Above the Star

by Alexis Marie Chute

  “What? Oh! My notebooks!” Ardenal passes Duggie-Sky to Archie before digging through the bag. “The cover is green, the texture of leather . . . Ah-ha! I can’t believe this! Dad, this is exactly what I was missing . . . but—wait—what happened?”

  “Is it still wet?”

  “Soaking! All the writing . . . it’s . . . it’s illegible.” Ardenal shows Archie the pages, no longer white but stained like an ocean of blue ink. He backs away from Archie and Duggie-Sky, his flame sizzling. The book in his hands explodes with blue fire and crumbles into flakes of ash that are sent upward in the Olearon’s blaze. He whirls and marches off into the woods.

  “Arden—”

  Ardenal doesn’t slow. His flame is tall, doubling his height, and it withers the low-hanging leaves along his path.

  “Arden—” Archie jogs as fast as he can while holding Duggie-Sky.

  Before he can say more, Ardenal halts. “Look!” The Olearon’s face is transformed by a smile. “Do you see that light?”

  “Yes, faintly.”

  “We are not far behind now! Maybe only a hundred yards.” As the words leave Ardenal’s mouth, the clicking—which had been constant, yet distant—rings in their ears, followed by a piercing shriek. The lizard-beetle—which Archie notices too late—leaps from the tree cover above them and lands on Duggie-Sky, clawing and slicing at his face with its pinchers and forearms.

  Chapter 19

  Ardenal struggles to control his flame while wrestling the carakwa that digs its half-moon claws into Duggie-Sky. “Dad, you’ve got to knock it down! I don’t want to burn you two!” As Archie thrashes, Ardenal thrusts his thick fists beneath the creature’s clicking pincer and thousand eyes. It loses its grip, and Ardenal smashes it to the forest floor, immediately sending unforgiving flames upon its shell. Ardenal rips the charred shell from the creature’s back, but it swings around and lunges at him, cutting his shin with the serrated edge of its forelegs. Stumbling back, Ardenal falls, his head striking hard against a protruding tree root with a sickening swack.

  Archie, seeing his son lying unmoving, hollers until his throat is raw, calling to the glow in the trees. When Archie thinks the flicker will slip into blackness for good, it stops. Then grows brighter.

  Tall, flaming Olearon warriors appear in the forest as if their bodies are a part of it. They run for Archie, Ardenal, and Duggie-Sky. Their shapes are silhouettes against their cracking, bursting fire, their faces as black as their eyes. Little flames hiss at their feet, sucking oxygen from the air until they’ve exhausted it and they die in a tiny puff of smoke.

  Azkar is first to arrive, his long strides covering two yards at a time, though he is quickly followed by the Lord and Maiden, and the rest of the Olearon warriors. The humans trail behind. Azkar spots the wounded creature limping toward the base of a tree. “What vengeance do you have here, carakwa? No? No answer?” Azkar’s red fingers quickly find the curve of the creature’s neck. He burns through the flesh and tears its scaly head from its squirming, oozing body.

  The carakwa’s blood is thick and iridescent. The decapitated body sends a polychromatic spray of the shiny blood over the faces of the Lord and Maiden, over the already stained clothing of the cruise passengers who arrive at that very moment, and over Archie too, as he cradles a whimpering Duggie-Sky dripping with crimson.

  “Filthy carakwas!” Azkar spits. He wipes his hands on the front of his jumpsuit as he turns to Ardenal.

  “Awake Ardenal! Awake!” Azkar cups Ardenal’s neck and its tiny flame in his broad hands. Ardenal’s eyes open slowly, like the dusk that night giving way to the weight of its shadows. Slowly, Ardenal’s black eyes appear. He sits up and inhales deeply, steadying himself.

  “The carakwa is a vessel for evil, Archibald,” Azkar says when he sees that Ardenal can stand to his feet. “They have no soul, and thus there is a vacancy in them that is easily filled. One cannot be sure if the carakwa that attacked the child—attacked you, Archibald—was possessed by another, but since you are a foreigner to Jarr-Wya, we can presume this onslaught was coincidence only.”

  “Archie!” Tessa yells. “Archie!” She rushes to the old man and—once she sees that he is uninjured—Tessa cups Archie’s face. “I am so relieved that you’re okay. Oh—” Tessa says, startled as she observes the boy who shifts into the light. Tessa lifts Duggie-Sky onto her lap, tearing another piece from her skirt and applying pressure to the boy’s wounds. “Oh, little one; you will need stitches, or you’ll scar badly, but you’ll be okay. We’ll take care of you. Shhh, honey, shhh . . .”

