Lintang and the Brightest Star

by Tamara Moss

  What she hadn’t counted on was that someone had anticipated her. The weapons master stood in the centre of the path, face calm, sword drawn.

  ‘Sorry,’ Xiang said coolly. ‘But you won’t be saving the captain’s star today.’

  ‘How could you?’ The words came out as a scream. Lintang steadied her sword, her hands itching to swing the blade. ‘I knew something had changed! You’ve betrayed Captain Shafira!’

  ‘Yes.’ Xiang’s voice was a whisper of sorrow. ‘I have. But not in the way you think.’

  ‘You’ve switched to the Vierzans’ side. You didn’t even tie Opaya and Salish tight enough. You let them escape!’

  ‘They were my friends, Lintang. How many times do I have to say it? I didn’t want Eire to hurt them.’ She hesitated. ‘Although … if I had known they were going to throw that bahatsi powder and kill the guardian earth …’ She trailed off.

  ‘I should’ve realised straight away you were a traitor. You were against coming here from the start. You challenged Eire.’

  ‘Eire.’ Xiang shut her eyes. It was a stupid action. Lintang could’ve easily attacked.

  But she didn’t. She wanted to hear what sorry excuse Xiang had.

  ‘Eire’s the true traitor.’

  ‘Eire’s been pushing us to get here in time!’

  Xiang opened her eyes again. ‘Captain Shafira didn’t want that.’

  Lintang scoffed. She had never felt such anger towards anyone before, even Yamini. ‘It’s Eire’s choice. She’s the one who has to make the sacrifice.’

  ‘No, Lintang.’ Xiang looked at her with something that resembled pity. She lowered her sword. ‘You are.’

  ‘Me? What do I have to do with anything?’

  ‘You’re due to inherit the Winda.’

  Lintang lowered her sword too. ‘What are you talking about? Yamini …’

  ‘Yamini lost her right to the inheritance when she took that bribe.’

  ‘But … But I couldn’t be …’

  Xiang smiled. It was a tight, bitter smile. ‘Why do you think the captain specifically asked for you when she chose an Islander to get out of Nyasamdra’s territory? Why do you think we were in your village in the first place? There are tales about the troublemaker from Desa all over the Twin Islands. You, who’s grown up in a community, who doesn’t value gemstones, who cares deeply about friends and family. You’re creative and brave and loyal. Yamini had the potential to be those things too, but you’re motivated by justice, and by love, rather than a thirst for power.’

  ‘Wait,’ Lintang said, untangling her thoughts. ‘You … You came to Desa to find me?’

  It wasn’t possible.

  Or was it?

  When they’d first met, the captain had said she’d heard Lintang was the most imaginative person on the island. Lintang had always found that strange. Because who would’ve told Captain Shafira such a thing? None of the people on Desa had trusted her enough to gossip. She must’ve heard it from another village.

  ‘The captain told me later she saw you battling a category four mythie with a wooden sword and an armour of leaves, and that you threw yourself over a friend to protect him. You were exactly who she was looking for.’

  ‘That’s why she insisted on taking me instead of one of the other village girls,’ Lintang said slowly.

  ‘You think she would’ve given up the crown of Allay for just anyone? And when the lightning bird chose to protect you, she knew she had made the right choice this time.’

  It explained why Yamini had been so angry when Lintang had first come aboard the Winda. Lintang had stolen her inheritance without even realising it.

  Lintang’s legs were weak. ‘Why didn’t the captain tell me?’

  ‘She wanted to give you a chance to find your way and make friends with the crew. She told Yamini straight away, which turned out to be a mistake – Yamini made assumptions, started acting like she was already captain.’

  ‘But why didn’t she tell me before Marjin’s day? Then I could’ve been in charge instead of Eire. And what does it have to do with the prophecy?’

  ‘Are you listening, Lintang? You’re due to inherit the ship. You’re her heir. The second captain of the Winda. Her second.’

  ‘Me,’ Lintang said in disbelief. ‘The prophecy’s about me.’

  ‘Captain Shafira realised at once, but ordered us not to tell you. She knew you’d do whatever it took to bring her back. She doesn’t want you to sacrifice your life for her, Lintang.’

