The Star Shepherd

by Dan Haring

  Andra shot to her feet. “What are you saying?”

  Pelag smiled and held out his hands. “You said you seek the one cutting down the stars? Well, you have found him.”

  Kyro’s throat constricted, and Cypher growled at his feet. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would you want to do that? How?”

  Pelag sat up in his chair, lowering his feet back to the floor with a grinding of gears.

  “Many centuries ago, the secrets of the Elders lived only with a small group of us. People had stopped believing the stars kept evil away. There was no one left to pass our knowledge on to, so we attached a portion of our hearts to those within the stars.” He pulled aside his robe to show Kyro a jagged scar on his chest. “We were trying to prolong our lives, and it worked. The power of the stars allowed us to live indefinitely. But after many years the burden became too much to bear. As our loved ones passed on, we remained. Slowly growing older and frailer, but still here. Still attached to this life because of the stars.”

  Kyro sucked his breath in sharply at the same time Andra’s jaw dropped. His head spun. A descendant of the Elders, alive and living in the Radamak Mountains? No wonder Pelag was the leader. Had his father stumbled upon this information as well? Could that have been the final bread crumb that convinced him to brave the forbidden mountains?

  If Pelag noticed their reaction, he gave no sign of it as he continued with his tale. “Then, one of our group’s stars fell, and as it perished, so did he. We were finally content in the knowledge that our time would expire with that of the stars we were attached to. Though we had none to pass our knowledge to, we believed the ancient evils to be extinct. That was the purpose of the starlight net—to banish them so deep into the darkest corners that they couldn’t survive. Centuries had passed. There was no longer anything left to fear, and I looked forward to finally being released from this world.

  “But this was around the time the first Star Shepherds emerged, and they ruined my hopes for peace.” Pelag’s hands clenched around his cane like he wanted to strangle it. “My star fell, but it was rescued and shot back into the sky. As the others of my group passed on, I found my way to these mountains, where the giants have kept me company. But I am tired, so tired, and I need to move on from this life. Once, I gave up everything for the stars. Now I will search every star in the sky if I have to in order to find the peace I deserve.”

  “You can’t do that!” Kyro said. “What about the Elder Stars? What about keeping us safe and keeping the darkness out?”

  Pelag laughed. “As I said, that time has passed. For all we know, the Elder Stars have fallen as well. And you Star Shepherds return the stars to the sky anyway. What does it matter if we cut some down to find mine?”

  “Because they’re not going back into the sky! Someone is stealing them.”

  Pelag shook his head. “Like I said, what proof have you of this? Besides, whatever evil existed then is long gone. It doesn’t matter if a few stars go astray. I have waited and watched for centuries to be sure.”

  “But the evil isn’t gone!” Kyro argued. “We saw vritrax and a vissla on our way here in these very mountains. The stars that have been destroyed are making them braver.”

  “Enough! I grow weary of your childish tales. You will not deter me with your lies. The stars are fine. My giants are only looking for the one with my heart. The Shepherds take care of the rest.”

  Resolve filled Kyro with a swift urgency. “We’re telling the truth. Something or someone is taking them before the Shepherds can get to them. We’ll shoot your giants out of the sky if we have to,” he said. “We won’t let you do this.”

  “I am afraid you have no choice,” Pelag said, his eyes boring into Kyro. “If I have to personally lead my army to your doorstep, I will not hesitate to do so.”

  The old man rose to his feet. “I believe you have what you came for. An answer. And now you have overstayed your welcome.” He gestured toward the door.

  Andra looked like she had swallowed a hive of bees, but she and Kyro did as they were told. Outside, they found Jector waiting for them. Pelag instructed Sear, “Be sure they leave the camp immediately. And that they do not return.” He turned to Kyro and Andra. “I wish I could say it has been a pleasure, but as I mentioned, I bear no fondness for Star Shepherds.”

