Aster Wood series Box Set

by J B Cantwell

  “You have a lot to tell me, I would imagine,” she said to Cait. “Did you enjoy your time on Earth?”

  Cait’s expression changed, and she looked almost puzzled by the question.

  “Sometimes,” she finally answered.

  She nestled her head into Larissa’s chest, breathing in the woman she had bonded with so quickly, so completely.

  Larissa looked at Kiron.

  “Did you tell the boy?” she asked.

  Kiron looked guilty.

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “Tell me what?” I asked.

  It was only then that my eyes fell back on the group of people huddled around the fire, and I realized that one of them was twice as large as any other.

  Erod stood, and I saw with a gasp that he was glowing. There was no fire at all; it was his glow I had seen. From head to foot, the giant man who had once saved me from a watery death was as bright as a beacon in the black night.

  “Erod?” I asked as he drew near. “Is that really you?”

  His face cracked into a wide smile.

  “You’re here,” he said. “My running-mate.”

  I laughed and nodded.

  “But how did you—” I began. A stirring behind him distracted me, and my gaze fell to the figure beyond.

  Erod reached back with one long arm, and slowly drew out the person who had followed him into the clearing. He turned his head toward her, a look of concern on his face.

  “It’s alright,” he said gently, and I saw now that the girl, though clinging to his side, was hiding from us. Erod’s hand, enormous and bright, covered her entire head like the paw of a giant bear. She shook her head vigorously, but he persisted.

  “Come around where they can see you,” he said.

  Kiron then spoke behind me.

  “Come on, girl,” he said. “You can’t hide forever.”

  Something about Kiron’s tone made my stomach twist. My brain fought to figure out who he was talking to, what girl stood now behind Erod.

  Finally, reluctantly, she stepped out from behind him.

  And my blood turned to ice.

  A mop of chopped, white-blond hair stuck out from her head at odd angles. Her robes hung around her, tattered and dirty, but the green I remembered still shone in her eyes, clear and bright through the grime of her travel.

  Erod’s hand brushed against her head tenderly, lovingly, and swept the pieces of hair away from her forehead.

  And there she was, staring back at me after all this time, frightened, timid. Those green eyes that had belonged to my friend, and later my enemy, barely dared to meet my own.

  Jade.

  Chapter 5

  I stared. My mouth opened in protest, but no sound came out.

  And then I was slammed to the ground so fast I couldn’t imagine where the attack had come from. My head spun from the blow it had taken against the rock.

  In a flash, hands were around his wrists, wrenching him away from me. Just as his own hands were reaching for my throat, I caught the glint of blue in his eyes.

  Dad.

  Erod gripped him in his enormous fists and thrust him away from me. He hit the stone face beside us so hard I thought he might crumple from the force of it. Instead, he righted himself and came after me again.

  He was no match for Erod’s strength. He struggled beneath his grip, but could not escape.

  I got back to my feet, still spinning slightly.

  What happened to him?

  For days I had felt as if I were waiting for him to crack, for Father to once again become the monster I had seen in the gold mine back on Earth, the dad who was hungry for my blood. But he hadn’t done so much as lay a finger on me since then, not since his eyes had clouded over with the blackness of possession.

  Two wizards emerged from the darkness and gripped Dad by his arms, dragging him away from us. For a moment I thought there was no chance they would be able to hold him back, but I underestimated their strength.

  “Calm yourself, man,” one of them said, his tone almost soothing.

  Then, when they were ten paces from us, Dad suddenly stopped fighting them. The anger seemed to drain from his face, and I could just see in the last of the light that his eyes were black again.

  “What the hell was that?” Kiron spat.

  I was just beginning to catch my breath. I rubbed the back of my head, which was already starting to swell.

  “He’s possessed,” I said. “You saw it before. But sometimes, when the possession falters…”

  “That’s when the bad man comes,” Cait said. She had released Larissa and was scowling now.

  Both Kiron and Erod looked confused.

