Lodestone

by Katherine Forrister

  The Sateless sprang off Actaeon. Melaine screamed as the creature pummeled her to the ground. Its weight crushed her, and it snagged her hair in its claws and held her head down just as it had with Actaeon. She wriggled in its grasp, desperate to get away before it latched its fetid mouth on hers, but she could barely move.

  Then a bright green light forced her to close her eyes. The Sateless’s weight lifted a fraction, and she felt the heat of its face snap away.

  Melaine’s ears rang from the high, piercing pitch of the beast’s scream. She forced her eyes open and saw Serj standing over the Sateless’s shoulder, holding his lock of hair as if offering it to the beast.

  The Sateless dragged its fierce claws down Melaine’s shoulder and chest. She screamed as her skin split. The Sateless shrieked again as it twisted around and snarled at Serj, but it was too late to attack. Serj’s jade magic flashed again, and the creature dissolved into a black vapor that spiraled into Serj’s lock of hair, twisting ever tighter into the strands. Then Serj stumbled. He winced and doubled over like he’d been punched in the gut. The vapor shivered and bucked within the lock of hair.

  The Sateless was fighting the spell.

  Melaine’s eyes widened as the lock of hair shredded and burst apart, propelling the vapor away. The vapor flew off in multiple directions and thickened and billowed like heavy, black smoke around the library. Each puff split from the others and started darting from one shelf to another as if they were each sentient creatures of their own.

  The Sateless’s shriek echoed through the tower, but it was a chorus of many screams. The individual swirls of vapor all whooshed toward the balcony window. They fled from the library and into the night in a collective regiment.

  “What was that?” Melaine asked. She held her hand pressed against the claw wounds on her shoulder and over her breast. She could feel warm blood on her hand, but she forced her trembling body to sit up. “What happened?”

  Serj was staring at his lock of hair. “It didn’t work.” His face was blank, stunned, and very, very afraid.

  “Why? What happened? What did you do?” Melaine tried to stand. She looked at Actaeon, who was still sprawled out on the floor. She stumbled to him and inspected his face. His eyelashes fluttered, but she could barely see his pulse, and his chest wasn’t rising and falling as it should.

  “Actaeon,” she said. “No. No, hold on.”

  She raised the hand that wasn’t staunching her wounds and focused on sending every shred of magic she carried into her palm. “Please.” She had to make a lodestone, a powerful one. She couldn’t let him fade. She couldn’t.

  Magic seeped from her marrow and through her veins, pulsing toward her hand. She concentrated hard, despite her mind and heart beating in panic against her. Pain prickled her palm, but she kept pushing. A lodestone formed, glinting and perfect.

  She brought it to Actaeon’s lips.

  “Please, Actaeon,” she said. “Here, take it. Take this. Actaeon!”

  Actaeon opened his eyes. Melaine pressed the lodestone against his cracked lips. He inhaled, and her magic coursed into his body. The effects were instant. Color flourished in his cheeks, and his eyes cleared.

  “Melaine,” he said. His voice sounded strong. She grabbed his arm and helped him sit up.

  “Actaeon.”

  “It’s gone,” he said. “It’s gone from the castle. I can feel it, Melaine.” Actaeon smiled, full and bright, and he laughed with joy. Melaine had never heard a sweeter sound. “It’s gone. For months, I’ve felt tethered…like a hook driving into my skin, yanking me toward the creature, so it could consume me piece by piece. I don’t feel that anymore. I’ve been released. I’m free.”

  Happiness bubbled up inside of Melaine with his every word. The strength she had always expected from the mighty Overlord flooded back as if an enormous dam had broken. She could feel his magic growing stronger in his veins, soaking up the air around him. His essence was cool and refreshing and made her toes tingle. A lesser man may have needed more time to recover his magic, but not Actaeon. He possessed so much power, it couldn’t be suppressed once his cage was shattered.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His skeletal hands and gaunt cheeks filled out, healthy and renewed. He seemed to be casting a healing spell from the inside of his body outward. The deep circles under his eyes lightened from bruise-purple to his normal healthy complexion, and the cracks on his lips knit back together until they were smooth and formed another refreshing smile as he opened his bright, crystal blue eyes.

