Starbright: The Complete Series

by Hilary Thompson

  It is finally agreed that the caravan will wait on the west bank of a nearby stream. Irana will be on hand to swell the waters into a flood if protection is necessary.

  “You will not come until we send for you,” I say to the Sisters. Tisiphone, at least, nods. Megara and Alecta look on as if the discussion is of no concern to them.

  And it isn’t, really, I think as I shoulder my pack. They are here to test us, not obey or protect us.

  Zarea and I move quickly, traveling the short distance to Asphodel in much less than a day’s journey. It is mid-morning when we begin to hear noises – shouts and sounds from either weapons or tools.

  We separate and creep closer, tree by tree.

  A huge clearing comes into view as I move silently; the trees have become mere stumps, their trunks sawn into planks and nailed into buildings.

  Lots of buildings, I realize as I take in the scene.

  Asphodel has been very busy. I see people with the sun-darkened complexions of Tartarus, and the lean, muscular build of Hebron.

  Everyone has made it.

  We have all made it to Asphodel before the snow.

  Joy surges in my chest as this sinks in – we did it. And then someone strides out of a building, followed by three others. Golden-brown hair glints in the morning sun, and I imagine I can see deep-water blue eyes, even from this distance.

  Lexan.

  He turns, apparently giving orders to two of the people. They scurry away, leaving only one, who appears to be a guard of some sort.

  But I don’t really care, because I’ve forgotten all about my assignment to be stealthy. I break from the tree line, my feet obeying my heart rather than my rational mind.

  I never thought I’d be that girl – the one who runs to a guy – but here I am, sprinting across the field to that tall, golden form.

  I call his name, and he whirls, answering me, shouting my name as he scrambles past a pile of newly felled trees.

  We crash together and I’m wrapped in the vise of his arms, and I finally feel complete. Our two souls are beating through our chests, trying to touch again, and I never want to let go of this boy.

  “I love you,” he whispers into my hair, and I fold into his chest, knowing with those words that everything will be okay.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  LEXAN

  September 19, 2067

  Thanks to this last shipment of materials, Charles was able to make substantial progress on Asphodel. He has workers there around the clock. I wish I could visit again, but Mother has been hovering so much that even meeting with Charles is difficult.

  We’ve taken to leaving notes on the windowsill instead of meeting at the café.

  He promises me that when spring comes, it will be my last spring above ground. Once the humidity settles in the valley, we will begin filling Asphodel with people instead of supplies.

  From First Leader Lakessa’s personal journal

  Included in Firene’s secret papers

  I don’t want to let Trea go, but the guard behind me clears his throat. I loosen my arms and turn my head to glare at him.

  “Weapons,” he says in a gruff voice.

  “Don’t you know who this is?” I ask, stalling.

  “Yes. Even more reason to get her weapons,” he answers, his hand drifting to the gun strapped to his back. Even though the people voted to let me out of my cell, they still don’t trust me completely.

  They don’t trust anyone in my family, actually.

  “It’s okay,” Trea whispers. She undoes her bow and quiver of arrows, then unzips her coat and slips a knife from her belt, handing them to the man. She makes no movement toward her boot, and I suppress a smile. She’s never stopped carrying a knife in her sole. Of course, she doesn’t need a blade to be a threat.

  When the guard is momentarily occupied with her weapons, she turns toward the tree line, scanning, then makes a quick movement, holding up two fingers.

  Wait, she’s telling someone.

  I look into her eyes and ask her who, and her finger traces something on my chest through the layers of warm fabric. She does it again, and I smile: Z.

  Zarea? I ask her silently. She barely nods. And more? I ask, my excitement growing. A hint of a smile crosses her face.

  “We’ll be going now,” the guard says, taking Trea’s arm.

  “Get off me,” she hisses, jerking away from him. He glares and clutches his gun again. She sneers. “I know what that is, but I could burn the skin from your body before you even get your finger on the trigger.”

