ShatterStar

by Krista Rose

  I remember the priest who emerged from the temple, his shaved head gleaming with oils beneath the burning sun. His black robes looked heavy and uncomfortable, and sweat poured down his cheeks as he studied each of us one at a time. We had been given an extra dose of the cattakasha that morning to prevent “incidents”, and so we stood docile before his scrutiny.

  He stopped in front of me, his eyes unreadable as he lifted my chin, turning my face from side to side as he murmured something to my captors. They responded in their harsh tongue, and he turned to them, his voice sharp and questioning. There was a brief, flurried argument, and at last the leader of the slavers bowed his head. A bag of coins was exchanged, and I was unchained from the other slaves, my rope noose handed to the priest.

  He did not glance at me, but turned and began to walk away. I had no choice but to follow, temporarily blind as we stepped into the cool blackness of the temple. My legs felt too light, unaccustomed to their own weight without the chains, and I stumbled.

  I did not look back.

  He led me down the impressive halls of the temple, black stone gleaming beneath the dim light of glowballs. Strange, flowing script had been carved into the walls, and we passed a large chamber with a statue I recognized: a stern-faced man holding a lantern, his face both beautiful and terrifying.

  Sirius, the God of the Dead, who helped souls cross over the Gates of the Dead into Ca’erlyssa, to await being reborn. I realized this was his temple, the drug making my thoughts sluggish and difficult. If this was a temple for the dead, then what did they want with me?

  He led me to an unadorned door in the far reaches of the temple, and urged me inside. It was a plain cell, with a bed and a pot, and nothing else.

  I stood passive as he untied the rope from around my neck, uncaring as the drug once more captured my thoughts.

  “You are too drugged to serve our God effectively,” he informed me in unaccented common. “You will remain here in this cell until you are cured of it.”

  His words made no sense to me, though I struggled to understand them as he walked back out of the cell. The door closed behind him with a resounding slam. There was the sound of a key being turned in a lock, and then silence.

  I was alone, with only the drug to comfort me.

  KYLEE

  25 Davael 578A.F.

  The Suraki Mountain Range

  I soared through the sky on my pegasus, the air cold and thin and breathtaking, the world below dizzying and beautiful. I kicked my foot and knocked snow from the peak of the mountain, laughing with sheer happiness at my freedom. The sky was intensely blue above me, the clouds fluffy and white as they rose around me.

  I was alone in the sky, and that was fine with me.

  The pegasus pranced, her delicate ears twitching back toward my laughter. “Do you want to play, Skylily?”

  “Yes.” I rubbed her neck affectionately, and grinned. “Let’s play.”

  “Hold on!” She dove down, spiralling toward the earth so quickly I lost my breath, my body rising from her back. She banked, slamming me back down, and raced up again, aiming for the sun. I clutched at her mane, screams of terrified joy trapped in my throat.

  A cloud passed between us and the sun, and she dove into it, slowing. Damp clung to my hair and clothes, droplets of water clinging to her coat. The mist was all around us, gray and lightless, and dread crept up my spine. “What are we-”

  Eyes appeared next to me in the cloud, white and glowing, terrifying me. Hands reached out of the mist to grab at me. I flailed, trying to avoid them, and slipped off the back of the pegasus.

  A hand grabbed the front of my shirt before I could fall, and the eyes loomed close to me. My sister’s voice echoed all around me, thundering in my ears. “You’ve forgotten me.”

  I stared up in horror as the hand released me, and I fell-

  I jerked upright in my bedroll, gasping.

  Vanderys glanced over, his eyes concerned. The light from our campfire gleamed on the walls of the cave we had chosen for the night, casting shadows over our dozing pegasi near the entrance. Outside, snow flurries danced across the side of the mountain, sparkling and white under the light of the stars.

  “Bad dream?” Vanderys asked.

  “Yeah.” I shook myself, trying to push away the memory of that voice in the mist. I crawled from my bedroll over to the fire, hoping to warm the iciness from my skin.

