by Dan Haring
He barely remembered Andra leading him into the house or how he stumbled the entire way. But when she sat him in a chair by the kitchen table and put a warm cup of cocoa in his hands, he began to return to himself.
“My father was right,” Kyro said finally. “Someone is stealing the stars. They’re cutting them down.”
“But who would do such a thing? And how? Who could possibly get all the way up there?” Andra furrowed her brow.
“I don’t know. I can’t understand why anyone would want to do that. The villagers couldn’t reach that far, and no one else lives near us, not for miles. The Elders used their mechanical giants to put them there in the first place, but those are long gone.”
“Could it be those shadow creatures like we saw the other night?”
Kyro shook his head. “If it was, we’d hear the crackling of ice freezing over, we’d feel the cold lingering. It wasn’t even a whole minute between when we saw them fall and us reaching the yard. Not even the vissla are that fast, and they don’t seem to be able to get past the stardust protecting the yard. I think I was wrong about it being them.”
Andra squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back. “Maybe your father’s already on their trail. You said he went after whoever did this, right? He’ll stop them. I’m sure of it.”
Kyro wanted to scoff, but sipped from the mug of cocoa instead. The idea of his father following through on his promises seemed laughable…except when it had to do with the stars. That was the one thing he truly cared about. But where could his father have gone when the thief was still here in Drenn? Kyro couldn’t puzzle it out, but he knew his father would follow through if he could. No matter what happened to those left behind. Now Kyro had to answer for his father’s absence.
“I don’t know if he can. It’s too much for one man. He should’ve gone to the Star Shepherd Council for help, but for some reason he chose not to.”
“Why?” Andra frowned.
Kyro sighed. “He told them about the first star that was cut down on our watch, and heard rumors about the vissla there. I don’t know why he wouldn’t go back. But now I have to explain it.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Council is putting my father on trial for abdicating his Star Shepherd duties. The meeting is tonight. If he doesn’t show, he’ll be labeled a traitor and banned from being a Star Shepherd.” Kyro’s eyes watered. No matter how much he resented Tirin’s obsession with the stars, he couldn’t let the Council take away the one thing that had given his father some small measure of hope.
“That’s not fair.” Andra said. “Your father only disappeared to save the stars.”
Kyro shrugged. “Well, now I get to go in his place. Someone has to defend him to the Council.”
Andra squeezed his hand again. “I could go with you. If you want. I’ve seen how dedicated he is to his job.”
“I don’t want to drag you into this.” Kyro ducked his head. “Your father hates me enough as it is, and I’d feel terrible if you got into trouble again because of me. You’re risking enough just being here now.”
Andra was quiet for several moments. “When must you leave?”
“This morning.” Kyro placed his empty mug on the table. He dreaded making this trip. He’d have to tell the Council of his failures and all the stars that fell last night. And in the process, he’d be leaving this section of the sky unwatched.
“I’ll help you pack.” She stood and stretched. “I’m not ready to go home yet.”
While Kyro stuffed a satchel with essentials and the map to the Council’s tower that his father kept in a workshop drawer, Andra put together some of the food from the groceries she’d brought over. When Kyro returned from his bedroom, he saw the little paper bag that contained the sweets and couldn’t help but smile.
He hoisted his pack onto his shoulder, called Cypher to him, and took one last look around the house. An odd feeling struck Kyro. He’d only be gone for a day or two, but the idea of leaving caused an unexpected lump to form in the back of his throat.
“Let me walk you home,” Kyro said. Cypher wagged his tail at the prospect of going for a walk.
Together they headed toward the village. They didn’t say a word as they wove through the craters dotting Kyro’s yard. Each were lost in their own thoughts, the sounds of their footfalls punctuated by birds singing and insects humming in the forest. And each of their hearts was a little heavier than it had been the night before.
When they reached the village gates, Andra turned to Kyro. “Good luck with the Council. Don’t worry about the stars here,” she said. “You’ve shown me how to send them back to the sky. I’ll be watching them while you’re gone.”
“No, Andra, it’s too dangerous. The vissla—”
She put a finger to his lips. “The vissla won’t be able to catch me. Go and defend your father, Starboy, and don’t worry about Drenn.”
She grinned, then stepped through the gates. Kyro watched her retreating form march toward the sun rising over the rooftops until she disappeared from view. Then he took a deep breath and headed back into the woods.
Chapter Thirteen
Tirin had never taken Kyro with him to the Star Shepherd meetings in the past. He went to their main watchtower in Daluth twice a year to report to the Council, and from what he had told Kyro, it was a long trek that would take him almost an entire day to complete if he went on foot.
That was why his father had crafted a mechanical clockwork cart, large enough to hold a grown man. Or, in this case, a boy and his dog. The cart was something his father had invented, as far as Kyro knew. He had heard of new ships that used clockwork steering and rigging to control the sails, but that was only beginning to become popular.
Kyro left the village behind and returned to the watchtower, heading around to a shed in the back that his father rarely touched nowadays. He was grateful that his father hadn’t thought to take the cart with him, though that worried him too.
