The Shadow of Our Stars: The Tales of Evinar

by Alexander Richter

  “Aren’t those poisonous?” her eyes widened after seeing Rose’s selection of herbs.

  “It depends what you think those are,” she replied. Rose held a tube-like flower growing from a thick stem covered in velvet.

  “That’s foxglove.”

  “Right you are.” She plucked one of the pink tubes and smashed it in her onyx mortar. “And they can be useful if prepared correctly. Some herbs can neutralize poisonous properties and reveal new ones. But that’s not anything of interest to you.”

  “My mother was a herbalist— at least she claimed to be,” Violet confessed. “I remember some of what she taught me when I was a girl, but father told me it wasn’t lady-like knowing things.”

  “A smart woman and a foolish man,” Rose acknowledged. She applied a flaky paste underneath Billy’s nostrils until the lower half of his face was covered in a white mask. “This should wake him up. May need to hold him back. He’ll startle in a jolt” And in the blink of an eye, he shot upright from the armchair gasping.

  “Abbott, he’s inside the fire!” he blurted, breathlessly. “And his father— did they make it out alright?” It was a fair question, but not one Violet or Rose could answer. Not a single person was seen exiting the inferno. “I have to find them!” he continued.

  “There, there,” Rose said removing the remaining paste from his nose, “I can be certain that no one was inside. I’ve had the unfortunate luck of hearing what it sounds like when someone is. And I did not hear that tonight.”

  “But I heard voices,” he said stupefied. “They cried for help. I could hear them!”

  Violet looked towards Rose for justification.

  “Those weren’t their voice you heard,” she said discreetly. “Those were the voices of the flames speaking to you— persisting you to hand over your life. They tend to do that when a fire does not trap any poor souls in its heated web. A nasty thing if you ask me.”

  Violet and Billy were tongue-tied.

  “I do suppose you think I’m loony now, don’t you?” Rose washed her dirty hands from a basin of water. “But it's the real truth, believe it or not. Your village hosts many obscure guests. I could sense it in the air when I arrived. Not all things are as they used to be, but you wouldn’t want to get all tied up in that sort of mess.” Rose wiped her hands on a small tea towel. “Care for some dandelion root tea?”

  A look settled on Violet’s face meaning no. “Allergies,” she lied.

  “What sort of mess do we host?” Billy asked unable to take his mind from the subject.

  A starburst of aventurine tinted Rose’s eye in splendor.

  “Lies,” Violet said.

  “You’re one to call a lie after you’ve just lied,” Rose said in response. “It’s impossible to be allergic to dandelion tea. All herbalists know that. Or was that a lie too?”

  A red shame flushed her cheeks. “What if you’re trying to poison us?”

  “After I just helped you?” Rose sounded offended. “If I wanted you both dead, I could have done so already. Didn’t you know that if you stared into a red jasper for too long, you can steal someone's sight? You’ve been looking at it since you got here.”

  Violet fluttered her eyes like a flower from the sun, adverting looking at the jasper. “Nonsense.”

  “The veil over your eyes, remove it and see clearly!” she barked, waving her hands. “Strange things are happening and you know it. Things that make no sense to your perfect way of living.”

  “I’ve seen abnormal things,” Violet confessed, retreating from her statement. “Met people who don’t… belong. But there are many people who don’t belong here. Especially now. But, there was this girl. And you remember those men chasing us through the streets?”

  Billy’s head bobbed.

  “They reek of oddity,” she said recounting the events. “Their eyes were blacker than… that stone!” Violet pointed to a piece of black tourmaline. “They were vile and evil. My skin raised when they looked at me.”

  “See? It’s not all that it appears to be,” Rose said lounging on a chair.

  “Then tell us what it all means,” Billy commanded. “If we’re so… blind.”

  “Once I do, your child-like world will be destroyed,” Rose said leaning up. “This isn’t child’s play. Conflict surrounds you… invisible but they’re dangerous. I’ve seen Woolbury. You people couldn’t handle it.”

