Hooking his claws into the serpent’s flesh, he climbs. He senses the snake’s pain. Siloth’s body tenses as he ascends and he regrets hurting his friend, but he has no choice. He must eat or perish, his stomach tells him that much.
Edensun pauses at Star’s waist. Knowing her skin is more delicate than the wyrm’s, he worries about the damage he might cause.
‘Hello.’ She smiles at him.
The warmth of her greeting and smile make Edensun giddy. He clings to the snake, confused as tears of gratitude and love sting his eyes.
‘It’s okay, Baby. Everything is all right now.’ Her voice chimes in his ears and resounds through his entire body.
He cannot believe what he hears. He has ached for her voice for so long. Perhaps he is dreaming? He reaches towards her.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t hold you. The snake has my arms.’
He studies the jaws around her waist. She is asking for his help. If he can help her now, she will love him.
‘It doesn’t hurt too much, but I can’t move my arms. I’m sorry.’
He forces his tiny hands into Siloth’s mouth and pulls. Slowly, the wyrm’s mouth opens wide enough for Star to free her hands. Reaching forwards, she touches him and he shivers with delight. She lifts him to her breast. A beautiful harmony resonates through his body and soul. Desperate to communicate his adoration, he looks into her eyes. She thanks him.
Cradled in her loving arms, he suckles. He feeds gently, not wanting to hurt her or break the magic. He hums as he feeds. In his head a symphony praising his mother is composed. He wishes he could share it with her, but all he manages to communicate is a gentle ‘M-m-m-m.’
Life continues this way. Edensun and his mother become closer, inseparable, or so he thinks. For the first time in his short existence, he is content. He loves and he is loved. The knowledge of this strengthens him more than her blood ever could.
***
Edensun awakes knowing this is the day that everything will change. Although she still cradles him, his mother’s mind is far away. It journeys into the distance, too far for him to reach. The change frightens him.
It is the day he will meet his father and lose his mother, although he doesn’t know this yet. He senses that things are changing too rapidly for him to comprehend.
He is feeding at his mother’s breast when the man arrives. Star tips Edensun towards Satori. Hoping desperately that by ignoring the intruder he will push him away, Edensun continues to feed, clinging to his mother’s breast with his claws.
Satori speaks to Star. His voice is low, full of pain and confusion. ‘Star, I came.’
She answers him using the same soft voice she uses with Edensun. ‘I never doubted you would.’
Edensun burns with jealousy. She loves him too. Does she love him more than she loves me?
‘What is that thing?’ Satori asks.
‘My…our baby.’
‘It survived?’
‘Yes. I guess it did,’ she answers.
It did? How could she? It? I’m not an animal. I’m your son!
Satori and Star are silent for a moment. Edensun wishes he could read their thoughts. What are they thinking? Are they thinking about me?
‘How are you?’ Satori asks.
Edensun’s skin crawls in response and he fears his mother’s answer.
‘I don’t know. Nothing seems real. One day I’m trying to discover what I want in life and the next I am a mother.’
My mother! Edensun wants to scream in rage. He swallows back the sound and keeps listening.
‘Where’s Lilith?’ Satori asks.
‘She’ll be here soon. I have something of yours. Come closer.’ Star bends forward ‘Hurry up, Satori. What are you waiting for? Stay strong.’
One of her arms moves from Edensun’s back. He claws at her breast afraid he might fall. Turning to look at Satori, he sneers at the frightened face of his father.
Holding a jewelled dagger in her hand, she leans further. ‘She’s coming.’ Star’s voice breaks a little. ‘From there.’
Edensun wonders whether she is afraid. His face turns towards the direction in which Star points. His eyes follow his mother’s hand. He relaxes when he sees it is only Lilith and Siloth approaching.
Lilith smiles at Edensun and his mother. ‘Hello, my darling.’ When Lilith turns towards Satori, Edensun can no longer see her face. ‘We’re delighted you could join us at last, Magician.’
‘Lilith,’ Satori replies.
‘As you can see, you had no reason to fear. Star has been well looked after.’
