by J. A. Comley
We could be married right now, Starla thought, her mind jumping to Father Joe, who seemed to be dozing next to them.
Larkel laughed, the sound seeming even more wonderful in this dark place. No. You are a princess. We must have the King's permission.
Starla grumbled, but couldn't help the grin that stretched across her face to match Larkel's.
“Get out of her head.” Raoul suddenly made an exasperated sound, and kicked out at Larkel's hand.
“Raoul!” Starla scolded him. Echoed by Father Joe and, more weakly, by Elise.
Raoul ignored her, looking directly at Father Joe. “Look at her! Look at what he has done to her!” Raoul began.
“Raoul,” Father Joe cautioned, although Starla saw the disapproval in his eyes as he glanced at her clothes again, clearly agreeing with Raoul on some things.
“No, Father,” Raoul persisted. “Look at their familiarity. See her invite him into her mind. Look at what she is wearing, for goodness' sake. She is dressed like a whore.” He spat the word.
Starla flinched and Larkel looked like a thunderhead as he turned on Raoul, as if his immense power was going to burst from him and consume the impertinent human where he sat.
“You will kindly refrain from calling my fiancée a whore,” Larkel spat through his teeth. He had got the gist of the word's meaning from Starla's mind.
Raoul's eyes looked ready to bug out of his head. When he turned to Starla, all his anger had evaporated. His face was creased in pain, his eyes screaming with betrayal.
“But, I … you—” he murmured, broken.
Starla fought back tears. Elise had the same look on her face as she stared at her friend.
Silently, Raoul turned his back on her again and shut his eyes, as if he wanted to sleep. Starla knew better.
“I can't say that I know you, any more. My Starla, my best friend, my sister. She's dead,” Elise whispered before tucking her face behind Antonio's arm, little sobs escaping her.
Antonio didn't look at Starla, at all. He just turned to his siblings and told them to rest.
Father Joe was looking at Starla as if willing her to contradict what had just been said. “You … you are going to marry … but, Raoul—” She felt her eyes harden as they met the judgement in his.
Slowly, Father Joe shook his head and, like Raoul, closed his eyes, shutting Starla from view.
Starla felt a few silent tears slide down her cheeks. Larkel's fingers tightened on hers.
I am sorry, my love.
In her mind, Starla let herself fall into Larkel's comforting presence, saying goodbye to that old life, that old Starla, forever.
Around midday, a gut-wrenching scream echoed around the cavern.
Startled, Starla's chains narrowly missed Larkel as she spun to look into the Sacrileons' cage. Her cheeks were stained from where the tears had run, first from the judgement and rejection of her family and then for all that Larkel had suffered believing her dead and finally for the others as Father Joe explained their time since she left, though mostly, at that point, she was just grateful he had decided to speak to her again.
The Guardians were waking up, though Lua and Rya still looked groggy. Gaby was heaving great, dry sobs, clearly hyperventilating as her violet eyes locked on the corrupted form of Beky as she paced before the cages.
“Gaby,” Starla half-moaned, half-called, “don't!” she added as Alli moved towards a stricken Gaby, now huddled in a ball, crying, muttering incomprehensible words.
Alli looked at Starla questioningly.
“The chains have the Exchange Curse on them,” Starla muttered quickly, hating Kyron even more as his cruelty caused more people she loved to feel broken inside.
“Don't worry. Now that you are awake, we can escape,” Starla added, pulling the Star out from under her shirt.
Larkel smiled hopefully. It was a good plan. He was confident he could guide Starla to access at least some of her magic.
“Raoul?” Starla called softly, her voice tender and kind.
Starla watched as Larkel fought to keep his face smooth and clear of the sudden, illogical anger that burned in his indigo eyes.
Raoul, who had been dutifully ignoring everyone, looked over at Starla, his eyes so full of pain she nearly gasped.
“What?” he asked, his voice scathing, his eyes clouding over with pain.
Starla cringed. “I … the necklace you have. It's mine. I need it to get us out of here.” She held out her hand for it.
