Messenger in the Mist

by Aubrie Dionne

  Valen didn’t realize that his grip was so fierce until someone took his place holding the ladder. Rubbing the splintered palms of his hands, he surveyed the battlements with an uneasy estimation. In that moment, the entire fortress was a precarious barricade. Suddenly Star’s journey no longer seemed so impulsive and farfetched. He wished he’d supported her with his entire heart, but his heart was not his to give away. It belonged to the throne.

  With a sting of regret, he realized if he had extended more encouragement, she might have spoken to him more openly before she left. Now he wondered if he’d ever get another chance to speak to her at all.

  Valen reached into the deep folds of his cape and clutched the letter she’d brought to him, as if the paper could somehow tie him back to her. He pleaded with the gods to protect her not only for his own selfish desires, but for the good of the kingdom. Every life in Ravencliff dangled from the thread of her success.

  Chapter 18

  Journey’s End

  Star and Leer broke free of the fog-smothered forest the next day. Although the giant caterpillars had vanished into the misted limbs like vipers into burrowed holes, neither of them could sleep. Restless from the night’s visitation, they felt an urge to press on before the first rays of dawn graced the horizon. It would be better to face the end of the forest in broad daylight and get a head start on whatever awaited them at the mist’s end.

  The mist carried on, thick as ever, a milky film blurring their eyes and bogging down their cloaks with dankness. It gushed from the north like it overflowed from a primordial waterfall standing sentinel at the tundra’s end.

  During the course of the forest, the edge of mountains slowly receded into foothills and tapered away into a desolate hinterland of barren plateaus at the forest’s perimeter. Now there was nowhere to hide.

  “Leer, what if I was wrong?” Star asked softly as they peered through the last trunks of trees into nothingness. “What if the mist just keeps getting thicker?”

  Leer turned and Star could see half his face underneath his hood. His expression was calm as ever. “No. Everything has an end.” He winked, surprising Star yet again. “Come on, Miss Doom, let’s settle down, let our horses rest and eat something before we race out there without cover.”

  Leer’s words loosened the clench in her heart and she smiled to herself, surprised that he had so much power over her mood. She knew he was right. They would need every second of energy to keep their pace fast enough and they didn’t know how long the expanse ran. Although Leer believed in her, Star’s own doubts were festering.

  They made a makeshift camp at the edge of the forest. Leer started a fire to cook food and ward off the giant caterpillars should they come back. Trying to get her mind off the impending race ahead of them, Star turned to Leer with a question that had simmered in her thoughts for some time. “Leer, why did you quit the Interkingdom Carriers?”

  He looked up from his boiling concoction of stew with amusement in his eyes. Star knew he was flattered by her interest in his past. After a moment of reflection, the lines on his strong-boned face hardened. “Too much corruption.”

  Star was shocked. She thought it might have been about his own negligence, the harsh schedule, any number of things, but not that. “I didn’t think I would, but I completely understand.”

  Leer nodded. “Probably so.”

  She picked up a twig and broke it between her fingers. “I could complain for days about my experience with corruption. Favors for the gentry, free letters getting smuggled in. Heck, I was even replaced with someone who could be ‘more diplomatic,’ if you catch the drift.”

  “If you are here now, what happened to your replacement?” Leer didn’t ask many questions, so Star knew she’d caught his attention.

  “Dead. I found only a pool of her blood.”

  Leer laughed lightly. “Serves her right.”

  “Leer!” Star was shocked. It was such a dastardly reply, and disrespectful of the dead, but a part of her liked the fact that he was so willing to stand up for her and take her side. An enemy of hers was an enemy of his. She shook her head. “To think we’ve encountered the same trials in each of our lives. I used to love my job. Besides my family, it was all I had—a summation of all my accomplishments and hard work. But after the incident with the replacement and your letter, I’ve felt like quitting as well…”

  A sly smile spread over Leer’s lips. “Despite our differences in opinion, you and I are much the same.”

