Starbright: The Complete Series

by Hilary Thompson

  After we eat and clean our mess, Stian folds his blanket over the horse’s back. I step to him and wait, my expression blank as he figures it out. He gives me a small smile – almost shy. Then he makes a step with his hands and I throw a leg over the horse’s broad back.

  I fidget with its mane, feeling the muscles beneath my thighs. Stian pulls himself up behind me and I feel his stomach press to my back and his hips rock against mine. A pull starts in my stomach, sending tingles up and down my spine. His arm circles my waist, a warm ring against the chilly morning air. He bends and drops a light kiss on my collarbone, and I think riding the horse might not be bad after all.

  Lexan’s mouth is grim against the jarring that sharpens the pain in his shoulder, but he seems determined not to let it slow us down, telling me again that it’s nothing. Tendrils of my hair tease themselves from my braid and tickle my neck. The horses weave through trees and brush without much effort on our part, and I begin to see why Stian was excited by them.

  When we slow to navigate a steep, rocky hill, Lexan asks, “So what exactly is your plan, Stian? I know you said a hundred miles in a week, but then what?”

  “Well, I guess a hundred miles is a bit of an exaggeration, with this pace. I plan to stop at a safe-house I know. The woman who lives there has helped me a hundred times, and she’s always been loyal to the Tribes.” His face is happy when he speaks of this woman, and I wonder who she is to him. I hope selfishly that it’s not the young, laughing girl from the picture hidden in his pack.

  “If we keep riding like this, we could reach her house tomorrow sometime, late.”

  “And then what?” I ask.

  “Well, she’ll know what’s going on with the different Tribes and probably even Tartarus. Madna deals in trade with lots of people, and she has her messengers and spies everywhere.”

  “What is she in charge of?” Lexan asks.

  “Nothing, really. She just runs this safe-house. But everyone loves Madna, so they tell her what she needs to know, protect her. It’s not very safe, living alone like she does, but she’s never alone for long, because of all the travelers. She’s been there nearly fifty years now. She has good weapons, and her house is unbelievably well-hidden,” Stian grins. I do, too, satisfied that someone fifty years old is definitely not a love interest for him.

  As Stian and I make camp later, Lexan rubs his shoulder, grimacing.

  “I guess it’s my turn to hunt,” he says, his eyes fixed in the distance.

  “We have plenty of meat from the deer,” Stian says. “You should rest.”

  But Lexan just shakes his head and wanders off, his bow slung over his arm. I guess he wants to prove something. A few minutes after he disappears into the brush, tiny cold droplets begin to land on my forehead, then my hands and arms.

  “Rain!” I laugh, raising my hands to the sky and twirling in circles as I experience this phenomenon for the first time in my life. Soon the rain quickens, the drops falling close enough to stick my shirt to my chest and stomach, and my hair curls damply around my face. Stian can’t help but laugh with me in my childish pleasure.

  “You make everything new, Tre.” He smiles and hums an unfamiliar tune as he takes a thick oiled cloth from the hunters’ pack. I help him anchor it to a tree and stretch it across the mouth of the little cave we’ve found, creating a crude barrier against the water. We tie the horses under thick branches and hurry to bring our packs and blankets inside as the rain swells. Lexan rushes in a few minutes later. His clothing is soaked, and his hair is plastered to his face. But he grins, spilling handfuls of nuts from his pockets.

  “Found some squirrels guarding their stash,” he laughs, his blue eyes sparkling with raindrops that hang from his dark lashes. His teeth chatter and his fingers are cold and stiff. I help him unbutton his soaked tunic and hand him a towel, then a blanket, ignoring how Stian watches us. Lexan wraps his bare chest tightly in the blanket, guarding against the damp, and the three of us huddle together against the back of the cave. There is barely enough room.

  There will be no fire with the rain, so we smash open the nuts and eat them with some of the cold deer meat. Sore from riding all day, I lay my head on Stian’s shoulder and finally fall asleep to the sound of the rain rushing in tiny rivers down the rocks behind us, teasing new tree leaves into unfurling above us.