  “Kryssa?”

  I glanced up at him, confused. “How could you possibly know that?”

  “You talk in your sleep.”

  I frowned at him. “You’re watching me? While I’m sleeping?”

  “It is not as if I stood over you, lyssen.” He made a face at me and gestured to the cave. “There is not much else to do when you sit watch, and you were calling out for her. Loudly.”

  “Oh.”

  “You have been having many such dreams. I have noticed them over the last few nights.”

  “I really don’t like the idea that you watch me sleep.”

  He sighed, ignoring my deflection, and added another stick to our fire. Sparks flew up into the air, glittering briefly in his violet eyes. “The Cedrani believe that our dreams are the Gods’ way of speaking to us, either to resolve the issues of our past or to give us glimpses of our future.”

  “I don’t need the Gods poking into my dreams,” I muttered, then looked at him curiously. “Wait, ‘Gods’? I thought the Cedrani didn’t believe in any other Gods, only Diona.”

  “We only worship Diona,” he corrected. “But it is foolish to believe ours is the only Goddess, when we have seen the mark of many hands upon our world. The Younger Gods have claimed your race as their own, but we can acknowledge that they are present without losing ourselves.”

  “You think the Younger Gods chose humans?”

  He shrugged. “I am over a thousand years old, lyssen. I remember the time before the coming of your Younger Gods. Your race was tortured and sacrificed, unprotected. Diona our Creator shielded the Cedrani and the Dwarves from the rage of her brothers and sister, but the humans were spread across the earth, and there was little they could do to hide. It is said that Diona appealed to Destiny to protect you, and thus your Younger Gods were born, out of that need.”

  I shuddered. “That’s so- so-”

  “Merciful? Kind? Benevolent?”

  I made a face at him. “Ridiculous.”

  “Why do you find it so?”

  “Why would Diona ask Destiny to help us? She had to know that we wouldn’t worship her after the War of the Gods. Few humans even remember that she’s the one who created us.”

  “Ah, but you are not a parent, lyssen. Tell me, would you care if your sister loved someone else more than you, as long as she was safe?”

  I thought of Kryssa and Vitric, and an uncomfortable pang of jealousy shot through my stomach. “I- I guess not. But-”

  “Diona created us, and loves all her children, always. She does not care who we love in return, so long as we live to let that love out into the world.”

  His eyes shone with certainty. I hung my head, thinking of my mother and how she had died for her Faith. “I hate the Gods,” I whispered, afraid to look at him. “They’ve taken everything from us, over and over. They like our suffering.”

  “Lyssen.” He sighed, and a comforting hand descended onto my shoulder. His eyes were full of sympathy. “Your Gods have put a mark upon you, a burden you must carry as their chosen. I have seen it in the stars, seen it reflected in your eyes. It is not an easy life, but I think it means your Gods love you more, not less. They trust you with this hardship, trust that you will come away stronger.”

  “What about Kryssa?”

  “Her path is not written in the stars, but in the spaces between them, and that I do not know how to read.” He shook his head. “But you, lyssen, are a sparkling light, and there is joy on your journey if you stop to look for it.”

  His words warmed me, chasing away the despair of my dream. I s
miled hesitantly, the tension in my shoulders finally easing.

  “Go on, back to sleep,” he urged. “I will keep watch a few more hours before I wake you.”

  I nodded, yawning, and crawled back to my bedroll. I was asleep in moments.

  I had no more dreams of Kryssa.

  TANNER

  26 Davael 578A.F.

  Cedralysone

  “This is going to take forever,” Alyxen groaned, and flopped back onto my bed. “How in the hell does this place have so many books on the Elder Gods?”

  “I am sorry.” Aillel looked as if she was going to cry. Reyce looked up at her from the floor with a concerned frown. “I am doing the best that I can.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I reassured her, then set down the book I had been flipping through with a sigh. “I thought this would be easier.”

  “It would be, if we didn’t have to go through the library one book at a time,” Alyxen muttered.

