I shook my head. “Cambien never said. He just told me he would send an ally of his when I called for his help. They could be fluffy Sonorans for all we know.”
Lauren smiled. “Hey, maybe they’re mightier than they sound.”
I stared down at the chunk of opaleine in my hand, thinking of Cambien in his dragon form, his rust-colored scales rippling while his leathery wings beat the air. He was formidable in his own right, all of the Draconians were, but they couldn’t help us in our fight. If they killed anyone and returned to Zai’s soil with that weight on their shoulders, the opaleine would feed off their sin and die, just as it had done before. All I could do was hope his allies were as tough.
“Do you know what to do with that thing?” Lauren asked.
“Cambien told me to hold it and call his name. That’s it.”
“You think he was messing with you?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past him to make me look stupid, one last time. Then again, he is a man of his word. I doubt he’d lie to me about offering help if he didn’t mean to send any.”
“I think you’re right,” Lauren conceded, flashing me a small smile. “You better get talking to your chunk of rock.”
Wrapping it in both hands and holding it up, I felt completely ridiculous. Still, I’d seen the power of this stone before—it wasn’t any ordinary kind of stone. If it could drain the Draconians of their ability to shift forms and sense wrongdoing on the planet it came from, working in an almost sentient way, then why couldn’t it send a message across the universe?
“Cambien!” I shouted, gripping the stone tighter.
The stone echoed “Cambien!” back to me, before disintegrating between my palms. I staggered back in surprise. As I opened my hands, the sparkling dust rose in a spiral, drifting off on a gust of bitter wind that swept across the war-torn plateau. I felt the bite of it against my cheeks as I watched the opaleine dust disappear, floating ever-upward toward space. The rubber suits kept out most of the Vysanthean chill, but my bare face was helpless against it, my cheeks tinted pink.
Lauren gave a low whistle. “What the hell just happened?”
“I think I just sent a dust message to Cambien.”
“Well, let’s hope opaleine dust moves quick.” Lauren stared up in awe. “Then, of course, we’ll have to factor in the amount of time it will take for these allies of Cambien’s to arrive. Did he say ally in the singular or plural?”
“I can’t remember now,” I admitted. “I’m praying it’s plural.”
“Me, too.”
“What if these allies arrive too late? I was expecting it to be a ‘Poof! Here they are!’ kind of deal, but I don’t see any poofing.” I glanced around, just in case. The plateau remained empty, with the silhouettes of our friends up ahead.
Lauren tapped her chin. “And what if these allies don’t know where, exactly, to find us? I mean, it’s not as if you have the rock anymore, to guide them. Did Cambien give you any other information when he gave you the opaleine? Anything at all?”
“Nothing. Now that you mention it, he didn’t really specify how these allies were going to go about traveling to Vysanthe on a moment’s notice.”
“Well, at the very least, it means they can’t be coming from Zai,” Lauren said. “The Draconians have super slow technology, remember?”
“These allies must have some other trick up their sleeve to get them here quickly.”
“Yeah, we’re definitely going to have to stick to hopeful thinking on this one,” she replied nervously.
I nodded. “Hey, it’s like you said—Orfaio hasn’t let us down yet. Why would the Stargazer start now?”
I just hoped, whoever these allies turned out to be, I wasn’t inviting them toward the jaws of certain death. Since it no longer looked like it was going to be a magically dramatic, immediate arrival, I was determined to have control of the situation by the time Cambien’s backup arrived. We might not have been at the final blow, but we would soon be ready to land a pretty big punch.
Chapter Thirty
“You do this to me one more time, and I can’t be friends with either of you anymore—and you can forget about being my gentleman caller, Bashrik Idrax. My little heart can’t take it, worrying about you all the time!” Angie cried as we stepped through the front door of Sarrask’s cottage. I set the vat of blood down before she barreled toward me.
“Hey, I explained what was going on,” Ronad replied sheepishly.
