering briefly in her mind. And then a bright light. A falling star.

  His eyes flashed up to her face as he watched the light grow brighter in her mind, watched the star hurtle towards her. Her eyes met his as, in her mind, she stood surrounded by light and music. Her Star, bringing her home. Larkel gasped, his arms tightening. He watched as the Star led her through Rainbow Wood to the Guardians' Grove, a place not even he was powerful enough to enter without invitation.

  She showed him the Star helping her to understand Pareon, helping her to become who she really was. Then he stiffened as her blood revealed letters, the key to her true powers.

  “You’re a Soreiaphin.”

  Starla breathed out as the memories faded. “So it seems.”

  He cupped her face and kissed her long and hard. Through the bond, she could feel her own contrary emotions mirrored back. She felt happy that if she were Soreiaphin, then she had been born in Trianon, meaning her life span would match his. But this was tinged with the sad realisation that if she were a true Soreiaphin, then she may be all that could stop Kyron, and to do so, she would have to pay the price her amulet spoke of.

  Together, they turned away from the box in his office, filled with all they knew of Soreiaphin and their amulets. He stepped back half a pace, and Starla turned to scoop up her Star.

  “The Guardians were certain this could help us, help Trianon win this war.”

  Larkel shut his eyes then held his left hand out for his staff as it flashed into existence. When they opened, they were dark with pent up fear but hard with determination, matching her own.

  With a thin tendril of magic, he turned and held the Star steady so he could read the key her blood had revealed.

  Starla tensed as the fear in his mind grew and grasped at the only hope she had left if the long future beside this man weren’t to be ripped away.

  “The Guardians said that Astria was doing research that may mean others could use the power of a Soreiaphin amulet.”

  Larkel met her eyes and nodded slowly. “As there were no Soreiaphin, that was the aim of her research, but she hadn’t made any progress last I was aware. Neither have I. As far as I can tell, the amulets only mirror and shield their owner. On their own, they are just metal.”

  “I see.”

  Larkel crushed her against him again, voice fierce. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll find a way, any other way.”

  Starla managed a small chuckle then winced as something in his cape pressed painfully against her chest.

  “What is it?” he asked, pulling back.

  “What do you have in there?”

  Thoughts of Soreiaphin and amulets fled from his mind. Instead, a red box appeared then disappeared just as quickly, replaced by an image of Eltara pointing at a cage which held something Starla could only assume was a Drodemion. Starla looked into those indigo depths, revelling in the hope that burned there now.

  Larkel was torn. She could feel the fight going on between his love and his duty: the box, his decision, his whole future that he was offering to share with her. He kissed her again then sighed, running a finger along the silver circlet of his office.

  “We need to let the King know.”

  Starla nodded and placed a gentle hand over the hard box in his cape. “I understand. Galatia is my home too, now, forever. But for that future to be real, we need to win this war.”

  He opened his mouth then winced as an emergency message reverberated across his mind, his power slicing through their bond automatically.

  “What’s—”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” They both turned to Eltara as she stopped short.

  “No, stay,” Larkel said, coming back to himself, his voice filled with ice once more.

  Distant screams rent the air and both women turned to him for an answer.

  “There are Corruption attacks occurring all over the City. I have to go, but you two stay here. I have sent a message asking for a contingent of Guards t
o come and collect you and escort you back into the palace. Don’t leave until they get you, okay?”

  Starla gave him a fierce kiss, wishing he could be spared yet more death, then nodded. “Go, High Lord. I will be waiting.”

  Eltara sat on the edge of the fountain as Starla watched Larkel leave, suddenly wishing she were powerful enough to go with him, so that he would not need to make such hard decisions on his own.

  Starla tucked her amulet back under her dress and turned to Eltara, wondering what would happen when they showed it to the King.

  Thoughts of sacrifice flooded her mind. Would she manage to cope if she had to pay the price and sacrifice something like her sight or ability to walk?

  Or my life?

  She skittered away from the dark thought and the endless, empty void it promised. Her fear of that eternity of nothing had only grown worse as her love for Larkel had grown. Now, there was nothing that could be worse than having to leave him, to cause him that kind of pain.

  Eltara stood abruptly. “Did Larkel find out about your bracelet?”

  Starla shook off the moment of confusion as Eltara’s thoughts, miles apart from her own, crashed through her dark musings.

  “I didn’t get a chance to ask.”

  “Well, I can’t wait any more. Here. Do you—”

  Starla jumped back in fright as Eltara collapsed to the ground, her eyes casting about for their assailant. She bit back a curse as Mika materialised out of thin air then rushed to Eltara’s side. She was clearly unconscious but appeared otherwise unharmed.

  Starla glanced up at the Lua’s companion. “Mika, there was no need to …”

  Her throat went suddenly dry as she looked at the picture Eltara had been about to hand her. In it, smiling with unconcealed mischief, was the woman with cat ears in the burnt picture that held Starla’s mother’s words. Beside her stood Eltara, looking happier than Starla had ever seen her in real life.

  Eltara knew her?

  “Oh, Starla, I’m sorry but I had to. I couldn’t risk her trying to stop you,” Mika said, her high voice cutting through Starla’s stunned mind.