  He was now every inch as handsome as his visage depicted in the tattered broadsheets in Stakeside. Not only his eyes retained a flicker of ferocity; everything about him was fierce. No matter his strength, his countenance wasn’t cold and daunting like on the broadsheets. He was…he was Actaeon, light and joyous and warm.

  Melaine threw her arm around his neck and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his strong, warm arms around her and cradled her head under his chin, stroking her long hair and holding her as if he never wanted to let go. But Melaine grunted with pain, and though she didn’t want him to release her, he stepped back and searched her face with concern. His eyes landed on her hand, soaked in blood, clutching her chest.

  “Oh, Melaine,” he said, his brow furrowing. He took her wrist, and with reluctance, she allowed him to remove her hand from her wound. Hot blood stained her chemise, and she swayed a little, feeling woozy.

  Actaeon pressed his hand against her chest, making her gasp with pain and quiver at the intimate contact. The blood flow ceased as she felt him heal the deep slices the Sateless’s claws had left. He raised his hand to her shoulder, where the skin knit together as well until all signs of the injury disappeared.

  Actaeon placed both of his tender hands on her cheeks and looked at her with such devotion and gratitude, she almost wept.

  “I, uh, I don’t want to interrupt this beautiful moment or anything,” Serj said. “But that thing is still out there. Things. Did you see it split? How many are there?”

  Actaeon frowned and slid his hands down to her shoulders. “What is he talking about, Melaine?”

  “The Sateless,” Melaine said, “Serj almost trapped it in the Insight, but it didn’t work. It split into pieces. It wailed and leapt out the window.” She looked up at the balcony, high above their heads. “If you don’t sense any of it still in the castle, then…where did it go?”

  Actaeon’s mouth hardened into a thin line. “I should have known that fool would spoil this.” He looked at Serj, who glared back. “Tell us, expert, what would your dear Talem say? Where would the Sateless go?”

  “To the largest source of magic it can find,” Serj bit out. “Maybe it decided we were too much trouble, but it needs to find prey—and fast. I can’t imagine it likes being ripped to pieces. Unless that’ll just make it worse. What if it stays that way? What if we have to deal with more than one of those creatures? Seal them each up individually? If we can find them. Oh, gods.”

  “Calm down,” Melaine said. “Spiraling questions aren’t going to help us. Let’s start with the first part. Where is the closest source of magic that would attract it?”

  “The city,” Karina said.

  Everyone looked her way.

  “It’s a feast for the taking, Actaeon,” she said.

  The Overlord stood. He pulled Melaine to her feet with the natural strength of a healthy man.

  “Then we’ll go immediately,” he said.

  “Actaeon,” Karina said with worry.

  Melaine grabbed his arm, feeling a sudden lurch of dread in her belly. “If the Sateless goes straight to the city from here, then it will approach Centara from the south. That’s Stakeside. It’ll hit Stakeside first.”

  “Oh, no rush, then,” Serj said. Melaine stiffened. “I doubt his lordship cares about that part of town. He hardly cares about the rest of the city’s citizens.”

  Actaeon left Melaine’s side and strode to Serj. Serj tensed and drew back a
little at Actaeon’s imposing presence.

  “Of course, I care,” Actaeon said, staring Serj straight in the eyes from mere inches away. “I always have. You think I’ve failed and oppressed my people—at least I think of all of them as equals. You’re satisfied supporting your father and brother’s cult. Their oppression wouldn’t affect you because you can’t make lodestones. People like you aren’t the cult’s enemy. Therefore, you have no qualms with reinstating them and their atrocities. No, Serj, if you care for your little rebellion as much as you say—if you want to affirm your noble cause and watch out for all people of Centara, then you will be at my side on the front lines. Am I correct?”

  Serj’s eyes were wide, but he took a breath and stood straight.

  “I will,” he said, to Melaine’s surprise. His assertion lacked his usual blasé smile and sarcastic tone.

  “If we hurry, we can make it by dawn,” Melaine said. “I don’t know how fast the Sateless can travel—”

  “We can get there much faster than that, Melaine,” Actaeon said with grim satisfaction. “Now that I have my strength back.”

