The Falling Star (The Trianon Series Book 1) Read online

“But you are sure of Astria?”

  “Yes. She has been tasked by Ezira herself to research the Soreiaphin Amulets. She is supposed to be finding a way to bond them to another magical being, seeing as all the Soreiaphin are dead.”

  “Not that any in the last century have been true Soreiaphin,” Rya added.

  Starla shook her head minutely, trying to decide if any of the new questions which that answer had brought up were worth pursuing now.

  “Tell me about the war,” she finally asked, “I have seen no real signs of it, but it is clearly critical to everything going on. Who is Galatia at war with?”

  “Kyron.” Gaby spat the word like venom, her eyes ablaze with hatred.

  “Is that a neighbouring planet?” Starla eventually asked when no one said more.

  “Evil,” Lua said shuddering. “He is evil.”

  An entire planet is at war against one man? Starla thought, aghast, looking questioningly from one Guardian to the next.

  Taking a deep breath, Rya began. “He is a Demilain. I suppose your people would call them gods. Demilain are always born in pairs, one male, one female. One with the power to create, to give life, the other with the power to destroy, or absorb life itself, leaving destruction and decay behind, or twisting it such that the original life form is lost under the magic. They are meant to work as one entity. The Demilain born of this galaxy are Kyron and Ezira. He is the Demilain Destroyer, she, the Creator. They are meant to maintain only the balance of life and death, not meddle in the affairs of the living things they are responsible for.” Rya stopped, glancing over at Gaby, who was staring murder at the fire.

  Gods? Starla rubbed her temples and resigned herself to merely remembering the information. She would try to make sense of it later.

  Alli picked up the thread after a loaded silence, her voice clearly indicating that she wanted the conversion over, fast. “Over two thousand years ago, something happened. No one really knows what, but they stopped working in unison. Kyron wanted to rule the Unlia Galaxy. He believed it his right. He tried to convince Ezira. He wanted to reach out to other Demilain. One day, he finally tried to seize power. Ezira managed to beat him down. She created us. We were made to link with her and keep the balance in the worlds he'd so thoughtlessly left to chaos. We all believed he had been defeated. There were even rumours that Ezira had killed him.”

  “But he wasn't dead. And now he is back. Cosmaltia has already fallen to him. A whole planet. Gone. Now he is trying to take this one. And he is winning.” Gaby's voice was dead, her eyes still locked on the fire.

  “Over two thousand years ago! How were any of you alive?” Starla's head was reeling with all the impossibilities this day had thrust on her.

  “Demilain are essentially immortal. There exist only three known documents of a potential weakness – another Demilain, an imbalance in their power or a true Soreiaphin. We Sacrileons, too, have very few weaknesses. Unless we are killed by a Demilain, the link to our element ends, or our being altered by the dust of an Aclarion Stone, we'll live forever,” Lua said.

  Starla shook her head. Try as she might, she couldn't wrap her head around that concept. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, her head swam from lack of food and her body seemed to ache everywhere.

  “Story time is over,” Gaby said, snapping back into her business like tone. “Back to our journey. The short of it is that the King's party is expected to return to the Royal City by dusk on the day we arrive. We are going to take full advantage of that.”

  Starla noted the others were nodding now. Rya was even smiling.

  Gaby continued, “If they follow protocol, the Makhi will not be at the gates from the moment the King arrives right up until the end of his address to the people. That is our in. We will Cloak ourselves. With so many refugees, the citizen guard should be easy enough to get past.”

  “Good. But that means that the Imperial Circle will be harder to enter. Even if we timed it to perfection, the Shield would still be repelling entry,” Rya said, frowning again.

  Gaby took a deep breath. “We will have to cut power to the stones,” she said, confirming Rya's fear.

  “We will be exiled!” Alli protested.

  “Gaby, we can't just risk everything. There must be another way.”

  “This is a war, Rya. We have to risk everything. That Star, if it truly is what it seems, must be given to Inagium Astria and only to Inagium Astria.”

