Lanterns In The Sky

by P. S. Malcolm

  "The fire,” I said, recalling how she'd fought Jason off to protect me. It hadn't made sense to me before, but I didn't understand why until I absorbed the lantern. "Only royals possessed magical powers. Adrina wasn't royal, so it was unheard of."

  Jason shook his head.

  "You didn't know,” he explained. "You never would have, if we'd succeeded. But the reason the rebellion formed was because Adrina had this power. You see… Adrina was a royal."

  My blood ran cold.

  "Wait… what?"

  "Adrina was your sister. Your older sister. Meaning she was the true heir to the throne."

  I shook my head, unable to comprehend it. Valarie… my sister?

  "But that doesn’t make sense,” I insisted. "How did I not know that? Why would she be living in the village? Why didn't my parents tell me? Did the kingdom even know?"

  "It was covered up,” Jason explained. "There was a prophecy that forewarned that Adrina would cause devastation if she came into power, so the king and queen took measures to separate her from the throne. Nobody knew. Not even her… until we found out the truth, of course."

  I felt like my mind was exploding.

  "So… the rebellion… you trying to kill me…” I said, piecing it together. "You were trying to give her the throne."

  "Yes,” Jason admitted. "We recruited help from Urenphia to do it. Someone in the palace—the same person who leaked us the information about who Adrina really was—put us in contact with them. They joined our cause, and we promised them access to our lands in return. Adrina worked her way into the staff, becoming your handmaiden. We both had inside positions, allowing us to learn your routine and the palace's layout as we planned the attack. But when it finally came time to carry it out, Adrina couldn't do it."

  He hung his head.

  "She'd gotten to know you… and she thought you weren't deserving of such a fate. She begged me not to go through with it. I thought she was just scared. I just wanted the best for her. I wanted her to have her rightful place, everything she deserved… so I went behind her back and initiated the attack. She tried to save you…"

  Tears formed in my eyes. Jason looked so guilty, and hearing the emotion in his voice made my chest constrict.

  "I messed everything up,” he confessed, his voice raw with emotion.

  Valarie had given up everything to save me. If she hadn't; if I'd still been in my bedchamber that night… all of this would have gone so differently.

  "Once she started fighting back, I knew she'd never forgive me for what I'd done. Despite everything we'd been through, you had a stronger bond. You weren't just best friends—you were sisters, sharing the same blood."

  There was a moment of silence before I spoke.

  "How are you here now?” I asked. "If you didn't reincarnate?"

  "After you and Adrina…” he trailed off, swallowing hard, "… after you ended… it was just the Urenphians, myself, and the villagers. The Starlight Royals were dead. A handful of angels remained on this side of the barrier. The rest were on the other side. And the rebellion didn't know what to do. We had won… but we'd also lost."

  For a moment, he was silent as he remembered back to that time. A bitter expression crossed his face.

  "Our leader was gone. You took her from us, and for the longest time, I resented you for that. You took the love of my life away from me, and I knew that years down the track she'd get to live again, but I wouldn't be there with her. I just wanted to see her one more time, and make things right."

  "So how did you do it?” I asked slowly.

  "The Shadeows from Urenphia were trapped. They had their own magic, giving them a way to continue their legacy. Every single one of them could form a single bond with one human alone, enabling them to continue their lineage. When the original Shadeow died, the human possessing their bond would inherit all their strength and knowledge, becoming a Shadeow."

  "Is that… who those people were?” I asked, remembering Chrissy's helpers from earlier. Jason nodded. "Their names are Devian and Skye Breckton. They were like us until a year ago: normal humans who attended public school. But then Chrissy and Kale offered them power through the bond and… well, now they're Chards, which is the title given to a Shadeow's successor."

  I nodded slowly, taking in what he'd said.

