The Search for Starlight

by Elyse Salpeter

  She stared at Myang. “I will not marry you. I would sooner die.” She placed a hand on her abdomen, holding a secret so dear, she knew her words rang true.

  Adra barely took a breath until the party rode off and were completely out of the castle. Only then did she pick up her small bag and make her way to the hidden parts of the keep. She kept to the slave hallways so she would not be seen by the rest of her family. They would try to stop her by locking her in her rooms if they knew what she planned to do. Or what she’d already done. They saw her as their means to a better life. Though they were considered well off, her stepfather had contracted for her to marry Myang to bring an alliance between the Xia tribe and the Chi You tribe. Not to mention Myang was much wealthier than her own family and planned to pay her parents a hefty dowry for her. It would secure her family’s place in the hierarchy of the empire, and it was a deal her stepfather could not refuse.

  Adra passed a few of her servants as she made her way down to the tunnels and ignored their pitying glances. They knew her stepfather beat her regularly. They’d heard her muffled cries as her father shoved her face into a pillow hoping no one would hear her screams.

  But most didn’t care and none ever dared help her. She was twenty years old, practically a spinster, and considered too old to complain. A woman’s place in the empire was set. She was the chattel of the Xia tribe. Nothing more than a bond, a dowry, an agreement. She had no say in her future. She was the stepdaughter of Caim, who had married her mother, Yanmei. Yanmei’s grandfather was Xiayu, who himself had been the great-great-grandson of the great Yellow Emperor Huangdi. Her despicable stepfather had married into this noble family after her own father had died of a wasting disease at the age of forty. Caim was a merchant in town and had courted her mother obsessively, promising her fidelity and love and anything he could think of to weasel into her bed, her family, and her wealth. And now he would do anything to keep his place in the hierarchy and keep the family’s riches in his own pocket. And he was not beneath beating his stepdaughter daily to achieve it.

  The tunnel ended in an old, wooden door, long forgotten by any who lived in the castle above. She moved through it.

  “Sneaking out again, Adra? That will not score your family any points with the Chi You tribe,” a kindly voice said.

  She knew who it was and had expected him. Old man Feng sat on an old barrel, whittling sticks. He scratched at his arm. She was sure the cheap hemp fabric he wore itched him greatly.

  Adra took out a loaf of bread and a satchel of yams and turnips from her pouch and handed it to him. “Were you waiting for me, Feng?”

  “You knew I would be. After your stepfather beat you this morning, your nurse came to me at the farm and told me you finally packed a bag. I wondered when you would finally flee.” He perused the offerings. “Thank you for these gifts, my lady. I will eat well tonight.” He tore off a hunk of bread and hungrily bit into it.

  Adra bit the inside of her cheek anxiously. “My nurse told you I was leaving?” Would the woman report her to her stepfather? She didn’t think her nurse cared one stitch for her and was more concerned to see where should would work next if Adra did something so heinous that she would no longer have a job.

  “She will not report you, Adra. She gave me this to give to you.” He handed her a small parcel.

  Adra opened it to find an infant’s nightshirt. She glanced up, confused.

  Feng smiled his one-toothed grin. “That apparently belonged to you as a baby. She wanted you to have it. She says… you will need it sooner than you think.” He gave her a knowing look.

  My nurse knows. And now so does Feng.

  Adra shook, overcome with emotion. “Then you know why I must leave. I can’t continue to live like this and I will not marry Nobleman Myang.”

  The old man studied her and chewed off another chunk of bread. They remained silent for a few moments while he ate. “Then you must leave, Adra. You are already showing, though you hide four months of motherhood well under your billowing dresses. You will only be able to do that for so long. If your stepfather notices…”

  She gently touched the man’s grizzled cheek. “You have been the only light in this world to me, old man. The only person that cared about my well-being.”

  His eyes glinted. “Not the only one, Princess.”

  Adra glanced towards the hills wistfully. She did not correct him for calling her a princess.

  “I will not stop you, Adra, and I’ve given him my blessing as well, as I know where both your hearts lie. There is nothing for him here in this empire as the poor son of a farmer. Now go. He is waiting for you behind the stables with Hai, getting him prepared for travel. If you leave now, you will be a good distance away before your stepfather returns from his travels.”

  Adra leaned down and kissed the old man’s cheek. She knew what this meant to him. It would change his life as well, for he would lose his only son.

  “Will you be safe?”

  “I will be fine. Make haste, before I change my mind.” He turned and went back to his bread, but a tear ran down his cheek.

  Adra slipped some cowry shells into his hand, knowing the coins were not enough of a payment for running off with his son, but riches enough to buy his way out of the village and hide if he needed to. Then she moved as quickly as she could towards the stables. She rounded the corner and her heart beat wildly in her chest the way it always did when she finally saw him.

  Jagan was twenty-eight years old and she was so in love with him, just looking at him took her breath away. She had met him last year in the forest one afternoon when she’d escaped from the castle after another of her stepfather’s harsh admonitions. Jagan had been cutting trees for firewood and heard her soft cries. He’d come over and tended to her wounds. His broad shoulders, enormous physique and kindness captivated her. Soon she fell deeply in love and knew no one else in the kingdom could ever fill her heart but him.