  Gaby waved an arm through the red flames. The fire vanished instantly, swallowed by the ground. Gaby's voice trailed to them across the darkness, a dangerous whisper. “I know what we are risking, but we have no choice.”

  Chapter 4

  The Royal City

  The sound of shifting stones jolted Starla awake from her nightmare. The hollow was still pitch black, the hole above barely discernible in the pre-dawn light. In the darkness, Starla could still see the faces of those she had left behind on Earth. In her nightmare, their faces were burning, distorted with pain and fear.

  Mentally shaking herself, she cast the images from her mind. Sitting up slowly, she fended off a wave of dizziness. She would need to find food today. Rya's magical fire sprang to life, the brightness drawing tears from Starla's unaccustomed eyes. All the Sacrileons were awake, sitting tensely and clearly listening hard. Starla did not need Gaby's curt gesture to know to remain silent.

  Try as she might, she couldn't hear anything. She let her thoughts wander back to Earth, back to Arreau.

  What must the others think? That I ran away, no doubt. Her guilt diminished before the heat of her remaining anger. They had lied. But she never would have left without saying good-bye.

  And Raoul? Starla's heart twisted at the thought. He would think that she had broken her word to wait. Somewhere, the cowardly part of her heart was happy that she wouldn't have to either find a way to live in a passionless marriage or break a good man's heart. She sighed. Nothing to be done about it now, anyway.

  “Time to move,” Gaby said. The pink flowers on her skin shone. Vines appeared, reaching down to carry her out of the hollow, Heny nestled in her arms.

  “Where's Aimee?” Starla called, sudden panic hitting her as she found the makeshift sling, now fashioned as a nest on the floor, empty.

  “Outside,” Lua said, smiling brightly, the yellow swirls on her skin beginning to glow..

  Rya and Alli each took one of Starla's arms and lifted her out, balancing on a cushion of wind Lua had created. Lua and the other companions followed quickly after.

  “Aimee!” Starla rejoiced, as her pet flew into her outstretched hands. “Is your wing all right?”

  “Yes, thank you. You believe that we are here, yet?” There was no mistaking the amusement in the little bird's voice.

  Starla gave her a stern look, even as she laughed, following the Sacrileons through the softly shimmering wood. The Guardians set a fast pace. Their movements were fluid and graceful but their eyes betrayed their tension. Starla cut her laugh short. Thoughts of asking for breakfast disappeared as she watched the Guardians' alert stances.

  “Are we still being hunted?”

  “You are being hunted,” Gaby retorted, the trees whispering to her as she passed, “but the ergothan have moved to the Coastal Road. It is the only road to the open city gate. Hopefully there are no refugees on it this morning.”

  “What are ergothan?” Starla asked, “Why would they hunt me, specifically?”

  Gaby looked to Rya.

  “I guess they're sort of like what you would know as tigers,” Rya said, her obsidian forehead crumpled in thought, “They're flesh eaters and on Kyron's side. You broke through his magical lock-down. He will want to know how.”

  The day suddenly felt bitterly cold, the softly glittering forest, menacing. The great evil that had destroyed an entire planet was hunting her.

  Think of something else.

  “Lua?” Starla asked, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't shake. “How is it that my sparrowhawk can speak here?�
�

  Aimee gave an indignant squawk, muttering about how she had always been able to speak, Starla was the one who just couldn't understand.

  Lua smiled and stepped closer. “It is a gift of the wood.” She gestured to the trees around them. “The Rainbow Wood gives all companions the ability to understand one another.”

  “But you can all understand her, too. And I can understand your animals.”

  “Sacrileons can understand all living things. It is necessary to our function as Guardians. Our companions are linked to us, sharing some of our abilities, including speech.”

  “Will it only last while we are in here?”

  Lua's face took on a thoughtful cast. “I am not sure. The creatures born here, in the Unlia Galaxy, maintain the gift after leaving the Wood. I cannot say what will happen with an Earth-born creature.” She shook her head in apology.

  Starla smiled at the jet black creature beside her. “And you? How do you speak—” Starla stopped. She had been about to ask how the Sacrileon spoke French, but then she wasn't certain that it was French. It was something … different.

