Starbright: The Complete Series

by Hilary Thompson

  My pack crashes to the ground as I kneel to splash the water on my face – it’s wonderfully cold.

  “Who are you?” a voice behind me asks.

  I stiffen – in my excitement over the water, I’ve completely and stupidly forgotten to check for the source of that laughter. I stand slowly, my hands spread out in a show of peace.

  When I turn, my jaw drops just a bit. Two girls, tall and willowy, dressed in ragged scraps of clothing, stand before me. One holds a long spear, and the other grips a sort of homemade club.

  “How did you find us?” the one with the spear asks. I notice she has blond hair similar to Tariel’s – but streaked through with indigo and violet strands. The other girl has dark skin and close-cropped black hair – no streaks of color.

  “I’m traveling east. I heard something and followed the sound here,” I say, hoping the simple truth will be enough.

  “I told you we were being too loud,” the black-haired girl hisses, thunking her club on the ground.

  “There is no-one else with me. I haven’t seen another person in weeks,” I add.

  “Why are you traveling alone?” a new voice calls, and a dark-haired boy steps from the shadows of the rock, followed by two more boys.

  “And where did you come from?” one of them asks.

  I wipe my wet hands on my pants, running my hands through my hair. “I’ll tell you everything if I can just sit and rest a little. I have food and water with me – I don’t need anything from you.”

  The girls glance at each other, and seem to come to an agreement.

  “I’m Lissa,” the blond says, lowering her spear. “Follow me, and you can join us for breakfast.”

  They lead me to a hollow in the rock, which forms a shallow cave. A ledge above seems to lead to other pockets of space, and it reminds me a little of Kedesh, although on a much smaller scale.

  Food is already spread on a smooth rock – flat bread, strips of charred meat, and even a sort of fruit jam. Lissa wraps the meat and jam in a piece of bread and hands it to me.

  It is certainly different, but the spicy flavor is a welcome change from the bland food I’m carrying from Elysium. She watches me chew. “Thank you,” I say around a mouthful, and a hint of a smile graces her thin lips.

  The five of them have gathered in a semi-circle around me, and although they all appear to be close to my age, they remind me of children waiting for a story.

  “I’m from the east, but I’ve traveled west for months. I lost my companions, and now I’m returning home,” I begin, unsure how much detail to give. Are they friendly? If they aren’t from a city, would they even know the prophecies?

  “We are traveling east as well,” Lissa says. The other girl glares at her, and I wonder what secrets they keep.

  “Are you from Elysium?” I ask her, my eyes on her blue hair.

  “No!” she cries, a little too forcefully. “I’ve never been that far west. But we’re all runaways – just from different places.”

  The other girl adds, “My name is Elle. This is my partner, Jacobi. These are Raj and Eli. They’re partners too. Lissa’s partner was also…lost.”

  Lissa glares at her, and I feel a slight change in the air, like when Trea gets angry. These girls are not exactly enemies, but they aren’t really friendly, either. I wonder if the odd numbers have resulted in too much competition. Then Lissa smiles shyly at me, and I realize that’s exactly what has happened. And now I’m the new guy.

  I suppress a sigh – this will be delicate. I’ve already said too much, even while trying to be vague.

  “How long have you been traveling?” I ask.

  “We fled our families over two years ago,” Raj answers, resting his hand on Eli’s leg. “They did not want two men to be partners. We lost ourselves in the slums of Tartarus, hoping to make a better life, but…”

  “Tartarus is no place of refuge,” Eli finishes.

  “Where are you from?” Lissa asks me, leaning closer.

  I hesitate, but decide to tell the truth. They have been kind so far, and I may need their help. “I’m returning east to Asphodel.”

  Silence falls on the group as they blink at me, then turn to each other, wide-eyed. The tension swells, and my hand drifts to my back, where I still have a knife tucked into my waistband.

  Then Elle bursts into giggles, and the others follow.