“Did he give it to you?”
“No,” Starla said, her voice hardening a little.
Raoul suddenly sat up, locking her in his chocolate stare. “I never broke. He tortured me and—” he swallowed hard. “I never agreed to harm you. I love you. All I ever did was love you.”
His words echoed Starla's first nightmare. She flinched but took a deep breath to speak.
“Look at what he's done to you!” Raoul repeated. “He has you thinking you aren't human and look at what you're wearing!” he added, pointing at her tight breeches in horror. “Please, Starla, come home. Come back to me.”
Starla's eyes hardened. She had known this would be hard for them to understand, Raoul more than anyone.
“Here,” Raoul said, anger hardening his tone again as he watched her pull away.
He yanked the necklace and red blossom pendant from his pocket, tossing it lightly to the floor, his chains clattering dangerously close to Starla's ankle.
“Watch it,” Larkel muttered to Raoul's back as Starla picked up the necklace, letting go of his hand.
A thought occurred to Starla and she turned to Larkel.
“No one can touch the Star. Does it matter that someone else has touched this?”
Larkel dragged his narrowed eyes from Raoul, then shrugged. “I don't know. Each amulet is unique. I cannot say why that part fell out, or why it seems another can handle it without effect. But look!” he smiled as the blossom began to glow fitfully. “I believe it is unharmed.”
“It burns,” Father Joe murmured, “If we touched the flower, it would burn us. The chain was safe.”
Starla smiled and scraped her wrist against the rough stone floor, creating a small wound. Her blood began to drip out from it.
“Starla,” Rya's voice was dead. It sounded like it came from inside a tomb. “You can't unite the amulet while in cursed chains.”
Starla gaped at the once spunky Sacrileon as a single drop of blood landed on the Blossom. She looked utterly defeated. They all did. Beky's fate had been the final insult. Then she turned a questioning look on Larkel.
“She won't be in cursed chains,” Larkel said, heaving himself onto his haunches.
Starla turned to him, her emerald eyes flashing between shock and anger. “You knew?” Of course he knew.
“I will take the curse,” he said, his deep voice sombre.
“What? No!” Starla cried, moving as far away from him as she could without touching anyone else. Everyone was looking at her, now.
She didn't care that the rip in her shirt had bared her from waist to sternum or that uniting the amulet had always been the plan. She cared only about Larkel. About how his words promised to separate them forever. This was not a sacrifice she was willing to pay.
His indigo gaze was intent as he stared at her. If he chose to lunge at her, she would be powerless to prevent it.
“Larkel, please don't,” she said in a broken whisper, her voice shaking. “Please. Galatia needs its High Lord. And I, I can't lose you again. I love you,” she said, hating the tears that blurred her vision and spilled down her cheeks.
She was hyper-aware of Raoul's presence and the pain that flickered across his face, just beneath the simmering anger.
Larkel flinched. He had felt how hard it had been on her when she thought he was dead.
“I know,” he smiled sadly. “But there is no other way. I will not let anyone else take it, and I can't let you stay here a moment longer. Kyron will—” he shuddered,
unwilling to finish that thought. “I love you, too.”
His indigo gaze hardened as he tore it away from Starla's pleading eyes and fixed it on her chains.
“No! Was everything you said earlier, when you asked me to be yours forever, was that all some cruel lie!” Starla screamed at him harshly, ignoring the cringing humans.
Larkel's eyes whipped up to hers, the pain in them so terrible it made her tremble.
“You know it wasn't,” he whispered, his voice low with anguish. “But I can ask no other to make this sacrifice. I love you and want nothing more than a long life with you but we cannot always have what we dream.”
“You're going to make me sick,” Orla suddenly protested, her feigned disgust marred a little by how her voice quivered.
“Yes, enough soppy nonsense,” Davan added, in no better control of the fear in his voice. “This place seems to need both you, so—”
“We'll take it off both of you,” Orla finished, both sitting up, ready to reach for the chains.
