The Twilight Star

by Laura E. Collins

  “Can we trust her, Your Majesty?” I asked, feeling a little unsure of this part of the plan.

  “I have given her refuge here. She has no reason to betray me. However, we will let Eythan be the judge of that.”

  “May I see him?”

  “Yes, go. He has been asking for you.”

  I slid the heavy book back into the bag and hurried out the door to Eythan’s chamber.

  ∞

  “Evelyn,” Eythan called out softly as I hurried to his side.

  His eyes weren’t even open but he still knew I was there. Vampires are good at that. They can smell or hear you coming long before you arrive.

  “You are so brave,” he whispered, opening his eyes as I brushed his hair back.

  “We will find a way to cure you, . . . I promise,” I said kissing his feverish forehead.

  “I am not going to die, Evie.”

  I knew what he meant by that. If he got much worse, King Edreyan would sire him into a full vampire to cure the poison.

  “It won’t come to that,” I reassured.

  “I am already a half-vampire. It would not be much of an adjustment for me to become a true one,” he said matter-of-factly. “It is a different transition from what a human experiences.”

  I decided to change the subject. “How did you come to my rescue on the mountain? I thought you were going to be in Westercliff all week?”

  He gave me a half-smile, squeezing my hand. “When we separated the other night, you told me good-bye. I sensed that you meant it . . . it did not sit well with me. I did not want you to leave me.” He closed his eyes and paused for a few moments. “I sent a message to the aviary for my sister to detain you at her masquerade party in the hopes that I could return to you before you tried to leave. I was . . . too late. My soldiers and I were riding hard towards the castle when I caught your scent on the mountainside and heard the mechanical beast that you and your companion were riding. I knew you were headed for the portal and diverted my course to you. I knew Henrik Beaumont was not to be trusted, but I was not expecting to find him openly attacking you.”

  “Thank you for saving me. If you hadn’t come, Hadreah would be torturing me right now.”

  “Losing you would be torture for me, Evie,” he said softly, kissing my hand. “I pretended not to care for you since your arrival in Eteryn because Crievan was always watching us. I foolishly thought pushing you away would be safer for you. I was mistaken and I am sorry.”

  “It is in the past,” I reassured him.

  We talked for a short while longer. He reprimanded me for venturing in to Shadowlea by myself and cursing his sister for taking me. After a few minutes I was called to dinner with Princess Emeley so that he could rest. He was so weak; they could only feed him blood. Even though it was in a chalice, I still didn’t care to watch.

  “Rosalind is on her way,” Princess Emeley announced as we sat down at the dining table. It was the same one I had dinner with Eythan at not long ago. I laid the book on the table next to me.

  “Princess Emeley, who is Marstyn?”

  She set her fork down with a faraway look in her eyes and remained silent. I waited. I wanted to know who this mysterious person was. I had earned that much. Quickly, she snapped out of it.

  “Marstyn Pharys is Queen Hadreah’s king consort. Long ago his uncle, King Mathias, ruled Shadowlea. King Mathias was a vampire and had no heirs, so that privilege fell to his half-vampire nephew, Marstyn. For the sake of time I will tell you the important details. After my husband’s death, I came back home to Eteryn and was visited by Marstyn. We fell in love quickly and became engaged. The announcement had not yet been made public when Marstyn returned home to Shadowlea to begin the preparations for our wedding.

  A few days after his return, Shadowlea was attacked by a hateful powerful witch who called herself Hadreah. She appeared out of nowhere with her own dark army and within hours killed King Mathias. Marstyn fought bravely but was captured and brought before her. They say that as soon as she saw his handsome face that she fell hard for him. As we half-vampires can sense emotions, he played into it. She offered him amnesty if he would pledge his loyalty to her and become her consort. The Kingdom of Shadowlea was his by right as he was the heir. So he chose her in order to keep it . . . to maintain some authority there after she took over. After their union, Hadreah learned of our engagement and has hated me ever since. After that I have never seen his face. Even in battle she makes him wear a full helmet so that I cannot see him. Hadreah never fully trusted him . . . or anyone. Her nightly sleeping spell is only one of the atrocities there to say the least. Two years later I received a message by owl from Marstyn. Learning immunity from her spell was one of the first things that he did.”

