Starbright: The Complete Series

by Hilary Thompson

  “Prodigal daughter,” Lexan says, huffing out a sigh.

  Stian glances in his direction, then nods his head. “You have to know I would never put you or her in any jeopardy, unless there was a definite payoff.”

  I try not to be jealous that Zarea’s welfare is still important to him. Of course it is. It should be. And I stubbornly ignore the implication that he has traded his own freedom for our current captivity. Whatever he’s done, I have to believe it’s for our ultimate goal - to win control over an army that can win against Keirna.

  “How can I make this better?” he asks, focusing back on me.

  I systematically let go of the negativity and doubt and discomfort, and I just grin. He grins back. Lexan groans and pulls a blanket over his head.

  “Look away, golden boy,” Stian whispers to the night, pulling me as close as my chains will allow.

  NINE

  So we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil, though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea.

  Psalm 46

  From Madna’s Archives

  Somehow, I have been sleeping. I only know this because something has jolted me awake, and I’m disoriented. Stian is gone, and Lexan is silent and still.

  But a small round figure crouches in the doorway, starlight spilling around its cloak and making it impossible to tell age, gender, or intent.

  “Who is it?” I ask, my voice husky from sleep.

  “A friend,” is all the answer I receive. The figure moves inside the tent and the door flap slips shut. Darkness encases us again.

  “I can help you escape.”

  “Why should I escape?”

  “If you stay here, Abraham will make you fight his own war with Hadeon. You will become a weapon of destruction, and you will eventually die like any common soldier.”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  “I have nothing left to lose.”

  Lexan stirs and says, “A person with nothing left is desperate to regain what is his. That is no promise of trust.”

  “My sister is a slave in Tartarus. She was thirteen when she was stolen.”

  My breath stutters in my throat. Thirteen. “And you want us to find her?”

  “She is beautiful. She will be with Hadeon, if she is still alive,” he answers, and his voice is flint and steel and fury.

  “Why don’t you go yourself?” Lexan asks.

  The figure moves closer to me, then a small hand reaches around and unlocks one of my chains with a small straight pin.

  “Shine your firelight on me,” he says. Glancing at the door flap, I call a small flame and hold it to the boy’s face as he lowers his hood.

  “We are twins,” he says, and my stomach falls, realizing this is not a boy, but a young girl with close-cropped hair. Probably thirteen.

  Then she lifts her robe and reveals a stump of a leg, crudely fitted with a wooden extension below the knee.

  “Hadeon hates the imperfect. If I were to go to Tartarus, I would be given to the guards for their sport, then likely fed to the creatures he keeps in the arena. If I stay here, at least I can take care of our mother.”

  “The arena?” My words are barely a whisper as I struggle to process the girl’s bald statement of rape, torture, and undeserved death.

  She makes an impatient gesture with her arms, throwing shadows around the tent. “My sister is rumored to be a slave for Hadeon’s court. She has been gone ten months, and I haven’t heard news of her in three. If I set you free and give you supplies, will you find her?”

  “Yes,” I say.

  “No,” Lexan says.

  I swivel to face him, pulling against my other chain. “Are you insane? You know we can’t stay here long anyways. Why shouldn’t we help her?”

  “How could we promise to find one girl in a city of thousands? How could she be alive? How could we rescue her from such a place and such a man?”

  “You’re afraid,” I accuse, throwing a shaft of light toward him.

  He nods, setting his mouth in a firm line. “You should be, too.”

  “Yes, you should,” agrees the girl before us. “Lord Hadeon is the destroyer of lives. He wants everything and nothing. He is amused by the pain of others.”

  “And so he needs to be stopped!” I say. “His kingdom needs Justice and Balance - if not by choice, then by force.”

  The girl smiles, then leans over to unhook my other arm. She unties her robe and pulls two large objects from her belly and back - our packs. My first thought is of the journal - will it still be there? Then I focus enough to look at our rescuer again.

  Without the bulk of the two packs, she is a tiny child.

  “My sister’s name is Serah. It means-“

  “The morning star,” finishes Lexan. “We will find her, and return her to you.”

  I blink at him, wondering what has transpired in his mind so quickly, and how I could understand him so little, when I have known him so long.

  The girl unchains Lexan as I rub the blood back into my limbs. She helps to slip the packs onto our shoulders. “I put everything back in your packs, though I think some jewels have been stolen - which is suicide, if Abraham sees. The guards outside are sleeping now. I gave them a strong tea, but you should move quickly. There are more guards further out, including some of Abraham’s elite.”

  “Like Zarea and Stian?” Lexan asks.

  She nods, pulling her hood back to cover her face. “And others like them. Stay in the shadows. Follow the path of the moon as it rises over the middle mountain. If you run, by daybreak you will see the edge of the valley. When you pass completely through the forest that rings us, you will be at the edge of Hadeon’s territory. I suggest you disguise yourselves.”

  And with that, she pushes open the door flap and motions for us to exit. My muscles are cramped from disuse and my head spins with the quick change of our fates. I still need to know more of Abraham’s plans, but we can’t turn away from such a perfect offer of escape.