  “I’m not a child!” Billy barked. “And I’m not like people here.” Billy’s chest raised and his posture straightened.

  “As you wish…” Rose said. The candlestick’s dimmed and stories of ancient and terrible conflicts burnt.

  The enemy escaped from the burning blaze to find their horses.

  With the company of a prisoner, they returned to the forest’s edge. Saliva dangled from the sullen mouths of their mares, revealing blackened teeth. Their horses reared and kicked the air fiercely. They were thirsty and irritable.

  “He’s riding with you,” Remus said in a horrid tone as he untied the reins from a tree.

  The mare shifted once they strapped Edmund's unconscious body on. Eyes as red as the sun watched as they mounted their saddles and regained control. They synched the bits in their mouth as tight as possible, gaining total obedience.

  “We may be able to intercept them,” Remus said sniffing the air. “That’s where they’re headed. We can kill them there.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I swear it— on my deathbed,” he growled. A stumpy figure rested motionless on the edge of a dilapidated stone wall. An oiled bird with blood-red orbs for eyes. The bird twitched its head in a ghastly manner as if eavesdropping on their conversation.

  His accomplice twirled Quinn’s dagger nippy through his gloved fingers. “Then I can return this,” he said splitting his sides with pain. “And what of him?” referring to Edmund.

  “He’s useless once we get the boy,” Remus said coldly. “Wouldn’t mind killing him and making the boy watch. They’ve all been a thorn in our sides.”

  “Right you are.”

  “Angelia?” Edmund muttered, unconsciously.

  “Shut up!”

  The beasts rode their half-starved mares into the forest’s shade, bloodthirsty for Abbott and seeking revenge from Quinn.

  The raven cawed and spread its oil feathers in the night sky to report its findings.

  “You’re telling me that there are two different worlds?” Violet said flustered.

  “Mhmm, always has been, always will be,” Rose’s thin lips took a sip of her tea. “Soren sought out to it.”

  Billy said nothing.

  “But that’s—”

  “Impossible? Yes very. But somehow, likely.” The questions Violet fired off, felt like a game to Rose. How naive people are in this world, she thought to herself. Oh, better yet, selfish, to think they’re the only ones. “My worlds just as old as yours, although not as advanced.” That’s why Rose enjoyed traveling here. Although she had her crystals and precious gemstones, nothing quite beats the thrill of watching the works of modern-day machinery. Pure wonder and all without any magical aid. How fascinating.

  The stories Rose spoke of were like the fabrication ones you’d tell a child before being tucked into bed. Billy heard them all before as a child, but there was a dimension of truth to Rose’s voice. The same truth that carried in Abbott’s. A truth that he hadn’t, yet discovered in his own.

  Violet paced around the tent hyperventilating. “I can see some of these occurrences as odd, but with what you’re telling us— these came from literary minds and that’s where they stay. This isn’t real. It can’t be real.”

  “Could you take us back with you?” Billy said, interrupting Violet’s meltdown. “Take us back to your world? Show us what you speak of.”

  “Are you out of your mind!” she stomped her foot. “Clearly, whatever that fire did to you has disoriented the part of your brain that determines logic!”

  “Why not?” Billy sa
id. “I have no family and no future here. No one will even notice that I’m gone. Do you think Ms. Menagerie will notice my absence? Perhaps when her estate turns into a hellhole but not before.”

  “You’d just leave?” Violet said in a pleading tone. “And what of me— of our future together?”

  “There was never going to be an us,” Billy said truthfully, “I’m such an idiot thinking I could make a person fall in love with me. I’ve lied in the process. Abbott was right. I shouldn’t have lied.”

  “What’re saying?” Her blue eyes turned glossy and began filling with tears.

  “Come on Violet, if you were clever, you’d come with me,” he said removing a tear from her cheek. “Think of all the adventures we could have— permitted if you’ll take us back.” Rose nodded blissfully. “Does getting married and having children in Woolbury all you want to amount to? It sounds like a bore when I say it out loud.”