  Aillel’s shoulders hunched. “I told you, I cannot smuggle out more than one book at a time. Otherwise, they will grow suspicious.”

  “It’s going to take a lifetime to get through the library this way.” Alyxen pulled a pillow over his face, muffling his voice. “Years and years and years. We’ll be old and grey when we find the Temple.”

  I thought of Felice, her flesh rotting without a soul. “By then it won’t matter.”

  Aillel bit her lip, staring out the window of my room. I had drawn the curtain back so that sunlight washed over us, clean and warm and pleasant. Beside her, Reyce struggled to spell something on a piece of parchment, though the squiggles looked more like defeated insects than letters.

  I leaned my head back against the bed. For three days I had struggled to hold back my impatience as we had waited for Aillel to bring us that day’s book. Three books, each one promising, each one a disappointment when they held no reference to the Temple of the Burned.

  Three nights in Cedralysone, and we were no closer to finding Felice’s soul than when we had begun.

  The moon mocked me, reminding me of the time we had lost, and I closed my eyes to block it out. I clutched the feather in my pocket, the only thing that convinced me I hadn’t imagined my encounter with Eriny. Surely a goddess couldn’t lie, right?

  “There might be another way,” Aillel said softly.

  My eyes snapped open. “What?”

  “Perhaps.” She hesitated. “I do not know if it would work.”

  “Dear Gods, woman, anything is better than this!” Alyxen sat up, holding the pillow to his chest. “It’s worth a try at least!”

  “Well… it is my thought that Lord Aleydis is throwing that party tomorrow for Lady Lanya.”

  “Ugh.” Alyxen rolled his eyes. “We know. She’s talked about nothing else for the last two days. When she’s anywhere near us, that is. She’s spending so much time with that Aleydis that-”

  “There will be no one guarding the library during the party.”

  “Seriously?” I frowned. “Isn’t that just asking for us to break into it?”

  She ducked her head guiltily. “It is assumed no one would be so rude as to leave a party thrown by Lord Aleydis.”

  I frowned. “Are you going to get in trouble for this?”

  She shrugged. “Yl et betre ra tohl efra ren ra shen daridan.”

  “What?”

  “Your language is so limiting,” she muttered. “It is a Cedrani saying. ‘It is better to fall free than to stand caged.’”

  Alyxen grinned at her, impressed. “I like that one.”

  She flushed.

  “So, you think we should do this,” I said slowly, to be sure I’d understood her. “You think we should leave the party to break into the library, where we will hopefully find the book that will lead us to the Temple of the Burned.”

  “Why are you saying all that stuff?” Alyxen made a face at me. “Do you think she forgot?”

  “This could get her in a lot of trouble,” I pointed out to him. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

  “Is that a pun?”

  Aillel and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

  “Until tomorrow night, then.” Aillel stood, and scooped the useless book off the floor. Reyce jumped up to follow her. “I will see you at the party.” She hesitated at the door, and looked back at me. “We will find her,” she whispered.

  The door closed quietly behind her, but her words continued to echo in my chest.

  LANYA

  27 Davael 578A.F.

  Cedralysone

  I froze at the edge of the cherry orchards, nervous terror paralyzing my legs. My breath backed up in my lungs, my heart stuttering in my chest as I looked around.

  Lights had been scattered through the blossoming trees, their pink petals raining across the central clearning like a sweet-smelling rain. Cedrani gathered in groups of two and three, talking to each other in low voices, the jewels braided into their hair glittering beneath the lights. Servants circled with trays of crystal glasses, filled with some sparkling amber liquid. From somewhere hidden in the trees, music played, gentle and compelling.

  I had spent hours agonizing over what to wear, and hours more tormenting poor Lyrel as I had despaired over my hair. We had settled at last for a white gown, the hem and sleeves studded with crystals, the back open to my waist. My hair was arranged in a mass of curls atop my head and pinned in place with diamond combs, and I again wore the pin he had given me, the Aur-Ishket, its silver cool against my heated skin.