  She paused for a drink before she continued.

  “Marstyn still loves me, Evelyn. I know he does,” she said positively.

  “Of course,” I said. “But how did he know who I was? He called me a wayfarer.”

  “Marstyn grew into his ability slower than my brother and I did. He possesses divination. He saw you coming years ago and messaged me to keep an eye out for you. I knew you were the one who would help us immediately when Dr. Thorpe brought you to me.”

  “That explains a lot,” I said remembering how that meeting went.

  “Evelyn, did you see his face last night? Was he deformed? Was he scarred?” she asked in a concerned tone.

  “I saw his face. He looked perfectly healthy and normal to me. Hadreah must have healed his bullet wound. He is very handsome.”

  She smiled and let out a sigh of relief. I can’t be entirely sure, but I think it helped her to get it off of her chest.

  The minutes dragged on for what seemed like forever before Rosalind was brought before me and Princess Emeley. Rosalind gave me a wary look before the king arrived.

  “Rosalind, as a witch you have been given protection here in my kingdom from Queen Hadreah. Tonight we call upon you to find a spell within her grimoire to cure my son of the poison she has tainted him with,” he commanded authoritatively.

  She inhaled sharply and widened her eyes, “you have the book?” She sounded astonished.

  I moved aside from the desk so that she could see it resting there. Curiously she inched forward to get a better look, wringing her hands. Now it was her turn to look nervous. “How did you . . .” she looked at me in confusion.

  “Hadreah poisoned Prince Eythan and we need you to look through her grimoire and find an antidote or counter spell to cure him,” I interrupted hastily. We did not have time for her to wonder about how we got the book. The man I loved was growing weaker by the hour.

  “She is a much more powerful and skilled witch than I, young Wayfarer, but I will try.”

  Poised over the book, she took in its scent and presence. Cautiously she raised a hand and hovered her palm down over it, and then quickly withdrew, rubbing her hand as if it had been scorched. “There is an enchantment on this book. I cannot open it,” she said shaking her hand and backing away slightly.

  “Well I can,” I said, moving back and lifting the cover easily. Rosalind gasped. “Shall we go through it together?” I asked impatiently.

  “You must wield tremendous power, Wayfarer, to be able to unravel Hadreah’s spells.”

  I rolled my eyes. This was getting ridiculous. “Let’s do this,” I said. “Come over here and we will go through it. Tell me if you see anything that may help.” Rosalind nodded and studied the pages as I turned them one by one. Hadreah’s grimoire was sort of like a binder. Newer pages with spells seemed situated towards the front with older ones in the back. It smelled old, ancient maybe, and it was written in a language I had never seen. Princess Emeley even leaned over it with us. The letters seemed so strange . . . it appeared as though a mouse had trampled through some ink and then tap danced on the page. How anyone could make heads or tails of it was beyond me.

  It wasn’t the language of the book that disturbed me, however, it was the ill
ustrations that accompanied some of the spells that creeped me out. I am no expert on demons, but there appeared to be incantations and spells to transform people into any number of scary creatures. My eyes fell over drawings of creatures whose faces had no eyes, heads with horns growing out at all sorts of angles, and all kinds of hideous depictions of pain, torture, and transformation. This was not the lighthearted Disney sort of magic I grew up watching. Whatever this was, it was dark and evil, and I wanted no part of it. Even Princess Emeley looked a little disturbed.

  “Stop,” said Rosalind as I flipped a few more pages. “Here is a reversal spell. Mark this one and keep going in until we have seen it all.”

  I placed a bookmark as she suggested and kept going until we had seen everything. Rosalind noted one more spell that might be of use.

  “Evelyn, turn back to the first spell. I dare not touch the book,” Rosalind instructed me. “I will need alum bark, hornbeam, ground hemlock and red spruce,” she rattled off the name of several herbs and ingredients she would need to cast the spell. “This magic is ancient and powerful. I will try it for you, Your Majesty,” she said looking up at the king. “However, I cannot guarantee I can wield such power.” She turned to me next. “How is it you can touch the book without being affected by the spell upon it?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “There is an enchantment placed on it that whoever touches it without permission will lose their hands.”