‘Lilith, I’ve come for Star. Allow me to take her and we will leave without any fuss,’ Satori says.
Edensun can hear the fear in his father’s voice.
Lilith steps towards Satori. ‘I have another plan. Star stays here and you give yourself willingly to me.’
‘Why would I do that?’ Satori asks.
‘Because otherwise you will endure torture you cannot comprehend. Ask Star. Better still look at her. Do you think that you…you feeble, arrogant man, could endure so much? I am interested in you. You remind me of someone I once knew, and you have power. You are strong…for a man. If you give yourself to me and make me your goddess we can share this world and others. We will create wonders.’
‘No. I am here to rescue Star, or to join her, whichever is my fate.’
‘Stupid boy! Change your mind and beg my forgiveness. I am merciful.’
Satori screams. Star throws the dagger towards him before Edensun can stop her.
Satori catches the dagger and whispers a word he created from the black alphabet. A tornado widens around him.
Edensun feels the serpent shake. He clings tighter to Star. His mother tries to calm the wyrm. She must realise Siloth will not be calmed because she leaps to the ground with Edensun in her arms. ‘Bury yourself, Siloth, until the storm has passed…Let go.’ Star tries to pull Edensun from her breast.
He shakes his head and digs his claws further into her skin. Don’t leave me!
Her fingers squeeze his arms. He wonders whether she will break his bones. With a vicious tug she tears him from her breast and releases her grip on his body.
He falls to the ground. Bruised he looks up at his mother in anger and confusion. His arms reach towards her. ‘M-m-m-m.’
Lilith and Satori continue to argue. Edensun ignores them. He cannot understand what just happened. He shouldn’t be on the floor.
Blinding light radiates from his mother. Edensun lowers his eyes. When he looks up again her body has vanished and in its place hovers a ball of golden light. The sphere, which was once his mother, rises above the ground getting brighter and brighter the higher she soars.
Satori’s whirlwind splutters weakly then vanishes. He and Lilith fall to their knees. Lilith reaches towards the sky and Star.
Star’s voice echoes around them. ‘I do not envy you, Lilith, neither do I hate you. We are light. Merge with me and become complete again.’
Lilith becomes a white orb and rises towards Star. As the two bright balls merge, a wave of light blows out across Binah and sparks of fire hit the ground. Light embraces light. Edensun’s eyes weep. It is too bright, but he cannot look away. The spheres separate and descend. Star and Lilith’s forms become human again as they touch the ground.
Lilith speaks first. Her voice trembles. ‘My love, after all I have done…after the terror and horror I have sewn within so many hearts…you forgive me?’
‘I forgive you, Lilith.’
‘You are both free to go or to stay. You have given me more than you could ever understand, more than I deserve.’
Nooooooooooo! Don’t let her go. She’s mine. She belongs here with me. Mother!
Star does not seem to hear the desperate plea inside Edensun’s mind. She doesn’t even look towards him. Her eyes are fixed on Lilith’s face. ‘Before I met you I was trapped inside the shell of a frightened child. What I have given to you is no more than I have recei
ved. Live well, Lilith. Look after our son for me.’
Edensun watches, powerless, as his mother walks away from him. Star takes Satori’s hand and without kissing her baby good-bye, she deserts Edensun. Tears blur his vision as he watches her step beyond where he can reach.
Chapter 2
Star lies silently in the cell. Her black curls are wrapped around the front of her pale throat like a scarf. Satori’s breath tickles the back of her neck.
‘Star,’ he murmurs. ‘I found you.’
She smiles. ‘Yes.’
His skin is warm against hers. She realises how much she missed that.
He wraps his pale, thin arms tighter across her stomach and she pushes against his angular body. He found her and she saved them both.
She sighs and snuggles closer. ‘I love you.’
‘We’re home,’ he tells her.
She laughs, but her laughter is gentle, not mocking. She is simply happy to be alive and with him, wherever they are.
The room is tiny. No more than two metres by three. An aluminium toilet squats in one corner. At the end of the bed, if it can be called that, stands a grey wall with a metal door.
‘Well, almost home.’ His laughter joins hers for a moment.