  “A speed spell?” Melaine said. “I saw the Insight in—”

  “Better,” Actaeon said. “We’ll Leap.”

  “Leap?” Serj said, his eyes widening. “You know how to Leap?”

  Actaeon sent him a dry glare.

  “You’ve been holding out on me,” Melaine said, her black eyes dancing as she watched Actaeon extend his hands for Serj and Karina. “If I’d known you could teach me to Leap…”

  Actaeon chuckled. “If I taught you all of my spells, then what reason would you have to stay?”

  “And you needed to keep me for my lodestones,” she said, though she didn’t speak with resentment.

  “I have stronger reasons to want you to stay, Melaine,” he said softly. Melaine’s heart kicked. His smile was tentative but so tender and full of care that Melaine could have melted to the floor.

  “Wild things, all of you,” Karina said. “You plan to go somewhere half-way undressed?”

  Melaine scoffed, but Karina ignored her. The woman flicked her slim wand in the air at Melaine and Serj. The linen of Melaine’s chemise blossomed into two layers, the outer petal thickening as it formed a black silk dress and bodice with silver trim. It was loose enough to fight in. Serj’s simple yellowed shirt and dirty brown trousers fluttered clean, the rips well-mended.

  “Of course, that’s the sort of spell you would know,” Melaine said. Actaeon sent Karina a slight eye roll and smile like any son would send his mother. Karina clicked her tongue in a gentle chide and flicked her wand at him.

  Actaeon’s silk nightclothes billowed and transformed into his regal, black uniform that Melaine had heard tales of in whispers around barrel fires. The ensemble was similar to an overseer uniform, a jacket with square shoulders and a single, diagonal lapel across the chest, though Actaeon’s lacked the white trim. His uniform had buttons down the outer sides of his trousers, but they, too, were black, rather than the white buttons of an overseer.

  Melaine’s favorite part of Actaeon’s uniform was the sweeping, black cloak that now adorned his shoulders as a regal mantle. Every morsel of his appearance exuded power, and as he glanced down at himself, a grim smile graced his lips. His next breath was strong, and he raised his chin and stood straighter. It was clear that he finally felt like himself again for the first time in months, perhaps years.

  He nodded to Karina in thanks and then extended his arm to Melaine.

  “Hold onto me,” he said.

  Melaine felt a flutter in her heart and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into his chest. His heartbeat was a strong drumbeat—a war beat. He was ready to stop the Sateless and save Centara. And she would be fighting at his side.

  “You sure you’re strong enough for this?” Serj asked as he reluctantly took one of Actaeon’s hands. Karina took the other.

  “He’s strong enough,” Karina said. Melaine peeked at her and saw her smile with more warmth than she’d have thought the old woman could possess. Melaine squeezed Actaeon tighter.

  “When we get there, no one leaves my side until we understand the situation,” Actaeon commanded. Melaine nodded against his chest. This was the strong, unwavering voice that had led first an army, then a people. Then again, after seeing his memories, Melaine finally understood that it had once been the other way around. Before Highstrong Keep’s darkness had latched onto Actaeon and his people, he had hoped only for peace in the Wilds.

  Magic—a pulsing beat followed by a cold, swelling wave—surrounded Melaine. Leaping was one of the hardest forms of magic, one of the rarest known spells. The power to actually perform the feat of starting in one place and suddenly appearing in another was even rarer. And to Leap all the way from Highstrong to Centara—if that wasn’t a testament to the Overlord’s magnificent powers, then nothing was.

  As Melaine felt the pull of Actaeon’s magic, she looked beyond his arm to the surrounding library, wondering if it would disappear with a pop or dissipate like dust or wash away with the wave of magic encompassing them.

  She froze as she saw the white apparition of Desiderata lying on the library floor, sprawled out on her stomach. She was staring with wide eyes at Melaine, her face a black-veined, rotting grimace of desperation. She reached out for Melaine as if with her last bit of strength. Something small was in her hand, but Melaine couldn’t see what it was.

  “Stone!” Desiderata rasped.