“No,” Larkel said, his voice still sad, but firm.
“Why?” Starla knew the question was pointless but she couldn't believe that the two people who had worked so hard to make her life miserable were now prepared to sacrifice theirs for hers. That would be like the Baron dying for Larkel.
Orla flashed a weak imitation of a smile. “I … we are sorry. For every terrible thing we ever did to you. You were always just so happy.”
Starla looked bewildered, even as she kept one eye on Larkel, ready to kick him in the face if that's what it took to stop him.
“You hate me because I am happy?”
“Hated,” Davan corrected, nodding. “You were a nobody, an orphan. Yet, we envied you. It didn't seem right for us to want to be you. We had a family, money, position, everything, but you always seemed more content with life than we were.”
Orla shuddered. “He made us watch. Kyron. All his tortures.” Her voice broke and Davan finished her thought.
“He enjoys the pain he causes. It reminded me of us, how we felt pleasure at your embarrassment.” He shook his head, looking years older. “We don't want to be like him. We are sorry.”
The twins looked ready to spring, now, their faces set with resolve, even as their eyes shone with fear.
“Now, you two, sit back down this instant,” Antonio ordered, instilling his voice with authority as he tried to restrain his siblings without actually touching them.
“We weren't asking for permission,” they said in chorus, a touch of their usual arrogance entering their voices.
“Look, I appreciate the apology and the gesture,” Starla began, though she still struggled to accept the sincerity of it. “But I won't let you die for me. You … all of you, shouldn't be here. This war has nothing to do with you. It's not right.”
“Is anything ever right in a war?” Orla asked, sounding suddenly years older as she pointed at some scars running down the inside of her arm, evidence of her torture at Kyron's hands.
“No!” all the adults said at once, their stern voices amplified by the cavern.
The twins sighed, looking down, their faces falling in defeat.
In a moment, they had lunged forward. Davan grabbed Starla's chains just as Orla grabbed Larkel's. Their screams of agony rent the air and echoed off the wall and ceiling for what felt like an eternity. Each echo was like a dart piercing the hearts of the stunned adults.
Then Antonio was moving, brushing his hands over his siblings' prone figures, their faces frozen in horror. Elise was sobbing beside him, Orla's head in her lap.
Father Joe had screwed his eyes shut and was praying so low and fast Starla couldn't make out the words.
“Their chains are gone, too,” Starla said, dream-like, as Larkel pulled her into his arms.
He cradled her there, against his chest, as her body shuddered with ripples of disbelief.
“Let their sacrifice not be in vain,” Fey managed after a moment, disbelief at the action of the young humans evident in her voice.
“Courage, Starla. You're a Soreiaphin. No one yet knows your true power or its amplification with the complete amulet. Perhaps you could save them, somehow,” Alli added, a little light back in her eyes.
Starla managed a nod and wrenched her eyes from the two prone figures.
“I,” she had to clear her throat, “I dropped the other half.”
“It is here, sweetheart,” Larkel said softly, ignoring the accusation in Raoul's eyes as he bent to fetch it, careful to touch only the chain.
His eyes stared at the back of the amulet, then snapped up to meet her eyes just as the ground heaved. Starla fell back against the bars as the first tremor hit. The others screamed as the earth heaved violently.
“What is happening?” she gasped as Larkel stumbled towards her.
The sudden end to the tremors had Starla and Larkel off-balance and on their knees when the door burst open.
The Baron rushed in, followed silently by Captain Trent and Makhi Ditte. His steps faltered as his grey eyes took in Starla and Larkel, each holding a piece of the amulet, and the cursed twins behind them. Before anything else could happen, an explosion followed by a short horn blast echoed over head. The Baron cursed under his breath.
“Go, get ready to give him the news,” he ordered Captain Trent.
His grey eyes fell on Starla, lingering on her lips before moving on to the scar Kyron had given her as Trent hurried from the cavern.