  "As time went on, a lot of the Shadeows lost their purpose, and didn't bother to keep renewing their legacy. It finally came down to Chrissy and her brother, the last two remaining. Their power alone wasn't enough to be a threat, but they refused to give up. And I couldn't do anything about it. In fact, in order for me to withstand centuries of time, in order to see Adrina again, I had vowed my own allegiance to the Shadeows back in the beginning. In return for giving them reign of the kingdom, they helped make me immortal."

  "Immortal? How?"

  He winced, clearly pained by what was coming.

  "Angels have this thing called angel essence. We took one angel, and we forced him to give up his angel essence. Without it, he became a fallen angel. A monster. I was able to live through the centuries, never ageing. Always waiting…"

  I didn't know what to make of what he was telling me. He could have stopped all of this. He could have taken the throne and changed the path of everything, but he gave it all away for Adrina. He let people die, and took lives, just to see her again.

  I didn't know if that was right.

  "Part of my vow was to help them find the Starlight Princess and the celestial lantern, but in return, they couldn't harm Adrina."

  "And you trusted them to keep their word?” I asked dully.

  "Of course I didn't trust them,” he said, shooting me a glare. "But they know what I'm capable of."

  "So you did lead them to the lantern,” I said slowly, feeling betrayed that he'd lied earlier. I had so many mixed feelings right now. What did I believe?

  "No!” he said urgently, fists clenching. He inhaled deeply. "I've had a lot of time to think about my mistakes. I hurt Adrina the first time when I went against her word. I lost her because I was selfish and reckless. I'm never going to make that mistake again. Seeing her as Valarie, seeing you befriend her again… it was like watching history repeat itself. It made me realize that if this has happened twice now—if your friendship has withstood thousands of eras—then I'm not meant to mess it up. I'm meant to make this right."

  He paused, swallowing hard.

  "I changed my name multiple times to avoid conflict, should anyone realise I wasn't aging, and I pretended to go to school for a while. That's why I befriended Adam, to keep up the act. He never found out the truth about me, or anyone else… I just needed a reason to get close to Chrissy and her brother, so that I could do my job. I wanted to blend in, appear normal, while I waited for the right time to approach Valarie. But I could never seem to find one. It felt weird to just turn up and expect her to want to talk to me. What if, after all this time, she didn't like me? But then one day, I found her at a party, crying her eyes out in the bathroom."

  His eyes were shadowy and filled with guilt.

  "I knew immediately that she was drawn to me in some way. That our connection had sparked once more. But I'm not worthy enough to ask for her love again… for her trust, after what I did. I can't do that. Not until I earn back the right. That's why I've been helping you since the moment I found you in the clearing. I could have taken the lantern then and there, handed it to Chrissy, and been done. But instead, I led her astray, and led you to the right answers. I made sure to stay one step ahead of Chrissy by giving Andrew the lantern, giving you time to recall your past. When that lantern made contact with you the first time, your memories started returning, didn't they?"

  I was speechless as I nodded slowly. I didn't realize he'd been discreetly helping me this entire time. He looked at me firmly, with a deep intensity.

  "Chrissy thinks I'm fully devoted to her. I had to tell her you had the star in the beginning because she sent me after it, and she couldn’t know I'd g
iven it to Andrew for safekeeping."

  I nodded slowly as things finally started to fall into place.

  "I had to find a way to get you to that party, because Chrissy wanted you there no matter what. It was part of her big plan, to try and trick you before you could realise what was really going on. As she kept failing, I had to keep delivering to keep her from suspecting me. I had to disclose the star's location for that reason, but I got it out of the observatory before she could get there.”

  Something occurred to me, and I butted in, "You knew that Andrew could protect it—that's why you gave the star to him for safekeeping. And I know that you made the decision to retrieve it again to stop Valarie's blackmail from getting out. But if that was the case, why did you have to steal it from under Andrew’s nose? Why couldn't you just ask for it back?"

  He leaned back a little, huffing.