  Lintang’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword. ‘Who is she to decide that? Doesn’t she understand this world needs her? That there are people who love her?’

  ‘There are people who love you too.’

  Lintang’s cheeks were wet. She swiped at them with her free hand. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head.

  Lintang, please! When?

  ‘I shouldn’t have let it get this far,’ Xiang said. ‘I let Eire take you all the way here. Stupid. Stupid. Eire cares more about bringing Captain Shafira back than what Captain Shafira actually wants. I almost fell for the same trap. Almost.’ She raised her sword again. ‘I kept telling myself we’d find another way to save Captain Shafira; that this was the best way to protect you without revealing the truth. But I’ve come to my senses. I won’t let you go any further.’

  Lintang felt like she was drowning all over again. This couldn’t be true. She couldn’t stand here and let Captain Shafira’s star be trapped alone for eternity in Hallaxa.

  She started forward. Xiang lunged to block her path. ‘Don’t you dare.’

  ‘I have to.’

  ‘No, you don’t. This isn’t what Shafira wanted.’

  Lintang had never heard the crew refer to Captain Shafira without her title. It felt strangely personal.

  She kept moving. She knew Xiang wasn’t going to stab her. Xiang realised this at the same time, and tossed her sword away to grab Lintang’s shoulders instead.

  Lintang struggled to free herself. ‘Let me go.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘LET ME GO!’ Lintang screamed in frustration. ‘Just let me go! You don’t care. You don’t care at all about Captain Shafira. She’s gone. Her star is gone. She’s never going to shine in the sky with her ancestors. She doesn’t deserve that. She doesn’t deserve to be in darkness forever.’

  ‘Lintang, please –’

  ‘No! I can save her, I can save her, and you don’t care!’

  ‘Of course I care. I care so much, it’s killing me.’

  ‘I don’t believe you!’

  ‘No?’ Xiang released her and picked up her sword again. ‘When this is over, when the lo fali-air is medicated and I know you’re safe, I’m not coming down the mountain with you.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You think I can return to the Winda without her?’ Xiang’s breaths turned sharp and jagged. ‘I quit. I relinquish my position on the ship. Don’t you understand? Shafira is gone, and it’s killing me.’

  Lintang let her sword fall to her side. ‘Xiang …’

  There was a bellow behind her, and Eire thundered past. She tackled Xiang to the ground.

  ‘Go to Governor!’ Eire said to Lintang.

  Xiang struggled to throw Eire off, but she was distracted, too upset to fight with her usual strength.

  Lintang felt rooted to the ground. She watched Eire and Xiang grappling, unsure what to do.

  ‘Hurry,’ Eire said. ‘Hurry! You must save Captain!’

  Lintang suddenly understood what Eire’s conversation in the swamp had meant. They’d agreed they would do anything to save Captain Shafira. Anything.

  And then there was Xiang, poor Xiang, who had become so broken without the captain she was willing to walk away from the Winda –

  Lintang made up her mind.

  ‘No!’ Xiang screamed as Lintang raced past them.

  Lintang ignored her. She put her head down and sprinted up the path.

  She was going to save her captai
n.

  Lintang barely made it around the first bend before there was a whoosh of air and someone called her name. A fyredragon set down on the path in front of her. Yamini slid off its back.

  Lintang groaned. ‘Not you too. Just let me go already!’

  Yamini raised her staff. ‘No.’

  The fyredragon lifted into the air, circling but not leaving. Its shadow passed over them several times. It reminded Lintang of the lightning bird.

  ‘I didn’t steal the inheritance from you,’ she said. ‘You’d lost it long before I arrived.’

  Yamini’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile. ‘This isn’t about that. I was never going to get it back. I knew that, deep down.’

  ‘Then what are you doing here?’ Lintang’s sword felt hot in her hand. She squeezed the hilt in frustration. They were wasting time. ‘You know I’m going to win this.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Yamini said.

  Her stance had improved, and she looked like she knew what she was doing. She did know what she was doing, because Lintang had taught her.

  ‘Is that why you wanted to learn how to fight?’ Lintang said in disbelief. ‘To beat me?’