  “Quit making fun,” she laughs. “Asphodel is just a myth. A dead city!”

  I remember Stian’s stories about how many of the Tribes considered Asphodel the same way – just another story passed down from the old folk.

  “Next you’ll be telling us the stories of the star girls,” Jacobi snorts, setting them off again.

  I’m uncertain what to do – use my powers to convince them, and risk frightening them away? Or admit to a false lie?

  I just shrug and grin at them, hoping they’ll draw their own conclusions.

  “Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you,” Lissa says. “Maybe you’ll tell us more of your stories once you get cleaned up.” She stands and holds out her hand to me. I follow her back outside, and she skirts the edge of the water until she comes to a more secluded part of the river. Rocks as tall as me form a sort of wall.

  “Sorry about them. We’ve been here for a couple of months now, just because we can’t agree on where to go. My partner was lost in the fires west of here. Did you see them? I think they will burn forever.”

  Images of waking to the fire at my feet make me grimace, and she brushes her fingers along my arm.

  “I’m sorry – I don’t mean to make you think of the sadness. We try to focus only on happiness now. The world might crumble around us, but at least we’ll be laughing,” she smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She reaches up to a ledge and pulls down a cake of soap, then hands it to me.

  She settles on the bank, and I realize she means to stay with me while I bathe. I turn away so she can’t see the flush on my cheeks, and after pulling off my boots, I wade straight into the water, still fully clothed.

  I swear she sighs in disappointment, and I have to fight hard not to laugh. I dunk my head in the water and scrub at the grime in my hair, behind my ears, and around my neck.

  Finally giving in to the futility of bathing in my clothes, I strip my shirt off and scrub at it with the soap, too. I slip the rest of my clothes off under the water and rush to wash and re-dress.

  “I don’t mean to make you nervous,” Lissa says as I trudge out of the water, my pants sagging dangerously and dripping wide puddles around my bare feet. “How did you know I was from Elysium?” she whispers then.

  I stop trying to wring out my shirt and sit heavily next to her.

  “Your hair,” I say.

  “The others don’t know. They think it’s dyed that way with berries or something. I ran away from Elysium a few years ago, when my sister died. They killed her.”

  “Who? The Sisters?”

  She nods, then shakes her head. “She died following the path. She was never strong, but she finally got through all four elements and made it to the Ascension Ceremony. Then the pain drove her mad, and she killed herself during the ceremony.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, my brain churning. I have no idea what ceremony she’s talking about, but I know Trea was very close to finishing the path.

  “She beat her own head against the cement, over and over again. She beat herself to death,” Lissa says, her voice tightening in rage and sorrow. “And not a single person tried to stop her. I tried to go to her – I could hear her screaming. But Alecta ordered me locked away. My own sister, and I did nothing,” she whispers, meeting my eyes.

  Without even thinking, I send her thoughts of encouragement, of forgiveness. “It wasn’t your fault,” I say.

  Her lower lip trembles and a sheen of tears turns her wide brown eyes into mirrors. I see my own face there, and I’m just thinking about how worn I look when she sags forward and presses her lips to mine.

  Her fi
ngers are in my hair before I can react, her mouth moving desperately against mine even as tears spill from her eyes.

  I duck my chin under, breaking the contact, and her lips graze my forehead.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I can’t do this.”

  She flushes in embarrassment. “I-I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” She bolts up and is gone before I can say another word.

  As I walk back to their cave, I decide I need to tell them the whole truth. There isn’t any true evil here, and they need to be saved just as much as any Tribe I’m trying to find.

  They can’t stay here – as safe as it seems now, the Lost will find them, or the elements’ rebellion will breach their haven.

  Elle is going through my pack when I round the corner. She holds up one of the gems from Asphodel. “Where did you get this?” she asks, marveling at its size.

  “There is a lot more to my story,” I say, tamping down my aggravation as the others gather. “But you’ll have to trust that I’m not lying to you.”