He opened the shed door and pulled the covering off the cart. It was a clunky thing, but functional, and moved on rollers with the help of his father’s innovative clockmaking. The brass gears gleamed in the morning light. His father always cleaned it to a shine when he returned from traveling across the Black Lands. Kyro would have to remember to do the same.
He tossed his pack inside and whistled for Cypher. The dog poked his snout around the edge of the shed door, then bounded to Kyro’s side.
He clambered into the cart, tugging Cypher in after him, then pulled out the map his father always took with him on the journey to the Council’s watchtower. Tirin had left it behind, stuffed in the drawer of his workbench. Wherever he had gone, it wasn’t there.
Kyro examined the folded parchment. It took a moment for him to get his bearings on the map, but when he did, he frowned. He was going to have to cross the Black Lands. The other option was to sail over the Pegian Sea, but that was impossible without a boat and a much longer journey. He shivered. He’d heard the heat of the Black Lands alone was enough to disorient people, making it easy to get lost and wander the desert forever.
But that had never happened to his father, and it wouldn’t happen to Kyro either. He knew the sky well; even though there were no stars out now, he could judge direction from the position of the sun. The sky was the one thing he could depend on to always remain the same. At least until someone had decided to start chopping down the stars.
But no one had taken the sun, and that was something.
Kyro gave Cypher a snack and a pat on the head. “It’s going to be a long day,” he said.
He pulled the lever next to him, waited for the whistle to sound, and then pressed the button to start the gears rolling. He steered the cart from the shed using a shifting lever on his right. It stuttered at first, but once Kyro got the hang of how to navigate, he angled the cart toward the woods.
The map took them on a path that Kyro had glimpsed once or twice, but never taken before. The cart chugged along for the better part of an hour before the spindly trees Kyro knew so well began to thin out. They were replaced by scrub and brush and fields of flowers. But as the day went on, the flowers disappeared from the fields and turned into thinning grasses and low bushes. The dirt beneath the cart began to darken, coating the rollers as black as soot.
The temperature rose, and as it did, Kyro shed his jacket and stuffed it in his pack. By midmorning, they reached the edge of the Black Lands, and he stopped the cart to stretch his legs and share some water with Cypher. The blackened sands unfolded before him as far as he could see. The dunes rose and fell, dotted here and there with petrified trees, reaching toward the sky as though they were struggling to breathe over the black waves. Kyro’s resolve faltered.
Had this place once been more like the forest he knew at Drenn? What had happened to kill everything and turn it to ashy sand?
Cypher whined beside him, and Kyro sighed. “I don’t want to go in there either. But I think we have to. We must get to the Council’s watchtower before nightfall.”
After one more drink of water, the pair got back into the cart and set off into the shifting dunes.
Only mere minutes passed before Kyro understood how someone could get lost in the Black Lands. Everything was dark, yet glinting from the sun overhead. It was confusing to the senses. The Black Lands seemed endless.
Kyro checked his positioning by the map and the sun at regular intervals as the cart trundled along, the watch on his wrist counting down the minutes until the Council meeting. Here and there, giant pieces of structures and old lumber from abandoned carts stuck out from the sands. Despite their chilling appearance, they were proof he was getting somewhere and not wandering in circles.
The sun had climbed far into the sky and was beginning its journey to the west when Kyro heard the sound that made his stomach drop.
Crrrrreeakkkkk…clunk.
The cart faltered to a stop, smoke and dust curling from its underbelly. Kyro yanked at his unruly hair.
This can’t break down too, he thought. Not now!
He scrambled free of the cart and peered at the gears clogging the underside. What he saw made him sink back on his heels.
A hook—severed just like the ones he’d seen the night before—had gotten caught in the roller’s gears, piercing one of the cogs and causing another to be bent too far to be saved. Kyro already knew the damage to the skies was not confined to their territory, but the proof was jarring nonetheless.
Kyro had thought to bring his father’s tools, but he hadn’t had the time or space to bring spare parts. His shoulders slumped. He had no choice but to abandon the cart. His father would be furious. Still, perhaps his father could eventually come back for the cart and fix it later. It wasn’t like this was a well-traveled route, though the sand did seem to swallow everything. Kyro removed the star hook from the cogs and tucked it in his bag. It seemed wrong to leave it behind.
He stood and pulled Cypher out of the cart too. Desperation curled around Kyro’s legs, but when Cypher licked his face, he gave a half-hearted laugh. “Sorry, boy, it looks like it’s going to be a long walk after all.”
He shouldered his pack and set out on foot, all the while trying to escape the gnawing worry.
They had walked for nearly an hour when they had to stop again to rest. Kyro paused under one of the largest sunken structures they’d seen. It looked like a house had been sliced in two, and one half had been buried under the sands. He found a place to sit under a bit of shade. Cypher panted, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.
“Here, buddy, have some water,” Kyro said, pouring some from his canteen into a small bowl he’d brought along. Cypher lapped it up, then curled up by his master’s side and began to snooze. Kyro checked his watch.
At the pace they were traveling, he’d have to present his case to the Council in these dirty clothes. There would be no time to clean up or change beforehand, even if they did rest for a few minutes.
