Stargazers

by Bella Forrest

  “Will it take long?” I asked.

  “I can’t give an exact timeframe, but with a sample of Lazar’s blood, we should easily be able to reverse the immortal effects,” he replied. “Since the answer to the riddle of immortality has already been solved, working backward is not difficult. Indeed, it is almost disappointing how easily immortality can be taken away.” He sighed heavily, his gaze drifting out of the bedroom window.

  I smiled. “Perhaps true immortality doesn’t exist.”

  He turned back over his shoulder, shooting me a curious look. “No, perhaps it does not.”

  The following morning, after I left Nova asleep in the Fed ship with Seraphina, Jareth called us back into the room he was using as a laboratory. We’d requested the privacy of the Fed vessel so our daughter’s crying didn’t disturb anyone, though Seraphina had been sleeping next door in Kaido’s ship. Kaido had offered it to her so she might have some space for herself, moving himself to the hut. By the looks of Jareth, he’d been working through the night. The rest of us had slept soundly wherever we could find space, the events of the previous days taking their toll. One person stood sentinel at the door of Sarrask’s cottage, switching shifts throughout the night, in case the queens showed up. With the sun rising, and no knock at our door, it looked as though our ruse had worked. It was too early to call it, but it genuinely seemed as though we had tricked them into believing that the rebels had stolen Lazar back. I prayed they never discovered the truth.

  “Have you reversed the process?” Navan asked, staring intently at his father.

  “I have, my boy. Like I said… easy.”

  “How do we test it out? Should one of us hold Lazar while you inject him?” I wondered, glancing at Lazar, who was sleeping on the cot against the far wall. Evidently, Jareth’s brother didn’t fear being slaughtered in his sleep. Not by Jareth’s hand, anyway.

  Jareth shook his head. “No, no, it does not require a serum or an injection,” he explained, his tone frazzled. “The reversal process requires a form of immersion. The whole body must be doused and soaked through.”

  My excitement dwindled. “How are we supposed to do that?”

  “Kaido has a large tank in the living room, used to house his larger shrubs,” Jareth went on. “We must empty it of those useless weeds and fill the tank with the anti-elixir solution. A large component is water, so it should not be too difficult. Once he has been submerged, we will know if the anti-elixir works.”

  “Yes, but how are we supposed to get that to work on the rebels?”

  “The tank is a concrete means of testing the anti-elixir’s potency. Once we know the concoction actually works, all we’ll have to do is saturate the rebels in it, to get it to reverse.”

  Navan nodded in understanding. “Like the sleeping mist?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Then let’s get to work on the tank,” Navan said. “Riley, can you head downstairs and get some of my brothers to help you move the plants?”

  I thought of Kaido, feeling a twist of guilt. “No problem.”

  Leaving them to discuss the minutiae of the upcoming experiment, I sprinted across the landing and down the stairs, discovering Kaido creeping around the kitchen. He was preparing a vial for his breakfast, doing his best not to disturb his snoring brothers. I beckoned to him from the bottom step and led him into the lounge where the rest of our group were snoozing.

  “You need to help me empty that tank,” I whispered, pointing to a large glass case at the side of the room. It had a tangled tree inside, bulbous white fruit growing in the branches. A soft glow shone from the fruit, silvery veins pulsating with dim light.

  He gaped at me. “But that is my snowfruit. It requires constant supervision.”

  “Your father needs the tank for something else. I’m sorry, Kaido.”

  He nodded miserably. “I understand. Maybe it will survive in the hut for a while, if you help me carry it there. I shall have to keep the roots intact… in a bucket of water, perhaps.”

  “Whatever it takes,” I promised.

  With that, we set to work moving the snowfruit from the glass tank, tiptoeing through the kitchen with it precariously balanced between us. The biting Vysanthean wind stung at my skin, making me shiver immediately. I gritted my teeth against it, helping Kaido’s tree along to the hut. After depositing it there and leaving Kaido to um and ah about how to keep the roots alive in a selection of buckets he’d procured from his ship, I raced back to the house and pounded up the stairs.