  Star sat back, studying the lines in his face and wondering if he was right. He had an easiness to his personality that Valen lacked, a calm, underlying trust that he controlled his own destiny, coupled with an acceptance of the inevitability of certain things. He calmed the nervous anxiety bubbling through her and she found herself glad he sat with her in this nightmarish land.

  * * * *

  After sipping Leer’s motley stew made from their dwindling provisions and foraged food, they packed and prepared the horses for the final race to the finish line. Both Star and Leer knew they were drawing closer to something big and powerful. Whether it was a force they could reckon with was another matter.

  Star reigned in Windracer at the forest’s edge, a vast plain spreading out before them. “So here we are at the end of the world.”

  “Indeed.” Leer’s eyes grew mischievous. “You are quite the adventurer, Miss Moonshine.”

  “And you are quite the partner.” Star could feel her cheeks burning so hot she thought the mist would sizzle out around her face. She turned her head away, ashamed of the feelings she developed for Valen’s supposed assassin. In fact, she hadn’t thought much about Valen the past few days.

  They took off with a rustle of leaves, leaving the canopy’s cover and entering the unknown.

  The smooth terrain allowed for swift riding. Star felt as though she careened across the slick surface of a frozen lake. They needed to maintain speed to keep the Elyndra at bay. Every time Star chanced a brave look at the sky, she saw shapes moving above her head, giant shadows of wings soaring through the mist as the beasts cluttered the sky. One misstep and they’d be picked off the ground like mice.

  At first Star thought she imagined it, but with every racing hoofbeat, the mist seemed to be thinning as if the ground soaked it up. Star’s hopes rose. Maybe they’d found the mist’s end after all.

  Leer raised a hand to his brow and squinted against the mist. His features turned from mild interest to horror. “Stop!” He reined in Wildfire. “Stop Windracer now!”

  Star couldn’t imagine standing still with the Elyndra hovering. “But—”

  All of a sudden, Leer veered in her direction. Wildfire forced Windracer to lurch directly to the left to avoid colliding in a tangle of legs.

  “What are you doing?” Star fought the pull of gravity and the knot of reins. “You’ll get us both killed!” Windracer leaned into the fall, regained balance and straightened, trained from years of riding in the stadium amongst the other foolhardy contestants where a random blow to the side was common.

  When Star regained control over Windracer, she realized Leer herded her away from the line of thinning mist up ahead. A few feet further, the mist disappeared over the edge of a deadly steep canyon lining the horizon. If Leer hadn’t ascertained the reason why the mist thinned, they both would have ridden to their deaths, plummeting over the edge with no warning. Star realized he’d just saved both of their lives.

  Leer was beginning to look more like a hero than a criminal. That thought brought along others like it, and Star realized that her feelings for Leer changed the way she thought of Valen. He spoke of his cousin as a selfish criminal, and Leer was more of a savior in disguise.

  “Over there,” he shouted over his shoulder. “I see a way down.”

  Star followed Leer to the cliff’s edge where the ridges of rock separated, revealing a rocky slope lining the canyon wall. Shivers tickled her back, making the hair on her neck
stand on end. “Are you sure you want to go down?”

  “Seems like there’s nowhere else to go. Besides, I have a feeling this path will take us to some answers.”

  “You mean because it looks like someone carved it into the canyon?”

  Leer’s eyes narrowed. “Exactly.”

  * * * *

  Jagged rocks made the footing treacherous. Dizziness overtook her senses each time she looked over the ledge to the depths of shadows taking refuge below the line of mist. To Star’s relief, no Elyndra chanced a flight into the steep canyon. She and Leer inched down the steep incline, tugging their horses behind them, careful not to kick a stray rock over the ledge. It would be foolish to alert whoever resided down in the canyon. Theirs was an uninvited and probably unwelcome visit.

  Star shook her head, trying to make sense of a distant throbbing in her eardrums.

