The Shadow of Our Stars: The Tales of Evinar

by Alexander Richter

  “An inn.”

  “What’s the name?”

  “What does it mean to you?”

  “Only asking. Is that a sword?”

  “No… I mean…”

  “How can you wield it in combat? It’s twice your weight?”

  “I’m not wielding anything in combat,” she said snarkily. “I’m selling it.”

  “How much?”

  “Not enough for you to afford.”

  “I’m Billy.”

  “You sure as hell ask a lot of questions, Billy.”

  Billy paused, but the woman kept moving.

  “I’m Elise,” she said, shifting her wounded shoulder.

  “Pretty name.”

  “What do you know of my name?” Elise turned, her teeth bared.

  “You’ve only just told me it. I’ve never heard the name before.”

  She turned away harshly. Moonlight’s senses sharpened on Billy.

  “What was going on back there? Were those children fighting?”

  “Yes.”

  “What for?”

  “Freedom? Liberty? What sorts of things do people usually fight for?”

  “Power.”

  “Well, there’s none for them here. They’re fighting for survival like most people in Fayhollow.”

  “What are you fighting for then?” he asked, but Elise ignored his words.

  Elise and Billy kept to the alleyways and away from unwanted attention. The commotion of West Row had faded away and the idea of an orphan district no longer distracted Billy.

  “I don’t understand what’s the deal with this place,” Billy said as the rows and rows of houses began to swallow him.

  “What’s not to understand? Can’t you see it for yourself? You and I are lucky. We don’t live in continuous fear. We are outsiders and everyone can smell it.”

  “Smell it? How?”

  “Fear has a pungent odor.”

  Billy thought for a moment as the idea was posed.

  The horse’s hooves clipped and clopped on the stone. Elise motioned for her horse to stop. Wary, her eyes searched for the warning signs that rang through her bones. “Do you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Elise’s eyes darted upward. Something was running over the rooftops. Billy half-hearted joined in the speculation. Thud thud thud! Moonlight flinched in unease. “I think we better speed up this conversation. Where are you staying?”

  “What?”

  “Do you have a place tied to your name? A place we can hide!”

  “I—I— I’m saying at an inn just down the—” Billy looked at the street signs. They were foreign to him now. He had no clue where they were now. “It’s called the Headless King.”

  “Oh great,” Elise rolled her eyes. “That’s exactly where they’ll be expecting to find me. Have you come with anyone?”

  “Yes. A woman. She’s friendly.”

  Thud thud thud! A barrage of figures funneled from the skies and into the alleyway. They were covered in black garbs and non-human looking. Billy felt unhappy but did not run. He listened as they clicked in dialect ridicule with evil.

  “Get on!” Elise had already swung her leg over when she reached for Billy’s freckled hand.

  “What!”

  “Get on! Or you’re as good as dead!”

  Billy grasped Elise’s hand and joined her on Moonlight’s back. Moonlight reared in response to her rider's commands and stormed off down the lane. “We’ll go to the inn. Hopefully, I can lose them in the streets. Yah!” she cried. Her mount responded.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t have time to explain. Just hold on and don’t die.”

  Don’t die? He thought.

  “They’re after the sword.”

  At that moment, Billy looked at the object strung around Elise’s shoulder. It was bound in linens, but beneath the cloth, he could see its markings. They were glowing a bright yellow. It reminded him very much of what he saw in the waters.

  28

  The hammering of iron on iron rung through the keep's walls, a mound of weapons lie, as a result. As Lilith's allies planned for the looming war between the mortal world, Edmund lay bound in a deep dark abyss. Beneath the armory, he was accompanied by nothing but a few scraps of food they’d pitied him with. His eyes rolled back in his skull dismally, hoping for an end to his misery. He spent most of his time wondering what his son was doing. Was he safe? Where was he? And above all else, he prayed Abbott did not come looking for him, but he knew how stubborn he was. He’d taken after himself.