  But the answer was an easy one for Violet. That was how she was raised. First, you got married, then you had as many children as your hips allowed, and once they were all old enough to leave, you gardened poppies until you entered your grave. “Adventures—I don’t know. Mother and father would be horrified of my departure… they love me!”

  “So what? We’ll be back… eventually. What’s the harm in doing things for yourself… unexpected? I think we should go. Things like this don’t happen every day.”

  “No!” Violet exclaimed. “I do want to have children! And to marry a man who is… normal. This isn’t normal, can’t you see? This all has been too much to wrap my head around. First, I’m being chased by men who want me dead, and for what? And now, I have learned the workings of a fairytale. I’ve had my fun. I will not play into these falsehoods of snobbery!”

  “Then I simply do not buy into this idea of settling down. Not with what I know now. I want to be someone! I want to matter to people. I’m as worthless as a stone throw around here” Billy said abashedly. “I can’t begin to promise myself of a future that will not be. To stay in Woolbury is self-sabotage. I will amount to nothing.”

  “If my hand is not enough for you, then so be it. I do not wish to be with a man who abandons his responsibility for some whimsical adventures. There’s no duty in leaving the people around you. That’s childish!”

  “Responsibility of your royal tush?” he chuckled. “I am an orphan! I have no parents. I do not have the luxuries afforded to me that you do. They abandoned me! It was mere luck that I didn’t freeze to death.”

  “I’d hardly call my life luxurious.”

  “So be it. Privileges you may say. Regardless, my mind is made up and it seems as if yours is too. I’m leaving Woolbury for good. It has never been welcoming to me. Orphans creep people out.”

  “But—”

  “I can’t give you what you want either and quite frankly, that’s fine.” The words came like cold water over a deep sleep. Billy's decision was final. Violet tried to convince him otherwise, but nothing could persuade him. “This is goodbye,” he said offering a measly-old handshake. This was the first time Violet’s words and ocean eyes failed to get what she wanted. She ran from the tent, tears streaming down her cheeks, crying hysterically.

  The negotiations withered before Rose like an oxygen choked herb. Billy was hard-nosed and unmoving— an intriguing trait, she thought. Not even a beautiful woman could turn his gaze, the qualities of a lord. “Pity,” she added. “Was beginning to like her myself. Herbal knowledge is hard to come by these days. Especially in Evinar.”

  “When can we leave?” Billy said reminiscing over the golden beauty he was leaving behind.

  “I meant to leave tomorrow at first light, but given my display earlier, people might come asking all sorts of questions,” Rose said revealing her teeth. “I can have the whole lot packed up in the blink of an eye.” And sure enough, gemstones, crystals, and amethyst tapestries started filing themselves neatly into their respective crates. The entire spectacle was something to see. Where had all of this ruse of splendor been hiding?

  Rose went outside to gear up her blue oxen, Lapis with heavy leather pulling harnesses. Billy watched as the tent neatly folded around him and before he knew it, the armchair he was sitting in started to vibrate.

  “I wouldn’t.” Billy picked up the armchair himself and put it into the back of Rose’s cart by a stack of wooden crates. A group of men from earlier stared as they walked by. “Convenient nonetheless. You don’t have to lift a finger. Must be nice.”

  Rose grinned. “Don’t need to fetch anything before we go?”

  “No,” Billy said sharply patting down his pockets. “All I own is on me now.”

  Rose’s brows lifted in shock. “Then that’s sorted, shall we?”

  “Happily.”

  Lapis released a loud groan and flicked her tail back and forth. The cart inched forward and Woolbury stayed just where it was. There wasn’t a shred of regret in Billy’s mind. Even as he saw the red, watered face watch him leave.

  12

  Quinn preferred her homeland. From what she saw in Woolbury, it was dull and dreary— without any color. In Evinar, everything was vastly different. You had the job of staying alive in a world crammed with lawlessness. It posed a threat even for those who were born and raised by the chaos. But given the current set of events, Quinn found dread in both worlds. Woolbury, the place where her father was murdered, and Evinar, the place where her father would no longer be.