  “The tank is empty and ready,” I gasped.

  Jareth smiled. “Excellent.”

  He moved toward his brother, who sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes. Sensing the imminent threat of truly having his immortality taken away, Lazar shuffled back. Undeterred, Jareth grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. Navan stepped in to help, the two of them hauling Lazar out of the room and down the stairs, despite his thrashing limbs and protests.

  “You cannot do this. I am striving for peace. I must have my immortality to see it done!” he shouted, fighting the grip of Navan and his father. No matter how hard he battled against them, they were too strong.

  “Sorry, Brother. We need to know if this stuff works.”

  “Use the other man you dragged here, then!” Lazar urged. “Spare me this.”

  Navan grimaced. “There’s nothing to fear, Uncle. We’re just going to take the immortality away, that’s all. No harm will come to you.”

  “But how will you know if it has worked?” Lazar murmured. “You will have to kill me to find out.”

  “No, we won’t,” Navan promised. “We’ll take another sample of your blood afterward, to see if the elixir is still present.”

  He paused. “Do you swear it?”

  “I swear it.”

  Jareth was notably silent.

  Father and son placed a subdued Lazar inside the glass tank and began to fill it up with the liquid Jareth had been creating all night. Disturbed by the noise, those sleeping in the lounge awoke to discover what we were doing, while the Idrax brothers in the kitchen remained fast asleep. I had to hand it to them—they could sleep like the dead.

  The rest of our crew joined the production line, bringing bucket after bucket of liquid to the edge of the tank, where they poured it in. Soon enough, Lazar was completely immersed, the liquid reaching the top of the glass case. He seemed surprisingly calm, considering there was fluid all around him.

  A moment later, his eyes went wide. Panic set in, prompting him to thrash against the glass in desperation. I had a feeling the anti-elixir was starting to work. Did Lazar know his life was now on the line? It seemed like it. The immortality elixir took away the base survival instinct within a person, since there was no risk of death to contend with. Now, it looked as though that instinct had kicked back in, in a big way.

  “You will be fine, Brother. You need to calm down. We will remove you in a moment!” Jareth assured him, but it did nothing to calm his brother. He thrashed ever harder, pounding his fists against the glass. The façade splintered, a web of veined cracks appearing. As he punched the glass again, a section broke away at the very top of the case, leaving jagged teeth at the edge. The broken pieces tumbled into the tank, sinking to the bottom.

  “Does he know how to swim?” I asked. He was completely submerged and appeared to be freaking out.

  Jareth shot me a look. “He doesn’t need to know how to swim. We’ll remove him in a moment, once he has passed out! He is in no danger. Coldbloods can hold their breath for several minutes. He will easily recover, and your comments are not helpful.”

  “But he’s not holding his breath, Jareth. He’s panicking!”

  “A few moments more!” he insisted.

  “Uncle, calm down!” Navan yelled, trying to get Lazar to look at him. I didn’t know what else to do to help, and Lazar didn’t seem to be listening to anyone. His need to survive brought him up to the surface, though his legs kicked awkwardly and his arms
flailed.

  He scrabbled for purchase, gripping the unbroken sides of the tank in his eagerness to escape. He pulled upward, struggling against the viscous liquid that sloughed off his body. Beneath his palms, the slippery substance sought to destabilize his grip. He was halfway out when his hands slipped, bringing his neck down hard on the jagged glass, impaling himself. I tried to get my legs to move, to run toward Lazar, but they were frozen to the spot. Everything had happened so fast, my mind and body were unable to process how quickly a life could be snuffed out. My hands wanted to reach for him, and my brain knew I had to help, but I remained stuck to the floor, unable to do a damn thing.

  Navan lunged forward with a cry of despair, hauling his uncle out of the water and onto the floor. Angie screamed, covering her mouth. Bashrik and Ronad froze, speechless, while Lauren turned her face away. Only Stone and Nisha looked directly at the tragic scene, unmoving. Blood and fluid pooled around Lazar, his eyes bugging out of his head as he choked on the liquid. It bubbled out of the gaping hole in his neck, where the shard had been. Tearing off his shirt, Navan sank to the ground, cradling Lazar on his lap as he tried to staunch the blood pouring from his uncle’s throat, but it was too late—Lazar’s immortality had been successfully washed away.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Leave us,” Jareth whispered, collapsing to his knees beside his brother. “All of you, leave us.”