  Lua laughed at the look on Starla's face. “I am speaking Pareon, the language common to all in Trianon. It is the duty of all Guardians to speak a language all can understand,” she said proudly.

  Starla had stopped walking. She had been speaking Pareon the whole time?

  “Another gift of the Wood?” Starla breathed, putting a hand to her spinning head.

  “No,” Rya said, joining the conversation, running her fingers through her short hair. “It only works between animals and their companions. You just speak it, I guess. Perhaps a gift of the amulet.” She shrugged, waving her hand for Starla to follow. “We shouldn't fall too far behind.”

  Briefly, Starla remembered the flash of heat from the Star just before Heny had spoken, and how her head had suddenly felt crammed with information.

  She touched the Star through the material of her dress. Thank you, she thought, thinking of how terrifying this would be if she couldn't understand these creatures.

  Catching up to the others, Starla still trailed the pack, weakened by hunger. Her stomach growled loudly and her dizziness spiked again. Distantly, she remembered eating at the wedding. It seemed so very long ago. The Sacrileons all stopped, looking curiously at Starla.

  “I'm hungry,” she said apologetically, glancing around for a fruit tree or berry bush.

  Sighing at this human weakness, Gaby strode forwards and held out her right hand, murmuring a spell. Slowly the pink flowers on her body began to shimmer and a ball of white light grew in her palm. As it faded, four small orange balls were revealed, each one no bigger than a grape.

  “Here. They should suffice until we get there.”

  Starla accepted the balls dubiously. How little did these creatures need in order to survive if this was considered decent fair? Still, some food was better than no food.

  “No!” Gaby groaned, snatching at Starla's wrist before she could tip the balls into her mouth. “You eat one now, one tonight and one tomorrow morning. The last one, you can eat just before we enter the City.” Her tone suggested that this should have been obvious.

  Biting her tongue on an angry remark, Starla nodded her thanks and slipped three of the balls into her pocket. Her fingers brushed her baby bracelet and her heart leapt.

  At least I still have one clue to help find my family.

  She popped a ball into her mouth and cringed as the sour juices pervaded her mouth. Yet even as she chewed the little ball, she could feel her senses clearing, strength returning to her aching muscles and her tummy ceased its grumbling. Even her thirst vanished.

  “What are these?” she said, wonderingly.

  But the Sacrileons had pulled too far ahead to hear her.

  “And that other language? The one you speak together?” Starla lengthened her stride to catch up again and trying to get back to their previous conversation.

  “The Sacrileon tongue is protected,” Alli said, offering a faint smile. “It can only be understood by others of our kind.”

  Nodding, Starla fell behind again. They were not actually walking fast, for them, but the height difference made Starla have to jog to keep up. She used the quiet to rummage through the information she had gleaned and chose her next questions carefully.

  She opened her mouth to speak but just as she had formed the words, something hauled her into the air by her ankles, her nightdress falling down over her face. The question she had so carefully formulated became a screech of fear.

  Gaby glanced back at Starla and hissed in frustration. Suddenly beside her, something like solid air seemed to fill Starla's mouth, cutting off her cry. “Be silent!” Gaby said. “Rya, break the trap. Lua, catch her.” With that she stepped back. Starla waited two heart beats, staring at the dirty grey of her dress, before she felt her ankles come loose. There was a loud snap and Starla was shot into the air. The wind gusted from her as she slammed into an invisible barrier. She felt warm air clinging to her, all around. It drifted slowly to the ground, depositing Starla on the soft sea-green grass. Before she could even utter a thank you, she had been hauled to her feet and was being dragged along by the Sacrileons at a dead run.

  “What is happening?” Starla gasped as they sped through the forest, dodging branches and jumping tree roots, her body moving in ways she couldn't fathom. She seemed almost as graceful as her companions.

  “I have cast a spell to keep obstacles away from you and to help you run!” Gaby called from her right.