  He blanches a little, but doesn’t waver. “I have my orders. Any new arrivals go straight to the council.”

  “As new people come in,” I explain, tugging her into a walk to keep him pacified, “we’ve let each large group vote in a member to serve on a council. Now that everyone is here, we decide what to do, together.”

  “Everyone?” Trea asks, hope spreading over her face.

  “Tartarus, Hebron, Kedesh. We’re waiting on Elysium, and a couple of other groups rumored to be south and east of us.”

  She nods, pleased, but says nothing about Elysium. “Are you on the council?”

  I nod, and she snorts back laughter. The guard stops walking and assesses her.

  “Sorry,” she giggles, straightening her face. “It’s just amusing that your council members are under the surveillance of armed guards.”

  “How do you know I’m not here for his protection?” the guard asks, his eyes narrowed.

  “Because you would have shot me before I even got to him,” she retorts. “You’re not protecting him. You’re making sure he doesn’t do anything he shouldn’t.’

  He watches her a second more, then shrugs and begins walking again.

  “Keirna?” she whispers to me as we walk.

  I can’t help it – I know the shadow that passes over my face. It’s the same shadow that I see when I look in the mirror, and the same darkness which comes to me at night, sliding down my throat and choking out my air.

  Trea watches me, and I feel her holding her breath.

  Dead. I killed her the first night. I manage to tell her before blinking away. I don’t want her to see the guilt that floods me each time I think about it. Or the shame that I feel guilt for freeing Asphodel from such a horrible person.

  We reach the entrance to the cave, and I watch as she takes in the broken road before the now-cleared opening, the concrete steps which are filled with the dusty footprints of those coming in and out, and the heavy iron gate that is now chained open, instead of shut.

  “You’ve done so much here, haven’t you,” she says, although she can’t possibly know what it looked like before.

  “The people have grown to trust me for the most part,” I answer, knowing what she’ll ask next, and dreading it.

  “Then why the guard? Who doesn’t trust you?”

  “His own brother,” the guard grunts out in a near laugh. “That and Leader Isa.”

  Trea stumbles on the stairs, and the guard reaches to steady her.

  “Leader Isa?” she whispers, her voice incredulous.

  I nod. “She’s changed, Trea. Be careful – I don’t think she’s going to be happy to see you,” I warn, thinking of my own arrival.

  “Why is she a Leader?”

  I shrug. “The people voted her onto the council. Same as me, and Seren. Each of the cities or Tribes gets three people on council.”

  “Why not Aitan – wasn’t Keirna training him to be First Leader? Or what about Head Minister Saloman?” Trea asks.

  The guard glares at me as I open my mouth to answer, but I shrug and hurry to tell her before anyone else. “Keirna killed him. I saw it, and people will try to tell you I did it. But it was her.”

  We’re in the Leadership Complex now, where the council worked to remodel the inside before sending more workers to build. The winding passageways were too easy for someone to get lost in – or to hide in to attack, as some claimed. Now the hall runs straight th
rough to the Common Area, and it is wide enough for four or five people to walk.

  Open doorways line the sides of the corridor. “I suggested that we do away with the doors in here, as a symbol of open communication. The people liked that,” I grin.

  Stopping abruptly, the guard motions for us to go inside the large room we’ve made into the council room. Several of the members are there already, compiling the lists of the extensive census we’ve begun.

  “Astrea,” the guard says gruffly, pushing at her back a little. She steps forward and stands at the foot of the large table.

  “Why are you here?” someone asks, and I turn to see Rose, an ancient lady voted onto the council by Hebron – and presumably Madna’s older sister. Trea startles at her question, and a shadow passes over her face.

  “I am here because my path led me here. The True Prophet has spoken the prophecy that pushes us to leave our homes and travel to the Garden,” she says. The answer seems strange to me, but Rose only nods, chewing on the pipe we’ve told her she can’t light inside the cave.