  In the morning when I wake, Stian has gone, and I find myself curled tightly against Lexan for warmth. A sad memory slips into my mind, and tears rise in my eyes as I remember how Lexan lay next to me barely two weeks ago, holding me close after Mother’s death.

  A small shudder passes through my body, and Lexan half-sits, his blanket slipping back as he bends over me in sleepy concern. “Trea, what’s wrong?”

  I cover my face with my hands. “I miss her, Lex. I miss her so much.” Another sob escapes me, and he folds me gently in his arms. I cry desperately against his skin, soaking it again with my hot tears.

  I don’t hear Stian enter the cave, but Lexan’s body stiffens against mine.

  “She’s okay,” he says. “Just a bad dream about her mother.”

  “I’m going to get water. The deer meat is warming on the fire.” His voice sounds hard, annoyed. He pushes out of the cave with a sigh.

  Lexan gives me a little squeeze, and I find my tears have are spent. I lean back, wiping my face with my blanket.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t ever be sorry for that, Trea. Your mother would be so proud of what you’ve done. What we will do.” He brushes a strand of hair from my face and smiles, his palm resting against my cheek.

  “I…I’m sorry about your dad, too.”

  He looks at me in surprise, his eyes becoming guarded.

  “I heard you and Stian talking last night. I always heard the rumors - I just didn’t know they were true.”

  “Yes, they’re true.” His voice is clipped and his jaw tight. I’m suddenly sorry I said anything, as whatever moment we were having is now summarily over. “I’m going to check on the meat.” He ducks under the flap and is gone before I can blink.

  Alone in the cave, my sorrow skips back to rising panic, and I reach for my pack, digging for my little box of pills. I didn’t take any yesterday, thinking maybe I was done with them, but now their smooth white calm is all I can think of.

  I shakily swallow three pills just as Lexan ducks back in the cave. I shove the box in my pack, but it’s too late.

  “What are you doing!” he says, wrestling the box from my fingers, cracking it open. “Tell me these aren’t what I think they are.”

  I look down at my lap, embarrassed and angry at him for catching me.

  “Trea, do you even know what these do?”

  For a second I think in alarm that he’s going to dump them out on the wet ground, but he only closes the box and slips it in his pocket.

  “They make it easier,” I whisper.

  Lexan shakes his head. “In more ways than one. Trea, these pills make you happy, but they also crush your will. The happiness makes you submissive, so you’ll do what stronger people want. It’s no accident that Keirna’s counselors give them out in such huge quantities.”

  “What are you talking about?” True, I’ve never really trusted the pills, but I thought it was just because Father always taught me not to take any medicine unnecessarily.

  “Look, I haven’t had time to tell you what’s in Firene’s book, but she talks about the pills. They make it easier for us to use our ability on people. They take away people’s natural resistance…I thought you knew…”

  My eyes widen, thinking of Keirna, and how angry she was when she couldn’t influence me. “Is that why Keirna’s ability didn’t work on me? Because the medicine wasn’t in my system?”

  Lexan nods. “That’s what I assumed. Aitan told me once never to take the pills, and that he doesn’t either. Nobody in my family does.”

  “So…that’s probably why Aitan wasn’t affected by me…”

  “Right. He�
�s around Keirna so much, he can’t risk taking the pills.”

  “But…why did you think I knew?” I’m not sure I want his answer.

  “You told me you never took them, so I just figured you knew why. Your father should know about their effects, I would guess. Didn’t he tell you?”

  I bite my lips, too hard, saying nothing. Noises outside announce Stian’s return, and Lexan stands abruptly, the box still in his pocket. I zip my pack just as Stian’s head appears under the cloth.

  “If we get an early start, we can reach Madna’s by nightfall,” he says, looking at me, then at Lexan, a carefully blank expression on his face. I scramble to my feet and push past him to the fire, which is smoking with damp wood, but still hot enough to warm my fingers.

  As I take my seat on the horse later, tucked between Stian and the horse’s strong neck, he leans forward and kisses my cheek.

  “I’m sorry about this morning. I guess I need to remember everything you’ve been through. You’re so strong, sometimes it’s easy to assume you’re okay.”