  Now I was finally here, at the party, my anxiety tying knots into my stomach and threatening to make me sick- and Aleydis was no where to be seen.

  I wondered how much the Cedrani would talk if I burst into tears at my own party.

  Someone took my wrist, and I turned, the breath slamming out of me as I looked up into eyes of violet fire. All thoughts of fleeing vanished.

  He looked me over as he lifted my fingers to his lips. My skin burned. “I believe you may be a blasphemy, my lady.”

  I blinked, unprepared for his comment. “How so?”

  A faint smile tilted his lips. “The Cedrani worship the stars. I worry many will think you are one of them, and worship you by mistake.”

  I flushed, and swallowed several times to get my voice to work. “Th- thank you, Aleydis.”

  He offered me his arm, and I took it, praying I wouldn’t trip over my numb feet and embarrass myself as he led me into the clearing.

  “Have you ever tasted Llylet?” he asked, taking a glass from a proferred tray to hand to me. “It is a Cedrani delicacy.”

  I took a sip of the sparkling liquid. Bubbles burst on my tongue as the taste of cinnamon and apples flooded my mouth. “It’s delicious.”

  “It is potent,” he warned as I took another drink.

  I smiled up at him, blushing, my tongue too knotted to tell him that his presence was more intoxicating than a gallon of Llylet.

  Across the clearing, I saw the others arrive. Reyce looked bewildered as someone offered him a tray of drinks. Aillel, Tanner, and Alyxen looked nervous for some reason, but before I could ask them about it, another Cedrani walked up to us. I recognized him as the angry-looking man who sat on Prince Sotiris’ left during our dinners in the Great Hall. He bowed slightly. “Lord Aleydis.”

  “Lord Rathis.” Aleydis inclined his head, his voice cooling. “Are you enjoying the party?”

  Rathis’ face twisted. “E ste’dre kenta tehk e’ve et shast ohl la et’ohld-dysrava.”

  “Because our guests do not speak our tongue.” Aleydis frowned at him in disapproval. “To speak Y’ken’ohl in their presence is unspeakably rude. Surely even you would know this, Lord Rathis.”

  The other Cedrani clenched his jaw, and I could feel the waves of hatred rolling off of him as he glanced at me. “My apologies, my lady.”

  “Accepted, my lord,” I murmured.

  “Why don’t you mingle, Lord Rathis?” Aleydis gestured toward the trees. “Drink.
Dance. Enjoy yourself.”

  “Of course, Lord Aleydis,” he managed from between clenched teeth. He glanced at me again. “E dysla vin Y’ethlalor ste’dre sentrys e’ve.”

  Aleydis frowned as Rathis walked away, and I stared after him, bewildered by the sheer venom in his tone.

  At last, Aleydis shook himself, and turned back to me, smiling with effort. “My apologies, Lanya. Lord Rathis is short on social graces, but I could not exclude his invitation.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Nothing of importance.” He tilted his head, and his eyes warmed. “Let us forget this. You are too lovely for such unpleasantness.”

  I blushed.

  He took the forgotten glass from my hand, placing it on a passing tray. His eyes remained on my face as he offered me his hand. “Would you allow me a dance, my lady?”

  I swallowed, and wished I had taken another drink. “Of course.”

  He led me into the clearing and pulled me close to him, my dress swirled around our legs. His hand pressed against my lower back, scorching against my exposed skin. I laid my hands against his chest, feeling his heartbeat against my fingers as we began to sway.

  “Have you ever seen the ocean, mu baet?”

  “What?” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded breathless.

  “The ocean.” His lips curved. “Have you ever seen it?”

  “No.”

  “Your eyes remind me of it.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I fear I might drown in them.”

  I did not know what to say, and he stared down at me as the stars spun above us. Slowly, the space between us closed, his lips pressing to mine.

  He kissed me, and every thought burned away.

  ALYXEN

  Tanner grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”