Starborn

by Lucy Hounsom

  ‘Now that they are gone, we may speak openly.’ The councilman seated himself on a slim divan opposite Kyndra. There was a decanter of red wine at his elbow, but he made no move to touch it. His eyes did not leave her face. ‘Why were you outside the citadel today?’ he asked.

  The question was not the one Kyndra expected. ‘I planned to go home,’ she said, seeing no reason to lie. ‘You’ve kept me here against my will. I’ve already told you I don’t want to be, and can’t be, a Wielder.’

  Scepticism twisted Loricus’ mouth. ‘You were running away?’

  Despite herself, Kyndra winced. It hadn’t felt like that at the time. ‘Yes,’ she said a touch defiantly, as much to herself as to the councilman. But where to? a voice chided her. You haven’t got a home any more.

  ‘You didn’t strike me as the type.’ Loricus shrugged. ‘Perhaps I was wrong.’

  Kyndra said nothing.

  The councilman rose to his feet and began to pace the room. Kyndra’s eyes moved beyond him to a large and beautiful map that seemed to be part of the wall. It was a mosaic, she realized, squinting at the tiny blue tiles that formed the sea. The whole continent was there, picked out by the delicate placing of the stones. The light from the room’s candelabra fell across it and set the colours sparkling. In the top left-hand corner, onyx letters spelled out ‘MARIAR’.

  ‘I understand you may find this hard to believe.’ Loricus stopped and looked at her, his gaze unwavering. ‘But I want us to be friends.’

  She was instantly suspicious. ‘Why?’

  ‘Naris faces a difficult time, the most difficult, certainly, since that event men call the Deliverance. The Breaking is increasing in power and frequency. Wielders are losing their minds to some nameless malady. And then there’s you – the first person ever to fail the test and live. Your coming is not the work of chance.’ Loricus took a few steps closer, light catching in the folds of his golden robe. ‘There are those who stand to profit from such a situation, Kyndra, those who seek to impose chaos, to glorify insanity. What do you know of the Nerian?’

  So this is where he’s heading, Kyndra thought. She had expected an interrogation about the test. ‘Not much,’ she answered carefully. ‘Just that they’re a group of people living below Naris.’

  Loricus’ eyes narrowed. ‘And what of Kierik?’

  She felt the name like a lash across the back of her mind, sharp with memory and pain. She shook her head, breathless, hoping that nothing showed on her face.

  The councilman studied her, his own face a practised blank. ‘But the Nerian are watching out for you, no? One of them helped you after the second test and they overpowered two of my Wielders to do it.’

  So he didn’t know it was Medavle who’d rescued her. But he obviously thinks I’m friends with the Nerian. Kyndra’s bruised mind raced – she would have to tread cautiously. One wrong word and Loricus would have a better, more legitimate reason to kill her.

  ‘If they are watching out for me,’ Kyndra said, knowing that a simple denial would not suffice, ‘I didn’t ask them to.’

  The councilman seemed to turn over her words, searching for something buried therein. Then he sighed. ‘Let me be blunt, Kyndra. Times, as I say, are difficult. But I am a man who finds advantage in such times and Helira and Gend may not be around for very much longer. Their ideas are staid, narrow-minded.’ His hazel eyes glittered. ‘They contrive to … eradicate rather than elucidate. Are you with me?’

  Kyndra nodded faintly, wondering whether Loricus meant that Helira and Gend were the ones behind the akan.

  ‘You must choose your allies now, Kyndra Vale,’ Loricus continued. ‘And choose them carefully. When this storm blows over, you don’t want to find yourself stranded out at sea. The Nerian are not only dangerous, but unpredictable. With one hand, they would offer you friendship, and with the other, they would seek out means to destroy you.’

  This didn’t feel right. There was something Loricus knew, some vital piece of information that lay behind all this manoeuvring. Stirred finally to anger, Kyndra said, ‘And how are your hands any different?’