  “Have you brought Zarea?” Rose asks, narrowing her eyes.

  “Yes. Elysium follows me. The maidens of Lawfulness and Peace are waiting to join you. We are complete.”

  Everyone bends to his or her neighbor to whisper, and I turn as footsteps echo behind me. Isa.

  “Hello, Astrea,” she says in her new calm, emotionless voice.

  Trea turns slowly, and I feel the pang in her heart as surely as if it were my own. Tears brim in her eyes, and she darts forward to hug Isa, almost making it before the guard lunges between them, the muzzle of his gun shoving Trea to the floor.

  He presses it into her chest as Trea looks up, her eyes focused only on Isa.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “I wanted to tell you everything…but I couldn’t put you in danger.”

  Isa watches her without even a hint of sadness, joy, anger…or any other emotion. “You may let her up,” she says to the guard.

  Trea stumbles to her feet, reaching out for my hand. She’s shaking visibly, and I pull her to me.

  “Have you come to change us? To take down our council and change our Leaders?” Isa asks.

  “No!” Trea cries, the pain evident in her voice. “Isa, don’t you know me at all?” She turns to look at the other people in the room. “I never wanted to be Leader. I never wanted this,” she gestures down her own body, and they watch her in puzzlement. “I’m only doing what the gods have asked of me,” she finishes in a whisper, sagging into my chest, pressing her face against my coat.

  “I would like permission to take her back to my rooms,” I say. “She’s exhausted. Hungry.”

  A few of the council members begin to nod, but Trea looks up at me and shakes her head, straightening and pushing away from me slightly.

  “The people are waiting patiently to be invited inside of Asphodel. In the woods west of here, an hour’s journey.”

  “Who is it?” someone asks.

  “Elysium,” she says. “Around fourteen hundred people.”

  The council members descend into excited conversation then, and I turn back to Trea. I don’t get a chance to speak though, because heavy footsteps pound into the room, and Trea is swept into someone’s arms before I can blink.

  “You made it!” Stian laughs, hugging her so tightly her feet lift off the floor. I’m startled as the old twinge of jealousy I used to feel begins again. It twists a little more as Trea giggles and grins up at him, struggling to reach the floor again. Her body wriggling against his makes me feel like I can’t breathe.

  She finally breaks free from him, and still grinning, smacks my chest. “Put the air back,” she whispers, and I flush, realizing I’ve yet again been sucking the air slowly from the room. A couple of the others are breathing more heavily, though they don’t seem to suspect why.

  Rose is the only one glaring at me, looking between Stian and me with suspicion.

  “Zarea?” Stian asks, hope flooding his face.

  Trea nods, her energy returned. “Where’s Pacem?” she asks suddenly, glancing around as though she expects him to step from a corner.

  Isa clears her throat. “He has been charged with guarding Aitan. Each of them believe they are watching the other. Neither is trustworthy.”

  Trea raises her eyebrows, but I grasp her hand and squeeze.

  “Pacem agreed to the plan. He isn’t in any danger,” I say. She searches my face for any other warning, but it’s the simple truth.

  “Where are they?” Trea asks again.

  “Well, they’re in the private cells,” I say, holding up a finger for her to wait. “Aitan actually refuses to leave his cell. He won’t return home, so Pacem watches him there. Most of the people here have never actually seen Pacem.”

  “I’d like to keep it that way so they don’t frighten,” Isa adds.

  Trea glares at her old friend, but says nothing further. Silence beats through the room for a few seconds, as everyone is trying to gauge the others’ intentions.

  Then Stian claps his hands once, and several of the older council members startle. He says, “So who wants to come with me to get Elysium?”

  Nobody volunteers, and he shrugs.

  “Go get your girl,” Rose says, breaking into a rusty cackle.

  “Will you come back to my rooms now?” I ask Trea, and she nods, her head slumping again with fatigue. I grasp her arm and we exit the room, my guard following close behind.