  “Father… I’m sorry,” Navan gasped. Jareth couldn’t look at his son. Instead, he pulled his brother toward him, rocking the dead coldblood in his arms like a child. Soon enough, his body would turn, leaving nothing but ashes. It was the least we could do, to leave Jareth to grieve until that moment came.

  “I said leave us,” Jareth hissed.

  Exchanging glances, the rest of us stumbled out into the kitchen, where the Idrax brothers were stirring. They rubbed their eyes, looking to us with surprise. Somehow, they’d slept through Lazar’s protests. Seeing all of them, I realized I couldn’t be here—I couldn’t stay in the suffocating atmosphere of this cottage a moment longer. Lazar was dead, and it was all our fault. He had never been a perfect man, but he hadn’t deserved to meet an end like that.

  Clutching my stomach, fearing I might be sick, I darted across the kitchen floor and out of the cottage. Behind me, I heard Navan’s footsteps on the flagstones, following me into the crisp morning air. The icy wind slipped beneath my clothes. I didn’t care. I needed fresh air in my lungs and sunshine on my face, to bring me back down to earth. The image of Lazar’s final moments replayed in my mind, sanity slipping away a little more with each repeat. We’d killed him. We might not have meant to, but we’d forced him into that tank, and now he was dead.

  “Riley, wait,” Navan pleaded.

  I ignored him, pressing on toward the Fed ship. Opening the hatch and storming up the gangway, I didn’t stop until I reached the room where I’d left my daughter sleeping. Seraphina was curled up nearby, my entrance waking her suddenly. Still, I focused on nothing but Nova, crossing the bedchamber and plucking her from her hovering crib, holding her tight in my arms. She was the one true reminder that there was good in this universe, regardless of the terrible things going on within it. Evil had stemmed from her innocence. In that way, I forced myself to remember that hope could spring from the darkest of places.

  “He’s dead, Navan,” I murmured into Nova’s downy hair. She sniffed, snuggling into my shoulder.

  “A terrible, tragic accident,” he replied, stepping up behind me and putting his arms around my waist. “But we can’t let it stop us from achieving what we need to.” His voice was thick with emotion, the words trembling from his lips. Peering up at his watery eyes, I could see he was just as devastated as I was. Lazar might have done some unsavory things, but he was still Navan’s family, a man who had saved us more times than he’d betrayed us.

  Seraphina frowned. “Who is dead?”

  “Lazar… There was a mishap with the tank we used, trying to find out if the anti-elixir worked,” Navan replied.

  “I’d call it more than a freaking mishap.” Shocked tears trickled down my face. I kept thinking I’d get used to the sight of blood and gore, but it never got any easier.

  “I’m so sorry,” Seraphina gasped. “I didn’t hear any commotion from the house, or I would have come immediately.”

  I sank down on a nearby chair with Nova in my arms. “There’s nothing anyone could have done.”

  “I suppose that means the anti-elixir was a success,” Seraphina said solemnly, her eyes cast down. “What an awful way to discover its fulfillment.”

  “A cruel twist of fate,” Navan agreed.

  “And what do you plan to do with the anti-elixir now?” Seraphina went on quietly. “I do not mean to sound unfeeling, but we don’t have a great deal of time to execute our plan. The queens may not have Lazar to make the elixir for them, but it will not deter them from snatching another rebel. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had sent another strike force already.”

  “You’re right. I know you’re right.” Navan sighed wearily.

  I looked to him. “I’m guessing we won’t need that much liquid for each rebel?”

  “No. Now that we know it works, we can concentrate the fluid into a much stronger potency that requires less of the base water to carry it,” he explained. “Then, we can disseminate the anti-elixir through the same means as the queens, with their sleeping mist. We can use ships to spread the liquid in a mist, across the rebel army. We’ll also need to involve our task force, to infiltrate rebel ships and douse some of the rebels by hand with… well, the equivalent of water guns.”