  ‘My hands?’ Loricus asked, smiling slightly. ‘Mine seek power, as most do. I have worked long and hard in pursuit of it. You cannot know just how long.’ His eyes strayed to the map, lingering on the topaz plains of Hrosst. His reverie lasted only a moment before he looked back at her. ‘These hands –’ he clenched them – ‘do not wish to share the rewards of that journey with Helira and Gend.’ His lip curled briefly, revealing a glimpse of teeth. ‘And the Naris they will rule will be mercifully simpler. A Council of one, a compulsory programme of study for all novices and a Deep swept clean of the rebellious mouthings of the Nerian.’ He held up a finger. ‘And a world that knows us, that respects our power. We have lived in the shadow of the past for too long.’

  Kyndra sat immobile, shocked by his open duplicity. Why was Loricus revealing his intentions and how could he ensure that Kyndra would keep them to herself? She watched the councilman’s cold, zealous reflection in the mirror that hung opposite the great map. His robed figure hid almost all of it save for the top two corners. She was about to look away when something caught her eye. In the mirror, as on the wall, were the black stones that spelled out the name of the world. But that name was not Mariar. As in the nature of mirrors, the word was reversed. ‘MARIAR,’ she read on the wall. And then, in the mirror, ‘ᴙΑΙᴙΑΜ’.

  Rairam.

  That time in the corridor, she’d asked Nediah what Rush had been writing in his madness. Just nonsense, Nediah had replied. The same word over and over again. Rairam.

  Kyndra sat stock still, remembering. I do not want to see Rairam – the last free land – in the empire’s grip. His voice echoed in her head – the man who had witnessed the last days of Solinaris. Five hundred years stood between the day those words were spoken and Rush’s mindless scrawling. But the scrawl was not mindless. It was excruciatingly simple. Kyndra felt as if she was teetering on the edge of a vast truth, a truth that reached back to the time of the war, something to explain exactly what had happened to the lost world – to Acre and the empire.

  The councilman was watching her, waiting, perhaps, for her reaction to the traitorous plans discussed so openly in this room. Despite his show of friendship, Kyndra did not trust him. Of all people, why had Loricus chosen her to be the bearer of his secrets? What place did Kyndra have in his vision of a new Naris? She looked into the councilman’s narrowed eyes and was suddenly afraid of the answer.

  Hammering on the door made her jump. Even Loricus started, so great had the tension in the room become. Without waiting for an invitation, the double doors opened, revealing Helira, Nediah and a Wielder Kyndra didn’t know. Kyndra thought she glimpsed the silver-clad forms of Brégenne and Gend hurrying away down the corridor.

  ‘Loricus,’ Helira barked, ‘the meeting will have to wait. Soryn says that the Breaking is growing worse. If those lightning strikes bring down the ledge over the main gates, we’ll be buried alive. Gend and I will go up there ourselves. Send every Lunar in the citadel to join us.’ She paused. ‘Superiate novices too. We’ll weave a khetah and hold it in shifts until the Breaking abates.’ Turning to go, she shot Kyndra an inimical look, which Kyndra interpreted as a promise of unpleasant things to come. Then she and the Wielder called Soryn disappeared down the same corridor that Brégenne and Gend had taken.

  ‘Events are moving faster than anticipated,’ Loricus said to Kyndra. ‘I hope you’ll give my words careful consideration. And remember what I said about the Nerian.’

  Nediah still stood in the doorway, his eyes on the councilman. When Loricus made a dismissive gesture, Nediah took it as an opportunity to seize Kyndra’s elbow and steer her out of the door and down the passage. When they’d put some distance behind them, he asked, ‘What did he want?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kyndra answered slowly, still trying to understand exactly what Loricus intended, both for her and for the citadel. ‘I’ll
tell you about it when we’re alone.’

  In point of fact, they were alone. The black, curving corridors were empty of people, despite the early evening hour. The Breaking had called all the Lunar Wielders away. This is the second time, Kyndra thought, and had to crush the unwelcome suspicion that the Breaking was following her. She listened to the isolated thud of their footsteps. ‘There must be a way to stop the Madness,’ she muttered.

  ‘In order to find the cure, you have to understand the disease,’ Nediah said. ‘And that’s the problem. I don’t understand it.’ He shivered visibly. ‘I’m beginning to think it can’t be cured. The damage could be compared to a powerful impact, but mental rather than physical.’

  Kyndra kept her eyes ahead, unwilling to voice her certainty that the Madness was somehow linked to her visions. It can’t be cured. But the visions could strike at any moment. If one came now, she could kill Nediah just like she had the Wielders during the test. And what about Brégenne and the novices? It could only be a matter of time before she hurt one of them.