  “Flies getting to you?” Leer grinned.

  “No. There’s a weird sound ringing in my ears, like the distant buzzing of a giant wasp. Can’t you hear it?”

  Leer tilted his head into the breeze, the hood of his cloak brushing against the three-day stubble on his cheeks. “Hearing is not my strongest sense.”

  “What is your advantage?” Star hoped to prolong the conversation and get her mind off the relentless hum.

  “Sight. Not only of physical objects, but intentions and emotions.”

  His answer unnerved her, his words stripping her cool facade, as if he could see her innermost desires and needs. Part of her wanted to ask him, “What do you see when you look at me?” She looked back at the path meandering in front of them, turning her back to Leer so he couldn’t see the rush of blood flood her face.

  The humming grew louder near the bottom of the canyon as they descended. It vibrated inside her like an alien song from another land. Star felt an unnatural force surrounding the place and had to convince herself to continue down into the depths.

  “Look.” Leer pointed to the canyon floor.

  Star strained her eyes. If she concentrated, she could just make out strange bumps resting at the base of the gorge, like the backs of giants wrapped in quilts, their forms rising and falling in deep slumber.

  “What are they?” she whispered, afraid to rouse the strange beings from their hibernation.

  “It seems to me,” Leer guessed under his breath, “they are Elyndra in an early stage of life.”

  “No.” Star stopped in her tracks, raising her hand to her mouth in disbelief. “It can’t be.” But the closer she looked, the more the wrapped objects seemed like cocoons writhing with black legs inside. Her goals seemed to materialize in front of her. They’d succeeded in at least one aspect of the quest: they’d found the Elyndra’s lair and their offspring.

  Leer stepped toward her, his head above hers, looking down so that his breath moved strands of her hair. “You did it, Star. You found what you were looking for.”

  A sudden rush of camaraderie rose up inside her. “We did it.”

  He shook his head. “All I did was make sure you didn’t do anything foolish.”

  Star’s eyes crinkled in skepticism. “Isn’t that the other way around?”

  But the sight before them distracted Leer, his eyes returning to the alien bodies spread below.

  Star squinted. “What is it?”

  “There are shapes moving in the mist.” Her hand shot immediately to the torch at her side, but Leer held her back. “They’re not big enough to be Elyndra. In fact, they look like people.” Leer’s mouth twitched in disgust, his jaw clenching.

  Star tugged on Windracer, turning around. “Then we must save them!”

  Again Leer held her back, this time grabbing her arm like he did that fateful night she brought him Zetta’s letter. She did not fight back but let him hold her in place. Rogue that he was, he had gained a certain measure of her trust.

  “You don’t understand.” Leer locked eyes with her own, his gaze intense as fire. “They seem to be caring for the cocoons.”

  “What?” Star tried to make sense of his words, but no logic came. “Why would people be helping the awful monstrosities? You must be mistaken.”

  Leer frowned as though he wished he was wrong.

  Star leaned forward over the ledge, relying on Leer’s solid grip of her arm. She looked down into the depths of the mist, thinking she saw thin figures waver in and out of the haze, but the people were too far away and her eyes blurred. “Do they walk below that mountain?”

  “Wait.” Leer peered over the ledge in silence. When he did speak, his voice held awe laced with a current of deep dismay. “That’s not a mountain. It’s a machine.”

  “It can’t be. It’s too big.” But somehow the way the surface caught the faint rays of sun was unnatural, like the exterior was slick with oil and paint. Star’s stomach lurched with the sheer thought of it.

  “That’s not all.” Leer pointed to the apex of the monolithic structure. “Look.”

  Star gazed up, her hood falling behind her shoulders, and beheld the root of all their fears. A hideous concoction of terror blew its twisted whimsy over the countryside like foul breath. White smog poured out from its summit, the device churning it out with glee.

  Star stumbled back. “It’s a mist-making machine.”

