Song of a Dead Star

by Zamil Akhtar

  “Asha! Don’t hurt him!”

  He counted four voices. One sounded like military, one was familiar and strong, one was dark and deep, and the last one...familiar yet terrified.

  The terrified voice spoke. “It’s him. Kav, the Keldanese boy. He did it. I saw him do it.” So familiar. But Kav couldn’t quite place it.

  “It’s been confirmed. What more do you want?”

  “The boy might be the one deceived. He might be the one mindwritten.” This voice was also familiar, but in a different way. The strength of the voice reassured Kav.

  “It doesn’t matter. Do you realize how dire our situation is? We need to know what he has seen — now.”

  “Asha’s method could cause brain damage!”

  “It’s him. The Keldanese boy. Why did you do it? Why?” That terrified voice again.

  They know what I did.

  “Put the boy to sleep.”

  “No — I don’t want to dream anymore. PLEASE—”

  Who’s that? Tell me who you are!

  “General, Shar is being paranoid. It is a priority that we learn what the Magus killer has seen. Therein are the clues to piece everything together. If we waste time deliberating now, we will be unprepared to deal with the Haemians. I must be given access to the killer’s mind.”

  Shar...that Shar?

  Kav yearned to see. But it felt as if he had no eyes.

  “The Shah wants the boy unharmed. Last I checked, his orders override yours.”

  “In the present circumstance, blindly following the Shah’s whim is a destructive course.”

  “The Shah’s whim is the only course!”

  It’s gotta be him. Shar.

  “Stop hiding behind the Shah. What’s your real motive, Shar?”

  “For Nur’s sake, at least release the boy’s senses. Let’s see what he has to say.”

  “Fine.”

  An arrow of light shot onto Kav’s vision and exploded through his consciousness. Kav could see him now — Shar, the broker — unlike he remembered. Wrinkles had aged him. A once young face seemed so hard, so torn.

  It’s them...

  He was flanked by two demons. Magi. One looked like a tree, the other like a pile of shadows.

  “Kav, that’s your name, right?” Shar winked at him.

  Now, Kav could move his tongue. “What do you want with me? Ugh...my throat.”

  “Relax,” Shar said. “No one is going to hurt you.”

  A man laced in military regalia stared Kav down. “He really is just a boy. How could he possibly kill a Magus — mindwritten or not?”

  Shar kneeled and put his hand on Kav’s shoulder. “Can you tell us what you know? You were on a Continental Army levship that broke apart in midair, and yet, you live. The record shows that you were put on the ship in an unconscious state, for conduction. Were you conscious when the ship went down? Can you tell us anything?”

  Kav felt a sizzling in his throat. “I need water. My throat’s burning.”

  Shar pointed to the military man. “Get him water.”

  “No, don’t,” said one of the Magi. It was literally just a shadow, except for its blue mask.

  “Asha,” Shar said, “do you have a reason for denying the boy his basic needs?”

  “The body must be weak for the soul’s light to shine.”

  Shar shook his head. “I have the Seal of the Selukal House! Get him water!”

  The man in military regalia hurried off, hopefully to get water. Kav saw someone else in the background, seated against the opposite wall. Needles of hair hung over a shriveled face — he too was tied to the wall. He’s the one I heard...

  Kav knew him. From the academy. From the forest. From...

  “Tusir?” Kav said.

  Water came. Shar poured it in his mouth. Kav coughed as it tickled his throat.

  “That boy is the only survivor...other than you,” said the Magus made of shadows. The one called Asha. “So now that you’ve had a drink, tell us what you know.”

  Kav pieced it together — all the scattered memories flowed into a rhythm and played in his head. “I’ve nothing to say to a Magus.”

  “If his tongue won’t speak,” Asha said, “his memories will.”

  The other Magus spread its branches. The mask on its bark gleamed. The flowers around the mask bloomed with deadly radiance. Didn’t the Promiser say there was only one Magus left? Then why do I see two!?

  “Dahma!” Shar said. “Don’t even think of—”

  “It has to be done!” Asha interrupted.

  “No! You won’t touch his memories! You won’t have your way!”

