Starfall (The Fables of Chaos Book 1)

by Jackson Simiana

  Katryna gazed around at the room she had once looked upon so fondly as a youngster. Her parent’s quarters, the royal bedroom of the king and queen. Once full of such grandness, life, and light.

  Now a dishevelled, darkened hollow.

  “How are you, father?”

  “Jerrem Denar… says that I do not have much time left. They know not what poison was used.” The king began coughing. Drops of blood spat from his parched lips. “There is nothing we can do, except quell some of the pain… No cure.”

  “I am sorry I did not come sooner.”

  “You…are here now. That is what matters.”

  Creator, he looked so old. So decrepit, like a piece of fruit left out in the sun too long.

  The king could barely keep his eyes open. He seemed to be going in and out of consciousness as he spoke, his gaze drifting into unseen realms.

  “Do you have any idea who could have done this?” Katryna asked.

  Giliam could barely muster up the energy to shake his head. His eyelids grew heavy.

  “There must be something, father. Anything at all.”

  Before Katryna had finished her sentence, Giliam had passed out. His hand became heavy in hers, but his chest still rose and fell ever so slightly. She patted his hand gently, wanting nothing more than to keep pushing him for answers, but knowing he needed all the rest he could get if he had any chance at all of surviving.

  Katryna left Giliam’s bedside and headed back out into the hallway where Aunt Rashel, Finn and Rowan were waiting.

  She felt a surge of anger beginning to boil deep down. She closed the door behind her to give her father a rest and faced the rest of her family.

  “How is he?” Aunt Rashel said.

  “He passed out. For the time being, I think we need to focus on figuring out who poisoned mother and father. We are all in danger until we bring them to justice. I want their head on a spike, and I want it now,” Katryna said sternly.

  Finn looked stunned at the words that had left his sister’s mouth.

  Something had changed inside of her. Her stare spat venom, her lips trembled, her fists were clenched. She stood tall with rage.

  Rowan nodded with an agreeable smirk. Finally, something that he and Katryna could get behind together.

  “Rowan, I think you should head the investigation with the High Sword. We need to know exactly who had access to mother and father. When, where, how.”

  Rowan cut her off. “Woah, woah, woah. Hang on a moment. Who are you to bark orders at me, sister? You come home after all these years and expect to direct our investigation, is that it?”

  Katryna shut her eyes in frustration, realising she would not be able to get through to him so directly. “I only meant that-”

  “In case you had forgotten,” Rowan spat, a vein in his forehead beginning to pulse, “I will be king soon, after father passes to the æther. Which means I will be running and delegating any and all inquiries into this matter. I will be overseeing our House and this kingdom. Quite frankly, I am surprised you even had the hide to return when you did, and here you are, now, giving me orders?”

  “Rowan, I am simply trying to push for swift justice. I want whoever is responsible to be caught at once. Until then, we are all in jeopardy.”

  “She’s right,” Aunt Rashel said.

  “We need a more direct plan of attack,” Finn added, siding with his sister.

  Rowan shook his head in awe. “Ever since we were children, you have always sought to belittle me and emasculate me.”

  “We are not children anymore, Rowan. We need to work together if we are going to keep our House strong. I don’t want to argue. It’s time we try something different, for father’s sake, at least.” Katryna replied sternly.

  Rowan stood in silence. He looked at Rashel and then at Finn, trying to judge what they thought. After a moment, he nodded just once, seeming to realise that fighting would get them no closer to the truth.

  “For House Bower,” Rowan said. “I will talk to the High Sword and round up anybody who had contact with mother and father these past couple of weeks.”

  “Thank you, Rowan,” Katryna said. “Let’s work together on this.”

  Katryna held out her hand. Rowan grabbed it firmly, looking her straight in the eye and shaking her hand. Katryna hoped he meant what he said.

  “Finn,” Katryna continued, “I think you should try and aid Jerrem Denar and the royal physicians in identifying the poison. Perhaps they missed something that you can help them with. Perhaps…we can save father’s life before it is too late.”