“I know you did, but that doesn’t make it better!” she chided. “Having you bursting in unannounced, frightening the bejesus out of us, only to tell us that you left them out there and sped back here—it’s not exactly comforting, is it?”
Ronad blushed. “No, I guess not. Sorry, Ange.”
“You’re forgiven. But I swear to God, if this happens again, I’m taking a ship and moving to some moon somewhere. You guys will be the death of me, otherwise.” She gawked at Nisha, seeing her for the first time. “And who is the freakin’ Amazon queen? If I’d known she was with you all, I wouldn’t have been so worried!”
Nisha laughed, and introduced herself.
With the others busy, Navan walked toward me and pulled me close. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he murmured into my hair.
“I promised I’d come back, didn’t I?” I leaned up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Where’s Nova?”
“Upstairs, sleeping. Seraphina is with her.”
I smiled. “That’s good. I wish I could sleep through everything, without a care in the world. Babies have it so easy.”
He chuckled, turning his attention to Stone. “How are you feeling?” Evidently, Navan had been listening to the feed from the ship, from the safety of the cottage.
“Not to complain or ought, but am not feelin’ too good, pal.”
“I had Kaido make a salve for you, to see if it can help at all. He’s preparing it now.”
“Ah, yer a good’un, Navan Idrax. Anythin’ to take the sting away would be right welcome. Never known a burn like it, pal.”
Navan frowned. “Do you think it can heal?”
“Ye know what folk say, mate—only time’ll tell.”
“Well, Kaido’s pretty good with botanicals. If anyone knows of a way to ease the blistering, or help with the healing, it’s my brother.”
Harko had just come in from outside. He snorted derisively. “You’ve changed your tune, Navan. I’ve never heard you call Kaido ‘brother’ before.”
“Excuse me?” Navan replied curtly.
Before anything could kick off between the two brothers, another pair of Idrax siblings appeared on the stairwell, drawing the attention away from Navan and Harko. Kaido hurried down the steps with a tray of items in his hands, while Sarrask followed at a slower pace, scanning the room with a confused expression. Angie, Lauren, Stone, and Nisha were unfamiliar to him, but there was a flicker of recognition as his gaze drifted across the rest of us.
“Hello, everyone,” he said unexpectedly, pausing on the bottom step. “Some of you know me, and I know some of you. If we’ve met and I can’t remember, please accept my apologies. I had an injury—I’ve been suffering from short-term memory loss ever since, or so Kaido keeps telling me.” He gave an awkward laugh. “Bear with me. My memory is improving. I can hold onto snippets here and there, but if I forget you, or say the same thing over and over, please don’t be offended.”
I smiled at him, sad that he had been put in this position. Sarrask had always been tough and confident, his attitude bordering on arrogant, but his heart had mostly been in the right place. To see him so shy and uncertain was disorienting, like someone had come in the middle of the night and swapped him with someone else—someone who looked like Sarrask but wasn’t him.
“Bro!” Harko cried, rushing to embrace Sarrask. At least with Harko focusing on Sarrask, there was less chance of something igniting between him and Navan. I was still desperate to know what was up between the two of them.
The sight
of Kaido hurrying toward Stone and forcing him to sit down on the kitchen bench attracted my attention. On the tray in front of him, he had several jars and bottles, filled with subtly glowing substances. There was too much going on for me to make out what Kaido was saying, but Stone was nodding along in understanding. Removing a number of the items from the tray, he poured fluids and scraped gels into a mortar and mashed them with a pestle, binding the substances together in a weird, luminescent paste.
Presumably at Kaido’s request, Stone removed his bandana to reveal the acid-burned eye. The inky discoloration had spread, the white of his eyeball turning an unsettling, milky-blue color. All around, the flesh was puckered and blistered, vivid purple welts rising up to form an angry halo around his eyeball. I could barely look as Kaido lifted the glowing mixture and slathered it liberally across the entirety of Stone’s eye, ball and all. Once applied, Stone replaced his bandana, sealing in the salve.