  As if he could feel her presence, Jagan turned in her direction and grinned a smile so bright, it lit up the sun. “Adra.” He moved over to her and swooped her up in his arms. “I’m so glad you came.”

  She involuntarily gasped in pain and he immediately put her down.

  His features hardened in anger. “Again? Let me see what the bastard did to you this time.” He pushed the hair from her face and saw her blackened eye.

  He clenched his fists. “I will kill him for this. Then he will never be able to touch you again.”

  “And then you would be sentenced to death by Lingchi, my love. Slowly killed with thousands of cuts to your person. I will not put that burden on you. Escape is my only option.”

  “I would gladly die by a thousand different deaths if it meant keeping you safe, Adra.”

  She leaned forward and kissed him deeply. “Please, take me away, Jagan, and my stepfather can never hurt me again.” She placed his hand on her abdomen. “Hurt us.”

  Jagan leaned down and kissed her burgeoning belly. “As you wish, my princess.” He turned and secured their meager belongings to Hai, then helped Adra mount. He jumped on the mare behind her.

  She leaned back against his broad chest. “Where are we going, Jagan?”

  “Anyplace but here, Adra.”

  As they rode out of the stables, a woman with a bobbed blond hair cut and a flowing white robe watched them depart from inside one of the empty horse stalls. She smiled evilly and glanced at the sky. “I will soon get two for the price of one, Kenmut.” Once Adra and Jagan passed out of site, she floated a few feet off the ground and made haste to Caim’s home to report his stepdaughter’s transgressions.

  * * * * *

  Four months later

  Adra hummed the tune to an old nursery rhyme her nurse used to sing to soothe her to sleep. The baby loved it and kicked back in happiness. Adra laughed and murmured endearments to her unborn child. She loved this growing creature fiercely and would sing to it any moment she could. This particular song was one created by her own great gr
andfather the Yellow Emperor Huang-Ti, the man who created the arts and the very music they all sang.

  Adra carried the bucket of laundry to the river. She had never felt such peace before, and she had relished every moment since her and Jagan’s escape from her family four months before.

  A light breeze ruffled her long black hair, and she placed one of the loose strands behind her ear. The smell of hay and horses wafted across the path. It had become one of the most comforting scents in her life.

  She glanced behind her at the old barn she and Jagan now called home. It peeked out from the trees, and while it was a far cry from the luxurious home she had left, she loved this place more than she’d loved any other in the empire.

  Had it not been for the old farmer they’d met on a stray path, she was not sure where they would have ended up. They had only traveled on the main roads at night, and kept to the trees and other trails where there would be less chance of being seen during the daytime.

  One evening, nearly a hundred miles from their start, they’d come upon an elderly man whose horse and wagon were stuck in the mud. The main road had been washed out in the recent storm, and he had been trying to navigate an old trail. Though she and Jagan were cold and wet, they had helped him, and in thanks he offered them the opportunity to live in the upstairs rafters of his barn on the outer edge of his property. They had claimed to be married farm laborers whose employer died, leaving them out of work and desperate. The old man’s sons had died in battle and he needed assistance keeping his farm viable. They agreed to work for him for the opportunity to live in his barn. Their hours were long and their living quarters smelled of goats and hay, but all of it was better than the smell of constant fear any day.

  Adra leaned over to rinse Jagan’s shirt in the cool water when a dark shadow loomed over her, blocking out the sunlight. She glanced behind her, a smile on her face, thinking it was Jagan. Her grin vanished instantly and she shrieked in fear.

  Caim stared down at her.

  “You thought you could escape me, Adra? Four months you were gone. Four months Myngar has been asking for you. The entire peace of the region is in jeopardy because of your deceit.” Her stepfather held a short sword in one hand and a rope in the other. “Now get up and follow me to my horse. You have a wedding to attend.”

  Adra trembled and glanced around fearfully for a way to escape. There was nowhere to turn but the water. She shook her head vehemently. ““No, I won’t go with you. I don’t want to marry Myngar.”

  “What you want is of no consequence. You will come with me.” He took a threatening step forward, and Adra dropped the clothing hiding her burgeoning midriff. Caim’s eyes bulged at the swell in her belly. “You are with child?” he asked, aghast. “You have allowed another man to soil you? You have brought disgrace upon your family.” He raised his sword and moved towards her.

  “Get away from her!” Jagan ran towards the two and shoved himself between Caim and Adra. He brandished a hoof pick he used to clean the horses’ hooves and pointed it at the man. “It is over, Caim. Adra is not chattel and will not marry that man! She will marry me and bear my child. You do not own her soul. Now leave before you get hurt.” He held his weapon high.

  Caim curled his lip. “Marry her? No one will ever marry you. You are below her class, farm boy. She is mine and I own every part of her, and you have defiled my stepdaughter. You are nothing but filth. A boy with nothing to offer. You will die as well for this dishonor.” He pitched forward with the sword.

  Jagan pushed Adra backwards. “Adra, get away. Swim!” She fell down on her backside and splashed into the river.