Kyro’s feet ached, and he unlaced his boots to dump out the sand that had been chafing at them for the last few miles. He sighed in relief as air curled between his toes. He set his shoes to the side and rested his head back against the petrified structure. He’d only close his eyes for a moment, then they’d be on their way again…
A loud yelp startled Kyro awake. He leapt to his feet when he realized Cypher was no longer next to him. The yelp sounded again, and Kyro’s heart twisted.
He ran into the sands, barefoot, calling for his dog.
“Cypher! Here, boy! Where are you?”
He adjusted his path at another yelp, this one more strangled than the last, and circled around to the other side of the structure.
The petrified wood stuck out of a low dune, and there was Cypher in the center.
Slowly sinking.
The dog’s nose and front paws were still above the sands, frantically scraping at the edge of the quicksand pit. Kyro’s stomach clenched. He couldn’t let anything happen to Cypher; the dog was all he had left of his family.
He grabbed the nearest petrified branch and stretched it out over the pit. Cypher struggled harder, but couldn’t reach the branch. Fear gripped Kyro.
He slipped off his pack and pulled out the blanket he’d brought. He stepped as close as he dared to the edge of the quicksand and tossed the blanket out. The sands had reached Cypher’s front legs, but he managed to keep them free. On Kyro’s fifth attempt to reach him with the blanket, Cypher’s teeth clamped down on the edge.
Kyro tugged hard, and Cypher began to break free of the sand trap. Hand over hand, Kyro pulled the blanket closer. When Cypher was at last secure in his arms, joyfully licking his face, Kyro scrambled to the other, safer side of the sunken structure, then collapsed against it. They were both covered in black sand, but Kyro didn’t care. He squeezed Cypher tightly, and the dog didn’t even squirm.
He’d be a mess when he saw the Council, but at least they’d both make it there alive.
“We’ve got to hurry now.” Kyro secured Cypher’s leash around his neck, just in case they encountered any more of the sand traps.
They trekked onward, the black earth beneath them churning. It wasn’t long before they both looked as though they had rolled around in a chimney. The farther they walked, the more exhausted they became. But Kyro knew they had no choice; stopping now would be the most dangerous thing they could do. It felt as though they were surrounded by darkness, despite the sun overhead. Kyro did his best not to think of the stories his mother had told him about the dangers that lurked in the Black Lands.
It was well into the afternoon when Kyro heard an odd sound. Something metallic and scraping and getting closer. His heart sped up, but when he glanced around, he saw nothing but black sand for miles.
Kyro took one more step, and the sand beneath his feet erupted. A huge, insect-like creature burst from the black dunes, legs flailing. Kyro stumbled back, Cypher yapping bravely in front of him as the beast landed on its incessantly moving legs. It was the color of night, blending in with the sands. It had too many appendages to count, all of which appeared to be razor sharp, and huge clacking pincers. It opened its maw and let out an earsplitting scream, then lunged toward them. Kyro ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding one of the terrible pincers, then jumped out of the way of the thing’s tail.
Kyro eyed the beast warily as it circled back around. Could this be another of the shadow creatures from his mother’s stories? There were so many kinds that he didn’t remember them all. He shuddered.
The great creature lunged at him again, but this time Kyro was ready. He tossed the star hook that had ruined the cart in the direction they came from, hoping to create a distraction. The beast took the bait. It leapt up after the hook, and when it failed to catch it in its pincer, it
threw itself into the chase.
Kyro and Cypher ran for their lives, wanting nothing more than to leave this terrible wasteland behind. But there was nowhere to run from the creature. Just shadowy dunes as far as the eye could see, with the occasional debris. They ducked behind the first thing they could find: a huge petrified log that looked like it might have once been an old-growth tree. Kyro clutched Cypher to his chest, and they both held their breath.
The clacking sound of the insect got closer. It must have lost interest in the hook. Kyro squeezed his eyes closed, shivering even against the warmth of his dog. He could hear the giant shadow insect behind them, every click-clack of its pincers and legs like drumbeats.
Then he heard a new sound. Sands shifting. The wake of it pushed them and the log they hid behind all the way down the dune. For a full minute Kyro and Cypher sat there, waiting in torturous silence.
But they didn’t hear the sound of the beast again, and when Kyro grew brave enough to peek over the log, it was nowhere in sight. It must have returned to its lair under the sands. Strange that it would venture out during the day. The dark creatures were getting bolder after the loss of the stars. Perhaps the darkness of the Black Lands lent them some protection too.
Kyro stood on wobbling legs and took a deep breath. Then they headed out once again. For the rest of the journey, they were on high alert, constantly searching for threats. Kyro wasn’t sure what would happen with the Council, but there was one thing he knew for certain: he would never, ever travel here again.
It was late in the afternoon when the two of them stood filled with relief at the edge of the Black Lands, a field of rough scrub and brush stretching out between them and a vast ocean.
Not far away, at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, stood a giant watchtower.
Even from this distance, it was clearly many times larger than the tower Kyro called home. The number of telescopes dotting the expansive roof must have taken several Star Shepherds to man every night.