  “A nurse is never off duty,” Archie chuckles awkwardly, feeling childish to have said something so common in his normal life, which sounds so very out of place on the island of Jarr-Wya.

  “Where’s Ell?” Archie asks, scanning the passengers that look to him at the center of the commotion.

  “Oh, Archie . . .”

  At the sound of Tessa’s voice, Ardenal bolts through the crowd of passengers that surround Tessa, Duggie-Sky, Archie, and Azkar. He frantically searches the faces of the humans, who freeze with dread. “Where is she?” Ardenal hollers. “Ella?”

  Tessa turns to glare at Ardenal. “What do you want with her?” she snarls, her countenance morphing from forlorn to ferocious.

  Ardenal’s voice rises. “Why are there so few?”

  The Maiden answers. “The Bangols were waiting for us—”

  “The Bangols?” Ardenal notices the dampness of blood on the Odyssey passengers’ clothing and the burnt stain of it on the warriors’ skin. “When? How many died?”

  “An hour past,” Azkar replies. “They were hiding in the tree canopy, and jumped on our heads. They killed some of ours, some of them,” he gestures to the humans, “and took others prisoner. Only half remain.”

  “Tessa,” Ardenal pleads. “Not Ella? Tell me not Ella?”

  Her red-rimmed eyes reveal the helplessness beneath her anger. “They took her,” she chokes out, “and these beasts would not let me follow.”

  “They went to the air, Ardenal. We could not pursue on foot,” growls Azkar.

  Archie scrunches his brow. “Bangols can fly?”

  “They had clay baskets in the trees tied to huge patterned balloons, weighed down with stones,” Tessa answers, her voice thin. “They dragged people away, threw their bodies in sacks so we couldn’t tell them apart. They didn’t care who they hurt. They climbed up, flung the people in. Cut the ropes. Their stones rained down on us. Ella . . . I knew she was in the basket of one balloon because of her scream. All the balloons floated up, but still I could hear her . . .”

  “Tessa,” Ardenal whispers, wrapping his long arms around her shivering body, Duggie-Sky also surrounded in the hug. Ardenal kisses Tessa’s neck without regard for his appearance, lost in the heartbreak of the moment. “Tess, I’m so sorry.”

  “Ardenal, no—” Azkar begins.

  “Get off me!” Tessa hisses. She fights free of his arms. “Don’t touch me!”

  “Back up now!” Captain Nate yells, stepping forward and shoving Ardenal hard.

  Valarie leaps from the crowd of passengers. “Be careful, Nate!” she screams. The captain ignores her as he stares at Ardenal with unwavering resolve.

  Archie steps between Ardenal and his daughter-in-law. “Tessa, it’s okay, it’s Ar—”

  “Nothing is okay. Nothing!” Tessa shrieks.

  “Come here, Tess,” Captain Nate whispers protectively. Ardenal and Archie stare with bewilderment as the captain puts a muscular arm around Tessa’s shoulders.

  “Tessa—it’s me, Arden—”

  The Lord of Olearon steps forward. “Ardenal, we commanded your self-control. To wait until the human has calmed. Wait till we reach our city.”

  “I cannot wait. I listened before and now my daughter may never know me. Never know I love her, that I did all of this for her.” Ardenal turns his black eyes to Tessa. “I need you to know . . . I never meant to leave you. Believe me. I love you, Tess
a.”

  “We should be moving on, Ardenal,” growls Azkar. “You endanger us all with this delay. Remember our agreement with the Millia?”

  Tears swell in Tessa’s eyes, though she scowls at Ardenal with a clenched jaw. “It doesn’t make sense . . . how could you possibly be my good-for-nothing husband?”

  “Tessa,” Archie interrupts. “It’s true—”

  “People, please,” the Maiden interjects. “Quiet! There may be another possessed carakwa nearby. They are easy hosts for the dead and much loss has bloodied this day. There will always be questions, but their answers are worth our patience”

  Tessa ignores her. “If you really are my husband, why did you leave me—leave Ella? What kind of a man leaves his family like a coward?”

  “He’s not a man, Tessa,” says Captain Nate.

  Ardenal’s flames burst into sweltering flowers around his head. He inhales, exhales. “Who is this, Tess?”