Meanwhile, Kaido set to work making another batch of the stuff, before scraping it all into a large, empty jar. When it was pretty much full to the brim, he screwed on the lid and handed it to Stone. Gratitude and fear rippled across the ambaka’s face as Kaido took his tray and disappeared back upstairs without another word. He reappeared a minute or so later, having put the items away.
“I’ve been hearing stories that you’ve gained a wife and kid since the last time I saw you, you filthy old frostfang.” Nisha’s high-pitched voice cut through the babble, my attention flitting back. With a semi-toothless grin, she came stomping over to congratulate Navan, Angie still gawping at her from afar. By the looks of it, my friend had a new woman-crush.
Navan grinned. “I have. Quite a woman, isn’t she?”
“She certainly is. I knew there was something going on between you, that day at the pits. It’s just nice to see you’ve got yourself settled at last.” She clapped Navan on the back, prompting me to smirk as he jolted forward. Amazon queen indeed.
Harko glanced at us slyly, his eyes narrowing. As Navan slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side, Harko put two and two together. The expression on his face changed instantly. It was hard to read, but he didn’t look too impressed. I tried to catch his gaze, hoping to offer a friendly gesture, but he turned back to Sarrask, the brothers sinking into a private discussion.
“What happened between the two of you?” I whispered, nodding at Harko.
Navan opened his mouth to answer. Before he could utter a single word, Jareth strode in from the lounge, bringing a thundercloud with him. The atmosphere changed in an instant, a tension bristling throughout the kitchen. I was convinced the temperature had dropped, though I was probably being dramatic. Jareth was an intimidating man, but he wasn’t a Halloween ghoul, come to terrify us all.
“Once you’ve quite finished with your niceties, perhaps we can get to work?” he said coldly. “Need I remind you that we could be bombed at any moment, by the queens or the rebels? Judging by the items in your hands, I can see our mission was a success. But there is much more we need to do before we can indulge in celebration. I would urge you all to keep your wits about you. We have no time for idle chitchat.”
“Way to bring down the mood, Pa,” Harko muttered.
“Ah, I see you have picked up another of my charming offspring,” Jareth replied coolly. “Harko… a pleasure, as always.”
“I thought you were in the clink for being some badass betrayer of the nutjob queen?”
Jareth smirked. “I was, but your brothers—Bashrik and Navan—were kind enough to break me out alongside their band of merry stragglers.”
Harko shot Navan a sour look, my curiosity growing.
“Now, while I have your attention, I would appreciate it if you would watch the latest stream from the battlefield,” Jareth went on, holding out a comms device. At the press of a button, a holographic screen burst into the air before us, revealing footage of Ezra and Aurelius’s forces.
Wave after wave of ships filled the skies, undeterred by the dense fog of sleeping mist. Now and again, one would plummet to the ground, the mist having crept in through the gaps and infiltrated the space within. Brisha and Gianne’s forces held a tight perimeter, hurling a barrage of artillery at the rebels. Even so, it was clear to everyone watching that they were managing to conquer more and more of the queens’ Southern territory. Already, behind them, several towns and villages smoldered, now under rebel rule. With every bullet and blast that flew from the queens’ side, the rebels forced them back an inch more.
“Riley, I must speak with you. I have much to tell you,” Kaido’s voice whispered in my ear. I turned to find him standing behind me, though I had no idea how he’d gotten there. Leaving everyone else watching the streamed footage, I followed Kaido. I’d expected him to lead me upstairs to the room that’d been his before Jareth took over, but instead he ushered me out of the front door and around the house. A wooden structure, no more than a garden shed, lay tucked behind Kaido’s sleek vessel, which was parked in the driveway to the rear of the cottage.
“Is this your new lab?” I joked. My smile quickly faded.
“As a matter of fact, it is.” He took out a key and unlocked the padlock, before ducking inside.