  Both of Katryna’s brothers agreed. She was glad that Rowan was not trying to fight against her for control any longer.

  Perhaps working towards a common goal is exactly what we need to get along.

  “If we can find the poison, perhaps we can find an antidote,” Rowan said.

  “Exactly.”

  Finn agreed and stood tall. He needed some orders to follow. He was still young, a follower. The past two weeks of misdirection and confusion had clearly been weighing him down.

  “Aunt Rashel,” Katryna said, “I think it best you stay by father’s side. I trust no one more for the task than you.”

  Rashel kissed her niece on the cheek and crept back into the king’s chambers to watch over him as he slept.

  “What are you going to do, Kat?” Finn asked as the three siblings were about to disperse.

  Katryna looked back with raw emotion in her eyes. “I’m going to go talk with the diplomats from Ember. I find the timing of their visit, and subsequent meetings with mother and father, to be a little too coincidental for my liking. I will start there.”

  End of Act I

  Interludes I

  Interlude - The Flutter of Wings

  Eden knelt beside the flowing brook, marvelling at the crystal-clear water beneath her fingertips. Her rosy-red cheeks lifted as a smile spread across her face. Her mother was not happy with how much time she spent outdoors at the edge of the woods surrounding their homestead, but Eden was far too adventurous to let mother’s warnings stop her.

  It was early evening; the sky erupted in a brilliant flame-coloured sunset, the likes of which were uncommon yet always welcome.

  Birds sang in their nests in the pine canopy overhead as they prepared for the night ahead. A cool breeze gently rocked the groaning trees back and forth.

  Rainbow wildflowers and lush grass brushed against Eden’s soft skin. She stood up on the bank of the brook with bare feet, wriggling her toes in amongst the cool, damp leaf litter and topsoil.

  It was tranquil.

  Eden could hear the pigs rummaging around through their dinner scraps several yards behind her in the pen beside the family’s cruck house.

  Eden giggled at their snorting. Funny pigs.

  Her sea-blue eyes followed a brown oak leaf as it travelled gently down the waterway, interweaving with the current between stones and around fallen branches like a ship on a perilous journey.

  A blue and black shape buzzed past Eden’s little face. The flutter of wings brought a smile to her face.

  A dragonfly! No, wait.

  Eden had to take a second look at it. Something wasn’t right. She squinted at the log it had landed on, narrowing her focus.

  “Wow, that is so pretty,” Eden said.

  The dragonfly didn’t really look like a dragonfly. It was unlike anything she had ever seen.

  It had the four translucent wings lined in black. But it was big- about the size of a small bird. Its body shimmered as it rested on the barky surface of the log.

  Strangely, it lacked the basic form of an insect… in fact, it rather looked like…

  “Eden!” a woman’s voice shouted out from behind.

  Eden was pulled away from her curiosity in an instant. The little girl turned to see her mother exiting through the door of their house, pacing towards the brook.

  “What do you think you are doin’, love?”

  Eden’s mot
her, Nila, wore a long woollen tunic that was frayed and stained, the bottoms dragging in the drying mud as she walked sternly towards her daughter. She wrapped her shawl tightly around herself to fend off the chilly breeze.

  “I was just looking at-” Eden turned back to the log, but the strange creature was gone.

  “Darlin’, it’s getting dark out.”

  “I know, but I just wanted to look at all the flowers and the animals. They are so pretty. And mama, I found a sprite!”

  “A sprite?” Nila replied with a raised eyebrow. “Eden, what kind of nonsense are you coming up with today?”

  “I swear it, it flew right past me! It looked just like the sprite from the stories that papa used to tell me.”

  Eden’s mother put her hands on her hips. “And what have I told you about runnin’ off outside without asking?”

  “But I stayed within shouting distance, just like you said last time!”

  “And what was the other rule I gave you, last time you took off to the wood?”