  It was like when she had been training with the vigil in Desa, pretending to perform, but really she had been learning their weaknesses. Yamini had done exactly the same thing to her.

  Yamini gritted her teeth and didn’t budge.

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ Lintang said. ‘You haven’t learned enough.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. I won’t let you past unless you kill me.’

  The words were so unexpected, a laugh slipped from Lintang’s lips. ‘Kill you? You can’t expect me to –’

  Yamini braced herself.

  It was then Lintang realised Yamini was trembling. Her arms and hands shook, and her knuckles were white.

  She was terrified.

  ‘I’m not going to kill you,’ Lintang said in alarm.

  ‘Then you won’t make it to the mythie. I couldn’t stop you before, when you had the guardian earth and your friends. But you’re alone now. I’ll fight you all day if I have to.’

  Lintang started forward. ‘This is madness –’

  Yamini swung out. Her staff whipped noisily in the air. ‘Stay back!’

  ‘Yamini –’

  ‘Stay back!’ Yamini’s face was bloodless. Her eyes were overly wide. ‘The captain made us promise – The captain gave an order – I won’t betray her. Not again. Never again!’

  So that’s why Yamini was here. Loyalty, not treachery. Love, not hate.

  Yamini swung out wildly. Lintang was forced to retreat several steps.

  ‘I’m supposed to save you,’ Yamini said, and her words quaked with unshed tears. ‘Even if it means dooming the captain’s star for eternity. It was an order. It was an order –’

  ‘All right.’ Lintang put her sword on the ground and lifted her hands to show they were empty. ‘All right.’ She spoke soothingly, as if she were back in the forest, trying to placate the guardian earth. ‘I’m not going to kill you, Yamini.’

  Yamini didn’t lower her staff, but she stopped swinging. She kept it pointed at Lintang.

  ‘We need to medicate the mythie,’ Lintang said.

  ‘No. No! You can’t go up there!’ Yamini’s voice was high-pitched. Lintang needed to figure out a way around without hurting her. A way to get her on side, at least for now.

  ‘I suppose you haven’t thought about what will happen once we medicate the mythie, have you?’ Lintang kept her tone light. ‘Hallaxa’s not real, you know. Not like Ytzuam. It’s just a myth. Did it ever occur to you that once the mythie’s human again, all the stars that are stuck in Hallaxa will return to our world?’

  ‘They won’t! You’re trying to trick me. I’m not stupid – I remember what we talked about on the ship. The magic of the mythie remains, even if it’s medicated.’

  ‘But Hallaxa’s a place. And places are different. Remember the enchanted forest in Allay? The whole thing disappeared.’

  Yamini was less wide-eyed than before, but she trembled worse than ever. ‘That was because the forest itself was the mythie. Hallaxa and the Disgraced God are separate.’

  ‘The mud monsters and the guardian earth were separate, but the mud monsters disappeared once the guardian earth died.’

  Lintang had only been trying to convince Yamini to let her pass, but as she was talking, she wondered whether she was onto something.

  The end of Yamini’s staff drooped.

  ‘It might be the answer we need. Medicating the Disgraced God will fix everything. All we have to do is get the Curall from Governor Karnezis, and we can save not only the captain, but everyone who’s been devoured.’

  ‘You can’t medicate the mythie. You’re terrified of it!’

  ‘I can do it,’ Lintang said, even as a familiar fear gripped her. ‘But I’ll need your help.’

  ‘My help?’ Yamini sounded dubious, but she lowered her staff. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘We need to get the Curall from the governor, don’t we?’ Lintang shoved down her fear and forced a sly grin to cross her lips. ‘And I hear you’re an extraordinary pickpocket.’

  They reached the next plateau as the sun drew higher in the sky. The slope above them had become sheer like the sea cliffs of Allay. A gaping cave sat in the rocks.

  Lintang walked with Yamini across the flat ground, barely able to draw breath. There was no sign of the lo fali-air. And it would be difficult to miss.

  So where was it?

  Don’t think of the monster, don’t think of the monster –

  They reached the cave. It wasn’t large enough for the Disgraced God to fit inside.