  I stand for a long moment in the open doorway, darkness behind and darkness before.

  “Will you tell Stian we’ve gone?” I ask. Will I see him again if I leave tonight?

  The girl shakes her head. “I would be exiled if I were found out. I would never survive that. I trust none of my people with this secret - especially a wanderer. But he will know where you have gone. If he cares enough, he will follow you.”

  Her sensible words echo in my ears, then against the walls around my heart. I know he cares, but is it enough? Maybe he won’t follow.

  “Trea, I think we have to go,” Lexan urges softly, leaning into my ear. “This is bigger than what we want. It always has been.”

  I pause and turn to look into his eyes, waiting for a thought that never comes. The moonlight glints back at me from his eyes, blank and unreadable. I nod, knowing he’s right.

  The girl points us in the direction of the middle mountain and vanishes into the shadows. We step around the sleeping guards, hurrying to the safety of the tree line.

  We make it barely a hundred yards.

  “Stop where you stand,” a familiar voice splits the night before us, less than a spear’s length away.

  Zarea steps into a shaft of light, her eyes narrowed on Lexan. She has changed from her ceremonial dress and gold jewelry back into her plain protector clothing. She looks better this way.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asks Lexan, ignoring me.

  He shrugs. “It’s time to go.”

  “No! I can make Abraham see reason on this - I know it. He will listen to me.”

  “And a father should listen to his daughter,” I say, and her gaze swivels to meet mine. “But that never meant much in my family either.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I had my reasons,” she says, looking only at Lexan.

  He only shrugs again. “Are you coming with us?”

  “Yes. Back to camp.”

  “Not happening,” he smiles his crooked half-smile
, holding her gaze like a fragile flower. Then I notice how still she has grown. He is sending her thoughts.

  Of course he is. My jealousy returns, dragging a fit of anger by the neck.

  “Here is the path,” Zarea says after a minute of silence. She uses the tip of her spear to draw faint lines in the dirt, marking mountains and forest. “If you travel quickly, there is a cave where you can sleep tomorrow night.”

  Lexan nods and steps toward her, carefully scuffing out the map with his boots. He shields her body from my sight. But I know he must be kissing her, finding her full lips in the dark. A small sigh is breathed from someone’s mouth.

  “We need to go,” I say, ruining their moment.

  I glance back at her as we jog away, and her face is blank. Dazed from Lexan’s charm, likely. The ground quakes slightly and grumbles beneath my feet, and I stumble as I follow him, my frown deepening with each jarring step.

  When we slow down to climb a rocky hill, I have to ask him or implode with jealousy. “So is that how you got her to help us in the first place? With charm and kisses?”

  “Don’t talk about things you know nothing of.”

  “And I guess that’s how you plucked her as well? The power of suggestion?”

  Lexan stops so suddenly that I bump into his pack, and he whirls to face me, backing me into a nearby tree.

  His eyes are enormous and flashing like a midnight lightning storm, but they are still cold and silent to me. One arm braces on each of my shoulders, pulling my body close and holding me against the trunk in one motion.

  “You obviously know nothing of true intimacy, if you think I could possibly have a girl in that manner. And you certainly don’t know me, if you think I would ever do that.” His breath is hot on my face. “You need to…”

  I watch him curiously, absorbing his frustration, waiting for the thoughts to wash into my mind, but again he sends nothing. My eyes drift down to his lips, then dart back to his eyes. I can’t read him like I used to.

  Whatever I knew of Lexan from Asphodel has changed or gone in a whisper of seconds. The boy standing inches from me is an unavoidably different person - an uncompromising measure of Balance.

  But he is still more right about me than I care to admit - despite my kisses with Stian, I know nothing of true intimacy.

  TEN

  The Inner Pisces: Because you are naturally influenced by the people around you - the ones who touch your life each day - you often find yourself prey to conflicting desires. Sometimes you must be reminded to use your innate strengths, rather than your underlying weakness for passive destruction, both of self and important others.

  From Understanding Your Horoscope

  Head Minister Charles, year 2073

  Lexan drops his eyes, then his arms, freeing me from his grip. He turns and stalks long-legged along the path, letting the moon guide us again toward the middle mountain. I follow, saddened by what feels like a further loss of his friendship.

  Just like always, as soon as we step one foot toward each other, we push each other two steps apart.

  Hours pass and the valley and forest with it. My initial escape-induced adrenaline ebbs and is gradually replaced with fatigue, then a blind exhaustion that I strive to push through as best as I can. Just as the moon is beginning to fade in the growing light of the sun, we reach the edge of the dense trees. Several hundred yards of small growth remain, but I can see smooth, open land ahead. The ground spread before us is growing gradually more brown and orange-red than green, and I remember the word desert, wondering what it will be like.

  “We should probably rest and eat before we go farther,” Lexan says - the first words he’s spoken since our argument.

  I follow him as he veers from the path, into a small clump of bushes. We position ourselves behind and beneath, hidden from view in case anyone else is traveling the deserted path.