  Tessa steps out of Nate’s embrace, with Duggie-Sky still straddling her hip. “Don’t you call me that. Who are you? Just a—a fiery freak! What’s your angle anyway? What reason can you possibly have to pretend to be my husband?” Her hips sway as she rocks Duggie-Sky, covering his ears with her hand and shoulder. Tessa turns to Archie and grumbles, “How could you bring us here?” The tears in Tessa’s eyes become a downpour on her cheeks and reflect the orange glow of the Olearons’ flames.

  The Lord of Olearon says coolly, “Ardenal. Human one. Please calm yourselves. The Bangols are not far off. They may hear your ravings and return. Come.” He turns to the Olearons and cruise passengers. “Let us be off. We walk through the night guided by our light. We will reach our land in the dawn, then rest will greet us all. Sleep is the revealer of many truths. Let us be off.”

  “You are right, Lord . . . the Bangols,” Ardenal whispers, mulling over that single remark, “they are not far!” He turns to bolt, but instead collides squarely with Azkar’s chest—the taller, brawnier, and unyielding warrior—before Ardenal has taken even one step.

  Azkar envelopes both he and Ardenal within his flame so they may whisper in private. “We are all weary. You as well—I can see it, Ardenal. Let us return home. Replenish. Then we will pursue. We will find your daughter. I promise you this. We will slaughter the Bangols. Have you ever known a time where you could not trust me?” As Ardenal nods in agreement, Azkar absorbs—as if inhaling—his fire back into the tamed flame at the crook of his neck.

  “Thank you, Azkar. My daughter needs me.”

  Ardenal startles at Tessa, who had approached while he was unaware. “Ella needed her father when she was being bullied at school,” she snaps. “She needed her father when she wanted to go to art camp in the summer, but I couldn’t afford it on my own. She needed her father a year ago when she had her first boyfriend and he broke her heart. She needed her father six months ago when she lost her voice from a seizure! You—” she spits, “are not Ella’s father.”

  “You may never forgive me—I will never forgive myself—but let me do what I can now, while I am able.”

  Tessa studies Ardenal. Her breathing is sharp and quick, until she takes one long suck in of air and her shoulders sag, relenting. “You are not my Arden—let’s be clear on that one point—but, I will take whatever help I can get.”

  “Thank you, Tess. That’s good enough for now.” Turning to the Olearons, he continues, “We need to strategize as we walk. Join me Azkar—and where is Olen?” Ardenal asks and calls, “Olen?”

  “Olen perished defending these humans,” the Lord answers, his words laced with disdain.

  The Maiden of Olearon gestures to a stretcher made of fresh-cut wood, bound with curling vines, and mounded with boughs. “He must be lit and his spirit freed to the smoke,” she says.

  Ardenal rushes to the stretcher and pulls away the leaves to reveal the body. He beats his chest at the sight of Olen. Ardenal traces the broad nose and full lips of the Olearon with his fingertips. He touches his forehead to his friend’s. “He’s cold,” Ardenal says as he straightens. He pulls the branches and foliage back over Olen’s bloodied face and stands beside the stretcher, his shoulders slumped and his head bent.

  “When I came here, to the world of Jarr, it was Olen that found me,” Ardenal tells Archie and Tessa. “I was lost in the blue woods, hurt and growing weaker—and was terrified of everything. Olen spoke with me, when he should have burnt me up upon sight. He brought me back to the glass city, where we are headed now. He and his brother, Eek, shared their room and blankets with me, and called for the healer. That first week, Eek and Olen fed me with their food portions when you, Lord, were uncertain of my trustworthiness—but Olen always believed. He taught me to hunt the cradle bird. He became a dear friend, as close to a brother as I have ever known as an only child. Olen searched for Ella’s cure with me, by the sun and by the moon, putting himself in danger, repeatedly, when he had no need to. We shared many adventures. You, and all your siblings—” Ardenal gestures to Azkar—“have shown me incredible kindness. Olen was tender-hearted and brave. He must be honored,” Ardenal finishes, imploring the Lord and Maiden.

  The Olearons speak among themselves and agree that it is best to return Olen’s body to their homeland, being within a reasonable distance from it, for a proper scorching ceremony. The Lord and Maiden of Olearon urge everyone forward. “Let us go now,” orders the Lord. His warriors begin the trudge through the forest. The Maiden, dragging the stretcher as an act of tribute, falls in line. She does not struggle and the muscles in her arms are tight and defined.

  “Dad,” Duggie-Sky cries to himself from within Tessa’s arms.