  I tell them everything I know, beginning with how Lakessa and her sisters began the end of the world with their cleansing. I explain Asphodel, and Tartarus, and Elysium, plus the Tribes I’ve seen. I tell them about the prophecies, and the reason behind the fires, and the danger of the Lost.

  Each of them begins to believe at a different point, and I see their faces change from teenagers trying to escape reality with a little laughter, to haunted young adults who have seen more shadows than sunshine.

  “You can come with me,” I offer at the end. “I can help protect you, and all the other people we find are supposed to travel east to find the Garden.”

  “How exactly can you protect us?” Eli asks. “It sounds like you’ve made a lot of enemies.”

  “That’s true, but so are the stories you’ve probably heard about the star girls. I’m one of them.”

  He cracks a grin, missing my meaning.

  I stand and back out of the cave. “Please don’t be afraid,” I say, then I call the air to me. Soft at first, it swirls through the cave, bringing the scent of water and sand. Then I begin to swirl it around my feet, until my legs are obscured by a funnel of wind and sand. I shoot the funnel out over the water, where it breaks apart, raining sand into the river.

  For several seconds, no-one says anything. Then one of the boys whistles, and someone curses, then claps.

  I breathe a sigh of relief. “I have to say, I’m really glad you guys don’t want to kill me now,” I joke.

  “Has that happened before?” Elle asks, joining me in the sun.

  “A few times,” I grin.

  “You said everyone you can find is going to the same place – this Garden?” Lissa asks, her eyes guarded.

  I nod. “The prophecies say that will be the only place safe from the elements and the darkness. If you aren’t inside when the eclipse begins, you will die.”

  “I don’t know if I can go with you,” she says softly. The others crowd around her, concerned and hovering. “I don’t want to see any of the people I ran away from!” she yells at them, breaking through their protective circle and running toward the bathing area.

  “None of us want that,” Eli adds. “We’re better off here, I think.”

  “No – you’re not!” I say, taken aback by their hesitation. “You’ll die out here!”

  “Everyone dies,” Raj says. “I’d rather die out here, free from the people who tried to ruin my life.”

  The others murmur their agreement, and I’m at a loss.

  I don’t have the time – or the energy – to force them to follow me. They retreat into the cave without inviting me to follow. I grab my pack and pull it into the shadows of the rock wall, suddenly more tired than I’ve been in weeks.

  I drift into a heavy, dreamless sleep.

  Hours later, I wake up in the cold sweat that always seems to follow my visions, but I can’t remember anything, save for that one word that continues to float in my brain: sacrifice.

  My breath is thick and difficult to draw as I struggle to access even a single other detail from the lockbox of my mind.

  But there is nothing else. I stand and stretch in the quiet, eventually realizing that there is no sign of the five young people. The full moon is shining directly into the empty cave. Their things are gone. My pack and weapons are untouched.

  I have no idea what to do, except return to the path Pacem made for me.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  ASTREA

  April 1, 2067

  April Fool’s day. Kess thinks I’m a fool. Maybe I am, because I’ve been covering for her when she sneaks out to see Charles.

  Really, I just don’t care anymore. She refuses to listen to anyone but him.

  But I asked her to bring me something in return. I want a photograph of the ocean, a vial of white sand, and a glass jar of seawater.

  She promised that Charles could get them all. I told her I would know if they were fakes, and she just laughed. But I will.

  The sisters in my dreams will tell me.

  From Aisa’s personal journal, saved from before the Cleansing

  The heat is worse than the pain of the crystals. I know I can make it, but Styx. What is the point of all of this?

  The sun is directly above me now, having taken the place of the stars. The crystals have heated on my skin, but I can barely tell the difference. The concrete beneath me is a sponge of radiant heat also. I find myself slipping in and out of dreams – mostly of water.

  Swimming in the hot pool in Asphodel.

  Showering in Madna’s icy rain-barrel bath.