  “Rea told me once that they’ve always kept up a decent trade route between Hebron and the others, and into Tartarus even in the off seasons. I guess this is it,” Lexan says conversationally, his voice quiet and unemotional as he pulls dried meat and a water skin from his pack.

  I just nod - I don’t mean to stay angry with him, but for me, the hours of silent, hurried travel have done nothing to ease the tension binding our relationship. We eat in silence for several minutes. We’ve heard nothing but our own breathing all night, and now that daybreak is upon us, the birdsongs are a welcome distraction.

  “Trea. Last night, with Rea,” Lexan says, his voice so soft that I need to stop chewing to hear him. “It’s not what you think. It was a last kiss - a goodbye, I guess.”

  I push down the sick feeling in my stomach - I was right about the kiss, though I didn’t want to be.

  “We may never see them again,” I say, staring at the ground between my feet, remembering the time Stian and I shared. A new pang of loss corkscrews through my chest - I’ve avoided thinking about this until now, simply by focusing on moving forward.

  “No, we’ll see them soon. Likely tonight at the cave.”

  “What?” I sit up straight and stare at him, but his face holds no semblance of jest. Has he truly known this the entire night and said nothing to comfort me?

  “They’ll find us on the path and together we’ll continue our journey to Tartarus.”

  “But Stian-“

  “Is not a traitor. To us, at least. I believe you, and I trust your judgment. And I trust Rea. But she knows our time together - like that- is done.”

  “What did you tell her last night?” Curiosity overtakes my annoyance. At least he’s opening up again. Even if he aggravates me, I need our friendship.

  “I told her we couldn’t be together any longer. Because that isn’t who we were meant for.”

  And just like that, my suspicion rebounds, irritation pouring in. What are his motives for this? Now that we’re alone, does he expect me to fall into his arms?

  “So I guess she and Stian are meant for each other?” I ask with a bite of sarcasm.

  “I don’t know. That’s up to the two of them. But she isn’t meant for me. And I’m not meant for her. My life has unfolded just enough to show me that.”

  I recognize the reference to my mother’s favorite teaching: we don’t know what we’re made for until our life unfolds, but I ignore it. Instead I say, “And so this must be the part where you tell me we’re meant to be together, and I should never see Stian again.”

  He looks at his fingers, laced together in his lap. “No. That’s for you to decide.”

  “What do you want from me, Lexan?”

  He shakes his head, flicking his eyes up at me, then back down. “It hasn’t changed.” He stands abruptly, shoving the remainder of his food in his pack. “We should keep moving.”

  I push out a frustrated breath, but simply follow him through the brush, trying not to think about the fact that he still wants me to choose him. I remember Stian’s words to Zarea - too close and too far away. Never together in the middle.

  Lexan and I have been closer than friends should be, and we have been farther away than Justice and Balance should be. If only we could find our own middle ground, where we are equal in what we need from the other.

  The day grows warmer, then cooler again as we cover miles of open, grassy plains spotted with scrubby trees and occasional towers of rock, keeping the middle mountain always before us. We see no animals, although birds sometimes circle overhead, swooping lower to investigate us.

  There are no sounds of a search party, which is strange, and no conversation between us, which is not strange. I study the crumpled paper from Firene’s journal as we walk, but even with the code broken, I still need to sit and write it down to translate anything. The symbols and letters swim before my eyes, and all I succeed in doing is tripping more often over small rocks and clumps of grass.

  The sun sinks behind the mountains in a pale, grayish-purple line, leaving us barely enough light to climb ten feet up a rock wall and into the cave
Zarea mapped for us. We don’t dare build a fire, or the mouth of the cave would be visible for miles. All we can do is wait until morning.

  “If they haven’t come by daybreak, Zarea said we should go on alone,” Lexan says as we wash our hands and eat more of the cold, dried meat.

  “What? But we need their help. We don’t even know-“

  “Trea. It will be okay. This morning you didn’t even know they were coming. Where’s your fearlessness? I know you memorized the map. We have money. There will be mishaps, sure, but we’re meant to help the people. Not die alone in the desert.”

  “Right. Warriors die in battle,” I say softly, remembering Madna’s words.

  Lexan doesn’t answer; he just curls under his blanket and closes his eyes. I do the same, but sleep never comes. Finally, I sit at the edge of the cave and use the starlight to translate the passage from Firene’s journal. I make a list of the letters which are never used - now it’s obvious that they are the unique letters in Justice and Balance, and that they must correspond to the twelve zodiac symbols.

  I guess the first one - A - easily: Scorpio. I speculate that T is Cancer and E is Libra, because H is written normally, forming the word the several times. From there, it’s fairly easy to see that Firene arranged the zodiac symbols in their natural order.

  J= (Aries)

  U= (Taurus)

  S= (Gemini)

  T= (Cancer)

  I= (Leo)

  C= (Virgo)

  E= (Libra)

  A= (Scorpio)

  N= (Sagittarius)

  D= (Capricorn)

  B= (Aquarius)

  L= (Pisces)

  The message unravels quickly enough. I see how, with practice, Lexan could read the coded text without translating it.