  “What?” I asked, lifting my hands up to examine them. Princess Emeley shrank back a little. My hands were fine. I was beginning to wonder if there was more superstition than magic at work here.

  A short while later all of us crowded around Prince Eythan’s bed to perform the spell. A table had been brought in to place the book and items needed on it. Eythan opened his eyes and gave me a weak smile. Rosalind began by whispering the words in the strange language written in the book. As she did so, she tossed items into an iron cauldron sitting atop the table. I watched in wonder as the ingredients began to ignite and smoke before my eyes as Rosalind muttered the incantation under her breath. She breathed heavily, never taking her concentration from the spell. The contents in the cauldron began to liquefy and simmer down as the fire extinguished. Rosalind slumped over and took a chalice off of the table, dipped it into the putrid looking liquid that had formed, and handed it to Prince Eythan.

  “Drink this now,” she commanded.

  Although concerned, I let them proceed, hoping it would be okay and that it would restore my prince back to health. He nearly choked and gagged on it, but got it down.

  “How long does it take?” I asked apprehensively.

  “The grimoire indicates that the results should be immediate,” Rosalind reported.

  Prince Eythan closed his eyes and breathed in and out normally. After a few minutes he appeared to be asleep.

  “Did it work? Will he wake up cured?”

  “I am not sure . . . if this was going to work, it should have by now.”

  We waited for a few more minutes before I shook Eythan on the shoulder gently to wake him. He seemed so tired, and in pain. The wound on his arm had already soaked through the bandage I applied earlier in the evening. A sheen of fine sweat glistened on his forehead.

  “I am not drinking any more of that witch’s brew,” he said before closing his eyes again.

  At that point I knew that whatever spell Rosalind tried had not worked.

  “His heart is growing weaker, Rosalind. You have one more chance before I try my method,” the king promised ominously.

  “I tried, Your Majesty. This magic is dark and foreign to me. I am not even sure it is from this world. Even my own mother could not have performed it!” she said defiantly, not wishing to be seen as a failure.

  “You said there was one more you could try. Let’s not waste any more time,” I pleaded.

  It took all of the next day for Rosalind to create the second antidote for Eythan to ingest. While she worked, I hovered over him, trying to think of anything else that could help him. Something was different about today. His strength was waning and he was pale . . . so pale. I took the dressings off of his right arm now turning ashen gray with angry black veins shooting up and around his arm from where he had been poisoned. Pulling his shirt up, I was alarmed to see that the toxic veins were now creeping up into his neck. I knew he had to be in excruciating pain and that he was dying.

  “Rosalind, you have to hurry!” I pleaded as I changed the dressing as carefully as I could. The king, who had been silently pacing back and forth, came to stand next to me, putting a hand on Eythan’s forehead.

  “I am nearly finished,” Rosalind said wearily.

  The king nodded at his advisor, who promptly left and returned with Princess Emeley, Sam, and a few other guards.

  “There. Now this one is a little different. He must drink as I chant the incantation. Can you sit him up?”

  The guards helped me ease him up against the pillows. “Eythan? Can you hear me?”

  “Evie,” he whispered.

  “We have another medicine to try. Do you think you can drink it?”

  “Will try,” he whispered, opening his eyes a slit to see me.

  With King Edreyan standing by, Rosalind handed me the murky, foul smelling concoction.

  “On my count,” she instructed.

  At three I pressed the cup to his lips and he obediently began to drink as Rosalind chanted in the strange tongue of the ancient witch that must have written the spell. Eythan choked and gagged and at one point pushed my hand away, but in the end let us finish. By the time Rosalind had completed her chant, the cup was drained and Eythan lay back against the pillows, looking like he was about to vomit. I recognized that expression from my experience in the hospital.