  "Chrissy has the ability to use mirrors as windows, to see what you're doing,” he said, and a sick feeling developed in my gut. "She would have seen me ask him, and when I didn't give the star back, she would have figured out I'd turned on her. I have to be very careful about what I do, or else she might catch me. That's how she knows so much about everyone in this town."

  A cold shiver ran down my spine.

  "She can watch us?” I repeated, feeling numb. He nodded.

  "Everyone has a reason for becoming a Chard. Though most are forced into it, the best Chards are chosen based on their personalities. In Urenphia, Shadeows are among the most powerful beings—becoming one is a great privilege, and most Shadeows do not renew their legacy without a cause. Those who are not a Shadeow or a Chard are just plain Urenphian—basically human. This unique power has allowed the Shadeows to continue the fight and keep passing information along withoutlosing passion for the cause or giving up on it.

  “Before Chrissy and Kale became Chards, they were ordinary people too, with their own problems and their own needs. You'd be surprised what people would do just to turn their lives around. If you were handed power and freedom on a silver platter, and all you had to do was serve a loyal cause, wouldn't you do it too?"

  I pondered over his words and the meaning behind them. Just what kind of lives did Chrissy and Kale have beforehand? I vaguely remembered their parents dying in a fire a few years back. It had been a tragedy, but now I wondered if there had been more to it.

  And when I thought of my own situation… there were times I felt the pressure to be perfect, and to do well. My future had been set in stone at birth: to study at Cambridge University. Sometimes, I wondered what my life could be like outside of that, and whether all my hard work and success would lead to a life that I really wanted, or if I was only living the dream my parents were carving for me. If I were offered an alternative, where there was no pressure, just the freedom to explore my options and figure out what else I could do with myself… would I be bold enough to take it? Or what if Valarie were offered a way to bring back her father? Would she take it?

  "So now you know,” Jason said, interrupting my thoughts. "You know why I did all the things I did."

  And he was right; everything did make sense. All his shady behaviour—even at the party, where he hadn't tried to stop Chrissy from making Valarie do that dare. It must have killed him to stand there and act like it didn't bother him. The tiniest hint of sympathy blossomed inside of me, but it wasn't enough to change how I felt about him overall. He'd still tried to kill me, and he'd taken an angel's soul. I could never do that—not for the selfish purpose of just seeing someone again.

  "The only way I can win Adrina's forgiveness is to help you win against the Urenphians. You have the power to defeat the Urenphians and save this planet—and I'm going to help you do it. But you have to let me help you. You have to trust me, if not for anyone else but Adrina."

  I nodded, understanding. He wasn’t doing this for me. He was doing it for her. If I wasn't the key to winning Valarie's trust back, I might as well have been dead to him.

  "How do we do this?” I asked quietly. "The legacy has passed onto the Shadeow's Chards, right? If we kill Chrissy, it just means the power will pass through to them. How are we going to defeat all of them?"

  Jason shook his head.

  "I've spent centuries by their side. I've learned a thing or two."

  He got to his feet and offered me a hand. I gingerly took it, still a little unsure of him, but if he did plan to betray me, I couldn't show my weakness. I gripped his hand firmly, letting him pull me towards him. He turned and continued speaking over his shoulder.

  "The angel I spoke of? He's still alive—they keep him locked beneath Chrissy's manor."

  He pushed aside a few boxes until he found the one he was looking for. It was half open. Rummaging through it, he brought out a long object covered in navy cloth. Jason unwrapped it, revealing a sword that glinted in the candlelight. My stomach folded into itself when I recognized it.

  That thing had almost beheaded me once.

  It took all my strength not to back away from it, but I couldn't stop my muscles from tensing.

  Jason noted my expression.

  "Relax,” he said dully, lowering it. "Remember how Andrew had starlight in the lights of the observatory? Well, if we can infuse starlight into this sword, and drive it through the fallen angel's heart, he'll revert back into a pure form. The same goes for any being that's been tarnished by dark magic."

  My eyes widened.

  "So you're saying… if we drive the sword through the hearts of those Chards, they'll become human again?"