  The eeriness of the woods offered a wave of peace to Abbott while he conjured every possible scenario. Just yesterday, none of this would have mattered to him. Just yesterday, Abbott was in no danger of being killed. And just yesterday, he was reading by his father’s bedside, appreciating his company. These thoughts felt like old memories now. The same could not be said for Quinn. Her emotions changed as fast as the wind blew.

  “They killed him!” she yelled to the skies. A sputtering of wings dispersed into the air, frightened. “And just like that, I supposed to forget?”

  “No,” Abbott said, attempting to calm her down. “You’re not— but we’ll meet the same fate if we don’t move forward.”

  “You think I’ll run from them now? No, I’ll search for them— and end them both. End them all like I should have when I met them. If I’d only done that, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “And what soothing would that do?”

  “The exact soothing I need!” she blared. “Once I get my knife back again.”

  Abbott was taken back by the anger. “His death won’t be for nothing.”

  “And how do you know that?” Quinn yelled, growing like a fire. “Your father’s not the one who’s dead.” The hard lines of her face said far more than she let on.

  “Revenge will destroy you,” he said as he snapped the branch of a tree in his pathway. “I know that to be true. I know what it feels to—”

  “No, you don’t! Stop making your experiences my own.” Quinn didn’t say another word as she balled up her fists and drove them through the rough bark of a tree. “Ouch!” she cried through the woodlands. A crimson liquid ran down her first two fingers. “You don’t know what these people do in my world! They destroy everything they touch like a plague. A death in your world is forbidden. The rules won’t allow it. They’ve used dark magic in order to do so. Their very hearts have corrupted— and all for the Weeping Woman.”

  The frustration never seemed to end with Quinn, but Abbott needed her. He couldn’t find his father without her help. He wrapped his arms around Quinn in an embracement. At first, the gesture was unwelcomed as she tried to pry his arms off, but in time, it was what she desperately needed— and wanted. A burst of tears leaked from her eyes, as she gasped for her breath, hoarse, and animal-like. Quinn squeezed Abbott tighter than he would have liked, but he was prepared for it. The ordeal nearly drove him to join. The way she whimpered ached his heart. This could be him, and he thought about that.

  “We’ll be together the entire way,” he said st
rongly, not trying to pass any more of his emotions onto the situation. “I won’t leave you. You have my word.”

  Quinn was silent. The promises he made were far above those she could have made herself, and yet, they were what she needed to hear, genuine care from the heart. Quinn held Abbott close to him, not wanting to let go, the pain was too much to think about, but he was right— revenge would hurt more. It was a thought she’d have to mull over in her mind— for her head, and her heart had different desires. How could the people who destroyed your life be allowed to live without any consequences?

  “Where is this archway?” Abbott asked. He felt if he had any chance of saving his father’s life, he could not let Quinn’s rage consume her.

  “This way,” Quinn said, straightening the collar of her coat. “We’re going a different way. I'm the only person who knows it exists. It will keep us safe.”

  The secret way took them deeper into the woods, farther than Abbott had ever been before. A twiggy brook flowed from a hillside under the base of a collection of rocks like white noise to their worrisome ears with a tinge of musky fish. From there, they discovered a pack of wild rabbits gobbling from a berry bush. The berries sent a pungent odor in the atmosphere. The trees in this part had thicker branches with knobby roots. It made the ground uneven and increasingly more difficult to trek.

  “It’s a shortcut,” Quinn ensured, lifting her lips into the first smile in a while. Abbott sighed, passing through another sticky spider web. “We’re almost there.”

  The words lullabied Abbott’s sore feet into bliss, and before he had a chance to consider asking again, Quinn pressed her hand against the bark of a tree. They were stationary for a moment. Then she walked off into the underbrush that led upwards. Abbott followed. Once they reached the top of the ridge, the sun met their sweaty faces.