  Bathing in the clear waters of Kedesh.

  Sinking into the luxurious depths of my soaking tub in Hade’s palace.

  The last one brings me back to reality. I feel as though I crossed a line last night, in speaking back to Hade inside of my mind. Acknowledging his presence in such a tangible way can’t be good.

  When this cursed Ascension thing is over, I need to find the Prophet and ask his advice.

  Nobody visits us all day. I wonder if the people find other ways to get to the dining hall, or if they simply don’t eat. But there are no footsteps in the courtyard until the sun begins to sink, turning the concrete river beside me into an inferno of orange light. The ball sinks inch by inch into the ocean, and I see the first star, high above me.

  I nearly cry at the sight. Stian’s old rhyme comes to mind, and I whisper it like a meditation: star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.

  I don’t know what to wish for. Just like before, I have enough wishes for a thousand nights. Not all of them are for me, now.

  This much is different.

  Finally I close my eyes and wish: Goddess Moon, I wish for your will for me to become my path.

  I take a deep breath and open my eyes. A second star peeks through into the fabric of darkness above, then another. Soon the sky is filled with the tiny lights, faster than I’ve ever seen them open before.

  A popping sound startles me – a crackling that seems to shudder my entire body. I don’t feel pain, but it sounds for all the world like bones snapping.

  Then I realize – I don’t feel pain. The crystals are no longer affecting me. I’m debating sitting up when footsteps arrive at my side and a figure kneels beside me.

  “Congratulations, Astrea,” the True Prophet says, his smile hovering in my peripheral vision. “No, don’t get up yet. There is one final crystal.”

  I would curse if it weren’t him.

  He draws a clear disc from his pocket. “This crystal marks the eighth chakra, and I have never in my life had the opportunity to distribute it. It is to be placed above your head, like so.” He sets the stone on the concrete, and it clinks into place. A strange buzzing or vibration seems to fill my head. “You will not feel pain. This is the Soul Star. Only the Goddess Moon can approve application of this crystal. Something you have experienced during Asce
nsion has pleased her.”

  He is joined by the woman who placed my crystals last night. “I have seen her success. Prepare her for the ball,” he says, then leaves.

  “Be still,” she tells me. “I must remove the crystals in the same order, or the ceremony will be incomplete.”

  She bends down and reaches for the lowest crystal, but gasps as it dissolves in her hand, fine dust sprinkling my body, the ground, and the nearby water. She touches the other crystals, and they do the same.

  She looks down at me in fear. “By the Goddess. What is the meaning of this?”

  I glare at her and sit up, the sparkling dust sliding from my tunic. She backs away as though afraid to touch it. Reaching for the last crystal, I see that it is still whole. I pick it up and stand with difficulty, stretching my aching muscles.

  The other candidates are being tended to, but as I begin to count, I see only four – one is missing.

  “Where is the last candidate?” I ask.

  The woman shakes her head, not meeting my eyes. “She was not strong enough.”

  “She’s dead?”

  “Yes. It happens sometimes. But her soul will be taken into the ether. Her path there has begun, though it is long.”

  I see the dark blotches on the concrete where the girl must have been. “Is that blood?”

  “The pain was too great. Sometimes…sometimes the candidates do not understand. She tried to…remove the pain.”

  My mouth gapes open as I picture what might have happened. “She beat her head on the concrete, didn’t she? Is she dead?”

  The woman doesn’t answer, which is an answer in itself. She only grasps at my hand and leads me away. I glimpse Hesten being led toward our rooms too, and relief floods through my body that at least it wasn’t her. Then guilt about such a relief replaces it.

  Lexan would remind you that it isn’t your fault, Hade’s voice whispers in my heart.

  I narrow my eyes and say nothing. It doesn’t matter what path I end up on, evidently; he follows me like a plague.

  The woman leads me to the bathroom, where she actually waits while I shower. Then she leads me to my room.