  “My way? That’s not what this is about. There is only one way. Why fear it?”

  Shar gripped the hilt of his blade. “Remember, I’ve slain a Magus. That fear should soften your heart.”

  The Magi stood side by side. Barely real, they looked like phantoms. Like demons.

  “Shar the Yanisari,” said the tree Magus, “you may have killed me, but is it wise to go against two Magi?”

  “The Haemians would just love to watch us kill each other from above. Sheath your anger.” The military man opened his eyes. “We have new information.”

  Asha reformed his face toward the man. “What is it?”

  “A massive black fissure has been sighted in the skies a hundred miles south.”

  “The Haemian ship, then.” Shar let go of his hilt.

  “From what we know, the vessel that hit Qindsmar is a throne-class levship that can fly freely — without a levtrack surface,” the military man said. “If their flight technology has evolved to the point where they can build such a massive free-flying ship, their weaponry is an even bigger worry.”

  “Strange that the Haemians waited so long to debut such a craft,” the tree Magus said. “And what’s more, to cloak a ship that size is an enormous technological leap.”

  “Is it just one ship?” Shar said. “Or an entire armada?”

  The Magus Asha stared into Kav’s soul. “We will discuss this at the Summit Complex. Dealing with the vessel is more important than this boy.”

  Shar came close and winked. “Relax, Kav. I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

  They left Kav alone with Tusir. Skin clung to Tusir’s body like a picked chicken bone. A ball inside his chest filled when he inhaled, poking out of his rib cage. Kav tried to move closer, but shackles kept him in place.

  Tired, he closed his eyes.

  “Open your eyes,” someone whispered in his ear.

  A shadow appeared out of thin air. In a robe of black clouds, Asha appeared before him.

  “Don’t fear,” the Magus said, “what is about to happen must happen.”

  The shadow invaded Kav’s body, and everything went dark.

  “The hell are you doing to me?”

  “I’m bridging both your minds with mine, so we can all see inside each other. It’s going to get really confusing, but you’ll manage. Now, let us embark on a journey, to the root of it all, to the cause of everything. So you can know what it is you really are.”

  There was a moving painting, and in it two people were having a conversation on lofty chairs, in a transparent mansion by the seashore. Kav watched them as if he was invisible.

  “Her name is Mirealia,” said the mother. “You met her once, remember? She’s really beautiful.”

  The mother and son had no face. The walls behind them had no texture. The mansion was silent despite the voices. The seashore didn’t smell.

  “But I want to go fight the Haemians, I can’t get married yet.” The son crossed his arms and turned his face away.

  “Listen,” the mother said. “You’re going to be a great general someday, not some infantryman. And to be a general, you need respect, and to have respect, you need a wife who will increase the honor of your house.”

  The son stared at the floor, then looked up. “Fine. I’ll at least meet her, if that’s what you want, Mother.”

  Th
e mother, son, mansion, and seashore vanished. A forest grew in their place and burst out of the painting, until it surrounded Kav.

  It was the same forest. The place where they practiced, where the leaves shed furiously on the cadets. The forest of Ekrah Academy. Except this forest had invisible walls.

  The wall wasn’t made of anything; it was just there. It seemed like there was an endless wilderness beyond the wall, but there wasn’t. Because when you got there, to the wall, you could touch it, and you knew your eyes deceived you. Sight told you it wasn’t there, while your hands told you it was. But which told the truth?

  “Her name is Mirealia.” The mother’s voice echoed, bounced of the walls.

  “Her-her-her-her”

  “Name-name-name.”

  “Mir-mir-mir.”

  “Eali-eali-eali.”

  Kav covered his ears. Dammit it, it’s so loud.

  The faceless boy’s figure appeared in the sky. Moving paintings played on the clouds.

  “You’re Mirealia? My mother was right — all the poets in the land couldn’t capture your beauty.”

  A faceless girl appeared, her blonde hair smoothly curled below her shoulders.

  “You’re too kind,” she said, blushing. “I’ve waited a long time to meet you, Tusir.”

  Someone in the forest was running toward Kav. The paintings disappeared. A Shirma boy pounced and banged Kav’s head into the dirt. His hands cuckolded Kav’s neck.