  “It’s the opposite for him,” I said, trying to explain. “When he’s not possessed, he comes for me. When he is, he’s calm. We don’t know why, but the possession calms him.”

  I glanced at Jade, and fear washed over me, this time for a different reason.

  Erod looked between the two of us.

  “It’s alright, Aster,” he said.

  He approached me, holding out one of his enormous hands and clapping me on the shoulder.

  I should have been happy to see him. I should have been relieved that he was still alive, that he had escaped the wrath of his village after protecting me. I should have been grateful.

  Instead, white hot anger filled me as I peered around him to stare at the girl who had tried to kill me the last time we had met.

  “What is she doing here?” I asked. I wanted my voice to be strong, to show that I had no fear. Instead, my words came out barely louder than a whisper.

  Jade’s eyes were downcast, ashamed.

  I cleared my throat.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, louder this time.

  She glanced up, and I could tell she was on the verge of crying.

  I turned to Kiron.

  “Do you not remember that she tried to kill me?” I asked, accusing. “All this talk of impostors, and this is who you have waiting for me?”

  “You’re walking around with a man who just tried to kill you, and you’re worried about her?” he countered.

  I gripped the staff in my hands. It was noticeably sticky in my grasp, a sign that if I chose to use it, it would not wield power in the way that I wanted it to. I thrust the tip of it hard into the rock at my feet. As the granite cracked beneath me, sending jagged chunks spraying away from where I stood, prickly heat spread across my skin. They stepped back. Every one of them. Even Father.

  But not Cait.

  She walked up to stand beside me, then reached up, trying to pry my fingers from the wood, tugging at my shirt. Without thinking, I relented, releasing the staff and letting my hand drop into hers.

  I would not do this. I would not stay here. The little girl standing beside me was mine to protect.

  “We’re leaving,” I said.

  I wanted to turn to go, but hesitated as I realized I would be turning my back towards a known enemy. Instead, I reached for the link around my neck.

  “No!” Cait yelped.

  Only then did I look down. She stood, strong as ever, imploring me to listen.

  “We need to go,” I said, unfeeling. “These people are dangerous.”

  Even more dangerous than the man I had willingly brought here with me.

  Cait glanced toward Jade, and her face was unsure. She seemed to be deciding something.

  “They might be,” she conceded, her eyes searching Jade’s face for something I could only guess at.

  Jade stared at her, her mouth slightly open, whatever words she had desired to say dying on her lips.

  “They are,” I said.

  “Just listen first.” It was Kiron. He stepped around to face me. “She’s been through a lot.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve all been through a lot, haven’t we,” I spat.

  He stood firm, the old familiar superiority crossing his features for the first time since our reunion.

  I faltered.<
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  “Tell me then,” I said. “Tell me why she’s here.”

  “She came to us first,” Kiron said. “Before any of the impostors. The giant found her and brought her to us. She wants to help.”

  “I broke her away from him,” Erod said. “The dark one. As long as I’m alight, she stays with us. He has no hold on her when I stand beside her.”

  I shifted my weight, trying not to look away from his face, trying to stay strong. But I was curious despite my anger.

  Jade peeked at me from her hiding place behind Erod, her features lit by his glow. Her white-blond hair looked recently shorn, and by someone clearly unfamiliar with basic haircutting principles. Her hair that was so like my own. It was a trait we shared, passed down through our family tree over the centuries. Quickly, her eyes darted away.

  “I’m sorry for what I did,” she said. “It wasn’t me. Not really.”

  “How did you find her?” I asked Erod. He had his arm around her now, comforting her.

  Comforting her.

  “She was in the castle,” he said. “She was trapped there. Well, I guess you know that already. The giants, the ones from my village, were all under his thumb, all working as slaves to the Corentin. Even Druce, our leader, was taken.”

  His voice shook at the mention of Druce. As much as Erod had disagreed with Druce’s rule over the village, he had still been the one Erod had known as their leader for most of his life. It must have been unnerving for him to see Druce overpowered.