  Melaine cried out, muffled against Actaeon’s jacket, as the wave of his Leaping spell crashed. She felt like she was being sucked down into a whirlpool, but Actaeon stayed with her, holding her, providing an anchor to her and Karina and Serj as they flailed between a space that seemed beyond the bounds of the concrete world, beyond time, beyond anything that felt safe and comfortable and known.

  Melaine screamed as the physical world suddenly rushed back at her. She felt like she would have been smacked five feet into the ground if Actaeon hadn’t been holding her.

  She heard Serj curse and stumble, but when she raised her eyes from Actaeon’s chest, all she saw from Karina was the woman taking deep breaths through her nose, collected as always. The old maid had probably experienced a Leap before, possibly many times.

  “It’s all right,” Actaeon said, peering down at Melaine. She looked up at him with a small nod.

  Actaeon tightened his hold on her waist as a scream echoed through the air. They were in Stakeside. The low candles guttered in the streetlamps, and the damp cobblestones at their feet pressed cold through the soles of Melaine’s boots. The buildings looked as shambled and off-kilter as always.

  The people of Stakeside were running as if every one of them had just nicked a coin purse.

  Thick, writhing tendrils of black smoke raced through the street, chasing the fleeing people, amassing around the slow and the weak. An old man wailed as one of the smoky masses consumed him. Melaine could barely see him through the smoke, but glimpses of his face revealed terror as the vaporous Sateless penetrated his every pore and orifice. She could almost see the Sateless’s monstrous physical form through its incorporeal smoke, leeching magic from the man’s body as he screamed.

  “Actaeon,” Melaine said, her voice hardly making it out of her throat.

  “We have to get these people to safety,” he said, loosening his hold on her waist so she could step back. “Serj and Karina, go and help the fallen. But leave him,” he looked at the old man, whose body was twitching. “He’s gone. Save those who haven’t been attacked yet.”

  Serj’s eyes were wide and terrified as he watched the old man’s body go still. But then he nodded at Actaeon. He and Karina ran down the street.

  “Can those two manage?” Melaine asked.

  “Better than these poor souls,” Actaeon said. He grabbed Melaine’s arm and started running in the direction of the Stakeside Wall. She ran after him, trying to push out the screams that pulled at her to turn back.

&n
bsp; “Wait,” she said with a sudden drop in her gut. Salma. “I have to check on someone. I have a friend. Please.”

  “If your friend isn’t at the wall, Karina and Serj will find them,” Actaeon said. “We have the entire city to worry about.”

  “You may be used to making sacrifices, but I’m not,” Melaine said. He stopped and scowled.

  “Go, then,” he said. “But be careful.”

  “What will you do?”

  “I can feel it again,” he said, wincing. “Whatever Talem’s spell did…it’s still attached. The Sateless craves to finish me. If I head to the palace, at least its most ravenous mass will follow me. I can trap it inside, and we’ll try to seal it again. Chances are it’s already heading there. Many of the most magically powerful people in Centara are within the palace grounds. These wretches are just an appetizer.”

  “These ‘wretches’ have magic, too,” Melaine said. “I came from Stakeside, remember?”

  “Of course, Melaine,” he said with a weary sigh. “But as terrible as it is, most of the malnourished poor don’t have the physical strength to make the most of their magic. If we get through this, I’ll fix that. But right now, the Sateless is going to be attracted to the palace. Especially if I go there myself.”

  Melaine turned but stopped with one foot toward the thick of Stakeside. “Will you be all right?”

  He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Go and find your friend. Meet me at the palace if you can.”

  Melaine gnawed the inside of her cheek and twitched her thigh in indecision. But Salma’s smile and motherly glares entered her mind, and she knew what she had to do.

  “Don’t die before I see you again, Actaeon, you hear?”

  He gave her a grim smile. “I’ve survived worse. Now, go.”

  He released her shoulder and raced for the Stakeside Wall, his majestic cloak billowing in his flight. A tendril of black smoke shot after him.

  Melaine didn’t have time to make sure he was all right. If he wanted to lead as many vaporous pieces of the Sateless to the palace as he could, then it seemed his plan was already working. She turned around and dashed in the opposite direction.