‘Where are we?’ she asks.
‘My prison cell,’ Satori answers.
‘Your prison cell?’
‘They arrested me for your murder.’
Star laughs louder this time. ‘I wonder how that will work out, now I’m not dead…Oh shit, Raven.’ Her laughter morphs into sobs.
‘Shush, it’s okay. You’re dead. They can’t try you for murder.’ He strokes her hair.
She turns around on the bed to face him. Her wide eyes beg him to understand her fear.
‘We won’t tell them you’re alive.’ He kisses her forehead and strokes her tears away with his thumb.
Star scowls. ‘Umm, I think they’ll notice I’m here.’
‘Not if we escape. Let’s get out of here. We’ll run far away.’
Satori’s eyes shine in excitement. In the half-light one seems to glow red. Star shudders. She has seen this manic look before: the look that says anything is possible. Star swallows hard. She cannot argue the point. A few hours ago she was dead. Now she lies here in his arms. Her heart beats and her lungs draw oxygen from the air. Anything is possible. That is his law, not hers, and yet her reality confirms its validity in the same way the law of gravity is confirmed by her inability to float above this itchy and uncomfortable bed. For one second she hates him for being right.
Star sits up, her back rigidly straight and stares at the metal door. ‘Run? I feel that’s all I have ever done. Maybe it’s time I stopped?’
‘We’ll figure it out.’ He places his body between her and the door, smiling gently.
She strokes his beautifully pointed face and gazes into his eyes. One sparkles with deep grey brilliance. The other is damaged. She wonders when that happened. She kisses his lips and snuggles into his chest. His steady heartbeat calms her.
A fluorescent strip light flickers above them like a strobe on a dance floor. Energy crackles around the room, making their hair stand on end. Star clings to Satori as freezing air whips around the cell, like a hurricane. Satori sits up and touches her shoulder, instructing her to stay down. Star feels cold and unnaturally exposed in her nakedness. The light flickers again then fails and the cell falls into darkness. The air feels thick, almost solid. It punches Star’s ears and throat and chills her skin.
‘Satori!’ she screams.
‘It’s okay.’ Satori grips her shoulders and pulls her up towards him. They sit on the narrow bed together, shaking.
Air crushes her and she struggles to catch her breath. A vortex of wind drags Star from the bed to the centre of the room. Satori’s hands fall from her shoulders. She cannot feel or see him. She stands up, alone. Air surrounds her, separating her from him. Her heart hammers and her legs shake. Wind swirls around her. She spins with it, not knowing which direction she faces when suddenly the spinning stops and she is pushed to the floor by a heavy blow. Crying out, she tries to push herself back up against the weight of air. The room stinks of blood and decay.
‘What’s happening?’
‘I don’t know,’ Satori answers.
He sounds far away. Resting on her knees and one hand, she reaches into the space in front of her, searching for him. She cannot find him. Her fingers flail through the bitter wind.
‘Where are you?’ she yells.
‘I’m here, Star. It’s going to be okay.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘Because we survived, I found you and we survived. We’re not about to die here.’
She shakes her head.
‘Talk to me,’ he says. ‘Keep talking and I’ll move towards your voice.’
‘Fuck! When will this punishment end? I don’t deserve this. We don’t deserve this. I never meant to hurt anyone. I don’t know why things happened the way they did. It was like being in a dream.’
Satori’s fingers brush against her knee. ‘Here you are.’ He moves to her side and puts his arms around her, squeezing her towards his body. ‘It’s going to be okay, I promise.’
As their eyes adjust to the dark, shapes take form in the air around them. Three terrifying faces, with hollow eyes and gaping mouths, drip blackness onto the floor. They move like reflections in agitated water. Arms appear, reach towards Star and Satori then vanish again. The faces remain: soulless, angry and tormented.
‘I think I know what this is,’ Satori says. ‘They opened the vessel.’
‘What?’ Star can hardly hear him over the noise of the wind and his words don’t make any sense.
The demons hiss at the huddled couple. ‘Where issss he?’
‘Who?’ Star asks.
‘The one who ensssslaved us. Where issss he?’