  There was no telling how many days passed since he was put in this prison. Without any clear indication to mark the day's transitions, he was forced to guess. He counted the antagonizing beads of liquid fall on his wrinkly face for what seemed like endless time. He would succumb to death here. There was no doubt in his mind of that, but whether or not he’d lose his mind first was another question entirely.

  The pit, as it was called by the men who’d thrown him there, was inescapable. The only way out was by lowering a ladder. The pit was the height of a small mountain and enclosed with bars on all four surfaces. It reminded Edmund of the helplessness of his dreams. The ones about his wife. But he hadn’t been able to dream since he’d arrived in Unduk Validur. He could barely close his eyes long enough to wisp off into slumber. Angelia would have known what to do in this situation. He was sure of it. He needed her and her charisma.

  The metal grate over the pit's summit rang with a clatter, and above Edmund made out the shapes of the vile creatures who’d secured him. Their hateful eyes were visible in the darkness like little beacons. “Get up!” they yelled, whilst they tossed a pail of murky water down the chute. “She wants to see you.”

  Instead of letting down the rod iron ladder, which Edmund had no strength to use, they lowered a rope to tie around his waist. They heaved his dead weight from the bottom of the pit until he reached the top.

  “Good thing I have you to do all the work,” Edmund said blissfully.

  “Shut up!” one of them kicked him in the side.

  The last time Lilith requested Edmund’s presence things ended on a bad note. Lilith’s temper was cruel. His wit and humor could no longer be thrown into conversations casually. She’d kill him if so, but maybe he wanted death in this regard. It would have been better than returning to that well of hell.

  Beneath their tattered hoods, they drug Edmund up the innermost turret's staircase until it branched off into Lilith’s quarters. Her ranks did not permit them to proceed. Instead, a pair of personal bodyguards resumed Edmund’s escort up the remaining flights of stone stairs. They came to a dimly lit hallway with pewter cauldrons of choked fire lining the carpeted way. On the far end was a double door with an additional guard on each side.

  As they approached the door, Edmund’s escorts whispered a few words in Vailïc before the guards opened the pathway into Lilith’s chamber.

  “—March the stronghold south…towards the Archway,” Lilith said condescendingly. “I will join you once a few matters have been resolved. You are to take all of them. Including my personal guards, and you are not to move past the river until I arrive. If word breaks out of our movement, I’ll claim your life for it. The time is nigh.”

  Remus nodded in acknowledgment and departed from Lilith’s turret with the meandering escorts.

  “And what matters need resolving?” pipped a voice low to the floor. It sounded like a mouse to Lilith.

  “Killing your son.” She turned to Edmund lying on the floor.

  He flinched.

  “Been looking forward to it ever since my ravens spotted him headed for my valley.”

  The words drained the blood from Edmund’s face.

  “A little pale are we? Didn’t expect him to come, did you?” Lilith grinned while she dug through a mountain of parchment upon her observation desk. “It alines perfectly with my window of opportunity. By tomorrow nightfall, during the Night of the Moon
, the gates between Divine Kingdoms will be opened in his death. Old laws will be undone, and I will march my men though to take what was rightfully owed to me by blood right.”

  “You’ve forgotten something, haven’t you? Old magic cannot be undone without the blade of Inedal, and it has been lost to the land for generations. You will never find it in time.”

  Lilith’s nose came within an inch of Edmund’s, so close he could feel her evil breath exhaled from her lungs between words. “That’s where you’re misguided. You see, the broadsword has been found and is due to arrive in my possession soon. When I said things were coming together, I meant it. Nothing can stand in my way. Not even your son. Once I have the sword, you may as well swear allegiance to me or die. You know the powers which it grants the user. I’ll be unstoppable.”

  Confidence radiated throughout her ominous voice. It frightened Edmund. If she was telling the truth and she’d retrieve the broadsword of Zane then no one stood a chance between her and victory, not even his son. With the aid of Inedal, she’d rule the Divine Kingdoms unmatched and unchallenged.