  Eden froze up. Realising she couldn’t remember, she looked down at her feet.

  Nila could only smile. “To always ask before you go out, remember? Sweetheart, I know you want to go and explore, but you are only eight years old. You are too little to be off wondering around alone. Now, promise me you won’t take off unexpectedly again?”

  Eden nodded. “I promise.”

  “Besides, I need your help around the house, love. Especially while your father is away.”

  Papa. Eden became upset at the thought of her father, Filip. It had been a long while since she and her mother had farewelled him at their doorstep, as he marched off to serve in Queen Darmer’s regional guard.

  Eden looked her mother in the eye. “When is papa comin’ back?”

  Nila thought carefully about her answer before she gave it. She didn’t want to lie to Eden, but being honest with herself, she knew that she wasn’t even entirely sure of the answer.

  Nila ran her fingers through her daughter’s unbrushed hair, earth brown and curly, just like her own.

  “Sweetheart, I’ve already told you this. Your father is off working. Doin’ his part for the kingdom. Protecting us.”

  Eden rolled her eyes. “I miss him, mama.”

  “I miss him, too.”

  “He always came and looked at the flowers with me.”

  Nila smirked. “I know, darlin’. I’m sure he’ll be back to us before you know it. And you can go back to exploring the wood with him whenever you like.”

  Eden looked at the fiery clouds and the raging sunset behind it on the horizon, just above the tree line.

  I wonder where papa is right now.

  “Why don’t you come back inside for some supper? I cooked up some stew. It’s nice and hot, nearly ready to eat,” Nila said, caressing her daughter’s soft cheek. “And I tell you what, tomorrow I will find some time to come out to the brook with you, and we can look for some flowers together.”

  Eden broke into a smile. “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Eden followed her moth back to the house, yet she could not help but took one last look back towards the log, searching for the strange creature she was certain she had seen.

  It was gone.

  ※

  Nila woke Eden up at the crack of dawn.

  “Time to get up, sweetheart,” Nila said softly as she pulled the blanket off her daughter. “We need to head into town this morning.”

  Eden groaned, rubbing her eyes. “Can’t I stay here?” she said with a big yawn.

  “Of course not! I need your help carrying our produce into town.”

  Eden shrugged with a groan, feeling bogged down by all the responsibilities she had been given since father had left.

  Woof!

  In came Jasper, the family’s hound, bouncing in on all fours, his shaggy ash-coloured fur hanging off him like a rug. Jasper jumped up at Eden, licking her furiously with excitement.

  “Jasper, hop down, boy. Cheeky boy!”

  Eden ruffed up his ears and patted her furry friend. He raced back out through the bedroom doorway.

  “Jasper can watch over me, mama.”

  “Like Hell, he will! That boy is such a softy, he wouldn’t even hurt a rat, let alone a brigand tryna snatch you, or a wild wolf come to eat you!” Nila laughed, chasing after her daughter with ticklish fingers.

  Eden giggled and fled to the other side of the bed.

  Jasper stood in the doorway, watching, his tongue hanging from his mouth as he panted.

  “Such a gallant protector, Jasper!” Nila laughed sarcastically.

  Jasper tipped his head sideways, almost as if he were saying huh?

  Nila stripped the bed. She rolled up the old linens in her arms to wash later. “That dog of yours is more puppy than hound.”

  Eden smirked. She had a special bond with Jasper, ever since they found him as a stray puppy in town several years earlier.

  Eden had begged her mother and father to let her keep it.

  “I will watch out for him! I will feed him! I will clean him!”

  She still remembered how her mother made the comment that they were struggling to feed the three of them…how would they possibly feed a fourth mouth?

  But Eden’s father, Filip, found it hard to say no to his daughter, and having a hound around the homestead could prove to have many benefits.

  A dog would help him with hunting, provide protection for the family, and would even be some good company for Eden who Filip knew was growing up so fast that he and Nila could barely keep up with her!