  I twist just enough to smile at him and peck a kiss back, enjoying the comforting feeling of his arms around me again.

  As we ride, I think about the pills, and feel a fresh anger against Father. How could he not tell me the real reason behind the pills? Did Mother know? Unease settles in my chest as I wonder at a man who wouldn’t tell such things to his own partner and daughter.

  I wish I could talk to Stian about this, but a tiny nagging part of me thinks he already knows too much.

  I think I can trust him, but I’m not sure who he trusts.

  The sun has already sunk low in the sky, spreading orange fire through the clouds, when we arrive – not at a camp or a house, but at the edge of a huge body of water. Lexan glances at me wonderingly.

  “Is this the ocean?” I remember the word from school, a lifetime ago.

  Stian laughs. “God, no. We’re thousands of miles from any ocean. It’s just a lake, and a small one at that. Madna’s house is right on the other side. If we work quickly, we can make it before pitch dark.”

  I stare doubtfully across the lake. I see only high cliffs, trees, and more hills in the distance. Stian jumps down from the horse and begins dragging a large branch to the small rocky beach. Lexan shrugs and moves to help. When we have a large pile of branches, Stian pulls a length of rope from his pack and begins to lash the wood together in a platform of sorts. I stare at him, baffled.

  “It’s called a raft,” he grunts, twisting a complex knot into the rope. “It will hold our packs, maybe us. Not the horses.”

  “What will we do with them?”

  “Let ‘em go. They can’t climb those cliffs anyways.” Stian begins unstrapping everything from the horses and piling it on top of the raft. I hurry to help, thinking of climbing that cliff in darkness.

  As we push the raft into the water, Stian tells me to climb on, and I do so clumsily. Lexan does also, but Stian walks next to the raft, pushing us deeper before swimming to the back side, his legs kicking us forward.

  “What are you doing? I’m not going to sit up here like a little princess while you swim us all the way across the lake!”

  He only laughs at me, shaking water from his hair. It’s the wrong thing to do.

  I shove off my boots and slip in the water with him, gasping sharply at the cold. But once I start kicking, I’m pleased to see us moving faster.

  “Have fun,” Lexan says. “I’m staying dry.”

  Halfway across the lake, I’m cursing my own stubborn pride as my arms ache from holding onto the raft and my legs burn from slicing through the dark water. Small unseen things tickle my feet occasionally, making me jumpy and irritable.

  “When we get there, we still have to climb that cliff,” Stian says to me quietly. “There’s no shame in knowing the limits of your body.”

  I just glare straight ahead and keep kicking.

  Finally my toes touch a pebbly, shifting bottom and Stian pushes the raft onto a small beach. I drag myself out of the water, staring in disbelief at the vertical cliff in front of me. I should have stayed on the raft.

  “There’s too much to carry up in one trip. We’ll each take one pack, and leave the rest. We can come back for it in the morning, after we get some rest.”

  Stian hides the remaining possessions in a crevice near the base of the cliff, and unties the raft’s ropes. He pushes the branches into the water a few at a time and soon there’s no visible evidence that we’ve been here.

  We begin to climb: Stian first, Lexan last. My arms are shaking and my foot slips more than once. I feel Lexan climbing too closely to me for his own safety – he probably worries I’ll fall, but if I did, I’d just knock us both down. About twenty feet up, Stian reaches a small ledge and stops. I poke my head over the ledge and he points, showing me what looks like a small cave. He disappears inside.

  I sigh and pull myself onto the ledge. Well-hidden safe house indeed.

  We follow the dark tunnel for a few minutes before it widens and the walls fall away, opening to a forest. I look back and see the rest of the cliff still above and behind us. We change directions slightly, walking more parallel to the water than away from it now, pushing young slender branches out of our path. I have no idea how I’m still moving; my legs are numb and my shoulders ache under the straps of my pack.

  “Here we are,” Stian says, stopping so quickly that I bump into his pack.

  “I don’t see anything,” I grumble.