  With that, Pelag ducked back into his house, and they were left with a sneering Sear and several more Flyers glaring down at them.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The Flyers corralled the group, moving them along the edge of the camp and back toward the mountain path. Sear shoved Jector forward. “You heard Pelag. Time to leave. And never come back.”

  “This isn’t right.” Andra glared up at Sear as he nudged her along too. “You’re helping Pelag, aren’t you? You’re stealing the stars for him. Why are you destroying them in the process? Why even bother cutting them down when you could just take them?”

  Kyro’s heart sank. One look at Sear left no doubt she was right. Of course the Flyers were in on it. It explained so much—the speed with which the stars were stolen, the hooks in the desert. But were they all, or just Sear and his captains?

  And why were they cutting down the stars? It made no sense. If they could reach them, there was no point in slicing the hooks or the burlap. They could have just taken them, and the Star Shepherds would have been none the wiser until it was too late.

  Some of the other Flyers frowned, then laughed. “That’s ridiculous,” one said. “We hung the stars. Why would any of us take them down again?”

  “You should not discuss things you know nothing about,” Sear hissed. “Or there might be repercussions.” His face bent low enough that Kyro and Andra could both feel the cold breath of the mechanical giant blowing over their faces.

  Jector stepped between them and the three foremost Flyers. “Now, Sear, Boor, Aranxes, there is no need to threaten these two human children. They only came here to help.”

  Sear pushed a finger into Jector’s chest, the sound ringing in Kyro’s ears. The other two Flyers took a step closer. “If I see a need, then there is one. You do not get a say.”

  Jector’s metal hands clenched and unclenched in a clockwork rhythm. “Leave them alone.”

  “No.” Sear shoved Jector into the gathered Flyers behind them, and the giant stumbled backward, only to be propelled forward by the others, who cackled and jeered at him.

  “Ha! Poor Jector. No propulsion to keep his balance and stay upright,” Boor said. He was as tall and sleek as Sear, but his chest plate was rusted through in some places.

  “Fool.” Aranxes laughed, and the other Flyers and a few larger, hulking giants Kyro guessed were Orers laughed with him.

  Jector launched himself at Sear. Cypher yapped, but none of the giants noticed the dog while Jector and Sear tussling held their attention.

  Rumy leaned over and whispered, “What happened in there?”

  Kyro balled his hands into fists. “Pelag is searching for his heart. He directed Sear and his captains to take down the stars and search them. But he refused to believe us when we told him the stars were being destroyed in the process. He wouldn’t take the word of children over Sear.”

  Andra crossed her arms over her chest. “We need real proof.”

  Rumy nodded. “It is very strange that Sear would do that. I always thought he was a dedicated giant, though I never liked him personally. He certainly has changed since I last saw him. Pelag is right—you do need proof. No one will believe you otherwise. This is the perfect distraction. Let’s sneak back into the camp. Maybe we can find something more about Pelag’s plan and prove to the rest of the camp that Sear is helping him cut down the stars.” She eyed Sear nervously. “And maybe even letting them die.”

  “Let’s go.” Kyro grabbed Andra’s hand, and they ran away from the group, Cypher close behind them.

  Rumy see
med to know where she was going, and she was small enough to escape the notice of Sear’s army now that they were distracted.

  “It has been decades since I have set foot in this camp,” she said. “But I know someone who might be able to help. While most of the Crafters, Orers, and Flyers think our type of giant beneath them, Rekton never did. Indeed, he still brings us supplies to patch ourselves up once in a while. He might know what is going on.”

  Rumy led them through the camp, filled with shacks and tents far taller than the ones in Jector’s camp. The settlement spread throughout the entire plateau, and Kyro wondered if perhaps no one had never noticed it before because the tents gave it a pointed appearance from a distance. Rumy brought them to a part of the camp that was near a side of the mountain pockmarked by caves.

  “This is where the Orers live,” she said. “They tunneled into the mountain to get the ore to craft the star hearts and the metal for the hooks.”