  By the time we get to the home I grew up in, every bit of energy seems to have leaked from her again.

  “Welcome home,” I whisper into her hair, bending to scoop under her knees so I can carry her through the door. I nod to the guard, and he shuts the door behind me. He’ll stay in the hallway outside until we leave again, or another guard comes to relieve him.

  I lay Trea on the wide bed which used to belong to my parents.

  “It took me a few weeks to work up the courage, but I eventually cleaned this room out and boxed up everything. Father’s clothes were even still here,” I say, lying next to her. I reach over to smooth the hair from her face.

  She places her hand over mine and holds it to her cheek, then stretches to reach my neck and pulls me down to her.

  Her kiss is hesitant at first, but then her emotions flare to life, and soon, between the fire beneath her skin and the air swirling in mine, the room is near to combustion.

  “I missed you so much,” she manages to whisper when her lips stop moving over mine.

  I grin just a bit before pulling her back to me. Her hand slides under my tunic, her nails finding my bare skin, and all my breath escapes me. I nearly growl in frustration when she pulls away and sits up, her cheeks red and her hair beautifully tangled.

  “I need a shower,” she says, a beautiful hint of shyness creeping into her face as she glances down at her hands. I nod and she slips down the hall into the bathroom, carrying one of my tunics to change into.

  I hear the lock click into place, and I groan to myself as I flop back onto the pillows, calling some air to cool my skin. Glancing over at the half-empty chest where my clothes are now stored, I stare at the palm-sized jewelry box waiting there. Two sets of rings – Father’s and Mother’s – are the only possessions of my parents that I’ve kept.

  I wonder what Trea would say if I offered her Mother’s partnership rings today.

  The thought twists and turns in my heart, twining together all my hopes with all my insecurities. I press my face into the pillow and order my thoughts to be quiet, but they keep coming.

  Trea pushed me away for so many years – rejected everything about me.

  Could she change her mind and do it again?

  Now that we’re back in Asphodel, she might remember why she never trusted me – never even liked me – in the first place.

  “There’s someone at the door,” Trea says, her voice pulling me from a restless sleep.

  “Sorry,” I mumble. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
>
  “It’s okay. I rested too.”

  I blink my eyes open. “Styx,” I whisper. “You look amazing.” She flushes, tugging self-consciously at the neckline of the tunic, which is way too big on her. Her hair is clean and dry, evidence of how long I’ve slept.

  I reach to pull her close, but the knocking starts again. I stumble up from the bed, trying to smooth my wrinkled clothes. “Stay here,” I say, and she nods, still trying to pull the tunic down to cover her bare legs.

  Swinging open the door, I’m shocked to see the True Prophet standing in the hallway, accompanied by more guards.

  “You two are requested in the meadow,” he says, smiling. He reaches out his hand, and I shake it.

  “Thank you for bringing her back to me,” I say before I think better of it.

  “No,” he says. “She came back on her own – and not only for you. Do not doubt her, Lexan. She has seen much since seeing you last. She loves you still. But she is changed.”

  I nod, feeling as though tears are welling up inside of me. He turns to the guard, and the man hands over Trea’s pack.

  “Get ready, and meet us outside. The people want to hear from their Maiden of Justice.”

  He turns and pads down the hallway, leaving me with the heavy pack and a message to deliver. A message Trea will not be happy with.

  “Elysium is here,” I say, thunking her pack onto the bed. She grabs it, rummaging eagerly for new clothes. “That was the Prophet. He wants us to go to the meadow. I think they want you to speak to everyone,” I say, bracing for her anger or embarrassment.

  But she only nods.

  “I’m ready to speak to them,” she says, pulling clothing from her bag. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”

  There’s a makeshift platform in the meadow, and everyone is gathered around it. Trea mounts the steps calmly, and I’m struck by how confident she looks. How she’s still that same fiery girl who smacked me at the hot pool, but she’s also a young woman who’s been through Hades and back to prove herself.