  Her mind flooded with complex emotions. Every event in her life seemed to bring her to this culminating moment, this intended purpose, as if she was predestined to be its destroyer. An iron edge tinged her voice. “I’m going to stop it.”

  “Hold your horses, Miss Save the World.” Leer put both hands on her shoulders. “First we have to find a way past them.” He pointed back behind his shoulder. “Not an easy task, I’m sure.”

  Star squirmed with frustration. She was so close and yet her goal seemed more far away than it had ever been. It was two of them against an entire sleeping army and who knew how many caretakers. Star stifled her urge to rush down there and destroy the machine right then and there as she tore her eyes away from the hideous scene to face Leer, feeling lost. “What do we do?”

  “Find a hiding place first, that’s for sure.” Leer cast a stray look over his shoulder. “One big enough to hold two horses. Then we craft a plan.”

  Chapter 19

  Sacrifice

  They found a crack in the rock surface toward the bottom of the incline. Leer investigated first, disappearing into the darkness with a match set aflame. Star pulled the horses close to the wall, hoping the thickness of the mist hid their outlines. For once, the blurry substance was an aid, not a hindrance.

  The figures below continued to survey the cocoons, walking between the lines of bodies in a slow, methodical manner. They didn’t seem too concerned with the sky or the trail leading up toward the plateau.

  Leer emerged a few minutes later. “It’s safe. And there’s enough room for both horses.”

  Star sighed, relieved. “Good. I don’t know how often those robed men come up this incline, but I don’t want to be in plain sight when they do.”

  The horses struggled as they led them through the narrow crevice of stone. Finicky as they already were, the claustrophobic space seemed to unnerve them even more. Star was relieved when it opened to a larger cave and a pool of trickling rain water.

  They made camp as best they could, but neither Star nor Leer had a stomach for food. After tending to the horses, Star slumped against the stone wall as Leer returned from surveying the grounds below.

  “What did you see?”

  Leer shrugged. “More of the same. I estimate fifty or so workers and a hundred sleeping Elyndra.”

  Star shook her head. Everything she saw questioned her own sense of reason and logic and her view of the world.

  Leer stood beside her, raising a hand above the rock to lean in by her face. “What’s the matter?”

  “I don’t understand who they are. I know no one from either Ravencliff or Evenspark would live in such a place, tending to such ho
rrible creations. How could we have lived so long near them and never know who they are?”

  “Seems to me they didn’t want to be found.”

  Star guessed Leer was not a philosopher but she had to vent her frustrations. “Why do they do such things? Why are they here?”

  Leer brought his hand down, resting it on her shoulder. The gesture was oddly comforting in such a harsh, cold place at the end of the world as they knew it. “I don’t know, but you‘re right. They must be stopped. And I promise I’ll help you succeed.”

  The intensity of Leer’s words and his steady gaze made Star blush. It was not a time for such feelings, nor the place or the person with whom to start a lasting romance. Star picked up a rock to hide her sudden rush of emotion and squeezed her hand around it. “The odds aren’t favorable.”

  Leer’s eyebrows quirked in a challenge. “The odds are never good.”

  Star was in no mood for jests and spoke through clenched teeth. “I need to get close enough to destroy the machine undetected and I need time to find out how to do it, to look for a weakness.”

  Leer’s eyes flickered to the cavern entrance and back. Star knew he weighed the options like a predator caught in a cage. His words were dire, his tone dead. “We can’t stay here forever.”

  “So what do we do? Ride home in retreat?” Star shook her head. “There’s no way we can march an army through that forest, never mind through the open mist, and no one can ride as fast as we can. The mist is rising each day. It has to be done now.” She felt so anxious and frustrated she thought her heart would burst. She squeezed her hands together until the tips of her fingers swelled with uncirculated blood.

  Leer, on the other hand, was stoic and contemplative. He sat next to her, resting his back against the cavern wall. “There is only one way.”