  Caim slashed at Jagan and sliced a deep cut into his forearm. With his free hand, Jagan took the horse pick and viciously swiped it at Caim’s head. The man fell to his knees as he took the blow to his temple. Jagan jumped on top of him, each struggling for control.

  Adra pulled herself from the water. “Leave him alone!”

  Caim freed one hand and with a yell of triumph, plunged his sword into Jagan’s side.

  Jagan stood and stumbled back, stunned, with the hilt of the blade protruding from his waist. Blood poured from his wound. “Adra, get back,” he ordered, breathlessly.

  Caim jumped to his feet and pulled a second short dagger from his side pocket. “This is over.” He plunged it down towards Jagan’s heart, but in that moment Adra jumped in front of him, blocking his blow. Caim stabbed his stepdaughter in her throat instead, and she collapsed to the ground.

  “No!” Jagan screamed. In his immense fury, he ripped the short sword from his side and launched himself at Caim.

  Caim took a step back, but tripped on a rock and fell to his knees. Jagan leaped forward and sliced the man’s neck, severing his jugular and windpipe.

  Jagan turned and crawled to Adra’s side, tears falling down his face. “I have failed you, my love.” With this final thought, his body crumpled to the ground and with his last breath, he leaned over and kissed her cheek before he fell lifeless to the ground at her side.

  Caim watched their deaths with his hands clasped to his throat, and with a final gurgle, he too, died.

  * * * * *

  Kelsey came out of the vision with a disquieting feeling in her gut. Watching the Emperor and Empress die their human deaths hit her hard, and she had no explanation why their murders resonated so strongly in her. Kelsey had seen death, had experienced it herself in a revolting number of ways for centuries, but this was like she’d personally experienced their deaths with them.

  She curled her lip at the demon. “I can see now why they want you. You had no right to kill them.”

  Caim bristled. “I had every right to punish them both. Adra was betrothed and she conceived a child with a farmer’s son.”

  Kelsey glared. “Adra was not your property, and she was pregnant.”

  “All the more justified” he snarled. “Breeding a bastard child. She would have ruined everything I’d worked towards. There could have been peace in the entire region but for her disloyalty.”

  “You beat her, Caim.”

  Caim remained nonplussed.

  Robbie floated over to Kelsey. “So all this time they wanted us to find Caim? To do what? Have retribution?”

  Caim flapped his wings. “Revenge, soldier. To torture me as payback for what I did to them.”

  Kelsey squinted. “I still want to know how you got sent to the Order of Angels after you died. We both know that would not have been your path. Someone pulled a string.”

  The demon shrugged and smiled. “I did not question it, Temptress.”

  Kelsey floated forwards towards him, still questioning. “And how did the Emperor and Empress become the Aranhats to rule the bardos? That would not have been their path, either.” She eyeballed him. “How did you even find them in the first place, when they managed to get so far from home? Tell me how it happened.”

  Caim cawed and flapped his wings. “It’s a fascinating story. I was in Myang’s palace enjoying his drink and his women. After dinner a beautiful woman came to my room. I assumed she was another of his concubines because of her exotic blond hair. This woman told me what had occurred with my deceitful stepdaughter. She promised me revenge and riches if I went after Adra, and reminded me I would right the terrible wrong done to our family. She told me if Adra didn’t return with me, I should kill her and her deceitful mate. If I did, wealth beyond any imagination would be mine. It was like a dream. I couldn’t refuse.”

  Caim’s expression seemed far away as he remembered. “She was an ethereal beauty. Short blond hair, angelic face, white flowing robe. She called herself… Ustha.”

  Ustha! Of course! She found the Empress and promised Caim all the riches in the world if he did her bidding. But who had saved all their souls after? Who sent them to realms that should never have been open to them? Someone had started this continuum, but who? It definitely wasn’t Ustha. She didn’t have that power.

  Kelsey gasped in the nothingness as a single nam
e came to her mind.

  Kenmut.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The year 2070 BC

  Kenmut, the great Egyptian Decan star god, swooped down towards the edge of the forest and surveyed the pandemonium before him. His majestic frame had just started to experience the effects of the trials Ustha was inflicting on him and his family. He was steadily losing mass and strength with each passing arc in the nighttime sky. If he could save these two souls before they passed on, he could slow the progress of his illness for another generation.

  Kenmut glided over to Adra, who lay by the water’s edge, and bent to her side. “Adra, my innocent granddaughter, hold on. Do not leave us just yet. There is too much at stake.” The girl’s heart still beat, but she was dying.

  Kenmut pressed one hand on Adra’s heart and the other on her abdomen. The baby still lived, but barely. Electricity burst from his fingertips and enveloped both Adra and her unborn child.

  “Isis!” he called upwards to the Egyptian Goddess of Motherhood, who was also the great Seraph. “I need your help with my heirs,” he pleaded. “Please take the baby when she passes on and hide her from Anubis. He must not have her soul, I beg of you, Isis. And please, oh great Seraph from the highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy, please take Caim for me and enter him into your order. It is a lot to ask, but I beseech you.”