‘They mean Paul,’ Satori says.
‘Didn’t you tell me he was dead?’ Star asks.
‘He is. He’s dead.’ Satori’s voice shakes.
‘Where issss he?’
‘Buried in the cellar of his house,’ Satori answers. ‘Or perhaps in the morgue? They, the police, they might have taken his bones there. I don’t know. But he’s dead. He can’t hurt you anymore.’
‘And perhaps we can’t hurt him, but we can hurt you.’ The voices are menacing. They echo around the room, moving closer and closer to the cowering couple until they are harsh whispers in their ears and sour breaths on their faces.
‘Star!’ Satori yells. ‘Do something.’
Star pauses, confused. Me? Satori is the one who always has the solution. He lives for moments like this, the battles against magical forces. Why me? Why now? Is he afraid? Are they too powerful? ‘Me?’ she asks out loud. ‘What can I do?’ Her mind rushes through images. She thinks back to the toad she expelled from her mind and the goddess she tamed with her forgiveness. Star closes her eyes. She reaches for the light inside her. She searches through the dark tunnels of her mind, running through empty corridors, turning every corner. She cannot find the light inside her. She is lost in the labyrinth of her mind. ‘I can’t find the light.’
‘Hold my hand. We’ll do it together,’ Satori tells her.
She squeezes his hand. His warmth guides her. She draws on his strength and magic, this tragic hero, the man who loved and destroyed her. She concentrates their combined energy inwards, searching. Her mind folds in on itself and the outside world ceases to exist. She floats through chambers and crimson interconnecting corridors. She finds a speck of light fluttering deep inside her mind; wills it to grow stronger and runs towards it, concentrating only on its brightness. The light gets bigger and she feels its warmth. She keeps running until her skin feels as though it will burn from her bones then she lets the light embrace her. She wraps it around her and stretches her mind, willing the sunlight to fill the dark cell.
Demons growl and Star feels the floor tremble. Air roars in rage as it rushe
s past her and out of the room. In the still silence, the oxygen feels thin. Star opens her eyes and clings to Satori’s arm afraid she might pass out. Her light fades, back into her skin and the darkness feels deeper than ever. She tries to slow her breathing, but she is too afraid.
‘There’s not enough air. We have to get out of this room,’ Satori says, wheezing.
Star crawls beside Satori, blindly across the rubber floor. Her outstretched hand touches metal.
‘The door?’ she asks.
‘Open it,’ he gasps.
‘Me?’
‘What the fuck? This again! Yes you. You’re a fucking goddess, Baby! I think you can open a locked door.’
‘How do I try?’ she asks.
‘Don’t try. Just do it. Remember how you chased those demons away moments ago and those things you did in Binah. Remember the light.’
‘I…don’t know.’ Her head spins and she collapses onto the floor.
‘Look, Star. You can do it.’ Satori’s voice is weak and broken by gasps for air. ‘We’re running out of air. Please…’
Star rests her palm against the metal and closes her eyes. ‘Open,’ she says.
The door swings towards them and cold air rushes into the cell. Star and Satori lie on the ground swallowing oxygen.
Satori laughs as the flickering light from the hallway highlights his face. He is beautiful.
They sit there, huddled together, unable to move. Their eyes glued to each other’s face.
‘What happened to your eye?’ Star’s words break the spell.
Satori sighs happily. ‘A scratch. Don’t worry.’ He moves to stand up.
Star grabs his arm. ‘Can I heal it?’
‘I don’t know. Lilith did it to me,’ he answers.
Star rests her fingers across Satori’s eye and cheek. She closes her eyes and breathes. Her fingers feel warm and tingly then hot. She opens her eyes afraid she might be burning him, but he looks comfortable. He sighs again, deeper this time. She removes her hand and he opens his eyes.
He grins. ‘Fuck! The world looks strange in three dimensions. I forgot what it was like.’ He giggles. ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ He stands up, wobbling unsteadily on his feet and looks around. Frowning, he turns back to the cell then his eyes focus on Star’s face and his lips curl upwards in a warm and loving smile.
Starblood Trilogy Page 48