  When the door of her cell-like room stood closed between them and the corridor, Kyndra turned to Nediah. ‘Loricus plans to kill the other councilmembers and make himself sole ruler of Naris.’

  Nediah’s reaction was exactly as she expected: shock followed swiftly by disbelief. ‘Why would I lie to you?’ Kyndra asked him soberly. ‘It sounds as if Loricus has been planning this for years.’

  ‘Then why tell you about it?’ Nediah asked in consternation.

  ‘Perhaps because he doesn’t intend to keep it a secret for very much longer.’

  ‘But why you?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kyndra said honestly, shaking her head. ‘He kept saying I ought to choose my friends carefully – if I didn’t want to find myself on the wrong side.’

  ‘Side?’ Nediah asked, frowning. ‘What other side did he mean?’

  ‘The Nerian. He seems to think they’re friends of mine.’

  Nediah gave her a narrow look. ‘Are they?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Kyndra answered. ‘Kait came to see me again. She was the one who helped me get out of the archives after I took the akan.’

  Nediah made a few spluttering sounds. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this before?’

  ‘I’ve seen the effect she has on you,’ Kyndra said bluntly. ‘I didn’t want to mention it.’

  Nediah looked away and his face bore a kind of bitter chiding that Kyndra didn’t think was aimed at her. ‘Kait said that the Nerian could help me,’ she added quietly, remembering the woman’s evasive words. Nediah won’t be able to protect you from the Council. And when you’re ready to accept the truth, he won’t have the answers you’ll seek. But the Nerian will. And we’ll give them to you.

  Nediah’s face was dark. ‘Don’t trust her, Kyndra.’

  The anger Kyndra had felt earlier in the councilman’s quarters rumbled to the surface and she didn’t try to hold it back. ‘Whom should I trust, then? Loricus?’

  ‘Until we have the situation under control, the question is irrelevant.’

  ‘No one can control the Breaking. And you said yourself that you didn’t understand the Madness and that there might not be a cure.’ She paused, but Nediah said nothing. ‘The only place left to search for answers,’ Kyndra finished, voicing her decision aloud, ‘is with the Nerian.’

  ‘No,’ the Wielder said. ‘It’s what Loricus wants.’

  Kyndra shook her head. ‘He warned me away from them. He wants me on his side.’

  ‘You can’t,’ Nediah said painfully. ‘The Nerian are … You don’t understand.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ she conceded, ‘but aside from you and Brégenne, Kait is the only person who seems to care whether I live or die.’ And Medavle, she added silently. He was another piece to add to this vast puzzle.

  While Nediah looked at her helplessly, Kyndra steeled herself. ‘Do you know how to contact them?’ she asked.

  The tall Wielder turned his back. ‘I can’t believe you’re even considering this.’

  ‘Something much bigger is happening, Nediah. Bigger than the Nerian, bigger than Naris.’ Kyndra took a deep breath. ‘What if my visions, the Madness and the Breaking are linked together? Remember what Argat said about the Breaking being in two places at once? It’s only ever struck in one place at a time, from what I’ve heard. And it could be responsible for that mountain range collapsing – you saw how it destroyed the bridge today. It’s getting worse and it’s happening all over the world. Jhren said that Market Primus is full of people whose homes have been destroyed.’ She paused and then said more bravely than she felt, ‘I thought I didn’t run away from things, but since I left Brenwym, I haven’t stopped running. If I’m right and all of this is linked together, then surely we have a duty to try and stop it. Isn’t that what Wielders are supposed to do?’

  ‘Anything,’ Nediah said to the wall. There was a stillness about him that spoke of an animal backed, despite all its efforts, into a corner. ‘I will do anything else you ask. You know that. But not this.’

  And then Kyndra did something she had never done before. She moved to stand in front of Nediah and took his hands in both of hers. ‘I’m sorry, Nediah,’ she whispered. ‘I think I know what I’m asking you. But I wouldn’t ask unless I believed there was no other way forward.’

  Nediah closed his eyes. Moments passed. When at last he opened them and pulled back his hands, there was a shaky kind of resolution in his face. ‘I was there when Kait spoke the rite that new converts have to recite,’ he said bleakly. ‘Some members of the Nerian came and when they left, they took her away with them.’

