The Starless Girl

by Liz Delton

“Listen, you can’t tell anyone about—” She gave them a significant look. “Mistress Nari and Ichiro didn’t want anyone to know. That’s why I’m pretending to be from the Shadow region; I was found near there. You have to promise,” she pleaded. She wished she had her own fiery knife to brandish to enforce the point. “They’re worried about the Storm King’s spies,” she added.

  Zowan narrowed his eyes at her but nodded. Jun bobbed his head, and Kira whirled back around, having heard the cry again, only louder now.

  They emerged from the woods on the other side of the village from the healer’s tent. From here, the tear in the earth spread into the distance. Not a hint of Light energy could be seen inside the crack. It was an unnervingly black rip upon the landscape. Kira was sure that the cry was coming from inside it.

  She rushed over, right up to the edge. She had never been afraid of the dark, even before she had begun to see Light magic.

  “What are you—get away from there!” Zowan said, dashing up beside her and pulling her away.

  “No, wait, there’s someone down there!” she said, yanking her arm away from him.

  “How can you see anything?” Jun asked, coming up behind her. “Why is it all black, anyway?” he asked no one in particular.

  “I don’t know, but I swear I saw something move.” She wriggled free from Zowan and crouched toward the edge again, peering into the blackness.

  A gentler hand squeezed her arm this time, and Jun said, “Get away from there.”

  Kira listened, remembering Mistress Nari’s worry about what might have caused the earthquake had it not been Shadow magic nor nature.

  “You couldn’t have possibly seen anything down there,” Zowan said. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s not natural. Come on, let’s get you two back to the tent.”

  Jun said nervously, “It’s like something sucked all the Light magic out of the earth here.”

  From inside the rift, out of the blackness, came a soft whimper. Kira could tell the others had heard it this time, from the way their heads whipped around.

  “By the darkness—there is someone down there!” Zowan summoned a ball of flame in his raised hand; it grew for a moment, hovering in the air, and then he let it fall gently into the rift. It sank through the darkness like a leaf falling from a tree. The three of them came right to the edge, toes poking over the unnaturally dark abyss.

  The ball of flame lit the rent earth as it fell and finally shed light on the form of a little girl, asleep, curled up precariously on a ledge. Kira and Jun gasped. The small ledge was large enough to hold the girl and little else. It was a miracle she had landed on it. She looked about six or seven, and in her hand, she clutched a small, fluffy-looking doll. Her pudgy cheeks were streaked with soot, with tear tracks cut through.

  The ball of flame halted. Zowan drew a deep breath and held out his hands, palms up, as if placing them underneath the little girl. He drew another breath, and the little girl rose, lifted by Zowan’s Shadow magic. The girl floated seemingly unsupported out of the black abyss. It seemed like it took a lifetime for Zowan and his Shadow magic to lift her. Her head bobbed, and her little feet dangled limply in his hold, until finally she was up and in Zowan’s arms.

  The mage pulled away from the edge and strode several paces away before setting her down.

  “Is she all right?” Kira whispered, sinking down on the ground beside them. The fluffy doll had fallen from the girl’s hand, and Kira picked it up and tucked it carefully under the girl’s arm. It looked like it was supposed to be some sort of animal.

  Zowan checked the girl’s breathing. A tiny snore snuck from the girl, and she rolled over, clutching the doll to her chest. Kira let out an involuntary chuckle.

  “I wonder how she got down there?” Jun asked.

  “We can wonder all we want later,” Zowan said shortly. “Let’s get away from here, shall we?” The mage glanced over his shoulder at the rift then bent to pick up the girl once more.

  They walked back the way they had come, by the edge of the forest. They said nothing until the healer’s tent was in sight.

  “What I want to know is,” Zowan began softly, “how you could hear her from where we were in the woods.” He gave Kira a look out of the corner of his eye.

  “I don’t know,” she replied wearily. “I could hear crying is all. Oh no—did she drop her doll?”

  “What doll?”

  “It was fluffy,” Kira explained, now looking back along the way they had come. “Looked like a little animal or something.”