  “Traitor!” Tusir said. “You killed us all!”

  Kav stabbed his right knee into Tusir’s stomach. The boy’s grip weakened. Kav grabbed his shoulders and flung him off.

  “If you’re dead,” Kav said, “how’re you still talking?”

  “Because I’m the unlucky one who survived.” Lying on the ground, Tusir laughed. “They tortured me. The one with the blue aura, he took all my peace. It’s all because they wanted to know everything about you!”

  He charged at Kav. Weak and slow. Kav grabbed his head and slammed him into the invisible wall. Tusir went right through and disappeared, but one hand clung to Kav’s arm; he pulled him along, into the mystery beyond the wall.

  Kav could no longer see anything. It was all dark. Still, he could hear Tusir’s voice.

  “What wrong did we do, that you had to kill us all?”

  “I—”

  “Is it ‘cause you’re Keldanese? And you hate us?”

  “No—”

  “I don’t care what you have to say! Why are you here? Why are you in my memories? This is all — this is all I have left!”

  “Your memories?”

  “Yes, my memories! What you just saw is the memory of how I met my fiancé. Her name is Mirealia. I was going to tell you all about her, about how she disappeared after the Uprising, about how I’ve been looking for her, about how the Magi may know where she is. But then you killed me. You killed me! So leave! Get out!”

  Everything vanished.

  Kav jolted upward. He saw a familiar ceiling above him. Sweat stained his pillow and ran down his cheeks. He threw off his blanket as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of his dorm room. But it was all too strange. There were little mirrors all over the walls, and no door, and the carpet was blue not brown.

  “I’m still dreaming,” Kav said. “Why is everything so out of control?”

  “Because your life no longer belongs to you.” A blue fire burned on what would be Kyars’s mattress. It spoke to him. “You’re a slave. But who has enslaved you?”

  Kav felt the heat on his face. It was monstrous. It was raw soul, yet it flared in such brilliant patterns. A talking blue flame.

  “Now I understand how it happened.” Blue smoke steamed off the blue flame. In that smoke appeared the outline of a man. “Just like the other boy, you are an infatuated ego. Infatuation pushed you to it.”

  “So you’re the one who tortured Tusir? You gonna do that to me?”

  “The shedding of your ego is indeed torture. I’ve read your book. I know who you are, Kav. A whisperer has used your misplaced longing to drive you to do his work. Not you as you know yourself, but the other you. The one that can’t move on, that can’t let go of memories, that only desires and fears.”

  As the smoke spread through the room, it thinned. The outline of the man blackened, vivified.

  “You’re right. I won’t deny it. He made me believe that if I killed that Magus, I would have Layla as a reward. I didn’t just believe, I knew it, I felt the truth of it.”

  “Do you know who he is?”

  “No.”

  “Do you even know what you’ve become?”

  Kav had no answer.

  “You are a demon devouring angels,” the blue flame continued. “You are a puppet to the enemies of Eden. Do you understand? The Haemians used you to kill a Magus.”

  Sweat drenched Kav in the pale of the blue fire. “Please, that’s ridicu—”

  “You killed a Magus while he was in his most vulnerable state, absorbed in piloting a levship. Don’t you see? The Haemians, how they used you? With the Magi dead, who will protect Eden and its people? Who will wall out their overwhelming power? And on the eve of that monstrous ship’s invasion, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.”

  “I don’t know any Haemians. I’d never help them. And don’t talk to me about you Magi. My homeland doesn’t exist anymore, because of you Magi. And it’s not the first time, what about Elkaria? Don’t act like I’m evil and you’re not. You’re a much worse monster than me.”

  “Intriguing that you mention Elkaria. We only act when it is in the best interest of the whole people. You don’t know the reality of your words. You don’t even know what you know, that’s how confused you are.”

  “I know what I lost. I know you took it from me. And I know that Magus deserved the death I gave him.”

  “Right, of course. But there are still two missing pieces of the puzzle. Just who is this whisperer, and why you? You are nothing. Or are you? I have a simmering feeling the answer lies in the sky...on the Haemian ship.”