“Take your eyes off of her, you—” Larkel's voice was drowned out by another explosion. Although Larkel did indeed pity his old friend the horrors of his past, he could not forget all he had done since. His powers would regenerate quickly now that he was out of the chains. The Baron had better run.
“You can kill me later if you want,” Braxton said stiffly, shifting his eyes to Larkel as if had heard his thoughts. He waved Ditte forward.
In one swift motion, Ditte stepped forward and waved his staff. Both cages vanished. No one moved, eyeing the two men warily.
“Just listen,” Braxton said, stepping closer, “Kyron knows everything, he is going to—” He stopped as Ditte whispered something in his ear.
The Baron said a few choice words, then stepped back.
“Do it,” he told Ditte.
Ditte intoned a spell under his breath, looping his staff over his head.
Larkel blinked in disbelief as the cages re-materialized. Before he could speak, a red light split the air and Kyron was before them.
One glance at the cages and his cold laughter echoed around the cavern.
“This is too good to be true!” he smiled cruelly. “Starla, sweet Starla, how could you let them do it?”
He waved his staff and the cage reformed itself, excluding Starla and Larkel, expelling them from within it. Behind him, Ditte seemed to mimic the move.
They scrambled to their feet, refusing to kneel before this monster.
“And you, Larkel? If you could really be so heartless, you should have joined me when your father did.” His mauve eyes glowed with malicious pleasure. “How could you let two children die for you?” His laughter swarmed around them again.
Larkel wrenched his eyes away from the Baron and Makhi. Summoning what little strength had returned to him, he sent a bolt of silver light at Kyron.
The evil laughter died out instantly as a slash of green blood bloomed on Kyron's left arm. He bared his pointed teeth even as he healed the wound.
A burst of lava shot up from the pit and struck Larkel squarely in the chest, seeming to burrow inside him.
The sound of snapping bones joined Larkel's screams of agony as he collapsed to his knees.
“You heartless bastard!” Starla cried, as black cords flew from Kyron's staff and wrapped around her, dragging her from Larkel.
“I see you still haven't learned respect, little princess.” Kyron's voice was deadly as the cords bit deeper, drawing blood. “I knew you'd come for something, eventually. Your friends, your amu
let or your lover. It seems it was the lover that won out.”
Starla stared in horror as Kyron levitated the Star out of her grasp and flipped it over in the air before him. It crumbled into dust.
Starla stared at the falling dust in speechless terror, her wide, unblinking eyes trying to force the image to change.
“A fake. I suppose my sister doesn't trust you, after all,” Kyron mused, not noticing Starla's sudden relief. “No matter. I will get the original from her, myself. You!” he barked at the Baron. “Fetch me the other half.”
The Baron bowed, and strode purposefully to the incapacitated High Lord, who had stopped screaming, though he still lay twitching on the ground.
In the same moment, Captain Trent burst through the door.
“Master! Master Kyron!”
“What?” hissed Kyron impatiently, turning his back on the Baron and Larkel.
“It's the Galatians. Most of them … in the turmoil with the baby magmi—” he panted heavily
Starla looked at the young captain. He was trembling from head to toe, but there was a glint of determination and apology in his eyes as they flickered to hers before he concluded.
“They are returning to the Royal City, I think.”
Trent stood there trembling only a second longer before red flames rose up out of the ground around him.
Kyron's cold voice was sharp with rage as the incantation echoed around the cavern.
Starla was unable to tear her eyes away from the Captain as he began to scream and writhe in the flames, falling to the floor. The red flames were melting his skin, turning it grey and charring the bone where it became exposed. In seconds, the once well-built captain was a skeletal, blind drodemion.
“Get out of my sight,” Kyron hissed and the two drodemions hastened to obey.
Starla blinked back her tears and looked to Larkel, away from the horror, as the echoing screams died out. He and the Baron appeared to be having a silent conversation, his indigo eyes burning into Braxton's grey ones.
Then, the Baron moved swiftly away and bowed, just as Kyron turned back to them.
Starla's heart sank as she saw him hold out the red Blossom by its chain. “Master.”