  “I stayed among them, though I, myself, was not possessed,” he continued. “There were so many of us, he seemed not to notice my presence among the others. One day we brought a shipment of stones to the castle, and after, everyone left her there. She was all alone in that room, and the sounds that came from within were terrifying. I felt sure that she would not survive whatever was transpiring beyond.”

  He tightened his grip on her, drawing her closer to him in a giant’s hug.

  “I couldn’t leave her there,” he continued. “I waited for the quiet, hid among the vast castle rooms. And when silence finally came, I went for her. It was an accident in many ways. I was on guard, ready to defend myself against whatever it was that was making that noise, so I was aglow when I crossed the threshold. But my power had an unexpected effect. It brought her back to herself. I didn’t know it at the time, but she had been a prisoner in her own mind, possessed and controlled by the Corentin.”

  He looked down at Jade and, placing one finger beneath her chin, raised her face upwards.

  “I thought it had been at her will the entire time. I thought she had been the one commanding my people. But it wasn’t her at all.”

  He paused, breaking his gaze with her.

  “We saved each other, in a way,” he said, a smile in his eyes. “I had spent so long, what felt like years, watching my people enslaved and lost to me. I had tried so many times to free them from the prisons within their own minds. But they were deaf to my pleas, and even my power. I am lucky that I didn’t give myself away to the Corentin, lucky that they were so deep within themselves, so blind, that their minds didn’t even register my presence beside them.”

  He bent low, taking Jade’s face in both of his massive hands, making her cheeks bright from his glow.

  “So, you see,” he said, more to her than to any of us, “you saved me, too. From the despair of my own disuse.”

  Tears glistened in Jade’s eyes, sparkling from the undulating light of his skin. She looked at him with such relief, such hope.

  It made me jealous.

  “I still don’t understand why she was allowed to stay here,” I said. “Why was she not put out like any other impostor?”

  Kiron brushed past me, planting his feet firmly between Jade and Erod and myself as if he planned to defend them to the death if necessary. He glared at me.

  “You still don’t see, boy,” he said through his scowl.

  He reached out one hand to his side, leaving his palm open, waiting. Erod produced a small package wrapped in cloth from within his coat and placed it into Kiron’s outstretched hand. His arm sagged as though Erod had placed a boulder there.

  But it wasn’t a boulder. Kiron approached me, holding the small parcel out to me.

  “You’re gonna need to learn a little forgiveness if you want this to work,” he said, his voice a threat. It was the voice I remembered, the leader I had left behind.

  His old, knobby fingers undid the knot at the top of the parcel and the muslin fell away.

  I gasped, stepping back for a moment.

  In Kiron’s hand sat, impossibly, a chunk of gold bigger than his fist.

  “How did you—where did you—?” I spluttered.

  “She brought it,” he said, inclining his head toward Jade.

  He flipped the stone over and placed it into my palm. My arm struggled with the weight of it. It had to be twenty pounds. I stared at it, dumbstruck. Cait stood on her tiptoes to get a clear look at it, her eyes wide.

  “That’s almost as much as we have,” she said.

  She turned back to look at Jade, who dropped her eyes quickly. Cait released me and danced the ten feet between us and where Jade stood, waiting. Without warning, without a word, she extended a hand to Jade.

  She looked surprised. And then she smiled a shy, grateful smile down at the little girl, and took her hand.

  Chapter 6

  The group gradually dispersed, and soon I found myself standing alone. Father had been released by the two old men, but they ushered him away from me, standing between us and unwilling to let him approach. That was fine with me. I was still shaken by the reemergence of the man I knew wanted to hurt me. Father sat, docile and still, not arguing. I thought about talking to him, but as my head gave a throb I decided I had had enough of him for one night.