  Outside the window of this strange replica of his dorm room, the world was cloudy and white. Dust swirled in the air between him and the blue fire.

  Layla...I did it for you.

  “No, you did it for Haem,” the blue fire said. “Layla is dead.”

  “She’s not dead!” Kav sat up. “I saw her, I spoke to her!”

  “All falsehood — images sent to you by the Whisperer. Listen, Kav. Love’s promise is false. No matter how hard you try, you cannot become one with another soul. Death cuts every bond, paths separate, aloneness is the only truth. You are alone. Accept this truth if you no longer want to be a tool of the Haemians. Now, let me show you both something.”

  Everything disappeared except the sky. Moving paintings covered the clouds. There were blank faces wearing blank clothes. It seemed like a funeral procession. A caller cried, “From Nur we were born, and to Nur we return.” The faceless ones held up a cloth shroud. But there was no body inside.

  The mother of the dead one cried. Her face was featureless. She wore a Shirmian shawl, blue with leafy gold patterns, wrapped around a white gown. She wailed as she followed the faceless ones, who carried the empty cloth shroud above their heads.

  Tusir appeared next to Kav. He was crying. Then the blue fire spoke, “This is your funeral, Tusir. Kav, if there is anyone to remember you, yours may soon follow.”

  The visions ended. Kav opened his eyes. His entire body was numb. The Magus Asha stood over him, nothing but a pile of shadows. Tusir, asleep, sat against the wall just opposite.

  “Sleep peacefully, for a while,” the Magus said.

  And sleep grabbed Kav, pulled him back to the dark.

  Shar’s concentration jumped out the window as the uniforms argued. How could anything disturb that sky? The clouds were cream inside a blue cake. The sun dripped its juices onto that cream, and all of it melted in his mouth. Shar continued to daydream about food, until someone shouted, “By Nur!�
��

  It was one of the lieutenants. “We’ve just got a report in. Demands. They’ve made demands. Can you believe it?” He pounded the table. “Those monsters who destroyed one of our cities have made demands!”

  A communal gasp hit the room.

  The lieutenant continued, “To be precise, they have one demand—”

  General Mehr completed his sentence, “They want us to hand over the Grand Magus, or his dead body.”

  Grand Magus? Shar was startled, but decided it was best to remain silent — for now.

  The lieutenant glared at the Magi on the other side of the room. “Asha, aren’t you the Grand Magus now?”

  Asha refused to sit. He stood with his fellow Magus, their shadows eclipsing the faces of the commanding officers. “Me? Grand Magus? I am thousands of years from even the scent of such stature.”

  “Where is the Grand Magus then?” the lieutenant asked.

  “If he were here, then know for certain, the Haemian ship would be lying destroyed on the plains of Almaria. The Grand Magus is in occultation.”

  “Occlo — occulat — occulation?” the General said. “What the hell does that mean? He’s sleeping? Is that what you mean?”

  Asha’s shadow seemed to expand, then contract. Hypnotic. “It means he won’t be here, and their demand cannot be carried out.”

  “It makes sense,” said another lieutenant, who had been silent. Fat cheeks dangled off his face like glazed pastries. “Since the Haemians have finally infiltrated Eden, their first target would be their chief adversary — the Grand Magus. After all, he is the very reason their invasion sixty years ago failed.”

  Shar’s stomach growled, followed by a moment of awkward eye contact with the lieutenant next to him.

  The General nodded in agreement with the pastry faced lieutenant. “Right. Well, it wasn’t our plan to give in to demands anyway.”

  Magus Dahma’s branches swayed, though no wind blew. Just as hypnotic. “Oh? But you would love a failsafe, wouldn’t you? Turn over the Grand Magus in case you lost. But a hundred thousand of you couldn’t contain our master.”

  “Take it easy, we aren’t in the business of losing,” the General said. “Let’s go over our preparation. SADB has forty-six levships, which are all currently operational. Of the forty-six, four are heavy-class cruisers equipped with eraser cannons. With those, we can get altitude over the ship. We have eighteen medium-class with rapid-fire turrets and mounted cannons, good for close range. The rest are either light-class or carriers.