Deo shoved his face in mine, his face twisted with fury, his eyes all but spitting fire. Worse, the runes along the harness on his chest glowed an ugly dull red. “My mother fought her entire life to protect her people, first from my father, and later from the invaders. She would never betray the Starborn. Never.”
I released his arm and put both hands on his chest, calling again on the power of Kiriah Sunbringer to pour the warmth of the sun into him, this time to calm the turmoil that I knew filled him. “Deo, no one said she has betrayed her people, only that she is apparently being treated as a guest rather than a prisoner. I have no doubt if that is the situation, she has a reason for appearing so. You must see past your wrath and let reason be your guide.”
“And your precious arcanist?” Scorn dripped off his voice. My hands went cold, and I pulled them back when he half turned toward his horse. “You would like me to heed his words in all things, would you not? How quickly your allegiances change, little priest. I had thought better of you.”
“My lord.” Rixius skidded to a halt in front of us, his eyes going from Deo to me and back to Deo. “Is something amiss? Has this woman annoyed you in some manner? I will be happy to have her sent to the back of the line or, better yet, have her removed from your company—”
I had a sword at his throat before he could so much as blink. I pressed forward, causing him to stumble backward, an odd gabbling sound emerging from his mouth. “I’ve had enough from you. If you speak to me in that manner again, I’ll turn your tongue into a toad. One with warts.”
“My lord!” Rixius squawked a plea for help, his expression mingling fear and anger.
“You should know better than to poke a lightweaver if you don’t wish to feel her fire,” I told the annoying man before sheathing my sword, and turning back to Deo. “And you should know that once my allegiance is given, it remains as constant as the birth of Kiriah each morning, and her death at night.”
Deo grunted something in reply, but the anger was gone out of him, the runes on his bindings once again quiet.
Hallow rode over to me a short while later, when the company was setting forth on the road. Deo rode at the head, the two lieutenants alongside, and Rixius trying unsuccessfully to squeeze in between.
“Trouble?” Hallow asked when his horse deftly avoided Buttercup’s teeth.
“You could say that.” I rode in silence for a few minutes before I admitted, “I told Deo what you’d said about his mother.”
A grimace crossed his face. “Is that what he was yelling about? I’m surprised he didn’t try to have me beheaded.”
“Oh, he probably would have if I hadn’t pointed out that the news came from your father. He realized that it wasn’t your fault, and that if the queen was the Harborym’s guest in the city, there had to be a very good reason for it.”
“One would assume so,” Hallow said, but I noticed his voice was devoid of expression. I was coming to realize that when his voice went bland like that, it meant he was trying to avoid saying something that might be unpleasant.
I wondered if he knew more about the queen than he was telling. And then I wondered if I could use my newly found feminine skills to get that information from him.
That thought didn’t sit right with me.
“What are you shaking your head about?” Hallow asked.
“Just reminding myself that I’m still a priest of Kiriah, even if I’m not at the temple.”
A little smile curved his lips. “Struggling with your conscience? I trust you to do the right thing.”
I shot him a startled glance. Had he just read my mind, or was my guilt at even thinking of using my womanly wiles to my benefit making me paranoid?
I didn’t have much time for contemplation of my own sins, for there were several small groups of Shades patrolling the road to Starfall City, all of which were taken care of quickly. Oddly, there were no Harborym with them, although Hallow said, after the third group was eliminated, “They don’t feel it’s necessary to use the Harborym so close to the city. Their power is saved for more distant patrols.”
In the distance, the purple and silver spires of the city were just visible above the tops of the low-growing trees. I asked, “Have you been to the city before?”
“No. But my master had lived here before the Harborym, and used to tell many stories about it. In fact, it was he who told me about the bolt-holes. And speaking of which, I had better let your boyfriend know we should be leaving the road.” Hallow put his heels to his horse, and rode up to Deo, gesturing to the right side.
The company followed his lead, after a while veering off the road into a low, dead scrub and long grass, the only sound that of the horses’ hooves thudding on dirt, and the swish of the grass as we passed through. Even the few discouraged-sounding birds who’d greeted the dawn were silent, leaving me with a feeling that the air itself was tainted.
We stopped briefly to position the wagons and their drivers in a copse of half-dead trees, leaving a couple of banesmen there to guard them lest the Harborym come across our supplies. We continued onward, Hallow at the lead now, winding a single-file path up a sandy cliff. Before us, the walls of Starfall rose upward, the once-white stone now stained green and gray with neglect. I scanned the wall as we rode silently alongside it, but there were no guards visible on the ramparts. Glancing to my right where the cliff dropped off in an increasingly sheer fall, I assumed that the Harborym did not feel it necessary to guard from threats on this side.
No one spoke as we continued to ride along the narrowing path that ran the length of this side of the city, the path occasionally bulging outward to follow the cliff with enough room for four horses to ride abreast but, more worryingly, sometimes curving inward in a manner that had me holding my breath. Buttercup was sure-footed, but I wasn’t so confident of some of the high-strung horses. Hallow must have shared my concern, for the next time the cliff moved away from the wall, he pulled up, and we dismounted. Again, a few guards were left to watch the horses, while the rest of us proceeded up the path on foot.