  Jason nodded.

  "And if that happens, the Shadeows won't have a way to continue their legacy. Their death will be final, and the Starlight Barrier will remain intact forever."

  "So how do we get starlight?” I asked.

  Jason’s tone was dry when he spoke. "I was hoping you'd have an answer for that, Starlight Princess."

  I grimaced at the sarcasm tinging his words. I didn't have the faintest idea. My mind was in the strangest place. I was just as clueless as I was knowledgeable, stuck halfway between two lifetimes of memories. It was frustrating, to say the least.

  "Can’t you conjure it?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "No. My magic is limited to shields,” I told him bitterly. Kind of a sucky power, when you thought about it. And yet another reason I was in this mess… I would have been better off with Valarie's flame magic.

  Valarie…

  I wondered if she was alright. Peering out of the boarded windows, I noticed the sun was setting in the sky. My parents would be wondering about me, and so would Valarie’s mother. What would they think when we didn't show up? I still couldn't go home. It was far too dangerous.

  There wasn't anything else we could do but wait until we heard from Andrew, so I ended up sitting back down on the dusty mattress. After what seemed like hours, I laid down, and before I knew it, I was dozing off into another memory-filled dream.

  Nine

  For once I wasn't running, and my heart wasn't pounding— it was steady and calm, gently pulsing in my chest. I walked slowly, keeping pace with a lady on my right. She had the same golden blonde hair, the same fair skin, and was dressed so beautifully it was almost a gift to look upon her features.

  Her gown was of chiffon, almost creamy, with silver flowers and bronze leaves woven into the fabric. They glimmered like tiny stars under the soft kiss of the sun streaming through latticed windows. Upon her hair was a crown.

  "Are you nervous?” she asked me in her gentle, soothing voice. She seemed to float along beside me like drifting starlight.

  I shook my head. "I've never been more ready,” I told her. I'd spent my life training for this moment. It had been drilled into me from the moment I'd been born: you are a shield, made to serve and protect the people.

  The lady—my mother—slowed to a stop. She peered over the opulent balcony railing into the courtyard below. The tiled stone shimmered in the sunlight, and fountains trickled down the walls, reflectin
g the sun. Many people were enjoying the palace gardens—all of whom had come for the coronation. My coronation.

  "I think they are ready too,” she said, smiling softly. Turning back to me, she placed her arms on my shoulders and added, "You have grown into such a strong woman, Annaliese. I know deep down you'll make good decisions for the sake of these people."

  I nodded, her words filling me with courage and strength. Like warm honey seeping into all the crevices that held doubt and fear, eradicating them…

  * * *

  I shot up, gasping. I had to clutch the mattress, and I realized my cheeks were wet. They burned in the freezing night air. I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes shut.

  I didn't know if I liked these memory dreams or not. They gave me information, but they filled me with so much emotion I didn't know I even had. Yet again, I'd been reminded of someone I'd lost that fateful night. My mother. My parents. I couldn't imagine losing the parents I had today, but knowing my beautiful, gentle, loving mother from my past life was gone forever… it was heartbreaking. It almost felt like I'd known her deeply, but had never gotten to be with her.

  "You okay?” a voice said in the darkness. I jumped.

  Jason was on the other side of the mattress. Like, as far away as he could possibly get. But he still eyed me with concern, his features illuminated by the moonlight seeping through the broken window.

  "I'm fine,” I mumbled, not wanting to share the details with him. I turned away from him and hugged my knees to my chest. My mother was gone, and that was his fault too. Everything was his fault. How had he lived through so many centuries and managed to carry that burden?

  No doubt my own mum was worried sick about me by now. I hated that I'd let my previous mother down, and now I was letting my current mother down too.

  I was still shivering. There were no blankets—nothing to keep me from shaking. My teeth were starting to chatter, and I was about to lie down again and try to sleep through it when I heard a loud thump from outside. I jolted, scrambling off the mattress, and Jason leapt to his feet.