  No giants hung around outside, much to Kyro’s relief. The last thing they needed was to get kicked out of the camp for a second time. Rumy went right up to one shack and knocked. The creature who opened the door was impressive even by giant standards. Rekton was as tall as the Flyers, but had huge, thick arms, with heavy gauntlets at the ends, no doubt the better to tunnel with. Like the others, he too had a glowing blue orb in his torso and his eyes flared with life.

  “Rumy?” Rekton said. “What are you doing here? And with humans too? It is not safe.”

  Rumy glanced behind her. “Can we come in? I would not be here if it was not of great importance.”

  Rekton frowned, his clockwork eyebrows clicking, but held the door wide. The inside of the shack was sparsely furnished, but one wall held various metal tools on hooks that Kyro could only guess must have aided in their tunneling work. A few chairs and a table sat in the middle of the room, but he and the others were in too much of a hurry to sit down.

  “Rekton, this is Kyro and Andra. Kyro is a Star Shepherd. He and his father take care of the stars that fall from the sky and send them back to keep the starlight net intact.”

  “Yes,” Rekton said, “I am aware of the Shepherds.”

  “But,” Rumy continued, “recently someone has been cutting down the stars and stealing them. Kyro and Andra spoke to Pelag, but he didn’t believe them. We suspect Sear has something to do with it. He has always been gruff, but he seems to have grown cruel now. We know he’s helping Pelag, but we don’t know why he’d want to hurt the stars.”

  Rekton didn’t seem as surprised by this as Kyro had expected. Instead, the great giant sighed. “Something has changed in Sear, it is true. And Pelag. He is obsessed with leaving this world. I fear he might go to great lengths to do so.”

  “That is exactly what he told us. He admitted to cutting down the stars. But he didn’t believe that they were being destroyed,” Kyro said.

  Rekton stroked his chin, considering. “Sear and his captains have been disappearing a lot at night lately. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine confided in me that he suspected they might be hiding something. He told me he planned to fly after them and find out what they were up to, but since that night, no one has seen or heard from him. They almost certainly had something to do with it.”

  Kyro’s head throbbed, and he exchanged a nervous look with Andra. “We found something on the way here, in the Ergsada Valley. It was the arm of a giant. It looked like it had been torn off. It was surrounded by sliced star hooks. At the time, we assumed it had been there for centuries, but now…”

  “Yes,” Rekton said, his eyes glowing brighter. “That must be my friend, Arctus.”

  “We need proof Sear and his captains are stealing the stars,” Rumy said. “Can you help us?”

  “If you need proof, you’re bound to find it in their huts.”

  “Can you show us where Sear’s is?” Rumy asked.

  Rekton shrugged. “Why not? They have never liked me much anyway. And I have been thinking it might be time for me to leave this camp behind. I would not mind taking them down a peg or two first.”

  After checking that the coast was clear outside his shack, Rekton led them across the camp, this time right to the very heart of the sector where the flying giants lived. The deeper they went, the more nervous Kyro became. If they were caught here, their odds of escape were not good at all. But they needed proof to stop Sear, to convince Pelag and the giants who had not yet gone rogue that this was wrong.

  Rekton finally stopped in front of the largest shack Kyro had seen. Of course, it would belong to Sear. It rose in front of them, an odd mess of wood and forged metal with a few gears here and there for good measure.

  “Show-off,” Rumy murmured under her breath. With her needle-hooked fingers, Rumy made short work of the lock on Sear’s door, and they slipped inside. Odds and ends of all kinds filled the space, though Kyro wasn’t sure what they were, aside from being made from more gears and wood and rocks.

  Rekton shrugged. “The Crafters have not had much else to do but Pelag and Sear’s bidding lately. Keeps them busy, I suppose.”

  “And from noticing what Sear is really up to,” Andra added, frowning.

  “No doubt,” Kyro agreed. “Look at this.” In the center of the main room there was a long table overflowing with marked-up star maps. The first few Kyro pored over didn’t look familiar, but when he got to the middle of the table, there was one in a place of prominence with a particular sector circled.