  Eden could still fondly remember making their way back to their homestead in the back of her father’s carriage, surrounded by empty crates, with the tiny ball of mangey fluff cradled in her bonnet. The poor thing shook with every ditch and bump in the road that the carriage’s wheels bounced over.

  Inside the daub and stone house that evening, Eden sat on the floor by the warm hearth with a full stomach. Jasper’s head rested on her thigh.

  The cold of the night had come quick as the sun went down. It nipped at her skin. Thankfully, the thatch roofing of the house kept most of the heat in, and Jasper’s warm company was always welcome.

  Dinner had been a lovely mix of hot bean and onion stew. Nila even let Eden have some of the tangy old honey they kept in a jar on her toasted rye bread as a treat.

  There wasn’t much left, so it was used sparingly. Foods were always running out.

  Nila was busy with needle and thread in hand, stitching yet another rip in Eden’s dress. She sewed as neatly as possible, but the garment was more of a long tunic than a dress, so she knew that no matter what it was still going to look worn on her daughter.

  Eden used the light from the hearth fire to flip through the pages of one of her father’s old books. The pages were worn, and the binding was ripping.

  Eden was lucky enough to have a father who could teach her to read. He thought it was a valuable skill for anyone to have, since most in Alyria would never even learn how to write their own name.

  Filip wanted his daughter to have every advantage he could give her, so that one day she may live a life better than they had.

  Despite recognising most of the words, Eden preferred to look at the pictures.

  Nila glanced over her shoulder at Eden. “What are you doing, love?”

  Eden looked at each of the crude hand drawn images of misshapen, abstract creatures within the pages. Each new picture spawned a blast of ideas in her wild imagination.

  “Papa used to read this to me when I was little,” Eden said.

  She turned the page, revealing an image of a monstrous, hairless entity with long spikes of bone protruding from its hunched back and an unhinged open jaw as if it were roaring.

  “The thraal. A fiendish hunter with a face like a hyena, as strong as a bull.

  Not native to our world, the thraal was one of the many abominations to have crossed another realm during the Cataclysm of Old. />
  Hunted to extinction by mankind.”

  “What on Eos are you reading?” Nila joked.

  She walked over to Eden and looked down in her lap at the old, dust-covered book that she was glued to. Yet, she was taken aback by the hideous monstrosity on the page before her that had captivated little Eden.

  “Where did you find this?”

  “On papa’s bookshelf, behind the other storybooks.”

  Eden flipped through the pages, her eyes darting around at the charcoal images of banshees, bodachs, changelings, arachnei, chimeras and all other kind of monstrous creatures.

  One appeared to be familiar…

  Eden gasped; she had found it! The strange animal that had flown past her by the brook the day before.

  The sketch was more ambiguous than the others. Its form was wispy and shadowy, somewhat resembling a small human, but with an enlarged head, humungous eyes and four wings.

  A sprite.

  “Mama, look! This is what I saw by the water!” Eden exclaimed excitedly.

  She was certain of it. Its bulging, insect-like eyes, scaly skin, and long limbs were undoubtedly not human, yet its resemblance to the human form was uncanny.

  “It flew right past me, I’m sure of it.”

  “Ooh, sounds exciting!” Nila said, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She rubbed Eden on the back. “You must be very lucky to have seen such a thing.”

  “Mama, I’m not a little kid anymore. You don’t believe me, do you?”

  “Sweetheart, sprites don’t exist. Perhaps they did one day long ago, but not anymore.”

  “But I saw it!”

  “It must have been something else that you saw,” Nila responded in a light tone. She did not want to disappoint her imaginative daughter, but Eden was getting too old for such nonsense. “A dragonfly perhaps, or a butterfly. Maybe a strange bird?”

  Eden went silent, fixated on the picture, tracing her finger around the shape of its body.

  Nila exhaled. “Now, why don’t you come help me stitch up this dress and-”

  Eden shook her head. She wouldn’t hear any of it. “Mama, you have to believe me!”