  The flock of spies perching on her iron balcony chuckled at Edmund’s humiliation, and the lines on his brow deepened like a ravine. Lilith's heart’s desires were to come to fruition. Neither Zane nor Angelia could help Edmund now. Abbott was unseasoned and sheltered from his true namesake. The chance for their son to have a real life, failed. Their attempt to protect their only son from their past and the world they’d come from was no longer plausible. An intuition of remorse lumped like a boulder into Edmund’s pit. Had he sent his only son to the slaughtering house unprepared?

  Lilith took the liberty to fit into her battle attire. She tugged on the strings of her gauntlets while Edmund sunk invisible to the floor. She tucked her long spun silk hair down the back of her chest piece. Her flesh was waxy under the dark, and her lips were canvased with a fresh coat of ruby sheen. Lilith’s loyal ravens flew from their railing up into the ceiling rafters to fetch an assortment of items. She stored them respectively into the pockets of her undergarment, along with her obsidian knife beneath her iron corset.

  “Things could have been different between us, you know? That was if you hadn’t chosen to betray me at the end moment. Oh, how hearts change so quickly when new beauty is shown. Death will be a sufficient payback for the misery you’ve caused me.” Lilith’s eyes fractured as she reminisced on old memories. Rivers of pain streamed down her fiery cheekbones.

  The chamber door screeched open. A man holding an object wrapped in linen entered. He had a look on his face that was exultant. Lilith diverted her attention from Edmund, her eyes returned to their normal waxy complexion.

  “As you’ve requested, my Queen,” said a man dressed in a black cloak with a high collar. He had disfigured ears like melted wax. He held out the object delicately, allowing the linen to fall from his fingers. The shimmer of steel sparkled out the turret windows.

  Lilith’s faith was restored as she carefully removed the advantage from its presenter. She studied it in detail before she proceeded with her discourse again. “You’ve done well, Gorwin,” she said fondly.

  Gorwin waited in anticipation for his reward.

  Lilith did not stir.

  Edmund cracked his weary eyes open in disbelieve. He could hardly believe what they were seeing. But here it was in the flesh. The broadsword of Zane in all its former glory without a blemish or tarnish to be seen.

  “Leave us.”

  “B-but my Queen… y-y-ou said—“

  “OUT!” she screamed lowering the point to his throat. “This is the sword but it’s deficient. It’s missing the most critical— You fool!” Her eyes flashed towards the hollowed-out space at the sword’s hilt where a few reminisce of chisel marks remained.

  “B-b-but I’ve— I didn’t— the girl in Fayhollow, she must have taken it! I knew she would double crossed me! I c-can get it back for you—“

  “Idiot!” Lilith’s eyes cracked again like rivers of fire, and the entirety of the room shook in warning as she plunged the sword deep within Gorwin’s chest. Full of malice, she watched the light leave his eyes and his body slump to the floor while decompressing from his last breath. The sword was incomplete, useless without what was taken from the hilt. It would have no authority, no control to be wielded in its current state. The inscription along the sword’s inner edge spoke of it. This was no more than any normal blade.

  “NO!” Lilith cried, chopping through the air haphazardly, cutting her observation desk down the center.

  As the fragments of parchment floating through the chamber settled, Lilith washed the residual metallic liquid upon Gorwin’s lifeless body. Her eyes darted back to Edmund, who was laughing on the floor.

  “The Night of the Moon is near, and I’ll rip your son’s heart out if I have to. Nothing will prevent me! Sword or no, the Divine Kingdoms will be mine!” Ravens screeched and stormed out the turret window like a well orchestrated master of death.

  The Night of the Moon was near.

  29

  Billy and Elise rifled through the stables doors of the Headless King inn. The jaunty stableman awoke, knocking his egg-shaped head over a low hanging rafter. As if driven by instinct, he jumped to calm the bucking horse with a fistful of hay. “Whoa there!” the stableman said, waving his grubby arms over his head.

  Elise released the silver mane from her grip. Moonlight stilled as her enormously flared nostrils caught wind of food.

  “What on devil’s earth was that all about?” Billy said breathlessly. “And who were they? We could have been killed!”

  “I don’t have time to think,” she said, annoyed by his childish worries “They won't be too far behind. This woman who accompanies you, where is she now? Can we meet with her?”