Despite my worries, we arrived at last at a small wooden door set low into the wall. I pressed forward through the other banesmen until only Rixius, who hovered at the shoulders of Hallow and Deo, blocked me.
“Why should we not break it down?” Deo was demanding in a harsh whisper.
I glanced upward, but there were still no guards visible.
“You can if you wish to alert whoever is inside the tower as to our presence, but I, for one, would prefer not fighting the whole of the Harborym’s contingent at the same time,” Hallow said softly. I could tell he was trying to keep irritation from his voice. “If you allow me to coax the lock, we can slip inside and overcome whoever is in the tower without anyone being the wiser.”
“I’ve never heard of this lock coaxing,” Deo said gruffly.
“My lord,” Rixius said. “If I may—”
“When I want a locked door open,” Deo continued, ignoring his servant, “I simply remove it.”
“It’s your choice,” Hallow said with a shrug, but I knew he was annoyed.
I certainly was.
I pushed Rixius to the side and poked Deo in the back until he turned to glare at me. “For the love of the sunrise and sunset, Deo! Just do as Hallow says. We’ve left ten hunters behind as guards, and I don’t think that forty of us—even with Hallow’s magic—can take on the hundreds of Harborym if they are on us all at once.”
“Very well. And stop poking me,” Deo said, and crossed his arms across his chest.
Hallow raised an eyebrow to me, but said nothing before turning his attention to the door. There was no latch on the outside, no handle, but a lock was sunk into the wood. He bent down to look closely at it for a few seconds, then cupped one hand around it and leaned forward.
“My lord, would you like for me to escort the priest to the rear, where she will not assault you further?”
“You just don’t learn, do you?” I whispered in a
violent tone to Rixius.
“I am Lord Deo’s body servant. I would die to protect him from people like you,” he hissed back.
“Are you in love with him?” I asked, noting the jealous light in his eyes.
He looked scandalized for two seconds before fury took hold of him. “You dare speak of me thusly? You, who are nothing, a lowborn priest from an insignificant temple. You aren’t worthy of Lord Deo’s notice, let alone his consideration!”
“You really have it bad,” I said, wondering if I’d ever feel the same fanatical sort of passion for anyone. “Have you told Deo? Would you like me to do it for you?”
“Will you two quit bickering?” Hallow asked, frowning back at us. “I can’t hear myself, let alone concentrate.”
“Sorry,” I told him. “Although if Deo could control his minion, that would be helpful.”
Deo said nothing, clearly consumed by his own thoughts.
Rixius moved until his mouth was close to my ear, his fingers digging painfully into my arm. “If you dare cross me, I will see to it you are—”
He didn’t finish the sentence. The chaos magic within me woke up at the threat that Rixius fairly dripped into my ear, and for once, I let it have its way. He yelped when the hand that clutched me turned red with magic, snatching it back to cradle it against his chest, all the while glaring hate at me.
I smiled. He stumbled backward a step before sidling around behind me to get at Deo’s other side, no doubt to tattle on me.
Hallow was still working on the lock. I leaned forward to peer over his shoulder and ask, “Are you kissing it?”
He shot me a quick look, a few of his eye crinkles doing their thing. “No. I’m talking to it. Now hush, and let me work before your boyfr—”
I whomped the back of his head with my elbow.
He glared.
“Sorry. Accident.” I smiled.
“What are you two whispering about? Is it about me?” Deo asked, ignoring Rixius to lean in and join the conversation. “Why isn’t the door opened yet, arcanist?”
Hallow sighed. “I would open it if I am allowed to work. Is everyone done distracting me? Or are there a few more questions to ask? I can wait. We have all the time in the world. At least, until the Harborym notice forty banesmen pressed up against the city walls, and then we’re going to have something to occupy our attention.”
Deo frowned at me. I put an innocent look on my face, and waited.
After another two minutes, the lock suddenly clicked and the door swung inward with a drawn-out, nerve-grating squeak.
Hallow glanced back at us, gave a little shrug, and, with one quick move, shoved the door open all the way. The hinges protested, but we didn’t wait to see if anyone would notice—doubling over until our hands touched the ground, we scurried in through the door, into a dark room. A faint light came from a half-opened door, barely illuminating the surroundings. Silently, we crept across the room, into the tower itself. One Harborym sat with his back to us, his feet up on a table, while nearby two Shades cowered in the corner.
Deo was on the Harborym before I could pull my swords, Hallow rushing past him to blast the two Shades against the wall in a burst of arcane light.
The Harborym’s head rolled across the floor. Deo hurled the body to the side, lifting his sword high, and yelling, “Forward, my Banes of Eris! Take no prisoners!”
I tried to keep up with Hallow and Deo, but the surge through the doors leading into the city was too great, and I was pushed back several feet. By the time I emerged into the walkway leading to the tower, I paused for a moment to take in the sight that met my astonished gaze.