  Kiron was the only one who remained beside me as I watched those who had survived Stonemore’s onslaught begin to settle in. Part of me felt relieved that I had found them again, that they were still alive at all. I had spent the past days so terrified that I had somehow misstepped along the trail to my old friends that looking upon them now, a weight I had been carrying gradually began to lift.

  “They’re still alive,” Kiron said, following my line of thought. “But they’re damaged. The past months have not been easy on them.”

  “Do you think we have a shot?” I asked. “We have the gold. Between Jade’s and what we brought back with us, we could probably level the Fold twice if we needed to.”

  “I think we have a chance, yes,” he said, frowning. “But there are new dangers we didn’t expect, that’s for sure. The storm. The impostors. I worry what will happen to the group after we leave. We can’t take fifty men, women and children with us when we go.”

  Jade sat fifteen feet across from us, just out of earshot, settling in beside Erod. She occasionally glanced up at me, her face guilty but, curiously, full of longing.

  “Will she come?” I asked. This time I was more fearful than angry. I was tired, and my skin still stung and itched from the cuts on my face and arms. But thoughts of the danger Jade posed to the party, to those of us planet-hopping, wielding the magic to balance the Fold, still floated to the surface of my mind.

  She had tried to kill me.

  So? Father’s tried to kill you multiple times. You don’t cast him out.

  That was true. But somehow it seemed different. Father couldn’t control himself. It was almost like taking care of a child. He wasn’t himself when he attacked me.

  Neither was she.

  Jade and I had been through so much together, though. I had trusted her, and somehow her falling for the Corentin’s tricks seemed like it was her fault.

  Of course it wasn’t. Nobody was able to resist the Corentin. He was just too powerful. Maybe that was the reason I was so terrified of Jade. Father didn’t have any powers of his own, not that I knew of. But if Jade lost her grip again, if Erod stepped just a little too far away, her immense power ove
r stone would return in a flash, and she needed only moments to end me.

  “She will come if she decides to, yes,” he said. “It could be that she has a use we can put her to. And her contribution to the effort can’t be denied.”

  Something between a groan and a sigh escaped my throat.

  “Give her a chance,” he said. He rubbed the spot over his eyebrows with one ancient hand. “We have all been touched by Corentin evil, every last one of us. Some more than others.” His eyes met Finian’s from across the fire.

  Finian rose from his seat on the cold granite and made his way to us. I hadn’t noticed Finian before now, and as he approached I gasped at the state of his appearance.

  Four long gashes ran down his face from forehead to chin as if he had been attacked by a mountain lion.

  I shuddered.

  When he reached us, he crossed his arms, staring down at me with the same air of irritating superiority he always seemed to wear.

  “Aster Wood,” he said. It was not a question, was barely a greeting.

  “Finian,” I replied.

  “So now you know,” he said. “The princess, long lost and older than us all, returned to her friends and carried with her…treasure.”

  His face looked as though the blood had only recently stopped flowing from his wounds. It was hard to look at him without wincing. Finian had helped defend Stonemore during its final throes and had survived the attacks from the impostors, though it looked like only just barely.

  “What happened to you?” I asked.

  He sat down heavily beside me, groaning as he let his muscles relax against the stone. One hand tentatively touched the edge of one of the gashes along his forehead, and he grimaced. His cheeks, though untouched by the weapon that had produced his wounds, were hollowed from lack of food, just as Kiron’s were.

  “Oh, it was one of you,” he said. “One of the many Asters that have come our way since you left. The one who gave me this was the last one we’ve seen. Until you. Mind you, I did a fair amount of damage to him, too, before he disappeared.”

  One of the gashes crossed his lips, and he licked them gingerly.

  He reached behind him and passed me a cup of something hot and steaming. The small fire that had been set in the camp paled beside Erod’s light, but I was glad for the heat. Most of the other villagers huddled together in smaller groups away from the giant’s burning glow. I supposed they had gotten used to being cold. Maybe even used to being hungry. And I wondered if Erod’s presence among them made them uncomfortable.