  Kyro’s breath fled his lungs. He recognized a constellation that had been crossed out—it was the very one that had fallen the night he and his father finally realized that the stars were indeed being stolen. They had wondered how the stars could have possibly disappeared so quickly, and here was the definitive answer: the flying giant had cut them down and flown them away, leaving only those stark empty craters in their wake.

  “This map,” Kyro said. “It’s the sky right over my watchtower.”

  Rumy picked up another map nearby. “It looks like these have been cast aside. Pelag has narrowed down the search for his star to your part of the sky. That’s where he’ll focus his army next.”

  Kyro shivered. “This is it. This is proof.”

  Rekton shook his huge head. “Not enough. It is not unusual for us to have star maps, especially our captain.”

  Kyro’s heart sank as he realized Rekton was right. But Andra grinned and squeezed his hand.

  “They took those stars. I’ll bet you there’s a trace of them here somewhere,” she said, glancing around. “Let’s keep looking.”

  “Hurry,” Rekton warned. “Sear will notice you have snuck off soon. They will be hunting for you.”

  They split up, each of them taking one room of the shack and searching it carefully, leaving no piece of clockwork or odd contraption unturned. Kyro looked through what appeared to be a tool room of some kind, filled with all sorts of strange metallic devices, perhaps once used to help craft or hang the stars. But before he even got halfway through the mess, Andra yelled from the main room.

  “Come quick! I’ve got our proof.”

  Kyro and the others rushed to see what she had found. Andra held up an empty star casing in each hand—both with an unmistakable slice instead of the usual jagged tear.

  “There’s a whole bunch more in there too.” She led them into the room, revealing the closet she’d found where they had been stashed. It was overflowing with burlap sacks just like the ones Andra held. At the bottom were the black, burnt-out husks of star hearts. Rumy gasped, her metal features creaking into a frown.

  Kyro put a hand against the wall to steady himself. It was suddenly a little harder to breathe, as though something tight was constricting around his rib cage. So many dead stars. Pelag and Sear must have been at this for months at least. The starlight net was much more damaged than Kyro had ever imagined.

  All these irreplaceable stars. Gone
.

  “There’s something very strange going on with Sear,” Andra said.

  Kyro managed to find the words to speak. “Agreed. Pelag is a fool and willfully blind. But Sear… This is just vicious behavior. How could a giant who helped hang the stars do this?”

  “It’s like he’s just grown evil over time,” Andra said. Kyro nodded. Evil was just the right word for it.

  Rekton hung his head. “This is very bad indeed,” he said. “Very, very bad.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Armed with the burlap sacks and a few shells of star hearts, Kyro, Andra, and their new friends hurried back to where they’d left Jector tangling with Sear. He was being held up by Sear’s captains, and Sear was shouting at him. A huge crowd of giants of all kinds had gathered around them.

  “Where did they go? Is this why you returned to the camp—to ruin everything?”

  Jector held his head up defiantly, but a few loose bolts hung off his torso.

  Andra’s face twisted and she barreled into the clearing, holding the burlap casings up high. “The only one ruining everything is you, Sear! Let Jector go!”

  Sear’s eyes flashed. “What is it you think you have there?”

  Several of the other Flyers murmured.

  “We found these in your home. Look,” she said, pointing to the slice in the casings. “These stars didn’t fall from normal wear and tear; they were cut down on purpose. And then left to die.” In her other hand she held up the fragile black husk of a burnt-out star.

  Mechanical gasps rang out, though just as many of the giants didn’t seem the least bit surprised. Kyro’s pulse throbbed in his throat. His hope that only Sear and his captains were embroiled in Pelag’s scheme grew fainter by the second.

  Sear shook his head. “You must have planted those. We don’t trust the word of humans. You cannot prove a thing.”

  Rekton and Rumy stepped forward. “It is true,” Rekton said in a rumbling growl. “I was there when the human girl found them in your house. I have no reason to lie.”