  Kyndra said nothing.

  ‘I don’t think I could forget those words even if I tried.’

  ‘And the Nerian will come?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ve wasted enough time,’ Kyndra said. ‘When I asked Irilin to show me a way out, I was thinking only of myself. If Kait’s right and the Nerian know something that can help me make sense of all of this, then I have to find out what.’

  Nediah took a few deep breaths and then he knelt, closing his eyes. ‘Show me the way,’ he whispered and stopped. His face contorted as if somewhere in his body, a knife twisted and a wound, which had half healed, reopened. ‘I am a seeker of truth … I am a servant of light willing to share the darkness to which our saviour is condemned. Thus will I lessen it.’ Nediah paused again, eyes still screwed shut. ‘I renounce position and place to take up the banner. Until death will I hold it, or the day comes when the people no longer have need of it. Show me the way.’

  Nediah’s voice dwindled to a whisper. He opened his eyes and the tears that stood in them fell to stain his cheeks. There were no more. Kyndra looked away.

  Minutes passed as minutes do, marching to their hourly purpose. Both of them sat in silence, knowing that nothing could be said to lighten the wait. At last, Nediah stirred. ‘Perhaps I said it wrong,’ he suggested flatly. ‘Perhaps you have to mean it.’

  ‘In that case, we’re going to have to find another way.’

  ‘Short of walking blindly into the Deep, there isn’t—’ Nediah broke off. He held up a hand, motioned Kyndra to keep quiet. There was a pair of voices beyond the door, coming closer.

  ‘The order came from Lady Helira.’

  ‘Yes, but surely the girl isn’t more important than the Breaking. Why aren’t you up there helping?’

  ‘I was, but Lady Helira ordered the girl brought to her directly and discreetly. She’s taking a break to question her. I suppose she has her reasons.’

  ‘Pressing reasons to warrant putting the girl to the question tonight? Why can’t it wait till morning?’

  ‘Rhekka, Simmon and now Josef are dead, Gerrick. And Magat –’

  There was a pause. Then, ‘I’m sorry,’ said the second voice. ‘Wasn’t she … I’m sorry.’ Another pause. ‘So you think Lady Helira suspects the girl might somehow be involved?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘She ce
rtainly survived again where everyone believed she couldn’t.’

  ‘But did she do it alone? The Council still haven’t discovered who brought her down from the testing platform.’ The voice lowered. ‘Others say the Nerian are helping her.’

  ‘Wait. Did you hear that?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Stay here a second.’

  One set of footsteps moved off down the corridor. A few moments passed while Kyndra and Nediah listened intently.

  ‘Gerrick?’ the other Wielder called. ‘What’s going on?’

  There was a gasp, quickly stifled, and then silence. Nediah shot Kyndra a look of alarm and pulled open the door. The Wielder lay on the floor outside, limp as an unmanned marionette. A lump had already begun to swell at his temple. A figure stood over him, swathed in black. Though the nose and mouth were covered, Kyndra recognized the almond eyes.

  Kait bent to examine the man on the floor. She tapped his skull with the pommel of her dagger. ‘Take his legs,’ she commanded, hefting his shoulders. Nediah didn’t move, so Kyndra grabbed the trailing legs and together she and Kait bundled the Wielder into the room.

  There wasn’t a lot of space, what with the man slumped against the wall. Kait shut the door and tugged down her black scarf. Her almond eyes found Nediah’s face. ‘You have no idea how much I longed to hear you speak those words,’ she said.

  Nediah flinched. Kait’s voice was not soft with nostalgia. It was laced with regret that the years had soured. Kyndra heard bitterness, even resentment – and yet there was also a vicious kind of satisfaction in her smile.

  ‘Is that why you came?’ Nediah asked finally.

  ‘That and other reasons. Anohin was worried I couldn’t handle trouble.’ Kait directed a scornful glance at the unconscious man. ‘A Solar taking out a Lunar at night,’ she declared, fingering her knife. ‘Sometimes the old ways are best.’

  Kyndra had started at the name. Now she stared at Kait and a tremor ran through her body. ‘Anohin?’ she whispered.