Lore had told me that the main city of the Starborn was one of the most beautiful places on all of Alba, with tall, graceful spires capped in crescent moons, curved domes chased with silver bands upon which were engraved constellations, and high arched windows, each of which bore beautiful fretwork of moons and stars and comets entwined. The stone of the city varied from pale lavender to a deeper dusky purple, with white accents touched every now and again by silver that glinted brightly in the sun.
Even the invasion of the foul Harborym could not ruin the loveliness of the city.
At least I thought so until I looked down at the once-white stone pathways that ran under white lattice archways.
The stone was stained black and green, and the archways were splattered with rusty blood.
I ran after the other banesmen, hearing as I did so Deo cry, “To battle, my banesmen! May your swords run with the blood of the invaders!”
We broke into two groups as arranged, the first group going to the left in order to secure the main gates. Hallow, assigned to that group, cast a look back for me. I started toward him, but just then Deo called for me. “Allegria, to me! I have need of your skills.”
I paused, hesitating. Hallow’s group, catching sight of Harborym streaming out of a building obviously being used as a barracks, shouted and surged forward. Hallow stood still for a few seconds, watching me, the staff in his hand, arcane magic gathered in his other hand. Above his head, the wooden swallow circled, then dove forward, skimming over the banesmen and heading for the group of oncoming Harborym.
“Allegria!” Deo demanded from my right, his enhanced height giving him the ability to look over the heads of his group. He gestured angrily for me. With a little wave at Hallow, I turned and ran to where Deo was storming down a flight of stairs into a once-beautiful garden. The white statues in it lay broken and stained, the plants wilted and dead in their pots. Corpses of dead birds were scattered across the brown grass, and bare earth showed through the few weeds that struggled to survive.
We ran down through the garden, a horn sounding somewhere behind us, which was answered almost immediately by one ahead of us.
Deo paused at the sound of it.
“Was that Hadrian?” I asked him. I hadn’t seen the lieutenant bearing a horn, but I knew he came from a hill tribe who used such things in battle. “The answer came from ahead of us, not behind.”
“The second was the Harborym. The first almost sounded like ...” Deo shook his head. “It matters not. Half of you go to the arcanists’ court. I will go on to the throne room, where it is said the captain quarters himself. After he is dead, we will spread out through the city and destroy the Harborym once and for all. Allegria, I need you to release the queen.”
“What?” I asked in a near shout, racing after Deo when he took off with four other banesmen. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re a lightweaver—you’ll figure it out,” was all the answer I got.
“And you are overestimating my abilities—” I started to object, but was stopped short when a few waves of Shades swarmed us. Although there were only six of us, we made short work of them, as well as the two Harborym who followed them. I barely had time to get my swords wet with Harborym blood before we were entering through an arched double door that led to the queen’s staterooms.
“Her quarters are up those stairs,” Deo said, gesturing to the left side of a staircase that split and curved upward.
“Deo, I don’t think—”
“Go!” he bellowed, and, lowering his head like a bull, charged forward when a group of a dozen Harborym rushed forward. Behind them, I caught a glimpse of the swirling green and black jagged miasma twisting and turning upon itself, evidently hanging in the middle of the air.
It was the rift in space that the Harborym had created in order to invade these lands. I knew from lore that another had opened on Aryia, but Lord Israel had seen it destroyed before many Harborym could come through it.
The Starborn hadn’t been so lucky.
All this went through my head in the time it takes to blink, and then I was dashing up the stairs, trusting Deo and his group to take care of the attackers below.
A pair of Shades milled around at the landing, both of which rushed toward me with their mouths opened in wordless cries, their fingers curled into claws, their eyes black, life
less orbs. The Harborym had learned early on that although they could control the Shades’ wills, they couldn’t arm them and use them as an auxiliary battalion. Shades attacked using their claws and teeth, tearing and biting all the while a droning cry emerged from their blackened mouths. They were wholly repugnant, and I told myself as I dispatched the duo that freedom from their hellish existence was the most merciful way to deal with them.
The hall divided in front of me, both sides taking ninety degree turns and disappearing from view. I dashed to the right and peered around the corner, but saw nothing but a couple of Shades shuffling their way down the hall.
“To the left, then,” I muttered to myself, and, spinning around, headed in the other direction. As I turned the corner on that wing, I smiled. Ahead of me, a group of four Shades was clustered outside a double door.
They turned and started their shuffling run toward me as soon as they saw me, hissing and droning their mindless calls.
The chaos magic in me surged, filling me with power that allowed me to take the first Shade’s head off cleanly, and pierce the heart of the second just as the other two reached me. Their claws dug deep, but before they could draw blood, they both lay dead on the floor. As was my habit, I spoke the words of blessing while releasing them from their torment. “May Kiriah take your spirit unto her. Now, let’s hope this is the right door. ...”
I reached out to open the door, my runes glowing golden, but at the sight of them, I hesitated. Should I knock, or would the queen forgive my breach of protocol? The magic urged me to burst in and slay everything in sight, but I had it well under control. “At least for the moment,” I said to myself, then, with a prayer that I wouldn’t find a room filled with Harborym, threw open the door and ran in, both swords in hand.