  Even with her enhanced nighttime vision, she could see nothing other than the dirt and leaves along the edge of the wood. She shrugged and caught up with the others.

  Zowan woke Mistress Tori after Kira and Jun had a chance to return to their blankets. Kira knew enough of the healer that she wouldn’t appreciate two of her charges wandering the streets in the middle of the night.

  “Lord Zowan, what’s—who’s—?” they could hear Mistress Tori saying sleepily.

  “I found her asleep on the street; she must have been wandering. Would you look after her till morning?”

  “Sure, sure,” she replied, and Zowan stalked off into the darkness soon after.

  Kira turned to look at Jun, his face outlined in the subtle glow of Light. He opened his mouth to speak, but Kira beat him to it.

  “I’ll tell you about the Starless Realm tomorrow. Right now, I just want to sleep.”

  Her wish didn’t take long, and soon an entirely natural blackness settled on her eyes as her lids drifted closed.

  When she woke the next day, Jun was gone. Nesma was nearby putting her shoes on, and Hikaru had disappeared again. Kira felt a jolt as she remembered what happened last night. Jun and Zowan knew her secret. She would be in huge trouble with Ichiro and Nari if they knew. Her stomach plummeted, recalling Ichiro and Nari’s reason for the secrecy. If the Storm King somehow found out, she could be dead and not just in trouble.

  “Get moving, girls,” Mistress Tori instructed them from the tent, where she was changing a bandage on a man’s leg. Kira didn’t see the little girl they had rescued anywhere.

  “Did Lord Zowan stop by last night?” she asked carefully. “I thought I heard his voice.”

  The healer glanced up from her work and gave a small smile. “Yes, he found a little girl on the street as he was patrolling—her mother came by this morning, said the girl sleep-walks. She’d been looking for her since dawn.” Case closed, Mistress Tori returned to the bandaging.

  One less thing off her mind, Kira slipped her shoes on and ran her fingers through her hair, then went with Nesma to the nearby stream to splash water on her face. Kira felt slightly guilty for not telling Nesma what happened, but she didn’t want to invent any more lies. It would be difficult to explain what she had been doing in the woods with Lord Zowan and Jun in the first place.

  Next, she had to find Jun. He had seemed accepting last night, but she hardly knew him; could she trust him to keep her secret?

  She found him eating breakfast with the last person in the realm she wanted him talking to: Rabenda.

  Trainees were scattered across the grass in front of the cooking tent, some looking more worse for the wear after spending a night sleeping on the ground. Rabenda had her hair in a braid, and Kira was glad to see a stick poking out of it.

  Jun smiled when he saw her—a good sign that he wasn’t telling Rabenda all her secrets. She hoped so, anyway. Kira had no choice but to join them, having already been walking straight for her trainee before she had even realized it was Rabenda he was sitting with.

  She gritted her teeth and sat down next to Jun, who handed her a hot bun wrapped in a cloth napkin.

  “Thanks,” she said, in as cheerful a voice as she could manage. He looked about as uncomfortable as she felt, which made her feel slightly better.

  Rabenda dabbed her mouth with a napkin and gave Kira an awful grin.

  “Hi, Kira,” she said, falsely sweet. “I can’t be
lieve you’re Jun’s mentor!”

  “Oh?” Kira replied casually, picking at her bundle of food. “Well, that’s just how it goes, I guess.” She didn’t really know what else to say. She was somewhat concerned about what Rabenda was on about, especially after Kira bumped into her on the stairs yesterday.

  “I’ve known Jun for ages and ages,” Rabenda gushed. Though a friendly smile was seemingly fixed on her face, it did not reach her eyes, which were full of malice. “Can you imagine, Jun, after all the time we spent talking about Gekkō-ji, now we’re both training? I guess you never thought you’d have someone from the Shadow region as a mentor, though, did you?”

  Jun’s eyes flicked to Kira and away, and he said, “That’s just how it goes, I guess.” Kira could see the corner of his mouth pulling up in a smirk.

  Clearly not the reaction she was looking for, Rabenda pressed on. “Where did you say you were from again, Kira?”