  If Lazar hadn’t been skewered less than five minutes ago, I would have laughed at the prospect of our allies soaking the rebels with water pistols. It was absurd. The mental image alone felt like something out of a comedy sketch. But, if it did the job, I supposed we’d end up having the last laugh.

  “Water guns?”

  Navan nodded. “The boys picked up a load of flamethrowers from Harko’s contacts yesterday. He’s certain they can be modified to hold and spray the anti-elixir. They just need to be loaded with the stuff, and they’ll be ready to go.”

  I whirled around as Bashrik staggered into the room, stooping to catch his breath, though he couldn’t have run far. The cottage was barely a minute’s walk from the parked Fed ship. His eyes were wide and panicked, showing the whites.

  “Bash?” Navan leapt toward him.

  “Jareth wanted more samples, so he sent Szayan to check on the other rebel prisoner. As soon as Szayan opened the door, the sly bastard got out,” Bashrik explained hurriedly. “Punched Szayan square in the face and made a run for it. Garrik and Lojak tried to block him off, but he got into the house. We’re pretty sure he’s still hiding in there somewhere.”

  “Keep Nova with you and keep the door to this ship locked,” Navan instructed Seraphina.

  She nodded. “Of course. Be careful, all of you.”

  We hurried back out of the Fed ship and sprinted for the house. Entering through the front door, it was clear the place had been put on lockdown. Nisha and the rest of the Idrax boys had split up, seeking out the escapee, while Angie, Lauren, Stone, and Ronad had the possible exits blocked. We brushed past them as we entered, a tense air settling across the house.

  “Who’s in the lounge?” I asked.

  “Jareth. He’s gathering Lazar’s ashes,” Ronad replied, his eyes flitting about the small cottage. How could one coldblood escape from all of us in a place like this?

  “Has anyone checked on Sarrask?”

  Lauren shook her head. “The brothers are scouring the landing, but nobody has been in or out of Sarrask’s room except Sarrask.”

  I frowned, heading for the staircase. Taking the steps two at a time, I moved across the landing and stopped at the farthest door. Rethela and Nisha were standing in front of it.

  “Is he okay?”

  Nisha nodded. “Seems to be.”

  “He hasn�
��t come out?”

  “He came out a few minutes ago, but darted straight back in. Think he got confused,” Rethela replied, a surprisingly empathetic note edging his words.

  “Is it okay if I go in?”

  Nisha nodded. “Go ahead. He probably needs to be calmed down.”

  I knocked on the door. Without waiting for a reply, I pushed it open and stepped inside. Sarrask was sitting in the middle of his bed, his nose buried in a geology book. He seemed completely oblivious, but that wasn’t exactly a shock. He’d probably remembered there was an escapee in the house and forgotten again. The previous evening, Szayan had told us that he’d tried a couple of things to get Sarrask’s memory back, or improved at any rate, but only time would tell whether they had worked. From the looks of him, we were going to have to wait a little longer.

  Undeterred, I wandered around Sarrask’s room, yanking open the doors to his closet and dresser, just to be sure. He looked at me nervously for a moment or two, before returning to his book. The place was empty. Sarrask was the only one here.

  “What’s going on down there?” he asked, as I came to a halt, putting my hands on my hips in exasperation. “I keep hearing people clanging about.”

  “We brought a prisoner here yesterday. He’s escaped, and we can’t seem to find him,” I explained.

  Sarrask frowned, scratching the back of his neck. “Weird. This house isn’t exactly massive. He can’t have gotten far.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Do you think he jumped out the window?” He peered at me over the lip of his book.

  I shrugged. “Not sure.”

  Completely stumped, I wandered over to the window on the opposite side of Sarrask’s room and glanced out. The window itself was locked in place, not even a breeze getting in from the outside world. Where the hell could that guy have gone? I turned to Sarrask, wondering if there was a way I could spark his memory. He’d gone back to his book, scratching hard at his neck.