  “Come to Grandpa Archie, little fella,” says the old man.

  “Keep the pressure there, on his forehead,” instructs Tessa.

  “Got it.” Archie pauses. “It’s him, Tess. It’s Arden.”

  “I don’t care who he is. All I care about is Ella—” her words hang, her sentence unfinished. When all have passed her by, she finishes in a whisper, “and if no one will help me now, I’ll go after Ella myself.”

  Chapter 20

  Tessa—seeing an opportunity to slip away in secret as the remaining Odyssey passengers and Olearons pass through the trees toward the glass city—dashes as quietly as she can to her right into the trees, off course. She heads in the direction the Bangols’ balloons had floated; a slight eastern trajectory compared to the route directed by the Olearons. Tessa hikes her skirt with one hand and deflects tree branches out of her face with the other. A piercing caw slices through the night overhead. Tessa ducks but continues to run.

  There is no sound of thudding feet or cracking branches behind her. “This may work!” Tessa smiles. “I need to see for myself. Maybe I can do this on my own. If I can’t catch up to the Bangols, I’ll circle round, back to Archie and the Olearons. Then I’ll join whatever plan they’re concocting.”

  The gloom under the trees is as dark as midnight and Tessa tumbles over an unseen root. She pushes up onto her knees and cradles one hand that is deeply scratched and wet with blood. She does not cry in pain, though it would not have mattered how much noise she made, for in that instant there is a loud flap and stirring of air. Prolonged, curling claws encircle her left bicep and jolts her up, off the ground.

  “Help” Tessa shrieks in terror of what unseen monster lifts her higher, and higher still. Before she can call out again, warm hands seize her ankles. She feels her shoulder slip out of its socket with the weight.

  “Help me! Please! I’m so sorry—” Tessa stammers. The warm body climbs up her bare legs and disheveled dress. The other clawed foot of the black fowl reaches for Tessa and the Olearon, slicing the air, but the warm body stabs at it with a glass knife. They are dragged through the leaf canopy, which scrapes and slaps their bodies. Tessa winces in pain and clutches her arm above the shoulder. The Olearon reaches high and cuts straight through the bird’s tarsus, an inch above its toes.

  “No—” Tessa screams as she plummet
s—the claws still clutching tight—before she lands with a thud in Azkar’s arms. His large palm covers her mouth, stifling her cry. Unable to breathe, Tessa bites his hand and immediately falls to the carpet of moss. She is again grabbed, but this time less gently. Azkar hoists Tessa into the air where she thrashes and kicks hard before her limbs are restrained. Tessa begins to weep.

  “We will pry off the claws when we arrive at the glass city. The postmortem spasm of the foot will not release you on its own,” Azkar declares as he tucks Tessa firmly under his arm.

  “Let me go!”

  “I no longer trust you to follow orders,” he retorts, carrying her with ease as he follows after the withdrawing group that illuminate the blue trees in the distance. “The Bangols are evil but also curious. They will not kill your daughter. We have time to prepare. It is the only way we can defeat them; otherwise all is lost.”

  “Put her down!” orders Captain Nate when he bursts through a leafy plant, breathing hard after tracking Azkar and Ardenal into the woods, but Azkar only snarls at the tall man, who looks petite in comparison. Nate brushes his fingers against Tessa’s as she is hauled past him. Tessa abruptly quiets her sobbing when Ardenal drops to his feet from a tree branch he had caught on his fall. They lock eyes. He clasps his mangled forearm, which is bleeding with three parallel gashes. Tessa and Ardenal watch each other until Azkar carries her beyond view. Captain Nate follows the warrior and Tessa into the darkness.

  Archie, with Duggie-Sky perched on his shoulders, appears at that moment, drenched with sweat. “Am I too late? I see Tess is all right, and you—” Archie wheezes.

  “I’m fine.” Ardenal cauterizes his wounds with a burst of flame. He wraps Duggie-Sky in Archie’s coat and carries the boy. “No time to catch your breath, Dad,” he says, before adding, “She didn’t even say thank you.” Ardenal huffs off.

  For a moment Archie is left alone in the darkness. He sighs deeply. “All your plans have unraveled, Archibald,” he scolds himself. “All I wanted was to slip into this world with none the wiser. Find Arden. Find Ella’s cure . . . At least we are all in the same place again, though, in some ways, we are further apart than ever.” Archie sprints to Ardenal’s side, where they catch up and march with the Olearon rearguard. Ardenal’s flame is a weak flicker.