  “Inside the room, I’d expect.” The vigor in Elise’s voice terrified Billy. It was like she knew something but had no intentions of bringing him into the foreground with the knowledge. She was a stranger. That’s exactly what she was. Who's not to say, she provoked these pursuers?

  “Moonlight, you’ll have to wait here.” Elise turned to the stableman, “See to it she gets fed and watered properly. I’ll be back shortly, and there better not be a hair on her neck that’s been messed with. Got it? Or I’ll have your left hand.”

  “As you command, my lady, as you command,” the stableman grinned and skipped away while retrieving an oak brush to smooth down the upward hairs on the horse’s rear. “Be good as new when I’m done with her, I promise.”

  Elise removed a golden disk from her satchel and flicked it with her thumb. The stableman grinned perilously at the disk and shoved it into his pocket.

  Billy watched the exchange with intensity. There was a superior presentation to her like she had done this before. She seemed to be accustomed to having those beneath her to serve her needs. He had never seen anything like it back in Woolbury unless you counted the relationship between him and Ms. Menagerie.

  The stableman began to hum a tune as they departed into the inn's quarters. Billy barely caught half of it, but what it sounded like made the hair on his neck stand. “Farewell, farewell. May death be ever so swell!”

  The inn’s entrance hung crooked on its iron hinges, broken by brute force. A knot formed in Elise’s already pitted stomach. “No,” she said silently as if almost inside her head.

  The interior was smashed to bits. Where old paintings once hung, broken wood scattered the floors, and where Billy had eaten earlier in the day, was charred by an arsonist. A low standing smoke floated over the tables where embers clung for life. At the back of the room, carved into the wooden paneling, cruel words read, Where is it now?

  Elise froze dead in her tracks. “We shouldn’t be here. It’s not—“

  Someone began to crawl slowly out from underneath a table once they heard footsteps. Billy recognized the floral patterns of the gown immediately. Her curly silver hair was ladened with accumulated shards of wood, her skin stained with black soot
, and her face framed with scorch marks.

  “Rose!” he yelled, leaning down. “What's happened?”

  The red jasper pendant clung to her aged neck, covered in blemishes. “They came for me. I had no choice but to give them what they wanted.” Rose’s narrow fingers climbed to her chest and held the stone on her neck delicately.

  “Who came for you?”

  Elise stood back, surveying the destruction as Billy and Rose talked. A look of concern spread over her face. She peered over the wooden counter and saw a man’s unconscious body. Who were they dealing with? For every possibility dancing into her mind, another seemed more forward than the last. Were they here for the sword?

  “The boxes in my cart, they’ve stolen them. I was tricked.” Defeated and exposed, Rose found Billy’s ginger hand and placed the pendant inside it. “Take this,” she said. “It will be of more help to you than me now.”

  The gesture came without reason. He did not know what it did or why he would need it in the first place. And he could hardly muster up the courage to ask why she would want him to have it. It felt like a goodbye more than it did anything else. Did Rose think she would die?

  “I think we should leave,” Elise said as she bent over a pile of debris to find another innocent life underneath. “Now!”

  Rose nodded in agreement.

  Billy tucked the jasper necklace into his trouser pocket, “I can’t just leave you here.” But even he could tell the direness in their voices. They could not stay much longer. The path of darkness continued to encase him wherever he went. This would be a moment of departure from Rose, the only safety he’d known since leaving Woolbury.

  “You must,” she replied in a lowered voice, “leave.”

  “But you’ll—“

  “Death does not wish for my soul today.”

  He wiped the few tears collecting on his nose. “I will see you again.”

  She beamed in remembrance.

  Together, they ran back to the stables to collect Moonlight. The stableman was gone, and Moonlight’s mouth was bound in rope. “What has he—“ But before Elise could finish her thought, another stitch popped in her shoulder, and the stable rafters creaked. The hooded figures leaped at them both with efficiency and imprisoned their wrists. Out from the shadows strutted a man Elise dreaded.