  “Heliodor,” Kira said, bored. After last night’s abduction by Zowan, she didn’t think she’d ever be afraid of Rabenda again. Now, if only she could summon a blade of fire, then Rabenda would have something to fear. She would have to work harder at Light magic, at any rate.

  “Let’s go,” Kira told Jun. “Mistress Tori needs help packing up her supplies.” He sprung to his feet, and they muttered goodbyes to a shocked and irritated Rabenda. She looked as if she had been denied a greatly anticipated treat.

  When they were out of Rabenda’s hearing, a stream of chuckles burst from Jun, and Kira quickly joined him.

  “I think you disappointed her,” Kira remarked when they had subsided.

  “Yes, I think so,” he agreed, still chuckling.

  “First Lord Zowan, now Rabenda—do you know everyone?”

  He shrugged. “My father knows a lot of people. He always has visitors on the estate. Being one of the few Grey Knights in the realm will do that.” Then, in an undertone, he added, “You know about Grey Knights, right?”

  The worried look in his eye brought the smile back to her face. “Yes. Ichiro told me. I think he said his son was one?”

  Jun nodded. “Rokuro Starwind. One of the best. It’s a shame what happened to him. He and my father were close, until—well, you wouldn’t know. His wife disappeared a long time ago, and he was never the same afterward, or so my father says. She was never found, and it broke him to pieces.”

  “I suppose that would happen,” Kira agreed, biting her lip. “How many Grey Knights are there now?” It was freeing, knowing she could ask Jun whatever she wanted.

  “Six.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. There used to be more, before the Fall of Azurite and the Storm King turning against us. Knights used to train at both temples, if they had the potential for both magics. But not anymore.”

  They had slowed as they walked and were now lingering just out of sight of the healer’s tent.

  “So, it’s true, you really are from the Starless Realm?” he whispered.

  She nodded. “Please, you can’t tell anyone.”

  “I would never. But why keep it a secret?”

  “Mistress Nari thinks the Storm King sent something into my realm looking for Light magic,” Kira whispered. “And it nearly got me. She doesn’t want him to find out I came through.”

  “Get moving, you two,” chided a voice from behind them.

  Kira and Jun jumped apart and turned to see Hikaru trudging up behind them carrying two buckets of water.

  “Did they get the well working?” Jun asked. “How?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Hikaru replied, handing each of them a bucket. “We’re returning to the temple soon, and Mistress Tori needs help. Those are for her.”

  They returned to the tent. Their impending departure was evident in the controlled chaos of packing up. Once all the remaining patients had been properly relocated and tended to, Mistress Tori asked one of the Light knights to take care of the tent and cots which had been summoned. Kira watched in fascination as the knight gently touched one of the cots, and a sort of melty glow surrounded it. Then the whole thing dissolved, the magic disbursing itself back into the world around it.

  When this was done, it was as if they had never been there, save for the pressed-down grass where they had all trodden over the last day. Mistress Tori packed up her small box, and they were ready to leave. The village healer had been plied with supplies and instructions for the continued care of the remaining wounded. Mistress Tori had deemed the healer competent enough that she felt confident she could return to the temple.

  None of the trainees remained in the village, only the knights and a few of the masters. The walk back to the temple seemed to take longer than yesterday, but Kira didn’t mind in the slightest.

  She smiled and admired the orange and red blossoming from the autumn leaves as they walked, while she, Jun, and Nesma chatted about nothing in particular.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Page

  “Resume your lessons,” the squire posted on the inside of the temple gate called as they walked through. “Master Starwind’s orders. Resume your lessons.”

  Nesma threw Kira an exasperated look. “I’ll tell them you’re showing Jun around,” she said. “At least you two will get the day off. Enjoy it for us, will you?” She and Hikaru hastily departed for their lessons. Kira headed straight for the garden, the place she had been planning on taking Jun first yesterday.

  It was cool and quiet in the garden. They passed the statue of Gekkō, but she didn’t let Jun examine it long. She glanced nervously around the bench, unsure as to whether she wished to see the spirit of the mountain or not. They left the garden without seeing anything stranger than a fluffy flying squirrel startling them by soaring into another tree.