The hut was surprisingly spacious and immaculately clean, the sides plastered in sheets of shiny chrome that had been hammered to the wood. Shelves covered every available space, each one laden down with glass cases containing Kaido’s rarest plants. In the center of the hut, catching my eye, was a chair similar to the one that had been in Kaido’s old lab, at the Idrax house. Just the sight of it sent a shiver up my spine, cold sweat beading at the base of my neck. It struck the same kind of fear in me as a dentist’s chair.
On a workbench to the side, the vial of stardust gleamed. I wandered over to it and picked it up, feeling relieved to have the glass bottle back in my hands. There was something comforting about it that I couldn’t put my finger on.
“What did you find out about it?” I asked, setting it back down.
“Well, do you remember what I told you about humans and coldbloods having inverse reactions to certain botanicals?”
I nodded.
“And do you recall me suggesting there may be a common ancestor, somewhere in our ancient history, which might be the root cause of said inverse reactions?”
“I think I remember something along those lines, yes.”
“Not to mention the increased presence of imocea in your brain, in response to the input botanicals. As I told you then, imocea is not a commonly found substance in sentient beings. Coldbloods have a great deal of it, which is why we are superior in strength and intellect to the majority of species. But your brain chemistry also contains some.”
“Which means…?”
He smiled excitedly. “Imocea is not the only substance that our species share. There is another substance within our brain chemistry that, until now, has been undetectable. I did not know of its existence—it is rare that I do not know something, so you can imagine my surprise,” he said, jiggling happily. “There is a something inside us that is of our bodies, and yet not of our bodies. A troubling concept for you, I imagine. It took the presence of the stardust being added to brain cell samples for me to discover that this unknown article even existed. The stardust revealed more stardust, only it was inside the cells… inside everything, in fact, once I started properly experimenting.”
“I thought we only had a speck of stardust inside us?” I gaped at him.
“More than a speck, Riley. It appears to be the very thing that grants our sentience,” he explained. “I tested several cell samples from my private collection, from varying species, and varying organs, to ensure I had the broadest spectrum for comparison. Every single test result, belonging to a sentient species, contained this stardust.”
I frowned. “So, we’re all connected? Everyone in the universe?”
“Not quite. This is where it becomes extraordinarily interesting.”
“Go on.” I wa
s already baffled.
“Although the addition of stardust revealed more stardust, when I looked more closely I discovered that the stardust in the vial was not the same kind as the one present in the test cells,” he explained. “It highlighted the presence of stardust like it, but it wasn’t the same type. There were different sheens and shapes within the test cells that set each one apart. No two were the same… until I compared the vial of stardust with human and coldblood cells.”
I held my breath.
“Your species and our species share the same kind of stardust in our systems,” he said, his eyes wide. “From my understanding, this stardust is the very thing that has drifted through the universe since the dawn of creation. It is likely the debris of that very creation. Varying types of stardust will have been flung out from the source, at the beginning of the universe’s life. It will have traveled far and wide, settling wherever it ended up. The stardust that hit Earth had to have been the same kind that hit Vysanthe—we just became different species, for one reason or another. It is not an exact science, nor can we ever truly decipher the truth. A hypothesis shall have to placate me on this one, though I do so hate unanswered questions.”
“So, there might be other planets out there, with species that share this ‘brand’ of stardust, too?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around his words.
“It is plausible,” he replied. “I would very much like to investigate the ambaka’s brain chemistry for that exact reason. He would not allow me to take a sample earlier, while I was helping with his eye. It would only have taken me a moment, and it would not have affected him too greatly, but he said no. Very ungrateful, if you ask me.”
I smiled sadly. “He’s in a lot of pain, Kaido. Maybe ask him when it’s died down.”
“I suppose. I do not like to wait when there are important investigations to be made.”
“I know, but you’re going to have to on this one. He needs some time to heal, not someone else jabbing at him with needles.”
He grumbled to himself. “It would only have taken a moment.”