  It was then that Starla realised that she wasn't really doing anything. The ground beneath her feet was pumping fast, hurtling her forwards. The warm air still clung around her, holding her up, and all around her, branches bent out of her way and stones and bushes scuttled to avoid her feet.

  Jumping between two trees, they screeched to a halt. All the Sacrileons turned back the way they had come. They stood in a line and flipped their hands outward, their strange language bouncing among the trees as they cast their spells. Visibly, nothing had happened, yet Starla felt something change in the air. It swooped around them and seemed to dart off back the way they had come.

  “Covering our tracks,” Lua offered over her shoulder to Starla.

  Starla looked around the beautiful glade in which they had stopped. Tiny white flowers lay scattered through the grass. Silver-leafed bushes clustered around a shimmering black stone, smoothly polished and decorated in runes.

  “Your turn.” Alli said, pressing her dark hand to Starla's chest. Starla shuddered as a ball of heat in her chest flared up then went cold. With the spell gone, she collapsed in a heap.

  “Explanation, please?”

  “Just making sure you weren't hurt,” Alli shrugged.

  “That's not what I meant. What caught me?”

  “That was a grobbler trap,” Alli said, looking annoyed. “They are part of Kyron's army. They try and capture the refugees. If they had got you, they would have taken you to him.”

  “And the Star along with you.” Gaby loomed over her.

  “Gaby, we hadn't warned her about traps,” Lua said, voicing Starla's indignant thought.

  Gaby huffed. “Well, now that you are back to your clumsy self, at least watch where you put your feet.”

  “What is your problem? How can you hate me so much?” The questions burst from Starla, her thoughts on Davan and Orla.

  Gaby ignored her, moving to the glittering, black rock, she knelt down. She suddenly seemed very fragile, her shoulders hunched over. Starla made to follow, but Alli and Rya moved to bar her way.

  “She doesn't hate you,” Lua said softly from behind.

  Starla gave her a withering look and instantly regretted it. Lua had been the only one that seemed genuinely kind.

  “Forgive me, Lua.” Starla took a deep breath through her mouth, then let it out. “She obviously has some problem with me though.”

  “She has a problem with anyone who doesn't take the war as se
riously as she does,” Alli said, relaxing her stance and idly patting Kal, his scales reflecting the sunlight.

  Starla glanced between her and Rya. Gaby was still kneeling before the stone. Her posture seemed to cry out a deep sadness.

  “What happened? I can understand not wanting a tyrant to rule your land, but so much hatred?”

  “We all hate him,” Rya said bitterly. “For Alli and Lua, he already destroyed their home, Cosmaltia. The second of the Three Planets, but the first to fall in this war. It's heart still beats, but barely.”

  Now Starla understood the ever-present sadness that tinged both Alli and Lua's voice. Their home, gone. Broken by one man's power. Had her family lived there, too? Again, she pushed away the nagging question of whether she was human or not. Shaking her head, Starla looked back to Rya as she continued.

  “For Gaby, it is a bit more personal. Each planet has two head Guardians to look after it and its inhabitants. Kyron killed Galatia's other Guardian, Gaby's sister. They were both born of the nature element: one, Flora, the other, Fauna. We Sacrileons are all connected. We all felt Beky being attacked, felt her fade from our senses, afterwards.”

  A wave of sympathy crashed down on Starla. Even though they were essentially immortal, Kyron had still managed to kill a Sacrileon.

  “Flek says the King's party is running late. They should return just before dusk.” Gaby was up again, her voice empty of everything except determination. “We will have to be very careful. We need to time our entry perfectly, after the Makhi has left to secure the Tower Wall but before the people are alerted to the King's return. Otherwise, we risk separation in the crowd.”

  The others nodded and began exiting the glade, all giving a respectful look to the glittering stone. A headstone, Starla noted with a lump in her throat.

  Starla's eyes brimmed with tears but she began to move after the others until Gaby stopped her.

  “I don't need your sympathy. Beky was strong. Kyron—” The pain and hatred conflicted in her violet eyes. “I know I come off as rude, but you have to understand that I cannot let him win.”