  Yesterday, Kira had been terrified at the thought of having her own trainee. Today, she was thrilled. Finally, she had someone to confide in. She could stop pretending, a little.

  Once the temple had settled in and everyone had gone to their lessons, Kira showed Jun the bath house. She felt no guilt at all for going around to the girl’s bath and taking one herself too. They were covered in grime from the day before and the night spent on the ground. She was out in a flash and had even found Jun a fresh set of temple clothes before he had finished.

  No longer smelling of smoke and sweat, Kira brought Jun to the Moonstone. When they entered the foyer, however, they came to a halt. Mistress Nari stood there, arms crossed tight about herself.

  “You two, with me now.” She turned and walked down the hall.

  With no choice but to obey, Kira and Jun followed her to a door Kira recognized. Ichiro’s office.

  The man himself was not inside when they entered. Nari pointed at the two cushions on the floor in front of the low table. Kira and Jun sat without question, and then Nari disappeared, sliding the door shut quietly but firmly.

  Kira turned to look at Jun. His eyes were as wide as hers felt. Kira’s imagination took off like a rocket; had Ichiro and Nari found out about their late-night excursion? Had Zowan told someone else about Kira’s secret?

  They didn’t have long to find out. Two sets of footsteps sounded down the hall, and the door slid open a moment later. Ichiro looked somber but somehow excited. Nari looked dour, her expression grave and unreadable. The two masters sat down across from them.

  “I think you know why we’re here,” Ichiro said, reaching behind him and pulling a scroll from one of the compartments in the wall.

  Kira stared at him in horror. Was she being kicked out of the temple?

  She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Perhaps this would solve all of Ichiro and Nari’s problems—the stranger from the Starless Realm disappearing from their midst. But why had they dragged Jun into this?

  “Lord Zowan came to see me.” Ichiro looked down at the tightly rolled scroll in his hands.

  Kira opened her mouth again then closed it. She stared at the scroll, wondering what was written on it in that car
eful handwriting of Ichiro’s.

  “She had no choice but to say,” Jun interjected. “He was going to kill her.”

  Kira’s eyes closed briefly as Jun came to her aid. The words had been rolling around in her brain, but she hadn’t been able to get them out of her mouth. She risked a grateful glance in his direction.

  “I do not doubt it,” Ichiro said gravely. Kira’s head snapped up. Ichiro went on. “And despite two more people knowing of your…situation…we have now found a solution to one of our problems.”

  “A solution?” Kira echoed, completely lost.

  Mistress Nari finally spoke. “Lord Zowan has offered to tutor you, Kira, in the ways of the Shadow region and the Realm.”

  “Z-Zowan? Tutor me? But why?”

  Ichiro and Nari shared a brief glance, and Ichiro got up and went to the shelf in the opposite wall to make some tea. “What do you know of Lord Zowan, Kira?” he asked.

  She turned, watching him measuring leaves into the teapot. “He defected from the Shadow region after the Fall of Azurite. He’s a Shadow mage.” And he’s a jerk, she thought to herself.

  Ichiro pursed his lips as he poured hot water into the teapot. “Indeed. He also hails from Heliodor and, as a mage, is in a unique position to offer a young page guidance, in a way that would not arouse any undue suspicion. He can give you instruction so that you may better blend in.”

  “But I’m a novice,” Kira said, catching something off about Ichiro’s words.

  “Not anymore,” Mistress Nari said and unfurled the scroll.

  Kira glanced at Jun, but he was staring at the scroll. The words at the top were clear. Approval for Advancement.

  “But won’t making me a page look suspicious?”

  Mistress Nari shook her head. “In some cases, a demonstration of valor or skill can be cause for advancement. Lord Zowan told us you were really the one to find the little girl in the rift last night. That sort of thing would qualify. And—not that this part would be public knowledge—but being kidnapped and accused of being a spy by a Shadow mage isn’t something we expect our novices to have to deal with.”