  “Get me a basin!” I yelped. In a flash, one was placed in my hands and Eythan sat up and wretched the entire antidote Rosalind had spent all day making into the basin. But that wasn’t all that came up. My mind switched into panic mode when he started choking and coughing up blood violently.

  “My God!” Princess Emeley cried.

  I talked soothingly to him and coaxed him to take small sips of ale once the retching stopped and then I used a wet cloth to clean him up. Utterly exhausted, he fell back against the pillows and closed his eyes.

  “Enough of this!” King Edreyan announced. “His heart is failing him. I will not allow you to experiment on him any longer! He is my son, and he is suffering. I have no choice but to sire him,” he said gravely, looking into my eyes and then to Princess Emeley.

  Eythan a full-blooded vampire? My world turned. Not now. I can’t let that happen. What if Eythan doesn’t survive it? What if he does? Would he still want me if he became a vampire? Would he turn me into one? I stepped back as the thoughts rushed through my head. Memories like lightning flashed through my mind. I saw Hadreah laughing after she shot and poisoned him. I heard her say ‘there is nothing from this world that can save him now.’ Then my mind whipped over to my memory of Marstyn Pharys after I stole the book; “go now Wayfarer,” he said, “and save us all.”

  Save us all. Nothing from this world can save him . . . a light bulb switched on as I saw the king begin to lean over his son, gently flexing his neck away to expose the area where he could drink him to the point of death before giving him his own vampire blood to change Eythan into a full vampire.

  “Wait!” I screamed.

  The king sighed and looked up. “Evelyn, if this is too much for you I will have my guards escort you out,” he said with irritation. The others simply stared at me.

  “I figured it out! I know what Hadreah meant when she said that nothing from this world could save him,” my voice trembled. The king stood up, waiting for me to continue.

  “I am not from this world! It’s me! It has to be. If Eythan drinks my blood, maybe that will reverse her spell.”

  The king looked down at his son and back at me. “You would be risking your life, Evelyn.
A sick, half-blooded vampire is nothing to trifle with. He would not be able to control himself.”

  “Won’t you let me try? If . . . if it doesn’t work we can do it your way. Besides, we have no way of knowing if the poison in him will affect you once you take his blood. It could be a trap to eliminate both of you! Sam is immune to Hadreah’s magic like I am. She can watch over the grimoire for me,” I reasoned.

  King Edreyan looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded his head at me.

  “Father! You cannot let her do this. We need her to fight Hadreah!” Princess Emeley protested.

  “Your brother is dying,” he snapped back at her. “If Evelyn is brave enough to try this, then we should allow it.” He looked at me. “We will do our best to stop him before it is too late.”

  I approached him and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I trust you.” He appeared surprised and returned the hug before letting go to help prop Eythan back up. I mentally tried to prepare myself for this. This life and death stuff was scary as hell, but I had no choice. I lost him once . . . I would hate myself for the rest of my life if I didn’t try to save him. My breath hitched as I approached Eythan again. Sir Leonard and Princess Emeley were behind me. The king and Lord Erickson were on the other side, ready to spring into action. Rosalind was plastered against the wall on the other side of the room with a few guards. Sam stood next to her, holding the grimoire for me.

  I sat down on the edge of the bed, scooting as close to him as I could get. “Eythan,” I called, caressing his face. He turned it towards me and opened his eyes. “We figured out Hadreah’s spell.” I smiled at him. “It’s my blood. We need you to drink some of it,” with the emphasis on “some.”

  “No,” he turned his face away, weakly trying to push me away with his left arm.

  “It will be all right,” I soothed.

  “Get out of here, Evie,” he rasped. “I will not take your life.”

  I would not be deterred so easily. “You have saved me so many times my love, let me be the one to save you now,” I whispered in his ear, although I was certain any vampire or half- vampire in the room could hear me loud and clear. I didn’t care. I gathered my courage and gently turned his head towards mine and pressed my lips against his, kissing him hard until he responded. While he returned my kisses I held out my hand to Princess Emeley who placed a sharp dagger in it and, without hesitation, I made a shallow slash against the side of my neck, just enough to draw blood. The moment I did I felt Eythan freeze.