  “I know. Great, isn’t it?” Stian grins at us. “Watch this.” He reaches for a tangle of vines hanging thickly between two large trees, pulling them aside. Lexan steps forward to peer in.

  “Stairs?” He raises his eyebrows at Stian.

  I jump forward, curious, and see rough wooden stairs set into the steep hillside. A faint glow graces each step, making the path visible even under the canopy of dark trees. But I still can’t see anything at the top.

  “Really, Stian. How much farther is it? It’s practically dark.” I point to the remaining sliver of sun. The sky has lost its flames of color, the streaks now gray and silvery instead.

  “At the top of the stairs, I promise. Now let’s go.”

  I count forty stairs, pausing twice to catch my breath, but we do eventually make it to the top, and then the hillside levels to form a small plateau before rising again. The green space left is enclosed all around by steep, rocky cliffs. Finally I notice the structure nestled into the hillside.

  “That’s incredible,” Lexan says.

  The safe house looks like it has grown bit by bit from the hillside, with trees and vines hiding many of its angles and corners. Small balconies seem to hover among the branches, panes of window glass reflecting the silvery light now reaching through the trees. A single turret rises above the trees, and a soft light glows at the top. Smoke billows from an unseen chimney.

  As my eyes travel back downward, I see a wide swath of thick new grass, then a section of open brown earth, combed into straight lines and tiny hills – some with tiny plants already peeking through the dirt.

  Stian grows suddenly still. “Don’t move.”

  I hear a strange metallic noise, two clicks close together.

  “Tell me who you are.” The voice comes from the house, but I can’t see anyone.

  “Madna, it’s Stian,” he calls. “I have two people with me.”

  “What was the name of my first dog?”

  “Popeye.”

  This seems to be what she needs, and I see a small, round shape emerge from the shadows of the house, a strange long metal weapon glinting at her side. Stian jogs toward her, Lexan and I following more slowly. He grabs her in a big hug and I hear their laughter mingled together.

  “Is the house empty?” he asks.

  “Yep, just me tonight.”

  “Then, Madna, I would like you to meet Astrea and Lexan. From Asphodel.” He says the last word with a careful emphasis, and I see Madna’s crinkly face go slack as s
he absorbs this information. She recovers quickly though, stepping toward me.

  “Welcome. You are safe here,” she takes my hand and squeezes it firmly, then does the same to Lexan. “Come inside. You must be exhausted. I have plenty of food and soft, warm beds.”

  I’ve never heard more welcome words. Tears fill my eyes and I blink them back furiously. I can’t show how weak the simple thought of a bed makes me.

  Madna leads us inside, and I’m struck by how different everything looks from my own house. My eyes swim with the bounty of detail – possessions are crammed in every corner, boxes and bins stacked against the walls, furniture piled with blankets and clothing. Madna sits us at a large planked table, scooting aside several small boxes. She brings out mismatched plates piled with bread and cheese, and jars of sweet preserved fruit. Stian and Lexan immediately begin to stuff themselves, but I can barely hold my eyes open.

  “Come on, dear child,” Madna tugs my hand. “Let me get you to bed.”

  I smile at her gratefully and let myself be led away like a dear child, too tired to protest. I fall into the bed without even glancing at the room, and the last sound I hear is the click of the door being shut as Madna leaves.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  How to love the Sagittarius man: the Sagittarius man is passionate, but often is more fascinated by the adventure of finding love than the possession of it. Don’t let negative emotions such as jealousy or insecurity into the relationship, or you may lose him. Realize that to him, love must contain freedom.

  From Understanding Your Horoscope

  Head Minister Charles, year 2073

  When I wake, sunshine is flickering through a small gap in the fabric drawn over the window. Stretching my arms and legs completely still does not find the edges of the bed, which is filled with soft pillows and layers of blankets. I could lie here forever. A chair sits in one corner, a dresser against the opposite wall, but the room is fairly clutter-free.

  My stomach growls and I push out of the bed, grateful to pull on slippers instead of boots. Opening the door, I find myself in a long hallway, and I follow the sound of voices, talking and laughing. I marvel at how I don’t even remember getting to the room last night.