  There was an eerie glow coming from blue spheres like the ones in Yilut’s hish bar. Something was wrong. Governor Karnezis was there, huddled against the rocky wall, and he’d clearly been waiting for them.

  He looked dreadful. When Lintang had seen him in Zaiben, he’d reminded her of a bird of prey, his gaze sharp and piercing, his form broad and strong. Now he was a diminished version of himself. He seemed smaller despite his layers of patchwork clothes. His eyes were sunken, ringed with red. His cheeks dipped in hollows behind his scruffy beard.

  Qourees had said controlling the lo fali-air would corrupt him. Lintang wondered how dim his star was now.

  He grinned. His teeth had gone black around the roots. ‘I knew it,’ he rasped. ‘I knew you would come. How nice to see you again, Lintang. And you brought a playmate.’

  Yamini tensed.

  ‘I was expecting more of you. How glad I am to be wrong.’ Karnezis laughed. The sound was like brittle branches scraping against each other. Lintang didn’t know what he was laughing at. Opaya had been right when she’d said he’d gone mad.

  ‘You can’t do this,’ Lintang said. ‘You can’t keep sending the monster after people. The war’s over. You’ve won. Let it go.’

  His laugh snapped off abruptly. ‘The war isn’t over. It will never be over. You have to squash your enemies and keep them squashed.’ He sucked in a rattling breath. To Yamini, he said, ‘The rebels are like berry bugs. You ever heard of those? The worst pests across the Twin Islands. You think you’ve got them all, but you find another nest the next day.’

  Yamini shuddered.

  Karnezis turned his horrible grin to Lintang. ‘You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?’

  Lintang didn’t answer. She hated the reminder that he was an Islander too.

  She glanced at Yamini, and the two of them edged into the cave. They split up, going in opposite directions around the perimeter. It was difficult to see through the gloom where a small vial might be hiding.

  Karnezis watched them, still amused. ‘I know your name,’ he said to Lintang. ‘Your full name. Governor Jani sent word of you, young “it’s of Desa, not of Sundriya”. The entire UR knows who you are. The moment I call you my enemy, my monster will devour you whole.’

  A tremor rippled through Lintang,
and she fought down a sudden rise of bile in her throat. Concentrate on the task right now. That’s what Kona had taught her.

  And right now, she needed to find the vial.

  Her boots scuffed at thick blankets and heavy clothes. They had an old, musty smell that made her stomach churn. Yamini was probing her staff around an empty wooden cage. It was just large enough for one human.

  Why would Karnezis need a cage?

  ‘Looking for something?’ he said cheerfully. He reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a vial. ‘This, perhaps?’

  Curall.

  Lintang lifted her sword, but he said, ‘Uh uh,’ and with his other hand he held up one of those awful black balls. Bahatsi powder. Lintang stopped. Her skin still seared from when the last one had gone off.

  She had a terrifying image of Karnezis igniting the ball and causing a rockfall to trap them inside. Again, she tried to start forward, and again, Karnezis waved the bahatsi at her. His fingers were gnarled and his nails were long and yellow.

  ‘Here’s what’s going to happen,’ he said. ‘I’m going to keep your friend. Then you’ll go down the mountain and tell whatever crew you have waiting that I’m going to kill her unless you get on your ship and sail away.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ Lintang said. ‘I’m not leaving her with you.’

  ‘I have vigil who can take her home.’ To Yamini, he said in a kindly voice, ‘You’re Vierzan, aren’t you?’

  ‘I’m from Zaiben,’ Yamini said suspiciously.

  Karnezis tucked the vial back into his inner pocket. ‘Have you ever been to Parliament House? It’s beautiful. I could introduce you to some people.’ He wrinkled his nose at her appearance. ‘It’s clear you’ve been … mistreated … on that pirate ship.’

  Lintang scoffed and was about to say something when Yamini said over her, ‘I was forced into slavery, actually.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Karnezis stroked his beard with his free hand. The other hand still clutched the bahatsi powder. ‘Would you be willing to testify against the rest of the crew? Perhaps give us some inside information? Identify them if we suspect we’ve caught one? There are rewards for that kind of thing.’

  Yamini eyed him. ‘What kind of rewards?’